[Peace] What I learned about Syria at the Democratic “debates”

Wed Oct 16 15:46:23 UTC 2019

Just from glancing at the NYT this morning, it's pretty clear that the plan
for Elizabeth Warren to win the nomination is going along swimmingly.

Which is to say, welcome to 4 more years of Trump.

On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 9:28 AM Karen Aram via Peace <
peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Sounds good Bob, but this “we don’t live in a police state,” tends to
> apply only to white people, and for some of us who have been attempting to
> get the word out for a long time, it becomes frightening how little people
> care.
>
> I’m not a Tulsi Gabbard supporter, even if elected she works for the DNC
> given they have the power to control her actions, along with the Pentagon,
> State Dept., CIA, Council on Foreign Relations, Advisors etc. However, she
> is getting the word out, and its appalling that she is only polling at 2%.
>
> It could be that those who do know, and understand, aren’t interested in
> the one Party Democrat/Republican for profit system, no matter what a
> candidate has to say. It could be that the majority of people who watch the
> debates and think that they are serious politics, are just too blinded and
> manipulated by the media, to figure it out, and will support the most
> popular candidate be it Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Elizabeth Warren. It
> could be that no matter who the people vote for, assuming we are a
> democracy, will still get the preferred candidate the delegates choose,
> since we still have this antiquated, racist system known as the electoral
> college.
>
> I say this because I see very smart people on FB under the impression that
> its all about getting rid of Trump because he is somehow the problem. Pence
> is hardly a solution, and another Democrat in the WH will be another
> corporate owned puppet, different only on the surface, than that of Trump.
>
>
> On Oct 16, 2019, at 06:25, Robert Naiman via Peace <
> peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>
> I watched the Democratic “debates” last night. I was bored out of my mind.
> I fell asleep on the couch.
>
> But when I woke, I realized that I had learned something potentially
> useful about U.S. foreign policy formation. Like what you learn when you
> read David Sanger or Helene Cooper in the New York Times, or when you read
> the Washington Post editorial page. What kind of sausages are they making
> in the Evil Factory today? Oh, that kind of sausages.
>
> My main interest in watching the “debate” was to see what they would say
> about Syria. Surely it would be addressed. It was a golden opportunity for
> anyone who wanted to take down the Blob-neocon-Dem Establishment narrative
> about Syria in front of millions of Democrats. Insiders know that the
> Blob-neocon-Dem Establishment narrative about Syria is horse manure. The
> Blob-neocon-Dem Establishment narrative is that Trump screwed up by
> withdrawing U.S. forces from northern Syria, and that’s what caused the
> Turkish invasion. We’ve got an all-star bipartisan duo of Establishment
> validators proving that this story is a lie: Brett McGurk and Rob Malley.
> Brett McGurk was a Trump Administration official, Trump’s envoy to the
> coalition against ISIS. Rob Malley was in the Obama Administration, and is
> now back at the International Crisis Group. Rob Malley says it was
> inevitable that the Syrian government was coming back and the thing that
> the Trump Administration did wrong was not preparing the U.S. withdrawal by
> helping its Syrian Kurdish military partners get a deal with the Russian
> and Syrian governments to protect them from a Turkish invasion. Brett
> McGurk says that’s exactly what he pushed for as a Trump Administration
> official, but he was blocked by John Bolton and the neocons. So there’s a
> spectacular story here of yet another catastrophic Blob-neocon failure, and
> it might be helpful for more Americans, especially Democrats, to know about
> this to help inoculate them from listening to the Blob-neocons in the
> future when the Blob-neocons clamor for more war.
>
> But nobody talked about this at the “debate.” In fact, all but one of the
> “Dems” who spoke parroted the Schumer-Pelosi-Blob-neocon line.
>
> The exception was Tulsi Gabbard. Here’s what Tulsi Gabbard said:
>
> “End these regime change wars.”
>
> It’s not immediately obvious why the Democratic Establishment wing of the
> Blob hates Tulsi Gabbard so much, given that she is polling at 2% and is
> not on track to stay in the debates and is not included in the main
> conversation in the media. Why does the Democratic Establishment wing of
> the Blob see Tulsi Gabbard as such a threat? Why do they keep attacking
> her? Why don’t they just ignore her?
>
> Ronald Reagan used to tell this joke about the Soviet Union. An American
> guy and a Soviet guy are trash-talking each other. The American guy says,
> “You know what’s really great about America? I can stand in front of the
> White House and say, ‘Ronald Reagan is a jerk,’ and nobody will arrest me!”
> The Soviet guy says, “Oh yeah? Big deal! I can stand in front of the
> Kremlin and say, ‘Ronald Reagan is a jerk,’ and nobody will arrest me
> either!”
>
> You know you’re not living in a police state if you can stand in front of
> the official residence of the Leader and say the Leader is a jerk and not
> get arrested. You may not be living in a vibrant democracy, but at least
> you’re not living in a police state.
>
> When it comes to ending regime change wars, the Democratic Party as we
> know it is kind of a police state. Any Democrat who calls for ending regime
> change wars is ejected from the stadium, voted off the island.
>
> Why is that?
>
> Regime change wars are the raison d’etre of the Blob-neocons. For the
> Blob-neocons, the whole objective of the game is to capture the U.S.
> government and then use U.S. power to overthrow foreign governments and
> install regimes friendly to the interests of the people who are engineering
> the overthrow. This is called “U.S. interests,” but it has nothing to do
> with the interests of the majority of Americans. It has nothing to do with
> the interests of people in Peoria. It’s all about the interests of the
> Blob-neocons. This is a key objective of the game, to try to get people to
> go along with the claim that the interests of the Blob-neocons are
> identical with the interests of the majority of Americans, when all
> experience has shown that they are not.
>
> So when the Blob-neocons hear a Democrat say, “End these regime change
> wars,” the Blob-neocons hear that as an existential threat. That’s about as
> welcome to them as an enthusiastic new Sheriff is to a band out of outlaws,
> about as welcome as an enthusiastic new fire department chief is to a gang
> of arsonists, about as welcome as Medicare for All is to private health
> insurers, about as welcome as postal banking is to payday lenders, about as
> welcome as tuition-free public college is to private universities.
>
> The thing about marginal ideas in America is, because it’s not a police
> state, ideas that are marginal now might not be marginal in the future.
> Word might get around. I think that this explains why the Blob-neocons are
> so apoplectic about Tulsi Gabbard, out of all proportion to her current
> impact, or any impact that she threatens to have in the future we can see.
> They’re afraid that the “end these regime change wars” idea might be
> contagious.
>
> I’m old enough to remember when Medicare for All was a marginal idea. We
> called it “single payer” then. Here’s how marginal the idea was: it was
> associated with Dennis Kucinich. Establishment Democrats would roll their
> eyes. “Oh, that’s that Dennis Kucinich idea.”
>
> So maybe that could happen with “end these regime change wars.” Regardless
> of what happens with the candidacy of Tulsi Gabbard, we learned something
> useful from the debate. We learned that “end these regime change wars” is
> Kryptonite for the Blob-neocons, garlic for the vampires. You can’t kill an
> idea. Not as long as we don’t live in a police state. “End these regime
> change wars.” Put it on the ground, spread it all around. “End these regime
> change wars.” Let’s send it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
>
> ===
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
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