“”Never again” is probably the most misused phrase in all of American politics. History has shown that we, as a political people, are inclined to make the same mistakes, over and over again, amen, until we either get bored with making them, or the accumulated repetition of the same mistake threatens to capsize the whole enterprise. If that’s not correct, how come I’ve lived under two Presidents Bush in my lifetime?
Under the second of these, you may recall, a bunch of think-tank cowboys and chickenhawk bombardiers combined to con enough members of the Congress into going along with the biggest foreign-policy calamity since Vietnam. The elite political and national security press played their roles in this disaster, too, but, somehow, enough of our leaders thought invading Iraq was a terrific idea that even 150,000 people in the street didn’t stop them. Later, of course, everybody felt really bad about everything and promised they’d learned from the whole fiasco.
Well, I guess we’ll see now, won’t we? From CNN:
‘A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attack on Saudi oil facilities and argued there is “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen,” a senior administration official briefed CNN on information to back up Pompeo’s claims. The official pointed to the angle at which Saudi oil facilities were attacked, the numbers of points of impact and other information to argue that it is unlikely the attacks were carried out by Yemen. Instead, the official suggested the attack most likely originated in Iran or Iraq.
“It is very difficult to see how these things could have come from anywhere but Iran or Iraq,” the senior administration official said. The official said 19 Saudi targets were struck in Saturday’s attack and argued that such an attack could not be carried out with 10 drones, which the Houthis claimed to have used.’
OK. Let’s play the game I like to call Wolfowitz Bingo. Anonymous official? Check. Just enough fudge in the assertion to make it plausible? Check. Cool military-sounding jargon? (“Angle of attack,” “points of impact”?) Check. Of course, this time, we are dealing with a transparently truthless president* who lies about everything and who clearly knows nothing about anything, so maybe we can save ourselves the catastrophe this time around.
In addition, instead of a phony, made-in-DC opposition like the one we had last time, if the U.S. is dumb enough to get embroiled in this mess, it will be on the side of the execrable regime in Saudi Arabia and of Muhammad bin Salman, who is taking a break from murdering and dismembering American residents to try and get us to protect his family’s oil wealth. Last time, the people bringing you the war would have cut out their own spleens rather than admit we were going to war for oil. This time, that would be an obvious reason, along with the work of that large portion of the conservative foreign-policy hive mind that’s been spoiling for a war with Iran since 1979.
(I choose not to think about one, how desperately El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago needs a war to get re-elected, and two, how deeply in the pocket of the Saudis the president* might be.)
One hopes, please God, that all will be a harder sell over here this time around.”
Facists and Nazis flock with Facists and Nazis. If only their fat asses had to go there and carry out the mission. How short these excursions would be.
Totally accurate. Or perhaps make their children go there.
Voice of reason and authority on this one.
“Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) slammed President Donald Trump for turning the nation into “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” after he assured the kingdom that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” as it waits to hear who may be behind an attack on its oil supply.
“Trump awaits instructions from his Saudi masters,” the Democratic presidential candidate tweeted Sunday. “Having our country act as Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not ‘America First.’”
Gabbard previously accused Trump of making the U.S. “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” last November for his failure to take action against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directed the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
“Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has doubled down attacking President Donald Trump over his response to the weekend’s drone attacks on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia.
Trump assured Saudi Arabia via Twitter that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” and awaiting its direction following the strikes, which were claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels but which Trump claimed were backed by Iran.
The Democratic presidential candidate — a combat veteran and a major in the Army National Guard ― called Trump’s response “disgraceful” in a new video shared online Monday.
“Mr. President, as you know, I have never engaged in hateful rhetoric against you or your family and I never will,” said Gabbard. “But your offering our military assets to the dictator of Saudi Arabia to use as he sees fit is a betrayal of my brothers and sisters in uniform who are ready to give our lives for our country.”
Gabbard said Trump’s belief he can “pimp out our proud servicemen and women to the prince of Saudi Arabia is disgraceful and it once again shows that you are unfit to serve as our commander in chief.”
“My fellow service members and I, we are not your prostitutes,” she concluded. “You are not our pimp.”
In the early seventies, I was with 10th Marines, 155(mm) self-propelled Howitzers. For a couple of weeks we were confined to base as the Israeli’s were deciding what they would do. I am not talking about Jews as there is a distinct difference. We have always had their backs.
On business: I was sitting in the Huntsman which is down under the Landmark Hotel, Bangkok Thailand with a bunch of guys drinking and enjoying Thai food. They had a great Filipino band who could really give a good rendition of Hotel California and Bohemian Rhapsody. Mutt and Jeff (tall and short guys) walked into the Huntsman along with a rental unit each and were drinking at the bar. We were sitting at a couple of tables talking back and forth. 30 minutes later, another Mutt and Jeff dual walked in with their rental units. No big deal and a common practice in Thailand especially for older men.
Suddenly the Jeff (short one) of the one pair who arrived later walked up to the Jeff of the earlier pair and said something to him. The earlier Mutt shoved him away and the later Mutt was glaring at him. Finally, the rental unit who was with the earlier Jeff said to the later Jeff. “I with you last night, I with him tonight.”
Of course, we (the US) are being used as the Mutt of this confrontation. Israel has limited ability, talk big, and are always dependent on us. Trump likes to be a Mutt when in reality he is a Jeff who has never had to do his own dirty work. Trump is not just unfit to be a CIC, he is also unfit to be a part of the military which he proved earlier in life, and unfit in general. A wimp who would back down if confronted alone.
Run, I think you mean zionists and oligarchs…………and more zionists and oligarchs.
Lets remember 9-11 was a “triple hoax” in that the Saudi government financially backed by jewish oligarchs in eastern europe created the 9-11 “attack”, but tried to make it appear it was Israel who was REALLY behind it, when it fact, they didn’t know until a week before the attack, which was the real reason Israeli’s were fleeing NYC. The entire group was the basis behind the “Trump Election” years later.
The Bush Admin/Neocon role was really of benefactor to manipulate US policy. They knew the attack was coming and did nothing to stop it because it was shaking things up with global politics which they desired. The fallout between the neocons and the “red sea conspiracy” really was over the policy chosen by the neocons after the fallout from 9-11 happened. By 2008 they were at each others throat.
One can only hope.
“”Never again” is probably the most misused phrase in all of American politics. History has shown that we, as a political people, are inclined to make the same mistakes, over and over again, amen, until we either get bored with making them, or the accumulated repetition of the same mistake threatens to capsize the whole enterprise. If that’s not correct, how come I’ve lived under two Presidents Bush in my lifetime?
Under the second of these, you may recall, a bunch of think-tank cowboys and chickenhawk bombardiers combined to con enough members of the Congress into going along with the biggest foreign-policy calamity since Vietnam. The elite political and national security press played their roles in this disaster, too, but, somehow, enough of our leaders thought invading Iraq was a terrific idea that even 150,000 people in the street didn’t stop them. Later, of course, everybody felt really bad about everything and promised they’d learned from the whole fiasco.
Well, I guess we’ll see now, won’t we? From CNN:
‘A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attack on Saudi oil facilities and argued there is “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen,” a senior administration official briefed CNN on information to back up Pompeo’s claims. The official pointed to the angle at which Saudi oil facilities were attacked, the numbers of points of impact and other information to argue that it is unlikely the attacks were carried out by Yemen. Instead, the official suggested the attack most likely originated in Iran or Iraq.
“It is very difficult to see how these things could have come from anywhere but Iran or Iraq,” the senior administration official said. The official said 19 Saudi targets were struck in Saturday’s attack and argued that such an attack could not be carried out with 10 drones, which the Houthis claimed to have used.’
OK. Let’s play the game I like to call Wolfowitz Bingo. Anonymous official? Check. Just enough fudge in the assertion to make it plausible? Check. Cool military-sounding jargon? (“Angle of attack,” “points of impact”?) Check. Of course, this time, we are dealing with a transparently truthless president* who lies about everything and who clearly knows nothing about anything, so maybe we can save ourselves the catastrophe this time around.
In addition, instead of a phony, made-in-DC opposition like the one we had last time, if the U.S. is dumb enough to get embroiled in this mess, it will be on the side of the execrable regime in Saudi Arabia and of Muhammad bin Salman, who is taking a break from murdering and dismembering American residents to try and get us to protect his family’s oil wealth. Last time, the people bringing you the war would have cut out their own spleens rather than admit we were going to war for oil. This time, that would be an obvious reason, along with the work of that large portion of the conservative foreign-policy hive mind that’s been spoiling for a war with Iran since 1979.
(I choose not to think about one, how desperately El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago needs a war to get re-elected, and two, how deeply in the pocket of the Saudis the president* might be.)
One hopes, please God, that all will be a harder sell over here this time around.”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a29074499/president-trump-iran-saudi-arabia-iraq/
Morning EM:
Facists and Nazis flock with Facists and Nazis. If only their fat asses had to go there and carry out the mission. How short these excursions would be.
Run,
Totally accurate. Or perhaps make their children go there.
Voice of reason and authority on this one.
“Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) slammed President Donald Trump for turning the nation into “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” after he assured the kingdom that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” as it waits to hear who may be behind an attack on its oil supply.
“Trump awaits instructions from his Saudi masters,” the Democratic presidential candidate tweeted Sunday. “Having our country act as Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not ‘America First.’”
Gabbard previously accused Trump of making the U.S. “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” last November for his failure to take action against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directed the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsi-gabbard-donald-trump-saudi-arabia-oil-attack_n_5d7fc275e4b077dcbd622d5b
“Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has doubled down attacking President Donald Trump over his response to the weekend’s drone attacks on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia.
Trump assured Saudi Arabia via Twitter that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” and awaiting its direction following the strikes, which were claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels but which Trump claimed were backed by Iran.
The Democratic presidential candidate — a combat veteran and a major in the Army National Guard ― called Trump’s response “disgraceful” in a new video shared online Monday.
“Mr. President, as you know, I have never engaged in hateful rhetoric against you or your family and I never will,” said Gabbard. “But your offering our military assets to the dictator of Saudi Arabia to use as he sees fit is a betrayal of my brothers and sisters in uniform who are ready to give our lives for our country.”
Gabbard said Trump’s belief he can “pimp out our proud servicemen and women to the prince of Saudi Arabia is disgraceful and it once again shows that you are unfit to serve as our commander in chief.”
“My fellow service members and I, we are not your prostitutes,” she concluded. “You are not our pimp.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsi-gabbard-donald-trump-doubles-down-saudi-arabia_n_5d809229e4b077dcbd63a808
EM:
In the early seventies, I was with 10th Marines, 155(mm) self-propelled Howitzers. For a couple of weeks we were confined to base as the Israeli’s were deciding what they would do. I am not talking about Jews as there is a distinct difference. We have always had their backs.
On business: I was sitting in the Huntsman which is down under the Landmark Hotel, Bangkok Thailand with a bunch of guys drinking and enjoying Thai food. They had a great Filipino band who could really give a good rendition of Hotel California and Bohemian Rhapsody. Mutt and Jeff (tall and short guys) walked into the Huntsman along with a rental unit each and were drinking at the bar. We were sitting at a couple of tables talking back and forth. 30 minutes later, another Mutt and Jeff dual walked in with their rental units. No big deal and a common practice in Thailand especially for older men.
Suddenly the Jeff (short one) of the one pair who arrived later walked up to the Jeff of the earlier pair and said something to him. The earlier Mutt shoved him away and the later Mutt was glaring at him. Finally, the rental unit who was with the earlier Jeff said to the later Jeff. “I with you last night, I with him tonight.”
Of course, we (the US) are being used as the Mutt of this confrontation. Israel has limited ability, talk big, and are always dependent on us. Trump likes to be a Mutt when in reality he is a Jeff who has never had to do his own dirty work. Trump is not just unfit to be a CIC, he is also unfit to be a part of the military which he proved earlier in life, and unfit in general. A wimp who would back down if confronted alone.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco/saudi-oil-output-to-recover-in-two-or-three-weeks-after-attack-sources-idUSKBN1W2184
Every time anything involving Saudi Arabia happens, it makes me wonder if it was orchestrated. This news doesn’t lessen my curiosity.
Run, I think you mean zionists and oligarchs…………and more zionists and oligarchs.
Lets remember 9-11 was a “triple hoax” in that the Saudi government financially backed by jewish oligarchs in eastern europe created the 9-11 “attack”, but tried to make it appear it was Israel who was REALLY behind it, when it fact, they didn’t know until a week before the attack, which was the real reason Israeli’s were fleeing NYC. The entire group was the basis behind the “Trump Election” years later.
The Bush Admin/Neocon role was really of benefactor to manipulate US policy. They knew the attack was coming and did nothing to stop it because it was shaking things up with global politics which they desired. The fallout between the neocons and the “red sea conspiracy” really was over the policy chosen by the neocons after the fallout from 9-11 happened. By 2008 they were at each others throat.
@Bert,
Hilarious! Don’t bogart that joint, man!
What is, is. You couldn’t get the players, shame on you
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761815991/white-house-to-revoke-waiver-allowing-california-to-set-its-own-emissions-standa
:eyeroll: