Biden schizophrenic on Middle East troop withdrawals

Back in August, President Biden pulled the rug out from under the U.S. war party by pulling our remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan. The pro war national security establishment was furious but powerless to stop the most sensible anti war, pro peace action in the 20 War on Terror.

Possibly as a sop to the national security state, Biden, who promised the day of boots on the ground in senseless wars was over, pivoted. He said U.S. troops, defiling Syria’s sovereignty since 2015, would be staying indefinitely. Why? Biden claims to help the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) combat ISIS in Syria.

Bunk. Besides the aforementioned placating of the U.S. war party, they remain in Syria to keep Syria’s oil resources from being used by their rightful owner Syrian government. Combined with crippling and inhuman U.S. sanctions getting Syrian civilians killed for nothing, they represent continued criminal war against Syria.

What Biden didn’t mention was that he’s essentially painted a target on the backs of the 900 remaining troops keeping those oil wells silent. Just last week a drone attack by anti U.S. militias narrowly missed one or more of Biden’s artwork. Inevitably, Biden will be called out to Andrews Air Force Base to salute the casket of a soldier silenced by Biden’s ‘boots on the ground’ schizophrenia.

Blackhawks Tic-Tac-Dough

Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz asked the NHL Hall of Fame to place X's on the letters Brad Aldrich gracing the hallowed Stanley Cup for their 2010 championship. This of course is there way of trying to scrub out the massive stain of scandal relating to their coverup of Aldrich's sexual assault of a 20 year old prospect during their march to their first Stanley Cup in 49 years.

Gee, if the Hawks would be truly sorry and request the Hall X out the names of all personnel involved in some way, the Cup would have more X's than any other letter on the Cup.

Biden can't blame Congress for foreign policy failures.

With all 50 Republican senators and 2 Democratic holdouts (Manchin and Sinema) blocking most domestic initiatives, President Biden has a daunting obstacle to his bold, ambitious agenda to build back America better. Infrastructure, climate change, education, health care improvements are all jeopardized by Congressional obstinance.

But on foreign policy, it's all on Biden, and other than one spectacular success, it's a report card of Failure. That is because Congress decided 20 years ago after 911, to give any president a free hand to wage war, both hot and cold, with virtually no oversight whatsoever. And all four, from Bush Jr., Obama, Trump and now Biden, inevitably follow senseless and failed policies.

But let's acknowledge Biden's spectacular success, withdrawing all U.S. troops and ending our 20 year failed war in Afghanistan. That was largely inconceivable due to 20 years of presidents caving to pressure from the national security state; military, weapons makers, congressional hawks and pro war pundits to never end any endless war.

But possibly to allay their fears of expanding U.S. efforts for peace, Biden has held fast to his predecessors' worst policies, even ratcheting some up.

In two polices Biden reneged on his campaign promise for improvement. He vowed to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, a terrific war saving policy Biden supported as Obama's VP. But instead of quickly reversing Trump's utterly senseless 2017 withdrawal, Biden insists Iran negotiate a completely new agreement with onerous, expanded conditions; something to which Iran has justifiably said 'No way, Joe'. In so doing, Biden has destroyed his and America's credibility to negotiate sensibly on an issue that that can lead to a new, catastrophic war.

His other campaign promise reversal involves détente with Cuba. Just like with Iran, Biden assisted Obama's re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, opening up Cuba to U.S. tourism, and pledge to end the embargo. Biden criticized Trump's reversal of Cuban détente and promised to re-engage. That promise was quickly jettisoned upon his inauguration with cruel U.S. sanctions against Cuba continuing into their 62nd year with no end in sight.

Biden also promised to end America's support for Saudi Arabia's cruel, murderous war in Yemen. Again, U.S. support continues unabated, putting millions of Yemenites at risk of starvation from the U.S.-Saudi blockade, if they aren't killed by U.S. bombs dropped from U.S. planes flown by Saudi pilots.

In Syria, Biden has doubled down on first Obama, then Trump’s criminal war to oust the Syrian government. He’s maintaining indefinitely the 900 troops that Trump positioned between the government and their oil resources they need to rebuild the country America helped devastate. Combined with cruel sanctions getting thousands of Syrian civilians killed from lack of food and medicine, Biden is the third straight president to dip his hands in the Syrian bloodbath.

Worst of all, Biden has continued Trump's new Cold Wars with Russia and China. Flirting with support for the corrupt, broken state of Ukraine in their efforts to regain the Crimea and their 2 eastern provinces from Russia, has nothing to do with our national interests. But it could lead to war with Russia if our commitments are not dialed down.

Same goes for our senseless ratcheting up of support for Taiwan in their relationship to China. Both Trump and Biden dumped 4 decades of strategic ambiguity regarding Taiwan, with diplomatic provocations galore, the most egregious of which is a near ironclad promise to defend them militarily if the need arises. That is more Biden recklessness that can end in war.

President Biden reminds me of the halfback with the ball and an open filed to the goal line. Alas, he just can't stop dropping the ball. If he does it enough times ....the ball will eventually explode.

Move over Nathan, we’ve got a 21st century Hale to honor

Back in 1950’s grammar school, we were all taught the famous last words of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, who upon mounting the scaffold to be hanged for spying on British General William Howe, uttered “I regret I have but one life to give for my country.” The lesson was that no greater service could be rendered to America than giving up one’s life to protect it.

Three centuries later another Hale was punished for protecting America, not from a foreign foe, but from America’s own perpetual war machine. Former Air Force intelligence officer Daniel Hale, 33, was sentenced to 45 months in prison last July for trying to end murderous U.S. drone warfare in which up to 90% of the casualties are innocent civilians. He did that by pilfering secret documents establishing that horrific death toll in 2012-13, and giving them to antiwar journalist Jeremy Scahill. The resulting ‘Drone Papers’ proved that U.S. happy talk that drone warfare only kills foreign enemies was a cruel, murderous lie

Just a month after his sentence, the enormity of Hale’s revelations received worldwide attention when another U.S. drone strike in the heart of the Afghan capital obliterated a family of 10. Enemy combatants killed: 0. The U.S. military coverup team went into overdrive to first claim we slaughtered bad guys; then claim the strike was righteous. But with worldwide focus on the U.S. troop withdrawal, and rock solid reporting, the enormity of the U.S. war crime became undeniable.

No one guilty of criminal negligence in the slaughter would be arrested, imprisoned, fired or even disciplined. But for the unpardonable sin of revealing the truth about U.S. war crimes now in their third decade, Hale gives up 45 months of his freedom. The lesson is clear; break a technical law doing no harm to America whatsoever except to the criminals running amok in the Middle East and Africa, and you will be destroyed.

As long as we’re renaming Chicago schools these days, how bout updating the Nathan Hale school on the Southwest Side. Won’t take much effort, just chip off ‘Nathan’ and replace with ‘Daniel’. That is not to denigrate the sacrifice of the 18th century Hale. It will simply allow a 21st century patriot Hale, to serve as a modern role model to divert our youth away from senseless war….and toward peace.