Everything Trump touches turns to crap. In this case, he went to Iraq and all we got was a request to pull all our troops out of their country.
Iraqi lawmakers Thursday demanded U.S. forces leave the country following a surprise visit by President Donald Trump that politicians denounced as arrogant and a violation of national sovereignty.
Trump’s trip to U.S. servicemen and women at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq on Wednesday was unannounced and the subject of extreme security, which is routine for presidential visits to conflict regions. But it came at a time when containing foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in Iraqi politics, and it provoked vociferous backlash.
Iraqi lawmakers were smarting after the U.S. president left three hours after he arrived without meeting any officials, drawing unfavorable comparisons to the occupation of Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
“Trump needs to know his limits. The American occupation of Iraq is over,” said Sabah al-Saidi, the head of one of two main blocs in Iraq’s parliament.
Trump, al-Saidi added, had slipped into Iraq, “as though Iraq is a state of the United States.”
While Trump didn’t meet with any officials, he spoke with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi by phone after a “difference in points of view” over arrangements led to a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders to be scrapped, according to the prime minister’s office.
The visit could have unintended consequences for American policy, with officials from both sides of Iraq’s political divide calling for a vote in Parliament to expel U.S. forces from the country.
Trump’s trip was probably spurred at least in part by critical stories like the one NBC News ran on December 25 pointing out that he was the first president since 2002 to fail to visit troops on Christmas Day. The trip to Iraq was an answer to that but also a chance to change the subject from an avalanche of bad news for the president.
Of course, he also used the opportunity to give the most partisan speech to the troops on foreign soil in our nation’s history and to irresponsibly reveal that a U.S. Navy SEAL team is deployed in Iraq by posting their faces on his Twitter account.
Many of us agree that Trump needs to know his limits and would be pleased if our own legislative branch expelled him from our country.
How much longer will people like Lindsey Graham be able to tolerate this?
More proof Trump got his brain from the “Abnormal” shelf:
“”We can use (Iraq) as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria,” (Trump) said. “If we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard” that they “really won’t know what the hell happened.”
That went over well with Iraqis, I’m sure.
What a fucking dotard asshole. The unbearable Presidency goes on and on.
Geeze this guy is a f#$king moron. But where was John Bolton, or the Secretary of State? It’s literally their JOB to take care of this stuff. What about the Prince of Projects, Jared Kushner?
I’ve always disagreed with Booman about impeachment. But last week Dana Houle did a Twitter thread about how people are basing the likelihood of impeachment on how Trump is acting NOW, not how he will be in six months. His position is that Trump will be much much worse in two months, let alone six, and he will be impeached.
.
Pompeo was checking on his reservation for the Rapture. It’s all good.
Do you think Trump even told him he was going? I bet he didn’t.
Ivanka told him that he looked like an idiot (using different words) during the shut down and Trump jumped on a plane to show a `serious’ side.
.
Dafuq was he doin’ bring his wife along? I sure have no love for Melanoma, but geez, either it’s a combat zone (and you don’t bring your wife to a combat zone) or it’s safe (and you meet the local government).
What a numbnut.
It’s been reported a number of times that Trump is scared to go to war zones and other places which involve the military. He made a statement yesterday which revealed that he found the flight into Iraq upsetting. He probably didn’t have the will to go unless the First Lady came along to hold his wittle hand and hear him moan and bitch.
The other thing that made the trip appetizing to him was the promise that his advance team would organize the troops to receive him like it was one of his campaign rallies. It was appalling to see members of the military given MAGA hats and a Trump 2020 flag.
Although the military is frequently associated with conservative politics, previous Departments of Defense have enforced military codes to prevent a uniformed member of the military from offering explicit support for campaigns and candidates. It’s extremely important for the military to hold to that standard. The American public’s approval of our military is much higher than their approval for other government institutions, in great part because troops in uniform have rarely behaved as partisans. But Trump needed his metaphorical knob polished because he’s a 270-pound infant, so he pushed for an event which will likely damage the military’s standing with the public.
Jim Wright, chief warrant officer, Navy, retired, and ferocious critic of Trump, had this to say on Facebook — long but well worth reading:
https://www.facebook.com/Stonekettle/posts/2005371782831548
The bottom line is frikkin terrifying.
Thanks for that excellent article — here’s a live link.
I’ve been a devoted follower of Jim Wright for some years now, and he never disappoints.
Thanks for the live link. No matter how many times I’ve been shown how to do it I never seem to be able to set it up properly, alas. It’s some kind of brainfart/blind spot. So I copy the URL, stick it in; sometimes it goes green and clickable, sometimes it doesn’t. I figure when it doesn’t people can just copy it and paste it into the URL bar.
Agreed on every single point in that post
Thanks for sharing
This is “how a professional military” becomes “a haven for thugs” and “a tool for oppression and fascism”. Bingo!
Hello Dems, how about some investigations into these clear violations of military regs by MAGA-lovin’ officers and the National Trumpalization of the Glorious Sturmtruppen?
Militarism is one of our fatal diseases and National Trumpalism is simply taking it to the next logical step.
I keep thinking it’s time to reread Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” and deciding I’m already depressed and frightened enough, thankyouverymuch.
. . . Probably a hole in my education that’s overdue for filling.
OTOH, I have no need for disabusing of the notion that “it can’t happen here” (I’m quite convinced it can, and that we’re already way too far down that road), so maybe it’s still not such a high priority and, as you suggest, maybe now’s not the very best time.
Jim WSright’s doing a lot of his commentary on Facebook (personal page plus Stonekettle Station page) and Twitter, but his long pieces still go up on his Stonekettle Station blog. He’s well worth following; his Bang Bang Crazy series about gun violence alone is magnificent.
The blog: http://www.stonekettle.com/
To get the flavor of the man I suggest clicking on the “Popular Essays” link and diving in wherever looks inviting.
The Military Times, a US military newspaper (different from the independent Stars and Stripes) just ran a survey of popularity of military leadership and found Trump at 44% approval (not much different than the general public) while Mattis stood at 84% approval. My guess is that Trump’s approval from the military will only continue to slide.
Yet all the officers involved in Der Trumper’s Excellent Iraq Adventure & MAGA Rally were all delighted to violate clear and longstanding military regs prohibiting this sort of partisan demagoguery and perform like trained seals (no pun intended).
Der Trumper is doing fine with the military.
. . . facts in evidence. That said, any is too many. And there were many. Will there be any consequences? It’s a critical test.
Yes, granted. I regret the hyperbole, but the situation is infuriating, and I cannot believe that the officers in charge of the base/whatever were not fully knowledgeable and on board with this shit. It was sort of the Event of the Day.
The Wehrmacht’s generals allowed Hitler to pull this kind of shit as well as then professed bafflement and mystification as to where that led them.
. . . in advance of the visit, detailing consequences of such gross violations in no uncertain terms, was obviously de rigueur as preparation. As Wright points out, failure to do so is gross failure — not to mention violation of oath — all up and down the chain of command. As is failure to follow up with appropriate consequences, if that’s what happens.
A whole lotta folks should be on the receiving end of quite serious sanctions over that shit.
Alas, I’m not holding my breath in anticipation of that outcome.
“We have always been at war with Eastasia” ie Mattis – down the memory hole.
. . . your “couldn’t tell ya cuz, Security!”, call your “visit” a violation of their sovereignty, and compare it to the prior violation of their sovereignty by the War Crime of invading under false pretenses in ’03 . . .
. . . then yep, chalk it up to the Law of Unintended Trump Consequences. Which seem to be “all of ’em, Katie”.
Until the message from the ballot box is simply not in dispute, and not one second sooner. That, I believe, is the only point at which any Republican who is still beholden to the will of the voter will even potentially concede. I just don’t see how it plays out any other way. I think we are locked into this death dance until November 2020. Please feel free to disavow me of this point of view. I want to be convinced that this is not the case, but I just don’t see even the weight of anything brought by the OSC being enough to tilt the world of the alternate reality existing among the 40%, and their elected representatives, in the direction of acting against the will and wishes of Donald Trump.
The House might well go down the path of impeachment, once the most damning evidence comes out. And outside the bubble of the 40%, the evidence might be beyond any rational or evidential dispute. But that will simply not matter. I still see this being a political stalemate, and it is going to take an overwhelming repudiation in November 2020 to even entertain a chance of bringing this to a conclusion. The Republican Party is not going to turn on their master until it is overwhelmingly in their best political interests as Republicans to do this. There is no line of conscience or moral imperative strong enough to make them turn on Donald Trump. I want to believe, in my heart of hearts that there is such a line, but as each and every day passes I am more convinced than ever that this line is simply wishful thinking.
As has been often stated, we are fighting a non-violent (at this time) civil war. And people engaged in that sort of thing simply do not passively lay down their arms. And even when Congressional Republicans are finally forced into that action, the Trump loyalists will not. It is at that point we will truly find out if our country and our Constitution are strong enough to survive a Presidency such as that of Donald Trump.
I’m thinking … it’s never going to be in the interest of most Republican senators to do anything about this situation. Have you looked at the election map for senate in 2020? It’s awful. Dems are not going to make much headway unless their opponents are ALL child molesters, or some similar calamity reveals itself.
The Reps can just let Mr T go down to defeat, and keep their senate majority and go on with life. It’s a pretty good deal – the senate has a stranglehold on the presidency.
At least I hope he’s defeated in 2020.
Which is why the only place this will be resolved is at the ballot box. And the sad reality is, even if that happens, there will be a Trump 2.0 at some point. It might be sooner. It might be later. But his base, even if he loses, will still be primed for the next iteration of Donald Trump. My fear is that the next one makes Trump seem like nothing more than a quaintly ignorant fascist, who did not understand his larger purpose and mission for his followers. That is what really scares the shit out of me.
We could, hypothetically, defuse some of the bombs that make Trumpism so dangerous.
Some rules about eligibility to take office – financial disclosures, medical disclosures. Automatic penalties for fraud.
Background checks.
Separating some of the functions of the executive branch, so that the American CEO is not the American Caesar. President and law enforcement need a moat between them.
Cutting back on this crazy spoils system the president runs – how did something like that get so out of control?
A pipe dream, I know.
“As of 2016, there are around 4,000 political appointment positions….” See:
Political Appointments in the US
Of course Trump’s visit to Iraq was the usual shitshow that his whole worthless POS Administration has been all along.
Wasn’t he whining about how booga booga scary scary it was because the plane windows were blacked out or something?? What a LOSER!!
The “speech” was his usual garbled mess. He falsely claims that Melanie is the first ever First Lady to go into a combat zone (which clearly had this yellow-bellied cowardly asshole shaking in his shoesies).
Then he reveals where a Navy SEAL Team is because of his narcissism on steroids.
The worthless POS is a walking, talking disaster area from dawn till dark.
When will Lindsay Graham withdraw his tongue from Trump’s smelly asshole? Not one second sooner than he is forced to by being voted out of office, which may not happen. Graham sold his soul to de debbil a long long time ago. Whatever it takes to get that sweet sweet payola is just super fine with ole bad ass Lindsay.
UGH.
Well we should withdraw from Iraq, so I hope we do.
No surprise that Trump refused to meet with any Iraqi officials. They be dirty smelly Muzlinz. Not the royal kind in Saudi. So whyever would he meet with those ____ (insert favorite ME insult here)??
The Iraqi parliament wanted the US out last spring, they wanted the US out in November, and they still want the US out.
It’s like US troops are not that popular in Iraq, regardless of who is president.
As these things go, we had a good deal going here. US was (had learned to be) discreet, supported the Iraqis (various factions) but didn’t get out in front, seemed to have a competent diplomatic team on the job in McGurk and co. Helped keep the factions in Iraq from killing each other, most of the time, and focused on clearing out ISIS.
And then–
>>The Iraqi parliament wanted the US out last spring, they wanted the US out in November, and they still want the US out.
not, of course, that this matters to anyone.
Trump went to Iraq because he couldn’t go to Mar-a-Lago because of the optics of his attending a swinging party during the shut-down – his handlers told him, no party for you! But him all alone in the WH wasn’t any better. So they stuck him on a plane for 14 hours, got some pics with some troops, then back on the plane for another 14 hours – presto! Christmas all over and no public relations catastrophe!
Not working out so good, though.
Those who say “the left” is hypocritical now for criticizing Trump for having gone to Iraq are being dishonest.
No, Trump isn’t being criticized for having gone to Iraq, but for his dickish behavior (telling soldiers there, to paraphrase, most federal employees are democrats, so the shutdown is ok!) and his usual displays of stupidity and ignorance while there that impact our relations with countries in the region and our allies.
As commander-in-chief it’s his responsibility to not only make these visits, but also to not make a fool of yourself and embarrass the country while there. Doing that is really not hard. Except when you are incompetent, and intellectually and emotionally unfit for the job.
Is that too much to ask?