Perpetual war ignored at Biden, Sanders debate

Foreign policy got less than 10 minutes at last night’s debate and much of that was squandered by Biden’s red baiting Sanders over his alleged bromance with Chinese authoritarian leader Xi Jinping and dead Cuban authoritarian ruler Fidel Castro, simply because Sanders rightly pointed out their societal improvements in health and welfare. Sanders response was a spot on criticism of Biden’s vote for and cheerleading the criminal US invasion of Iraq. He also pointed out Biden’s current support for authoritarians like Saudi and Gulf State rulers.

But desperately absent was a discussion how to end our defilement of the Middle East and Africa with over 50,000 troops and endless bombings killing thousands of innocents every year. The Afghan war is in its 19th year still killing civilians there and getting occasional US soldiers killed. Same goes for our Iraq war now just 3 days from its 17th anniversary. We’re still enabling hostilities in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Niger, Somalia and others we don’t even hear about. Also absent was any mention of senseless and deadly US sanctions degrading life for Iranians, Venezuelans, North Koreans and Cubans; all targeted by regime change crazed Uncle Sam.

Lack of serious debate of perpetual war wasting trillions is a disgrace. We haven’t had a serious debate on perpetual war since George McGovern talked sense about Vietnam in 1972 and wound up losing 49 states. Every candidate since learned his lesson: leave endless killing to the Military-Industrial Complex. It’s good for the economy…and makes debating a lot easier.