Michele Bachmann has announced that she won’t run for Congress again (she is under investigation for, let us say, irregularities in her campaign finances). I once wrote of her,
“It has become increasingly apparent that politics and business often attract psychopaths, because of the opportunities they offer for the gratification of narcissism, grandiosity, sadism and other severe pathologies. For psychopaths, really on an Anders Breivik pre-massacre level, no one takes the cake in American politics more than Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota’s 6th District.”
Bachmann has startled the nation with her misadventures, as with her claim that she was briefly imprisoned in a bathroom by lesbians.
But nowhere has she left a trail of mayhem and misinformation more colorful than in regard to the Middle East. No doubt Rupert Murdoch or some other sociopath will inflict her on us in the mass media for some time to come. But here to mark the end of her career in politics per se are some trips down memory lane:
1. In 2011 Bachmann pledged that if she became president, she would immediately close the US embassy in Iran! (There has been no US embassy in Iran since it was invaded late in 1979).
2. She went on to allege that Iran had been “delivered a nuclear warhead.” (No one could understand what she meant by this charge. For instance, who delivered it and why? Of course, it wasn’t, and isn’t true).
3. She maintains that if the United States did not give knee-jerk support to far right wing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, it would be “cursed:”
” I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play.”
4. She said Iraq should reimburse the US for having invaded and occupied it.
5. Bachmann supported Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to the end: Bachmann accused President Obama of “sitting on his hands” as Mubarak fell in February, 2011, arguing that somehow the US should have magically stopped massive crowds from overthrowing him. She characterized the young people in Tahrir Square as “radical.”
6. She charged that Huma Abedin, aide to Hillary Clinton, had infiltrated the US government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood. (I suggested, tongue in cheek, that Bachmann is herself a cat’s paw of that group).
7. Bachmann complained that President Obama had “put us in Libya” and now was “putting us in Africa” (with 100 troops sent to Uganda), apparently unaware of what continent Libya is in.
8. In a debate with John Huntsman during the GOP presidential primaries, Bachmann spilled classified information on Taliban attacks on Pakistan nuclear facilities. Why she is allowed to serve on the Intelligence Committee, none of us can understand.
9. In 2007, Bachmann after visiting Iraq came back with a notion that someone (the Bush administration?) had made a deal with Iran to give half of Iraq to it (apparently the Sunni part) and that Shiite ayatollahs would then run that annexed territory as a radical Sunni terrorist base against the United States:
“Iran is the trouble maker, trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And do you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided that they’re going to partition Iraq.
And half of Iraq, the western, northern portion of Iraq, is going to be called the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it’s meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made.
They are going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more terrorist attacks in the Middle East region and then to come against the United States because we are their avowed enemy.”
Bachmann did not say how she knew about this plan, nor with whom Iran has made this deal.”
10. To the increasing bewilderment of high US intelligence officials, Bachmann invented US drone strikes on Libya and “North Africa” in her questioning of prospective CIA director John Brennan:
“REP. Michele Bachmann: When the White House conducted their armed drone strikes in North Africa, particularly in eastern Libya, prior to the attack on our mission in Benghazi on 9/11 last year, did the White House notify the State Department of the armed drone strikes before they were made?
DIR. John Brennan (director of central intelligence): Armed drone strikes in Libya? I’m unknowing of such, and I would defer to the White House to address your question.
REP. Bachmann: Were there any armed drone strikes in Northern Africa that were made by the White House?
DIR. Brennan: White House doesn’t have a drone capability, responsibility, whatever. So I –
REP. Bachmann: Did they have any directives toward having armed drone strikes in North Africa?
DIR. Brennan: Again, I don’t know what it is specifically you’re referring to, but again, I would defer to the White House on whatever happened at that time.
DIR. CLAPPER: (Referring to ?) the capability, the UAVs that were over — flying over Libya were military and were unarmed.
REP. Bachmann: And so were there any armed drone strikes that were made in North Africa prior to 9/11?
DIR. Clapper: In Libya?
REP. Bachmann: I’m asking in North Africa. I’m asking the — I’m asking Director Brennan. Were there any armed drone strikes that were made by the United States in North Africa prior to 9/11?
DIR. Brennan: Well, we usually don’t talk about any type of specific actions, but again, I don’t know what you could be referencing.
REP. Bachmann: I’m just wondering if the State Department was aware or if the military was aware or if the CIA was aware. And if we aren’t going to talk about that, we aren’t going to talk about that, but that’s a question I’d like to know.”
Oh, Michele. What will we do without you?
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