This week Secretary of State John Kerry became the Sham-Wow man for the latest war by the United States. Here is how a Sham-War pitch works. Kerry announced that the Arab countries will pay for our entire war if we invade Syria. That’s right, we can simply rent out U.S. personnel like mercenaries for Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations. First we have Nancy Pelosi explaining the war literally in five-year-old terms and now John Kerry doing his imitation of Offer “Vince” Shlomi.
Kerry told Congress that “With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes. . . . They have. That offer is on the table.” When Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) pressed on how much we could get from the countries, Kerry said it was an absolute bargain: “In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost . . . That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.”
Note the reference to “go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places.” That is the new way to refer to an invasion as in Iraq and Afghanistan. The clear suggestion is that we might be able to go to war on a Saudi credit card . . . if we act now. Indeed, as Congress contemplates whether it would buy a war for zero down, Kerry could offer to get a second war at the same cost.
What is astonishing is that the offer of a free war was viewed as Kerry as a positive contribution to the pitch for war. Many people have already criticized the United States for engaging in such operations at the behest of either the Saudis or the Israelis at the cost of U.S. lives and treasure. Even Offer “Vince” Shlomi would blush at the pitch of a war that is too good a deal to pass up.
Source: Washington Post
Elaine, thanks for the vid, and his sentiments regarding the parade of fools, er, experts/war criminals is one I feel deeply.
Pope Francis On Syria: Abandon ‘Futile Pursuit’ Of Military Solution
By NICOLE WINFIELD
09/05/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/pope-francis-syria_n_3872435.html
Excerpt:
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis urged the Group of 20 leaders on Thursday to abandon the “futile pursuit” of a military solution in Syria as the Vatican laid out its case for a negotiated settlement that guarantees rights for all minorities, including Christians.
In a letter Thursday to the G-20 host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Francis lamented that “one-sided interests” had prevailed in Syria, preventing a diplomatic end to the conflict and allowing the continued “senseless massacre” of innocents.
“To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution,” Francis wrote as the G-20 meeting got under way in St. Petersburg.
Francis has ratcheted up his call for peace in Syria amid threatened U.S.-led military strikes following an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.
He will host a peace vigil in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday, a test of whether his immense popular appeal will translate into popular support for his peace message.
Basically, what Kerry is proposing is having US forces be the mercenary army of Saudi Arabia and Israel. We will die so they don’t have to. The Syrian people will die. This is what Kerry calls a free war.
That the administration puts forward such a despicable idea shows who they are at the deepest level. They are truly evil people.
That the US will gladly take the role of mercenary (read expendable) regarding our forces and weapons is certainly an exposure of their complete insanity and lack of judgment. That they are asking for a war at all, let alone one that has “mysteriously” bloomed like red algae into all out war, shows this was never about helping the Syrian people.
Obama the emperor is as naked as his aggression.
Jill & Lotta,
The Daily Show (9/3/13)
Uncle Jonny Stew’s Good Time Syria Jamboree
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad crosses the line of what the American government feels is the appropriate way to kill people.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-3-2013/uncle-jonny-stew-s-good-time-syria-jamboree
Elaine, Times do change and our views evolve. But, if you have core values and integrity, they don’t get corrupted.
I guess Jill has forgotten Obama’s war in Libya that cost so many American lives and money. Is that true, or is she delusional? I guess she also thinks that Ghadfi was not an evil man and that Obama was and is FAR more evil and despicable. I guess that only the US is BAD and all others are good, or if not necessarily good, then “victims”.
Jill, you beat me to the Rumsfeld talking points on the cost. He was saying it would be over and done with in 6 months or less too. Wanker. He’s out and about bi**hing that we need to be in Syria yesterday. Right. Where’s he vacationing these days I wonder, if he leaves the country he’s in danger of being taken into custody and sent to Spain as a war criminal as I recall.
I am slightly confused about the supposed willingness of the Saudi’s willingness to foot the bill, are they not funding the rebels? Last I heard they were. They are though famous for funding extremists so long as the revolutions and unrest are kept out of the Kingdom so both statements could be true.
My, how times have changed this former anti-war activist.
John Kerry – Anti-War Speech (1971) [short clip]
Once again I see that folks are fact and reason free. First off, I guess that according to the opponents of Obama we are at WAR now in Libya and have been losing US lives there for some time and costing billions of dollars. We used air strikes against the government there, so it must be a big WAR. Too bad I missed that cover-up of that news. Then I remember the FACT that the cost of the First Gulf War was 90% paid for by Saudi Arabia, but of course that was a real war and a real coalition. So since Bush II lied, and the US paid 100% of that cost, that means that Obama too is a liar and we will also pay for this 100% and that Kerry too is a liar. I guess that I missed that part of logic in which just because one President lied that means ALL Presidents are liars on all things.
Could some of Obama’s opponents please use some facts and logic for a change? This is getting tiresome and embarrassing for you.
Milo Minderbinder Kerry, quick everyone go check your social security cards, Milo is trying to swap them for stock options in “Endless Bombing INC.”
Wait, wait…. The hessian are coming, the hessians are coming…. One if by tomahawk…. Two if by standard cruise missiles……
“Bush did it too” seems to be the default position for this administrations enablers.
This is exactly like Iraq. Kerry and Obama are geniuses. “Ahead of and shortly after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a number of officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz suggested the war could be done on the cheap and that it would largely pay for itself. In October 2003, Rumsfeld told a press conference about President Bush’s request for $21 billion for Iraq and Afghan reconstruction that “the $20 billion the president requested is not intended to cover all of Iraq’s needs. The bulk of the funds for Iraq’s reconstruction will come from Iraqis — from oil revenues, recovered assets, international trade, direct foreign investment, as well as some contributions we’ve already received and hope to receive from the international community.” In March 2003, Mr. Wolfowitz told Congress that “we’re really dealing with a country that could finance its own reconstruction.” In April 2003, the Pentagon said the war would cost about $2 billion a month, and in July of that year Rumsfeld increased that estimate to $4 billion.
Cool!!! Iraq paid for itself, why not WWIII?
Reblogged this on Semi-Partisan Sam and commented:
The concept of a “Free War” with the tab picked up by Middle-Eastern “allies” such as Saudi Arabia is never a good idea, as blogger Jonathan Turley eloquently points out. Reading this piece made me think back to Rachel Maddow’s excellent book “Drift”, in which she discusses the various ways that it has become easier for America to slide into wars around the country with less and less political debate or oversight to authorise the action. One of the key points that Maddow makes is the fact that because recent wars have been kept off the books, budget wise, the American public is much more likely to support a war when there will be no additional taxation demanded of them to fund it – thus enabling the warmongers Dick Cheney and George W Bush. Kerry’s attempt to sell military action in Syria based on the nebulous idea that Arab countries might pay part or all of the cost is just a continuation of this same trend – trying to coax people into supporting a heavy-handed, militaristic foreign policy entailing lots of foreign wars with the promise that it will not cost them anything.
So, the Arab League publicly opposes US intervention, but may be willing to pay us off under the table, under the radar of their populations. Sounds wonderful. Just the kind of honorable situation we need to be involved in.
“free” wars cost American lives – it is indeed time to put these fools in their place
““In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost . . . That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.”
!!! ??? GOBBLETYGOOK, ….I didn’t even google this word in an attempt to spell it correctly. What language is Kerry speaking in the above quote?
“The powers granted by the proposed Constitution are the gift of the people, and may be resumed by them when perverted to their oppression, and every power not granted thereby remains with the people.”- James Madison
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
It is time for a Revolution.
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”- James Madison