Today, President Joe Biden announced that U.S. special operations launched a counterterrorism mission against the leader of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi took control of ISIS after the death of previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who killed himself in October 2019 during a raid by U.S. troops. Qurayshi was located in a safe house in northwestern Syria, and as U.S. forces approached, he detonated a bomb killing himself and the 13 women and children in the quarters with him.
Growing up under the very real threat of nuclear annihilation was terrifying. As a teenager, I learned to adapt by accepting how "fair" it was. Everyone would die, and quickly if you were lucky. At least the situation was unambiguous. In today's world things are decidedly different. The threats now augmenting what we think of as traditional war are all about misinformation, as today's letter shows: false narratives and manufactured incidents with fake corpses, and the many tendrils of Trump's conspiratorial Big Lie and its ripple effect — the devious efforts to destroy free and fair elections.
Dare I go on? Absolutely. Another form of misinformation is intentionally creating a lack of information in the classroom. Muzzling teachers to churn out automaton kids who are clueless and incurious is, in my mind, war. A war on thinking. I highly recommend today's edition of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Her interview with researcher Jeffrey Sachs explains in chilling detail some of the many laws that states have passed or are considering to drastically limit what can be taught. Causing turmoil in the classroom and driving good teachers from the profession, I fear, are Republican goals. And creating new legions of unquestioning loyalists to embrace the party's authoritarian views.
I fear I come to this party late, and find tempers and tongues quite on edge. Well here goes.
This may sound a little naive, but I just finished Jonathan Karl’s book “Betrayal “. He references the Dec. 18 th meeting in the White House. It stood out because it is my birthday. He gives other details that are head-shaking. The story he tells, full of authoritative quotes, is chilling from beginning to end. I thought I knew enough of the details of these events, but I was wrong. I recommend this book.
Till the Jan. 6th debacle I had a deep loathing for Liz Cheney and her father. I am now forced to give her credit for standing up to the criminality of djt and his cult. But remember she most likely voted for djt. And her conservative stance on government is antithetical to everything I believe government should be. And the same goes for the rest of the Republican Party that should have disavowed djt from the moment he took his infamous escalator ride and brought the country to the door of hell.
Lastly, war is a moral failure. It turns the best of humanity into beasts. Qurayshi is responsible for killing the women and children. ISIS, like others of their ilk, has an insanity of religion that defies explanation. It compels brutal resistance.
Restful sleep and inner peace is rare these days. Angry and indecent language has maybe a place inside a personal space. But as soon as it escapes it defiles even the best arguments. Evidence and testimony is seeping out into the light on a daily timetable. It is our strongest weapon. Because it will compel us to vote. In every election.
The Nazis staged a similar "event" so they could claim "self defense" when they attacked Poland in September 1939. they built a "radio station" just inside the German side of the Polish-German border, then dressed prisoners in Polish uniforms and had them "attack" the radio station, where they were shot to death by Waffen-SS "defenders" and then the "attackers" were photographed.
And yes, nobody but Charles Lindbergh and the America First movement were dumb enough to say that was "proof" we should stay away from the "foreign war."
Last night on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” Ronald Goldman suggested that, among others, the Justice Department should be pursuing charges under the RICO statute (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act) against TFG and his fellow conspirators in their attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.
I’ve said it repeatedly in this forum and others, that RICO is tailor-made for TFG across the entire spectrum of his business and political activities.
If the Justice Department is not vigorously investigating the full range of potential crimes committed by TFG and his gang, we are (to use the vernacular) screwed.
As for the ongoing criminal conspiracy, so much has been said already that it's difficult to see how much more we need to disclose before we conclude that enough is enough. What's telling are those who are refusing to disclose what they know. If it were up to me to decide, I would hold that anyone who took the Oath of Office who declines to testify is ipso facto a supporter of insurrection and therefore ineligible to hold any public office or employment by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment, section three. That amounts to a lifetime ban. A refusal to testify is a felony punishable by a year's imprisonment. We want them to testify. If they bear criminal responsibility for their actions, I want to see them prosecuted. The punishment need not be draconian, except for those who planned and coordinated their efforts; but having to face a judge and allocute to the crimes is an essential part of the process, especially those who cut a deal to reduce their punishment. This is what Richard Nixon should have been required to do in return for his presidential pardon.
On your first-mentioned point, Joe Biden has been constantly under-rated by Republicans. He oversees a focused, surgical strike against ISIS that's in their face that takes out their top leader, while minimizing collateral damage. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and his wife blew themselves up with suicide vests, killing their children and others, 13 innocents in all. Other civilians on the lower floors of the building fled with their lives. ISIS has long used innocent lives to protect themselves, and this is perhaps the most extreme example of their disregard for human life. Muslims that I know would be horrified at the parents' actions. Nonetheless, President Biden put a team of American military in harm's way so that at least some lives could be saved.
For what it is worth, fellow readers, I am so exasperated that I just called Mitch McConnells office and left a message with an aide. Brief but to the point: we NEED a two party system in the US and those parties are the Democrats and the Republicans; the REAL Republicans, not the Trumpists that are destroying our nation. McConnell needs to call out these people and reign the party in.
I know that some here will comment and tell me it is useless. Please do not, I am depressed enough already. If you feel that way, please just shake your head, mutter to yourself and move onto the next posted comment.
A few comments of, yeah, I called too would be helpful. A LOT of posts of, yeah WE ALL CALLED, would be even better.
Always stunning how the US defends its killing of 13 civilians non-chalantly as collateral damage and congratulates itself on a "counter-terrorism" strike. 20,000,000 civilians killed since WWII by the US Army - but these bad, bad Russians and Chinese ...
IF the killing of of the previous ISIS "leader", al-Baghdadi (we killed him too) did not result in the absence of ISIS or a the promotion of a new leader, then, why would killing al-Qurayshi (and his wife and kids) matter either?
I wonder: Might it make sense to sit down with these leaders of their community and learn what they want? Understand their challenges and grievances and hopes for their (now dead) children?
In other words, negotiate with them like they are people instead of wild animals that we can wantonly kill apparently without abandon or any limit?
Apology for not being impressed with yet another President beating his chest over having killed another Muslim in the Middle East WITHOUT explaining how he was actually a risk to the USA.
I mean, we have been killing Muslims in the Middle East for more than 20 years and apparently it has made no difference at all.
Maybe there is a different approach than just killing these guys (and their wives and their kids) and then killing them again, and again, and again, and again, ad nauseum?
Kind of makes you think there should be an investigation of the electors for the 2016 presidential election. I always thought there was tampering in THAT election.
As a former Foreign Service Officer during the Cold War, I have familiarity with how America and and western Allies dealt with saber-rattling bullying from Stalin, Khrushchev, and subsequent Soviet apparatchiks. I applaud President Biden and our NATO allies (almost all of them) for how they are responding to Putin’s outrageous demands and military threats.
Dealing firmly with the Soviet Union at one time was a clear cut, bipartisan position [Reagan/Gorbachev was eventually a smashing success applauded by Republicans and Democrats.]
I am gobsmacked as to where the Republicans (aka Trumpistas) stand regarding America’s policy towards Russian aggression and intimidation. I have not seen any indication that Trump has abandoned his bromance with Putin. The Republican jerk from Missouri, Harley, is prattling nonsense about Ukraine not being part of NATO, and I haven’t bothered to research Rand Paul’s prattling on our policy towards Russia.
All this underscores that the Trumpistas have no clear foreign policy, as witnessed by the failure, for the first time in modern Republican history, to exclude foreign policy from their 2020 presidential convention. Putin was thrilled by his self-serving bromance with Trump and is heartened by the prospective of promoting divisiveness that undercuts a crystal-clear, bipartisan policy on Putin’s hard jabs and feints.
CLEARLY TRUMPISTA FOREIGN POLICY IS TO CRITICIZE WHATEVER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DOES, WITHOUT PRESENTING A COHERENT FOLICY POLICY OF THEIR OWN.
(Perhaps they are waiting for the their latest guidance from Caudillo Trump.)
I'm certainly glad that Biden is continuing to handle our business on the international front. Individual terrorists must understand that there is a moral and physical hazard for their behavior. Along those lines, I understand that there is a strong coalition fomenting sanctions, with teeth, against Russia. It's very cool that our intelligence services have revealed a possible Russian staged fake video of some type of Ukrainian aggression to justify an invasion. Thank you HCR for your analysis.
If you can hear me Repubs, don’t spend your precious time censoring the only patriots in your party. Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) if you can hear me, trade in your R for a D and join the party that mostly upholds Truth, Justice and Democracy, ideals lost on your colleagues. And thank you for your dedication and your work on the 1/6 comm. We have two in our party who call themselves Dems but they’re really DINOS so let the trade begin. Of course, you’ll have to make some changes in your philosophy, but that’s possible, isn’t it?
It really is mind boggling . . . . it's as though the only explanation is republicans were taken over by aliens which is beginning to make more sense than "reality"!
"And yet, the Republican National Committee is doubling down on its support for Trump, its resolution committee tonight voting unanimously to censure the two Republican representatives on the January 6 committee: Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)."
Without planting doubts about Democratic support for a modern, capable military and national defense, Democrats might consider a long-range strategy of leveraging Democratic support for a credible national defense for Republican support of domestic investment. The size of US investment in a military at this late hour in the post World War II era is obscene and a serious drain on the available resources of the national budget for making the national community health, well educated and united as a national community. It was the national community working cooperatively and with great person sacrifice that produced the fascist state into economic ruin. But, yes, the rapid centralization of executive power needed to build the effective war materials producer of our whole country, which was a major concern Hitler understood was the biggest threat to his ambition to dominate Europe and its failing colonial empires. Of course, the concentration of productive force required, effectively undermined local economies and its corollary tight dependence of capital markets on local competitive forces.
No one should think the productive conditions required for the war-powers economy would be sustainable when the emergency was over. Russia's continuation of a war-powers mobilized economy and community was the major reason the USSR failed to return to peacetime governance conditions in order to encourage entreprenuarial innovation and died economically. The transition in the US back to peacetime conditions proved difficult and only partially possible due to the role of the US in the chaos of the postwar period, a period in which the general failure of institutions of ordinary governance for the major nations needed time and protection against the real forces of endless disorder.
But, the world has largely adapted to the new conditions of a global reality and community of concern, and the US has become a respected and appreciated best among equals. It is time for us to transition from a world power with separatist reflexes anchored to an outsized, dominant world power status, with an outsized military, and to a fortress mentality fearful of newcomers with unfamiliar experiences and ways, i.e., the basic condition upon which the USA experiment in incusive, cooperative democracy thrived. It is hardly surprising that the insurgent forces of reaction today are the same as they've always been: those who have never accepted the defeat of the Confederacy, and those who hated FDR for the New Deal and national level efforts to keep the country from what historians understand as real conditions of possible anti-capitalist revolution.
The globalizing "World Wars" have made for a world of extra-national states in which no nation will ever again hide behind its cliffs and beaches and hallucinate itself into a self-destructive pipe-dream drugged on its own fantasies of destiny. The present military budget in the US is unsustainable and, on guns or butter economic logic, is serving as an anti-stimulus for home-base productivity and innovation. Democrats should oppose reactionary initiatives to prevent the postwar spread of the community cost of security and distribution of military spending and responsibility to a global community that needs to create the institutional framework all our guns and nuclear missiles are incapable of serving otherwise than as dangerous bluff.
What is not up for doubt is the absolute need to keep the nuclear football and the control of our military forces far from the little fingers and bone spurs of a Donald Trump whose delusions of grandure has to be a matter of discussion between him and his mental controller, not a matter of death wish bedtime stories and tired blood momentary urges to set off collective suicide.
Growing up under the very real threat of nuclear annihilation was terrifying. As a teenager, I learned to adapt by accepting how "fair" it was. Everyone would die, and quickly if you were lucky. At least the situation was unambiguous. In today's world things are decidedly different. The threats now augmenting what we think of as traditional war are all about misinformation, as today's letter shows: false narratives and manufactured incidents with fake corpses, and the many tendrils of Trump's conspiratorial Big Lie and its ripple effect — the devious efforts to destroy free and fair elections.
Dare I go on? Absolutely. Another form of misinformation is intentionally creating a lack of information in the classroom. Muzzling teachers to churn out automaton kids who are clueless and incurious is, in my mind, war. A war on thinking. I highly recommend today's edition of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Her interview with researcher Jeffrey Sachs explains in chilling detail some of the many laws that states have passed or are considering to drastically limit what can be taught. Causing turmoil in the classroom and driving good teachers from the profession, I fear, are Republican goals. And creating new legions of unquestioning loyalists to embrace the party's authoritarian views.
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/03/1077878538/legislation-restricts-what-teachers-can-discuss
I fear I come to this party late, and find tempers and tongues quite on edge. Well here goes.
This may sound a little naive, but I just finished Jonathan Karl’s book “Betrayal “. He references the Dec. 18 th meeting in the White House. It stood out because it is my birthday. He gives other details that are head-shaking. The story he tells, full of authoritative quotes, is chilling from beginning to end. I thought I knew enough of the details of these events, but I was wrong. I recommend this book.
Till the Jan. 6th debacle I had a deep loathing for Liz Cheney and her father. I am now forced to give her credit for standing up to the criminality of djt and his cult. But remember she most likely voted for djt. And her conservative stance on government is antithetical to everything I believe government should be. And the same goes for the rest of the Republican Party that should have disavowed djt from the moment he took his infamous escalator ride and brought the country to the door of hell.
Lastly, war is a moral failure. It turns the best of humanity into beasts. Qurayshi is responsible for killing the women and children. ISIS, like others of their ilk, has an insanity of religion that defies explanation. It compels brutal resistance.
Restful sleep and inner peace is rare these days. Angry and indecent language has maybe a place inside a personal space. But as soon as it escapes it defiles even the best arguments. Evidence and testimony is seeping out into the light on a daily timetable. It is our strongest weapon. Because it will compel us to vote. In every election.
The Nazis staged a similar "event" so they could claim "self defense" when they attacked Poland in September 1939. they built a "radio station" just inside the German side of the Polish-German border, then dressed prisoners in Polish uniforms and had them "attack" the radio station, where they were shot to death by Waffen-SS "defenders" and then the "attackers" were photographed.
And yes, nobody but Charles Lindbergh and the America First movement were dumb enough to say that was "proof" we should stay away from the "foreign war."
Last night on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” Ronald Goldman suggested that, among others, the Justice Department should be pursuing charges under the RICO statute (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act) against TFG and his fellow conspirators in their attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.
I’ve said it repeatedly in this forum and others, that RICO is tailor-made for TFG across the entire spectrum of his business and political activities.
If the Justice Department is not vigorously investigating the full range of potential crimes committed by TFG and his gang, we are (to use the vernacular) screwed.
As for the ongoing criminal conspiracy, so much has been said already that it's difficult to see how much more we need to disclose before we conclude that enough is enough. What's telling are those who are refusing to disclose what they know. If it were up to me to decide, I would hold that anyone who took the Oath of Office who declines to testify is ipso facto a supporter of insurrection and therefore ineligible to hold any public office or employment by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment, section three. That amounts to a lifetime ban. A refusal to testify is a felony punishable by a year's imprisonment. We want them to testify. If they bear criminal responsibility for their actions, I want to see them prosecuted. The punishment need not be draconian, except for those who planned and coordinated their efforts; but having to face a judge and allocute to the crimes is an essential part of the process, especially those who cut a deal to reduce their punishment. This is what Richard Nixon should have been required to do in return for his presidential pardon.
On your first-mentioned point, Joe Biden has been constantly under-rated by Republicans. He oversees a focused, surgical strike against ISIS that's in their face that takes out their top leader, while minimizing collateral damage. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and his wife blew themselves up with suicide vests, killing their children and others, 13 innocents in all. Other civilians on the lower floors of the building fled with their lives. ISIS has long used innocent lives to protect themselves, and this is perhaps the most extreme example of their disregard for human life. Muslims that I know would be horrified at the parents' actions. Nonetheless, President Biden put a team of American military in harm's way so that at least some lives could be saved.
For what it is worth, fellow readers, I am so exasperated that I just called Mitch McConnells office and left a message with an aide. Brief but to the point: we NEED a two party system in the US and those parties are the Democrats and the Republicans; the REAL Republicans, not the Trumpists that are destroying our nation. McConnell needs to call out these people and reign the party in.
I know that some here will comment and tell me it is useless. Please do not, I am depressed enough already. If you feel that way, please just shake your head, mutter to yourself and move onto the next posted comment.
A few comments of, yeah, I called too would be helpful. A LOT of posts of, yeah WE ALL CALLED, would be even better.
Here's the number: 202.224.2541
Always stunning how the US defends its killing of 13 civilians non-chalantly as collateral damage and congratulates itself on a "counter-terrorism" strike. 20,000,000 civilians killed since WWII by the US Army - but these bad, bad Russians and Chinese ...
Syrian White Helmet's report:
"The bodies of at least 13 people were found by the local White Helmets rescue service,
-----> with six children and four women among them."<--------
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-special-forces-conduct-counterterrorism-mission-syria-pentagon-says-rcna14692
I have a question:
IF the killing of of the previous ISIS "leader", al-Baghdadi (we killed him too) did not result in the absence of ISIS or a the promotion of a new leader, then, why would killing al-Qurayshi (and his wife and kids) matter either?
I wonder: Might it make sense to sit down with these leaders of their community and learn what they want? Understand their challenges and grievances and hopes for their (now dead) children?
In other words, negotiate with them like they are people instead of wild animals that we can wantonly kill apparently without abandon or any limit?
Apology for not being impressed with yet another President beating his chest over having killed another Muslim in the Middle East WITHOUT explaining how he was actually a risk to the USA.
I mean, we have been killing Muslims in the Middle East for more than 20 years and apparently it has made no difference at all.
Maybe there is a different approach than just killing these guys (and their wives and their kids) and then killing them again, and again, and again, and again, ad nauseum?
Kind of makes you think there should be an investigation of the electors for the 2016 presidential election. I always thought there was tampering in THAT election.
Thanks, Prof. Richardson for this Letter, which is more required reading for everyone.
As a former Foreign Service Officer during the Cold War, I have familiarity with how America and and western Allies dealt with saber-rattling bullying from Stalin, Khrushchev, and subsequent Soviet apparatchiks. I applaud President Biden and our NATO allies (almost all of them) for how they are responding to Putin’s outrageous demands and military threats.
Dealing firmly with the Soviet Union at one time was a clear cut, bipartisan position [Reagan/Gorbachev was eventually a smashing success applauded by Republicans and Democrats.]
I am gobsmacked as to where the Republicans (aka Trumpistas) stand regarding America’s policy towards Russian aggression and intimidation. I have not seen any indication that Trump has abandoned his bromance with Putin. The Republican jerk from Missouri, Harley, is prattling nonsense about Ukraine not being part of NATO, and I haven’t bothered to research Rand Paul’s prattling on our policy towards Russia.
All this underscores that the Trumpistas have no clear foreign policy, as witnessed by the failure, for the first time in modern Republican history, to exclude foreign policy from their 2020 presidential convention. Putin was thrilled by his self-serving bromance with Trump and is heartened by the prospective of promoting divisiveness that undercuts a crystal-clear, bipartisan policy on Putin’s hard jabs and feints.
CLEARLY TRUMPISTA FOREIGN POLICY IS TO CRITICIZE WHATEVER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DOES, WITHOUT PRESENTING A COHERENT FOLICY POLICY OF THEIR OWN.
(Perhaps they are waiting for the their latest guidance from Caudillo Trump.)
I'm certainly glad that Biden is continuing to handle our business on the international front. Individual terrorists must understand that there is a moral and physical hazard for their behavior. Along those lines, I understand that there is a strong coalition fomenting sanctions, with teeth, against Russia. It's very cool that our intelligence services have revealed a possible Russian staged fake video of some type of Ukrainian aggression to justify an invasion. Thank you HCR for your analysis.
If you can hear me Repubs, don’t spend your precious time censoring the only patriots in your party. Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) if you can hear me, trade in your R for a D and join the party that mostly upholds Truth, Justice and Democracy, ideals lost on your colleagues. And thank you for your dedication and your work on the 1/6 comm. We have two in our party who call themselves Dems but they’re really DINOS so let the trade begin. Of course, you’ll have to make some changes in your philosophy, but that’s possible, isn’t it?
It really is mind boggling . . . . it's as though the only explanation is republicans were taken over by aliens which is beginning to make more sense than "reality"!
"And yet, the Republican National Committee is doubling down on its support for Trump, its resolution committee tonight voting unanimously to censure the two Republican representatives on the January 6 committee: Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)."
Without planting doubts about Democratic support for a modern, capable military and national defense, Democrats might consider a long-range strategy of leveraging Democratic support for a credible national defense for Republican support of domestic investment. The size of US investment in a military at this late hour in the post World War II era is obscene and a serious drain on the available resources of the national budget for making the national community health, well educated and united as a national community. It was the national community working cooperatively and with great person sacrifice that produced the fascist state into economic ruin. But, yes, the rapid centralization of executive power needed to build the effective war materials producer of our whole country, which was a major concern Hitler understood was the biggest threat to his ambition to dominate Europe and its failing colonial empires. Of course, the concentration of productive force required, effectively undermined local economies and its corollary tight dependence of capital markets on local competitive forces.
No one should think the productive conditions required for the war-powers economy would be sustainable when the emergency was over. Russia's continuation of a war-powers mobilized economy and community was the major reason the USSR failed to return to peacetime governance conditions in order to encourage entreprenuarial innovation and died economically. The transition in the US back to peacetime conditions proved difficult and only partially possible due to the role of the US in the chaos of the postwar period, a period in which the general failure of institutions of ordinary governance for the major nations needed time and protection against the real forces of endless disorder.
But, the world has largely adapted to the new conditions of a global reality and community of concern, and the US has become a respected and appreciated best among equals. It is time for us to transition from a world power with separatist reflexes anchored to an outsized, dominant world power status, with an outsized military, and to a fortress mentality fearful of newcomers with unfamiliar experiences and ways, i.e., the basic condition upon which the USA experiment in incusive, cooperative democracy thrived. It is hardly surprising that the insurgent forces of reaction today are the same as they've always been: those who have never accepted the defeat of the Confederacy, and those who hated FDR for the New Deal and national level efforts to keep the country from what historians understand as real conditions of possible anti-capitalist revolution.
The globalizing "World Wars" have made for a world of extra-national states in which no nation will ever again hide behind its cliffs and beaches and hallucinate itself into a self-destructive pipe-dream drugged on its own fantasies of destiny. The present military budget in the US is unsustainable and, on guns or butter economic logic, is serving as an anti-stimulus for home-base productivity and innovation. Democrats should oppose reactionary initiatives to prevent the postwar spread of the community cost of security and distribution of military spending and responsibility to a global community that needs to create the institutional framework all our guns and nuclear missiles are incapable of serving otherwise than as dangerous bluff.
What is not up for doubt is the absolute need to keep the nuclear football and the control of our military forces far from the little fingers and bone spurs of a Donald Trump whose delusions of grandure has to be a matter of discussion between him and his mental controller, not a matter of death wish bedtime stories and tired blood momentary urges to set off collective suicide.