Congresswoman says US arming Al-Qaeda and ISIS

[seanD]

I guess Tulsi Gabbard's just pretty much making public what was all too obvious to anyone who had at least a modicum of knowledge about what was going on in middle east... those with enough brain cells to even find Syria on a map. What's interesting is that she's a democrat, therefore, no one can accuse her of partisan bias...

http://theantimedia.org/congresswoman-us-arming-isis/

But this doesn't just damn Obama and Hillary, it damns all the necon warhawks in the House that are in full support of our operations in Syria. One could even say McCain's visit to Syria was treasonous since he clearly consorted with (supposed) US enemies.

And let's end the nonsense of "moderate rebels" the US government tries and label the groups they're supporting. It's absurd to call them that and it's apparent they say that as a PR cover to hide the fact they're supporting full-on terrorist jihadists.

[Sparko]

Where can I get a free gun? Those things are expensive!

[seanD]

Convert to radical Islam apparently. Just don't do here. Do it in Libya, Iraq, or Syria.

[Starlight]

Ultimately I think the problem is that the arms manufacturing companies in the US have control of politicians and make the politicians pay an absurdly large amount of money to those company to always invent and manufacture new and better weapons.

Then the US has an absurd surplus of armaments, so they have to figure out what to do with them all. Many they just dump in the desert in Nevada. Others they gift to police forces around the US who end up absurdly over-equipped with full on military assault vehicles and hardware they don't really know how to use and have no worthwhile use for. But ultimately military weapons need to be sold and used, so the US government controlled by the arms companies finds excuses to sell these US weapons all around the world, to African dictators, to Saudi Arabia, to Turkey, etc. It finds excuses to heavily equip every single rebel group it can find in the Middle East, and the more war there is in the Middle East, the happier the arms manufacturers become because more munitions are being used up so even more need to be made and bought and sold.

President Einsenhower, 1961:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Ever since the beginning of this decade of wars in the middle east there have been constant stories about how the US provides 1000s of military vehicles to the region which then happen to get all captured by ISIS, or the US providing arms to a rebel group who then turns them all over to Al Qaeda. Suspicious people might think that at the end of the day the arms suppliers just wanted more people to have arms and didn't particularly mind who's hands they were in, or even preferred that all sides had more weapons because then they could sell more arms to everyone.

The U.S. Is Still No.1 at Selling Arms to the World

Some people might find it a little suspicious that the same country that makes and sells most of the world's weapons also happens to the the country that is causing the most wars and instability around the world which is causing people to need and buy weapons. Total coincidence I'm sure.

[Starlight]

I see Tulsi Gabbard has introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists act, to stop US federal government agencies supplying weapons to terrorist groups.

I predict the legislation will go nowhere because congress is Republican controlled, and the Republican party is very much in the pocket of the military industrial complex and supporting the arming of terrorists. The last time the arming of terrorists was a serious issue was in 1982-1987 when congressional Democrats took a strong stand against the Reagan administration's arming of the Contra terrorists. Congressional Democrats tried to use their budgetary powers to halt the flow of federal monies to terrorists, but the Reagan administration argued that foreign affairs fell within the control of the executive branch and thus that he could arm terrorists if he felt like. When Democrats eventually successfully blocked the funding, the Reagan administration redirected monies gained from weapons sales to Iran to continue supplying the Contra terrorists in Nicaragua, and thus get around the Democrats' block of money to terrorists.

From that lesson of history, I predict that Gabbard's law to prevent arms sales to terrorists has an iceberg's chance in hell of passing a Republican-controlled congress, and that the Republicans will find any and every way to continue to sell arms to terrorists around the world.

[seanD]

I see Tulsi Gabbard has introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists act, to stop US federal government agencies supplying weapons to terrorist groups.

I predict the legislation will go nowhere because congress is Republican controlled, and the Republican party is very much in the pocket of the military industrial complex and supporting the arming of terrorists. The last time the arming of terrorists was a serious issue was in 1982-1987 when congressional Democrats took a strong stand against the Reagan administration's arming of the Contra terrorists. Congressional Democrats tried to use their budgetary powers to halt the flow of federal monies to terrorists, but the Reagan administration argued that foreign affairs fell within the control of the executive branch and thus that he could arm terrorists if he felt like. When Democrats eventually successfully blocked the funding, the Reagan administration redirected monies gained from weapons sales to Iran to continue supplying the Contra terrorists in Nicaragua, and thus get around the Democrats' block of money to terrorists.

From that lesson of history, I predict that Gabbard's law to prevent arms sales to terrorists has an iceberg's chance in hell of passing a Republican-controlled congress, and that the Republicans will find any and every way to continue to sell arms to terrorists around the world.

Nah, you're not really looking at this objectively. It may not pass (mainly because of the ignorance of the public, too stupid to realize their tax dollars are supporting the same groups that attacked them on 911), but it has a better chance of passing now than if it was a Dem controlled House. The Dems wouldn't pass it simply for partisan reasons, as it would go against the wishes of the Obama admin and what they're trying to accomplish in Syria. And since the Dems are so anti-Russia hysterical right now, there's no way they would pass something that might give Russia/Assad the advantage in Syria. Sure, there are a few neocon psychos like McCain and Graham that will oppose it, but the plus side is that Reps generally are staunchly anti-Muslim terrorism than the Dems are. Whether they should pass a bill or not that arms muslim terrorists abroad creates a dilemma for them. Also, the fact this is exclusively Obama's cockamamie foreign policy, should further add weight to that. For them to oppose the bill will be serving the wishes of Obama.

[Cow Poke]

...Others they gift to police forces around the US who end up absurdly over-equipped with full on military assault vehicles and hardware they don't really know how to use and have no worthwhile use for.....

Can you please give one example of a police force in the US who has one of these "full on military assault vehicles"?

Thanks

[Starlight]

Can you please give one example of a police force in the US who has one of these "full on military assault vehicles"?

CNN discusses it here:

See also John Oliver's discussion starting at 6:49 in this clip: (bad language warning)

[Darth Executor]

lol @ getting your news from comedy central

[Starlight]

lol @ getting your news from comedy central

They do the best news. Partially because the state of the US is so ridiculous that nothing but merciless mocking makes sense anymore, and partially because they fact-check the wazoo out of all their stories and use video clips from dozens of sources.

[Darth Executor]

[Terraceth]

lol @ getting your news from comedy central

"Late Night Tonight with John Oliver" is on HBO.

[Starlight]

"Late Night Tonight with John Oliver" is on HBO.

"Last Week Tonight"

[Cow Poke]

CNN discusses it here:

You obviously have absolutely no idea what a "full on military assault vehicle" is. No surprise here.

[Jaecp]

You obviously have absolutely no idea what a "full on military assault vehicle" is. No surprise here.

Seeing as how that's colloquial language, how about you educate us, then.