Kicking ISIS out of Mosul is no fun. It’s hard to read firsthand accounts of what it’s like to go block by block through the city facing rocket propelled grenades and explosive-laden humvees driven by suicide soldiers. But it’s even more difficult to take when we have Donald Trump down in Florida calling the people responsible for the planning “a group of losers” and insisting the whole thing is being done to benefit Hillary Clinton and Iran.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Edit to …”the whole thing is being done to benefit Hillary Clinton and Iran and the international oil companies who own her.”
You’ll get more up-votes that way
I thought Wall Street owned Hillary; was there a trade?
First round draft choice and a player to be named later.
More pressing question? Does this count as another country the US has invaded, or just a re-invasion?
And in the latter case is it a re-invasion based on the Bush invasion of Iraq, or the Obama invasion of Iraq?
The sound of Hillary’s campaign hitting a rough spot, “AUMF!”.
Did you read the Harper’s piece by Petraeus? Is that close to your position?
Might have to google discussion of it, as Harper’s is paywalled.
Not seeing much to be honest. Was it about Petraeus’ no-fly zone idea?
From the piece…
“The United States, as the indispensable global power, still the sole world superpower in every respect, must take the lead in bringing the Syria war to an end. That means that the United States must support the creation of a safe-zone for refugees to remain inside Syrian territory or in a neighboring state. Turkey has nicely filled this role through its invasion, which will soon spread further south and encompass an area large enough for such a safe zone. But that is not enough. The United States must impose a no-fly zone over Syrian territory. It is costly, but can be done. The United States successfully established two no-fly zones over Iraq from the end of the first Gulf War through to the 2003 invasion. The Kurds in the north and the marsh Arabs in the south were protected. But that, too, is not enough. The Syrian Air Force must be grounded, and that can be accomplished by American sea-launch and air-launch cruise missiles strikes. At minimum, the Syrian Air Force runways can be cratered.
And the Syrian rebels must be armed with shoulder-held anti-tank and some anti-aircraft weapons. Perhaps Arab Special Forces from neighboring countries can manage and supervise these weapons deliveries.
Yes, this is complicated by the presence of the Russian military forces in Syria, but not to worry. Putin always stops, the moment he runs up against any immovable object. The actions proposed show appropriate firmness. They are not provocations.”
Also this from the 2016 Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference: You Tube
You know, I cannot substantiate that text–can’t find the Harper’s link.
Is it in line with other stuff he has written?
Hey, that’s just Trump soundin’ presidential again.
There’s a piece of data that’s impossible to obtain but I wish we could somehow see it anyway: I’d love to go through a breakdown of what actually is happening in the minds of Trump supporters when he says that some policy (like Obamacare) is “a total disaster” or that “he’ll teach the generals” how to fight ISIS or that Hillary “caused” the problems in the Middle East.
I want to see the reactions as they distribute along various criteria like education level, urban/rural etc. I mean, do these people literally believe that a real-estate guy (even a legitimately good one; not him) can just step in and do that stuff; can know better like he’s saying?
It’s too easy just to say “they’re idiots” or “low-information voters” or whatever. It’s a much deeper question; it runs to the root of the entire social construct of expertise and meritocracy; of why one would want to go to college; of what a resume is; of why we say “doctor” rather than “Mr.”/”Ms.” with certain people; of what empowers a judge. The more I think about it the scarier it is.
You’re first mistake is to assume that they are “thinking” about anything he says, as in critical analysis.
I’m not even kidding when I say Cognitive Dissonance and Projection are the twin pillars of modern US conservatism.
They don’t have to actually think about anything.
They get told what to believe, and then they believe it.
And when the story changes afterwards, they double down on the new beliefs, and either deny they ever believed anything else, or raise their voice to drown out their own inner dialog that occasionally dabbles with introspection.
I’m not kidding.
Well, at least for the true believer useful idiots.
The grifter-subtypes don’t give one red fuck about what Strongman Trump is saying. They just know that they’re going to make out like bandits and act accordingly.
― George Orwell, 1984
Thanks .
missed: The Two-Minute Hate is supposed to end after two minutes.
That’s a lot of money left on the table, and a lot of demagogues stuck in local office.
But look on the bright side of this.
Trump is essentially insulting the military (again). Insulting people is the main point of Trump, it’s why his supporters like him AND it’s why he’s losing.
So you can probably add a few more military members and veterans who will be less likely to vote for him. The can be added to the list of the insulted others: women, blacks, latinos, muslims, Jews, disabled, domestic workers, beauty pageant winners, inner-city dwellers and more who are all unlikely to vote for him.
It speaks to the power of the coordinated nature of the right-wing noise machine that Trump is not losing this thing more bigly. He’s repeatedly insulted something like 75% of the population. It’s a sad miracle that he’s getting more than 25% of the vote.
I have been hearing from several different sources that the upper brass want no part of Trump. This is going to make things very interesting for the world if Trump does win. I wonder how Trump will handle it if a large portion of Brass resign their commissions? Then Trump would have to back up his bluster of knowing more then the Brass.
I think Trump would welcome that. He’s all about “draining the swamp”. This mindset requires thinking that the brass or the elites, regardless of institution, are irredeemably corrupt and must be purged. There’s a lot of support for this, even on the left.
On the topic of ME morass, is anyone else reading that EGYPT will be supporting the Assad regime? Sunni Egypt?
Sure. Morsi supported the rebels. Al Sisi is anti-Islamist in all respects. Even though he is Sunni it makes sense that he supports Assad, the secularist dictator.
Egypt and Syria were under a single unified government — the United Arab Republic — for a while when I was a lad. Doesn’t seem intrinsically far-fetched.
Yes, it appears so.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia has fallen out, including both the financial and oil support Saudi Arabia gave Egypt and the Egyptian position in the different conflicts in the Middle East. The author of the linked piece thinks differences over conflicts is the primary factor. Considering Saudi austerity and Egypt’s need for support, I’m not sure.
But in any event, the rift looks convincing enough.