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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
41. Not really true, as Sanders votes for Op support, VA benefits, pay hikes...
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 09:47 PM
Jun 2016

..., Veterans education...all the Support the Troops stuff that the GOP hates to fund.

Bernie Sanders doesn't have a PNAC bone in his body or PNAC skeleton in his closet.




Take PNAC, please.



Flashback: What Neocons Told Us about Iraq

Dick Cheney

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." June 20, 2005 (Source)
"I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months." March 16, 2003 (Source)
“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” (Source)
"If we had to do it over again we would do exactly the same thing.” September 13, 2006 (Source)
“What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action.” October 5, 2004 (Source)


Bill Kristol

“Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president.” July 15, 2007 (Source)
"This is going to be a two month war, not an eight year war." March 28, 2003 (Source)
"There has been a certain amount of pop sociology... that the Shi'a can't get along with the Sunni... there's almost no evidence of that at all.” April 4, 2003 (Fox News w/ Bill O’Reilly)
"“The first two battles of this new era are now over. The battles of Afghanistan and Iraq have been won decisively and honorably.” April 28, 2003 (Source)
“… there are hopeful signs that Iraqis of differing religious, ethnic, and political persuasions can work together. This is a far cry from the predictions made before the war by many, both here and in Europe, that a liberated Iraq would fracture into feuding clans and unleash a bloodbath.” March 22, 2004 (Source)
“… the continuing debates over the terms of a final constitution, have in fact demonstrated something remarkable in Iraq: a willingness on the part of the diverse ethnic and religious groups to disagree--peacefully--and then to compromise.” March 22, 2004 (Source)


Paul Wolfowitz

“There's a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” March 27, 2003 (Source)
On weapons of mass destruction: “There's no question in my mind that there was something there. There are just too many pieces of evidence and we'll get to the bottom of it.” August 1, 2003 (Source)
“Some of the higher-end predictions that we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam (Hussein) Iraq, are wildly off the mark.” February 27, 2003 (Source)
"It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army. Hard to imagine." Feb. 27, 2003 (Source)
"Peacekeeping requirements in Iraq might be much lower than historical experience in the Balkans suggests. There's been none of the record in Iraq of ethnic militias fighting one another that produced so much bloodshed and permanent scars in Bosnia along with the requirement for large policing forces to separate those militias.” Feb. 27, 2003 (Source)
“These are Arabs, 23 million of the most educated people in the Arab world, who are going to welcome us as liberators.” Feb. 27, 2003 (Source)
"The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about. Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator.” March 11, 2003 (Source)
"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction, as the core reason." May 28, 2003

SOURCE: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/flashback-republicans-iraq-cheney-wolfowitz-kristol



Others, also, have noticed: Bernie Sanders has INTEGRITY.

But Sanders genuinely, sincerely, does not care about optics. He is the rarest of Washington animals, a completely honest person. If he's motivated by anything other than a desire to use his influence to protect people who can't protect themselves, I've never seen it. Bernie Sanders is the kind of person who goes to bed at night thinking about how to increase the heating-oil aid program for the poor. -- Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, April 29, 2015

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/give-em-hell-bernie-20150429?page=2


Please compare with the bi-partisan PNAC crypto-fascist corporate interests bent on fracking Ukraine and making money off war four ways to Super Tuesday:



What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland?

Fri, Feb 7, 2014
By ORIENTAL REVIEW

What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland?

Yesterday’s leak of the flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt has already hit the international media headlines. In short, it turned out that the US officials were coordinating their actions on how to install a puppet government in Ukraine. They agreed to nominate Bat’kyvshchina Party leader Arseniy Yatseniuk as Deputy Prime Minister, to bench Udar Party leader Vitaly Klitschko from the game for a while and to discredit neo-Nazi Svoboda party chief Oleh Tiahnybok as “Yanukovych’s project”. Then Mrs. Nuland informed the US Ambassador that the UN Secretary General, Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman had already instructed Ban Ki-moon to send his special envoy to Kyiv this week “to glue things together”. Referring to the European role in managing Ukraine’s political crisis, she was matchlessly elegant: “Fuck the EU”.

In a short while, after nervious attempts to blame Russians in fabricating (!) the tape (State Department: “this is a new low in Russian tradecraft”), Mrs. Nuland made her apologies to the EU officials. Does it mean that the Washington’s repeatedly leaked genuine attitude towards the “strategic Transatlantic partnership” is more worthy of an apology than the direct and clear interference into the internal affairs of a sovereign state and violation of the US-Russia-UK agreement (1994 Budapest memorandum) on security assurances for Ukraine? Meanwhile this document inter alia reads as follows:

The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.

The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.


Back to the latest Mrs. Nuland’s diplomatic collapse which was made public, it was unlikely an unfortunate misspelling. Andrey Akulov from Strategic Culture Foundation has published a brilliant report (Bride at every wedding, Part I and Part II) a couple of days ago describing Mrs.Nuland’s blatant lack of professionalism and personal integrity. He described in details her involvement in misinforming the US President and nation on the circumstances of the assasination of the US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens in Benghazi in September 2012 and her support of the unlawful US funding of a number of the Russian “independent” NGOs seeking to bring a color revolution to Russia.

CONTINUED w/LINKS...

http://orientalreview.org/2014/02/07/what-about-apologizing-to-ukraine-mrs-nuland/



If you've time, there's great video at the link, too.



Neocons and Liberals Together, Again

The neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC) has signaled its intention to continue shaping the government's national security...

Tom Barry, last updated: February 02, 2005

The neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC) has signaled its intention to continue shaping the government's national security strategy with a new public letter stating that the "U.S. military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume." Rather than reining in the imperial scope of U.S. national security strategy as set forth by the first Bush administration, PNAC and the letter's signatories call for increasing the size of America's global fighting machine.

SNIP...

Liberal Hawks Fly with the Neocons

The recent PNAC letter to Congress was not the first time that PNAC or its associated front groups, such as the Coalition for the Liberation of Iraq, have included hawkish Democrats.

Two PNAC letters in March 2003 played to those Democrats who believed that the invasion was justified at least as much by humanitarian concerns as it was by the purported presence of weapons of mass destruction. PNAC and the neocon camp had managed to translate their military agenda of preemptive and preventive strikes into national security policy. With the invasion underway, they sought to preempt those hardliners and military officials who opted for a quick exit strategy in Iraq. In their March 19th letter, PNAC stated that Washington should plan to stay in Iraq for the long haul: "Everyone-those who have joined the coalition, those who have stood aside, those who opposed military action, and, most of all, the Iraqi people and their neighbors-must understand that we are committed to the rebuilding of Iraq and will provide the necessary resources and will remain for as long as it takes."

Along with such neocon stalwarts as Robert Kagan, Bruce Jackson, Joshua Muravchik, James Woolsey, and Eliot Cohen, a half-dozen Democrats were among the 23 individuals who signed PNAC's first letter on post-war Iraq. Among the Democrats were Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution and a member of Clinton's National Security Council staff; Martin Indyk, Clinton's ambassador to Israel; Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute and Democratic Leadership Council; Dennis Ross, Clinton's top adviser on the Israel-Palestinian negotiations; and James Steinberg, Clinton's deputy national security adviser and head of foreign policy studies at Brookings. A second post-Iraq war letter by PNAC on March 28 called for broader international support for reconstruction, including the involvement of NATO, and brought together the same Democrats with the prominent addition of another Brookings' foreign policy scholar, Michael O'Hanlon.

CONTINUED...

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/Neocons_and_Liberals_Together_Again



That's from Rightweb. They're full of facts, for those who take the time to read and learn. One name to pay attention to is Victoria Nuland, our woman in Ukraine, who is married to PNAC co-founder Robert Kagan, who endorsed Clinton just the other day. Robert Kagan's brother is Frederick Kagan. Frederick Kagan's spouse is Kimberly Kagan.

Brilliant people, big ideas, etc. The thing is, that's a lot of PNAC and the PNAC approach to international relations means more wars without end for profits without cease, among other things detrimental to democracy, peace and justice.

Bernie has none of that. So, When the vote is for war or peace on Iraq, Bernie voted to stay out of war.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Yes, in lieu of her horrific IWR AUMF vote, the above quote jumps out at one as hypocritical EndElectoral Jun 2016 #1
I would disagree that it's hypocritical. It's clearly Hillary-speak. "We will only fight wars if rhett o rick Jun 2016 #7
It's a way to be on both sides of every issue. JRLeft Jun 2016 #21
So, I'm at a party... Cooley Hurd Jun 2016 #2
What you said rhett o rick Jun 2016 #9
Here's another vote for Octafish! JackRiddler Jun 2016 #43
We here at DU madokie Jun 2016 #61
Me too!!! Cooley Hurd Jun 2016 #65
You are a real pal, Cooley Hurd! Octafish Jun 2016 #72
You are an excellent teacher. JEB Jun 2016 #73
Thank you, JEB! DU is pioneering a new Journalism. Octafish Jun 2016 #79
"Ars longa. Vita brevis" pangaia Jun 2016 #78
Hiya, pangaia! It's from Firesign Theatre... Octafish Jun 2016 #81
Why can't so many people see... seekthetruth Jun 2016 #3
I'm so old, I remember the Peace Dividend. Octafish Jun 2016 #64
Thanks for this info. This is why we can't have nice things. ReasonableToo Jun 2016 #68
Is Counterpunch on the list of sites like FR and JW which cannot be used as sources on 6/16? LonePirate Jun 2016 #4
Hmmmm. DemocratSinceBirth Jun 2016 #8
Ahhh to be able to censor those which you don't agree with. And you have that in rhett o rick Jun 2016 #13
If Hillary gets the nom, say goodbye to free speech around here. reformist2 Jun 2016 #17
given the traumas and troubles experienced at Pacifica in the 90's reddread Jun 2016 #36
I don't have free speech around here now BlueStateLib Jun 2016 #40
Censor. sheshe2 Jun 2016 #39
Clinton supporters control MIRT and they decide who gets banned with under 100 posts. rhett o rick Jun 2016 #44
^^^This^^^ -none Jun 2016 #57
When you refer to a presidential candidate as BS... peace13 Jun 2016 #51
That pretty much nails it Miles Archer Jun 2016 #58
^^^^ THIS ^^^^ n/t davidlynch Jun 2016 #60
Why? It's a left-wing source... JonLeibowitz Jun 2016 #11
That's the problem with it Fumesucker Jun 2016 #12
When do people link to Counterpunch except to trash Hillary? LonePirate Jun 2016 #14
Read some of the articles. You'll learn a lot. Octafish Jun 2016 #20
Counterpunch is not Pablum for status quo. JEB Jun 2016 #74
You're ignoring the question I asked and are answering a different one. LonePirate Jun 2016 #75
Like CNN? Funny how the centrists (corporate Democrats) used to not like CNN rhett o rick Jun 2016 #16
yes, should be obamanut2012 Jun 2016 #52
No. And I've written why not before. Octafish Jun 2016 #53
KICK Juicy_Bellows Jun 2016 #5
Kick with you +10 840high Jun 2016 #37
Send doctors, engineers and educators. tecelote Jun 2016 #6
Builds trust and makes for lasting friendships, too. Octafish Jun 2016 #42
You have also this beast now: Ghost Dog Jun 2016 #54
Fourth Urn's 60-percent hike in minimum wage WAS a strategic threat. Octafish Jun 2016 #69
See this thread, Octa, Ghost Dog Jun 2016 #71
This message was self-deleted by its author artislife Jun 2016 #10
That is exactly it. Octafish Jun 2016 #15
Those that have cheered the demise of the Republicon party don't understand that rhett o rick Jun 2016 #22
This message was self-deleted by its author artislife Jun 2016 #23
and I hope she kicks Isis's ass from here to eternity. wyldwolf Jun 2016 #18
Boy do you not understand. ISIS was created because of us. Our government needs a boggy man to rhett o rick Jun 2016 #24
So? If a house gets infested with pests because the owners were sloppy, does that mean... wyldwolf Jun 2016 #27
Again you don't understand. ISIS provides a great service to the neocons and the MIC rhett o rick Jun 2016 #28
I can't wait to see those rapists and child killers strung up by the Clinton administration wyldwolf Jun 2016 #29
You will have to wait forever. They will invade Iran first. It's about business opportunities. rhett o rick Jun 2016 #30
get me the winning lottery numbers while you're at it. wyldwolf Jun 2016 #31
And that's about as deep as your side will ever get in discussing an issue. rhett o rick Jun 2016 #45
more like my side doesn't believe in psychic 'progressives.' wyldwolf Jun 2016 #48
Iran. Russia. Ghost Dog Jun 2016 #56
Get a load of all those flags. pacalo Jun 2016 #19
Whatever sells. Maybe she should give her rendition of God Bless America to prove her patriotism. Tierra_y_Libertad Jun 2016 #25
That flock of federal eagles is looking downright imperial HereSince1628 Jun 2016 #35
Had to look up ''finial.'' Octafish Jun 2016 #70
This message was self-deleted by its author TM99 Jun 2016 #38
There were more than that. That picture doesn't show the 2 full flags on each side. DesMoinesDem Jun 2016 #49
This message was self-deleted by its author TM99 Jun 2016 #82
it gives new meaning shanti Jun 2016 #80
yet bernie sanders votes for war, war, and more war every year and his crowd .... crickets lol nt msongs Jun 2016 #26
Not really true, as Sanders votes for Op support, VA benefits, pay hikes... Octafish Jun 2016 #41
How sad. Your desperation is showing. Hillary Clinton voted to invade Iraq and kill maybe rhett o rick Jun 2016 #46
K&R For Peace felix_numinous Jun 2016 #32
No time for hate. Not enough time for peace as it is. Octafish Jun 2016 #59
Wow talk about wrapping yourself in the flag. jwirr Jun 2016 #33
It is an amazing image. Octafish Jun 2016 #55
No, I don't agree with that at all. Miles Archer Jun 2016 #63
+1 eom Arazi Jun 2016 #34
Hillary’s Foreign Policy Speech: Queen Galadriel Before Her Magic Mirror (Gary Leupp) Octafish Jun 2016 #89
Besides climate change, it's the most important. Glad I have your back eom Arazi Jun 2016 #90
Lies and distortions of what Hillary actually said? Thread trashed. Lord Magus Jun 2016 #47
History says otherwise. Octafish Jun 2016 #50
Oh Dear God NO...More "Lies and distortions of what Hillary actually said?" Miles Archer Jun 2016 #66
more here, on her unforgivable war crimes: amborin Jun 2016 #62
Well stated 'Octafish' - ..... Enough is Enough already.... I'm ashamed, as an American laserhaas Jun 2016 #67
It's the weirdest thing. On election day, I pull the lever marked 'D' for peace... Octafish Jun 2016 #83
We are the Imperalist Empire laserhaas Jun 2016 #87
I thinks she needs about a dozen more flags behind her, that'll show em B Calm Jun 2016 #76
"Our troops give their all. They deserve a commander-in-chief who knows that." pangaia Jun 2016 #77
Hillary Clinton’s Speech Against Trump Hypocritically Touts Her Foreign Policy Strength Octafish Jun 2016 #88
Clever words of omission, aren't they? MrMickeysMom Jun 2016 #84
''Shenanigans.'' Octafish Jun 2016 #85
Excellent, as usual from you... and to think... MrMickeysMom Jun 2016 #86
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