above is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY "The Woods" from saturday.
from glenn greenwald's twitter feed today:
I think it's fine to criticize Trump for things Obama also did - as long as you don't lie & pretend that Obama didn't do them. #Sisi
agreed.
i am sick of the 1s expressing horror that something happened under trump in his brief time in the white house but act as though barack didn't do the same throughout his presidency.
the nonsense never ends for some.
never.
and they think those of us not addicted to partisan b.s. don't notice the hypocrisy.
this hypocrisy is part of the reason so many of us are disgusted with both the dems and the republicans.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Monday, April 3, 2017. Chaos and violence continue on day 168 of The Mosul Slog.
Just a reminder that Jared Kushner is in no way qualified for any of these massively important government tasks he's being put in charge of.
Just a reminder, if we're talking about visiting Iraq, anyone's qualified for that.
Just a reminder, in the lead up to the Iraq War, the qualified experts were full of it and all wrong.
Increasingly, if it is a foreign policy trip or meeting President Trump cares about, Jared Kushner is there. -- @MajorCBS
I'll wait to see what comments, judgments Kushner makes before slamming him.
Unless Jared Kushner visits Iraq to go sightseeing, there's no reason for him to be there. He's just a realtor, not a diplomat
#morningjoe
A diplomat?
What diplomat did Barack Obama send?
In fact, here's a pop quiz for all those whining about Jared's visit to Iraq: How many times in his two term presidency did Barack Obama visit Iraq?
When you can pass that pop quiz, maybe you're qualified to comment on Iraq visits.
Look at the vile hatred spewing up.
Jared Kushner Visits Iraq & Jared Kushner's Father is a Convicted Felon #TheResistance #Indivisible
I didn't even know Jared's last name until the Iraq visit.
No need to.
I certainly don't need to know what his father did.
I won't judge Chelsea Clinton by her father Bill's harassment of Paula Jones or his alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick.
I didn't judge John F. Kennedy Jr. and don't judge Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by their fathers' involvements with Marilyn Monroe.
Children aren't responsible for what their parents do.
Trying to smear Jared with the actions of his father is contemptible.
Jared's gone to Iraq.
I hope he sees something illuminating. I hope he interprets it accurately. I hope it leads him to lobby his father-in-law.
But even if he returns a raving hawk screaming for no war, I won't say he shouldn't have visited.
I'll call him out for his opinions but I won't say he shouldn't have visited.
DOD spokesman says Kushner "traveling on behalf of the President" to reaffirm US support of Iraq and US personnel deployed there.
Since he met with Iraq's Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi when Hayder was in DC recently, that's not surprising.
Surprising is Will Bunch-ed Panties who's just written:
For those who don't know Will Bunch-ed Panties, he distinguished himself in 2007 and 2008 during the Democratic Party primaries with his constant use of sexism to attack Hillary Clinton. Will Bunch-ed Panties couldn't attack her on the issues but he sure could attack her for being a woman. Apparently, Will Bunch-ed Panties felt he was a better woman than Hillary.
Sunday night he scribbled a laughable piece on Donald Trump which included:
Halfway around the world, in an endless war with questionable authorization, Trump and his Pentagon are widening the conflict with violent force -- and with almost no public input, oversight, or scrutiny.
On the same day as its "Our Dishonest President" editorial, the Los Angeles Times' front page was reporting that the Trump administration has taken the unprecedented step of failing to initially disclose major troop deployments of hundreds of Marines and Army paratroopers into Syria and Iraq. In essence, Trump is determined to send young Americans into a secret war with no public scrutiny; as former Obama-era National Security Council spokesman Ned Price told the newspaper: “It’s truly shocking that the current administration furtively deploys troops without public debate or describing their larger strategy.”
It's worth noting that Trump didn't start the wars in Iraq and Syria, and his immediate predecessor Obama deserves criticism (and received it in this space) for continuing and even expanding the powers to wage war and to kill people with drone strikes that had already gone too far during Bush 43's tenure. Yet in just 73 days, the new president and his military commanders have waged war even more violently, and even more innocent people have died.
No public scrutiny?
Does that shock Ned Price?
Of the Obama administration?
Remember in 2012 when Barack sent special-ops into Iraq -- while claiming he ended the Iraq War?
No.
Well maybe because Barack didn't announce he'd sent a unit of special-ops in.
And only one news outlet reported on it, hidden in Tim Arango's NEW YORK TIMES report on Syria:
Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.
There was no public discussion of that.
Barack was never even asked about it -- not even in the debates.
So Ned Price can stop whoring.
Will Bunch-ed Panties can't.
Which is why he pretends he called out Barack -- and offers two links.
The first goes to a generic column about drones -- there's no effort to hold Barack accountable in it.
But at least Will actually wrote that one.
The second link goes to a HUFFINGTON POST piece by Jessica Schulberg.
Will Bunch-ed Panties hormonal devotion to Barack is why he slimed Hillary to begin with.
He's a nasty piece of trash.
As for the increase?
It was acceptable when 15 civilians were killed in a strike?
To Will Bunch-ed Panties, it was.
Reality, those deaths were wrong.
More reality, continuing to prop up a sectarian government is not the answer.
Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY "The Woods" went up late Saturday.
Let's drop back to Saturday's snapshot for another look at some of the remarks by the Ranking Member on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep Adam Smith:
Let's drop back to Saturday's snapshot for another look at some of the remarks by the Ranking Member on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep Adam Smith:
The only issue I want to highlight and
hopefully have the General discuss a little bit as we continue in Iraq
the problem to my mind continues to be that the Baghdad government is
not inclusive enough of the Sunni population. Uhm, I met with a Sunni
tribal leader yesterday. Uhm, you know, certainly Prime Minister Abadi
is trying whereas Prime Minister al-Maliki did not. But there's not
been much improvement. There is still a feeling amongst the Sunni
population that Baghdad is more -- is closer to Iran than it is to their
own Sunni population. And to my mind, until we fix that problem,
whatever happens in Mosul, whatever happens elswehre, if you have a
disgruntled, dissatisfied, pushed aside Sunni population in Iraq, you
are going to have fertile ground for ISIS, al Qaeda or whatever
extremist groups want to exploit is. So I'm curious to hear what we're
doing to try and re-integrate the Sunnis into the Baghdad government so
that it is not a Shi'ite sectarian government but a government for Iraq.
I think that will be a great challenge going forward.
That's been the (never met) goal for over a decade now.
