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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders, Commander-in-Chief!
Exclusive: Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman and Iraq War veteran, stars in a stunning ad endorsing Bernie Sanders as Commander-in-Chief, a potential turning point in the Democratic race
By Robert Parry
Sen. Bernie Sanderss landslide victories in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii on Saturday coincided with a long-awaited signal that he may finally be ready to challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Commander-in-Chief question, which has been regarded as one of her key strengths.
In what may be the most striking campaign commercial of the presidential race, the Sanders campaign released an ad, entitled The Cost of War and featuring Hawaiis Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who endorsed Sanders not just as her preference for President but as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military.
Bernie Sanders voted against the Iraq War, Gabbard says. He understands the cost of war, that that cost is continued when our veterans come home. Bernie Sanders will defend our country and take the trillions of dollars that are spent on these interventionist, regime change, unnecessary wars and invest it here at home.
Gabbard also counters another strong point of the Clinton campaign, its contention that Clintons plans for incremental change are more realistic than Sanderss calls for sweeping reforms or a political revolution to reverse the nations steady drift toward a country of lavishly rewarded haves and increasingly desperate have-nots.
The American people are not looking to settle for inches; they are looking for real change, Gabbard says. But perhaps her most important statement comes at the end of the 90-second commercial when she says: My name is Tulsi Gabbard and I support Bernie Sanders to be our next President and Commander-in-Chief.
Many Democrats have a deep distrust of Clinton who though now highlighting her more progressive positions seems eager to pivot to the center once she nails down the nomination, a hunger that was reflected in her pandering speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention last week.
A Neocon Favorite
Many neoconservatives and liberal interventionists now see Clinton as the vessel carrying their hopes for more regime change wars.
In 2002, Clinton famously supported President George W. Bushs invasion and occupation of Iraq, which beyond costing more than $1 trillion and killing hundreds of thousands of people (including nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers) destabilized the Middle East and gave rise to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has since morphed into the Islamic State.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Apparently having learned no lessons from the Iraq War, Clinton consistently took hawkish and interventionist positions as President Barack Obamas first Secretary of State.
In 2009, Clinton backed a coup in Honduras that removed democratically elected (and progressive) President Manuel Zelaya) and reaffirmed control by the Central American countrys oligarchy. Since then, Hondurass human rights situation has worsened, driving thousands of children to flee northward seeking safety and leaving environmental and political activists at the mercy of death squads.
Also, in 2009, Clinton joined with Bush-holdover Defense Secretary Robert Gates and neocon-favorite Gen. David Petraeus in pushing Obama into a major escalation of the Afghan War, a counter-insurgency surge that sent another 1,000 American troops to their deaths and many more Afghans but has since been abandoned as a failure.
In 2011, Clinton joined with liberal interventionists in again pushing Obama into a regime change war in Libya that led to the overthrow and torture-murder of Muammar Gaddafi which she gleefully welcomed with the quip, We came, we saw, he died but has since turned the once relatively prosperous North African country into a failed state with the Islamic State gaining another foothold.
Both as Secretary of State and since her departure in 2013, Clinton has pressed to escalate the regime change war in Syria, seeking a no-fly zone that would require the U.S. military to destroy the Syrian governments air force and air defenses, apparently without regard to the risk that the U.S. intervention could pave the way for Al Qaedas Nusra Front and/or the Islamic State to march into Damascus.
Though the Syrian regime change strategy that Clinton has advocated has failed to oust President Bashar al-Assad, it has transformed another reasonably functional Mideast state into a bloody killing field and driven millions of refugees into what is now a destabilized Europe.
In 2014, Clinton also has embraced the neocon-backed coup in Ukraine that has touched off a new and costly Cold War with Russia. Again showing her tough-gal side, Clinton likened Russias President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. Two years later, the Ukraine regime change has not only given the Ukrainians a corrupt and dysfunctional government kept afloat with billions of dollars from the U.S. and Europe but the heightened U.S. hostility toward Russia has impaired chances for big-power cooperation on a number of these other conflicts.
All of this may fit the neocon agenda of removing or punishing governments that are viewed as unfriendly to Israel, but these Clinton-embraced strategies have been highly destructive to a peaceful and prosperous world. There is also the increased danger that Clinton might represent as Commander-in-Chief when her most hawkish inclinations are not tempered or restrained by President Obamas general resistance to interventionist wars.
For months, Clinton has been identified by top neocons as their best hope to maintain influence at the highest levels of Washington, especially if America First Republican Donald Trump secures the GOP nomination.
snip
Kagan, whom Clinton appointed to a State Department advisory panel, is married to Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, a former senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who rose under Clinton and helped orchestrate the Ukraine coup which sabotaged Obamas behind-the-scenes cooperation with Putin on touchy issues such as Iran and Syria.
snip
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/28/bernie-sanders-as-commander-in-chief/
By Robert Parry
Sen. Bernie Sanderss landslide victories in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii on Saturday coincided with a long-awaited signal that he may finally be ready to challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Commander-in-Chief question, which has been regarded as one of her key strengths.
In what may be the most striking campaign commercial of the presidential race, the Sanders campaign released an ad, entitled The Cost of War and featuring Hawaiis Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who endorsed Sanders not just as her preference for President but as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military.
Bernie Sanders voted against the Iraq War, Gabbard says. He understands the cost of war, that that cost is continued when our veterans come home. Bernie Sanders will defend our country and take the trillions of dollars that are spent on these interventionist, regime change, unnecessary wars and invest it here at home.
Gabbard also counters another strong point of the Clinton campaign, its contention that Clintons plans for incremental change are more realistic than Sanderss calls for sweeping reforms or a political revolution to reverse the nations steady drift toward a country of lavishly rewarded haves and increasingly desperate have-nots.
The American people are not looking to settle for inches; they are looking for real change, Gabbard says. But perhaps her most important statement comes at the end of the 90-second commercial when she says: My name is Tulsi Gabbard and I support Bernie Sanders to be our next President and Commander-in-Chief.
Many Democrats have a deep distrust of Clinton who though now highlighting her more progressive positions seems eager to pivot to the center once she nails down the nomination, a hunger that was reflected in her pandering speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention last week.
A Neocon Favorite
Many neoconservatives and liberal interventionists now see Clinton as the vessel carrying their hopes for more regime change wars.
In 2002, Clinton famously supported President George W. Bushs invasion and occupation of Iraq, which beyond costing more than $1 trillion and killing hundreds of thousands of people (including nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers) destabilized the Middle East and gave rise to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has since morphed into the Islamic State.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Apparently having learned no lessons from the Iraq War, Clinton consistently took hawkish and interventionist positions as President Barack Obamas first Secretary of State.
In 2009, Clinton backed a coup in Honduras that removed democratically elected (and progressive) President Manuel Zelaya) and reaffirmed control by the Central American countrys oligarchy. Since then, Hondurass human rights situation has worsened, driving thousands of children to flee northward seeking safety and leaving environmental and political activists at the mercy of death squads.
Also, in 2009, Clinton joined with Bush-holdover Defense Secretary Robert Gates and neocon-favorite Gen. David Petraeus in pushing Obama into a major escalation of the Afghan War, a counter-insurgency surge that sent another 1,000 American troops to their deaths and many more Afghans but has since been abandoned as a failure.
In 2011, Clinton joined with liberal interventionists in again pushing Obama into a regime change war in Libya that led to the overthrow and torture-murder of Muammar Gaddafi which she gleefully welcomed with the quip, We came, we saw, he died but has since turned the once relatively prosperous North African country into a failed state with the Islamic State gaining another foothold.
Both as Secretary of State and since her departure in 2013, Clinton has pressed to escalate the regime change war in Syria, seeking a no-fly zone that would require the U.S. military to destroy the Syrian governments air force and air defenses, apparently without regard to the risk that the U.S. intervention could pave the way for Al Qaedas Nusra Front and/or the Islamic State to march into Damascus.
Though the Syrian regime change strategy that Clinton has advocated has failed to oust President Bashar al-Assad, it has transformed another reasonably functional Mideast state into a bloody killing field and driven millions of refugees into what is now a destabilized Europe.
In 2014, Clinton also has embraced the neocon-backed coup in Ukraine that has touched off a new and costly Cold War with Russia. Again showing her tough-gal side, Clinton likened Russias President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. Two years later, the Ukraine regime change has not only given the Ukrainians a corrupt and dysfunctional government kept afloat with billions of dollars from the U.S. and Europe but the heightened U.S. hostility toward Russia has impaired chances for big-power cooperation on a number of these other conflicts.
All of this may fit the neocon agenda of removing or punishing governments that are viewed as unfriendly to Israel, but these Clinton-embraced strategies have been highly destructive to a peaceful and prosperous world. There is also the increased danger that Clinton might represent as Commander-in-Chief when her most hawkish inclinations are not tempered or restrained by President Obamas general resistance to interventionist wars.
For months, Clinton has been identified by top neocons as their best hope to maintain influence at the highest levels of Washington, especially if America First Republican Donald Trump secures the GOP nomination.
snip
Kagan, whom Clinton appointed to a State Department advisory panel, is married to Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, a former senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who rose under Clinton and helped orchestrate the Ukraine coup which sabotaged Obamas behind-the-scenes cooperation with Putin on touchy issues such as Iran and Syria.
snip
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/28/bernie-sanders-as-commander-in-chief/
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Bernie Sanders, Commander-in-Chief! (Original Post)
amborin
Mar 2016
OP
grasswire
(50,130 posts)1. Hooray for Parry!
A journalist who has CERTAINLY earned his stripes.
Thanks.
GeorgiaPeanuts
(2,353 posts)2. Tulsi is principled unlike DWS...
DWS continues to blatantly favor Clinton campaign while maintaining her position as head of DNC
Octafish
(55,745 posts)3. Would mean no more 'money trumps peace'
PNAC are worried.
Our woman in Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, is married to PNAC co-founder Robert Kagan
Robert Kagan's brother is Frederick Kagan
Frederick Kagan's spouse is Kimberly Kagan
Brilliant people, big ideas, etc. The thing is, that's a lot of PNAC. And the PNAC approach to international relations means more wars without end for profits without cease, among other things detrimental to democracy, peace and justice.
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)4. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, amborin.