I’m firmly with C.I. on the issue of
Tammy Duckworth, the US senator who’s taken to insulting Donald Trump
because he got deferments and did not go to Vietnam.
Excuse me, Testosterone Tammy, I am
glad for anyone who did not go to Vietnam. I do not believe that the US
should have ever sent troops there. My heart breaks for those who had
to go. My heart breaks for the Vietnamese people whose
lives were destroyed.
I feel the same way regarding the Iraq War.
Testosterone Tammy’s very proud of what the US did in Iraq.
Which was?
Iraq is destroyed. Grow up, Tammy.
If you're going to hop on a military soap box, Tammy, then, yes, you will.
He's the Commander in Chief of the military.
You're being very disrespectful for someone citing her own service.
Reality, anyone can criticize the president.
But if you think you have more of a right because you were in the service, then you better watch your damn mouth.
And maybe it's time America made clear to Tammy and every other veteran, you don't get extra.
You didn't defend the country from an attack.
You were used overseas to destroy.
I'm sorry you were used. I will fight to ensure that the government supplies the medical treatment and anything else you were promised. I will also fight to ensure education benefits.
But grasp that the Constitution does not elevate you above anyone else.
You do not have any more of a right to speak about this subject or that subject.
In fact, on the international landscape, maybe you have no right to speak?
Many countries are furious with the US for our 'adventures' overseas -- and many have a right to be.
So maybe you self-presenting as the Voice of America isn't that helpful?
In Iraq, millions are dead.
I get it, Tammy, you were sent there.
I don't blame you.
I don't attack you for that.
But let's stop pretending that anything heroic happened in the Iraq War.
Killing millions is not heroic.
Poisoning the land so that birth defects are the new feature of Iraq.
Widows and orphans.
Freedom? In 2010, the Iraqi people voted Nouri al-Maliki out of office. Eight months later, when he refused to step down, Barack Obama had a legal contract negotiated (The Erbil Agreement) to give Nouri a second term. Nouri then wanted a third term but Barack couldn't stomach that. So he installed Hayder al-Abadi, Nouri's junior roll dog.
In May, Iraq will hold elections again. We'll see if they matter. If they do, it will be the first time they have since the US invaded in 2003.
The fretting and hysteria -- Tammy's and others -- over the government shutdown?
I don't have time for this nonsense. Didn't last go round. Or the one before.
I get that the media is alarmist. I get that they don't do reality but they do hysteria very well.
What's going on -- even now -- is a negotiation process.
It happened under President Jimmy Carter, under President Ronald Reagan, under President George Bush, under President Bill Carter and under President Barack Obama.
It would be nice if people could be rational about it.
Donald Trump, apparently, can't be. I've never expected rationality from Donald. I have expected it from Tammy Duckworth. Instead, she's not only being disrespectful, she's also spitting on Americans. (Not serving in Vietnam is not a bad thing in my book. I attacked Dick Cheney for many things but never for not serving. I wish no American had served in Vietnam.)
Again, serving in the military does not give her more free speech than anyone else, it doesn't make her kinder or smarter.
All of you fools on Twitter repeating her remarks -- I notice that none of you served.
So the logic you're endorsing? It says you should [shut] your mouths. So why don't you?
Amen to all of that.
Testosterone Tammy disagrees.
Tough.
Anyone having a problem with my
nickname for Tammy should grasp that what she said about Donald Trump
was not needed. She is a member of Congress. She is using her military
service to ridicule Donald Trump as commander in chief. That
is outrageous. She should be ashamed of herself.
She’s very lucky people aren’t making jokes about her like she is Donald.
The most obvious one: Tammy doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Is that funny?
I don’t think so but I don’t find her
mocking him in this manner to be humorous. I find it outrageous and
think it should be referred to the ethics committee.
I wouldn’t care if she said he was a
s**t head. But what she’s doing, her mocking, it is not just foul it is
disruptive and outrageous.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, January 22, 2018. Chaos and the Islamic State continue, Tammy Duckworth goes extremely vile and disgusting, and much more.
Hayder al-Abadi was hoping to ride the defeat or 'defeat' of the Islamic State to an easy victory in upcoming elections in Iraq.
Every day, that gets a little bit harder.
BBC NEWS' Nafiseh Kohnavard has a report entitled "IS and how it continues to plague Iraq" which opens with shots of exchanged gunfire:
Last month, Iraq declared the war against ISIS over.
But these shots were taken just a few days ago on the border with Syria.
IS in Iraq -- from "State" to Insurgency
This is al-Qaim station in Western Iraq. It was the last town IS held in the country.
Nafiseh Kohnavard: This station was an American base used back in 2008 to fight al Qaeda fighters. It now, as you can see, stands completely devastated after it was recently won over from ISIS militants.
IS have lost all their territory in Iraq but now are attacking from bases inside Syria.
They are being fought by Iranian backed "Popular Mobilisation Units" . . .
as well as American, French and Iraqi soldiers.
US Major Richard Juten: The threat is still very real from ISIS. In the past ten days there have been attacks almost daily -- attacking the border checkpoints, destroying Iraqi tanks, humvees, There have been many casualties.
Nafiseh Kohnavard: al-Qaim has been a hot spot for insurgency in Iraq since the war against Saddam Hussein in 2003. And it was one of the first places that ISIS took in this country. So it would be a key victory for the American led coalition and the Iraqi forces if they are able to control this area.
But it will not be an easy, or quick, fight.
US Colonel Seth Folsom: I don't know that we're ever going to be able to say that ISIS is over. What I think will happen one day is once the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq and the people of Iraq have worked together to create conditions where ISIS looks around and discovers that it no longer has a place to insert itself, I think that on that day we're going to wake up and realize that ISIS is gone. It won't be a declaration, it will be a realization.
So much for 'victory.'
And does the US plan to report on this? When ABC NEWS pulled all their reporters out of Iraq after Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008, they stated that they would be using BBC NEWS reports to 'cover' Iraq. So will David Muir be introducing Nafiesh Kohnavard's report?
I kind of doubt it for a number of reasons including the fact that US forces are not supposed to be fighting alongside Iraq's PMUs (militias). That's what we were told, that's what the US Congress was told. But it's kind of difficult to argue with what the report shows. Not states, what the report shows.
And it's kind of difficult to pretend that Hayder vanquished the Islamic State.
They're still present.
December 14, 2017, Iraq was the topic for a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing and former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey was one of the witnesses offering testimony.
US Ambassador James Jeffrey: When I left Iraq in June of 2012, what became ISIS -- al Qaeda in Iraq under [Abu Bakr al-] Baghdadi -- was little more than a terrorist band in West Mosul. Two years later, it was controlling a third of Syria and Iraq. 9 million people with an army of 35,000. Not entirely because governance is always, as Ryan Crocker said, a huge issue. But bad governance was promulgated, encouraged and exacerbated by Iran's decisions and the decisions of people who were being advised by supported by Iran -- [Nouri al-] Maliki in Iraq and of course [Basher al-]Assad in Syria. And this back and forth -- There are 20 to 25 million Sunni Arab between Baghdad and Damascus. Uh, currently, they are not being ruled by Sunni Arab leaders. They're being ruled by people who, in the case of Syria, take orders from Iran; in the case of Iraq, may or may not fall under Iran's interference. And if those people are not protected by the international system we've talked about here, they're going to turn again to terrorist forces and we'll have this same problem all over again.
Well, golly, gee . . . Maybe someone should have gotten off their lazy ass and worked on a diplomatic surge and solution in 2014. We advocated that. When Barack Obama finally got around to rejecting Nouri al-Maliki (June 2014), he advocated it as well. In words. Not in deed.
He said it was necessary.
He did nothing about it.
In August of 2014, he began bombing Iraq.
But he never kicked off a diplomatic effort.
It's three years later and counting and there's still no effort to build an inclusive political process in Iraq.
But I guess some people look at US troops still being in Iraq after 14 years (fifteen years in two months) and don't see anything wrong with that.
I guess they look at this and think it's a-okay.
Guess it's no big deal to them. No skin off their noses.
Maybe in another 15 years, when the same problems still exist, they'll start to address this?
Then again, maybe in another 15 years, they'll still thinking that just sitting around talking about what should be done will be enough -- kind of the way they've spent the last 15 years just talking about what needs to be done without ever actually doing anything.
Elections in Iraq are supposed to take place in May. ASHARQ AL-AWSAT reports:
DEUTSCHE WELLE analyzes the political landscape:
Alas, with Iraq's political landscape in disarray and the elections in just four months' time, the future does not look promising. The country's party system is highly fragmented. And Iraq's three major political camps – Shiites, Sunnites and Kurds – have each splintered into factions that have little in common.
Use the link to go further into the report which analyzes the three main groupings in Iraq.
Turning to the theater of cruelty led by Senator Tammy Duckworth . . .
There is no need for that bulls**t. She can say she hates him, she can call him a liar. But her remarks above are not appropriate from a member of Congress. They sew dissension within the ranks and are meant to. She should be ashamed of herself.
Did he really have bone spurs?
I have no idea and I honestly don't give a damn.
Someone used her missing legs to walk right over the progressive in her first primary and she's high stepped it away from any progressive position ever since.
She's a War Hawk who can't take care of society because she's still in combat mode.
She needs to grow the hell up.
She also needs to grasp that she hasn't done anything wonderful with her service.
And those people did not attack the US.
But she followed orders and went over to Iraq.
I'm not going to say "thank you" for that. I will say I'm sorry for you.
It was and is an illegal war.
Duckworth thinks it's cute to attack someone for not going to Vietnam because she's a War Hawk. Those of us who oppose war tend to believe that no American should have gone to Vietnam and don't make it a point to attack those who didn't go.
She's the one who's embarrassing.
She's a sitting member of Congress making digs about the president that are meant to question his fitness to be commander in chief of the military.
She is way out of line and Donald Trump is commander in chief so her thoughts on whether he should be or not are pointless.
She should be ashamed of herself.
She can call him a liar and I don't care.
But she's not doing that. She's trying to trash talk him with those serving watching. She's a modern day Tokyo Rose and that kind of negates anything she thinks she accomplished with her service.
The Dixie Chicks were wrongly shamed for less. And they were private citizens. She's a member of the US Congress who is attempting to belittle Donald Trump as commander in chief and sew doubts about his fitness for the role.
That's beyond the pale before you even consider that he's overseeing how many ongoing wars?
She should be ashamed of herself.
And she better not start whining when people start giving her 'cute' little nicknames about having no legs because she's brought that on herself.
New content at THIRD:
Hayder al-Abadi was hoping to ride the defeat or 'defeat' of the Islamic State to an easy victory in upcoming elections in Iraq.
Every day, that gets a little bit harder.
BBC NEWS' Nafiseh Kohnavard has a report entitled "IS and how it continues to plague Iraq" which opens with shots of exchanged gunfire:
Last month, Iraq declared the war against ISIS over.
But these shots were taken just a few days ago on the border with Syria.
IS in Iraq -- from "State" to Insurgency
This is al-Qaim station in Western Iraq. It was the last town IS held in the country.
Nafiseh Kohnavard: This station was an American base used back in 2008 to fight al Qaeda fighters. It now, as you can see, stands completely devastated after it was recently won over from ISIS militants.
IS have lost all their territory in Iraq but now are attacking from bases inside Syria.
They are being fought by Iranian backed "Popular Mobilisation Units" . . .
as well as American, French and Iraqi soldiers.
US Major Richard Juten: The threat is still very real from ISIS. In the past ten days there have been attacks almost daily -- attacking the border checkpoints, destroying Iraqi tanks, humvees, There have been many casualties.
Nafiseh Kohnavard: al-Qaim has been a hot spot for insurgency in Iraq since the war against Saddam Hussein in 2003. And it was one of the first places that ISIS took in this country. So it would be a key victory for the American led coalition and the Iraqi forces if they are able to control this area.
But it will not be an easy, or quick, fight.
US Colonel Seth Folsom: I don't know that we're ever going to be able to say that ISIS is over. What I think will happen one day is once the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq and the people of Iraq have worked together to create conditions where ISIS looks around and discovers that it no longer has a place to insert itself, I think that on that day we're going to wake up and realize that ISIS is gone. It won't be a declaration, it will be a realization.
So much for 'victory.'
And does the US plan to report on this? When ABC NEWS pulled all their reporters out of Iraq after Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008, they stated that they would be using BBC NEWS reports to 'cover' Iraq. So will David Muir be introducing Nafiesh Kohnavard's report?
I kind of doubt it for a number of reasons including the fact that US forces are not supposed to be fighting alongside Iraq's PMUs (militias). That's what we were told, that's what the US Congress was told. But it's kind of difficult to argue with what the report shows. Not states, what the report shows.
And it's kind of difficult to pretend that Hayder vanquished the Islamic State.
They're still present.
December 14, 2017, Iraq was the topic for a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing and former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey was one of the witnesses offering testimony.
US Ambassador James Jeffrey: When I left Iraq in June of 2012, what became ISIS -- al Qaeda in Iraq under [Abu Bakr al-] Baghdadi -- was little more than a terrorist band in West Mosul. Two years later, it was controlling a third of Syria and Iraq. 9 million people with an army of 35,000. Not entirely because governance is always, as Ryan Crocker said, a huge issue. But bad governance was promulgated, encouraged and exacerbated by Iran's decisions and the decisions of people who were being advised by supported by Iran -- [Nouri al-] Maliki in Iraq and of course [Basher al-]Assad in Syria. And this back and forth -- There are 20 to 25 million Sunni Arab between Baghdad and Damascus. Uh, currently, they are not being ruled by Sunni Arab leaders. They're being ruled by people who, in the case of Syria, take orders from Iran; in the case of Iraq, may or may not fall under Iran's interference. And if those people are not protected by the international system we've talked about here, they're going to turn again to terrorist forces and we'll have this same problem all over again.
Well, golly, gee . . . Maybe someone should have gotten off their lazy ass and worked on a diplomatic surge and solution in 2014. We advocated that. When Barack Obama finally got around to rejecting Nouri al-Maliki (June 2014), he advocated it as well. In words. Not in deed.
He said it was necessary.
He did nothing about it.
In August of 2014, he began bombing Iraq.
But he never kicked off a diplomatic effort.
It's three years later and counting and there's still no effort to build an inclusive political process in Iraq.
But I guess some people look at US troops still being in Iraq after 14 years (fifteen years in two months) and don't see anything wrong with that.
I guess they look at this and think it's a-okay.
Guess it's no big deal to them. No skin off their noses.
Maybe in another 15 years, when the same problems still exist, they'll start to address this?
Then again, maybe in another 15 years, they'll still thinking that just sitting around talking about what should be done will be enough -- kind of the way they've spent the last 15 years just talking about what needs to be done without ever actually doing anything.
Elections in Iraq are supposed to take place in May. ASHARQ AL-AWSAT reports:
Iraq will hold parliamentary elections on May 12, announced state television on Monday.
The Supreme Federal Court on Sunday ruled against calls by Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers to delay the election to allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced by war to return home.
The Supreme Federal Court on Sunday ruled against calls by Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers to delay the election to allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced by war to return home.
AP adds, "Shiite lawmaker Abbas Al Bayati says the legislative body “unanimously” approved the date, which was proposed by the government, at Monday’s session."
There are crumbling alliances and strange new ones emerging.
As the Communist Party of Iraq enters into an election alliance with Muqtada Al Sadr a Baghdad taxi driver posts a sarcastic message: "Islamic wing of the Communist Party to workers of the world: Pray for the Prophet"
DEUTSCHE WELLE analyzes the political landscape:
Alas, with Iraq's political landscape in disarray and the elections in just four months' time, the future does not look promising. The country's party system is highly fragmented. And Iraq's three major political camps – Shiites, Sunnites and Kurds – have each splintered into factions that have little in common.
Use the link to go further into the report which analyzes the three main groupings in Iraq.
Turning to the theater of cruelty led by Senator Tammy Duckworth . . .
Senator Tammy Duckworth who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War: "And I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger. And I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs. If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war..."
There is no need for that bulls**t. She can say she hates him, she can call him a liar. But her remarks above are not appropriate from a member of Congress. They sew dissension within the ranks and are meant to. She should be ashamed of herself.
Did he really have bone spurs?
I have no idea and I honestly don't give a damn.
Someone used her missing legs to walk right over the progressive in her first primary and she's high stepped it away from any progressive position ever since.
She's a War Hawk who can't take care of society because she's still in combat mode.
She needs to grow the hell up.
She also needs to grasp that she hasn't done anything wonderful with her service.
#TammyDuckworth lost her legs because she was trying to kill other people.
And those people did not attack the US.
But she followed orders and went over to Iraq.
I'm not going to say "thank you" for that. I will say I'm sorry for you.
It was and is an illegal war.
The invasion of Iraq.
Duckworth thinks it's cute to attack someone for not going to Vietnam because she's a War Hawk. Those of us who oppose war tend to believe that no American should have gone to Vietnam and don't make it a point to attack those who didn't go.
She's the one who's embarrassing.
She's a sitting member of Congress making digs about the president that are meant to question his fitness to be commander in chief of the military.
She is way out of line and Donald Trump is commander in chief so her thoughts on whether he should be or not are pointless.
She should be ashamed of herself.
She can call him a liar and I don't care.
But she's not doing that. She's trying to trash talk him with those serving watching. She's a modern day Tokyo Rose and that kind of negates anything she thinks she accomplished with her service.
The Dixie Chicks were wrongly shamed for less. And they were private citizens. She's a member of the US Congress who is attempting to belittle Donald Trump as commander in chief and sew doubts about his fitness for the role.
That's beyond the pale before you even consider that he's overseeing how many ongoing wars?
She should be ashamed of herself.
And she better not start whining when people start giving her 'cute' little nicknames about having no legs because she's brought that on herself.
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