November 17, 2015

Television has become unbearable. After President Obama stood firmly for the refugees and a measured response to Daesh's aggression in France, all they want is war. The Republican candidates are getting lots of free air time on all the cable news networks to angle for more war and killing while refusing even little Syrian refugee children a safe haven.

But Jeb Bush is a particular study in war mongering and intellectual dishonesty. Bush made a stop by MSNBC's Morning Joe to spout some things we've all heard before. Take, for example, his comments on what he would do if he was POTUS (God forbid!):

I would recognize the threat for what it is, Islamic terrorism, and create a strategy to defeat it, not to contain it, which means a no-fly zone over Syria, which means arming the Peshmerga forces in Iraq, reengaging with the Sunni tribal leaders to make them part of the efforts, to embed with the Iraqi military, to create safe havens in Syria and to draw Europe and the Arab world into one - to support one fighting force to take out ISIS and to deal with Assad as well.

This is the war of our time and we cannot do this by leading from behind. This requires American leadership. It doesn't require us to be the world's policemen, but we need to lead and we're not doing that right now.

Of course, he fails to note how this failure of leadership is manifesting itself. Could it be that he missed the part where the talks are ongoing as to how to end the war in Syria? That's inconvenient, though, because it stands in the way of the Republican need for war.

Then there's the part about beefing up the NSA's surveillance capabilities, which Jeb ties to economic outlooks, too, in some inexplicable way.

I think we need to restore the metadata program, which was part of the Patriot Act. It expires in the next few months. I think that was a useful tool to keep us safe and also to protect civil liberties.

Look, any type of act like what happened in Paris or happened in other countries over the last few weeks creates a dramatic change in economic outlook for the country as well. There is a lot riding on this. So I think we can have the proper balance of protecting privacy rights and making sure that we use all of the tools of intelligence to keep us safe.

I'm curious about his remark that "there's a lot riding on this." A lot for whom?

And finally, this little gem:

The Powell Doctrine applies here. It definitely applies here where you do this in unison with the rest of the world, you do it with massive force, you do it with the stated objective of total victory. And then you to forge political consensus to create a stable Syria and a stable Iraq. Then we leave. That is the proper way to look at this.

If only his brother had followed his advice and left well enough alone after Daddy left Iraq.

Here's what I have to say to Jeb and the rest of them: Send your kids first.

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