Weekly Update --- President Starts a War? Congress Yawns. Threatens to End One? Condemnation!
Congress furious that a war might end! Congress furious that a war might end! Congress furious that a war might end!
Congress furious that a war might end! Congress furious that a war might end! Congress furious that a war might end!
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U.S. Intervention's Terrorist Legacy
00:03:03
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| Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report. | |
| President Starts a War. | |
| Congress yawns. | |
| Threatens to end one. | |
| Condemnation. | |
| Last week's bipartisan Senate vote to rebuke President Trump for his decision to remove troops from Syria and Afghanistan unfortunately tells us a lot about what is wrong with Washington, D.C. While the two parties loudly bicker about minor issues when it comes to matters like endless wars overseas, they enthusiastically join together. | |
| With few exceptions, Republicans and Democrats lined up to admonish the President for even suggesting that it's time for U.S. troops to come home from Afghanistan and Syria. | |
| The amendment proposed by the Senate Majority Leader and passed overwhelmingly by both parties warns that a precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from the ongoing fight in Syria and Afghanistan could allow terrorists to regroup. | |
| As one opponent of the amendment correctly pointed out, a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is hardly precipitous since they've been there for nearly 18 years. | |
| And with al-Qaeda and ISIS largely defeated in Syria, a withdrawal from that country would hardly be precipitous after almost five years of unauthorized U.S. military action. | |
| Senators supporting the rebuke claim that U.S. troops cannot leave until every last ISIS fighter is killed or captured. | |
| This is obviously a false argument. | |
| Al-Qaeda and ISIS did not emerge in Iraq because U.S. troops left the country. | |
| They emerged because the U.S. was in the country in the first place. | |
| Where was al-Qaeda in Iraq before the 2003 U.S. invasion? | |
| The neocons lied us into? | |
| There weren't any. | |
| U.S. troops occupying Iraqi territory was, however, a huge incentive for Iraqis to join a resistance movement. | |
| Similarly, U.S. intervention in Syria, beginning under the Obama administration, contributed to the growth of terrorist groups in that country. | |
| We know that U.S. invasion and occupation provides the best recruiting tools for terrorists, including suicide terrorists. | |
| So how does it make sense that keeping troops in these countries in any way contributes to the elimination of terrorism? | |
| As to the vacuum created in Syria when U.S. troops pull out, how about allowing the government of Syria to take care of the problem? | |
| After all, it's their country, and they've been fighting ISIS and al-Qaeda since the U.S. helped launch the regime change in 2011. | |
| Despite what you might hear in the U.S. mainstream media, it's Syria, along with its allies, that has done most of the fighting against these groups, and it makes no sense that they would allow them to return. | |
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Congress Awakens Suddenly
00:00:56
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| Congress has the constitutional responsibility and obligation to declare war, but this has been ignored for decades. | |
| The president bombs far-off lands and even sends troops to fight in and occupy foreign territory, and Congress doesn't say a word. | |
| But if a president dares speak to end a war, suddenly the sleeping congressional giant awakens. | |
| I've spent many years opposing executive branch overreach in matters where the president has no constitutional authority. | |
| But when it comes to decisions on where to deploy or redeploy troops once in battle, it is clear that the Constitution grants that authority to the Commander-in-Chief. | |
| The real question we need to ask is: why is Congress so quick to anger when the President finally seeks to end the longest war in U.S. history? | |