FYI, I wrote this diary as an anti-war person who voted for Bernie in the primaries and then decided to read his record. I am an idiot. Bernie is not anti-war.
Much hay has been made over Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize the Iraq war, so I was a little curious as to where Bernie stood on regime change over the course of his career and I found he has been a just a bit of a hypocrite:
Sanders supported Bill Clinton’s war on Serbia, voted for the 2001 Authorization Unilateral Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), which pretty much allowed Bush to wage war wherever he wanted, backed Obama’s Libyan debacle and supports an expanded US role in the Syrian Civil War.
Okay, heck — Serbia? even I supported that somewhat. I mean it was a humanitarian crisis, right? But wait, what? Senator Sanders, you voted to authorize regime change in Iraq? This cannot be!
More problematic for the Senator in Birkenstocks is the little-known fact that Bernie Sanders himself voted twice in support of regime change in Iraq. In 1998 Sanders voted in favor of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which said: “It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.”
Well, no biggie — I mean, that was just a peaceful call for regime change, right? Senator Sanders was likely thinking the pentagon was planning to drop flowers on Baghdad. But then, what the heck senator?
Sanders also backed a resolution that stated: “Congress reaffirms that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.” These measures gave congressional backing for the CIA’s covert plan to overthrow the Hussein regime in Baghdad, as well as the tightening of an economic sanctions regime that may have killed as many as 500,000 Iraqi children. The resolution also gave the green light to Operation Desert Fox, a four-day long bombing campaign striking 100 targets throughout Iraq. The operation featured more than 300 bombing sorties and 350 ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, several targeting Saddam Hussein himself.
Maybe Senator Sanders accidentally hit the yes button instead of the no button when he was voting. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Still, Hillary Clinton has apologized for her Iraq war vote. Perhaps it’s time for Senator Sanders to apologize for twice endorsing the overthrow of Sadaam.
But wait — Bernie is at least not as much of a hawk as Hillary right? There’s a good slogan — vote Bernie — not as much of a hawk.
But then there’s this:
Opposing war is an either/or
For a person to say they are opposed to U.S. wars while supporting and voting for a candidate who is not 100% opposed to all wars is straight-up hypocrisy. And Sanders doesn’t come anywhere close to 100%. Indeed, he’s closer to 0%: Sanders supports current US engagements in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and Ukraine.
Sanders also participates in the dangerous provocation of Russia and Iran, and is vague, at best, on the Israel Palestine issue (he typically votes for funding to Israel andsupported their 2014 war on Gaza).
To make matters worse, Sanders has said he would continue Barack Obama’s deadly drone program, which is to say he supports the way wars will be waged in the future. This is the same drone program that results in the killing of innocent people. According to documents revealed by Jeremy Scahill, during one five month period, US drone strikes only killed 10% of their intended targets – in other words, 90% of those killed were innocent civilians. Sanders wants to continue such a program.