". . . "We have very fast airplanes, we have very good cargo planes," the president said. "We can come back very quickly, and I'm not leaving. We have a base in Iraq, and the base is a fantastic edifice.". . . Brennan pointed out that Trump had criticized former President Barack Obama for announcing military moves and asked if Trump likewise was telegraphing the U.S. retreat. . . "I'm not telegraphing anything," Trump said. "No, no, no. There's a difference. When President Obama pulled out of Iraq, in theory we had Iraq. In other words, we had Iraq. We never had Syria because President Obama never wanted to violate the red line in the sand.". . ."Being in Iraq was a mistake, okay," he added. "Being in Iraq — it was a big mistake to go — one of the greatest mistakes going into the Middle East that our country has ever made. One of the greatest mistakes that we've ever made.". . ."
Former U.S. President George W. Bush on morality . . .
(http://www.npr.org/2017/04/13/523615019/president-george-w-bush-foreign-aid-in-u-s-national-security-and-moral-interest)
"When you have an entire generation of people being wiped out and the free world turns its back, it provides a convenient opportunity for people to spread extremism," he said. He added, "I believe in this case that it's in our national security interests as well as in our moral interest to continue funding this program."
Results of U.S. President George W. Bush's policy in Iraq . . . .
(from https://antiwar.com/casualties/)
American Deaths Total In Combat
Since war began (3/19/03): 4,497 3,529
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list) 4,351 3,425
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3,631 2,900
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 260 128
Since Operation New Dawn: 66 39
American Wounded Official Estimated
Total Wounded: 32,021 Over 100,000
Others
Iraqi Deaths Due to U.S. Invasion 1,455,590
Other Coalition Troops - Iraq 321
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan 2,382
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan 1,127
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq 1,487
Journalists - Iraq 348
Academics Killed - Iraq 448
Sources: DoD, MNF, and iCasualties.org
Our very own government has mastered the art of hypocrisy with the recent outrage they've expressed over the situation in the Ukraine. But while its own citizens are not all fully cognizant of this fact, they are not fooling many Russians. John Kerry said that it is unacceptable to invade another country on a 'completely trumped-up pretext' or simply because you do not like its current leadership.
Meantime, Iraq notwithstanding, the U.S. initiated or participated in armed attacks in Libya, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen and still refuses to join or recognize the International Criminal Court.
And while Putin's actions have been irresponsible and dangerous and could still backfire, it was not unprovoked.
(source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/opinion/putin-western-hypocrosy/index.html?iid=article_sidebar)
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. . . and political activist. . . true to his convictions. . . NO ONE's "owned" politician . . .
(from http://thinkprogress.org/home/2013/12/06/3030781/nelson-mandela-believed-people-wont-talk/)
1. Mandela blasted the Iraq War and American imperialism. Mandela called Bush “a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly,” and accused him of “wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust” by going to war in Iraq. “All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil,” he said. Mandela even speculated that then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan was being undermined in the process because he was black. “They never did that when secretary-generals were white,” he said. He saw the Iraq War as a greater problem of American imperialism around the world. “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don’t care,” he said.
2. Mandela called freedom from poverty a “fundamental human right.” Mandela considered poverty one of the greatest evils in the world, and spoke out against inequality everywhere. “Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times — times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation — that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils,” he said. He considered ending poverty a basic human duty: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life,” he said. “While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”
3. Mandela criticized the “War on Terror” and the labeling of individuals as terrorists without due process. On the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008 himself, Mandela was an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush’s war on terror. He warned against rushing to label terrorists without due process. While forcefully calling for Osama bin Laden to be brought to justice, Mandela remarked, “The labeling of Osama bin Laden as the terrorist responsible for those acts before he had been tried and convicted could also be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law.”
4. Mandela called out racism in America. On a trip to New York City in 1990, Mandela made a point of visiting Harlem and praising African Americans’ struggles against “the injustices of racist discrimination and economic equality.” He reminded a larger crowd at Yankee Stadium that racism was not exclusively a South African phenomenon. “As we enter the last decade of the 20th century, it is intolerable, unacceptable, that the cancer of racism is still eating away at the fabric of societies in different parts of our planet,” he said. “All of us, black and white, should spare no effort in our struggle against all forms and manifestations of racism, wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.”
5. Mandela embraced some of America’s biggest political enemies. Mandela incited shock and anger in many American communities for refusing to denounce Cuban dictator Fidel Castro or Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who had lent their support to Mandela against South African apartheid. “One of the mistakes the Western world makes is to think that their enemies should be our enemies,” he explained to an American TV audience. “We have our own struggle.” He added that those leaders “are placing resources at our disposal to win the struggle.” He also called the controversial Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat “a comrade in arms.”
6. Mandela was a die-hard supporter of labor unions. Mandela visited the Detroit auto workers union when touring the U.S., immediately claiming kinship with them. “Sisters and brothers, friends and comrades, the man who is speaking is not a stranger here,” he said. “The man who is speaking is a member of the UAW. I am your flesh and blood.”
1. The complicity of our sitting president in war crimes and in a disregard for human life through a failure to allow the judicial system to provide justice to afflicted parties
2. The failure of our news organizations to keep us truly informed
(from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/22/1233110/-DOJ-Asks-Court-to-Grant-Immunity-to-Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-for-Iraq-War# by by David Harris Gershon)
A federal case in San Francisco, filed by an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, alleges that President Bush and much of his administration should be tried for violating international law in the execution of the Iraq War.
However, the Obama administration's Department of Justice has moved to request that such Bush-era officials, and the former President, be shielded with immunity.
Per Inder Comar:
In court papers filed today, the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law.
Plaintiff Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the planning and waging of the war constituted a “crime of aggression” against Iraq, a legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II.
Saleh's suit alleges that President Bush and his administration falsified pretenses for the war, failed to get international approval, and began planning for the possibility of an invasion before 2000.
However, the Obama administration would like to shield the ex-President and his officials from such prosecution, arguing that everything done was performed within the scope of their various governmental roles.
Meanwhile, Bradley Manning – now Chelsea Manning – will be spending 35 years in prison for exposing U.S. war crimes.
Crimes Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their ilk helped choreograph.
. . . at the dedication of the Bush (league?) Library last week, the honoree's father, George H.W., along with Bill Clinton and Jimmy
Carter, dutifully latched on to the positive about the junior Bush's
eight years in the Oval Office, eliminating the negative and, "as in
Johnny Mercer's old song, didn't mess with Mr. In Between."
Nothing about the futile war in Iraq, the
economic meltdown, the suspicious circumstances of 911, the blatant robbery of the civil rights of Americans the honoree left behind. The former presidents essentially praised W not as a great national leader but
a well-meaning guy whose heart was in the right place in spite of all the obstacles he faced. Obama praised his predecessor for his "incredible strength and resolve" regarding 911 and actually called W "a good man" who was "comfortable in his own skin."
The entire affair was an exercise in the suspension of disbelief over major decisions in foreign policy, treatment of war detainees, and dealing with a domestic economy in trouble as he departed office. Nevertheless, W maintained the same composure he has shown since leaving office (and during his tenure, come to think of it)-silent and immune to public criticism. His major contribution to his party has been in keeping a low public profile, steering clear of becoming defensive and of criticizing the Obama administration.
How will history will appraise George W. Bush? The most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll indicates that his approval rating has climbed from 30 percent in 2008 to 47 percent now, and his disapproval has dropped from 68 percent then to 50 percent. But he still he has a way to go to rival another once-dismissed president, Harry Truman. From a low of 22 percent approval, Truman rose steadily and is now among the 10 most highly regarded presidents.
Insurmountable for Bush? I certainly hope so. [Source: The Bush library and the willing suspension of disbelief
The former presidents gathered in Dallas glossed over the unpleasantness of 43's administration, but history will not be so kind
April 29, 2013|By Jules Witcover Jules Witcover is a syndicated columnist and former long-time writer for The Baltimore Sun. His latest book is "Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption" (William Morrow). His email is juleswitcover@comcast.net.]
. . . of Obama bashing, well, simply because he is Obama. I’m not sure if it’s a subjective thing like, his face, his ears, his smirk or maybe even, (yes Virginia, I’m afraid it’s true) his color. I’m just sick and tired of it. I don’t want to hear about his birth certificate (if that’s a REAL issue which his haters were able to uncover but the election officials were not before the election to his first term, then the haters should be pursuing the election officials), his salary cut, his dogs or even, although they are beautiful, his kids.
Let me be clear. I am not an Obama fan. But none of the reasons above have anything to do with why I am not an Obama fan. The reasons below however, do. . .
• 20,000 Airstrikes (First Term) Cause Death and Destruction From Iraq to Somalia.
• Signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans w/o charge or trial.
• Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan.
• Maintained a presence in Iraq even after "ending" the war.
• Sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan.
• Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries.
• Sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia.
• Opened up deepwater oil drilling, even after the BP disaster.
• Did a TV commercial promoting "clean coal".
• Signed the Patriot Act extension into law.
• Continued Bush's rendition program.
• Signed the Monsanto Protection Act into law.
What
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. . . like to advertise (at least without receiving adequate compensation), but. . .
(by Michael Isikoff, MSNBC.com)
". . . Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War, a documentary special hosted by Rachel Maddow that will air Monday night on MSNBC at 9 p.m. (and based on a book I co-authored with David Corn), provides new evidence that the dissent within the administration and military was even more profound and widespread than anybody has known until now. “It was a shock, it was a total shock–I couldn’t believe the vice president was saying this,” Gen. Anthony Zinni, the former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, told me in an interview for the documentary. Zinni, who had access to the most sensitive U.S. intelligence on Iraq, was on a stage in Nashville, Tennessee, receiving an award from the Veteran of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002, when he heard the vice president launch the opening salvo in the Bush administration’s campaign to generate public support for an invasion. “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,” Cheney said. “There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us.” Zinni, sitting right next to Cheney’s lectern, says he “literally bolted” when he heard the vice president’s comments. “In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD [weapons of mass destruction], through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program.” He recounts going to one of those CIA briefings and being struck by how thin the agency’s actual knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs was. “What I was hearing [from Bush administration officials] and what I knew did not jive,” Zinni says. . . "
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On August 1st, 2012, Rep. Kelly made a comparison between a woman's right to chose contraception and having it covered by the Affordable Care Act to the attacks of Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Stating that "I know in your mind, you can think of the times America was attacked," he said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "One is Dec. 7, that's Pearl Harbor Day. The other is Sept. 11, and that's the day the terrorists attacked. I want you to remember Aug. 1, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates." (from Wikipedia.com)
Statement by Senator Inouye
in response to Representative Mike Kelly's (R-Pa.) comment linking the birth control mandate to the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11 terrorist attacks
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
“I witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and had the privilege of serving in the United States Army during World War II and I find the comments made by the Congressman from Pennsylvania to be misguided and insulting. It is complete nonsense to suggest that a matter discussed, debated, and approved by the Congress and the President is akin to a surprise attack that killed nearly 2,500 people and launched our nation into the second World War or a terrorist attack that left nearly 3,000 dead and led to fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. Having fought for this nation in Europe, I find that I have a special kinship with those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and I routinely visit with the most severely wounded veterans of those conflicts. Just yesterday I met with a brave young man who lost all four of his limbs in Afghanistan. I hope the Congressman from Pennsylvania has the courage to share his comparison with them,” said Senator Daniel K. Inouye.
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