I had to check to see if I was reading Informed Comment or The Onion. The only word to describe what I just read is...surreal. In a perfect world the debate would have been centered around reducing our $19 trillion debt load. How we can make ourselves energy independent using advanced technology. Making our inner cities more safe for those living in gang war zones. But those subjects just don't have the adrenaline rush or the machismo that goes with talk of war. USA...USA...USA!!!
I fear if Hillary had been on stage she would have matched them in her zeal to please her neocon supporters who want the US to be permanently engaged in the middle east.
When Lindsey retires he will make a great lobbyist for the armament industry. My senior senator certainly has no problem voting for wars where 20 million dollar airplanes drop $50,000 bombs on twenty five dollar mud huts.
It is becoming increasing clear the neocons are waging war against Trump because he dared say he would let middle eastern forces fight among themselves, choosing to stand on the side lines and watch the chaos...not unlike Israel. Here is a nice article from Glenn Greenwald's website speaking of how the chickenhawks much prefer candidates, like Rubio and Cruz,who will make the sand glow in Syria. https://theintercept.com/2016/02/29/neoconservatives-declare-war-on-donald-trump/
al Assad had/ has one other thing going for him....American weariness of war. Lindsey Graham and the Kristol led neocons, who never tire of waging war in the middle east, certainly wanted to replicate the invasion of Iraq but to their chagrin Obama saw another fiasco in the making and rejected "boots on the ground." Had the chickenhawks been successful by now there certainly would have been an international incident.
I have lived in the lowcountry of SC, which includes Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort counties, most of my 69 years and have seen it change from a segregated agricultural economy to Boeing and BMW manufacturing plants. Several aspects of SC have remained constant among the indigenous white population... a fierce sense of independence and a resistance to change. I was taught in my segregated SC history class you owed your allegiance to SC first and the US government second. In the segment of population Prof. Cole addressed I think the allegiance is still to the south first and country second.
A member of one of the first Plantation families of SC, the Petigrus, said of SC back in the early eighteen hundreds and it still may be accurate in some pockets of SC.... "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
And my senator and fearless National Guard JAG, Lindsey Graham, remains in favor of injecting our young men and women into the crossfire between the Syrian army, Kurds, al Qaeda, Sunnis, the Syrian Free Army while dodging bombs dropped by Russian aircraft.... Sounds like a plan.
God help us if either Marco or Ted win the presidency, the glowing sand from the middle east will be seen from the space shuttle.
In his excellent book The Prosecution of GW Bush, Vincent Bugliosi, best known for convicting Charles Manson and friends, tells of how immune Bush was to the death and destruction he was responsible for. He recounts a reporter asking Bush how he was feeling, in that the "Cakewalk" war was not going well. Bush responded by saying..."Oh I'm feeling good. I ride my bike everyday. I'm working out in the gym. I'm spending time on my ranch" (Actually he spent two of his eight years as president in Crawford, TX.)
By contrast I remember an Israeli official saying how every drop of Israeli blood was precious. To Bush, Limbaugh, Palin and the neocons who are never satisfied with the last war... our soldiers are simply expendable cannon fodder for any hair brain idea that can be sold, by hook or crook, to a unsuspecting American public. I hope the day will come when Bush will stand before a court of law facing charges of crimes against humanity.
Interesting you chose Bernie rather than Hillary to critique. Hillary, who voted for the invasion of Iraq, is taking money from Haim Saban...http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/massive_donations_from_israeli_nationalist_follow_clintons_20160207 which means she is definitely in the neocon camp. She could avoid the mistakes of Bush the Idiot if she listens to Bill Clinton who apprehended the first World Trade Center bombers by using the FBI rather than starting a needless war in the middle east.
I find it interesting and a bit embarrassing to watch neocon Republican chickenhawks, like Rubio, pounding their chest like alpha males as they call for airstrikes that target Arab homes and Toyota trucks.
I fear that President Rambo Rubio would have a rude awakening if he ordered strikes against Iran.
China gets a trading partner with trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas and ready market for their goods. We get Israel who is demanding we up their welfare check to $5 billion a year.
One Israeli official said..."The US has no right to criticize Israel." To which I say if this was any other nation the US would withhold their aid and sanctions would be placed on them.
This may not be related but National Review has put out an issue in which all of their contributors, such as John Podhoretz and Mona Charan, both strong supporters of Netanyahu, strongly criticize Trump. My feeling is the chickenhawk neocons are hopeful the next Republican president will fulfill their PNAC wish list and wage war with Iran. I think Trump would be more prone to make Iran a trading partner than wage another unnecessary and costly war in the middle east and that won't do.
Reagan catered to Jerry Falwell and his religious right in order to win the white house. Trump is using the Queen of Mediocrity to get in with the same evangelicals.
Looking at Iraq, Libya, Syria and the future war with Iran (Which possibly will occur soon after a Republican president is named) they bear an uncanny likeness to the Divide and Rule or Divide and Conquer strategy going back a thousand years....
The strategy, but not the phrase, applies in many ancient cases: the example of Gabinius exists, parting the Jewish nation into five conventions, reported by Flavius Josephus in Book I, 169-170 of The Wars of the Jews (De bello Judaico).[3] Strabo also reports in Geography, 8.7.3[4] that the Achaean League was gradually dissolved under the Roman possession of the whole of Macedonia, owing to them not dealing with the several states in the same way, but wishing to preserve some and to destroy others.
I wonder if Hillary, a great admirer of Bibi, would have spent the energy Kerry spent on hammering out a nuclear deal with Iran? I think not.
Because of Obama and Kerry's tireless efforts they were able to get the prisoners released, our sailors released and a peaceful end to the nuclear debate....but the greatest impact for US citizens will come when Iranian oil hits the open market and we are paying a buck or less for gasoline.
So funny to hear the Republicans say...I'm glad the sailors and prisoners have been released....BUT...blah blah blah.
No doubt Sheldon was smiling from ear to ear as the candidates tripped over themselves demonizing Iran. I would like to think the nuclear agreement played some part in toning down the situation. Call it a peace dividend.
It was disturbing to hear men in in suits and ties insinuating they would rather have seen the sailors defy Iran, even though it may have cost them their lives, than to offer a simple apology. I'm not sure which term fits this group better...Armchair Generals or Chickenhawks.
"the Iranians took 10 US sailors prisoners just before the speech began. "
Much to the distress of Pam Geller and company the sailors have been released without a shot being fired or a mini drama playing out. I think this peaceful solution can be called a peace dividend stemming from the release of sanctions approved by the US and our allies.
These are not what Shakespeare would call the salad days for Saudi Arabia. It seems they can't even have a mass beheading without being criticized. Adding insult to their worsening cash crunch Saudi women are rebelling against their master/ slave existence by getting behind the wheel of the family Mercedes. Throw into the mix Iran being allowed to rejoin the world's economy and it's enough to make a Sheik shriek. If only we had a president like Lindsey Graham in the white house. He would know who to bomb to enforce some order into the region.
I agree with your comment about what happens after al-Assad is gone? Who takes control of Syria? Saying that Assad should go because he supposedly gassed his own people ignores reports that the gas used probably came from Turkey and was used as a false flag operation. I say check our history of interfering in the middle east and learn from our mistakes not create new ones.
You can worship the Christian God and still be cast into hell, according to splinter groups within Christianity. For instance, Jehovah Witnesses teach that if you are not a JW you are not worshiping the true God and will not be in the 144,000 who ascend to heaven or live on earth, forever, after Armageddon.
It's not uncommon for cults and major religions to claim superiority in the sight of God, which is why Jews labeled themselves the "Chosen ones" and "The apple of God's eye" and various armies throughout history have claimed God to be on their side.
I hold with the belief that God was created in man's image.
Over at the Politico website they Mr. Gerstein is asking...."Is Obama doing enough to combat home grown terrorism?" Ed Snowden has confirmed that under this administration NSA and a multitude of government agencies are monitoring our phone calls, emails, letters, credit card purchases, membership roles, and yet none of these infringements on our privacy can stop Mr. Dear from calming walking into a PP office and mowing down innocent civilians? Is he suggesting we copy Stalin's post WWII Soviet Union?
Maybe the fault lies at Fox news for fomenting hatred toward Muslims and minorities to the point where their golden boy, Mr. Trump, can present his outrageous plan to deal with terrorist, that being, we kill grandparents, children and women family members related to terrorist. How far down the family line he would go, cousins or great grandparents, he does not say.
So I would pose a question to Mr. Gerstein...."What did you have in mind?"
Mr. Trump's tactic, approved by many in the GOP tea party, proves we evolved from animals and territorial species and while we like to think of ourselves, for the most part, as civilized 600 gang related murders in Baltimore and Chicago this year alone proves we still harbor tribe like hatred for those who believe, look or act differently than the tribe we were born into. Roof hated blacks, Dear hates liberals, ISIS hates Christians and Jews, School shooters hated the popular elites, gang members hate opposing gang members.
I remember an emergency room doctor in Paris telling a reporter that treating gun shot wounds is something they are unaccustomed to. Maybe three a year.
Down here in the sunny south we have a major utility, Duke Power, using it's muscle/ money to make sure only they are allowed to sell electricity. Here is a great story of a North Carolina church defying the powerful utility. Sort of a David and Goliath matchup.
The question remains....who replaces al Assad? if he steps aside will Syria automatically become a democracy and hold elections to choose a candidate who has all factions best interest at heart? I think not.
The bottom line is that a Russian/ Iranian alliance to keep al Assad alive and well frustrates Israeli and American plans to control Syria even if they have to make a pack with the devil (al Qaeda or ISIS) to reject Russia and Iran influences. Didn't Bibi recently say..."We can work with al Qaeda....they're not so bad."
My wife and I caught the movie on this rainy Sunday and came away with obvious impression the movie is critical of NSA and our increasing lack of personal security. Good for them, however the contradiction is that Bond is an assassin murdering world leaders or questionable characters the government thinks should be eliminated.
Maybe this is better suited for a movie but wouldn't it be interesting if the Iraqi people filed Crimes against Humanity lawsuits against Bush, Cheney, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Feith and others involved in the invasion of Iraq. The suit would name all of the above responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and the ruination of their nation. If convicted, even in absentia, a bounty could be placed on the heads until they could be brought to justice in Iraq. I know it's Just a fantasy but one that makes me smile knowing these warmongers did not walk away unscathed.
As I watched the hearings I thought of how Bush would look being peppered with questions of why he led this nation into a needless war. Why 5,000, not four, Americans lost their lives invading a country that posed no threat to our security. I then realized everyone asking the questions would have been in on the con and the hearings would have been a love fest of softball questions. Maybe someday.
I'm so happy to see Trump revitalize the pre 9-11 mindset of GW Bush and his neocon cabinet producing excellent articles like this one.
Bush was warned about the increased chatter by an intelligence officer during a morning briefing to which the ever laconic W said...."Alright, you've covered your a$$. Goodbye."
Of course W doubled down by making matters worse and using 3,000 dead Americans as a catalyst to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.
So my senator Lindsey Graham would like to put US soldiers on the ground in Syria where they can figure out who is friend or foe. Should our troops fire at ISIL, al-Qaeda, Freemen of Syria, Army of Conquest, FSA, or Hizbullah? I say let Putin have the headaches.
This is why I visit this site everyday for your "Informed Comment." To me, the non middle east scholar, Trump's remarks sounded rather enlightened. I should have considered the source.
Maybe I wanted to believe that Bush/Cheney and their chickenhawk advisers, all of whom I detest with every fiber of my being, are completely to blame for the current turmoil throughout the middle east, a position I'm not prepared to completely abandon.
At the height of our involvement in Afghanistan the military admitted to spending $8 billion a month to wage war against a third world country that posed no threat to our security. At one hearing a general admitted getting fuel to the interior of Afghanistan cost $400 a gallon, or between $15,000 to $20,000 to fill up one Humvee. It adds up.
I highly recommend you watch.... Is This What Winning Looks Like. The video covers everything from corruption, poorly trained Afghans and the closely guarded secret of child molestation by Afghan troops.
I hope lessons will be learned from this disaster but the GOP A and B team candidates still seem obsessed with involving our troops in the Syrian war as if Afghanistan never happened.
"The US government is supposed to spend a total of $500 million to train 5,400 Syrian rebels in a year, but Austin said the training program will have to be scaled back after the initial failure."
Seeing our trained Syrian fighting force is down to 4 or 5 soldiers after spending over $40 million to train them let's add this endeavor to our thick portfolio of disasters we have both inspired and encountered in the middle east.
The question remains...who will replace Assad once he is ousted?
It's laughable that at a "Values" conference a woman married four times and two children out of wedlock, Kim the Martyr, is honored for discriminating against her fellow Americans and talk of murdering a world leader is opening embraced and cheered.
I think I'll have to reread Alice in Wonderland to understand this mindset.
What a mess. Even with all of the conflicts between warring factions in Syria and Iraq the entire field of GOP presidential candidates are in agreement that all of the turmoil would vanish if they just had the stabilizing influence of US troops on the ground in each country.
As former Sec. of Defense Gates said..."Some politicians incorrectly think of our military as super humans."
On Sunday Morning Huckabee tried to make the argument that this Supreme Court ruling should not be obeyed in the same fashion Lincoln disobeyed the Dred Scott decision.
The host then asked if denying rights to gays to marry was not similar to denying blacks and whites to marry? Huckabee said "No. They are entirely different!"
So to recap, Huckabee thinks gays being allowed to marry is akin to blacks not being counted as a person but does not think laws against interracial marriage can be compared to not allowing same sex partners to marry.
This is why it's a losing cause to argue with a religious zealot.
Surely David Frum would have been front and center when Reagan began talks of detente with the Evil Empire of the USSR. Certainly Nixon would have been criticized by the neocons for pumping money into China as a trading partner. All in all those two precursors to the Iranian deal have not worked out to badly....better than the two wars the neocons inspired.
Just to put ourselves in the shoes of the Palestinians....The American Indian tribes just informed all non Indians this is their land and those who choose not to leave will be huddled into ghettos where limited amounts of food, water, medicine and electricity will be rationed. When asked if he wasn't trying to starve the non Indian population...the Chief chuckled and repeated a line he heard from the Likuds..."We're not trying to starve them we just put them on a diet."
Former Sec of Defense Bob Gates said of politicians like Lindsey Graham..."Some people have an unrealistic almost comic book super hero mindset as to what our military can actually accomplish."
Just as no one in the press will ask the warmongers....What happens to the price of oil the day you start bombing Iran? nor do they ask....Who would replace Assad once he's out?
Certainly with all the factions in Syria there is no one that will be accepted by all. So nothing would change except we would lose more soldiers and squander another 100 billion or more.
Funny you never hear the merchants of fear bring up that a politically unstable country like Pakistan is a nuclear power and could provide the suitcase bombs they claim would originate from Iran should Iran become a nuclear power.
Over at the happy hour debate Lindsey Graham said he would not only tear up the agreement he would send US troops back into Iraq. If you liked Iraq the first and second time you'll love it the third time around. We're heading towards 20 trillion dollars in debt and this warmonger wants to extend our already $6 trillion war.
I'm listening to Morning Joe as I browse the internet. The talking heads are saying the president has to put aside this kind of rhetoric.....accusing those opposed to a deal with Iran as warmongers.
Personally, Obama hit the nail on the head. A good debate question for the candidates tonight would be....What happens to oil prices five minutes after bombs start falling on Tehran? If oil prices double or triple how will that affect the economy and the average American? Of course Fox News would never be in favor of peacemaking.
Yesterday Scott Walker said he would tear up the Iranian agreement and be ready to commence bombing Iran....ON THE FIRST DAY HE WAS PRESIDENT....Forget Trump....now that's insanity.
Your point was brought home yesterday when Lester Holt of NBC embarrassed himself during an interview he conducted with Netanyahu. Holt's demeanor was subservient and meek and he even seemed to speak in a reverential tone when lobbing softball questions towards the Israeli warmonger.
I was thinking what if Holt had surprised Netanyahu and actually asked something Walter Cronkite might have brought up..." Mr. Netanyahu, you have 300 nuclear warheads ready to be deployed towards Iran...and in the past you have threatened Iran by saying you might send your bombers in to destroy their laboratories. Shouldn't Iran fear you and your nuclear arsenal rather than pretending Iran is a threat to Israel?"
I live about an hour from the Mother Emmanuel AME church in South Carolina. I can assure you the discussion of race relations in this state are much more complicated than assuming blacks are held back because of the relatively small number of bigoted whites who embrace the confederate flag.
When I read, " South Carolina needs to address its real racial disparities if this vote is to be more than a gesture born of the heat of the moment. " I get the sense that you have some misguided notion that SC is some white only group of patriarchal bureaucrats who are in control of state and federal politics.
Actually, large numbers of blacks, male and female, are serving as elected leaders in the state house and senate, as mayors, local councilmen and women, on school boards, one US senator, and several who serve with distinction in the US house of representatives.
My point is that improving the longevity of blacks or addressing cancer rates among black women, to name a few, has little to do with "racial disparities" but the more complex issues of diet, genetics suspected of increasing the risk of prostate cancer among black males and the pursuit of educational opportunities.
The record of our successes in the middle east stands at zero unless you view our ventures through the eyes of the Netanyahu and John McCain who see Arabs slaughtering Arabs and general chaos amongst Arab nations as success. Best we stay at arms length.
Every four years the GOP has at least one candidate whose role is to toss red meat to the Tea Party. Eight years ago....half governor Sarah Palin. Four years ago Santorum and "Death Panel" Bachmann.... this year the crown is passed to Donald Trump.
This is one of my favorite subjects, the true facts about the bible that modern day puritans like Mike Huckabee and others simply chose to ignore.
I have to rank this as one of the most misogynist laws in Leviticus... God condones a husband dragging his bride to her fathers front steps and murdering her "If the groom suspects she is not a virgin on their wedding night." It is acceptable for him to MURDER HER!! How many times do you think that law was abused?
Jesus is quoted as saying..."I came to fulfill the law not do away with it" which is in direct contradiction to what the cherry pickers would have you believe. If Christian puritans do believe the old testament is no longer valid then they should stop quoting old testament law about homosexuality.
I'm a South Carolinian who lives about 45 minutes from Charleston. I remember very early on in my education reading about Ft. Moultrie and Sgt. Jasper's heroic effort
However, what really got the attention of white male segregated middle school students centered around the stories of Jeb, Stonewall and Robert E Lee. These generals and their soldiers were our super heroes who defended the homeland against northern aggression. To our young minds it was all about bravery and heroics, slavery was something associated with plantation owners.
My fourth grade teacher, a woman who never married and an adamant states rights supporter, taught us the real reason the south seceded was because we were being financially maligned by the north and it's manufacturing based economy. She taught the issue of slavery, an issue she admitted was inhumane, was one Lincoln raised only to rally his unenthusiastic federal troops.
I say this only to make the point to non southerners that a segment of the south's white population actually can view the portrait of Robert E Lee or Longstreet and feel a sense of history without any racism involved. Call it a sense of denial.
Now that the battle flags and statues are rightfully being removed from public property blacks throughout the south can claim a major victory over a brutal practice that to this day has left scars on this nation. Unfortunately we owe this awakening to a coward and disgrace to his southern roots. We are better than that.
As of Monday afternoon the news has broken that Gov. Haley will start the process of removing the flag from the state house grounds. It took a massacre and a shift in public opinion to make Lindsey Graham come out in favor of removing the flag.
A candidate for the presidency who kicks off his campaign by bragging, "I'm rich! $8.9 billion dollars! I have the best properties in the world. I've done a great job!" lacks any sense of humility or identification with the 99%. I can't fathom Teddy, FDR or JFK reading their financial statement during a campaign appearance which, by comparison, goes to show how little class this supercilious ego maniac has.
Jeb Bush...."Yeah knowing what we know now I would have ordered the invasion of Iraq."
Well other than the war being slightly over budget, (one and a half trillion dollars as opposed to the two hundred million projected cost), not being greeted as "Liberators", not being a democracy for the Sunni population, the US trained Iraq army being a disaster and Iraq being in a constant state of war for twelve years... I can see, if you are a Bush, you could look at the current crisis of Iraq against ISIL and judge it to be a successful Bush enterprise.
The predictable response from Israel ...."The Pope should stay out of politics." Apartheid, starving citizens, denying medicine and electricity all the while stealing property from the rightful owners is not classified as politics. Good for the Pope!
The name GW Bush, even to his brother, is flypaper ( a word that shows how old I am) that Jeb would do well to steer clear of. It's a bit like Hillary bringing up the name of Monica Lewinsky.
Their $46 billion dollar investment is one half of the amount of money squandered by this country in Afghanistan.....IN ONE YEAR!!! And what do we have to show for 13 years of our investments in that war torn, drug infested goat farm? A lot of warlords now have Swiss bank accounts.
Here is a an article from Antiwar.com in which the author quotes Wolfowitz gloating that the US can invade or attack anyone we want and a weakened Russia will not retaliate. It makes you sick to see how the neocons glory in the fact that thousands of Muslims are dying each day in clashes between different religious and political sects and that an inflamed middle east suits them just fine. They are some heartless b##tards. http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2015/04/14/neocon-chaos-promotion-in-the-mideast/
I admit it would be interesting to see Pres. Hillary Clinton dealing with a Republican house and senate. However, I have to believe the thought of having Bubba the philanderer back in the White House will cost Hillary some support.
She definitely panders to the neocons and their insane middle east interventionist policies, however, who can you vote for in the Republican mix of goons tripping over each other to kiss Adelson's ring? Rand Paul is the only one who seems mildly against extending the military reach into every hot spot on the globe. I would hold my nose and vote for him in the SC primary.
On this Saturday morning in South Carolina money is being pumped into local commercials asking the viewers to contact Rand Paul and tell him he should not appease Iran in his campaign because..."One nuclear bomb in the hands of Iran is one too many!"
Forget the hardline Iranians getting an agreement approved by our bought and paid for congress, democrats included, is going to be almost impossible.
Viewing the Sunday morning political talk shows you are reminded of the run up to invasion of Iraq when only the warmongers were allowed to give their opinions
Professor if you keep making points like this....how do you ever expect to be invited on Meet the Press?
Seriously, I watched Face the Nation and saw the same faces defacing the Iranian deal we saw promoting the invasion of Iraq. We do not have a free press or news programs that will stand up to the israeli lobby and that means perpetual war.
I'm not a person who resorts to cursing but to Netanyahu I would like to say....STFU!!! I listened to Hannity yesterday to gauge his reaction to the deal. As you can imagine it was hysterical, in a bad way.
This past week, I read that former representative Bachmann compared Obama to the German pilot who crashed the airliner. Ted Nugent blamed Obama for the rampant suicides occurring among our servicemen because they were ashamed of our president. Sarah Palin continues to spread lies about death panels associated with Obamacare and now they have fresh red meat for the masses...Obama is selling out our country to appease his Muslim/ Persian friends while setting the stage for our BFF in the middle east, Israel, to be nuked.
The Sunday morning talk shows will be interesting.
I saw a clip of Mitch McConnell, who is in Israel, holding a joint news conference with Netanyahu. The news clip looked as if McConnell was an actor reading his lines for a role in front of the director. It was embarrassing to see a U.S. senator conspiring with a foreign leader against the best interest of his own country. After the dog and pony show for the press I hope McConnell got a pat on the head from Bibi.
I read about this yesterday and could not believe what I was reading. Once again the neocons who gave us the Iraq war and who are pushing for the US to bomb Iran....for not building a nuclear weapon....would once again put Israel's interest above that of the US.
Watching Sen Tom Cotton get his a$$ handed to him by Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation was a bright spot in my day. That's what he gets for blindly following the advice of neocons.
Sen Cotton quoting Netanyahu's moronic bargaining stratergy "The alternative to a bad deal is a better deal" shows what a Manchurian Candidate Tom Cotton is. Of course Bloody Bill Kristol did raise a million bucks for Cotton's campaign.http://mondoweiss.net/2015/03/militaristic-adelson-kristol
Look who is behind Tom Cotton and has been in charge of grooming his political career. Yep, Bloody Bill Kristol. Surprised? Not really but it does reveal how AIPAC and it's backers keep a constant vigil on indoctrinating incoming congressmen and senators.
The political demonetization of Iran continues. Netanyahu is allowed to present a case for more sanctions without allowing Iran to defend their position, resembling a kangaroo court or vigilante justice.
Republican senators are sending a letter to the Iranian leadership telling them any agreement reached with Obama will be abandoned after Obama leaves office. The senator from Wisconsin is already calling for war with Iran as fellow warmonger Lindsey Graham continues to praise his president, Netanyahu.
All are ominous signs of another needless neocon inspired war pushed on a war weary public. If history does repeat itself we can look for Condi Rice to resurrect her mushroom cloud warning.
Just so I understand what's going on...the fighting is between the Free Syrian army. ISIL, al-Qaeda, al-Hazm, Taliban, the Support Front, Syrian rebels?...OK..got it. Who in their right mind thinks we should drop our young soldiers into that chaos?
Par for the course it was up to Jon Stewart to show a several year old video of Netanyahu appearing before a hearing in which told the senators...."Removing Saddam will have a positive impact on the entire middle east." You won't see that clip on Face the Nation.
Well written. A huge disparity between the way we treat Israel and Iran is that Boehner would never ask an Iranian leader to address the US congress. There is little question that Netanyahu and his supporters only pretend to be our allys.
Hopefully there will be organized and unorganized demonstrations in the streets of D.C. against the speech. If so, I think Obama will be smiling from the oval office.
It's going to be hard for Bibi to whip up a frenzy against Iran....for not building a nuclear weapon. He is the Israeli Chicken Little who has little regard for American or Muslim lives.
Remember during the run up to the invasion of Iraq Bill O'Reilly took the brave stand of declaring war, actually a boycott, on French wine? He boasted he would personally bring the French wine industry to it's knees! Reason being France would not sign on join the "Coalition of the willing" which was a group of nations Bush/ Cheney were pressuring to join in the idiotic invasion of a sovereign nation... Iraq.
That's about as close as O'Reilly, the sexual harasser, has ever gotten to war....a war on the French wine industry. Dare I suggest for his heroic actions he should have received a .....Purple Heart? Hilarious.
After the invasion of Iraq and all hell broke loose a befuddled GW Bush was schooled on Kurds, Shiite and Sunni Iraqis. His reply was..."I thought they were all Muslims!"
"raises questions yet again about the competency of the Iraqi army."
You mean the Iraq army that is on paper only in order to receive paychecks, which are then shared with the chain of command?
It bears repeating that the US is ill equipped to wage war in the middle east. If neighboring countries in the region won't join in the ground fight then we should take that as a sign it is a fools mission.
It's going to be hard to sell this kind of rational to the American people when you have a war hungry media who would rather create false hysteria by showing Netanyahu with his little Road Runner bomb cartoon than promote a peaceful solution.
Williams lies about being in harms way pale when compared to the lies he reported to the American public prior to the invasion of Iraq. He, Couric and Diane Sawyer all dutifully reported the Bush/ Cheney neocon lies about yellow cake, metal tubes, Saddam's association with 9-11 the list goes on, without allowing opposing views to counter the bogus intelligence. Much like the environment that exist today concerning Iran.
He is a $10,000,000 a year news reader who resides on the upper east side and who lives in the shadow of Robert Dryfuss, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald and other journalist who do the heavy lifting when it comes to reporting.
Interest and very telling that Lindsey never mentions we are $18 trillion dollars in debt and facing a credit crunch in the near future. He is lucky to be senator from my state, South Carolina, a state that has backed all of the neocon wars without question.
Thank you Mr. Romney for not running, you really make a boring candidate. I'm looking forward to the Republican wind up toys bumping and banging into each other for the next year and a half as they see who can be the most militaristic.
The Limbaughs and Hannitys, better known as comedians posing as journalist/ commentators over at Fox, are now slamming Obama for not showing solidarity with France. Fox is a exhibiting a completely different attitude towards France as opposed to the pre-Iraq war days when France was not eager to jump on the Let's invade Iraq bandwagon. During that period, O'Reilly was leading a boycott of French Wine (Claiming he was going to bring the French wine industry to it's knees) while Limbaugh and company labeled the French as "Surrender Monkeys."
I understand the frustration Palestinians feel towards Israel for stealing their land, chopping down orchards, limiting travel in and out of Gaza and enforcing an embargo on medicine and food, however Palestinians have to play it smart and quit helping the Israelis play the victim card. Ineffective rockets being aimed at Israel only gives Netanyahu the cover he needs to continue his assault.
I think we can all understand attempts to fight back are human nature, God only knows what measures Americans would take if faced with similar circumstances, but rockets and bombs are only hampering those attempting to support a Palestinian state. Palestinians have to take the Ghandi approach and shame Israel before the world for it's cruel and inhumane policies against a passive population.
There is rejoicing in neocon parlors. The once monolithic Iraq is, thanks to the Bush/ Cheney doctrine of per-emptive wars, reduced to a fractured infighting union incapable of mounting a unified front. Yes the transformation cost the lives of millions of Iraqis and counting, Bush, Albright, Netanyahu and Bill Kirstol consider it worth while.
From the Romans we learned controlling an empire several thousand miles from your home base is impossible. Factor in a population and religious factions who think you're Satan and bingo....you suffer the same fate as Caesar being stabbed in the back by those who claimed to be your allies.
God help us! Here comes the "We don't have money for health care" pseudo patriots while doling out billions of dollars a month to purchase weapons for the Syrian rebels that end up in the hands of ISIS.
All we need now is Lindsey Graham as president and I think we can call it a day.
So as the Afghanistan war winds down, Iraq having only token US military personnel and Iran being seen as a dubious but needed ally, the war party, hating a war vacuum, has fed the press outrageous propaganda designed to instill fear into our 9-11 psyche that ISIS is our newest terrorist threat and another war is born. Good for Obama to at least make other nations in the region do some of the heavy lifting.
It's rather difficult to keep track of who is our ally and who is our enemy. I think I read the Syrian rebels, whom we support, were passing along US supplied weapons to ISIL...the target of our bombing. I have also seen past photos with McCain and others meeting with ISIL leaders proclaiming they were the equivalent of our founding fathers.
I keep going back to this famous quote which is the only explanation that seems appropriate....War is a racket.
Excellent interview. Prof. Cole should be on every Sunday morning talk show to counter Bill Kristol and the "we can fix everything with a massive bombing campaign" cabal whose policies have squandered the lives of American soldiers and treasury.
This won't happen because the professor is not pro war and secondly he doesn't speak in bombastic rhetoric....such as....ISIS is going to give us another 9-11. The neocons are experienced in speaking in those kind of sound bites required to support another fiasco.
#11.. The US has no business interfering in long held religious and tribal politics in Iraq. Obviously they are not interested in becoming the America of the middle east. Let them deal with their problems in their own fashion.
Here is a brave journalist from Ireland doing what no American reporters would do....question GW Bush on the insanity of his policies. At just over two minutes Bush claims Iraq will be better off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ36HS8dRbY
I had to check to see if I was reading Informed Comment or The Onion. The only word to describe what I just read is...surreal. In a perfect world the debate would have been centered around reducing our $19 trillion debt load. How we can make ourselves energy independent using advanced technology. Making our inner cities more safe for those living in gang war zones. But those subjects just don't have the adrenaline rush or the machismo that goes with talk of war. USA...USA...USA!!!
I fear if Hillary had been on stage she would have matched them in her zeal to please her neocon supporters who want the US to be permanently engaged in the middle east.
I stand corrected F 35- $122,000,000 per copy. But healthcare and infrastructure are beyond our financial reach according to Graham.
When Lindsey retires he will make a great lobbyist for the armament industry. My senior senator certainly has no problem voting for wars where 20 million dollar airplanes drop $50,000 bombs on twenty five dollar mud huts.
It is becoming increasing clear the neocons are waging war against Trump because he dared say he would let middle eastern forces fight among themselves, choosing to stand on the side lines and watch the chaos...not unlike Israel. Here is a nice article from Glenn Greenwald's website speaking of how the chickenhawks much prefer candidates, like Rubio and Cruz,who will make the sand glow in Syria. https://theintercept.com/2016/02/29/neoconservatives-declare-war-on-donald-trump/
al Assad had/ has one other thing going for him....American weariness of war. Lindsey Graham and the Kristol led neocons, who never tire of waging war in the middle east, certainly wanted to replicate the invasion of Iraq but to their chagrin Obama saw another fiasco in the making and rejected "boots on the ground." Had the chickenhawks been successful by now there certainly would have been an international incident.
Obama's version of GHW Bush's "Peace dividend."
I have lived in the lowcountry of SC, which includes Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort counties, most of my 69 years and have seen it change from a segregated agricultural economy to Boeing and BMW manufacturing plants. Several aspects of SC have remained constant among the indigenous white population... a fierce sense of independence and a resistance to change. I was taught in my segregated SC history class you owed your allegiance to SC first and the US government second. In the segment of population Prof. Cole addressed I think the allegiance is still to the south first and country second.
A member of one of the first Plantation families of SC, the Petigrus, said of SC back in the early eighteen hundreds and it still may be accurate in some pockets of SC.... "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
OK...Space station.
And my senator and fearless National Guard JAG, Lindsey Graham, remains in favor of injecting our young men and women into the crossfire between the Syrian army, Kurds, al Qaeda, Sunnis, the Syrian Free Army while dodging bombs dropped by Russian aircraft.... Sounds like a plan.
God help us if either Marco or Ted win the presidency, the glowing sand from the middle east will be seen from the space shuttle.
In his excellent book The Prosecution of GW Bush, Vincent Bugliosi, best known for convicting Charles Manson and friends, tells of how immune Bush was to the death and destruction he was responsible for. He recounts a reporter asking Bush how he was feeling, in that the "Cakewalk" war was not going well. Bush responded by saying..."Oh I'm feeling good. I ride my bike everyday. I'm working out in the gym. I'm spending time on my ranch" (Actually he spent two of his eight years as president in Crawford, TX.)
By contrast I remember an Israeli official saying how every drop of Israeli blood was precious. To Bush, Limbaugh, Palin and the neocons who are never satisfied with the last war... our soldiers are simply expendable cannon fodder for any hair brain idea that can be sold, by hook or crook, to a unsuspecting American public. I hope the day will come when Bush will stand before a court of law facing charges of crimes against humanity.
Interesting you chose Bernie rather than Hillary to critique. Hillary, who voted for the invasion of Iraq, is taking money from Haim Saban...http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/massive_donations_from_israeli_nationalist_follow_clintons_20160207 which means she is definitely in the neocon camp. She could avoid the mistakes of Bush the Idiot if she listens to Bill Clinton who apprehended the first World Trade Center bombers by using the FBI rather than starting a needless war in the middle east.
"Me, I like people who don't come in second place." I am going to repeat that line all day to my Trump supporting friends.
Vive la France for not turning a blind eye to the theft and apartheid practiced by Netanyahu and company.
I find it interesting and a bit embarrassing to watch neocon Republican chickenhawks, like Rubio, pounding their chest like alpha males as they call for airstrikes that target Arab homes and Toyota trucks.
I fear that President Rambo Rubio would have a rude awakening if he ordered strikes against Iran.
China gets a trading partner with trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas and ready market for their goods. We get Israel who is demanding we up their welfare check to $5 billion a year.
One Israeli official said..."The US has no right to criticize Israel." To which I say if this was any other nation the US would withhold their aid and sanctions would be placed on them.
This may not be related but National Review has put out an issue in which all of their contributors, such as John Podhoretz and Mona Charan, both strong supporters of Netanyahu, strongly criticize Trump. My feeling is the chickenhawk neocons are hopeful the next Republican president will fulfill their PNAC wish list and wage war with Iran. I think Trump would be more prone to make Iran a trading partner than wage another unnecessary and costly war in the middle east and that won't do.
Reagan catered to Jerry Falwell and his religious right in order to win the white house. Trump is using the Queen of Mediocrity to get in with the same evangelicals.
Looking at Iraq, Libya, Syria and the future war with Iran (Which possibly will occur soon after a Republican president is named) they bear an uncanny likeness to the Divide and Rule or Divide and Conquer strategy going back a thousand years....
The strategy, but not the phrase, applies in many ancient cases: the example of Gabinius exists, parting the Jewish nation into five conventions, reported by Flavius Josephus in Book I, 169-170 of The Wars of the Jews (De bello Judaico).[3] Strabo also reports in Geography, 8.7.3[4] that the Achaean League was gradually dissolved under the Roman possession of the whole of Macedonia, owing to them not dealing with the several states in the same way, but wishing to preserve some and to destroy others.
I wonder if Hillary, a great admirer of Bibi, would have spent the energy Kerry spent on hammering out a nuclear deal with Iran? I think not.
Because of Obama and Kerry's tireless efforts they were able to get the prisoners released, our sailors released and a peaceful end to the nuclear debate....but the greatest impact for US citizens will come when Iranian oil hits the open market and we are paying a buck or less for gasoline.
So funny to hear the Republicans say...I'm glad the sailors and prisoners have been released....BUT...blah blah blah.
No doubt Sheldon was smiling from ear to ear as the candidates tripped over themselves demonizing Iran. I would like to think the nuclear agreement played some part in toning down the situation. Call it a peace dividend.
It was disturbing to hear men in in suits and ties insinuating they would rather have seen the sailors defy Iran, even though it may have cost them their lives, than to offer a simple apology. I'm not sure which term fits this group better...Armchair Generals or Chickenhawks.
"the Iranians took 10 US sailors prisoners just before the speech began. "
Much to the distress of Pam Geller and company the sailors have been released without a shot being fired or a mini drama playing out. I think this peaceful solution can be called a peace dividend stemming from the release of sanctions approved by the US and our allies.
These are not what Shakespeare would call the salad days for Saudi Arabia. It seems they can't even have a mass beheading without being criticized. Adding insult to their worsening cash crunch Saudi women are rebelling against their master/ slave existence by getting behind the wheel of the family Mercedes. Throw into the mix Iran being allowed to rejoin the world's economy and it's enough to make a Sheik shriek. If only we had a president like Lindsey Graham in the white house. He would know who to bomb to enforce some order into the region.
Very funny. Brings back memories of Bushisms like "misunderestimated" and "Rarely is the question asked...is our children learning?"
I agree with your comment about what happens after al-Assad is gone? Who takes control of Syria? Saying that Assad should go because he supposedly gassed his own people ignores reports that the gas used probably came from Turkey and was used as a false flag operation. I say check our history of interfering in the middle east and learn from our mistakes not create new ones.
You can worship the Christian God and still be cast into hell, according to splinter groups within Christianity. For instance, Jehovah Witnesses teach that if you are not a JW you are not worshiping the true God and will not be in the 144,000 who ascend to heaven or live on earth, forever, after Armageddon.
It's not uncommon for cults and major religions to claim superiority in the sight of God, which is why Jews labeled themselves the "Chosen ones" and "The apple of God's eye" and various armies throughout history have claimed God to be on their side.
I hold with the belief that God was created in man's image.
It is no longer the GOP it'd the GOPX...Grand Old Party of Xenophobes.
Over at the Politico website they Mr. Gerstein is asking...."Is Obama doing enough to combat home grown terrorism?" Ed Snowden has confirmed that under this administration NSA and a multitude of government agencies are monitoring our phone calls, emails, letters, credit card purchases, membership roles, and yet none of these infringements on our privacy can stop Mr. Dear from calming walking into a PP office and mowing down innocent civilians? Is he suggesting we copy Stalin's post WWII Soviet Union?
Maybe the fault lies at Fox news for fomenting hatred toward Muslims and minorities to the point where their golden boy, Mr. Trump, can present his outrageous plan to deal with terrorist, that being, we kill grandparents, children and women family members related to terrorist. How far down the family line he would go, cousins or great grandparents, he does not say.
So I would pose a question to Mr. Gerstein...."What did you have in mind?"
Mr. Trump's tactic, approved by many in the GOP tea party, proves we evolved from animals and territorial species and while we like to think of ourselves, for the most part, as civilized 600 gang related murders in Baltimore and Chicago this year alone proves we still harbor tribe like hatred for those who believe, look or act differently than the tribe we were born into. Roof hated blacks, Dear hates liberals, ISIS hates Christians and Jews, School shooters hated the popular elites, gang members hate opposing gang members.
I remember an emergency room doctor in Paris telling a reporter that treating gun shot wounds is something they are unaccustomed to. Maybe three a year.
Down here in the sunny south we have a major utility, Duke Power, using it's muscle/ money to make sure only they are allowed to sell electricity. Here is a great story of a North Carolina church defying the powerful utility. Sort of a David and Goliath matchup.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/30062015/north-carolina-church-takes-defiant-stand-solar-panels-distributed-solar-leasing-duke-energy
BTW...I think I speak for many when I say we are thankful for those who put together Informed Comment.
The question remains....who replaces al Assad? if he steps aside will Syria automatically become a democracy and hold elections to choose a candidate who has all factions best interest at heart? I think not.
The bottom line is that a Russian/ Iranian alliance to keep al Assad alive and well frustrates Israeli and American plans to control Syria even if they have to make a pack with the devil (al Qaeda or ISIS) to reject Russia and Iran influences. Didn't Bibi recently say..."We can work with al Qaeda....they're not so bad."
My wife and I caught the movie on this rainy Sunday and came away with obvious impression the movie is critical of NSA and our increasing lack of personal security. Good for them, however the contradiction is that Bond is an assassin murdering world leaders or questionable characters the government thinks should be eliminated.
Maybe this is better suited for a movie but wouldn't it be interesting if the Iraqi people filed Crimes against Humanity lawsuits against Bush, Cheney, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Feith and others involved in the invasion of Iraq. The suit would name all of the above responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and the ruination of their nation. If convicted, even in absentia, a bounty could be placed on the heads until they could be brought to justice in Iraq. I know it's Just a fantasy but one that makes me smile knowing these warmongers did not walk away unscathed.
As I watched the hearings I thought of how Bush would look being peppered with questions of why he led this nation into a needless war. Why 5,000, not four, Americans lost their lives invading a country that posed no threat to our security. I then realized everyone asking the questions would have been in on the con and the hearings would have been a love fest of softball questions. Maybe someday.
I'm so happy to see Trump revitalize the pre 9-11 mindset of GW Bush and his neocon cabinet producing excellent articles like this one.
Bush was warned about the increased chatter by an intelligence officer during a morning briefing to which the ever laconic W said...."Alright, you've covered your a$$. Goodbye."
Of course W doubled down by making matters worse and using 3,000 dead Americans as a catalyst to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.
So my senator Lindsey Graham would like to put US soldiers on the ground in Syria where they can figure out who is friend or foe. Should our troops fire at ISIL, al-Qaeda, Freemen of Syria, Army of Conquest, FSA, or Hizbullah? I say let Putin have the headaches.
This is why I visit this site everyday for your "Informed Comment." To me, the non middle east scholar, Trump's remarks sounded rather enlightened. I should have considered the source.
Maybe I wanted to believe that Bush/Cheney and their chickenhawk advisers, all of whom I detest with every fiber of my being, are completely to blame for the current turmoil throughout the middle east, a position I'm not prepared to completely abandon.
At the height of our involvement in Afghanistan the military admitted to spending $8 billion a month to wage war against a third world country that posed no threat to our security. At one hearing a general admitted getting fuel to the interior of Afghanistan cost $400 a gallon, or between $15,000 to $20,000 to fill up one Humvee. It adds up.
I highly recommend you watch.... Is This What Winning Looks Like. The video covers everything from corruption, poorly trained Afghans and the closely guarded secret of child molestation by Afghan troops.
I hope lessons will be learned from this disaster but the GOP A and B team candidates still seem obsessed with involving our troops in the Syrian war as if Afghanistan never happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja5Q75hf6QI
"The US government is supposed to spend a total of $500 million to train 5,400 Syrian rebels in a year, but Austin said the training program will have to be scaled back after the initial failure."
Seeing our trained Syrian fighting force is down to 4 or 5 soldiers after spending over $40 million to train them let's add this endeavor to our thick portfolio of disasters we have both inspired and encountered in the middle east.
The question remains...who will replace Assad once he is ousted?
It's laughable that at a "Values" conference a woman married four times and two children out of wedlock, Kim the Martyr, is honored for discriminating against her fellow Americans and talk of murdering a world leader is opening embraced and cheered.
I think I'll have to reread Alice in Wonderland to understand this mindset.
Lindsey Graham....."Who am i? Why am I here?"
What a mess. Even with all of the conflicts between warring factions in Syria and Iraq the entire field of GOP presidential candidates are in agreement that all of the turmoil would vanish if they just had the stabilizing influence of US troops on the ground in each country.
As former Sec. of Defense Gates said..."Some politicians incorrectly think of our military as super humans."
On Sunday Morning Huckabee tried to make the argument that this Supreme Court ruling should not be obeyed in the same fashion Lincoln disobeyed the Dred Scott decision.
The host then asked if denying rights to gays to marry was not similar to denying blacks and whites to marry? Huckabee said "No. They are entirely different!"
So to recap, Huckabee thinks gays being allowed to marry is akin to blacks not being counted as a person but does not think laws against interracial marriage can be compared to not allowing same sex partners to marry.
This is why it's a losing cause to argue with a religious zealot.
Surely David Frum would have been front and center when Reagan began talks of detente with the Evil Empire of the USSR. Certainly Nixon would have been criticized by the neocons for pumping money into China as a trading partner. All in all those two precursors to the Iranian deal have not worked out to badly....better than the two wars the neocons inspired.
This process was highlighted a couple of weeks ago when one of the squatters threw a fire bomb into a Palestinian home and burned a child to death.
Just to put ourselves in the shoes of the Palestinians....The American Indian tribes just informed all non Indians this is their land and those who choose not to leave will be huddled into ghettos where limited amounts of food, water, medicine and electricity will be rationed. When asked if he wasn't trying to starve the non Indian population...the Chief chuckled and repeated a line he heard from the Likuds..."We're not trying to starve them we just put them on a diet."
Former Sec of Defense Bob Gates said of politicians like Lindsey Graham..."Some people have an unrealistic almost comic book super hero mindset as to what our military can actually accomplish."
Just as no one in the press will ask the warmongers....What happens to the price of oil the day you start bombing Iran? nor do they ask....Who would replace Assad once he's out?
Certainly with all the factions in Syria there is no one that will be accepted by all. So nothing would change except we would lose more soldiers and squander another 100 billion or more.
Thanks for the link. Fascinating interview. Lt. Gen Flynn is the epitome of a neocon painting Iran as the next Third Reich.
Flynn back peddles better than Muhammad Ali in his prime.
Funny you never hear the merchants of fear bring up that a politically unstable country like Pakistan is a nuclear power and could provide the suitcase bombs they claim would originate from Iran should Iran become a nuclear power.
Over at the happy hour debate Lindsey Graham said he would not only tear up the agreement he would send US troops back into Iraq. If you liked Iraq the first and second time you'll love it the third time around. We're heading towards 20 trillion dollars in debt and this warmonger wants to extend our already $6 trillion war.
I'm listening to Morning Joe as I browse the internet. The talking heads are saying the president has to put aside this kind of rhetoric.....accusing those opposed to a deal with Iran as warmongers.
Personally, Obama hit the nail on the head. A good debate question for the candidates tonight would be....What happens to oil prices five minutes after bombs start falling on Tehran? If oil prices double or triple how will that affect the economy and the average American? Of course Fox News would never be in favor of peacemaking.
Yesterday Scott Walker said he would tear up the Iranian agreement and be ready to commence bombing Iran....ON THE FIRST DAY HE WAS PRESIDENT....Forget Trump....now that's insanity.
Your point was brought home yesterday when Lester Holt of NBC embarrassed himself during an interview he conducted with Netanyahu. Holt's demeanor was subservient and meek and he even seemed to speak in a reverential tone when lobbing softball questions towards the Israeli warmonger.
I was thinking what if Holt had surprised Netanyahu and actually asked something Walter Cronkite might have brought up..." Mr. Netanyahu, you have 300 nuclear warheads ready to be deployed towards Iran...and in the past you have threatened Iran by saying you might send your bombers in to destroy their laboratories. Shouldn't Iran fear you and your nuclear arsenal rather than pretending Iran is a threat to Israel?"
His memoir should make the NYT's best seller list....Khamenei "How We Took Over the World On a $10 Billion a Year Military Budget."
I live about an hour from the Mother Emmanuel AME church in South Carolina. I can assure you the discussion of race relations in this state are much more complicated than assuming blacks are held back because of the relatively small number of bigoted whites who embrace the confederate flag.
When I read, " South Carolina needs to address its real racial disparities if this vote is to be more than a gesture born of the heat of the moment. " I get the sense that you have some misguided notion that SC is some white only group of patriarchal bureaucrats who are in control of state and federal politics.
Actually, large numbers of blacks, male and female, are serving as elected leaders in the state house and senate, as mayors, local councilmen and women, on school boards, one US senator, and several who serve with distinction in the US house of representatives.
My point is that improving the longevity of blacks or addressing cancer rates among black women, to name a few, has little to do with "racial disparities" but the more complex issues of diet, genetics suspected of increasing the risk of prostate cancer among black males and the pursuit of educational opportunities.
The record of our successes in the middle east stands at zero unless you view our ventures through the eyes of the Netanyahu and John McCain who see Arabs slaughtering Arabs and general chaos amongst Arab nations as success. Best we stay at arms length.
Every four years the GOP has at least one candidate whose role is to toss red meat to the Tea Party. Eight years ago....half governor Sarah Palin. Four years ago Santorum and "Death Panel" Bachmann.... this year the crown is passed to Donald Trump.
This is one of my favorite subjects, the true facts about the bible that modern day puritans like Mike Huckabee and others simply chose to ignore.
I have to rank this as one of the most misogynist laws in Leviticus... God condones a husband dragging his bride to her fathers front steps and murdering her "If the groom suspects she is not a virgin on their wedding night." It is acceptable for him to MURDER HER!! How many times do you think that law was abused?
Jesus is quoted as saying..."I came to fulfill the law not do away with it" which is in direct contradiction to what the cherry pickers would have you believe. If Christian puritans do believe the old testament is no longer valid then they should stop quoting old testament law about homosexuality.
The "We" I made reference to was the progressives who live amongst those who are racially intolerant.
I'm a South Carolinian who lives about 45 minutes from Charleston. I remember very early on in my education reading about Ft. Moultrie and Sgt. Jasper's heroic effort
However, what really got the attention of white male segregated middle school students centered around the stories of Jeb, Stonewall and Robert E Lee. These generals and their soldiers were our super heroes who defended the homeland against northern aggression. To our young minds it was all about bravery and heroics, slavery was something associated with plantation owners.
My fourth grade teacher, a woman who never married and an adamant states rights supporter, taught us the real reason the south seceded was because we were being financially maligned by the north and it's manufacturing based economy. She taught the issue of slavery, an issue she admitted was inhumane, was one Lincoln raised only to rally his unenthusiastic federal troops.
I say this only to make the point to non southerners that a segment of the south's white population actually can view the portrait of Robert E Lee or Longstreet and feel a sense of history without any racism involved. Call it a sense of denial.
Now that the battle flags and statues are rightfully being removed from public property blacks throughout the south can claim a major victory over a brutal practice that to this day has left scars on this nation. Unfortunately we owe this awakening to a coward and disgrace to his southern roots. We are better than that.
As of Monday afternoon the news has broken that Gov. Haley will start the process of removing the flag from the state house grounds. It took a massacre and a shift in public opinion to make Lindsey Graham come out in favor of removing the flag.
A candidate for the presidency who kicks off his campaign by bragging, "I'm rich! $8.9 billion dollars! I have the best properties in the world. I've done a great job!" lacks any sense of humility or identification with the 99%. I can't fathom Teddy, FDR or JFK reading their financial statement during a campaign appearance which, by comparison, goes to show how little class this supercilious ego maniac has.
Jeb Bush...."Yeah knowing what we know now I would have ordered the invasion of Iraq."
Well other than the war being slightly over budget, (one and a half trillion dollars as opposed to the two hundred million projected cost), not being greeted as "Liberators", not being a democracy for the Sunni population, the US trained Iraq army being a disaster and Iraq being in a constant state of war for twelve years... I can see, if you are a Bush, you could look at the current crisis of Iraq against ISIL and judge it to be a successful Bush enterprise.
The predictable response from Israel ...."The Pope should stay out of politics." Apartheid, starving citizens, denying medicine and electricity all the while stealing property from the rightful owners is not classified as politics. Good for the Pope!
The name GW Bush, even to his brother, is flypaper ( a word that shows how old I am) that Jeb would do well to steer clear of. It's a bit like Hillary bringing up the name of Monica Lewinsky.
Jon Stewart nails Jeb here for his comment....
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/05/jon-stewart-slams-jeb-bush-name-dropping-w
More wars? What happened to Mission Accomplished?
Their $46 billion dollar investment is one half of the amount of money squandered by this country in Afghanistan.....IN ONE YEAR!!! And what do we have to show for 13 years of our investments in that war torn, drug infested goat farm? A lot of warlords now have Swiss bank accounts.
Here is a an article from Antiwar.com in which the author quotes Wolfowitz gloating that the US can invade or attack anyone we want and a weakened Russia will not retaliate. It makes you sick to see how the neocons glory in the fact that thousands of Muslims are dying each day in clashes between different religious and political sects and that an inflamed middle east suits them just fine. They are some heartless b##tards. http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2015/04/14/neocon-chaos-promotion-in-the-mideast/
I admit it would be interesting to see Pres. Hillary Clinton dealing with a Republican house and senate. However, I have to believe the thought of having Bubba the philanderer back in the White House will cost Hillary some support.
She definitely panders to the neocons and their insane middle east interventionist policies, however, who can you vote for in the Republican mix of goons tripping over each other to kiss Adelson's ring? Rand Paul is the only one who seems mildly against extending the military reach into every hot spot on the globe. I would hold my nose and vote for him in the SC primary.
On this Saturday morning in South Carolina money is being pumped into local commercials asking the viewers to contact Rand Paul and tell him he should not appease Iran in his campaign because..."One nuclear bomb in the hands of Iran is one too many!"
Forget the hardline Iranians getting an agreement approved by our bought and paid for congress, democrats included, is going to be almost impossible.
Viewing the Sunday morning political talk shows you are reminded of the run up to invasion of Iraq when only the warmongers were allowed to give their opinions
Professor if you keep making points like this....how do you ever expect to be invited on Meet the Press?
Seriously, I watched Face the Nation and saw the same faces defacing the Iranian deal we saw promoting the invasion of Iraq. We do not have a free press or news programs that will stand up to the israeli lobby and that means perpetual war.
I'm not a person who resorts to cursing but to Netanyahu I would like to say....STFU!!! I listened to Hannity yesterday to gauge his reaction to the deal. As you can imagine it was hysterical, in a bad way.
This past week, I read that former representative Bachmann compared Obama to the German pilot who crashed the airliner. Ted Nugent blamed Obama for the rampant suicides occurring among our servicemen because they were ashamed of our president. Sarah Palin continues to spread lies about death panels associated with Obamacare and now they have fresh red meat for the masses...Obama is selling out our country to appease his Muslim/ Persian friends while setting the stage for our BFF in the middle east, Israel, to be nuked.
The Sunday morning talk shows will be interesting.
I saw a clip of Mitch McConnell, who is in Israel, holding a joint news conference with Netanyahu. The news clip looked as if McConnell was an actor reading his lines for a role in front of the director. It was embarrassing to see a U.S. senator conspiring with a foreign leader against the best interest of his own country. After the dog and pony show for the press I hope McConnell got a pat on the head from Bibi.
This article explains a comment Cruz made about Obama..."This administration likes to use detente which is a French word for surrender."
Let us all pray together...Dear Lord, not another Texan in the White House.
I read about this yesterday and could not believe what I was reading. Once again the neocons who gave us the Iraq war and who are pushing for the US to bomb Iran....for not building a nuclear weapon....would once again put Israel's interest above that of the US.
If anyone would like to take a minute you can let Obama know you support his not bowing to Netanyahu and the FOX NEWS loonies who would have us create more chaos in the middle east.https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Watching Sen Tom Cotton get his a$$ handed to him by Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation was a bright spot in my day. That's what he gets for blindly following the advice of neocons.
Sen Cotton quoting Netanyahu's moronic bargaining stratergy "The alternative to a bad deal is a better deal" shows what a Manchurian Candidate Tom Cotton is. Of course Bloody Bill Kristol did raise a million bucks for Cotton's campaign.http://mondoweiss.net/2015/03/militaristic-adelson-kristol
Look who is behind Tom Cotton and has been in charge of grooming his political career. Yep, Bloody Bill Kristol. Surprised? Not really but it does reveal how AIPAC and it's backers keep a constant vigil on indoctrinating incoming congressmen and senators.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/03/you-will-be-shocked-know-whos-been
He's Bill Kristol's new Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham rolled into one.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/03/you-will-be-shocked-know-whos-been
The political demonetization of Iran continues. Netanyahu is allowed to present a case for more sanctions without allowing Iran to defend their position, resembling a kangaroo court or vigilante justice.
Republican senators are sending a letter to the Iranian leadership telling them any agreement reached with Obama will be abandoned after Obama leaves office. The senator from Wisconsin is already calling for war with Iran as fellow warmonger Lindsey Graham continues to praise his president, Netanyahu.
All are ominous signs of another needless neocon inspired war pushed on a war weary public. If history does repeat itself we can look for Condi Rice to resurrect her mushroom cloud warning.
Just so I understand what's going on...the fighting is between the Free Syrian army. ISIL, al-Qaeda, al-Hazm, Taliban, the Support Front, Syrian rebels?...OK..got it. Who in their right mind thinks we should drop our young soldiers into that chaos?
Par for the course it was up to Jon Stewart to show a several year old video of Netanyahu appearing before a hearing in which told the senators...."Removing Saddam will have a positive impact on the entire middle east." You won't see that clip on Face the Nation.
Well written. A huge disparity between the way we treat Israel and Iran is that Boehner would never ask an Iranian leader to address the US congress. There is little question that Netanyahu and his supporters only pretend to be our allys.
Hopefully there will be organized and unorganized demonstrations in the streets of D.C. against the speech. If so, I think Obama will be smiling from the oval office.
Then Iran could seal of the strait and oil prices would quadruple.
One thing you wrote I would take issue with..."Replacing the lost aircraft would take Israel many years and probably bankrupt the country."
I would suggest to you that the burden of replacing Israeli aircraft would fall on the US taxpayers.
It's going to be hard for Bibi to whip up a frenzy against Iran....for not building a nuclear weapon. He is the Israeli Chicken Little who has little regard for American or Muslim lives.
Remember during the run up to the invasion of Iraq Bill O'Reilly took the brave stand of declaring war, actually a boycott, on French wine? He boasted he would personally bring the French wine industry to it's knees! Reason being France would not sign on join the "Coalition of the willing" which was a group of nations Bush/ Cheney were pressuring to join in the idiotic invasion of a sovereign nation... Iraq.
That's about as close as O'Reilly, the sexual harasser, has ever gotten to war....a war on the French wine industry. Dare I suggest for his heroic actions he should have received a .....Purple Heart? Hilarious.
After the invasion of Iraq and all hell broke loose a befuddled GW Bush was schooled on Kurds, Shiite and Sunni Iraqis. His reply was..."I thought they were all Muslims!"
No more Bush family members in the White House.
"raises questions yet again about the competency of the Iraqi army."
You mean the Iraq army that is on paper only in order to receive paychecks, which are then shared with the chain of command?
It bears repeating that the US is ill equipped to wage war in the middle east. If neighboring countries in the region won't join in the ground fight then we should take that as a sign it is a fools mission.
It's going to be hard to sell this kind of rational to the American people when you have a war hungry media who would rather create false hysteria by showing Netanyahu with his little Road Runner bomb cartoon than promote a peaceful solution.
Williams lies about being in harms way pale when compared to the lies he reported to the American public prior to the invasion of Iraq. He, Couric and Diane Sawyer all dutifully reported the Bush/ Cheney neocon lies about yellow cake, metal tubes, Saddam's association with 9-11 the list goes on, without allowing opposing views to counter the bogus intelligence. Much like the environment that exist today concerning Iran.
He is a $10,000,000 a year news reader who resides on the upper east side and who lives in the shadow of Robert Dryfuss, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald and other journalist who do the heavy lifting when it comes to reporting.
Interest and very telling that Lindsey never mentions we are $18 trillion dollars in debt and facing a credit crunch in the near future. He is lucky to be senator from my state, South Carolina, a state that has backed all of the neocon wars without question.
Thank you Mr. Romney for not running, you really make a boring candidate. I'm looking forward to the Republican wind up toys bumping and banging into each other for the next year and a half as they see who can be the most militaristic.
Could the $12 billion dollars Saudi Arabia has given Egypt over the past two years have anything to do with it?
The Limbaughs and Hannitys, better known as comedians posing as journalist/ commentators over at Fox, are now slamming Obama for not showing solidarity with France. Fox is a exhibiting a completely different attitude towards France as opposed to the pre-Iraq war days when France was not eager to jump on the Let's invade Iraq bandwagon. During that period, O'Reilly was leading a boycott of French Wine (Claiming he was going to bring the French wine industry to it's knees) while Limbaugh and company labeled the French as "Surrender Monkeys."
I understand the frustration Palestinians feel towards Israel for stealing their land, chopping down orchards, limiting travel in and out of Gaza and enforcing an embargo on medicine and food, however Palestinians have to play it smart and quit helping the Israelis play the victim card. Ineffective rockets being aimed at Israel only gives Netanyahu the cover he needs to continue his assault.
I think we can all understand attempts to fight back are human nature, God only knows what measures Americans would take if faced with similar circumstances, but rockets and bombs are only hampering those attempting to support a Palestinian state. Palestinians have to take the Ghandi approach and shame Israel before the world for it's cruel and inhumane policies against a passive population.
There is rejoicing in neocon parlors. The once monolithic Iraq is, thanks to the Bush/ Cheney doctrine of per-emptive wars, reduced to a fractured infighting union incapable of mounting a unified front. Yes the transformation cost the lives of millions of Iraqis and counting, Bush, Albright, Netanyahu and Bill Kirstol consider it worth while.
From the Romans we learned controlling an empire several thousand miles from your home base is impossible. Factor in a population and religious factions who think you're Satan and bingo....you suffer the same fate as Caesar being stabbed in the back by those who claimed to be your allies.
God help us! Here comes the "We don't have money for health care" pseudo patriots while doling out billions of dollars a month to purchase weapons for the Syrian rebels that end up in the hands of ISIS.
All we need now is Lindsey Graham as president and I think we can call it a day.
So as the Afghanistan war winds down, Iraq having only token US military personnel and Iran being seen as a dubious but needed ally, the war party, hating a war vacuum, has fed the press outrageous propaganda designed to instill fear into our 9-11 psyche that ISIS is our newest terrorist threat and another war is born. Good for Obama to at least make other nations in the region do some of the heavy lifting.
It's rather difficult to keep track of who is our ally and who is our enemy. I think I read the Syrian rebels, whom we support, were passing along US supplied weapons to ISIL...the target of our bombing. I have also seen past photos with McCain and others meeting with ISIL leaders proclaiming they were the equivalent of our founding fathers.
I keep going back to this famous quote which is the only explanation that seems appropriate....War is a racket.
Excellent interview. Prof. Cole should be on every Sunday morning talk show to counter Bill Kristol and the "we can fix everything with a massive bombing campaign" cabal whose policies have squandered the lives of American soldiers and treasury.
This won't happen because the professor is not pro war and secondly he doesn't speak in bombastic rhetoric....such as....ISIS is going to give us another 9-11. The neocons are experienced in speaking in those kind of sound bites required to support another fiasco.
#11.. The US has no business interfering in long held religious and tribal politics in Iraq. Obviously they are not interested in becoming the America of the middle east. Let them deal with their problems in their own fashion.
Here is a brave journalist from Ireland doing what no American reporters would do....question GW Bush on the insanity of his policies. At just over two minutes Bush claims Iraq will be better off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ36HS8dRbY