Is Lindsey's spine regenerating?

[Pete F.]

Trump gave up our position in Syria and control of ISIS assets, that we were controlling with 1K troops on the ground and received nothing for the US in return. What threats were made to Trump's considerable personal financial interests in Turkey is unknown.

I don't disagree with you, in that Erdogans moving to the other sphere.
That is just one more reason why long term policies and career Pentagon and State Dept employees are important.
To be successful US policy needs to be close as possible to consistent from President to President.
This has been worked on for the past 75 years by administration after administration with great success.
Trump has flushed decades of work and many lives lost down the drain with his impulsive actions.
Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback, it will be a long time, if ever, before we regain the trust of our allies to the degree we had.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Trump gave up our position in Syria and control of ISIS assets, that we were controlling with 1K troops on the ground and received nothing for the US in return. What threats were made to Trump's considerable personal financial interests in Turkey is unknown.

I don't disagree with you, in that Erdogans moving to the other sphere.
That is just one more reason why long term policies and career Pentagon and State Dept employees are important.
To be successful US policy needs to be close as possible to consistent from President to President.
This has been worked on for the past 75 years by administration after administration with great success.
Trump has flushed decades of work and many lives lost down the drain with his impulsive actions.
Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback, it will be a long time, if ever, before we regain the trust of our allies to the degree we had.

what we received in return, is the comfort in knowing that those 1,000 superb americans, are safer. you say very explicitly, that’s “nothing”. many would disagree.

obama was a hero for finally getting us out of iraq. what did we get in return? did they pay us to leave?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

what we received in return, is the comfort in knowing that those 1,000 superb americans, are safer. you say very explicitly, that’s “nothing”. many would disagree.

obama was a hero for finally getting us out of iraq. what did we get in return? did they pay us to leave?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Our armed forces and diplomats overseas are in more danger than being at home precisely to make US safer and protect our interests abroad.

Apparently you believe that has no value and therefor is worth nothing.

Perhaps you should say that to the Special Forces personnel who were in Syria.

Trump's idiocy, did not in any way make America safer.

Not only is the most successful international counterterrorism operation in history destroyed, but the winners are Syria and Russia.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Our armed forces and diplomats overseas are in more danger than being at home precisely to make US safer and protect our interests abroad.

Apparently you believe that has no value and therefor is worth nothing.

Perhaps you should say that to the Special Forces personnel who were in Syria.

Trump's idiocy, did not in any way make America safer.

Not only is the most successful international counterterrorism operation in history destroyed, but the winners are Syria and Russia.

i can make the same arguments against obamas decision to withdraw from iraq.

and i never said there’s no downside to pulling out. of course there is. wherever we have troops, vulnerable people are safer.

i was responding to your idiotic comment that we didn’t get anything. sure we did.

pete, maybe sometime
you can attempt an honest comparison of the costs and benefits of these policies. with you, there can be no benefit, because admitting such would be siding with putin’s puppet.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

i can make the same arguments against obamas decision to withdraw from iraq.

and i never said there’s no downside to pulling out. of course there is. wherever we have troops, vulnerable people are safer.

i was responding to your idiotic comment that we didn’t get anything. sure we did.

pete, maybe sometime
you can attempt an honest comparison of the costs and benefits of these policies. with you, there can be no benefit, because admitting such would be siding with putin’s puppet.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

At least you are finally admitting that Trump is Putin's Puppet.

But Obama all you want, he has not been President for 1001 days.

I'm worried about this fool's reincarnation of ISIS.

Show me any benefit, destroying our current operation against ISIS and eliminating the possibility of renewing it is not a benefit.

https://www.duffelblog.com/2019/10/p...nse-decisions/

https://www.militarytimes.com/opinio...-syria-gambit/

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashp...ns-in-pullout/

https://www.military.com/daily-news/...can-honor.html

https://www.military.com/daily-news/...ttis-says.html

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

At least you are finally admitting that Trump is Putin's Puppet.

But Obama all you want, he has not been President for 1001 days.

I'm worried about this fool's reincarnation of ISIS.

Show me any benefit, destroying our current operation against ISIS and eliminating the possibility of renewing it is not a benefit.

https://www.duffelblog.com/2019/10/p...nse-decisions/

https://www.militarytimes.com/opinio...-syria-gambit/

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashp...ns-in-pullout/

https://www.military.com/daily-news/...can-honor.html

https://www.military.com/daily-news/...ttis-says.html

so not only is it always a character flaw to agree with trump, it’s never valid to compare the treatment trump gets, with precedent set with obama. you’re darn right “but obama”. if obama gets canonized for doing something, and trump gets attacked for doing something similar, there’s no valid reason to point that out?

“but obama” is a lame, pathetic attempt to avoid having to justify naked hypocrisy. tough cookies.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

so not only is it always a character flaw to agree with trump, it’s never valid to compare the treatment trump gets, with precedent set with obama. you’re darn right “but obama”. if obama gets canonized for doing something, and trump gets attacked for doing something similar, there’s no valid reason to point that out?

“but obama” is a lame, pathetic attempt to avoid having to justify naked hypocrisy. tough cookies.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

The fallacy that Trump has been treated unfairly is ludicrous at best.

His own behavior has brought on the great majority of his troubles.

And if you would like to bring up naked hypocrisy, try this on for size.

President Donald Trump started his Saturday morning routine with a tweet: “Can you imagine if these Do Nothing Democrat Savages, people like Nadler, Schiff, AOC Plus 3, and many more, had a Republican Party who would have done to Obama what the Do Nothings are doing to me. Oh well, maybe next time!”

Setting aside the appalling use of the word “savages” to describe two Jewish members of Congress and a woman of color, the president’s “what if” scenario reveals how ignorant he is of some very recent history. This very decade opened with Republicans launching an investigatory barrage into the presidency of Barack Obama.

I know, because I was there choreographing it.

An acute case of Trump amnesia?
From 2009 to 2013, I was the spokesperson and senior adviser for Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee under the leadership of Rep. Darrell Issa. During their time in the majority, the Oversight Committee alone issued more than 100 subpoenas to the Obama administration. Upon becoming chair of the committee, Issa declared his intention to hold “seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks.”

In the spring of 2011, a government whistleblower prompted House and Senate Republicans to initiate an investigation into the “Operation Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking operation. The investigation lasted for more than six years and included an Oversight Committee vote to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over what Republicans believed was an abuse of executive privilege.

I pointed to this quote from Rep. Jim Jordan back in February and it’s worth revisiting given the frequency with which Jordan now defends Trump. During Holder’s contempt proceeding, Jordan pointedly asked, “How can you ignore the facts when you don’t get the facts? … I just want to get the information. … We just want the information so we have the facts.”

In case Trump is suffering from an acute attack of amnesia, he should be reminded that in the summer of 2012, House Republicans filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration in federal court over its use of executive privilege and ultimately won, with Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruling that “Congress could seek to enforce its duly issued subpoena.”

For House Republicans, Fast and Furious was just act one of their oversight agenda. In the fall of 2012, Republicans launched what would turn out to be a four-year investigation into the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. This is the investigation that would unearth then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, a move that House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy openly admitted was part of a “strategy to fight and win” the 2016 election.

We didn't have corruption evidence

Just for context, the investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller lasted for a little less than two years. While in control of Congress, House Republicans launched not one, not two but three multiyear investigations that each lasted longer than the Mueller probe. The third of these investigations was initiated in 2013 into the IRS’ alleged targeting scandal. It was eventually debunked as baseless, with even the Trump administration declaring in 2017 that prosecuting the matter “would not be appropriate based on the available evidence.”

The reality is our committee never had anything close to the severity and volume of smoking gun evidence of corruption that exists right now, and we still managed to hold hundreds of oversight hearings, issue hundreds of subpoenas and conduct multiple multiyear investigations.

It was during this time that the standard for modern-day oversight was established, a standard that Republicans seemed all too willing to abandon the minute Donald Trump took office. As I noted earlier this year, it was when Obama was in office that the Jim Jordans of the world declared that “the only path to the truth" is through the House. It was during Obama's tenure that my former boss, Darrell Issa, said, “Our purpose has always been to get the information the committee needs to complete its work, that it is not only entitled to but obligated to do."

It was when Obama was president that the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Trey Gowdy, said, “The notion that you can withhold information and documents from Congress no matter whether you are the party in power or not in power is wrong. Respect for the rule of law must mean something, irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles."

So, if Donald Trump is wondering what Republicans would have done to Obama? The answer is, everything the Democrats are doing to him and more.

Kurt Bardella, a former spokesperson and senior adviser for Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

i can make the same arguments against obamas decision to withdraw from iraq.


Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Jim you can't you keep repeating your own version of events on why Obama Left Iraq ....

And attempt to once again to show What Trump did is the same... which they clearly are not