Are We Done Here?
It's the Fourth of July and I'm wondering what the hell to write that's not another indictment of what the American's Oligarchy/Kleptocracy is doing to them. It's hard to say that the American people are doing it to themselves. Most Americans are rightly appalled at what the governing party is doing. They never voted for this.
So I'm not going to do that today. Instead, let's look at the vote in the House Appropriations Committee to force Congress to debate and decide on the many wars that the US military is fighting.
It's interesting that there are "wars," not "war." Back when Congress used to declare war - you know, like it says in the Constitution - there could be many fronts and distant battles, but only one war. There's a whole expression about it: "lost the battle, not the war."
Not true today. The US has deployed forces in 135 countries to fight, well, something. We don't really know. But we do know that there was an "Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress meekly handed George W. Bush after the 9-11-2001 attacks. The AUMF essentially said: 'go blow up anybody who looks funny over in the darker parts of the world.'
Okay, it didn't use exactly those words, but that's been the effect. The people we were authorizing force against 16 years ago are not in any way the same people we're killing today. ISIS was the result of, not the target of, the violence we brought to (primarily) Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the bloody mess that was made of the revenge tour after 9-11 that caused the incredible and so far endless cycle of killings that America is spearheading.
Sorry, right, I said good news. Even extremist Republicans (there are no other kind) supported Rep. Barbara Lee's amendment to do away with the AUMF. There.
Their about-face might have something or a lot to do with the madman they installed as president having the power to use the US military any way he wants under the AUMF. It's not (just) the fact that the American Leader has the 'nuclear codes' that makes the situation so dire. It's that he has an elaborate and active military that is operationalized globally and will do whatever he tells them to do.
It's not the 'nuclear football' he kicks around with him that is so troubling. He likely has enough self-branded properties around the world that a nuclear war would necessarily obliterate several of them, and be bad for his self-interest in general. I mean, out of the billion or so people who would get wiped out, probably a thousand or more of the dead would have been rich enough to stay at his properties or eat his steaks. So no dice for the nuclear war.
But regular war? Bring it on. And it doesn't have to be a big Vietnam-style affair where Eric and Don Jr. would need to get deferments like their old Pop (how are those bad feet holding up on the golf course, Leader?). It can be the execution of anyone on the planet anywhere for any or no reason.
Obama gave us that. Drones have killed thousands with no judicial oversight. Just a signed note from Berry Hussein O.
So, stay positive, right. The time may be nigh for an end to the blank cheque. Tear that baby up. So if Leader wants to drop some drone knowledge on a bad guy, Congress has to say first. That won't be much of an improvement given the Gerrymandered mess in the House, but at least it won't be Leader making the call all by himself, or with the help of his friend Vlad.
Good news, right. ISIS is about finished. The ideology and resentments that drove them won't be going away any time soon, but their ugly dreams of a bloody Caliphate are nearly over. Surely, the unrestrained US military campaign against anyone bearing a Koran has to be done as well.
We live in a world where NASA has to issue a public denial of running child sex farms on Mars. No need to go back and re-read that - you read that right. So accusations that used to be far far beneath public denial are no longer so. And presidents used to have to lie to Congress to get approvals for the use of the people's military. Let's be done with that and pretend it's a Happy Birthday USA.
So I'm not going to do that today. Instead, let's look at the vote in the House Appropriations Committee to force Congress to debate and decide on the many wars that the US military is fighting.
It's interesting that there are "wars," not "war." Back when Congress used to declare war - you know, like it says in the Constitution - there could be many fronts and distant battles, but only one war. There's a whole expression about it: "lost the battle, not the war."
Not true today. The US has deployed forces in 135 countries to fight, well, something. We don't really know. But we do know that there was an "Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress meekly handed George W. Bush after the 9-11-2001 attacks. The AUMF essentially said: 'go blow up anybody who looks funny over in the darker parts of the world.'
Okay, it didn't use exactly those words, but that's been the effect. The people we were authorizing force against 16 years ago are not in any way the same people we're killing today. ISIS was the result of, not the target of, the violence we brought to (primarily) Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the bloody mess that was made of the revenge tour after 9-11 that caused the incredible and so far endless cycle of killings that America is spearheading.
Sorry, right, I said good news. Even extremist Republicans (there are no other kind) supported Rep. Barbara Lee's amendment to do away with the AUMF. There.
Their about-face might have something or a lot to do with the madman they installed as president having the power to use the US military any way he wants under the AUMF. It's not (just) the fact that the American Leader has the 'nuclear codes' that makes the situation so dire. It's that he has an elaborate and active military that is operationalized globally and will do whatever he tells them to do.
It's not the 'nuclear football' he kicks around with him that is so troubling. He likely has enough self-branded properties around the world that a nuclear war would necessarily obliterate several of them, and be bad for his self-interest in general. I mean, out of the billion or so people who would get wiped out, probably a thousand or more of the dead would have been rich enough to stay at his properties or eat his steaks. So no dice for the nuclear war.
But regular war? Bring it on. And it doesn't have to be a big Vietnam-style affair where Eric and Don Jr. would need to get deferments like their old Pop (how are those bad feet holding up on the golf course, Leader?). It can be the execution of anyone on the planet anywhere for any or no reason.
Obama gave us that. Drones have killed thousands with no judicial oversight. Just a signed note from Berry Hussein O.
So, stay positive, right. The time may be nigh for an end to the blank cheque. Tear that baby up. So if Leader wants to drop some drone knowledge on a bad guy, Congress has to say first. That won't be much of an improvement given the Gerrymandered mess in the House, but at least it won't be Leader making the call all by himself, or with the help of his friend Vlad.
Good news, right. ISIS is about finished. The ideology and resentments that drove them won't be going away any time soon, but their ugly dreams of a bloody Caliphate are nearly over. Surely, the unrestrained US military campaign against anyone bearing a Koran has to be done as well.
We live in a world where NASA has to issue a public denial of running child sex farms on Mars. No need to go back and re-read that - you read that right. So accusations that used to be far far beneath public denial are no longer so. And presidents used to have to lie to Congress to get approvals for the use of the people's military. Let's be done with that and pretend it's a Happy Birthday USA.
posted by Abraham Binder at 2:02 PM
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