The GOP’s weak on defense: Republicans sacrifice national security by pandering to right-wing nuts

[applegrove]

The GOP’s weak on defense: Republicans sacrifice national security by pandering to right-wing nuts

by Amanda Marcotte at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/21/the_gops_weak_on_defense_republicans_sacrifice_national_security_by_pandering_to_right_wing_nuts/

"SNIP..............


Republicans have long coasted on their reputation as a “national security” party, but it’s time to put that narrative to rest. This week demonstrated that, given a choice between national security and political pandering to right wing nuts, Republicans will choose the latter every time.

The willingness to sacrifice national security in order to score a few cheap political points was made painfully obvious in the Republican response to the 911 transcripts from the Orlando shooting. The transcripts, which feature the shooter Omar Mateen pledging fealty to ISIS, presented the Obama administration with a miserable choice between denying ISIS a propaganda opportunity or denying the Republicans a propaganda opportunity.

The Justice Department initially chose denying ISIS a propaganda opportunity. By redacting the word “ISIS,” the Justice Department made it harder for ISIS sympathizers online to crow about their victory and make appeals to future would-be shooters looking for fame by saying the name “ISIS” while they murder.

But the redaction allowed Republicans to trot out one of their favorite pieces of propaganda, the claim that saying phrases like “ISIS” or “radical Islam” has near-magical powers to defeat the evil of Islamic terrorism.


..............SNIP"

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. They are playing the Syria card. As if they had the faintest

Idea what to do there, other than
Perhaps a full scale invasion and occupation of the place using somebody else's family members and a "supplemental" to pay for it.