After President Biden ordered airstrikes in eastern Syria against an Iraqi militia on Thursday, comments from Vice President Kamala Harris and Press Secretary Jen Psaki on the Trump administration’s Syria airstrikes surfaced on Twitter.
“Also what is the legal authority for strikes? Assad is a brutal dictator. But Syria is a sovereign country,” Psaki wrote on Twitter in April 2017, after President Trump fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syrian government targets.
Psaki’s tweet drew attention from all ends of the political spectrum. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) retweeted Psaki’s old post writing, “Great question.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) asked, “What authority does @POTUS have to strike Syria? Perhaps someone should ask his @PressSec today?”
A tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris questioning the legality of other US airstrikes in Syria also surfaced. “I am deeply concerned about the legal rationale of last night’s strikes,” Harris wrote on Twitter in April 2018 after the US, UK, and France launched joint airstrikes against the Syrian government.
“The president needs to lay out a comprehensive strategy in Syria in consultation with Congress — and he needs to do it now,” Harris added.
In June 2019, after Trump mulled airstrikes on Iran, which he ultimately called off, President Biden slammed Trump for “erratic” behavior.
“Trump’s erratic, impulsive actions are the last thing we need as Commander-in-Chief. No president should order a military strike without fully understanding the consequences,” Biden wrote. “We don’t need another war in the Middle East, but Trump’s actions toward Iran only make that more likely.”
While Biden’s Syria airstrikes are somehow being presented as “defensive” in nature and as a “measured” response, they are a major escalation and will likely lead to more attacks on US forces in Iraq.
But that was in the PB (Pre-Biden) Era. Now that the indispensable nation is back, ready to assume leadership of the world again, all we do is fine and proper. After all, as Albright said so many years ago, we are America; we see further …
Why should anyone be surprised by all this? Biden has got a whole bunch of pro israel neocons in his Administration just the way Trump did. For the Middle East we are represented by the Zionist Party, with Democrat and Republican wings.
The US has an understanding with Netanyawho, to appoint each other’s citizens to their Cabinets.
Is Biden doing this to keep happy the Republicans he picked up during the general election, or, is he fed the usual sh*t from the “intelligence” community.
Speaking of sh*t, Nina Turner just may be the best prognosticator with her “plate of sh*t” meme.
One plate of sh*t, just eat half. Still sh*t.
Also, Democrats threw into the stimulus package an increase in the minimum wage to $15 over four years, knowing full well it was going to be shot down. It is readily apparent that both parties are in lock step to keep it the same.
By all standards it should be $12.
Good for Omar retweeting Psaki’s tweet from ’17. Is that allowed or will she soon be censured by her party?
It seems obvious that Blinken is taking advice from is counterpart in Israel.
nice catch
If this is a democracy, governance by the people, then the people are at fault for this?
No, this is a plutocracy, where the government leaders and their appointed lackeys and the military do any damned thing they want to do and laugh all the way to the bank disregarding the dead bodies they have created.
The people are responsible for allowing their nation to be an oligarchy like this
Really? I tried to starve the beast of my tax dollars and was harassed into submission. The People have virtually no leverage until they start harassing their congressclowns en masse in a sustained fashion. Don Bacon is correct, the US’s form of government is a plutocracy with some oligarchical elements thrown in. Only the fleeting remains of the Republic structure of the US Government has kept the whole thing from totalitarianism.
We don’t have power as individuals, but all government’s fundamentally reflect the virtues and vices of the people they govern. If America’s government is plutocratic & oligarchic, that is only possible if the national culture is deferential towards the rich and powerful. Countries suffer dictatorships for long periods only when their people are deferential to the use of force, that is what allows them to behave the way they do and still be accepted as legitimate.
Amen. I read a poll that said 55% STRONGLY agreed with our attack on Syria. Another 20% agreed. A measly 14% strongly disagreed while 6% just disagreed. The remaining 5% didn’t have an opinion. We can pretend all we want at this antiwar echo chamber but facts are facts.
If you read chinahand (Peter Lee) here you will have seen: “the ticket to privilege in America is buying into US wars.” So true.