Posted on 01/07/2015 1:41:03 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As we face the new year, the biggest concern for peace lovers is Republican control of the U.S. Senate. While Republican votes dont reach the key number 60, members of the GOP will still be in a strong position to push their belligerent global agenda.
I dont mean to overstate the danger. After all, the Democrats were hardly better. But those who abhor war will awaken each day knowing that hawkish Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and their ilk are in control.
Peacemongers havent had much to cheer about during the Obama years. Barack Obama has gone back to war in Iraq and is conducting airstrikes in Syria, while leaving thousands of military personnel in Afghanistan, continuing murder by drone war in several countries, and maintaining the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Yet there have been a few glimmers of hope. Obama has pursued negotiations with Iran over its never-was and still-is-not nuclear-weapons program. The Iranian regime would like to return to the world economy by freeing itself from harsh U.S.-led sanctions, so it is bending over backward to assure the world that it wants no nuclear weapons. (The Supreme Leader years ago issued a fatwa against them.)
But the Obama administration, under pressure from Israels supporters in the United States, seems determined to push Iran further than it could possibly go regarding its ability to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. Moreover, Obama is at best ambiguous about whether all sanctions against Iran would ever be lifted, and the Republican Congress can be expected to obstruct any efforts in that direction. These two factors have turned optimists about the negotiations into pessimists.
If Obama blows this chance to normalize relations with Iran, which includes a large educated middle class friendly to America, it will be a tragedy of immense proportions. There is no way to justify the cruel consequences that U.S. sanctions have inflicted on the Iranian people. If a foreign power were doing this to Americans, the war cries would be deafening.
The American-Israeli-Saudi opponents of U.S.-Iranian reconciliation should be ashamed of themselves. Their cynical political concerns deserve no consideration whatever. If the regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia fear they will be less important in a Middle East that does not feature a U.S.-Iranian cold war, let them get over it. Peace trumps petty politics. And if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that without his bête noir, Iran, his systematic abuse of the Palestinians might get closer American scrutiny, all I can say is: lets hope so. Republicans of course will back Netanyahu.
The congressional Republicans can also be expected to block Obamas proposal to normalize relations with Cuba. Republicans like to portray themselves as advocates of strictly limited government, but somehow those limits include the power to reform the Cuban government. How can that be? If they believe this is a matter of national security, as Ted Cruz says, then it shows how ridiculous his party is. How exactly does Cuba pose a threat to the American people if indeed thats what national security is supposed to mean.
Finally, the Republicans undoubtedly will try to stop Obama from deferring the deportations of some five million people who are in this country without government permission. Here again the Republicans show their lack of intellectual integrity. Why should anyone need government permission to be here? Arent rights possessed by all people, not just Americans? U.S. immigration controls condemn millions of people to a grinding poverty that no American could imagine. Perpetuation of that cruelty is simply unconscionable.
Obamas stopgap approach to immigration is hardly ideal. Remember, hes only deferred deportation, and he hasnt done it for everyone who faces the threat. But its progress. Because of his executive order, millions of families will not be broken up by the U.S. government. That is something to celebrate, not obstruct.
The national-security state is rotten to the core, having inflicted incalculable death and misery on many foreign populations. Much hard work has to be done to free the world of this monster. In the near term, fortunately, some good things can be done at the margin if the new Republican majority doesnt get in the way.
*******
Sheldon Richman is vice president and editor at The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va. (www.fff.org).
I like your posts, 2ndDV, but I stopped right there in the first paragraph.
This guy claims Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program!
Yak, yak, YAAAAAAAAAACCCKKKKKK
The biggest concern?
>> As we face the new year, the biggest concern for peace lovers is Republican control of the U.S. Senate
>
> The biggest concern?
Are you concerned with the “democrat agenda”?
If so, then might I suggest that “Republican control” is exactly the same as “Democrat control” insofar as pushing that agenda goes.
(Just look at the push for amnesty right before/after the election, and the spending bill, and the Boehner vote.)
I am going to take the advice of Benjamin Franklin and stop for a moment to pray for the new leadership.
You got that right. Boehner sure had me fooled. Not anymore! He’s just another lying, career politician who is in it for power and $$$$ and wants to be loved by Demoncraps. Boehner says to us Conservatives =F$%&(##)YOU.
fixed it for them
Moderator, please add ‘barf alert’ to this tripe. Thank you
Insanity has a blog?
I would call them, at least, somewhat honest.
I’ve pointed out these same issues to friends on the left and they will get real riled and defend him, rather acerbicly, “You just don’t like his successes!”.
I usually chuckle and ask then exaclty, from their point of view and dreams hoped for in 2008/2012 “Define those successes. The way I see it he’s pretty much let you down and continued policies you railed against when it was George Bush.”
They get pissed and resort to their childish antics of calling me a masogynist, racist whatever.
But, they can never illuminate me on his success.
Whole thing is stupid, as are Boehner, McConnell and the other ass hats who enable this dork and save his ego frkm being bruised.
If it does, it's not here.
Conservatives by nature take a dim view of “military intervention”, but selectively.
In many situations, the US has no stake in fights, which are limited, mutually bellicose, show little or no sign of expanding beyond their range, and in which both sides engage in horrific acts. Whiny supplications that “the US must act, because innocent people are being killed”, are meaningless, because innocent people are *always* killed in war.
Likewise, the future will likely present the US with situations in which multinational corporations want the US to stomp on some dictator, solely because he is bad for their business. Again, not our problem. Especially when such multinationals do not pay US taxes, do not employ many Americans, and do their best to undercut American companies in US markets.
Jeb Bush might think he works for them, but the rest of us don’t. So, no wars just because the Chamber of Commerce wants them.
However, there are some wars that conservatives fully support. But if a war is fully endorsed by people like John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Jeb Bush, their endorsement works against conservative support for that war, because they are scoundrels, all of them. If conservatives support a war, it is on behalf of America. Not the UN. Not internationalism. Not multinational corporations. And not because we are busy-bodies.
I’m sure this was written before the events in France today.
Patriots need to consider that the Senate may not have the bad reputation that it does if state lawmakers hadnt ratified the ill-conceived 17th Amendment (17A), foolishly giving up the voices of state lawmakers in Congress.
In other words, the states need to repeal 17A and include a provision in the repeal amendment to give state lawmakers the power to recall bad-apple senators.
In fact, the 17A repeal amendment should also have provisions to recall bad-apple representatives and kick lawless presidents and justices out of office on a 3/4 state majority vote imo.
[Sheldon Richman is vice president and editor at The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va.] the Obama administration, under pressure from Israelâs supporters in the United States, seems determined to push Iran further than it could possibly go regarding its ability to enrich uranium for civilian purposes... There is no way to justify the cruel consequences that U.S. sanctions have inflicted on the Iranian people... The American-Israeli-Saudi opponents of U.S.-Iranian reconciliation should be ashamed of themselves. Their cynical political concerns deserve no consideration whatever. If the regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia fear they will be less important in a Middle East that does not feature a U.S.-Iranian cold war, let them get over it. Peace trumps petty politics.See? It's the Joooooooos! And their allies the Sunni/Wahhabi/Salafists! Yes, he is a propagandist, and one must wonder what his FR nick is.
FMDCH(BITS)
An opinion piece written by a far-Leftist to his 3 or 4 friends. Who can take this stuff seriously?
Libertopians for socialism and dhimmitude.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.