Foreign Policy

Rep. Martha McSally demonstrates that she is just another partisan hack

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McSallyIt received little notice in the local Tucson media last week, but Rep. Martha McSally (R-Tucson) delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s regular radio address on Saturday. The topic was fighting ISIS.

Currently there are 80 Members in the U.S. House of Representatives who are Veterans. Veterans in Congress (114th). Somehow, Rep. McSally deems herself a “national security expert” based upon her service as an A-10 pilot in the Air Force. If previous military service is all it takes to be deemed a “national security expert,” then the other 79 members of Congress who are veterans, and millions of veterans who are not members of Congress, are equally “national security experts.” This notion is absurd.

Let’s break down what Rep. McSally had to say. Rep. Martha McSally Urges Obama Administration to ‘Step Up’ in Fight Against ISIS in Weekly Republican Address:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Paris as they recover from last week’s horrific terrorist attacks. While we mourn this tragedy, let us be reminded those attacks could have happened here. This is not to instill fear, but to remind us to be vigilant. That’s why we’re calling on the administration to step up, provide global leadership, and put together a coherent and aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS.

“I need no reminders about the threats we face. Before being elected to Congress, I served 26 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a full colonel. I was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat and the first to command a fighter squadron in combat in U.S. history. In my career, I flew 2,600 flight hours, including over 325 combat hours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan six times, serving in leadership positions for the initial air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and counter-terrorism ops in Africa.

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Donald Trump and American Fascism

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“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” — wrongly attributed to Sinclair Lewis. (Unattributed).

Screenshot-16Donald Trump has been appealing to nativist xenophoia and racism since he entered the GOP primary for president. “The Donald” has proposed a special “deportation force” outside of regular immigration and law enforcement agencies and not subject to  any due process of law in the judicial system to deport over 11 million undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump promises ‘deportation force’ to move 11 million.

Will these “Trump Troopers” be uniformed in crisply starched brown shirts with a Trump insignia?

Donald Trump Ejected Latino Reporter Jorge Ramos From his Press Conference, and has had his goons supporters eject pro-immigration protesters, Pro-Immigration Protester Violently Dragged Out Of Trump Rally, and eject Black Lives Matter protesters from his rallies. Trump Fans Filmed Assaulting Black Lives Matter Protesters; Trump on rally protester: ‘Maybe he should have been roughed up’.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a graphic in a tweet from a neo-Nazi, We Found Where Donald Trump’s “Black Crimes” Graphic Came From, citing data from an organization called Crime Statistics Bureau in San Francisco, suggesting that blacks were responsible for most killings of black people —and most killings of whites. Donald Trump retweeted a very wrong set of numbers on race and murder. There doesn’t appear to be any such organization as the “Crime Statistics Bureau,” and the bogus statistics cited are entirely fabricated. “The leading candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for president is tweeting absolute nonsense with a blatantly racist slant.”

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What would ‘John Wayne, American’ do?

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So let me get this right. The United States has had 325 mass shootings so far in 2015 according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, which is literally one per day (today is the 322nd day of 2015). This country is a shooting gallery for every mentally ill and emotionally disturbed individual exercising their “Second Amendment remedies” against their fellow citizens. This does not even include those shot in the daily carnage of gang violence or other violent crimes, or suicides.

Americans barely bat an eye at this daily violence in their own country.

But 129 people are gunned down in Paris by semi-automatic weapons (according to reports, the suicide vests of the terrorists only blew themselves up, and one elderly man at the soccer stadium. A full account of how the Paris terror attack shootings), and Americans freak out and go into a panic? Who are you people? You live with this kind of gun violence every day.

john-wayne-americas-cowboy-john-guthrieWould “John Wayne, American” be pissing in his boots out of fear of women and children refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism? Hell no! The Duke would be the first to defend and to protect these innocent victims of war and terrorism, and then he would mount up and go after the bad guys who caused them harm.

When America is at its best, this is what we do. It is who we are. It is our national identity. We have rode to the rescue of the downtrodden and the oppressed the world over.

But Paris immediately became a cause célèbre for Tea-Publicans and the conservative media entertainment complex to demonize all Syrian refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism as a “fifth column” of Jihadist terrorists. Panic! Be afraid! They’re comin’ to kill you! Sharia law! They appeal to our darkest demons when America is at its worst: ignorance, fear, and hatred of “others” born of nativism, racism, and religious bigotry.

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Sen. John McCain needs to learn the meaning of ‘blowback’

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angry john mccainOnce again, Arizona’s angry old man, Sen. John McCain, will not accept culpability for his role in the Iraq War, and casts blame for the rise of ISIS — or ISIL, or IS, or “Daesh” — on President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, because we are in an election. McCain: Obama’s failed leadership led to rise of ISIS.

Sen. McCain really needs to learn the meaning of Blowback:  /blō’bāk’/ (noun): Negative repercussions affecting a country whose government has undertaken a usually clandestine intelligence operation in another country.

“Blowback” is a CIA term first used in March 1954 in a recently declassified report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the US government’s international activities that have been kept secret from the American people.

John McCain was a patron of the recently deceased Ahmad Chalabi (may he rot in hell for eternity), the exiled leader of the Iraqi National Congress (and a fugitive from justice in Europe) whom Neoconservatives like McCain supported and thereby lent his credibility.

Chalabi and his protégé “Curveball” provided U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense with falsified information that the Neoconservatives relied upon to justify their invasion of Iraq. McCain is responsible as anyone for the “intelligence failures” that plunged the U.S. into the Iraq War. The Cover-ups of John McCain – WMD Intelligence Failures.

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Congress abdicates its constitutional duty to debate and authorize an AUMF for ISIS

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Before the terrorist attack in Paris on Friday evening, there was a little noticed event that received very little discussion in the “lamestream” media.

ConstitutionCapitolOn November 6, a bipartisan group of 35 House Representatives sent a letter (.pdf) to the new Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), calling on him to bring an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIS to the House floor for a debate and a vote.

The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Tom Cole, (R-OK), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Peter Welch (D-VT), and John Lewis (D-GA). This letter represents the latest of many efforts by a vocal minority in Congress that wants Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to debate and vote on war.

We do not share the same policy prescriptions for U.S. military engagement in the region, but we do share the belief that it is past time for the Congress to fulfil its obligations under the Constitution and vote on an AUMF that clearly delineates the authority and limits, if any, on U.S. military engagement in Iraq, Syria and the surrounding region. U.S. bombing campaigns have been going on for more than a year, and U.S. troops on the ground have been increasingly close to or drawn into combat operations, including the recent death in combat of a special operations officer in Iraq.

Consistent with your pledge to return to regular order, we urge you to direct the committees of jurisdiction to draft and report out an AUMF as soon as possible. We do not believe in the illusion of a consensus authorization, something that happens only rarely. We do believe the Congress can no longer ask our brave service men and women to continue to serve in harm’s way while we fail in carrying out our constitutional responsibly in the area of war and peace.

As long as the House fails to assert its constitutional prerogatives and authority, the Administration may continue to expand the mission and level of engagement of U.S. Armed Forces throughout the region. We strongly urge you, Mr. Speaker, to bring an AUMF to the floor of the House as quickly as possible.

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