Showing posts with label neocon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neocon. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Neocons Begging for Another War in Iraq - Updated with Morning Joe

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Previous Related Posts:
Berghazi: Flip-Flopping Wingnuts Trash Bergdahl
Armchair Chickenhawks say Obama is "Weak" and "Feckless" on Russia
Obama Wins on Syria, With Media Derp
Donald Rumsfeld: Blood-Gargling Psychopath

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As Iraq crumbles into chaos, the Neocons are losing their minds again. They don't want Obama to get credit for ending the wars, and they hate him for the Benghazi flop, so they are blaming him for the new chaos in the Middle East. And they seem to want our country to get dragged into ALL the conflicts there, no matter what the consequences. Why exactly? Perhaps they love death and destruction? Senility? Brain Damage? They want another war so they can blame Hillary when she runs for President? The possibilities are endless.

And for some reason the media is dragging up the whole W. Bush administration to talk about it as if anyone cares what they think! Plus Mitt Romneyshambles, the Horses and Bayonets Guy.

Our peace-loving President is trying to be the voice of reason. Here is what he said last Friday:

We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq, but I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces, and I’ll be reviewing those options in the days ahead.
. . . We’re also going to pursue intensive diplomacy throughout this period both inside of Iraq and across the region, because there’s never going to be stability in Iraq or the broader region unless there are political outcomes that allow people to resolve their differences peacefully without resorting to war or relying on the United States military.

Another peace-lover is Shepard Smith of Fox News, who had this reaction to his colleagues sounding the alarm for yet another war:

Are we about to be drawn back into a conflict in Iraq?" Smith asked. "The same people who 12 years ago told us this will be quick, this will be easy, this will be inexpensive, they will see us as liberators, it's the right thing to do, are now telling us, 'It's the right thing to do.' What's the endgame? Who's thought this through?




Who has thought this through? Apparently no one, but that won't keep them from speaking their minds. And in fact the media is inviting them to do it. Rachel Maddow had this to say:

It is very frustrating to see that this is the way we handle debates about foreign policy in this country. We take people who were so provably, terribly wrong and bring them back and treat them like experts on the very subject they have been so wrong about. It is maddening. It is frustrating.
If you have been frustrated by seeing all these Iraq War architects and cheerleaders back out there doing it again with no accountability you are not alone in your frustration.
. . . Hey Sunday shows! Hey op-ed pages! Hey cable news! Hey everybody! We know you are tempted to keep booking these yahoos on these subjects, but if you keep turning to the people who were famously wrong about Iraq to ask them about what to do about Iraq, you at least will be laughed at. And you will be embarrassed that you did this. And you will eventually have to apologize or at least explain yourself for why you thought Bill Kristol should be explaining what to do now. We can see what you’re doing, and it’s funny, but not in a good way.


John McCain

Everybody in his national security team, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ought to be replaced. It's a colossal failure of American security policy.
. . . Lindsey Graham and John McCain were right. Our failure to leave forces on Iraq is why Sen. Graham and I predicted this would happen.
~ Senator John McCain R-AZ, so excited he is talking in third person about himself

The John McCain military plan for America is the same as the John McCain media strategy. Be everywhere — forever.
~ Jon Stewart on The Daily Show




John McCain has made some really bad Predictions on Iraq
 ~ Via Chris Hayes on MSNBC
  • They Sent Us The Anthrax
  • The Iraqi People will treat us as Liberators
  • Iraqis will pay for post-Saddam Era
  • There's No history of violence between Sunnis and Shias
  • War will be Brief
  • There will be Evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • President Bush will be Justified

















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Lindsey Graham:

We’ve got another Benghazi in the making here. What I heard in there scared the hell out of me.
~ Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC










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Tony Blair

The reality is that the whole of the Middle East and beyond is going through a huge, agonising and protracted transition. We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven't. We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not; and whether action or inaction is the best policy and there is a lot to be said on both sides. But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region not outside it.
~ Tony Blair, Former British Prime Minister

I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad. He wrote an essay published last week that struck me as unhinged in its refusal to face facts. In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help.
. . . Somebody needs to get on to Tony Blair and tell him to put a sock in it - or at least to accept the reality of the disaster he helped to engender. Then he might be worth hearing. The truth shall set you free, Tony.
~ Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-blair-is-mad-to-deny-iraq-was-a-tragic-error-20140616-zs97h.html#ixzz34tlUalWm












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Mitt Romney

Tragically, all we’ve fought for in Iraq, all that 4,500 American lives were shed to gain, is on the cusp, potentially, of vanishing.
. . . I lost the election. We lost the election. But I and we will continue to fight.”
~ Mittster Romney at his Mormon "Summit" in Park City, Utah







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Bill Kristol:

It's a disaster made possibly by our ridiculous and total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.
. . . President Obama said two days before election day, in 2012, Iraq is on the path of defeat, the war in Iraq is over. That was enough to get him re-elected. Iraq is on the path of defeat. Neither is true. It's a disaster for our country.
~ Conservative Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard

Kristol has been wrong about literally everything — most of all, Iraq.
I’d give him credit for tenacity if he wasn’t so tenaciously clinging to an idea that led to one of the most horrifying foreign policy blunders in modern history.
~ Bob Cesca on The Daily Banter

Update: Kristol vs. Heileman on Morning Joe

If [Obama] goes on TV and says, ‘This is a strategic crisis for the reasons I’m going to lay out here. We have to do something no one wants to do, which is to go back in with a lot of air power and special forces and maybe a few conventional troops to help stabilize the situation. We cannot allow an al Qaeda-backed group to dominate one part of the Middle East and Iran and Iranian-backed groups to dominate another part of the Middle East. It’s an unacceptable threat to us.’ He would have support.
~ Bill Kristol on Morning Joe, 6-17-2014

Bill’s notion, with all due respect, is fantastical. As in, absurd.
I think it's ridiculous. This is American blood you're talking about! You want to send people into another intervention in which most people in the country believe that this is a centuries-old sectarian violence that we have no place and no ability to solve!
. . . There is war weariness in this country, whether you like it or not. I know you don’t have the weariness for war, but the country does.
~ John Heileman on Morning Joe









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Paul Wolfowitz

This is more than just the obscure Shia/Sunni conflict. This is al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda is not on the road of defeat, al-Qaeda is on the march. Not just in Iraq and Syria and we have real enemies in the US and what we should be looking for friends. I think when we stick with our friends and those friends are not always perfect, but we stuck with the Kurds for twenty years. Northern Iraq, Kurdistan is a success story. We stuck with them South Korea for sixty years. South Korea is a miracle story if we walked away from that country in 1953, that country was a basket case.
~ Paul Wolfowitz on Meet the Press

(HUH?)

The “obscure Shia/Sunni conflict”? There is no hell hot enough for these people.
~ Scholars and Rogues Blog

"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction, as the core reason." – Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, during a "Vanity Fair" interview, May 28, 2003
~ Via IBTimes




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Ari Fleischer:





(Ahem, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.)








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Monday, March 3, 2014

Armchair Chickenhawks Say Obama is "Weak and Trembling" on Russia - Updated With "Feckless"

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Previous Related Posts:
Optics Delusion: Russia Invades Ukraine and Twitter Erupts Over Obama Wearing Jeans
Palin Plays the Angry White Victim Card for M.L. King Day
New GOP Scandal: #Umbrellagate
John McCain Plays Iphone Poker During Syria Hearing
Tea Party Tantrum as Obama Shakes Hands with Castro

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Every time there is a world crisis, hysterical members of the GOP begin to war-splain that Obama is weak, I tell you, WEAK! And nowhere near scary enough to put the fear of God into tough-guys like Putin. So weak, ineffectual, non-cowboy Obama better get his act together and Declare War Now!!! Because #BENGHAZIIIIIIII!!!

Of course, people say these things knowing they will never, ever be Leader of the Free World or Commander-in-Chief of the United States Military. Chickenhawks sound brave from the comfort of their armchairs.

The worst is Squeaky Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, the ultimate Chickenhawk Neocon:

Well, number one, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. It is not your strong suit. Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine.
We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.
President Obama needs to do something. How about this, suspend Russian membership in the G-8 and the G-20 at least for a year starting right now. And for every day they stay in Crimea, add to the suspension. Do something.
~ Lindsey Graham to Candy Crowley on CNN

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Then there is Graham's friend, John McCain, R-Arizona, who loves war because it gives him a reason to be head of a new committee on, well . . . war. See how that works? You'd think a guy who was tortured in Vietnam for YEARS wouldn't be anxious for the military to rush in where angels fear to tread, but he just needs to be on Meet the Press every week - don't you people understand?

Every moment that the United States and our allies fail to respond sends the signal to President Putin that he can be even more ambitious and aggressive in his military intervention in Ukraine. There is a range of serious options at our disposal at this time without the use of military force. I call on President Obama to rally our European and NATO allies to make clear what costs Russia will face for its aggression and to impose those consequences without further delay.
~ Senator John McCain's Website

Update ~ More McCain on "Feckless Obama":

This is a blatant act on the part of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, and one that must be unacceptable to the world community," he told AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby. "It cannot stand."
"Why do we care?" McCain asked. "Because this is the ultimate result of a feckless foreign policy where nobody believes in America's strength any more."
~ John McCain via CBS News







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Following the Chickenhawk Twins is, of course, the Queen Bee of all Neocons, Sarah Palin. She believes she now has the gift of prophecy for once suggesting that Putin would "rear his head" in Russia and invade Ukraine. Does anyone really think she came up with that idea on her own? Wherever the talking point came from, Palin couldn't be more delighted at the thought of war with Russia. Patriots and all that.*eyeroll* "Told-Ya-So"

Yes, I could see this one from Alaska. I'm usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as “an extremely far-fetched scenario” by the “high-brow” Foreign Policy magazine. Here’s what this “stupid” “insipid woman” predicted back in 2008: "After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next."
~ Sarah Palin's Facebook

And actually, the person questioning Palin's theory didn't rule out an invasion, just the idea that it would turn into all-out war. He believed it would be easy for Putin to invade Ukraine, and so far, that has been the case. Does it matter that Obama has now been in office for six years and Putin just made a move AFTER the Sochi Olympics?

Blake Hounshell on Foreign Policy Mag about Palin's Invasion Theory:
As we've said before, this is an extremely far-fetched scenario. And given how Russia has been able to unsettle Ukraine's pro-Western government without firing a shot, I don't see why violence would be necessary to bring Kiev to heel. Watch the upcoming parliamentary elections in December to see if Moscow gets the pliable new government it wants.

And she wasn't finished!

Look, the perception of Obama, of him and his potency across the world is one of such weakness. People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates.
~ Sarah Palin on Fox News









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And Obama will start WWIII!!! OMG!

The disarming of America over the past five years limits our options in Ukraine today. I just returned from Georgia in January, and they fear Russia will further invade their territory next. Throughout this administration, I have also warned that if the United States does not maintain a ready and capable military, we would surrender our global influence and leave a vacuum that will be filled by Russia. I warned this day was coming, and it is here.
~ Senator Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma

The world does not expect the United States just ‘to stand with the international community,’ as the president said,” They expect the United States to lead. Weak statements, history has proven, only invite aggression.
~ Former Senator Jim DeMint, now head of the conservative Heritage Foundation




Emboldened by President Obama's trembling inaction, Vladimir Putin has invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine. Senior U.S. officials have reportedly called Russia's actions in Crimea an ‘uncontested arrival,’ not an invasion; the same was said about the Anschluss. The hours ahead will decide whether this invasion of Crimea is repelled or expanded to the whole of Ukraine, and whether the West finally confronts Putin or again blinks in disgrace.
At a minimum, President Obama should revoke travel visas and freeze assets of senior Russian officials and Putin cronies, freeze assets of Ukrainian oligarchs who assist the Russian invasion, stop transfers of assets out of Ukraine, support the Ukrainian transitional government and military as it defends Ukraine's territorial integrity, recall our ambassador to Russia, reschedule the upcoming G-8 meeting from Russia to Western Europe or the U.S., and suspend Russia from the G-8. Putin must be punished for his outlaw actions and the Russian people and elites must recognize they will pay a price for them.
~ Representative Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas

Ex-NY Mayor Rudy GIULIANI: Putin decides what he wants to do and he does it in half a day, right? He decided he had to go to their parliament. He went to their parliament. He got permission in 15 minutes.
Neil CAVUTO: Well, that was kind of like perfunctory.
GIULIANI: But he makes a decision and he executes it, quickly. Then everybody reacts. That's what you call a leader. President Obama, he's got to think about it. He's got to go over it again. He's got to talk to more people about it.
~ Fox News/Neil Cavuto - Via Esquire: Rudy Giuliani's Mancrush On Putin

Obama’s whole theory on international relations was: If i’m nice to Iran, if I offer them all kinds of goodies, if I’m nice to the North Koreans, if I’m nice to any adversaries anywhere… He wanted to show the Russians that he was willing to bury the hatchet on all the past and then he wanted cooperation in other areas,” Krauthammer said.
Putin looks at this guy and says I’m dealing with an adolescent, this is a community organizer, he doesn’t understand how the world works. What Putin did, a KGB agent and a thug, he pockets all the things Obama offers him for nothing, he walks away and then he struts the world stage knowing he has an adversary in the White House who will do nothing. And he has done nothing.
~ Fox News Pundit, Charles Krauthammer























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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher

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Romney Shambles Day One: Disconcerting London Gaffes
Romney Shambles Day Two: British Press Pounces
Romney Shambles Day Three: On to Israel
Romney Shambles Day Four: Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
Romney Shambles Day Five: Not Too Kosher
Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
Romney Shambles Day Six: Warsaw Speech
Romney Shambles Review

From ABC News
There were hundreds of Jewish worshippers praying at the site on this holy fasting day of Tisha B’Av and cell phones were out snapping photos of Romney. Many chanted at him as he walked slowly toward the wall.
One man started clapping. “Good luck to you,” he told Romney “God bless you.” Another shouted, “Here comes the next president!” “He is for Israel!” shouted another.
. . . The Wailing Wall, as the wall is also known as, is the outside wall that surrounded the second temple. Today is said to be the day that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, leading to the Tisha B’Av

From Bloomberg
. . . “This is the campaign for American Jews,” Channah Nebi said in Hebrew, as she peered over the divide separating men and women to watch Romney.
New York lawyer Phil Rosen, a campaign fundraising bundler, was permitted past the machine-gun carrying Israeli soldiers protecting a security perimeter, to embrace Romney. Like any tourists in a foreign land, the two took a quick snap-shot to remember the moment.
. . . Tomorrow, around 50 top donors — largely from the U.S. – will join the candidate for a kosher breakfast and question-and-answer session in the luxurious King David hotel. Casino magnet Sheldon Adelson will attend, as will Eli Simmons.


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by By Latuff Cartoons


The headlines are rolling. The diaries are scrolling. Editors and producers are choosing which breath-taking declaration will win the lede, unilateral, amateur diplomacy or unilateral, amateur warmaking.
It doesn't matter, but for those following along, both the Washington Post and New York Times have chosen "Romney Declares War on Iran" over "Romney Declares War on Palestinians." Still, as I say, it doesn't matter. Mitt Romney, a half-formed man-child who made a splash in the corporate takeover game and mailed in a term as a state governor, has single-handedly undone decades of careful diplomacy and put the United States and its armed forces in danger.
~ Crashing Vor in a Daily Kos Diary called "Mr. Romney Has Ceased to be Amusing"




















As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality.
And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things. . . .
~ Mitt Romney to Sheldon Adelson and other donors at the King David Hotel Fundraiser

What is this man doing here? Yesterday, he destroyed negotiations by saying Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and today he is saying Israeli culture is more advanced than Palestinian culture. Isn't this racism? Israelis and Palestinians have a conflict, but they are people, they are equal, it is not a better culture or advanced culture.
It's Israeli occupiers and Palestinians under occupation, and that's why Palestinians cannot realize their potential.
~ Palestinian Official, Saeb Erekat









From the Washington Post
Romney also boasted of meeting the founder of Under Armour in London, when he visited the Olympics. Romney spotted him wearing a pullover with the Under Armour logo, and he soon discovered he was the founder. Naturally, Romney asked how he had created the company.
“He said he was playing football and the cotton underwear that they would wear would get all moist and crinkled up and create pressure points and so forth, and he decided to go buy some stretchy fabric, cut it and sew it together, which he did and it was very comfortable,” Romney recalled.

I think your heart would have to be made of stone not to feel what is still here, with the molecules, the stones, and everything still testifies of something that was so extraordinary that happened in this placesaid. And it is a magical place and it is a place which makes us turn to our inner soul and to our hearts and to listen with a different voice.
And that’s why I think it’s so important for people to be here and to understand what a significant and wonderful place this is. So it is with quiet ears that we can hear and listen to all that is around us and of the beauty and all of the extraordinary history that’s here.
~ Ann Romney at Mitt's Jewish Fundraiser in Israel











...continued here: Romney Shambles Day Five: Poland
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