There are no true isolationists in America. Everyone knows that here in this country, we make and market war first and foremost.Trump isn't even an isolationist when it comes to the military - he just wants to use it in different places like Iran and the US border.
Trumps method though is a fucking disaster.I wonder if this is peak "Trump does it, therefore it's bad".
Trump's odd embrace of withdrawing troops and less intervention in foreign policy is one of the only good things about his platform.
If the Democrats aren't the party of anti-intervention/anti-war, then fuck em. That's a staple of liberalism in my book. Thankfully I'm sure there are many Democrats who agree with me, and this article is not the be-all end-all on this topic.
I had not abandoned my trust in the Bush administration. Between the president's performance in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the swift removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the fact that I wanted the president to succeed, because my loyalty is to my country and he was the leader of my country, I still gave the administration the benefit of the doubt. I believed then that the president was entitled to have his national security judgment deferred to, and to the extent that I was able to develop a definitive view, I accepted his judgment that American security really would be enhanced by the invasion of this sovereign country.
There's actually a real difference between the non-Greenwald parts of The Intercept and his parts ideologically. The EIC literally isn't allowed to edit him because he's their headline star.Btw how the FUCK is Intercept an allowed source here?
Greenwald is a loser Russia shill who eagerly embraces racist figures like Ron Paul and happily appears on Tucker Carleson
Translation
Thinking Putin shouldn't just be able to annex whatever parts of Europe he wants makes you a neocon.
The irony is that, while they are our allies, so are the people who aim to eliminate them. We certainly haven't done anything in their best interests, from my perspective.
Trump's everything is a disaster, so yeah. And he isn't even consistent with his withdrawal platform, sending a MOAB into Afghanistan as a political move to also curry favour with the other half of the Republican base who still get hard over stuff like that.Trumps method though is a fucking disaster.
Wanting to leave Syria is one thing, the way trump wanted to do it was irresponsible and foolish.
I'm not just talking about clean up duty. We involved ourselves in the Syrian conflict further, and ended up arming the bad guys. That falls on Obama, regardless of the origins of the conflicts in the region.
We should have been preparing a way to save them. We should have done something for them. We did nothing. Why? Because we have been gradually readying ourselves to accept the Middle East as a hive of perpetual war for us to engage in and profit from. Let's not pretend that we are staying there trying to figure out a solution for them. We're not. We weren't under Bush, we weren't under Obama, and we certainly aren't under Trump.So your idea is just to leave them to their deaths.
Patting yourself on the back for a job well left.
Why is it troubling?
We damn well have a responsibility to maintain global stability by any and all means. Whether that's overthrowing a government that threatens to irrevocably and seriously damage the global environment, invading a country to stop a genocide, using sanctions and threats to keep the peace, using force projection to keep the seas safe, deploying massive foreign aid and nation building programs, etc.
Why is it troubling?
We damn well have a responsibility to maintain global stability by any and all means. Whether that's overthrowing a government that threatens to irrevocably and seriously damage the global environment, invading a country to stop a genocide, using sanctions and threats to keep the peace, using force projection to keep the seas safe, deploying massive foreign aid and nation building programs, etc.
We should have been preparing a way to save them. We should have done something for them. We did nothing. Why? Because we have been gradually readying ourselves to accept the Middle East as a hive of perpetual war for us to engage in and profit from. Let's not pretend that we are staying there trying to figure out a solution for them. We're not. We weren't under Bush, we weren't under Obama, and we certainly aren't under Trump.
It seems to me that the last two elected presidents did campaign on troop withdrawal, and fatigue over the War on Terror era interventions.You're not going to get people actually against war in general elected to high government in the US. That's not how a state like the US works.
People acting like the Dems aren't the lesser of two evils on their approach to foreign policy is puzzling.
That's been the American policy for war for at least three decades.
It seems to me that the last two elected presidents did campaign on troop withdrawal, and fatigue over the War on Terror era interventions.
Of course once they get into office, there's usually a little (a lot) of warmongering that happens anyway...
It's less puzzling when you considering that Greenwald's got a history of carrying water for white supremacist types.You're not going to get people actually against war in general elected to high government in the US. That's not how a state like the US works.
People acting like the Dems aren't the lesser of two evils on their approach to foreign policy is puzzling.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm/book_number/1812/page_number/2/how-would-a-patriot-act
In his own words, re: Iraq.
He very much tries to pretend he didn't write this. Unfortunately you can buy the book on Amazon.
He wasn't a journalist at the time. He literally could not have displayed support for the Iraq war even if he wanted to.From his book:
He tries to weasel around this and say it doesn't count as support because he wasn't a journalist and didn't write an article at the time.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...read-Lies-About-Him-on-Cato-Iraq-War-and-moreThe purpose of the Preface was to publicly explain that evolution. Indeed, the first sentence of this Preface was this quote from Abraham Lincoln: "I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." When I still trusted and relied upon the claims of the political and media class - when I was basically apolitical and passive - I tacitly accepted all sorts of views which I've come to see are warped and misleading. I've talked often about this process and am proud of this evolution. I have zero interest in hiding it or concealing it. Quite the contrary: I want readers to know about it. That's why I wrote the Preface.
But anyone using this Preface to claim I was a "supporter" of the Iraq War is simply fabricating. At worst, I was guilty of apathy and passivity. I did nothing for or against it because I assumed that those in positions to exercise adversarial scrutiny - in journalism and politics - were doing that. It's precisely my realization of how profoundly deceitful and failed are American political and media institutions that motivated me to begin working on politics, and it's those realizations which continue to motivate me now.
It's less puzzling when you considering that Greenwald's got a history of carrying water for white supremacist types.
good lordWhy is it troubling?
We damn well have a responsibility to maintain global stability by any and all means. Whether that's overthrowing a government that threatens to irrevocably and seriously damage the global environment, invading a country to stop a genocide, using sanctions and threats to keep the peace, using force projection to keep the seas safe, deploying massive foreign aid and nation building programs, etc.
He wasn't a journalist at the time. He literally could not have displayed support for the Iraq war even if he wanted to.
The book that includes the preface you're quoting from, which is one of his first pieces of actual political writing, literally denounces the Bush/Cheney administration and its actions in Iraq, and that paragraph is clearly written in the past tense in an attempt to explain how he felt back then, and how his thoughts regarding that administration evolved.
To quote from Greenwald himself:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...read-Lies-About-Him-on-Cato-Iraq-War-and-more
Just another liberal fabrication used to discredit leftists who dare criticize the Democratic party. Once again, it's always the messenger, never the message.
He wasn't a journalist at the time. He literally could not have displayed support for the Iraq war even if he wanted to.
The book that includes the preface you're quoting from, which is one of his first pieces of actual political writing, literally denounces the Bush/Cheney administration and its actions in Iraq, and that paragraph is clearly written in the past tense in an attempt to explain how he felt back then, and how his thoughts regarding that administration evolved.
To quote from Greenwald himself:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...read-Lies-About-Him-on-Cato-Iraq-War-and-more
Just another liberal fabrication used to discredit leftists who dare criticize the Democratic party. Once again, it's always the messenger, never the message.
Translation
Thinking Putin shouldn't just be able to annex whatever parts of Europe he wants makes you a neocon.
He literally said he supported it at the time in his own book! Why would he lie?He wasn't a journalist at the time. He literally could not have displayed support for the Iraq war even if he wanted to.
The book that includes the preface you're quoting from, which is one of his first pieces of actual political writing, literally denounces the Bush/Cheney administration and its actions in Iraq, and that paragraph is clearly written in the past tense in an attempt to explain how he felt back then, and how his thoughts regarding that administration evolved.
To quote from Greenwald himself:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...read-Lies-About-Him-on-Cato-Iraq-War-and-more
Just another fabrication used to discredit leftists who dare criticize the Democratic party. Once again, it's always the messenger, never the message.
He never wrote support for a war. He wrote about how he used to support the war before he was a writer, but then changed his mind and started writing.So because he wasn't a journalist.
His writing support for a war doesn't count?
Amazing
He wasn't a journalist at the time. He literally could not have displayed support for the Iraq war even if he wanted to.
The book that includes the preface you're quoting from, which is one of his first pieces of actual political writing, literally denounces the Bush/Cheney administration and its actions in Iraq, and that paragraph is clearly written in the past tense in an attempt to explain how he felt back then, and how his thoughts regarding that administration evolved.
To quote from Greenwald himself:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...read-Lies-About-Him-on-Cato-Iraq-War-and-more
Just another fabrication used to discredit leftists who dare criticize the Democratic party. Once again, it's always the messenger, never the message.
Nor was there time to mention the heinous and illegal acts the CIA committed specifically under Brennan's leadership. Perhaps the most egregious of these is the CIA's drone assassination program, codified and coordinated by Brennan, which now allows the US to use "surgical" drone strikes to kill people listed on a CIA-approved "Disposition Matrix" (kill list) in countries outside of combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the New America Foundation, about 20 percent of drone strikes kill civilians not on the CIA's list. Strikes under the Obama administration are estimated to have killed between 384 and 807 civilians in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia (countries that the US is not currently at war with).
In the Maddow interview, Brennan described Trump as "abusing the powers of his office." Thanks to the norms established by Brennan as CIA director, the "powers of his office" now include the ability to place anyone, even an US citizen, on an unaccountable hit list without due process, so long as they're given the incredibly slippery and imprecise designation of "terrorist."
But just because the CIA expanded its wheelhouse to include flying killer robots under Brennan doesn't mean that its traditional tactics of illegal spying should be ignored. In 2014, after accusations from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the CIA was found to have hacked the computers of Senate Intelligence Committee staffers who were charged with Agency oversight, specifically in regards to the Committee's review of the CIA's detention and torture programs. (Brennan initially denied the hacks.) Following the release of the Intelligence Committee's torture report, Brennan publicly defended the CIA's use of torture techniques such as "rectal feeding," mock executions, beatings and waterboarding as useful and successful, although he agreed they were, at times, "harsh." Brennan has flip-flopped a few times between supporting and decrying the CIA's use of waterboarding under his watch, but only denounced it on the grounds of its helping jihadi extremist recruitment, rather than opposing it on legal or moral grounds.
Maddow did skewer Brennan's history on torture on her show in 2013, in the midst of his confirmation hearings, and has covered CIA atrocities with combative rhetoric in the past, particularly during the confirmation hearings of current Trump CIA Director Gina Haspel, who in 2005 ordered the destruction of tapes and documentation of the CIA torture programs. But since Brennan has been added to the MSNBC regular correspondent lineup, he seems to have been given a pass from Maddow and her colleagues.
So because he wasn't a journalist.
His writing support for a war doesn't count?
Amazing
Damn right. A technoutopian United Earth is the only viable future for humanity. The less individual sovereign nations the better.Aren't you the guy that wants the US to annex Canada and embraces being called Whiggish?
Just because intervention was handled (mostly) horribly in the past doesn't mean it has to always be such. There are many more benevolent ways to handle intervention. The "Superman" style of intervening to save lives and improve bad situations is the way to go. Being isolationist or refusing to act beyond condemnations and sanctions is immoral when we have the power and money to make things better.You must be unaware of the fact that the US has been fucking up the world for its own interest since the end of the second world war. Most of central america is a shithole because the US has repeatedly installed fascists and supported fascist revolutionary groups. Iran is like it is today at least in part because the US overthrew a nascent democracy to reinstall the Shah. Seriously, you need to read some history rather than parrot patently untrue nationalist talking points.
He never wrote support for a war. He wrote about how he used to support the war before he was a writer, but then changed his mind and started writing.
He never wrote support for a war. He wrote about how he used to support the war before he was a writer, but then changed his mind and started writing.
What? No.He never wrote support for a war. He wrote about how he used to support the war before he was a writer, but then changed his mind and started writing.
He never wrote support for a war. He wrote about how he used to support the war before he was a writer, but then changed his mind and started writing.
This is in part because Chuck Todd is NBC's political director, and Chuck Todd sucks.
Damn right. A technoutopian United Earth is the only viable future for humanity. The less individual sovereign nations the better.
Just because intervention was handled (mostly) horribly in the past doesn't mean it has to always be such. There are many more benevolent ways to handle intervention. The "Superman" style of intervening to save lives and improve bad situations is the way to go. Being isolationist or refusing to act beyond condemnations and sanctions is immoral when we have the power and money to make things better.
This is in part because Chuck Todd is NBC's political director, and Chuck Todd sucks.