1012 Comments

Let me get this straight: President Trump planned to remove all US forces from Iraq, but the Pentagon said no, so we still have US forces in Iraq, and now we need to bomb Iraqis to defend the US Forces that are still in Iraq, but shouldn't be. Okay, makes sense. Good plan.

Expand full comment

If you wonder why I vote Libertarian and detest politicians of both establishment parties, this excellent piece by Glenn is a great place to start. No wonder why generations of Middle Eastern youth hate America. "Same shit, different day".

Expand full comment

And it doesnt matter if the head honchos are Black, Hispanic, women, womyn, or LGBT either. Its all the same. In fact, those guys are used as a good cover story. Stil, im shocked regime change hasnt worked yet in Syria. Thats cuz Putin is still there. Which is why Russia has been wholly vilified over the last five years. Not because of Trump, per se, and the fact it suited the Hillary/Podesta spoon fed media narrative, but because the boys (and girls, and non-binary) in Langley were angry that they weren't going to get their regime change policy back. Its still early for Biden.

Expand full comment

Remember when Trump had casus belli to bomb Iran and chose not to despite the urging of all the generals and pundits?

Anyone missing that kind of leadership yet?

Expand full comment

General Milley and Secretary Austin; how’s that White rage investigation going? Eh, we are bored with that. Let’s gets back to something we are really good at - bombardment and killing other POC that are not in the USA.

Expand full comment

…….and the revolving door between corporations, connected law firms, and lobbyists continues to spin at light speed. This is corruption, plain and simple.

Expand full comment

The only president in my memory who agreed with your position was Donald Trump. He understood that America needs to be militarily strong but not policing the entire world.

Expand full comment

Raytheon manufactures the Tomahawk cruise missile that is used in so many of these attacks. They cost $1.5 million a pop. These attacks on Syria and Iraq are necessary because, after all, those missiles aren't going to launch themselves.

Expand full comment

Note the age of our "leaders" -- Dianne Feinstein - 88 years, Nancy Pelosi - 81, Maxine waters - 82, Chuck Grassley - 87, Mitch McConnell - 79, Joe Biden - 78 -- a clear and obvious gerontocracy, where these people in both parties stumble out on stage and blink at the lights and wonder where they are.... still living in murderous fog of Allen and John Dulles brothers' hate of anything that can be remotely progressive

IT’S TIME TO BUILD by Marc Andreessen IT'S TIME TO BUILD - Andreessen Horowitz (a16z.com)

https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/

"....there is something to the baby boomers theory. Starting in the 1980s, they took control of all the institutions, just from a generational change standpoint. When you look at the statistics, it is really striking to the extent to which the boomers aren't releasing control. If you look at like the average age of university presidents (this is one example Eric Weinstein points this out), they're basically all boomers. At the corresponding point like 30 years ago, that wasn't the case. You see the same thing in politics to the point of absurdity. You have this clear and obvious gerontocracy, where these people in both parties stumble out on stage and blink at the lights and wonder where they are. At what point do you go from this being the esteemed senior politician representing a coalition to it being elder abuse? We're somewhere in that zone.

When you’ve got senators in their 90s running for re-election, and you’re the party of hope and change? The voters get a choice; they chose to vote for the gerontocracy, and that's what they're going to get. But they certainly shouldn't expect dynamism on the other side of that."

Expand full comment

In the run-up to the 4th of July weekend, I found this to be a sobering and thoughtful read. I'll re-read the supporting links later in the week. You make a strong case for us having lost control over our military, if not our broader way in the world.

Expand full comment

This action by President Biden is confusing. In several articles I would read he bombed Iran back fighters and he was trying to revive the nuclear treaty with them. I guess I could come up with a rational reason for both but it is strange. I don’t trust it and I do not believe any honest attempt has been made to explain. I think they think we are a bunch of idiots

Expand full comment

Thank you -- the title and the subtitle succinctly tell all the horror in which we live.

Ruled by corrupt DNC and GOP oligarchs, living in an unprecedented kleptocracy, ruled by oligarchs in their 80s...

Shame, shame on us -- vote a third party, the ONLY long term solution.

Expand full comment

Trump killed Top Tier Terrorists and Russian “mercenaries”. Biden usually kills civilians and talks tough. Dat “D” after his name is solid gold—gets a pass.

Expand full comment

"American elites do not care about the rule of law or the Constitution. Ignoring it is how they empower themselves at the expense of the citizenry." Glenn's ability to so accurately define the times in which we live, in just two sentences, is what makes him such a great journalist.

Expand full comment

Let’s begin calling them out: Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld are war criminals; Obama/Biden/Clinton are war criminals; Trump/Pence/Pompeo are war criminals; Biden(again)/Harris/Blinken are war criminals. Unless and until the public starts calling for their prosecution, we will endure these endless wars because they enrich and empower the ruling class and keep us in fear of the “other.”

Expand full comment

As someone who has been at on-street anti-war protests for decades, I truly appreciate this article. It does seem we have moved on from legality and now how an executive branch that commits us to wars by fiat. I actually felt like Trump was pretty restrained for a Republican. Biden has been, generally, against ground wars, over the years. I'm hoping he is making the decisions. The Clinton/Obama Cabal are definitely warmongers.

Expand full comment