This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1477937
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1477937
“Destabilizing” presumes stability of an area that has wobbled for millenia. Kitten photo brought an “Awww” from the wife.
9 Likes
Anyone else looking forward to ISIS-LMNOP?
5 Likes
Actually, I’m pretty damned sure they are. But I believe they are equal opportunity terrorizers and it would make no difference to them if my wife and I were devout Muslims, Catholics or atheists. For my cats, the terrorism is the point. The make-up cuddling and purring is just a happy byproduct
13 Likes
ISIS-K…
Repression and terror fighting repression and terror.
Just wonderful.
3 Likes
Gee, your kitty is better educated than me. My copy of the Koran is in English on one page, Arabic on the other.
4 Likes
It’s clear at this point what we’ve been doing for the last 100 years hasn’t worked and isn’t working now. So let’s try something different. Instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military let’s spend it instead on F150s and HBO Max and Captial One credit cards and Taylor Swift streaming and Taco Bell and Pampers and Levis and all the other things that make American culture both the envy and the desire of the whole world and instead of dropping expensive bombs drop that stuff on the Middle East and anywhere else we can think of. Including probably red states. It’ll take two or three or five years but at the end of the process we’ll have created a whole generation that wants nothing more than to live their lives in peace with each other.
2 Likes
It seems like only yesterday when “We defeated 100% of the ISIS Caliphate and no longer have any troops in the area under attack by Turkey, in Syria. We did our job perfectly!” Thanks, Biden.
4 Likes
I support eliminating waste and Congressional pork in our military spending. I’ve ranted against the ridiculous B-21 manned nuclear bomber program, for example. But you want to eliminate all of it?
If so, you’re ignoring how the US military has helped ensure decades of world peace so we can enjoy all those “F150s and HBO Max and Captial One credit cards and Taylor Swift streaming and Taco Bell and Pampers and Levis.”
The MAD nuclear standoff between the US, Russia, and China has prevented another full-scale world war for 79 years. Our ability to respond to things like the Houthi attacks on cargo ships keeps all those nice consumer goods flowing around the world. China would happily gobble up not just Taiwan but the Philippines and Malaysia if the US military wasn’t a counterbalance in that part of the world.
I was a Vietnam War protester back in the day, so I’m not a knee-jerk supporter of the military. And there is a ton of waste that should be culled. But I understand enough about how the world works to know that humans haven’t yet entered an era where you can have a prosperous and healthy society without a big stick to keep the barbarians outside the gates.
10 Likes
Wait a minute back in 2019 Trump said he defeated ISIS. Hmmm.
Trump Says ISIS Is Defeated. Reality Says Otherwise. - POLITICO Magazine
9 Likes
Where have you been since the 60’s? American popular culture already dominates the world and is used as a force to move people. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine McDonald’s ruled in that country and Russians paid for their burgers with Visa or MasterCard. Lot’s of Russians were pissed off when the USA pulled all that out of Russia but the war goes on.
As Anthony Bourdain one said “if you’re pissed off at the French don’t pour their wine in the street. Keep making better music and better movies than they do. They hate that”.
I’ve spent near 40 years living in Europe, Asia and South America. Got a Tehran cab driver at my side for a weekend just by tipping him with Juicy Fruit gum. A 2 night stay in a swanky Moscow hotel for a worn out Levi’s jacket and a month’s free rent in Germany for American labeled Jim Beam and Jack Danial’s. When I pack out for the Amazon I take NY Yankees baseball caps and LeBron tee shirts.
My point: Yes the world loves that shit but the USA has never been able to change much with it. Putting all your eggs in a pop culture basket would be reckless.
6 Likes
Are you attributing that quote to Biden? It was made by Sarah Huckabee Sanders while serving as Trump’s Press Sec.
2 Likes
To be honest, I was looking forward to ISIS-Captain Crunch.
3 Likes
No, I think your thanks should be directed at the GW Bush administration in general and his inept potentate, J Paul Bremer, who summarily disbanded the Iraqi army after W’s war of choice, thus creating ISIS. The original ISIS has subsequently spawned a number of toxic spin-offs that have spread like the plague. They were pissed, unemployed and had a lot of time on their hands.
The majority of today’s top ISIS figures were former high ranking officers in Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army, who are behaving like the Wicked Witch of the West’s flying monkeys, spreading bad things wherever they touch.
“ How Disbanding the Iraqi Army Fueled ISIS
May 28, 2015 9:06 PM EDT
Iraqi Shiite fighters battle Sunni Islamic State militants north of Baghdad May 26.MOHAMMED SAWAF / AFP / Getty Images
After nearly a year of air strikes led by the U.S. and ground attacks by the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is proving to be a far more cagey and cunning foe than the Pentagon ever expected. A big reason for its success is the George W. Bush Administration’s decision to disband the Iraqi army shortly after the 2003 invasion—without the knowledge or consent of either the Pentagon or President.
It’s a jarring reminder of how a key decision made long ago is complicating U.S. efforts to fight ISIS and restore some semblance of stability to Iraq. Instead of giving Iraq a fresh start with a new army, it helped create a vacuum that ISIS has filled. Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general and chief of U.S. Central Command from 1997 to 2000, said keeping the Iraqi army intact was always part of U.S. strategy. “The plan was that the army would be the foundation of rebuilding the Iraqi military,” he says. “Many of the Sunnis who were chased out ended up on the other side and are probably ISIS fighters and leaders now.” One expert estimates that more than 25 of ISIS’s top 40 leaders once served in the Iraqi military.”
7 Likes
Trump says a lotta shit that is idiotic, pointless and stupid. He will take credit for things he never knew existed. Like RNA vaccines for example. Scientists have worked on the idea for 30 years and more. Trump spends 2 hours in Atlanta at the CDC and then claimed he created the RNA covid vaccine out of whole cloth never having spent 2 minutes in a lab in his life. It’s typical of him. He is a FRAUD.
Trump said he knew more about the terrorist groups that the generals do. He likely could not name any groups or call out one leader’s name.
7 Likes
I’m confused. I thought Fat Boy wiped out ISIS? Or so the fat clown said so repeatedly 5 years ago.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/435402-16-times-trump-declared-or-predicted-the-demise-of-isis/
2 Likes
Your quote is close to what was said, but President Biden said no such thing - it was Trump and his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“ And on Oct. 10, Trump was even more clear.
“We defeated 100% of the ISIS Caliphate and no longer have any troops in the area under attack by Turkey, in Syria. We did our job perfectly!” he tweeted. Then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 22 used the phrase on Air Force One, telling reporters that the ISIS self-declared caliphate had been “100 percent eliminated.”
Trump walks back claim of defeating ‘100% of the ISIS caliphate’ - Roll Call.
5 Likes
FYI
Iowa principal who risked life to protect students during a school shooting has died (msn.com)
DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa principal who put himself in harm’s way to protect students during a school shooting earlier this month died Sunday, a funeral home confirmed.
Marburger was critically injured during the Jan. 4 attack, which began in the school’s cafeteria as students were gathering for breakfast before class. An 11-year-old middle school student was killed in the shooting, and six other people were injured. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
The day after the shooting, the state Department of Public Safety said Marburger “acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”
11 Likes