Category Archives: Middle East

Why Scott Walker Is A Two Percenter

Conservatism, Elections, Europe, Foreign Policy, IMMIGRATION, Middle East, Neoconservatism

Off the top of my head, let me share the unintelligent blather of Scott Walker, the man I call The Equal Opportunity Fencer (read why). Unlike the pundits who are ALWAYS wrong (as illustrated in 2004 ), yet keep returning to the national stage for encores—the base seems to have wizened up to neoconservatives like Walker. I’m really buoyed by the lack of support the likes of Walker and Bobby Jindal are getting from the GOP base: two and zero percent, respectively, in the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

Oblivious to the poor marks his opinions have received from the public, Walker waffled to Sean Hannity about the refugees currently immobilizing life in Germany, Hungary, Austria ect.

First there were the obligatory expressions of empathy for the incomers. Not a word of sympathy was offered up by the host or his guest for the Europeans whose communities are being flooded by decree from Brussels and Berlin.

Next came Walker’s neocon, hackneyed lies about the root-causes of the migration problem (naturally, the magnet of welfare went unmentioned): Bashar Hafez al-Assad needs to be removed (Really? He was the source of stability in Syria, much like Saddam Hussein was in Iraq).

If the root causes of refugee influx into Europe is America’s lack of a more energetic involvement in Iraq and Syria—then Walker has the solution the Republican base is rejecting: back in we go.

Not for nothing is Walker a two percenter. Unless in defense of the realm, Americans are not keen on more of the same foreign-policy folly. Let us keep our military mitts to ourselves. Let us defend our own borders. That’s finally the prevailing sentiment among Republicans.

What else did Walker do to promote his brand of stupidity? For having the perspicacity to see something unique in the Trump phenomenon, GOPers have been maligned by pundits as stupid, ignorant, mere reality show watchers. Walker does not go so far. But he does dismiss the undeniable fact that Republicans are seething with good, honest rage. To the contrary, claimed Walker, singing from the same hymn sheet Republicans sang from in the last election cycle. The people are never angry. (What’s wrong with righteous anger? Nothing!). The people only want brainiacs like him to stop the gridlock and “get things done.”

Fuck off, Scott walker. As I read it, the base wants government to reverse the things it has done; to repeal laws, wars, and to do no harm.

Kurdish Separatists: They Fight ISIS, But Threaten Statists

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, Middle East, Nationhood, States' Rights

The Turks lump together as terrorists both the Islamic State and the paramilitary wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is fighting ISIS. “Kurds in Iraq and Syria are among the most formidable opponents of the extremist group.” And the US agrees. Americans, after all, hate separatists. It reminds them of their lost right of secession, removed by force by Abe Lincoln. Born of a loose confederation of independent states, Americans now favor a strong, overweening central state, and they want to see the same in the tribal lands of the Middle East.

Turkey’s military has been ramping up attacks on Kurdish separatists since last month. The government decided to join the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State while simultaneously launching assaults on the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Turkey.

MORE.

AL Jazeera And RToo On America

America, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Middle East, Russia

a DRUDGE headline blares: “AL JAZEERA July 4 vid mocks Americans as fat, gun-toting, pill-poping, porn-watching racists …” Al-Jaz has always been a clone of the American left. John Stewart on steroids. RT, however, used to have a strong libertarian streak. No more. The American anchor babes took control there and that was that. The Al-Jaz headline could have come from RT (which went instead with as a mild “Number of ‘extremely proud’ Americans drops by 3 percent”).

UPDATE II: 12 Year After #Iraq #Invasion, A Conservative (#LauraIngraham ) Gets It Right

Iraq, Just War, Middle East, Republicans

She’s saying what principled libertarians argued 12 years ago (and nearly lost their perches). But oh, how grateful we are for the crumbs of belated wisdom tumbling from the mouth of broadcaster Laura Ingraham.

“Jeb Bush … told Megyn Kelly that knowing what we know now about Iraq, he would absolutely still invade the Middle Eastern nation.”

Bush saying he would still invade Iraq – even after knowing what we know now – is probably going to be the stupidest thing we’ll hear anyone say. Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham apparently agrees, as she absolutely crushed Jeb’s comments on the Iraq War and suggested that something might be wrong with him. “You can’t still think going into Iraq now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do,” Ingraham said. “That’s like you have no ability to learn from past mistakes at all… when the past mistakes were made by your brother. …
… And when Jeb suggested that Hillary Clinton would agree with him on Iraq, Ingraham hammered that idiocy as well. “No Hillary wouldn’t!” she said. “Hillary wouldn’t authorize the war now, if she knew what she knows now.” It’s true, Hillary Clinton has gone on record saying that she regrets voting for the war and that knowing what we know now she absolutely would not have voted for the invasion. …

MORE.

UPDATE I (5/13): I knew the source of the reporting above would come up on Facebook. My reply:

Truth matters to me; not the source of it. If those who read me learn anything at all, it is fierce independence; allegiances to no one. The report above is correct, no matter its progressive origins. During “W,” left-liberal Keith Olbermann was sometime a source for me. So what!

UPDATE II: Oh for the privileges main-streamers like Laura I. get. However immutable, truth is recognized only once they arrive at it independently, no sooner. All in the fullness of time; their time.