Monthly Archives: March 2016

Trump’s still the peace candidate

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Despite his horrible speech to AIPAC, Donald Trump still managed to give me hope today that the USA’s 70 year Military Empire might finally be on its last legs.  The front runner for the Republican nomination for President actually questioned the need for NATO.  It’s like we’re in a time machine back to 1952.

These quotes speak for themselves:

“I do think it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation-building anymore,” Trump said. “I think it’s proven not to work, and we have a different country than we did then. We have $19 trillion in debt. We’re sitting, probably, on a bubble. And it’s a bubble that if it breaks, it’s going to be very nasty. I just think we have to rebuild our country.”

 

“I watched as we built schools in Iraq and they’re blown up. We build another one, we get blown up. We rebuild it three times and yet we can’t build a school in Brooklyn. We have no money for education because we can’t build in our own country. At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?’ So, I know the outer world exists and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”

 

“Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we’re doing all of the lifting,” Trump said. “They’re not doing anything. And I say: ‘Why is it that Germany’s not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why aren’t they dealing? Why are we always the one that’s leading, potentially the third world war with Russia.’ ”

 

“We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” Trump said, adding later, “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money.”

 

“South Korea is very rich, great industrial country, and yet we’re not reimbursed fairly for what we do,” Trump said. “We’re constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games — we’re reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing.”

Someone who has a legitimate shot at the presidency is actually questioning why the regime in Washington uses trillions of our dollars every year to protect rich countries from poor countries?  Western Europe from Russia?  South Korea from North Korea?  He sounds like Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan or Bob Taft.  Of course they all ended up losing the Republican nomination.  We’ll see if the GOP insiders manage to steal this election as well.

Trump’s AIPAC Speech Sucks

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The Donald went and kissed the ring of the Israel Lobby.  The good and (mostly) bad of his speech:

My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. I have been in business a long time.

I’m of the opinion that the United States doesn’t actually need any “deal” with the Iranian government, but it certainly isn’t “disastrous” and if it deescalates the chances of war I’d prefer it be left in place.

We have rewarded the world’s leading state sponsor of terror with $150 billion and we received absolutely nothing in return.

It’s not like the Obama administration gave Iran $150 billion.  They simply unfroze assets that were Iranian to begin with.  This is misleading to say the least.

The biggest concern with the deal is not necessarily that Iran is going to violate it, although it already has, the bigger problem is that they can keep the terms and still get to the bomb by simply running out the clock, and, of course, they keep the billions.

There is absolutely no evidence Iran is trying to get a bomb.  There is some fear in certain quarters about Iran having the potential to back out of this deal and then build a bomb.  But that could be said about many countries, as far as the ability to somewhat quickly build a nuclear weapon.  And quite frankly, if Iran built a bomb, that would obviously concern Israel.  But Israel already has hundreds of nuclear bombs to act as a deterrent.  And anyway, why should it concern the United States?  No one with an ounce of common sense really believes Iran would try to Nuke the US even if they could.  Are the Islamists running that backward country truly suicidal as the neocons would have us believe?  What have they done that indicates this?

Iran is a problem in Iraq, a problem in Syria, a problem in Lebanon, a problem in Yemen, and will be a very major problem for Saudi Arabia.

Guess what Donald, I don’t care about any of those countries.  I care about my own country.

Iran has perpetrated terror attacks in 25 different countries on five continents. They’ve got terror cells everywhere, including in the western hemisphere very close to home.

Please provide some evidence for any of this nonsense.  Cite your sources.  I’m sure they’re all neocon lies.

Iran has already – since the deal is in place – test-fired ballistic missiles three times. Those ballistic missiles, with a range of 1,250 miles, were designed to intimidate not only Israel, which is only 600 miles away but also intended to frighten Europe, and, someday, the United States.

Please.  The United States is over 7,000 miles away from Iran.  Sorry, but I’m not exactly trembling over here.

The United Nations is not a friend of democracy. It’s not a friend to freedom. It’s not a friend even to the United States of America, where as all know, it has its home. And it surely isn’t a friend to Israel.

Well I can certainly agree with that.

With President Obama in his final year, discussions have been swirling about an attempt to bring a security council resolution on the terms of an eventual agreement between Israel and Palestine. Let me be clear: An agreement imposed by the UN would be a total and complete disaster. The United States must oppose this resolution and use the power of our veto. Why? Because that’s not how you make a deal.

I basically agree with all this, but there’s really no reason for the US to use its veto because, quite frankly, who cares?  Just withdraw from the UN completely and stop reflexively backing Israel on everything.

Just last week, American Taylor Allen Force, a West Point grad who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was murdered in the street by a knife-wielding Palestinian. You don’t reward that behavior, you confront it!

I’m very sorry this poor man was murdered, but people are murdered in the United States everyday.  We don’t need the Israel government to help us out with it.  I think Israel can handle this on their own.

The United States can be useful as a facilitator of negotiations, but no one should be telling Israel it must abide by some agreement made by others thousands of miles away that don’t even really know what’s happening.

I don’t really think the United States can be a useful facilitator at this point.  And anyway, why should our government make this a priority?  Why is Israel so damn important to the average American?  It isn’t.  I do agree that a peace can’t be imposed by an outside force thousands of miles away.  So just stay out of it.

We know Israel is willing to deal. Israel has been trying to sit down at the negotiating table, without pre-conditions, for years.

Bullshit.

I have known him for many years and we will be able to work closely together to help bring stability and peace to Israel and to the entire region.

I’ve got zero faith in this statement.

Israel does not name public squares after terrorists.

The State of Israel was founded using terrorism as one of its main military tactics.

we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.

How and why is Israel our ally?  What the hell do the American people get out of this deal?

Trump actually seems like the least beholden to Israel of anyone to run for president since at least George HW Bush a quarter century ago.  But unfortunately that’s saying almost nothing.  It certainly appears that Israel will continue to have a veto power over US policy in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.