It used to be Republicans that were America’s premier war party. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Lindsay Graham were their standard bearers in provoking, starting, prolonging devastating US warfare worldwide.
No more.
The Biden administration provoked Russia into a calamitous border war in Ukraine that threatens nuclear war on top of Ukraine’s descent into a failed state.
The Biden administration, at first, simply continued America’s bipartisan 76 yearlong Israeli Apartheid policy degrading life for Palestinians under their control. But when Israel’s Likud government, under Benjamin Netanyahu, morphed it into genocidal ethnic cleansing of all 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the Biden administration joined in. Tens of thousands of US bombs and bullets, public support and vetoing repeated calls for ceasefire in the UN Security Council, insures the ethnic cleansing continues unabated. Six months in, over 20,000 Palestinian women and children are dead in a pitiful 139 square miles of rubble leveled largely by US bombs.
Maybe this would have occurred under a second Trump administration. Maybe not. But when Biden proposed another $95 billion on weapons support for both these grotesque wars last fall, Democrats were mostly all in; Republicans mostly all out. Biden got his Democratic majority to quickly pass it in the Senate. But GOP House Speakers McCarthy and his successor Johnson, taking their cue from GOP leader Trump, bottled it up in the House.
Biden’s Democrats no like. To obtain passage, Democrats are resorting to parliamentary trickery to squander more of America’s dwindling treasure.
Rep. Jim McGovern, top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, seeks to use a rarely used rule to force a vote on a massive military spending bill that includes $61 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel. This in spite of a sizable citizen majority opposing billions more to further destroy Ukraine and Gaza. McGovern is collecting signatures to force a vote on the supplemental defense spending bill. McGovern will need a majority of representatives, at least 218, to sign his petition to bring the bill to a vote even if Speaker Mike Johnson opposes it. (Editor’s note: as of the morning of March 21, McGovern’s motion had 185 of the 218 needed.)
Not enough Republicans might pass on signing McGovern’s ploy, while too many Democrats might sign it. If so, this dastardly weapons boondoggle will continue death and suffering in the now failed state of Ukraine, and the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. If Biden’s Democrats get their $95 billion, it will be against the wishes of a growing majority of their voter base.
Apparently, for the Biden administration, weapons makers talk… and Democratic voters walk.
Walt Zlotow became involved in antiwar activities upon entering University of Chicago in 1963. He is current president of the West Suburban Peace Coalition based in the Chicago western suburbs. He blogs daily on antiwar and other issues at www.heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com.
What a ridiculous headline. As if there is a difference between the parties. The only difference is which war, or coming wars, has priority.
You got it. Zero difference. Both parties are great at baffling the populace with bullsh*t. Successfully.
Dumbocrats?….!
The Pentagon keeps marching on with its global hegemony.
March 19, 2024 What are US Green Berets doing less than 10 km away from mainland China’s coast?
Antagonizing the vast majority of the world has become NATO’s standard practice. Its never-ending encroachment on Russia’s borders is breaking world records, as it keeps deploying various missile systems and nuclear-capable fighter jets around it. However, trying to provoke a reaction of “only” one global superpower is obviously not enough, so the political West is also going after the other – China.
https://infobrics.org/post/40745/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/us-army-green-berets.jpeg
The NATO Countries miss having the Soviet Union around. They invented newer reasons to cause tension with Russia and China.
BRICS Memberships keep growing and growing and they will have to come up with another name for it.
The Democratic and Republican Parties are War Parties and some of their members want war only when their party is in power and the other members want war no matter what party is in power. They want war against Muslim Countries but they do not want war against the same Non Muslim Countries.
Is this supposed to be an endorsement for the RetardiQAn Party…?!
The Democrats are aspiring to be America’s premier war party.
Dubya was for mass immigration, bad trade, and war. McCain was seen as “moderate.” Grahamnesty has always been a Dem. The Nikki Haley wing of the GOP is RINO.
Invade-the-World; Invite-the-World. They don’t see any difference between Americans and the foreigners who are harmed. They want surveillance on all, control of information, limited rights, concentration of wealth and power.
I was never much of a Dubyah fan, but at least he was somewhat sane on immigration and trade, unlike today’s “national conservatives.”
Asia understands trade. Russia, China, India, etc.: They understand it’s about integration to prevent war but also about who is on top and who supplies resources from the bottom. And it’s about autarky, which is somewhat the opposite of integration, to enable war and independence.
Historically, the Dem Party has been the Party of War. Wilson, WWI; FDR, WWII; Truman, Korea; Vietnam, JFK and LBJ; Bush Jr was the exception. Obama gave us Syria, Libya, the Pivot to Asia and The Maidan coup, the last two being preps for WWIII; Trump gave us no new wars and tried to extract us from Afghanistan; Biden has given us the Ukraine proxy war, furthered the Pivot to Asia and involved us deeply in the Gaza Genocide. Biden is THE most dangerous.
And all of those wars’ republicans inherited were immediately halted. Am I right? No participation. No surges. No lessening the rules of engagement to make killing easier. They also decreased the defense budgets and didn’t partake in the drone program. Oh, and didn’t the first Bush do Iraq 1?
I did not say the exclusive Party of War but the Dems have been far in the lead.
And the only President in recent history who gave us no new wars was a MAGA Republican.
Just sayin’.
No, they haven’t. Participating in wars already started makes those participating equal as far as being warmongers. And that’s precisely what Trump did. He also lessened the rules of engagement to make killing easier and sanctioned, seemingly, half the world into economic misery.