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With Trump's approval, Pentagon expands warfighting authority

23 Comments
By LOLITA C. BALDOR

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23 Comments
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Warmomger having wargasms.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

“Political leaders can lose control of military campaigns,” she warned.

Especially ones like Trump who thinks he knows more than his own Generals....

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Trump's ramp up of military powers must make the rightists, Russians and other believers in authoritarian regimes who assailed Clinton as a warmonger have second thoughts about pushing for a Trump presidency. Am I right? Or is Trump's warmongering of the good kind, like his nepotism, conflicts of interests, lies, tax evasions, and complete lack of understanding of world and national affairs. Or will the various rightists, Russians and other believers in totalitarianism continue to call fake news/alt facts/media conspiracy whenever Trump's being questioned.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

bass4funkAPR. 02, 2017 - 10:21AM JST President 44 did as well, the difference is, he was more drone happy, but the results were the same, warmongering, but from the comforts of troops drinking coffee and sitting in some warehouse using a Playstation.

Another lie. Dronestrikes under Trump are up 432%. We can criticize Obama's use of dronestrikes, certainly, but trying to use them to distract from Trump's warmongering is outright deceit.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@serrano We're going to

Are you saying you (and whoever) are going to be further involved in military actions throughout the world? Are you going to invade more sovereign nations? I clearly recall your having called Hillary a warmonger. It seems that further military actions fall under the warmonger banner. Are you saying that this, i.e. Trump's, is good warmongering? And by saying 'we', are you saying you're volunteering to be an actual down and dirty, in the field combatant?

You certainly can't be wishing for someone else to do your fighting for you, can you? Do you think any of Trumps (or RExxon Ts, Breibart's, Pence's, McConnell's, Ryan's, Priebus's, any other ruling class hawks) family members will be fighting alongside you? Or do you think that the ruling class should not have to participate in wars they start and gain from, that wars should only be fought by 'peasants'. After all, you've long said rules are different for the peasants.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

"Trump's ramp up of military powers must make the rightists, Russians and other believers in authoritarian regimes who assailed Clinton as a warmonger have second thoughts about pushing for a Trump presidency. Am I right?"

That is possible.

Despite the good economy and plentiful jobs here (Florida), this is an issue that certainly grates on me. That and Trumps Twitter usage. I can deal with it until he puts more boots on the ground and the body bags start coming home in greater numbers.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

PTownsendAPR. 02, 2017 - 06:53AM JST

Trump's ramp up of military powers must make the rightists, Russians and other believers in authoritarian regimes who assailed Clinton as a warmonger have second thoughts about pushing for a Trump presidency. Am I right?

I think they're all too full of their own self-righteousness to admit to anything like that. And quite frankly, if I'd spend the past year saying how great I thought Trump would be, going on about how he was going to the best president ever, the business genius who was going to drain the swamp, make America great again, etc etc, I'd feel a bit stupid admitting to having any second thoughts.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

And if Trump doesn't destroy ISIS, his fans will be fine with that, too. Either way.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

With Trump's approval, Pentagon expands warfighting authority

Bully gives himself permission to attack the vulnerable.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

PTownsendAPR. 02, 2017 - 06:53AM JST Trump's ramp up of military powers must make the rightists, Russians and other believers in authoritarian regimes who assailed Clinton as a warmonger have second thoughts about pushing for a Trump presidency. Am I right?

It's a nice idea to hope for, but I read recently that even among Trump voters who are hurt by the program cuts he's dishing out to pay for his farcical wall and militarist build-up, only something like 3% would vote differently today from when they voted for Trump in the election.

The right-wing establishment has been training right-wing voters to reject facts they dislike for decades. Trump has co-opted that denialism and built a cult of personality around it. That's why you can find rural poor who talk about how their life is going to be destroyed by the budget cuts Trump is ordering but who still think they have to stand by their man. In the right-wing mind, identity is more important than performance.

So sadly, I don't have any hope that Trump's warmongering will be recognized for what it is. Even before the mods swooped in and deleted the evidence, we had a Trump supporter outright lying here to proclaim Obama was a worse warmonger. It's going to take Trump literally destroying major swathes of the country before his hard-core supporters will look facts in the face.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Here are the headlines you might read in the Western press for the exact same event.

@Bush, here are some headlines I found when googling similar expressions but switching Russia and USA. (e.g. "Russia/USA bombs Syria"). All from different "western" news outlets.

Russia kills at 150 ISIS fighters in deadly mass carpet bombing over Syria

Russia bombing Aleppo with parachute bombs - civilians killed

Russia and the Syrian regime bombed U.S.-backed fighters in Syria, U.S. general says

Turkey denies mistakenly telling Russia to bomb troops

U.S. Military Denies Reports It Bombed Mosque in Syria

Syria At war: As U.S. bombs rebels, Russia strikes Isis and Israel targets Assad

America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016

US Bombs School Shelter in Syria Killing 33 Civilians

1 ( +1 / -0 )

SerranoAPR. 02, 2017 - 04:08PM JST

We're going to knock the hell out of ISIS. That OK with everyone?

Do you have anything to say or are you just going to parrot campaign slogans?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@PTownsend

Well said.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I clearly recall your having called Hillary a warmonger. It seems that further military actions fall under the warmonger banner.

So Hillary wasn't a warmongerer for getting us involved in Lybia and Syria, but Trump is a warmongerer for attempting to end conflicts the Dems got us involved with?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@PTown Or will the various rightists, Russians and other believers in totalitarianism continue to call fake news/alt facts/media conspiracy whenever Trump's being questioned.

@rBush Of course it depends on the propaganda angle as to how it would be reported. Here are the headlines you might read in the Western press for the exact same event.

Thank you @rBush for reinforcing my point. It must be tough for Putin-ophiles to know there are people questioning Vlad's reign. If readers only want to read and hear pro-Putin reports, perhaps they should stick with Russia Today (print or TV) or any other of Putin's various global media outlets, or for that matter any other alt right outlets that support authoritarian agendas. Those of us who value a free press know there are many places we can find reports about an array of events. Curious, isn't it, that some rightists, Russians and other believers in totalitarianism want to continually attempt to undermine a free press.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@katsu The right-wing establishment has been training right-wing voters to reject facts they dislike for decades. Trump has co-opted that denialism and built a cult of personality around it

Well said. Knowing how powerful memes are and how effective the right has been at using them (see G. Lakoff), knowing how the right has used commercial media outlets like those owned by Murdoch and many others to spread memes and fake news, knowing that rightists have been media-silofied and are unwilling to look at sites presenting perspectives different from their calcified beliefs, and knowing that Russians (1000 paid trolls?) have piled on to re-re-reinforce rightists memes, it's pretty easy to think the rightists will remain fossilized.

I wonder how many Nashi bots post to JT - and even posted to this very thread?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-bots-still-interfering-in-u-s-politics-after-election-expert/

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Obama conducted half the Libyan war without any input from Congress, and wasn't going to ask for it in Syria until the British did. This is just an expansion of his philosophy.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Actually the GOP didn't want to touch the military issue with a 10-foot pole.

McConnell Clears Path for Debate on Giving Obama Broad Powers to Combat ISIS

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/world/middleeast/mcconnell-clears-path-for-debate-on-giving-obama-broad-powers-to-combat-isis.html

Mr. McConnell has generally opposed the idea of revisiting the president’s authority for military operations in the Middle East, warning that the legal language favored by the Obama administration contained limitations that could tie the hands of the next president.

Senator Graham: “I agree with the president that Congress should act regarding giving him authority to fight ISIL,” Mr. Graham said at a news conference at the Capitol. “Here’s what I propose: that the authority to fight ISIL is not limited by time, is not limited by means or location."

(end)

The thought behind the GOP's willingness to let Obama do what he wanted was that it removes them from the process and allows them to criticize Obama if he fails.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Bully gives himself permission to attack the vulnerable.

Since when were the 'vulnerable' notorious for beheading people, burning prisoners alive, and throwing gays off tall buildings? What kind of twisted perspective do you have to have to believe that?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Warmomger having wargasms.

President 44 did as well, the difference is, he was more drone happy, but the results were the same, warmongering, but from the comforts of troops drinking coffee and sitting in some warehouse using a Playstation.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

We're going to knock the hell out of ISIS. That OK with everyone?

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

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