I'm not a Democrat. I'm an anti-Republican. (Because - Benghazi hearings)

The Week ^ | May 13, 2014 | Damon Linker

[2ndDivisionVet]

The return of Benghazi is the latest evidence that the GOP is putting its unhinged obsessions before the good of the country.

Back in March 2013, I wrote a column titled, "Why I am no longer a Republican." A more accurate (though admittedly more ponderous) title would have been, "One important reason among many that I am no longer a Republican."

That important reason was the Iraq War, which I never supported and which the Bush administration and its legion of defenders in Washington and around the country justified in terms that struck me at the time as highly ideological, fundamentally anti-empirical, and more than a little paranoid. Let's just say that nothing that happened after the initial invasion persuaded me that my original instincts were wrong.

If the Iraq War debacle had been an isolated incident — one that Republicans forthrightly acknowledged as a mistake and showed signs of learning from — it's possible that I wouldn't have bolted the party.

But it wasn't an isolated incident. It was the start of a whole new era for the GOP — an era in which the stridently ideological, anti-empirical, and paranoid tendencies that gained the upper hand in the run-up to the Iraq War (and which had always been present in certain factions of the conservative movement) infected the party from top to bottom, corrupting its thinking on foreign and domestic policy and inspiring its lockstep opposition to the Obama administration's governing agenda from day one.

Today, my voting record says I'm a Democrat. I voted for Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008 and 2012. I nearly always support Democrats in House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections. But I don't identify closely with or feel deep loyalty to the Democratic Party, its agenda, or its electoral coalition....

[txhurl]

If you can tell me why anyone would offer themselves to the Diplomatic Corps or even the Military after Benghazi?

The ‘you are expendable’ message sent to people ‘managing’ our foreign policy and military recruits is unmissable.

[grimalkin]

Old hat. There were the anti anti-communists. People who were not members of the communist party, but hated all those against them. Same thing.

This Damon individual can scribble screeds all day and it won't change the fact that he's a leftist POS.

[driftless2]

If Linker isn’t lying, then we can go back to the ‘90s and the Clinton admin passing the Saddam Hussein removal act “by any means necessary” and find out what Linker thought about that. What do you bet Linker didn’t say anything at the time?

[Billthedrill]

It’s a simple admission that he won’t take a stand on anything he’s for but he certainly knows how to hate whoever he’s been told to. He’s also being paid for the word, and “I” is easy to type.

[TigersEye]

Damon is not too bright.

Let's put the Iraq War in context. We were in a state of war with Iraq, under a cease fire.

• 1. Iraqi provocation of American planes patrolling the no-fly zone. "More than 42,000 sorties were flown during that time. Iraqi surface-to-air missiles and other anti-aircraft systems targeted ONW aircrews on nearly every flight." (That sounds like 42,000 reasons to me but I'll only count it as one. I doubt you care whether any American or British planes get shot down.)
• 2. Saddam defied 17 UN resolutions that were a result of his losing the war. (again, that should count as 17 reasons but you get a break because you're a liberal who would cry if you had to face reality.)
• 3. Saddam tried to assassinate a former U.S. President.
• 4. Saddam was killing the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq that we had promised protection.
• 5. Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
• 6. Iraq's biological weapons program.
• 7. Iraq's chemical weapons program.
• 8. Saddam's extensive cooperation with terrorists.

I left out the 500,000+ people Saddam had killed because, after all, Damon wouldn't care about those filthy little brown people. Right? /s

[entropy12]

Damon, you are not anti-republican. You are an azzhole.

[latina4dubya]

But I don’t identify closely with or feel deep loyalty to the Democratic Party, its agenda, or its electoral coalition....

but he voted for Kerry and Obama, and he is against the Benghazi hearings... in the words sung by Olivia Newton-John, "please mister, please..."

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Any “life-long Republican” who votes for the Communist-Democrats now is either lying, stupid or insane.

[Lakeshark]

Maybe he’ll try to sell us this bridge in Brooklyn next......I hear it’s a stellar investment.

[Erik Latranyi]

The desperation of liberals is being realized. They see it all slipping away in the next 2 years...returning them to the hell of minority party with a conservative in the White House.

Expect these types of letters to be written nationwide, to your local paper, by libs who hope to depress our turnout.

[hal ogen]

The writer of this screed is obviously a DIMwit DIM. His scrawlings aren’t worth a second of anyone’s time. What a DIM wit nitwit.

[cowboyusa]

Seminar journalist.

[Amagi]

Damon Linker, you're a low-down dirty liar.
You can't handle the truth.

[Osage Orange]

She’s a moron!!

[TangoLimaSierra]

Of course, your you're a Dem. And the worst kind.

[a fool in paradise]

Opposed the war in Iraq but support Obama’s good wars including the one in Libya. What a moronic barking moonbat.

[a fool in paradise]

Probably voted for McCain in the 2000 primary, thus calling himself a “Republican” then voted for Gore in the general election...

[a fool in paradise]

Kerry was for going to war against Iraq dating back to 1998. He even said that international support/United Nations approval was not necessary to protect American interests.

[a fool in paradise]

Anybody ever seen the list of dozens and dozens of UN resolutions that Saddam defied.

It was at that moment that the "truce" of the first Gulf War had been broken and it was Saddam who took his nation to war. He was even offered the opportunity to step down which he refused.

It wasn't some "random covert attack" that was launched upon Iraq.