In the clip above: Senator Lindsey Graham (R – SC) takes the position that we should now fight ISIS plus every major faction in Syria at the same time plus the Russians if they should dare to oppose us, with ground troops and “advisers” to do nation-building in Syria, which somehow isn’t nation-building because it’s letting the “Syrians take care of Assad”, and all of which is directly needed to protect “the homeland” because it would have prevented 9-11 (a strike over here by Saudi terrorists) if only we had done it 16 years ago in Afghanistan. Also, it will save us money.
Even the intelligent Tucker Carlson can’t make sense of it.
Graham’s tone is so deadpan – so authentically uncaring about the lives involved, whether U.S. troops or Syrian locals or even U.S. taxpayers – that it gave me the creeps, once my head stopped spinning.
At the end of the clip, Carlson notes that articles in the Democrat-leaning New York Times and Washington Post have declared that anyone who would OPPOSE the U.S. bombing the brown people of Syria is somehow a “white nationalist”. Anyone who would oppose the Establishment’s new war plans is somehow – did you see this coming? – “racist, anti-Semitic and sexist”.
Do you need more evidence that, by now in 2017, America is in the grip of a war-mongering, out-of-control Deep State? Which opposed Trump fiercely – until a few days ago, when apparently he caved? And that what we have been calling “the mainstream/liberal media” and “the party Establishments” all this time are really the Deep State’s servants?
One-hundred years ago, King Abdullah II’s great grandfather wanted Damascus, Aleppo and Greater Syria. Maybe we should “gift” western Syria to the Hashemites, and northeastern Syria and northwestern Iraq to the Peshmerga as “Kurdistan”. The current Iraqi government is feckless at-best.
And the current Turkish government as other ambitions
The Neocons are a desperate remnant. Lindsey has lost so much in the past couple of years that I think it’s caused a bit of unhingement. I’d include “hero” McCain in the category too but his problem is purely periodic revenge of the curmudgeon.
I wouldn’t worry about the deep state too much. It’s being purged & intel originating from it is being taken with [more than] a grain of salt. Sometimes a gas attack is just a gas attack, there was an obligation to respond & a response was effected. Trump isn’t a fan of the Neocons, to say the least & an outcry which is happening now isn’t being fueled entirely by his constituency. Lots of bot factories out there. People using Tea Party insignia, pretending to be outraged. The response is complex, but there can be no troops on the ground (it’s just not viable) & there’s not temperament to do so.
The Neocons are temporarily happy, the Dem leadership is temporarily happy & Congressional conservatives are mouthing their usual, “should have gotten our approval first” routine.
There was no choice but to effect a punitive strike on Syria & the destroyed airfield is the same distance from the sea as Damascus. That’s the message & purpose.
Lindsey is an aristocrat who’s evidently had a mini-stroke or two. His influence extends to just the edges of his constituency. He’d like everyone to interpret any current event as something which promotes his warmongering stoicism.
Graham probably read 1984 and started drooling when he got to the explanation of the perpetual war.
Remember, this was also the guy who tried to run for the Presidency on a brilliant platform of, “Fret not, fellow old people! Vote for me, and we shall sail into the grave in the lap of luxury by turning the young people into our tax-cattle!”
He personifies every ugly stereotype about Republicans and conservatives. He needs to go the hell away.
Because land wars in Asia always go so well for anyone who isn’t Ghengis Khan.
He sounds like Gomer Pyle
But the airfield is still intact. Aircraft are still departing and landing
The McGrahamCain creature is a mystery to me. The evidence is strong that McCain was tricked into meeting with ISIS leadership without knowing it on several trips to Syria.
Neocons are a mystery to me. I know the term, but it seems to be very elastic and convenient.
The Deep State is beginning to verge on sinister cabal status like the luciferians, the New World Order, the Davos crowd, etc.
I am never surprised by what corrupt actions powerful people will commit with their power. The nemesis which we are calling the Deep State is just the latest discovery that those who watch us must be watched in turn to make certain that they are not corrupting their power to suit their ambitions over performing their duty.
Russia hacked the DNC. That is NOT a fact. It is a claim made by the DNC and reported to the FBI. The DNC refused to let the FBI investigate the hacking. The DNC had a Ukrainian outfit, CrowdStrike, do the investigation and then the DNC turned over to the FBI what the DNC wanted the the FBI to know.
Why would the DNC allow the FBI to rummage through their servers? Does anyone think that the DNC is pure and virginal?
The Ukrainian group the DNC turned the search over to is totally anti-Russian and “voila” they found the Russia stuff.
Then the FBI took that stuff at face value and now we are mired in a phony war of no consequence over whether Trump was taking orders from Putin or whatever other bombastic charge the DNC can dream up.
I’m not sure.
We must face the reality of Iran and the nutcase Mullahs who are hot for Armageddon. Israel is our canary in the coal mine, but once Israel is nuked, what follows? Will Pakistan retaliate against Iran because of sectarian differences and edgy security concerns?
Maybe Iran is just faking and we can stretch this thing out for a generation or two until Iran settles on being Presbyterian.
The little nut case in North Korea is riding his tricycle in tighter and tighter circles and demanding more trusted elders be shot with antiaircraft cannons. At some point, is he going to go full nuclear monty?
Trump did not run as either a pacifist or a Rand Paul libertarian.
Sure we could end up sending in the troops, but my reading of Trump and Tillerson is quite different. I do not think they would dream up an “Arab Spring” kind of meddling or topple a cowed dictator like Qaddafi.
My opinion is that Trump and some in the EU are telling the mideast to get their stuff together and clean up their fanatics.
Meanwhile, our “deep state” is using the tools of the trade which all of our counterparts across the world are using. Those tools are the epitome of “double edged swords.” The DemonizingRats would spy on their own mothers if a vote were at stake. We “trust” Google and Facebook and Apple and big banking and a whole host of data compilers to be ethical. The “Deep State” issue is a trust issue. Why should we believe that only certain people in positions of power submit to corruption?
We are in the instant information spin cycle and drifting toward HAL of “2001” fame. You can not stop the march of time, so we must face the consequences of progress.
Luckily, I live in a nuclear-free zone.
As soon as we are fully involved in the war, the Democrats will claim that they never supported it in the first place.
So what?
Destroying miles of runways is not cost effective.
We sent a message.
Assad’s little regional air force installation is enormously compromised. He will have to open his wallet and reconsider what to do next.
What did you expect?
Your one-liner presumes something greater was at stake and it comes across as being amused at Trump’s ability to carry out a mission. But the mission is of your making, not Trump’s.
Why do I think that if Assad flew to the White House and turned his keys to Syria over to Trump that you would be right back here snickering about how Trump didn’t end the factional fighting in Syria?
Everything that isn’t a Progressive pogrom is a side show for you. We the People of the United States of America can not find any practical reason to switch to shari’a law or divide our citizenry between those to obey radical Imams and those who obey the rule of law and the Constitution.
In fact, nothing whatsoever comes out of the fanatical fratricide in radical Islam that serves any useful purpose. But you whistle right past it while picking your nose.
You Progressives are too fickle, too ideologically driven, and too dense to be trusted with the simple task of being cautious.
In my day, we said: “Get a life, you fart young smeller.”
I avoid the term “neo-cons” because it has too many problems: it’s often used anti-Semitically, it implies that conservatives are somehow bad, etc. But for sure, there is overlap between so-called neo-cons and the Deep State.
Whether the Deep State exists depends, just like the existence of God, on how you define the word. My definition is:
…specifically the upper bureaucrats, who endure across administrations and act instinctively (or culturally) to preserve their own power and budgets.
Those people unquestionably exist. John F. Kennedy called them “a state within the state”.
They just spent the last 6 months trying to convince us (by a campaign of sleazy, dire-sounding leaks) that Trump is a Russian spy. And the 12 months before that trying to convince us that their preferred war-mongering candidate (Hillary) was ahead in the polls and had to win inevitably.
It’s been shown that the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN all have close ties to the CIA among others. Their recent turn-around means one thing: Trump has done some sort of deal with them. I don’t say that to be alarmist, it’s just an observation. It was probably inevitable, and it could mean both bad things and good things.
Says the guy who considers Obamacare a success.
The talking point rusty is dutifully regurgitating is from Obama political operative Ben Rhodes. He was one of Obama’s national security advisors back when Obama drew a redline that the Assad government crossed, claimed that the Syrians had turned over all their chemical weapons, and then sat back and did nothing while 500,000 people were slaughtered. Oh, and then made a deal with Iran that guaranteed no military strikes while they pursued their nuclear program. Now, he’s attacking Trump for carrying out the exact policy Hillary recommended.
Crazy, right?
The meme I’m seeing a lot today is: “They warned me that if Hillary won, we’d be stuck with Obamacare and go to war with Syria.”
What’s the matter with Kansas?!?!
What the hell is the matter with South Carolina? If Graham represents the voters of SC then the voters of SC favor unlimited immigration of people regardless of skills, effect on the citizenry, or compatibility with our culture along with endless missionary war regardless of the cost in blood and treasure.
It least in Kansas, our senators are mostly harmless seat warmers.
Great video from RB
https://youtu.be/N1b150krKUs
Having said all that, there are better means available if the tactical goal was too disable the airfield. There are bomb types better suited to the task than Tomahawk missiles; although they have to be delivered by manned aircraft.
The bit in the video about MS-13 killing more Americans than ISIS is well-placed considering Ms. Lindsey is one of the biggest open borders liberals in the senate.
is Lindsey graham in favor of bring members of the caliphate to the united states? Lindsey never saw an illegal alien he didn’t like.
I think Lindsey gets elected by a coalition of republicans that vote for their party and democrats.
Colonel Lindsay Graham, USAF Reserve (Retired) should know better — and doesn’t.
Let the Arabs, the Turks, the Kurds and the Persians fight over the spoils once Dr. Bashar al-Assad is scattered about the interior of his former bedroom, or hanging in a stairwell.
Half-measure “nation building” like the chaos of Iraqi and Afghanistan clearly don’t work. Either you install a satrap Governor like we did in the Philippines in 1898, or a proconsul like in Japan in 1945, or you stay out.. It takes a generation or three to have a responsible indigenous government…be it democratic or oligarchic. Rushing to “elections” is demonstrably irresponsible and ineffective.
Let’s remember that Colonel Lindsey Graham’s military service was as a JAG. Contrary to the derring-do TV series, in real life most JAGs spend their days reviewing documents and paperwork and preparing for or defending courts-martial cases, followed by drinks at the Officers’ Club and dinner at home with the little woman (though in absence of a little woman at home, I won’t speculate on what Colonel Graham did after cocktails every night). In other words, it consisted of a lot of pencil- and paper-pushing. At no time, other than tours and observational events, was he mapping out airstrikes, engaging in strategic planning, flying sorties, or refueling aircraft in-air.
So really, in many respects, he doesn’t know better because he doesn’t have the depth of experience that would enable him to understand the intricacies of military operations. It’s been said that John McCain is hot on war because his five years as a POW deprived him of action that his compatriots were involved in and he has spent the rest of his life making up for that lost time, as it were. So it could be said for Senator Graham, who has realized that his life as a military officer deprived him of many experiences and thus feels the need to make up for those in post-military retirement in his current career.
The Notorious RBG refers to Senator Graham as one of the “women of the Senate”:
http://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2017/04/11/oopsie-ruth-bader-ginsburg-accidently-ginsburgs-lindsey-graham-calls-him-a-chick-video/