Democrats and Neocons are now allies
Remember when neocons were hated and vilified by Democrats? It wasn't that long ago that Democrats considered neocons to be the worst of the worst.
Well, those days are over.
It started during the primaries, when Hillary got the endorsements of prominent neoconservatives. The transition continued after the election, and has now become complete with the bombing of Syria.
Amidst growing calls for greater military action in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack, the United States military launched more than fifty Tomahawk missiles at the al-Shayrat airfield near Homs. Democrats along with neoconservatives, who long pushed for U.S. military forces to topple President Bashar al Assad’s regime, advocated for military force in response to alleged chemical attack.
It isn't just Hillary.
The list of those supporting regime change in Syria, or regime change causing strategies, is literally a "who's who" for both neocons and Democrat.
Let's start with the neoconservatives.
Elliott Abrams, a top Mideast aide to Bush who Trump rejected as deputy secretary of state reportedly as a result of Bannon’s opposition, thus exulted in the Weekly Standard over Thursday’s strike with the kind of capitalized flattery that appeared as carefully targeted at Trump’s enormous ego as the most sophisticated cruise missile...
Bill Kristol—the Standard’s editor-at-large and co-founder and director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which did so much to coordinate with the Bush administration in rallying elite support for the Iraq invasion— declared Abrams’s analysis a “must read” in a tweet issued Friday morning...
None other than Paul Wolfowitz, Bush’s deputy defense secretary and a chief architect of the Iraq invasion and disastrous aftermath, suggested in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that statements by Trump’s senior officials suggesting that Washington was reconciled to Assad’s continued rule over the country may have emboldened the Syrian leader to test the limits...
Meanwhile, the looniest among the neocons, former CIA director James Woolsey—who was one of the first to publicly claim a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11—was urging trump to do much, much more than a simple retaliatory strike.
Not exactly a shocking surprise. The architects of the catastrophic invasion of Iraq support regime change in Syria.
Add in Fred Kagan, Bob Kagan, and Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute, and Christopher Griffin of the Foreign Policy Initiative, and you have all the major neocons supporting war with Syria.
However, there two differences this time:
a) The invasion of Iraq mostly failed due to the lack of a Day After plan. With Syria there simply is no Day After plan with a realistic chance of working.
b) The Democrats are big supporters of stupid and futile war this time.
Democratic lawmakers reacted to the attack by complaining that Trump did not consult Congress first. However, the objection did not include any statements against the missile attack itself.
Shumer, Warren, Warner, Durbin, Whitehouse, Nelson.
Nearly half of Senate Democrats have come out publicly endorsing Trump's strike.
David Wade, who was the chief of staff for John Kerry when he was secretary of state, Colin Kahl, former deputy assistant to President Barack Obama, and Jessica Ashooh, a scholar with the pro-intervention think tank, the Atlantic Council, have all come out publicly supporting escalation.
It's hard to vilify a group you are in agreement with.
And there will be plenty of chances to be in agreement because Trump is escalating everywhere.
Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Syria have attracted worldwide attention (and disgraceful plaudits) in recent days. But much less airtime is being given to his administration’s risky and increasingly barbaric military escalations on several other fronts across the world....At the same time, the Trump administration has been expanding official US “war zones” in Somalia and Yemen, while working to “make it easier for the Pentagon to launch counterterrorism strikes anywhere in the world” and loosening restrictions on preventing civilian deaths that were put in place by the Obama administration, as the Washington Post reported a few weeks ago.
Drone strikes, already accelerated under the Obama administration, have increased even more under Trump.
On top of all this madness, 16 years after America’s longest war in history started, a top general has already testified to Congress that the military wants more troops in Afghanistan to break the “stalemate” there. Well before the end of the Trump administration, there will be troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan who weren’t even born when the 9/11 attacks occurred
We appear to have entered a period of unchallenged triumph for neocons.
Which seems amazing considering that they do nothing but fail.
Comments
DLC morphed into Democratic Leadership Craporate
back when Bubba was plsying semen stain with Lewinsky. None of this corporate warlust by the fake Democrats is surprising. What's depressing is guys like Whitehouse showing their true colors. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Neo-Liberal Neo-Cons what a gloriously odious stew the
Democratic Party has become
The Democrats were always The War Party
Hey everyone, actually The Democratic Party has always been the Party of Global War, and War Atrocities and deceptions.
Recall that it was Democrat Woodrow Wilson who (unnecessarily) plunged our Country into World War I (the war to presumedly "end all wars"). Back in those days Republicans were more libertarian and were opposed to the involvement.
FDR got us in and out of WWII very quickly, but his V.P. Harry Truman happily dropped Nuclear Bombs over Japan (unnecessarily), and also created the huge Cold War panic with Russia, and created the National Security State and CIA -- which transformed our Nation into now just a tool of Perpetual 24 / 7 Global Warfare all over the planet (either overtly or covertly) as well. Truman also started the Korean War!!
And it was Democrat Lyndon Johnson who overturned Kennedy's NASM directive to withdraw from Vietnam, and presided over the fake news "Gulf of Tonkin" lie, and then sent 400,000 Troops into Vietnam.
And finally, Democrats were always very friendly with the entire criminal Bush Family, and did not even oppose the STOLEN ELECTION of 2000. They legitimized Bush (and did not stand behind Al Gore), and then protected crooks Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld from their obvious role in Sept 11, and happily celebrated Bush's Warmongering "Axis of Evil" response, and then supported the phony Iraq WMD Lies, and happily voted for the destruction of Iraq.
And remember as soon as Democrat Nancy Pelosi first became the Speaker of the House (2006) she immediately faithfully declared: "Impeachment is off the Table" and protected Bush (and his entire criminal administration), and all his War Crimes from any possible inquiry. And it was Democrat Obama who went out of his way to aggressively squash any attempt to bring the human torturers to trial, and who punished Foreign Nations if they tried to hold Foreign inquires into the matter. Wow...such loyalty to WAR!
The only people who really opposed the Neocon agenda are very few and far between: Dennis Kucinich, Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Alan Grayson.. and hardly anybody more than that. You don't even see Bernie Sanders going up publicly against all these Wars in any big way (maybe privately, but that hardly counts here).
The Democratic Party has always been The War Party for over 100 years. Even Howard Dean supports the Military strikes and warfare against Syria.
So the Democrats were never the resistance here. Just a very few rebels (people like Senator Mike Gravel) from both Parties ever really were.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwDGvBSUYk]
--
And only President Kennedy and President Carter were peace seekers. One was shot (CIA hit), and the other was hounded by the Media (also CIA controlled) out of office.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RclaV_3_eOA]
You'd never see Nancy friggen Pelosi (or anyone else in the D-Party) give a speech like this..not now...not 20 years ago either.
@FreeSociety Wow, I didn't know that
Wow, I didn't know that I could despise the con artists in the Democratic party even more. I hadnt realized how far back this bullshit went. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it is shocking to see things in this way.
Excellent post
Sadly, it's one another of those issues about the Democrats I've had to come to terms with but the evidence is pretty staggering. About the time they made it clear they weren't going to do dick about the Bush administration's war crimes was about the point I started waking up.
You've also touched upon one of my biggest problems with Bernie. He seems to at the very least be comfortable with the status quo in regards to the out of control MIC and all of our wars. I'm one of those people who tends to see how the pieces all fit the puzzle and I think this goes hand in hand with all his other issues. His silence on this has been disappointing.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Recent D-behavior
Just recently Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard broke the mold and had the temerity and integrity to raise the real truth about Syria.
She said that she has not seen enough evidence that Assad was behind the chemical attack that led to the death of dozens of civilians. Gabbard said an investigation was necessary before responding. And she (correctly) pointed out that the airstrikes on Syria were “short-sighted and will lead to more dead civilians, more refugees, the strengthening of al-Qaida and other terrorists, and a possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia.” She is right on all counts.
For telling this truth, Howard Dean immediately blasted her as "a disgrace", and called for her removal from Congress. Amazing. It is clear that Howard Dean does not represent the "Democratic wing" of the Democratic Party or of any other Party.
Wonder what kind of President Howard Dean would've been?
Now we really know!
He too is a full bore Neocon agenda (and Wall Street, and Big Pharma) apologist.
Shocked, Totally Unexpected I Cry!
Say it ain't so, Joe.
For those who don’t get the allusion, “Say it ain’t so, Joe”
is a stock American phrase that refers to the Black Sox scandal where some baseball players were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 World Series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_Jackson#Black_Sox_scandal
As good a summary as any of American history as it is taught, hey? “The legendary exchange [North Vietnamese patrol boat attack, Spanish sabotage of the Maine, etc.] never occurred.”
George Washington chopped down the cherry tree — Lordy, if fake news isn’t as American as
applecherry pie.And, one more layer to the allusion
The more removed in time the more the fake versions seem real.
I engaged in heated debates about historical details in the k-12 environment, and throughout college and grad school. The pattern of convenient myth versus convoluted truth is not confined to politics. For example, the very nature of scientific progress is not properly presented in our educational institutions because progress is not a monotonically increasing function of time and that doesn't set well with educationists.
This expectation of a "Moore's Law" like development of knowledge has created an intolerable set of expectations that is presently tearing our schools apart. This process is largely hidden from those outside the academy, not unlike the situation with Wells Fargo.
Life beyond the Looking Glass........
Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber.
Whatever happened to the party of the working stiff? The so-called 'Democrats' appear to be more hawkish these days than your average rwnj of yesteryear.
I guess they're 'identifying' with the MIC.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Plus the CIA/FBI/NSA are now their friends
Hawkish and neoliberal
On the comments section of every mainstream ''democratic/liberal'' site 80% of the cooments are Heritage foundation talking points regarding ''trade'' and PNAC talking points regarding the middle East.
Solidarity forever
A little more than 8 years ago
people voted for Obama mainly because he said that the Iraq war was a dumb war and Hillary voted for it. I was fooled by his rhetoric and didn't pay attention to him saying that he was going to focus more on Pakistan and other countries. Which he did by expanding the number of countries he sent drones into.
I wonder how many people who voted for him instead of Hillary for the same reason were now going to vote for her while she was saying that she was going to risk a war with Russia by creating a no fly zone? How were they able to reconcile their hypocrisy with being against wars 8 years ago and then voting for the candidate who was running on increasing the military's involvement in Syria?
Most of them refused to admit that she was a warmonger that was backed up by her record of voting for the Iraq war, overthrowing Gaddafi and destroying Libya and escalating the Syrian war.
A lot of them took her at her word that her Iraq war vote was a mistake, but then she continued making the same mistake.
And there's our liberal senator Warren being on board with what Trump did. She also voted to send more bombs to Israel when they ran out of them during their last shellacking of Gaza.
And the one senator who is being vocal about being against the Syrian war is being ridiculed by both her peers in congress and the demobots on so called liberal websites such as DK.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
That Nobel Peace Prize of his will look good right next to
Henry Kissinger's [admittedly Kissinger tried to return his]
That prize was stained when they gave it to Kissinger
And then there was his speech after he accepted it. What he said about MLK and Ghandi left me flabbergasted.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Did I ever tell you the definition of Insanity?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDoSy1WiYfU]
We have seen this all before.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
We all want a new party, unfortunately we got one
"The LibCon Party" aka "The Warmongers"
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
“The Democrats!” may end up becoming a political punch line
like “The Aristocrats!”
Obama gave the Bush I basement crazies
a full suite in the WH the day he moved in.
Pilger had Obama pegged from day one:
After this talk, the so-called left threw him under the bus.
Thanks for that.
I've read some of Pilger's work over the years, but I hadn't seen this speech.
Very much appreciated.
@CB
Wow, thanks for the inspirational video! Too bad everyone can't hear that - rather ironically, it gave me hope, lol.
However hard the trolls and propaganda machine may work, we must always remember that there are many more sane and at least partially informed Americans than corporate PR wishes us to believe, in the delusion that 'the masses' always follow the herd - as could be guessed by the fact of there being a far larger number of Indies as opposed to corporate Party clingers to either wing... now, if only free and fair elections were possible in America!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Fear
But, obviously, there must be.
'With Syria there simply is no Day After plan with a realistic chance of working.'
The jiheads take over Syria after Assad's departure and begin the promised -- and certain to come -- extermination of Alawi, Christians, wrong Muslims and for kindness sake we just must invade Syria with hundreds of thousands of troops.
The after plan, like the before plan, is eternal war.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Trump switches Party
affiliation to D, tomorrow all the Good Democrats will be defending him tooth and nail.
I go to websites where I used to go to have Democratic company, and they place is infested with Just Follow Orders Good Democrats; no obvious falsehood discounted, no obvious truth mentioned.
Think I caught out of the rush through news items that self-identified Dems are now fewer than Repubs (for the first time since FDR I'd think).
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
He could *do* that, you know
Trump used to wear the "D" label until he figured out he could get more mileage and moolah out of the "R" one. But (at least in his case) it's just labels.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
What FreeSociety said !!!
FreeSociety's comment above says it extremely well. What's all this "now" stuff?
Also, Democrat Andrew Jackson: "I never met an Indian I didn't kill, and I never killed an Indian I didn't scalp." Also, Democrat Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who boosted the early careers of neo-con madmen Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.
Scanning the entirety of European settlement in the Western hemisphere, there's not very much to serve as an inspiration for humane people today. The Quaker William Penn, maybe. Thomas Paine. Gen. Smedley D. Butler. Sparce!
The shift started long ago
They've just finally started dropping the pretense.
Just spitballing ideas, imagine if the Democrats knew how to win elections. I wouldn't be 100% surprised to see the Democrats become the "sensible" Republican Party eventually, with some defections from R to D and the Republican Party proper left to the "deplorables." I think the sticking points would be the brand loyalty the Republicans have cultivated and the general ineptitude of the Democrats. But who knows? If TPTB decide to prevent another Trump from happening, all bets could be off? Lol.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
No, I don't remember that. I do
remember when neoliberals PRETENDED that necons were their enemies.
Being in the minority in Congress when you are a neoliberal is gobs easier than being in the majority. You can let the Republicans do whatever you really want done. Then, you can throw your hands up in the air, shrug and say "Republicans! Whaddaya gonna do?" And you won't even get any blowback from the remaining hippies in your constituency. Liberals are so conditioned to give up when they hear "Republicans" that only a very few wonder why Republicans get pretty much what they want, whether they are in the minority or the majority, while Democrats just can't seem to get what they claim they want, whether they are in the minority or the majority.
@HenryAWallace
Yeah, was reading something some time back, having to do with internet protections finally applied by Obama just prior to his departure, my first thought being, of course, that this was one of those last-minute things he'd put in just so that Trump could junk 'em before they even were implemented. It was said that conditions had been put into place that made it very difficult/impossible for any such protections to be enacted again and of course I snarkily wondered why/how it was possible for this to be done apparently only to things against the public interest - and that if it were possible for this, why Obama couldn't have done that regarding making the removal of public protections difficult/impossible. Not that I couldn't guess...
Obama's legacy is the betrayal of his people, country and the world - yet even there, Hillary would have been worse, as she would have been worse than Trump, as Obama apparently did keep a partial lid on some few of the worst excesses.
We, the people of the world, must never vote evil again. The US Indies form the largest voting group - a 3rd-party sweep too obvious to hide and cheat away might save enough for life's survival - assuming that enough still remains at the time of the next US (s)elections...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.