History Never Repeats?

 It's funny that a draft dodger during the Vietnam War has me thinking about that war. People would be surprised how similar Vietnam was to what is happening now. 

There's a lot to say about this: one is that I think the people who protested Vietnam have turned into total hypocrites: e.g., John "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Kerry. Well, you voted for the war in Iraq, John: so, now you know the answer.

Anyway, part of this Vietnam revisited on my part is listening to the music of the time, which is where this song comes in:

 It was written 61 years ago and went to number one. 

And it's relevant to the current situation.

We Rejected a King and Built an Imperial Presidency. They Kept the King and Built Democracies.

Tad Stoermer points out something I have been talking about for a while.  

In the spirit of Mather Byles: I would rather have an official greeter than a tyrant. The loyalists were the real resistance of the Independence period. British North America exists--it's called CANADA.

I'm going to suggest reading the article The Mirror Has Cracked: How the Three Branches Failed America in Fulcrum about how the US Constitution has failed to prevent an "imperial presidency" gone amok.

 

Why only congress should be declaring war, not the president

 I am thoroughly disgusted that the bullshit in Iran wasn't stopped before it happened. After all, a deployment that size is hard to hide.

It also doesn't take too much brainpower to see that this was not well thought out to begin with.

But, this confirms it. 

 

US Independence was based upon the costs of a prior war

People in the US really don't like the costs associated with wars, yet they keep getting into them. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the war for independence was basically paying for a previous war started by George Washington: La Conquête (or the French and Indian War). 

I think I have mentioned that the War for Independence probably could have been nipped in the bud if the British had said: "No, we won't send troops and supplies until you cough up some money."

But, like Trump's Operation Epic Failure, the wars were started and then the bill shows up.

To be paid for by the average person. Here's Maryam again to explain how the fuel cost will hit the US.

 Of course, Trump and a lot of right wingers don't like renewable energy, which is a serious error as far as energy security goes. The US Department of Defence was reported to acknowledge Climate Change and Renewable energy as important aspects of US Defence strategy prior to the agency becoming the Department of War Crimes under the Secretary of War Crimes: Pete Hegseth.

Anyway, it would be nice if we had reasonable people running the US, but its current political system precludes that.

Another nice thing would be if the US became the multiparty democracy with free and fair elections on a secret ballot that it spent the last Century saying it was and pushing it to the rest of the world.

 

Trump's Operation Epic Failure

 Call it what it is. And don't forget to put Trump's name on the front of it since he like having things named after himself. 

And it sort of puts the blame where it belongs.

"Sort of" since only Congress has the power to declare war, which should be clarified to mean any deployment of troops outside of US territory. Especially since this time has been a complete GMFU.

Let's start with something missing from last night's speech: regime change.

 

Maryam is Iranian and a good source of info and commentary on this fiasco. She confirms that Trump's decapitation has only led to more radical leadership.

Let's face it, this adventure was ill-advised and should have been stopped long before it happened. It is not in anyway a victory since it has totally messed up the world order for the worse.

Now, for that Downfall clip to translate last night's speech by the president.

 I hope that the US legislature does something to ensure that the president cannot send troops outside US Territory without authorisation and only in cases where there is an actual, imminent threat to the US.

This is a disaster. 

From Rep. Jason Crow. Bio:

Jason Crow is an American politician, lawyer, and former U.S. Army officer serving since 2019 as the United States representative for Colorado's 6th congressional district.

And from Col. Douglas Macgregor:

Can't forget Joe Kent:

Pretty much everyone I know in the military said this was a bad idea. My opinion is that it's going to make the Dieppe Raid look like a girl scout picnic.

More on Iran War strategy: or lack of it.

 The more I listen to people, the more I think that Trump just charged ahead on this without thinking.

The only rogue state with WMD that destabilises the region is ISRAEL

 There are rumours that JFK was killed because he wanted to stop Israel from getting nuclear weapons.

Now it has the the Samson Option, Israel's alleged nuclear doctrine of last resort, which is where they will use nuclear weapons as a pre-emptive strike. 

 The US needs to stop supporting the state of Israel.

 

And this war could have been avoided.

WIll Iran be Trump's downfall?

 Thus is the security brief from the BBC: Iran: What should the US fear?

Will Trump's ego lead to a strategic error? Why hasn't the Congress used the War Powers Act to stop this insanity? 

 This shows that the United States needs to seriously reorganise and reassess because it has forgotten some of the lessons of its history.

The United States of America: 1790-2026

An arrogant, self-obsessed, incompetent, land speculator was the first president of the United States. And another one will be its final president. This is because the lessons of la Conquête were not learned and the mistakes kept coming. This video shows that strategy is far more important in war than firepower. 

Watch these videos for an eye opener.  I think they are AI, but they may be from Chinese sources. That's a shocker if true.

 The US is not prepared to fight a war for many reasons, one of which was its support for Israel.

Trump's arrogance and inability to deal with reality are harming the US.

No Trump derangement syndrome here, just the observation of people outside the US.

That's part of the problem with a country that holds a "World's Series" in which it plays with itself. 

Yes, bad pun intended.

Seriously, I don't get my news from US sources. And foreign newspapers often have an English edition, which I am providing the headline from Le Monde in English so that people in the US can see how Trump is trashing the country on the world stage.

Even in the 51st (51st-54th states?), the United Kingdom, which is fairly US friendly, he's taking a lot of heat. And Canada is on the outs with its neighbour to the south.

People in the US should realise that a lot is wrong with their country and it needs a serious overhaul of its system. This is especially true for its system of elections which is supposed to keep a clown like Trump from becoming president.

 

The Tory response to the State of the Union Address.

272 years ago, in 1754, another real estate speculator with an overblown sense of ego started a world war at Jumonville Glen. The bill for that war was presented to the people of the 13 Colonies and they revolted. Despite their not being able to properly unify to fight that war under the Albany Plan of Union. 26 years later, in 1776, they thought they were able to rule themselves, and started yet another war which bankrupted the nation and threw it into havoc.

They hastily cobbled together a Constitution in the hope that they could unify, but less than 100 years later, the US had another civil war. And now it looks as if the US may end up in another civil war under the leadership of another real estate billionaire and reality television star with an overblown ego.  

The system is broken and only works for a few.

Trump's belief in the US being a world power may cause its downfall.

 What exactly is the state of readiness of the US fleet in the Persian Gulf?

The United States needs to address its internal problems rather than be the world's bully. One has to learn its real history, not the myth. Wars cost money and are disruptive.

I'm glad I never worked for the CIA.

Never as far as I know.

I do have to admit that I like reading foreign language newspapers. It would have been super to have a job where they sent me to exotic places to meet people and get them to provide us with sensitive information.

On the other hand, I have been saying that it is idiotic to ignore Islamic Fundamentalism for a long time: especially before the fall of the Shah. I remember the Iranian Protesters who camped out in front of Foyles in London showing pictures of SAVAK brutality. I always wanted to ask them if they were sorry the Shah Fell, but never did.

Charlie Wilson's War was a recipe for failure, yet no one had the balls to come out and say it. Well, other than me, but I have never been in that much of a position of power to do that much. I can write things, but they have about as much of an effect on policy as my blog posts.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are happy they didn't get (re)elected president. I know I am happy I never made it with the CIA since they have shown what clowns they are.

I am amazed that anyone would admit to working for them these days because what happened was pretty obvious. It has been obvious it was coming for a long time.

Unfortunately, it's like the joke about the World Famous French lover who was on a game show as a lifeline. The punch line is that he wouldn't have done anything the contestant suggested.

Maybe they need to go and find some experts.

Buh-bye Bibi; more Conservative failure

Republicans did a dumb thing, they badly miscalculated, when they invited Bibi Netanyahu to speak to Congress.  Then the right made an even more foolish move on top of that mistake in writing their 'just kidding' letter to the Foreign Minister of Iran.

Conservatives have failed ideas, old ideas, and are consistent failures at governing.  And now they have contributed to the likely downfall of their fellow extremist conservative in another country, while aiding the hardliner conservatives in Iran. 

Another epic double failure of conservative thinking.

Back in February, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted :

Poll: Nearly 2/3 of Americans say Netanyahu Congress speech a 'bad move'

CNN/ORC survey says 63 percent of Americans disapproved of the invitation without coordination with the White House while 33% thought it was `the right thing to do.'

And the New York Times noted this morning:

PM Netanyahu's Party Trails in Polls Before Israel Election

JERUSALEM — The last polls just days before Israel's election show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party trailing behind the center-left opposition.

Poll results in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Friday gave the Zionist Union, comprised of labor and a center-left party, 26 seats over 22 for Netanyahu's hawkish Likud party.

It polled 1,032 people with a margin of error of 2.5 percent. Other polls had similar results.

The March 17 election is widely seen as a vote of confidence in Netanyahu, whose campaign mainly focuses on security. But after years of rapidly increasing living costs, many Israelis are turning to dovish and centrist parties that focus on social and economic issues.

And as Reuters noted yesterday:

Netanyahu's main challenger widens lead in Israeli pre-election polls

(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a last-minute media blitz on Thursday to counter what appears to be a rising tide of support for his main opponent in next week's election, the centrist Zionist Union.
The latest opinion polls show momentum shifting to Zionist Union after weeks of running neck-and-neck with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud, and the premier again warned voters who have abandoned his party for like-minded challengers that without their votes, he could lose.
Forecast to win up to 24 seats to Likud's 21 in the 120-member parliament, Zionist Union hopes the gap will be wide enough to persuade Israel's president to ask its leader, Labour party chief Isaac Herzog, rather than Netanyahu, to try to form a coalition government after Tuesday's balloting.
"If we don't close the gap in the coming days, there is certainly a risk that Tzipi Livni and Bougie Herzog will be the next prime ministers," Netanyahu told Channel 2 in one of two primetime television interviews, using Herzog's nickname.
Under his Zionist Union alliance with centrist Livni, Herzog would serve as Israel's leader for two years and then hand over to the country's most prominent woman politician for the remainder of their government's slated four-year term.
Netanyahu also ruled out the possibility of forming a broad coalition after the election that would include a leadership rotation between him and Herzog.

Iranian Missles? An Open Letter to Middle Eastern Theocrats

I was just perusing headlines, and saw this one, from the MSNBC news service:

Iran: Our missiles can reach US bases, Israel

War games offer 'message of peace and friendship to countries of the region,' commander says

which prompted the unbidden thought, that goes both ways.  Our missiles can also hit you, and not just from Afghanistan.  We probably have more of them.  And it's not like we can't track any such launch of missiles by you, well before they strike.
 
Iran, are you paying attention?
 
Because if you were, instead of this silly, stupid posturing - the kind your crazy, not-really-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to present in public forums - you would be presenting foreign policy statements that were sane, in the dignified and rational manner that is expected of nations, instead of this nonsense.
 
Iran, about your claimed ability to strike Israel...
 
Back in 1981,  with Operation Opera, Israel bombed a nuclear site south of Baghdad, Iraq.  I think it is safe to say that from 2009 onwards, Israel planned and was capable of executing, a similar strike on Iran IF sufficiently provoked.  I think the perfect name for such an operation, in view of the name Operation Opera would be Operation Melodrama, because your pretentious nonsense is such a farce.  Or maybe Operation Punch and Judy, because your regime is such a bunch of sock puppets, rather than legitimately reflecting the Iranian electorate.
 
You see Iran, (by which I mean specifically the segment of Iranian government that comes up with this bellicose bogus baloney, not the Iranian populace), while such statements advance a demagogic position that is pure ideology, it ignores the reality of geography and demography.  Perhaps you don't CARE that any such attack as you announce you have contemplated would also kill large numbers of your fellow muslims.  You should care; your religion as expressed in the Koran is firmly against that.

 "And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide therein; and the Wrath and the Curse of Allaah are upon him, and a great punishment is prepared for him" (4:93)

It is true that Muslim sectarian conflicts have probably killed more Muslims than either the U.S. or Israel, but this goofy saber-rattling would seem to be in contradiction to the prevailing surge of the politics of Arab Spring sweeping Muslim-dominated nations across the Middle East.  You are out of touch, disconnected from the populace of Iran, and from your coreligionists.

Now to be fair, just as more Muslims kill each other than other people do,  Christians have probably killed each other in greater numbers than non-Christians have killed them, too.  And both Israel and the U.S. have more than their fair share of right wing saber rattling reality deniers as well.  We even here in the U.S. have some 'End Days" believers, who WANT to see such a conflict, as the culmination of their religious fantasies, which is mirrored by similar believers in Islam.  We have millions of these crazies here in the U.S.; estimates range from 65 to 80 million of them.  I imagine the discrepancy in the estimates is because of the confusion over how to count the outlier crazies like Harold Camping, who keeps predicting the end of the world over and over on specific days - May 21, 1988, September 7, 1994, May 21, 2011, and now October 21, 2011.

But letting them anywhere near power is disastrous. These people, which includes our own right wing bat-shit crazy nut job, Michele Bachmann, are the last people you want to let anywhere near the power to order bombings, much less nuclear bombings.

So, be careful with the stupid threats of war disguised as peaceful statements, Iran. 

Iran, you control your crazies, and keep them away from political power, especially ordering bombings, and we'll try to do the same.