A Profile In Cowardice

This is a profile in hypocrisy and cowardice. It is a black mark and a stain on the legislative branch of our federal government. The do nothing Republicans shirked their duty to this country again by literally running away from Washington rather than remaining in session to vote on authorizing and funding the war on ISIS. In the Senate this neglect of duty was bipartisan, with Democrats cowering because of the false charges their Republican opponents are using to poison well. What is particularly galling about the cowardice of the Republicans are those false charges and the other outright lies they are telling. Frankly the people of this country should be outraged over the disdain the right wing shitbags have for the knowledge and intelligence of the voters. I know he has been getting most of the attention, but Scot Brown is not the only disingenuous Republican candidate running blatantly false advertisements designed to scare the hell out of the gullible Republican base and perhaps some undiscerning independents as well.

I find it hard to believe that the cowardly, do nothing, Republican congressman who are literally running away from the fight on terrorists actually have the nerve to say that the man who killed Osama Bin Ladin and is now attacking ISIS is not doing enough to protect this country. And what would those Republican morons do differently? They seem to think putting a border agent on every square foot of our southern border is a good idea. Never mind the fact that that would be prohibitively expensive. Gotta prevent Lucy from bringing toxic tamales into the garment factory, don't you know. All right, so maybe I should not have made the tamale comment, but I want to show you just how hypocritical and absurdly racist the Republicans have become. There is absolutely no evidence of terrorists entering this country from Mexico. The Republican claims to the contrary are merely an attempt to tie the immigration issue to a debate over how best to protect ourselves from terrorists. Incidentally, the only President who granted amnesty to illegal immigrants was Ronald Reagan. So I guess Saint Ronny isn't infallible after all. I guess maybe if he had provided some very stiff penalties to companies who hired illegals we would not have had such of flood of illegal immigration. Holding employers accountable for providing jobs to illegal immigrants, however, would stifle the exploitive advantages those businesses have, and it would raise the price of the goods they produce. Gotta protect the exorbitant salaries the oligopoly hands out to its CEO s, you know. And, of course, Republicans want us to believe that deporting millions of people is better than giving them a legal status that would allow them to make a greater economic contribution to this country.

I am sorry but what we have seen over the last six years is a Republican Party that is incapable of protecting us from any real threat. So while the President is doing his best to confront a threat to everything that is decent, the Republicans are still trying win elections by selling us straw dogs and bogey men. The people should demand that the politically impotent Speaker of the house, John Boehner, call the House back in session to deal with a real threat for a change. The bottom line here is that it is congress that has the power to declare war, and congress should grow enough of a back bone to do its duty.

Get Real:

Enough with the damn distortions! General Dempsey said if the current strategy against ISIS does not work he would recommend the introduction of American ground troops. Now everyone is blowing his testimony way out of proportion. “General Dempsey is skeptical about the effectiveness of Obama's Plan,” some hand wringers scream. Andrea Mitchell, along with many other drama casters, said President Obama seems to be out of sync with his generals. As much as I hate to disappoint people who are trying to add a bit of excitement to attract an audience, I have to say that General Dempsey's testimony was not a Truman v. MacArthur moment; nor was it an indication of what is likely to happen. Here is a news flash for you: no general is ever happy unless he is rolling into a situation with overwhelming force, is able to quickly roll up the enemy's flank, win the war and become the great hero everyone hails as a military genius. Ain't likely to happen in the modern world folks!

There really are no good options. This is going to be a protracted struggle with no clear bench marks or end game. Until the countries in that region rise at least to the level of the last half of the twentieth century, there will be medieval religious conflicts fought with modern weapons. The misfits and sociopaths will gravitate to the worst scum in the sewer, and the rest of the world will try to keep that scum from destroying civilization. This is not the fault of Islam any more than the crusades were the fault of Christianity. There will always be people who will misuse religion. All military action is a holding action until diplomacy, education, and economic development make the extremists unattractive to the people in that region. This struggle has been going on for decades and will continue for decades.

I know what I have said is not very appealing. People want quick resolutions, and that is what politicians, particularly demagogs, promise them. I think Bush's war should have taught us the folly of that. I also think that the cold war should have taught us the virtue of persistence and patience. We should risk as little as possible to do what must be done to protect ourselves and to provide the help others need to make things better!