This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Newly minted Senator Tom Cotton R. Arkansas, blamed President Obama for ISIS and the mess in Iraq. Even worse, he goes on to say in response to Howard Dean's relentless but truthful battering, "We need to bomb people over there to keep people safe over here..." and if "killing people" in Iraq makes us safe (a dubious claim at best) then that's what we need to do.
First off, really? ISIS is President Obama's fault? Thankfully Howard Dean was there to make it clear exactly who was to blame for the reckless policies that delivered to the world ISIS or ISIL or IS or whatever we call them these days, President George W. Bush.
I don't know what planet Tom Cotton has lived on in the last twelve years, but on this planet it was George W. Bush who led us into Iraq, leading to the chaos that saw the rise of extremist groups like ISIS and Al Queda in Iraq.
Despite what Republicans would have us believe, there was no Al Queda in Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power. As brutal a dictator as he was, Saddam's Iraq was a backward one, but one with order. Most dictatorships are orderly regimes. Few government types have proven as orderly as authoritarian ones. As unfortunate as that may be, it proved true when we removed Saddam Hussein and chaos ensued. Power grabs came from every direction, millions of people were killed or displaced and in the end the government of Iraq that replaced Saddam's authoritarian one, is in tatters and is an absolute economic disaster.
Tom Cotton puts the blame for that chaos on President Obama. Why? Because, he says, President Obama removed the troops in Iraq too early. But, again, in reality, it was President Bush that made the deal to remove our troops from Iraq having long ago declared victory, President Obama just saw the follow through of the exit. Again, Howard Dean points this out to Tom Cotton, who completely ignores him. Surprising? Not really.
Republicans show, time and time again, that they will continually ignore reality at the expense of Americans and other people of the world. They will, without stuttering, denounce the President for policies they say are destroying the economy, while doing everything they can to slow economic growth and equitable wages.
They will do everything in their power to destroy environmental regulation, prevent environmental regulation, and then get on national television and tell Americans without blinking an eye, that they are not scientists. So why not trust the scientists out there?
Republicans will prevent any reasonable gun safety law from making it to a vote, then denounce Democrats for not "supporting our police" when two officers are killed by a lunatic with a gun.
How anyone can take any Republicans seriously when they destroyed our economy, our environment, our workers protections, our welfare system (though Clinton did sign it), our tax policies, and now they are going after Social Security, is beyond me.
If Americans aren't tired of Republicans beating on the same dead horse by now, they never will be and we are screwed beyond repair. I have had enough of this, have you? Someone, please send Republican Senator Tom Cotton this diary and see what he has to say. My guess, more of the same.