Early Saturday in Pakistan, a U.S. drone struck at a militant target. The area where the strike took place was Kurram tribal agency. It was only the third time a strike took place into Kurram agency- the very agency Osama bin Laden is thought to have fled through when escaping Tora Bora. This strike brought to 54 the number of such strikes in the tribal areas this year, which serves as the "Central" in "al Qaeda Central". This means there have been more such strikes in the tribal areas so far this year than in any year prior, despite the fact that George W. Bush had seven years to do something about the situation there. Under President Barack Obama, there have been more drone strikes in just over a year and a half than had occured after seven years of George W. Bush and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
So when I see Glenn Beck trying to wrap his bullshit rally with the claims of "patriotism", I just don't get it. I'd probably need to be willing to drink the Kool-Aid to make sense of it.
He can say it's not about politics. It obviously is. It's at least as implicitly anti-Obama as it is implicitly-racist; and Beck shamelessly calls it "preordinaed" that it just so happens to fall on the same date and place as Martin Luther King's historic speech. It's about patriotism, you see. And all contributions go to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation charity! Once "expenses" for the event are covered.
The last I checked, President Barack Obama has been far more focused on pursuing the people who did attack us than any Republican official had been since it happened nearly nine years ago. He supported the initial Afghan invasion and opposed the Iraqi invasion. He opposed getting what you might call "distracted", amongst other things(see; getting drawn into a war over questionable reasons and motives...). Meanwhile, Republicans decided that Iraq was more important for our national security interests than Waziristan. They ignored Afghanistan entirely, depriving the country of a rare chance to emerge from decades of warfare and turmoil. They provided little assistance to the Pakistani army when they tried engaging the militants in Waziristan during the Bush years. They hardly and reluctantly used drone strikes, or did anything, that could be directed at the militant hotbed in Waziristan. In 2007 Barack Obama took a public position; increase drone strikes in the tribal areas. In early 2008, Barack Obama won Iowa. In that year, the Bush administration finally began to get serious about pursuing al Qaeda militants that we all knew were there. But it was too little too late for the Bush administration to actually get Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Since then, President Barack Obama and his administration have became far more tough when it came to al Qaeda than George W. Bush, his administration, and by extension their backers, had ever been. We are still in Afghanistan because they fucked up in ways that could be deemed criminal(severe negligence), and now the craziest and most delusional are going to try and hijack MLK's legacy on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the date when he gave his most famous speech? What is this, a school textbook from Texas?
Boehner is going to go to the American Foreign Legion soon to talk about how great Republicans are when it comes to foreign policy. He will continue to talk about "the surge", which was really the implementation of counter-insurgency/nation-building(COIN), and how it saved Iraq and American honor. What he will not talk about is how detrimental Republican policies had been for Operation Enduring Freedom, and by extension, the hunt for the guys who attacked us under their watch. When Glenn Beck et al. talk about supporting the troops, they won't be talking about what Republicans put them through either. Some served in Afghanistan nearly a decade ago and the situation appears to have only worsened for reasons that are hard for many to understand. Some served in Iraq and probably still don't know why they went there, why their buddies died there, and why Republicans are even in a position to talk about foreign policy.
Glenn Beck's rally is going to further more of these illusions. Surely someone will probably try to further UnAmericanize Barack Obama despite the President's best efforts to actually capture/or/kill Osama bin Laden and Co in ways that make Cowboy-Bush look like a little boy holding a water pistol. Or a drunk.(something that George W. Bush and Glenn Beck had in common........)
Glenn Beck is not going to serve his Kool-Aid with a smug grin. He's probably going to pretend to cry. And they'll drink up those crocodile tears as quick as they drink the Kool-Aid. And then they're going to piss it all out all over Lincoln, the legacy of MLK, and the truth.