And, Cheney Rails To Fox New Viewers about Obama!

Since, I just published on Dick Cheney and including a quite from Richard Clarke, It might be appropriate to offer a bit more from the most credible Clarke.

Bush counterterrorism czar: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld all committed ‘war crimes’ (via Raw Story )

President George W. Bush’s former top counterterrorism official said this week that he is convinced that Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all committed war crimes during the Iraq war. In an interview…

Donald Rumsfeld On What Network And Said What? "……Trained Ape?"

The emergence of a past seemingly long forgot!

How many years and months was the US spared the inane and ridiculous appearances of former Bush Administration officials spewing pure drivel for ratings hungry media. They also spew to a public that has proven it too soon forgets its past. A public that may not mind the damnation of repeating that past.

The Bush Administration left the nation so deep in the doldrums of an economic and international abyss, history has already started its legacy development. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet, Rove et al. have a place in our lives that should be quarantined into the recesses of our minds never to be allowed to across our brain Cortex. 

The GOP and RNC conducted national events over a six-year period without appearances from Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld. During the 2012 RNC Convention Rice was paraded out as a “trophy” to spew “lockstep” rhetoric. Why the 2014 visuals accompanied by utterance nonsense? His most recent comments will be considered racist by many people. 

The Bush Administration ghosts.

Bush starts to make appearances. Cheney is actually allowed to speak via Fox News and certain Sunday Morning (GOP leaning) news shows. Hosts actually sit across from Cheney and ask questions, then sit back while Cheney spews pure jingoist garbage from the corner of his crooked mouth. Rice has crawled into the public eye since the RNC Convention and with each statement makes a complete fool of herself.  

Imagine this as Rice contemplated Putin’s invasion of Crimea.

Condi Rice: The U.S. Can’t Step Back And Let Others Lead

If I may posit.  No one from the Bush Administration should be given a platform to criticize the very president who has worked tirelessly to clean-up the utter mess they left for us all.  As politics has sallied over time, we cannot expect republicans to follow the old adage taught to me at a very young age.

“A fool will never be discovered a fool if he keeps his mouth closed.” 

Since, politics forces the fools upon us, I cannot help but lay blame to ratings seeking media.  

Think for a moment. Have we grown to the point our memory is so short and shallow we forget the dark ages of the Bush years?  On what basis can media simply pluck the non-credible from the shadows of the shamed, to speak on camera and microphone? Rice spoke of “allowing others to lead.” How about the leadership from the Bush cabinet? Leadership that included outing an active CIA Agent.

Rumsfeld now ventures into criticism of President Obama and he does so with analogy that some will be label racist.

After The Raw Story embed and advertisement,  catch my close.

The Raw Story

Read more after the break below

Donald Rumsfeld: U.S. diplomacy would be better if Obama was a ‘trained ape’ (via Raw Story )

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Monday blasted President Barack Obama’s diplomacy, saying a “trained ape” could do a better job. In an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, Rumsfeld complained that relations with…

_____________________________

Diplomacy; “trained ape” 

OK, so a “trained ape” could do a better job of International diplomacy! Seriously, he goes there? From a man who’s would send Bush Iraq War memos laced with quoted Scripture? He has the temerity to reference Obama’s diplomacy while some of us clearly remember this….

George Bush got memos from Rumsfeld that used Scripture to push Iraq war

 

We understand the shallowness of media that broadcast or write about comments from Rumsfeld. We can only hope the American public is far beyond Fox News propaganda from the Right and well beyond thinking media today is about delivery of news. Media, both Left and Right, has metastasized into communication wings for their respective ideology.

Media Resurrects Wrong Spokesperson Against Obama and Syria

Small image of the day!

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney (Scooter Libby), Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and Collin Powell pulled one the nation’s most surreptitious and heinous acts of misinformation as a justification for war. There was no WMD! As we listen to credible news host speak of the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, we only hear: “Ridding the world of Saddam Hussein.” As my memory serves me, “ridding the world of Saddam Hussein” was never once mentioned as the Bush/Cheney strategy unfolded. Let’s set that fact aside for a moment.

Since just before the Bush Library campaign moved into full blossom, we started to see more and more George W. Bush. Dick Cheney even dusted $100.00 bills from the entry to his mole hold and moved his daughter aside to speak boldly against President Obama. Someone even produced a television special for Showtime: The World According To Dick Cheney. Rice peeps out from time to time (mostly at GOP events). Rumsfeld has now surfaced like an irritating Ant to speak complete hypocrisy about the failings of the US strategy regarding Syria.

 

The shame of it all!

Television news producers know how the US entered the Iraq War. They know the Bush charge to war was a fabrication pre-determined as such. Each producer of Fox News and CNN who book Rumsfeld (for ratings) to get his unique legacy resurrecting babble know this. Or, better yet, this! Of course, we know the ultimate shame that seeps well below the horrors of the Iraq War fabrication and flawed execution: the outing of Valerie Plame.

The shame goes to news producers and managers who scrounge around for negative news stories comparable to gold miners shifting through a creek for specks of gold. As these producers book far less than credible people for on-air appearances, they actually demean the cred of their networks. Fox News has no credibility, and CNN is fighting hard to lower itself to the very lucrative “‘low information” viewers.

The Johnson Tapes..Nixon’s Treachery

Richard M. Nixon, harbinger of things to come!

While baby boomers have for decades  wondered about how our leaders perpetrated the Viet Nam War, I must admit the recent publication and release of President Johnson’s (LBJ) Oval Office tapes has provided an official and formal ‘jaw-dropper’. The BBC has published (and released) yet another legacy destroying expose on Richard Nixon.  

I could not help but wonder, as I listened to the short segment with LBJ speaking about Nixon.  I wondered how so many people actually cast votes and contribute money to the GOP. The party has dissolved into a shameful shell of a party long dead, but not yet buried.  It seems over the past two weeks revelations about political and social malfeasance from the Right have sprung-up like irritating dandelions in a well manicured lawn. My wonderment was heightened by exhibitions of pure racism and unfair treatment of  a visitor at the annual GOP CPAC “ooze”, Christe’s use of the word “boy” in yet another angst filled tirade for the rotund governor, and the release of the Iraq War Reconstruction SIGIR study. History will also chronicle the Showtime Dick Cheney special replete with “If I had to do it all over, I would not change a thing.” How can people continue to support a party that is so riddled with the cancers of defeat, it appears to soak-up chemo treatments with ongoing exhibitions of the unbelievable? And, when history reaches from the ages to deliver such lessons the wonderment becomes all the more intriguing (and yes rewarding).  

History is a phenomena that never fails to intrigue.  What we do not know can be psychological shattering once we come to “know”. I find myself feeling angry and manipulated as I come to “know”.  If you do not feel same, you might want to consider counseling.

I wrote earlier the week about how powerful men use us (common folk) like chess pieces. The powerful maneuver us like pawns in games that do little more than advance their agendas. Or, they play the game for iniquitous satisfaction of their ego, paradigm, beliefs, and elitist desires.

The revelations of Nixon’s treasonous malfeasance provides yet another view of Republican governance, while in some way reminding of things to come with Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Tenet/Powell. 

             
We are going to post a 1:47 minute excerpt from a 58 minute portion of one of LBJ’s comments about politics and Nixon.   we will post more below as the story takes a fascinating turn and may involve monitoring a senior GOP adviser. Johnson mentions possible involvement the adviser he refers to as a bit of a looker in this MSNBC segment . 

The British Broadcast Company (DURATION: 01:47)

“If it was made public, it would rock the nation” 

How Richard Nixon destabilised the Vietnamese peace talks in 1968 to enhance his chances of victory in that year’s American Election. 

Using newly released White House recordings, David Taylor completes an investigation begun by his colleague Charles Wheeler into the extraordinary actions of Richard Nixon as he attempted to sabotage the Peace Talks over the Vietnam war in 1968.

Here we offer the full 58 minute audio. You will be linked to a page that will only require a simple click of an icon.  The page also allows listening to individual clips vs. the entire 58 minute release.  Note: it is not the easiest audio to understand unless you have perfect hearing ability and the opportunity to crank up the volume.

The revelations are not new.  As you have heard and observed in the video above, the story went silent in the 1990s. 

The BBC News Magazine story is linked here. (good read)

The Daily Kos provides a comprehensive treatise on the issue. 

Ngô Đình Diệm
President of the Republic of Vietnam

The Daily GOP Ignominious: Hubris Continues! Rumsfeld Tweets and Scarborough Caught Cleasning

The 10 year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War has proven very interesting. 

Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense, joined the commemoration with nothing shy of a horrid slap in the face against the intelligence of many in the nation.  

Click image,  linked to source

“Liberating of 25 mil Iraqis!”    Wow!  A glance to the past with a jaded motive.  Does Rumsfeld actually believe people do not remember fabricated claims of WMD?  Does he fail to realize electronic media has archives of his incompetence and mismanagement in Iraq?

Lawrence O’Donnell, The Last Word expended a 6 minute segment on one aspect of the charge to war, that had to have included Rumsfeld.

I do not recall one utterance for ‘freeing the Iraqi” people as Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Tenet/Powell fabricated (lied and manipulated) the nation into war. Rumsfeld’s “hubris” continues. 

Rachel Maddow explored other aspects of how those who pushed the nation to the brink of disaster. Her expose focuses on the one perpetrator who was not only most visible during the Bush Crusade, he remains visible via his tweet. The tweet perfectly illustrates continued malfeasance from Rumsfeld.

The 10th anniversary also included quite a few attempts by conservatives to bring more non-Iraq War supporters in congress  into the “we signed off on the war” legislators. 

Media Matters is reporting on one of the most notable instances of ‘reverse cleansing of the Iraq War’ from Joe Scarborough and his MSNBC production team.

UPDATED: Morning Joe Wrong On Pelosi “Beating The Drums Of War” Over Iraq 

Blog ››› March 19, 2013 1:44 PM EDT ››› EMILY ARROWOOD 

MSNBC’s Morning Joe selectively edited comments Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave in 2002 to assert that she was “beating the drums of war” in the run up to the Iraq war, but the highlighted comments come from a speech in which Pelosi urged Congress to vote against authorizing the use of force in Iraq.  

During Morning Joe’s coverage of the 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war, co-host Mika Brzezinski introduced a prepared video montage on how “it was a lot easier for some members of Congress to support the conflict before they were against it.” Co-host Joe Scarborough provided the voice-over in the video, and claimed it showed how “the very same people who spent years beating up George Bush were the very ones beating the drum for Iraq’s regime change and Saddam Hussein’s ouster.”

The video juxtaposes comments made by members of Congress purportedly “beating the drum for Iraq’s regime change,” against later comments by the same members of Congress criticizing President Bush over the war. One of the voices Scarborough highlights is Pelosi, shown in the video saying:  

I applaud the President on focusing on this issue and on taking the lead to disarm Saddam Hussein. 

Read more  (updated video)

….AND THE BAND PLAYS ON……

Romney with Bush as "Man in the Mirror’ and a Stumbling Ryan

 

The Romney Campaign: a campaign that begs for the return of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Tenet/Rice…..and the horrors of 2001 – 2008.

Watch the newly selected Romney VP choice “tough guy” Paul Ryan. Ryan was misguided and manipulated in 2002 n the Run-up Charge of the Bush Brigade into Iraq. He is misguided and ill-informed now. Now, however, he could be in a position to show a penchant for misguided at the expense of you and me.

The Romney campaigns doubles-down on the misguided Ryan, they assign a noted Right-wing propaganda mouthpiece as his chief adviser. Ryan has been turned over to Dan Senor.

  Join the piece after the break just below….

If you want to see an example of ‘playing to the base’ and GOP jingoism, watch the following video. I will not ask that you expose yourself to the overwhelming sadness of the entire interview. Within, 40 seconds of the start of the video, Ryan shows a degree of naivety and lack of common sense that can be compared only the the likes of Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle.  He takes a shot at “having more experience than Barack Obama” as he has been in Congress longer, he goes on to make a half-assed and less than confident expression of , “…..I have voted to send people to war”.  Wow, I have to wonder if that one was not of the Dan Senor play book. 

Wathc the first 40 seconds. Or, if you are a sado-masochist, watch the entire video.

Yes, detractors will rant about the majority of the US Congress voted similarly.  I offer up a major distinction to the ranters.  Those members of Congress who are still seated are not standing on camera ‘bragging’ about having voted to send people to war, ” in an effort to disparage a president who has proven more than capable in international affairs.

While we have focused on the ‘misguided’ Paul Ryan, this piece is a bit of a double-entendre. There is real critical importance in realizing that the advisers and surrogates we see and hear form the Romney campaign will occupy offices in the White House Thus, they will become core advisers to a president who appears increasingly remote, distant and non-attentive.  Does that remind of George W. Bush or what?  The one thing Bush did not appear to hold dear to his inner being: personal financial secrecy when secrecy is ill-advised: tax returns.

Let’s place this screed in perspective.  Romney, serial lair and secretive to a major fault (possibly hiding felonious tax information), Ryan a young ideologue who just recently disavowed love for Ayn Rand (thus influence-able from sources he should have placed in perspective as undesirable), Dan Senor who has significant experience turning  (combat and administrative)  losses into verbal declarations of wins, quack Sunnunu replete with irascible tendencies that appear as dangerous, Rick Gorka (“kiss my ass” aide to Romney). and the inimitable “etch-a-sketch man (name  do not remember and I will not seek) as core occupants of the White House and the Executive Branch of US Government.

Well, I may have written myself into consideration of reversing the double-entendre with contemplation of the latter vs the aforementioned misguided Ryan as the central subject of the piece.

The GOP never ceases to amaze.  It is much like Dr. Brzezinski once told Joe Scarborough, (on-air) “..you are remarkably shallow”.

The Cycle, SE Cupp and Wilie E Coyote

The new MSNBC show, The Cycle, a replacement for the Dylan Ratigan Show has good potential, but the network, in my opinion, made one blunder.  I realize The Cycle host demographics are audience centric and ratings focused. If you watch the show, you will have one African-American host, two women host and one white male host. Ah, what could be better?  

You will also notice the hosts are similar in age; as a minimum they share a demographic generation.  They appear as Gen Y (ers).  Of course, all host are from the ‘beautiful people’ citizenry and one of the four might have background in journalism; maybe. You may have noticed I did not touch on the political make-up on the host team.  Composition is a salient point in our “all things politics’ world’; a critical point as MSNBC is an a all politics network.

I mentioned a ‘blunder’ above, did I not?  Yes, I feel the addition of SE Cupp will damage show ratings.  The decision to place a conservative on the team was a good business decision. The choice of conservative may have taken the network to a place they should not have gone.  SE Cupp meets the gender model and the physical appearance model, but all things stop right there.  She is typically conservative in her demeanor with an abundance of non-verbals that does not behoove her role on the show. She frequently stumbles through her oratory and more often than not choices inane analogies to illustrate flawed points.  Her zeal for defending all things conservative often end as depicted in the video below.

Exhibit (Short version)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now, have you ever seen the Roadrunner Cartoons?  How about any cartoon segment of the Wilie E Coyote banging his head against the wall after his planned trap failed to yield the desired result: a dead Road Runner. 

The look on Cupp’s face when the adroit veteran answered her question was as much like the foiled Coyote as I have seen.

The Right just cannot deal with facts. The hand-grenade story closed Cupp’s mouth like I have never seen. If you view the complete video below, you will find additional examples of the MSNBC misplacement.  Before the full video, if you choose to view the full segment, shows the comprehensive extent of Cupp’s mental shortcomings.  The Right just hates it when someone criticizes war.  She may have been immersed in her Masters degree in religion (yet she claims to be an atheist) to know just how Bush/Cheney took all matters of war lightly.  

Full interview

 

Zeller’s book relates to the war in Afghanistan.  Rumsfeld comments as follows appear to be focused on troops headed for George Bush’s war in Iraq.  Cupp asks the snippy question with all disdainful facial construct.  She may not have the background to remember just ‘how lightly’ Bush and Cheney pursed Bush’s quest for getting Saddam Hussein.  

Rumsfeld

View Full Version : U.S. Troops Fire Complaints at Rumsfeld

China

December-8th-2004, 01:42 PM

U.S. Troops Fire Complaints at Rumsfeld 

By Tabassum Zakaria 

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under friendly fire Wednesday from troops who took up his invitation to ask tough questions about Iraq (news – web sites).

Hundreds of soldiers applauded a comrade who complained to Rumsfeld that U.S. troops were being forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles in Iraq because of a shortage of armored transport. 

“Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to armor our vehicles … (scrap) that has already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles to take into combat?, the soldier said. 

“We do not have proper armorment for our vehicles to carry us north (into Iraq).” 

At Camp Buehring in Kuwait, 20 km (12 miles) south of the Iraq border, Rumsfeld faced other questions about equipment shortages and the U.S. role in Iraq after elections scheduled for Jan. 30. 

He conceded that “not every vehicle has the degree of armor that it would be desirable for it to have,” but said the army was hurrying to plate more vehicles. 

“I think it is something like 400 a month are being done,” he said. “As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time… 

“I’ve talked a great deal about this with a team of people who have been working hard at the Pentagon (news – web sites)… if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up.” 

The army has acknowledged problems in supplying sufficient numbers of the armored Humvee, a light vehicle which without extra armor can be especially vulnerable to the daily attacks by insurgents in Iraq using roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. 

The U.S. administration has repeatedly come under fire from critics who accuse it of failing to adequately supply troops with armored vehicles and body armor. 

Several U.S. soldiers face disciplinary proceedings after refusing to go out on a road convoy in Iraq in October, complaining their vehicles were not armored and in poor condition. 

NATIONAL GUARD EQUIPMENT 

Another soldier asked Rumsfeld what the Pentagon was doing “to address shortages and antiquated equipment that National Guard soldiers … are going to roll into Iraq with?” The soldier was referring to allegations that regular army units have been given better equipment than reservists. 

“Now settle down, settle down. Hell, I’m an old man, and it’s early in the morning. I’m just gathering my thoughts here,” the 72-year-old Rumsfeld told the troops. 

“No way I can prove it, but I’m told that the army is breaking its neck to see that there is not a differentiation” in the quality of equipment, he added. 

Another soldier asked Rumsfeld about the army’s “stop-loss” policy that has prevented thousands of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (news – web sites) from leaving the military when their volunteer service commitment ends. 

Another asked him what the plan for U.S. forces was after Iraq’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for Jan. 30. 

“After the election … you would see a reduction in the forces of the coalition countries and that’s the hope, and that’s the expectation, the pace of that however would be determined completely on what the facts on the ground are,” Rumsfeld replied. 

He pointed to Afghanistan as a success story, after holding elections and inaugurating Hamid Karzai as president this week. “It’s not a quagmire, it’s a democracy,” he said. 

Rumsfeld later flew to India for talks with Indian defense officials at the end of a trip that took him to Kabul to see Karzai sworn in Tuesday.

————————————-

“Now settle down, settle down. Hell, I’m an old man, and it’s early in the morning. I’m just gathering my thoughts here,” the 72-year-old Rumsfeld told the troops. 

Maybe he should retire then. :doh:

Rumsfeld  Donald Rumsfeld book admits ‘misstatements’ over WMD sites

The Guardian2011-02-08 Shinseki v Rumsfeld Part I This is a clip which de­scribes the con­flict be­tween the Pen­tagol­ian Lead­er­ship and GEN Eric Shin­se­ki.

  

Gen_Eric_Shinseki_  On February 25, 2003, four months before the end of his term as Chief of Staff of the Army, Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he thought an occupying force of several hundred thousand men would be needed to stabilize postwar Iraq. He was pressed to provide a range by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI). Below is an excerpt from the exchange: SEN. LEVIN: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army’s force requirement for an occupation of Iraq following a successful completion of the war? GEN. SHINSEKI: In specific numbers, I would have to rely on combatant commanders’ exact requirements. But I think — SEN. LEVIN: How about a range? GEN. SHINSEKI: I would say that what’s been mobilized to this point — something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence.

We understand the significance of ratings in our age of information, 24/7 news, and partisan political punditry.  We do not understand the placement of the over demonstratively emotional Cupp on a show that has potential for success.  

Leadership in the Face of Jingoism and Ring-Wing Fanaticism

President Obama visited fort Bragg this week to president over the nation’s most historical and relevant event since his inauguration in 2009. He declared the war in Iraq, “over”. He gloriously and in a most presidential way,  ‘welcomed home our troops’ (from that war).  Yet, there is a segment in the population who have taken their obstructionism to the point of disgust: many of our nation’s conservatives (politicians and war-mongering citizens).

The current wave of ‘hawkish’ diatribes from the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham speaks to the avid jingoistic foundation for many of the nation’s conservatives.  The current cast of GOP presidential candidates include at least one or two ‘super war hawks’ who have spoken in open debate about their disdain for US troop withdrawal from Iraq.   If you watch the GOP debates you are hearing resounding applause with mention of possible jingoistic actions against Iran. The audience seems chops-at-the-bit for another war. Yet, only their children will fight their war.

Both Fox News and certain news segments on CNN have included comment which rational thought and smacks misrepresentation of our past.  The words flow along this line (Paraphrase), “Saddam was removed from power, democracy was established in the nation…”  How can respectful people so misrepresent the war in Iraq. The removal of Saddam or establishing democracy in the nation were items taken before the United Nations for authorization of war.  Such non-factual ‘reverse rationalization’ by any media is pathetic.  We were duped into the war by a commonly used conservative tactic called “fear”. WMD and a Saddam nuclear weapon was the rallying cry.  a rallying cry delivered to the United nations by one of our greatest and most honored military leaders.  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tenet duped Collin Powell along with you and me.

Time has moved on!

The end of a nine-year war that contributed greatly to national economic ruination is reason applause and welcoming our troops home. But, for the Right, not the case.

Ah, another mark against President Obama. I have heard the words ‘timid’ all too often of late.  The GOP candidates are even using the ‘buzzword’ as fodder against each other. After all, it is election season and well-time for conservative politicians to romance the-war-loving psyches of their sycophant followers.

Of course, John “I LOVE WAR” McCain would take the lead.

USA Today…. (THE OVAL)

McCain, speaking from the floor of the U.S. Senate, said Obama’s decision on a full withdrawal — with no residual force behind — was timed to the start of the 2012 presidential election, and leaves Iraq vulnerable to terrorists and to anti-U.S. neighbors like Iran.

“I believe that history will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves,” McCain said.

“……..History will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves”.  How amazingly sad to think McCain could have become President of the United States!  so soon he forgets his party’s commitment to leaving Iraq.

A Reflection on the Erratic State of the GOP

Just before the end of calendar year 2008 George Bush and the Iraqi government signed the Iraqi war  Statues of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The agreement included a withdrawal date of US Troops by December 31, 2011.  The Obama Administration ended US troop involvement in Iraq two weeks prior to the Agreement date (end date).  We should remember the Iraqi Government would not grant the US certain protections that our government  requested for continuing in Iraq beyond December, 31. I believe that President Obama and the Defense department wanted to maintain a small security force in country.  The Iraqi government wanted an end to the continued US presence. A kerfuffle ended by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  Before addressing the current jingoistic action from Congressional conservatives (and pundits), I’d like to reflect on a few relevant considerations.

MediaMatters….

Bush agreed to timeline for withdrawal from Iraq

Iraq and U.S. agree that all U.S. forces will withdraw “no later than December 31, 2011.” On November 17, 2008, US and Iraqi officials signed a Security Agreement, often referred to as a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), stating that “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.” The agreement also called for all U.S. combat forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities “no later than June 30, 2009.” [U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement,11/17/08]

Am I correct in recalling a moderate number of Congressional representatives joined John McCain, in his 99% support for Bush’s policies, as he campaigned for the 2008 election? Despite the fact Bush signed the agreement few weeks before he left the White House, he clearly negotiated the timed withdrawal.

During the most sever economic times since the Great Depression and despite public support for coming out of the wars (80% support for ending the wars), Conservative across the nation and most in Congress ridicule our withdrawal.  Often, people need simple facts to make a point. the following information makes that very point.

The WEEK.com

$3.7 trillion
Minimum total cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the Brown University research project Costs of War. “Even small chunks” of that amount “could power many efforts at home,” says Robert Johnson at Business Insider. 

$12,000
Cost that figure boils down to per American 

$27,041
Average per capita income in the United States for twelve months,according to the U.S. Census Bureau
$9.7 billion
Amount, per month, on average, the efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq are costing the U.S., as of late April, according to Defense Department figures 

$27.4 billion
Annual budget of the State Department 

$1.5 billion
Cost of the final shuttle mission in July. NASA could have launched the shuttle “six times for what the Pentagon is allotted to spend each month in those two wars,” says Youssef at McClatchy Newspapers. 

$20 billion
Annual air-conditioning costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to retired brigadier general Steven Anderson, a former chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq 

$385 billion
Estimated cost of George W. Bush’s 2003 expansion of Medicare prescription drug benefits over 10 years. “The Pentagon spends that in Iraq and Afghanistan in about 40 months,” says Youssef. 

$350 billion
Amount the debt ceiling agreement calls for the Defense Department to cut over the next ten years 

$500 billion
Additional cuts the Pentagon would face if the super committee deadlocks or fails to have its plan approved by Congress. Those cuts are part of a prearranged set of drastic spending cuts that would be automatically triggered if the committee fails to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by an additional $1.2 trillion. “This kind of massive cut across the board, which would literally double the number of cuts that we’re confronting, would have devastating effects on our national defense,” says U.S. Defense Secretary Leon  Panetta. 

$14.6 trillion
U.S national debt 

1,626
Number of U.S. military troops that have died in Afghanistan,according to the Associated Press 

4,474
Number that have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003

Yet, McCain wanted to leave thousands of troops in Iraq. Does the nation really need to leave another standing army (battalion or even platoon) in another foreign country?

WIKI….

Countries in which the U.S. has a military presence in 2007.

  More than 1,000 US personnel

  More than 100 US personnel

  Use of military facilities

The cost of such standing armies is phenomenal.   Click this link for a startling set of data.  Take note of our expenditures matched against China.

WIKI…..  

Sample

Horrible isn’t it?

Yet, McCain, Graham, GOP presidential candidates (except for Ron Paul) and many millions conservatives are ridiculing President Obama for his leadership.

These same people are unwilling to tax the nation’s wealthy to help defray the cost of such expenditures.  How sad a commentary!

We cannot fund Medicare for indefinite solvency, we are looking to hack away at Medicaid, Social Security eligibility needs to be raised and we have ‘The Path to Prosperity” from the GOP.  Now, take another look at the red bar chart just above.  Really, we need to take all fo those measures.

American jingoism must go away as surely as an eradicated plague.