Minneapolis held a long-overdue parade to recognize and to show our gratitude as a grateful state and nation for the service of our armed forces on Sunday. If you missed the parade itself you can read about it here in the STrib.
I sometimes find myself resenting what seems to be the attempt by the right to claim as their exclusive domain both patriotism and especially support for our military. It is not true, on either count; I am honored to co-blog with a very patriotic but NOT right wing blogging partner, as an example.
Given we are still trying to extricate ourselves from an ill-considered war in Afghanistan that was not given sufficient resources to resolve quickly and with minimal loss of life, blood and treasure, and without a clear cut goal, much less exit strategy - or apparently any strategy whatsoever when Bush started it - I am doubly concerned that before we are even out of Afghanistan, we have a new militant and belligerant neo-con as the presumptive candidate for the GOP.
Compounding the failures of the right in foreign affairs is their failure to pay for the wars they started, the wars they seek to prolong, and the new wars the right, at least those supporting Romney, appear itching to start.
The disastrous combination of unfunded wars and tax cuts that overwhelmingly redistributed wealth to the rich is not a nation busting political cataclysm we can afford to repeat. We couldn't afford it the first time around; we are even less able to do so now.
I am very concerned that the numerous advisers recruited by R-money, far too many of whom hold dual citizenship with Israel, will be extremely eager to use a close link to the White House to further destabilize the middle east, to encourage the equally war-loving hawks in the Israeli political spectrum to join together to launch attacks - on Iran, on Palestinians, possibly on our ally Turkey, or Egypt, or Jordan.
Israel treats the citizens of their country who are not Jewish, who are Christian, Palestinian or other, as second class citizens. REAL democracies don't have second class citizens; not in this country, and not in other countries. REAL democracies simply have citizens, citizens who have equal rights. Obama is pro-Israel; he is simply not pro-mistreatment of minorities in Israel in the name of theocracy rather than democracy, including Palestinians.
I love a good parade, but I don't want to see the next parade any time soon for another wrong, ill-considered war the right has pushed us into starting or joining.
I sometimes find myself resenting what seems to be the attempt by the right to claim as their exclusive domain both patriotism and especially support for our military. It is not true, on either count; I am honored to co-blog with a very patriotic but NOT right wing blogging partner, as an example.
Given we are still trying to extricate ourselves from an ill-considered war in Afghanistan that was not given sufficient resources to resolve quickly and with minimal loss of life, blood and treasure, and without a clear cut goal, much less exit strategy - or apparently any strategy whatsoever when Bush started it - I am doubly concerned that before we are even out of Afghanistan, we have a new militant and belligerant neo-con as the presumptive candidate for the GOP.
Compounding the failures of the right in foreign affairs is their failure to pay for the wars they started, the wars they seek to prolong, and the new wars the right, at least those supporting Romney, appear itching to start.
The disastrous combination of unfunded wars and tax cuts that overwhelmingly redistributed wealth to the rich is not a nation busting political cataclysm we can afford to repeat. We couldn't afford it the first time around; we are even less able to do so now.
I am very concerned that the numerous advisers recruited by R-money, far too many of whom hold dual citizenship with Israel, will be extremely eager to use a close link to the White House to further destabilize the middle east, to encourage the equally war-loving hawks in the Israeli political spectrum to join together to launch attacks - on Iran, on Palestinians, possibly on our ally Turkey, or Egypt, or Jordan.
Israel treats the citizens of their country who are not Jewish, who are Christian, Palestinian or other, as second class citizens. REAL democracies don't have second class citizens; not in this country, and not in other countries. REAL democracies simply have citizens, citizens who have equal rights. Obama is pro-Israel; he is simply not pro-mistreatment of minorities in Israel in the name of theocracy rather than democracy, including Palestinians.
I love a good parade, but I don't want to see the next parade any time soon for another wrong, ill-considered war the right has pushed us into starting or joining.
I was offended, as I am offended by the ignorant Islamophobes on the right, by Mitts on R-money's comments while in Israel.
His denials as so many of his denials do, lacks truth and integrity. He said what he is accused of saying, and he meant it - and he has said it more than once.
He may have meant it mostly to get contributions -- and why is he soliciting foreign contributions for his campaign for President in this country in the UK and Israel? Aren't foreign contributions ILLEGAL?
What matters is that he said it; he lies so often no one can afford to believe his protestations after he is caught making these gaffes anymore. There are too many of them for such denials and protestations to be credible. But we also should be concerned about how the GOP candidate might be willing directly or indirectly by his advisers, to intrude into another nations' politics - which is an issue given that R-money canceled meeting with the Labor party in Israel.
The best way to protect Israel is for the U.S. to broker peace in the region, including fairness and equality for all people in the region, with respect for all of them to exist.
And to get a little further insight into how much cherrypicking R-money does, how profoundly wrong his assertion is - there's this:
I didn't realize the presidential overlap was so long. President Obama has held office for 42 months but that rotten Bush still won't allow him to pull all our troops out of the Middle East or close Gitmo. Will his evil grip never loosen? How long before President Obama can send the 7,000 - 9,000 more troops he promised for fighting The Right War - the one in Afghanistan?
ReplyDeleteOh, come on Joe - be more honest than that. Obama tried to close Gitmo; it was the Republicans who blocked all funding for doing so.
ReplyDeleteWe've largely pulled our troops out of the Middle East - where we should never have been in the first place if Dubya hadn't been such a liar.
I hope Obama simply gets us out of Afghanistan; so long as we are apparently unable to do a damned thing about the corruption that resulted from Dubya dumping billions of unregulated money with no accountability, no strings, into the country, it's a lost cause. I doubt there is anything Obama could do at this point other than get us out and watch the place go up in flames as we leave.
The President had complete control of Congress for the first two years, which is how he rammed through Obamacare on a party line vote without one single Republican vote. He could have done the same to close Gitmo. Your memory is slipping.
ReplyDeleteNo, he did not; you seem to forget how much the President has been obstructed, including appointments. Ever her of filibustering?
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should revisit the issue to refresh YOUR memory - or would you like me to provide you with the data you are missing?