America has been lied into too many wars. It’s cost us too much in money, credibility, and blood. We must remember the lies, and tell our children about them so that memory isn’t lost...
Throw in free trade with communist China at the time it was Communist anyway, now of course it is right wing capitalist but their dirty deeds get blamed on the left wing communists, if there are any, anyway. Also throw in the mess they made down in South America and Central America and caused most all of this immigration for cheap union busting labor for the globalist new World order autocrats. Plus they ran up the national debt, pushed plastics which are now particles everywhere.... The GOP right with greed as their God, have been very busy the last half century. Doing Satan's work. And they will turn on true white Christian males or white males who are not Christian. They are the right wing right liars gang. I'm sure they will accept Black or Hispanic males who are Christian before they will accept white males who are not!
Friend Bob. What you and most of America do not understand, because the media, government, corporations have purposefully muddied the waters (include the education industry as well, especially economics.
Socialism and capitalism are economic theories, They can and do work well in a democratic society like America and Europe ,or in an autocratic society, such as Russia, and China
Communism and democracy are political theories
It is not Communism v. Democracy, because capitalism works in a Communist or a Democratic society.
China, Russia are oligarchies, autocracies, dictatorships, as was the USSR, as is North Korea
I'm tempted to throw India into the junk pile, along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and many of the Islamic and African nations. All ruled by strong men, if not "elected" (scare quotes), then obtaining power by murder, force and coup.
It appears that the vast majority of people, have no patience for democracy, and long for the strong leader, who takes control of the government without concern for the common good or the hopes, wishes of the people, so long as they evict and eliminate their perceived enemies.
Just like west African nations are evicting France, for rule by their own homegrown and murderous tyrants. In Europe there is Hungary, and in the rest of Europe and Britain, there is the fascist, xenophobic, racist right wing that is on the rise, and an election away from taking control of Germany, France, and Britain.
Those in Africa, Asia and the Mid east who find living in a dictatorship, unbearable due to lack of decent employment, or employment, and a lack of food, try to migrate to Europe, which finds itself under siege by cultures that are incompatible with their own culture, and that has evoked a rise of the right, the fascist parties that have taken over Hungary, and threaten the rest of Europe.
It is a catch 22, be humane and conscious of human rights encoded by the UN, or become a pariah by trying to preserve your culture.
I do not believe in the OT (TeNACH) which says the sins of the fathers are visited on the son, (I am not responsible for my ancestors acts, good or bad), however in this case, Africa, Mideast and Asia. The sins of the colonial fathers are indeed being visited onto their "sons".In other words, Western civilization in pursuit of power and profit, have created a destabilized world, be it Central and South America or Africa, Mideast and Asia.
The roots of WWII began with Admiral Matthew Calbraith Perry parked his fleet in Tokyo Bay, forcing the Japanese to open up to trade with America, from their to Versailles Treaty, which was a war between cousins, as well as French Democracy, because the Hapsburg Empire had plans on the Balkans, resulting in the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand by a Serb who had no desire to be under the Hapsburg thumb.
Again I wander
Point is that Socialism and Capitalism are economic theories and both thrive under political theories of Communism and Democracy.
China is Communist, meaning one party rule and the state grants what are in essence charters, personal fiefdoms, to well connected party members.
Much like Russia, when the USSR was being reorganized by Yeltssin, he sold off industries and trust to well connect political elites (oligarchs).
One party rules is a dictatorship. With a thousand billionaires almost, China is now a new world order autocratic capitalist Nation. Capitalist meaning ,unlimited greed. All dictatorships throughout history have proven to be inadequate to say the least. Barbarian and insane more like it.
But I stand by my point that Communism and Capitalism are not two diametrically opposed political systems.
Communism as epitomized by the Bolsheviks and Stalin, was a combine of seven trusts, as reported in the 1922 Fortnightly magazine, each organized along resource lines, like industry, people (KGB), mining, forestry, agriculture, transportation.
Each had their own bank, they borrowed from each other, and paid their debts by barter, lacking barter then gold. The GosBank was the central bank, it handled transactions between the trusts. The NordBank in Paris was their window to the world.
There were oligarchs in the USSR, watched over by the NKVD, and then the KGB.
When the Soviet Union's political and economic structure was reorganized, 1st by Gorbachev and then by Yeltsin. the assets of the trusts were sold, for pennies, to the elites in the party.
I repeat socialism and capitalism are economic theories.
Democracy and Communism are political theories.
Capitalism thrives independent of the system, in that it takes capital (finance, loans) to build a nations wealth, and America, until Reagan, salvaged America from the deficiencies and evil of unbridled capitalism, by interjecting, via laws, into the body politic. Laws that regulated and restrained the excess of capitalism, but capitalism has bounced back, by buying the best government that they could.
Socialism and Communism have been conflated by our capitalists, easy to do because most of the population are ignorant, lazy, uninformed and avail themselves of the bullshit that passes for news and education which is vomitted by the "free (corporate) media.
Like most Americans I remember exactly where I was when the towers were hit. I was in a Canadian restaurant watching it on T.V.; stricken with fear for my daughter who travelled daily to and from her office by subway under the twin towers. My fear was increased by the possibility that the border might be closed by U.S. authorities and I would be trapped in Canada, unable to phone her in New York. The border remained open long enough or me to drive across and find a message on my phone from her telling me she was O.K. What a daughter. What a relief. Then the Canadian border and Manhattan phone lines were shut down.
Days later one of my students organized a University and community-wide, conference about the attack and asked me to sit on the faculty discussion panel in the room. Among my comments I expressed hope that our government would not over-react and use the terrorist attack as an excuse to start a war. The President of the college publicly ridiculed me for this comment.
In response to a faculty colleague who defended past behavior of the U.S. government I pointed out how the U.S. had supported dictators and autocrats like Batista, Somoza, the Shah of Iran and connived at the destruction of democracies like Chile, Guatemala and others. It was not even necessary to mention Vietnam. My colleague objected that the U.S. never installed an "American" autocrat. To this I responded that Harry Truman installed General Douglass MacArthur as the unchallenged dictator of Japan. A position" Dug-out Doug" held (for better or worse) for a decade after WWII. Which begs the question: Why Japan and not Germany? Forgotten history. Also, let us not forget the Nuremberg trials. Since before Ancient Rome only the victors have written history. More forgotten history.
The police approached me at the end of that conference and held me in the room for a while. They informed me there was a group of local "tough guys" openly threatening to attack me in the parking lot because of my words which they found offensively unpatriotic.
Forgotten history? Do Americans want to be informed about history? Only if it supports their biases.
But they should be nevertheless informed especially when it doesn't. Thank you for informing us Mr. Hartman.
If there is any doubt about the complicity and treachery of the corporate media. Just think about how they ignore the lies, especially Trumps, instead of pounding dust into sand, as they should, they shift gears to putting Biden under the microscope, and it is all explainable because the corporate media is owned by the cabals and oligarchs that have bought our government, and the mind of America, Rupert Murdoch shares the blame along with Less Moonves of CBS, who said of Trump "he's bad for America but great for CBS. These M. effers are the scum of the earth.
What rags me is that, as Thom reminds us, Biden publicly exposed Trump's hand in it all, but the media made no play about it, and Biden's campaign is ignoring Trump's treachery. in more ways than one.
Who the f...k is leading the Democratic party and its campaign. ?
Did Bush or Cheney (likely the latter) know in advance about 9/11? Probably given their unhurried response. Was the attack blowback for decades of bad foreign policy in Saudi Arabia and other Arab neighbors? Absolutely. Did we reign in the Saudi's in response? Aside from attacking Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11, we are cozier than ever with the Saudi tyrant MBS. We are still in Iraq, though few people can explain why. At least Biden got us out of Afghanistan before the American Union collapsed - albeit in an embarrassing cluster-f--k. Though we finally murdered Bin Laden in a pathetic gesture aimed at justifying the pointless invasions and loss of US military lives, the Middle East remains the diplomatic mess we created when Iran reacted to our CIA puppet Shah and replaced him with a theocratic dictatorship. So, if anything, 9/11 memorialized decades of US diplomatic failure - makes no sense.
Dubya, after dithering, closed the airspace, however he made sure that the Bin Laden and Saudi royals, were allowed to fly back to the Kingdom.
I am sure that he knew of an attack on 9/11 but not where it was to occur. Foreknowledge of the attack was limited to the date, but not where, that is the reason he was in Florida reading, The Pet Goat, which is about his reading level anyway.
The PATRIOT Act was drawn up during Clinton's administration, just waiting for an excuse to haul it before Congress. Usually such an act would take months to write, proof read, and rewrite, to be vetted by the House and Senate, but here it was, hauled out of the Resolution Desk drawer (so to speak), not even polished off and signed by Dubya on Oct 26, 2001, and not one member of the"liberal"(corporate press) has ever taken notice, nor any of our erstwhile politicians.
Unfortunately one reason they have gone down the memory hole is that Barack Obama excused away the lies and war crimes of Bush, Cheney, Yoo et al by saying we have to look towards the future not back at the past. So that if a president cannot be held accountable for sanctioning torture and mass murder based on complete lies, lies enthusiastically amplified by Democratic party heroes like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, what possible transgression could be committed by a president that would result in accountability? Perhaps Obama could have taken a stand and set a precedent, but perhaps he knew in the office of president of the United States one of the responsibilities is committing war crimes which Obama indeed has. So like his lies to Planned Parenthood in 2007 about passing the Freedom of Choice Act as his first legislative act, only not to do so due to his politically expedient concerns about appealing to conservative religious voters, the failure to hold our own party's leaders accountable results in immeasurable harm to women and marginalized communities around the world but also to our wont and ability to place history in proper context.
Although I can't but help agreeing with you. I notice, yet again, how you change the subject and let" Trump out of the cage"
It is pretty obvious that you are a Putinist and a Trump humper.
It is well known that Kremlin trolls are infesting the internet, and more than they did in 2016.
I have plenty of bitches with Biden, for being a wuss, a comprimisor, for being weak kneed, and for not federalizing a woman's rights, when he had he chance (21 or 22 days when the Dems controlled Congress and passed the Defense of Marriage act that protected gay marriage.
For appointing that Trump humper Garland, and revoking the tool Trump gave him to rid DOJ and other vital cabinets of Trump humpers embedded by Trump.
Of allowing the Maggot controlled House of Representatives to terrorize and destroy this country,by refusing to use his Art 2 and 14th Amendment powers.
In my mind he is a disaster, but he is not Trump,and yet again I am forced to choose between the devil and the deep.
Although I read Santayana as an undergrad; I am reminded more frequently of the pithier remark by our own homegrown commentator Mark Twain: "History never repeats itself but it does often rhyme."
Thanks for having the cojones to publicly condemn what Gore Vidal aptly called the Bush/Cheney Junta for its war crimes and thanks for adding this spark of truth to the historical record, which will not be forgotten no matter what the Republicans try to do to stop it. There's a higher power of consciousness at work in the universe far greater than these small, evil men that will account for their crimes against humanity by imbuing their names with a shame that will disgrace the memories of their actions forever.
"It’s cost us too much in money, credibility, and blood."-Thom Hartmann
What has Iraq and Afghanistan cost Bush and Cheney? You could say they were allowed to ride off into the sunset like the literal gunslingers they are. Disgusting!
After dealing with terrorism in Germany in the 80's, I kept up with that subject when I got home. The horror of 9/11 was no surprise to me. On the other hand, our country's reaction to it was jarring.
Damn straight we cannot afford to forget the TRUTH. Thanks Thom.
Thom, I wrote a long response in your "One Year After" posting and don't need to repeat it here. But I will say that the Afghanistan war was lost the day it began. Having been all through the country (I traveled around it while on the overland route from France to Nepal, pre-Soviet invasion) it was obvious to me that nobody could control a nation of tough people with strong religious beliefs who lived in very rugged mountains. If Brezhnev had bothered to note that in 1841 Britain lost an entire army (15,000 in, 1 made it out) maybe he would have rethought things. Perhaps we could have made a positive impact by quickly occupying the country and then sending in physicians, engineers and other people to rebuild the place after which we got out. That is how some insurrections have been ended. But if any U.S. president thought military force would work a country where deep tribal divisions and massive corruption are the way of life, they were either lied to or didn't care. And the fact that nobody really asked “why” 9/11 happened shows how narrow the national view was, and how little anyone wanted to learn from it.
I will say what's fascinating is how the Iraq War has really disappeared from discussion. People say "Thank you for your service" as some sort of mantra, just like since Vietnam they've flown the Jolly Roger (er--POW flag, but it looks like that from a distance) apparently as an atonement for not "supporting the troops" more. But people don't want to talk about this disaster any more than someone would want to admit how they were scammed. After all, going into Iraq made as much sense as if after Pearl Harbor FDR had invaded Peru. But the country was suffering from PTSD and somebody had to pay for the pain. Saddam was a good target...I really heard the same kind of lies about going into Vietnam, but this time an unspoken implication was, "Think about all that oil!"
And to try and imagine what Edward Gibbon might have written, some day historians will draw a line where the American Empire began to fail. It might be the election of 1980 but perhaps more likely it is the one of 2000. I doubt if we will ever recover from the effects of that disastrous vote.
Don’t believe the war in Iraq is DONE. I correspond with a young US Marine First Sergeant who is stationed in Baghdad. Half of his working hours (15 per day) are spent in the city assisting the Red Cross with civilian needs. The rest of it, from night till dawn patrolling with his squad. Some members of his team have been killed by ISIL members. Yes, they are still very active. And this past week this brave young Marine was wounded by what his team described as a “trrro
Terrorist. Who stabbed this young Marine and he “lost a lot of blood.” He’s still in the hospital there. This DAMN war is NOT OVER!!! And I’m ANGRY at Bush now as I was at the beginning
The legacy of Republican Lies that have built the foundation for todays domestic political turmoil, continue.
They continue to allow the Republican Congress to harass the president of the US and his family .
All to offset the criminal leader of the January 6
attempted coup to replace the legitimately elected Joe Biden with illegal electors for Trauma Trump.
Trauma Trump was the legitimate loser in the 2020 presidential election .
But because his broken psyche was insulted and therefore his followers psyches also injured, someone has to pay.
And we all are paying for it every day.
Marjorie T Greene will not ever keep her fractured thoughts to herself.
Jim Jordan continues to investigate the legitimate investigators of Trump.
James Comer also wants a fascist government and presses for one every day with his lying attacks on Biden.
Trump is 3 years younger then Joe Biden and has many more serious physical and mental deficits than Biden.
Yet the constant media attention focuses on Bidens age.
Why do you think that is ?
Because they truly have little else they can accuse him of . Oh, Joe Biden’s family is fair game .
His son Hunter has had some problems. He is a recovering addict.
He was involved in the accident as a young child, that killed his mother and his baby sister.
He and his brother Beau were sole survivors of the accident .
They were raised by their father Joe who was involved in Democratic politics.
Hunter lost his brother Beau to cancer.
Lots of trauma frequently precedes addiction . He did some illegal things during this time .
But the republicans insist his father was involved in illegality . They are wrong and they know they’re
wrong but you know.... Trump.
So they continue to lie and rant and rave about injustice done to Trauma Trump.
Who only tried to overthrow the duly elected government.
And used taxpayers money to take his lies to court about 60 times.
The lying attacks continue , but they only apply to people who disagree with their fascist meanderings.
All this is bankrolled by the corrupt oil and gas industry.
They have agreed to back the republicans as long as they put an end to trying to remediate the Climate Crisis that kills people every day .
And the Evangelical Christians in general support attacks on LGBTQ individuals , a woman’s right to make choices about her life and her body.
And Black and Brown people . And Native Americans.
And any person in this country or the world who they oppose because they are not white Christian men.
And the children are also hostages of their primitive plans for education.
It seems we’ve had a lot of abusers of power in power over the years.
We have apparently thought it was our job as Americans to give them cover.
Its not our job . Our job is to get the truth out no matter who it offends . Just because it is the truth .
Thanks Thom for this excellent look at these
leaders and situations that have caused huge death and destruction . Ill never be able to think of the date 9/11 without thinking of Bush , Cheney
without thinking of their Big Lie.
And now we will deal with Trumps big Lie.
Throw in free trade with communist China at the time it was Communist anyway, now of course it is right wing capitalist but their dirty deeds get blamed on the left wing communists, if there are any, anyway. Also throw in the mess they made down in South America and Central America and caused most all of this immigration for cheap union busting labor for the globalist new World order autocrats. Plus they ran up the national debt, pushed plastics which are now particles everywhere.... The GOP right with greed as their God, have been very busy the last half century. Doing Satan's work. And they will turn on true white Christian males or white males who are not Christian. They are the right wing right liars gang. I'm sure they will accept Black or Hispanic males who are Christian before they will accept white males who are not!
Friend Bob. What you and most of America do not understand, because the media, government, corporations have purposefully muddied the waters (include the education industry as well, especially economics.
Socialism and capitalism are economic theories, They can and do work well in a democratic society like America and Europe ,or in an autocratic society, such as Russia, and China
Communism and democracy are political theories
It is not Communism v. Democracy, because capitalism works in a Communist or a Democratic society.
China, Russia are oligarchies, autocracies, dictatorships, as was the USSR, as is North Korea
I'm tempted to throw India into the junk pile, along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and many of the Islamic and African nations. All ruled by strong men, if not "elected" (scare quotes), then obtaining power by murder, force and coup.
It appears that the vast majority of people, have no patience for democracy, and long for the strong leader, who takes control of the government without concern for the common good or the hopes, wishes of the people, so long as they evict and eliminate their perceived enemies.
Just like west African nations are evicting France, for rule by their own homegrown and murderous tyrants. In Europe there is Hungary, and in the rest of Europe and Britain, there is the fascist, xenophobic, racist right wing that is on the rise, and an election away from taking control of Germany, France, and Britain.
Those in Africa, Asia and the Mid east who find living in a dictatorship, unbearable due to lack of decent employment, or employment, and a lack of food, try to migrate to Europe, which finds itself under siege by cultures that are incompatible with their own culture, and that has evoked a rise of the right, the fascist parties that have taken over Hungary, and threaten the rest of Europe.
It is a catch 22, be humane and conscious of human rights encoded by the UN, or become a pariah by trying to preserve your culture.
I do not believe in the OT (TeNACH) which says the sins of the fathers are visited on the son, (I am not responsible for my ancestors acts, good or bad), however in this case, Africa, Mideast and Asia. The sins of the colonial fathers are indeed being visited onto their "sons".In other words, Western civilization in pursuit of power and profit, have created a destabilized world, be it Central and South America or Africa, Mideast and Asia.
The roots of WWII began with Admiral Matthew Calbraith Perry parked his fleet in Tokyo Bay, forcing the Japanese to open up to trade with America, from their to Versailles Treaty, which was a war between cousins, as well as French Democracy, because the Hapsburg Empire had plans on the Balkans, resulting in the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand by a Serb who had no desire to be under the Hapsburg thumb.
Again I wander
Point is that Socialism and Capitalism are economic theories and both thrive under political theories of Communism and Democracy.
China is Communist, meaning one party rule and the state grants what are in essence charters, personal fiefdoms, to well connected party members.
Much like Russia, when the USSR was being reorganized by Yeltssin, he sold off industries and trust to well connect political elites (oligarchs).
One party rules is a dictatorship. With a thousand billionaires almost, China is now a new world order autocratic capitalist Nation. Capitalist meaning ,unlimited greed. All dictatorships throughout history have proven to be inadequate to say the least. Barbarian and insane more like it.
I cannot disagree with the gist of your comment.
But I stand by my point that Communism and Capitalism are not two diametrically opposed political systems.
Communism as epitomized by the Bolsheviks and Stalin, was a combine of seven trusts, as reported in the 1922 Fortnightly magazine, each organized along resource lines, like industry, people (KGB), mining, forestry, agriculture, transportation.
Each had their own bank, they borrowed from each other, and paid their debts by barter, lacking barter then gold. The GosBank was the central bank, it handled transactions between the trusts. The NordBank in Paris was their window to the world.
There were oligarchs in the USSR, watched over by the NKVD, and then the KGB.
When the Soviet Union's political and economic structure was reorganized, 1st by Gorbachev and then by Yeltsin. the assets of the trusts were sold, for pennies, to the elites in the party.
I repeat socialism and capitalism are economic theories.
Democracy and Communism are political theories.
Capitalism thrives independent of the system, in that it takes capital (finance, loans) to build a nations wealth, and America, until Reagan, salvaged America from the deficiencies and evil of unbridled capitalism, by interjecting, via laws, into the body politic. Laws that regulated and restrained the excess of capitalism, but capitalism has bounced back, by buying the best government that they could.
Socialism and Communism have been conflated by our capitalists, easy to do because most of the population are ignorant, lazy, uninformed and avail themselves of the bullshit that passes for news and education which is vomitted by the "free (corporate) media.
Excellent Ms. Lane.
Like most Americans I remember exactly where I was when the towers were hit. I was in a Canadian restaurant watching it on T.V.; stricken with fear for my daughter who travelled daily to and from her office by subway under the twin towers. My fear was increased by the possibility that the border might be closed by U.S. authorities and I would be trapped in Canada, unable to phone her in New York. The border remained open long enough or me to drive across and find a message on my phone from her telling me she was O.K. What a daughter. What a relief. Then the Canadian border and Manhattan phone lines were shut down.
Days later one of my students organized a University and community-wide, conference about the attack and asked me to sit on the faculty discussion panel in the room. Among my comments I expressed hope that our government would not over-react and use the terrorist attack as an excuse to start a war. The President of the college publicly ridiculed me for this comment.
In response to a faculty colleague who defended past behavior of the U.S. government I pointed out how the U.S. had supported dictators and autocrats like Batista, Somoza, the Shah of Iran and connived at the destruction of democracies like Chile, Guatemala and others. It was not even necessary to mention Vietnam. My colleague objected that the U.S. never installed an "American" autocrat. To this I responded that Harry Truman installed General Douglass MacArthur as the unchallenged dictator of Japan. A position" Dug-out Doug" held (for better or worse) for a decade after WWII. Which begs the question: Why Japan and not Germany? Forgotten history. Also, let us not forget the Nuremberg trials. Since before Ancient Rome only the victors have written history. More forgotten history.
The police approached me at the end of that conference and held me in the room for a while. They informed me there was a group of local "tough guys" openly threatening to attack me in the parking lot because of my words which they found offensively unpatriotic.
Forgotten history? Do Americans want to be informed about history? Only if it supports their biases.
But they should be nevertheless informed especially when it doesn't. Thank you for informing us Mr. Hartman.
Having it laid out like this is so powerful -- and so infuriating. And you didn't even get to Nixon's efforts to sabotage the Vietnam peace talks, whose success would surely have boosted Humphrey in the 1968 election. Politico had a good story about this in 2017: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/06/nixon-vietnam-candidate-conspired-with-foreign-power-win-election-215461/
If there is any doubt about the complicity and treachery of the corporate media. Just think about how they ignore the lies, especially Trumps, instead of pounding dust into sand, as they should, they shift gears to putting Biden under the microscope, and it is all explainable because the corporate media is owned by the cabals and oligarchs that have bought our government, and the mind of America, Rupert Murdoch shares the blame along with Less Moonves of CBS, who said of Trump "he's bad for America but great for CBS. These M. effers are the scum of the earth.
What rags me is that, as Thom reminds us, Biden publicly exposed Trump's hand in it all, but the media made no play about it, and Biden's campaign is ignoring Trump's treachery. in more ways than one.
Who the f...k is leading the Democratic party and its campaign. ?
Did Bush or Cheney (likely the latter) know in advance about 9/11? Probably given their unhurried response. Was the attack blowback for decades of bad foreign policy in Saudi Arabia and other Arab neighbors? Absolutely. Did we reign in the Saudi's in response? Aside from attacking Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11, we are cozier than ever with the Saudi tyrant MBS. We are still in Iraq, though few people can explain why. At least Biden got us out of Afghanistan before the American Union collapsed - albeit in an embarrassing cluster-f--k. Though we finally murdered Bin Laden in a pathetic gesture aimed at justifying the pointless invasions and loss of US military lives, the Middle East remains the diplomatic mess we created when Iran reacted to our CIA puppet Shah and replaced him with a theocratic dictatorship. So, if anything, 9/11 memorialized decades of US diplomatic failure - makes no sense.
Dubya, after dithering, closed the airspace, however he made sure that the Bin Laden and Saudi royals, were allowed to fly back to the Kingdom.
I am sure that he knew of an attack on 9/11 but not where it was to occur. Foreknowledge of the attack was limited to the date, but not where, that is the reason he was in Florida reading, The Pet Goat, which is about his reading level anyway.
The PATRIOT Act was drawn up during Clinton's administration, just waiting for an excuse to haul it before Congress. Usually such an act would take months to write, proof read, and rewrite, to be vetted by the House and Senate, but here it was, hauled out of the Resolution Desk drawer (so to speak), not even polished off and signed by Dubya on Oct 26, 2001, and not one member of the"liberal"(corporate press) has ever taken notice, nor any of our erstwhile politicians.
Unfortunately one reason they have gone down the memory hole is that Barack Obama excused away the lies and war crimes of Bush, Cheney, Yoo et al by saying we have to look towards the future not back at the past. So that if a president cannot be held accountable for sanctioning torture and mass murder based on complete lies, lies enthusiastically amplified by Democratic party heroes like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, what possible transgression could be committed by a president that would result in accountability? Perhaps Obama could have taken a stand and set a precedent, but perhaps he knew in the office of president of the United States one of the responsibilities is committing war crimes which Obama indeed has. So like his lies to Planned Parenthood in 2007 about passing the Freedom of Choice Act as his first legislative act, only not to do so due to his politically expedient concerns about appealing to conservative religious voters, the failure to hold our own party's leaders accountable results in immeasurable harm to women and marginalized communities around the world but also to our wont and ability to place history in proper context.
Although I can't but help agreeing with you. I notice, yet again, how you change the subject and let" Trump out of the cage"
It is pretty obvious that you are a Putinist and a Trump humper.
It is well known that Kremlin trolls are infesting the internet, and more than they did in 2016.
I have plenty of bitches with Biden, for being a wuss, a comprimisor, for being weak kneed, and for not federalizing a woman's rights, when he had he chance (21 or 22 days when the Dems controlled Congress and passed the Defense of Marriage act that protected gay marriage.
For appointing that Trump humper Garland, and revoking the tool Trump gave him to rid DOJ and other vital cabinets of Trump humpers embedded by Trump.
Of allowing the Maggot controlled House of Representatives to terrorize and destroy this country,by refusing to use his Art 2 and 14th Amendment powers.
In my mind he is a disaster, but he is not Trump,and yet again I am forced to choose between the devil and the deep.
One other thing: This is the 50th anniversary of Nixon and Kissinger's murder of Allende. May we not forget that either.
Although I read Santayana as an undergrad; I am reminded more frequently of the pithier remark by our own homegrown commentator Mark Twain: "History never repeats itself but it does often rhyme."
Flagged to read later. Important topic. I will read tomorrow.
I just can’t today.
I could see the smoke 22 years ago.
The National Guard road through our town on the way from their armory heading in to lower Manhattan.
There were people from my town that never came home.
Everything was coated in a fine dust.
Ashes that used to be people.
This is heartbreaking.
Thanks for having the cojones to publicly condemn what Gore Vidal aptly called the Bush/Cheney Junta for its war crimes and thanks for adding this spark of truth to the historical record, which will not be forgotten no matter what the Republicans try to do to stop it. There's a higher power of consciousness at work in the universe far greater than these small, evil men that will account for their crimes against humanity by imbuing their names with a shame that will disgrace the memories of their actions forever.
"It’s cost us too much in money, credibility, and blood."-Thom Hartmann
What has Iraq and Afghanistan cost Bush and Cheney? You could say they were allowed to ride off into the sunset like the literal gunslingers they are. Disgusting!
After dealing with terrorism in Germany in the 80's, I kept up with that subject when I got home. The horror of 9/11 was no surprise to me. On the other hand, our country's reaction to it was jarring.
Damn straight we cannot afford to forget the TRUTH. Thanks Thom.
Are we sure this is not an updated domino theory which led us into VietNam? Yes, lots of differences but also similarities.
Thom, I wrote a long response in your "One Year After" posting and don't need to repeat it here. But I will say that the Afghanistan war was lost the day it began. Having been all through the country (I traveled around it while on the overland route from France to Nepal, pre-Soviet invasion) it was obvious to me that nobody could control a nation of tough people with strong religious beliefs who lived in very rugged mountains. If Brezhnev had bothered to note that in 1841 Britain lost an entire army (15,000 in, 1 made it out) maybe he would have rethought things. Perhaps we could have made a positive impact by quickly occupying the country and then sending in physicians, engineers and other people to rebuild the place after which we got out. That is how some insurrections have been ended. But if any U.S. president thought military force would work a country where deep tribal divisions and massive corruption are the way of life, they were either lied to or didn't care. And the fact that nobody really asked “why” 9/11 happened shows how narrow the national view was, and how little anyone wanted to learn from it.
I will say what's fascinating is how the Iraq War has really disappeared from discussion. People say "Thank you for your service" as some sort of mantra, just like since Vietnam they've flown the Jolly Roger (er--POW flag, but it looks like that from a distance) apparently as an atonement for not "supporting the troops" more. But people don't want to talk about this disaster any more than someone would want to admit how they were scammed. After all, going into Iraq made as much sense as if after Pearl Harbor FDR had invaded Peru. But the country was suffering from PTSD and somebody had to pay for the pain. Saddam was a good target...I really heard the same kind of lies about going into Vietnam, but this time an unspoken implication was, "Think about all that oil!"
And to try and imagine what Edward Gibbon might have written, some day historians will draw a line where the American Empire began to fail. It might be the election of 1980 but perhaps more likely it is the one of 2000. I doubt if we will ever recover from the effects of that disastrous vote.
Don’t believe the war in Iraq is DONE. I correspond with a young US Marine First Sergeant who is stationed in Baghdad. Half of his working hours (15 per day) are spent in the city assisting the Red Cross with civilian needs. The rest of it, from night till dawn patrolling with his squad. Some members of his team have been killed by ISIL members. Yes, they are still very active. And this past week this brave young Marine was wounded by what his team described as a “trrro
Terrorist. Who stabbed this young Marine and he “lost a lot of blood.” He’s still in the hospital there. This DAMN war is NOT OVER!!! And I’m ANGRY at Bush now as I was at the beginning
The truth really stings but must never be forgotten.