[Peace-discuss] "Progressive" Democratic Party superstars: both pro-drone, one's pro-Venezuela invasion too

[J.B. Nicholson]

Quoting CJ Hopkins in http://www.unz.com/chopkins/the-magic-socialist/ :

> Oh, yeah, and in case you’re worried about Bernie backing the empire’s 
> ongoing regime change op in Venezuela[1], don’t be. He’s just playing
> 4D chess, like Obama did throughout his presidency, by pretending to do
> the empire’s bidding while he actually went about the business of 
> resurrecting hope and eradicating racism. Bernie’s just being sly like 
> that! It might seem like he’s aligning himself with mass murdering
> thugs like Elliot Abrams and sadistic ass freaks like Marco Rubio[2],
> but he isn’t. Not really. It’s just an act. I mean, he has to get
> elected, doesn’t he?
[1] https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1099380342018912257
[2] 
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/psychopathic-us-senator-openly-calls-for-maduro-to-suffer-gaddafis-fate-43b618eaaf0e

Regarding "Bernie backing the empire's regime change op in Venezuela": 
Sanders is for the US invasion of Venezuela. He uncritically repeated CIA 
talking points on his Twitter account:

2019: From https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1099380342018912257

 > The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis. The
 > Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow
 > humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against
 > protesters.

Jimmy Dore has a show on this post in 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMxuU6_3seg rightly pointing out that 
Sanders is helping the US government lay the groundwork for a US invasion 
of Venezuela: (starting at 4m44s)

> Isn't it amazing that every country that we want to invade happens to
> be [lead by] a "bad guy"? Every country that's oil-rich, they happen to
> be ruled by a "bad guy"! Isn't that weird? That every country that has
> a lot of oil that we want to get our corporate hands on, or has a
> country that we want to put a pipeline through, somehow they always have
> an oppressive dictator government, isn't that weird? Saddam Hussein was
> a bad guy who oppressed his own people: he gassed his own people (the
> gas we sold him). Muammar Gaddafi was a bad guy, he oppresses his own
> people even though he had the best country in Africa and actually took
> care of their own people. Oh, Assad--Assad's a bad guy: he gases his
> own people and we've got [...] Now Maduro, Maduro's a bad guy: he
> oppresses his own people... Don't you ever get tired of this? You never
> get tired of repeating CIA talking points? You realize that they have to
> put out that narrative first? Before they go and invade, before they do
> what they do? They have to first do this, this is the first part of it.
> And then when you repeat this, you're doing the bidding of the CIA. I
> know a lot of people will say, "Well, I'm glad Bernie says this because
> then I can take him serious when he says we shouldn't invade.". No, when
> he does this, this manufactures consent for invasion. That's why that's
> bad. Even if he finally concludes that we shouldn't. What you're doing
> is manufacturing consent because you're saying "Yes, the security
> state, our intelligence community, John Bolton and Eliot Abrams are
> telling you the truth! There really is a crisis, we really need to...".
> The crisis is caused by us and our economic sanctions on the country
> along with Saudi Arabia overproducing oil to drive the price of oil down
> to $28/barrel so we can say there is a humanitarian crisis so we can
> then do our invasion. Do you see how you're going along with it when you
> do this? This isn't a fuckin' Rubik's Cube, this happens EVERY TIME!
> EVERY TIME it happens like this! This isn't new! I can see it, Ron
> [Placone, co- host] can see it, Steph [Zamorano, co-host] can see it.
> Fuckin' comedians see through you! That's why this is bullshit. You
> gotta stop the foreign wars, Bernie. You gotta tell the truth about 'em.
> Tell the fuckin' truth. And if you don't know this is bullshit, fuckin'
> shame on you and your staff. And it's too bad that this is the best we
> can get. It's too bad.
I would think this would end Sanders' legitimacy, but his horrid pro-drone 
war positions from 2016 didn't stop him from garnering a lot of support 
from Democratic Party fans (who seemed to only get upset when he conceded 
to Hillary Clinton at the DNC Hillary rally).

What did Sanders say about the drone war then?

2016: From NBC's "Meet the Press" 
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/bernie-sanders-would-use-drones-to-fight-terror-542522435844

> Chuck Todd, host: What does counterterrorism look like in a Sanders 
> administration? Drones? Special forces? Or what does it look like?
> 
> Bernie Sanders: All of that and more.
> 
> Chuck Todd: You're okay with the drone, using drones--
> 
> Bernie Sanders: Look, drone is a weapon. When it works badly, it is 
> terrible and it is counterproductive. When you blow up a facility or a 
> building which kills women and children, you know what? Not only
> doesn't do us any -- it's terrible.
> 
> Chuck Todd: But you're comfortable with the idea of using drones if you 
> think you've isolated an important terrorist?
> 
> Bernie Sanders: Yes.
> 
> Chuck Todd: So that continues?
> 
> Bernie Sanders: Yes.
And now we have a new Democratic Party presidential candidate in Rep. Tulsi 
Gabbard (D-HI) who gave us a different spin on being pro-drone war:

2018: From 
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/ or 
audio starting at 29m36s into https://traffic.megaphone.fm/PPY1407171456.mp3

> Tulsi Gabbard: [...] yes, I do still believe that the right approach to
> take is these quick strike forces, surgical strikes, in and out, very
> quickly, no long-term deployment, no long-term occupation to be able to
> get rid of the threat that exists and then get out and the very limited
> use of drones in those situations where our military is not able to get
> in without creating an unacceptable level of risk, and where you can
> make sure that you’re not causing, you know, a large amount of civilian
> casualties.
See 
https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/ 
for more on this.

These are the leading "progressive" lights in the Democratic Party clearly 
indicating their support for drone war. As far as I know neither of these 
statements of support for drone assassination have changed.

As far as I can tell Sanders enjoyed a high degree of popularity for a 
while (including Jacobin magazine which just published an entire issue 
dedicated to praising him. His horrid foreign policy is mostly ignored). 
Gabbard has been either ignored or criticized for her foreign policy views 
because they're called (wrongly) "anti-war".

Sanders' foreign policy hasn't changed much; it went from bad to still bad. 
Gabbard's position on drone war is also bad, but she takes no flack for it 
(including from Jimmy Dore who recently had interview segments with her and 
repeated his support for her presidential campaign).