The Tanf military base is a lonely, desert oasis roughly 10 miles inside Syria near the Jordan border, and about 100 miles south of Palmyra.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee today.
Flashpoint: a spark which initiates an explosion.
If you liked the most recent Iraq war, you'll absolutely love war with Iran.
Make no mistake, war with Iran will be an epic disaster. A Napoleon invading Russia in 1812 level of catastrophe.
But facts and reality has never been enough to change Donald Trump's mind.
Trump has loaded his cabinet of trusted advisers with anti-Iran warhawks.
The Battle of Mosul has been going on for seven months now - longer than Stalingrad.
More than 90% of Mosul has been liberated from ISIS, leaving an area of just 9 square-kilometers. The fight for the last 10% promises to be catastrophically awful.
Supposedly the purpose of Memorial Day is to remember and honor those who died while fighting in our nation's wars.
I think it's pretty obvious that we have failed, and are failing, in both cases.
Memorial Day focuses on death and physical injury. Some folk also understand PTSD. What is almost never mentioned is the universal damage military service does to people. You hear that it "builds character" and similar excuses for the harm it does.
To see what I am getting at you have to step out of the box they put us all in. War has been with us since the country began and it is no wonder that it is a basis for our culture.
The only thing that Trump has done so far that the establishment has approved of, beside promises to cut taxes on the wealthy, is to bomb Syria. Yesterday he did it again.
419-1. That was the vote tally in Congress last Thursday to pass the "Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act" on to the Senate, which will no doubt nearly unanimously do the same. The only politician to vote no was a very conservative republican. Gabbard, all the current democratic party idols, voted yay for a clearly illegal and imperialist bill.
In spite of everything, in spite of illegality, in spite of dirty hands, our government appears to support Saudi atrocity in Yemen for no discernible reason, other than possibly giving the Saudis a reason to buy our weapons and a place on which to dump them. How can we force our government to stop this?
