Here’s Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed’s latest excuse for his crucial enabling of the Saudi war in Yemen as the top Dem on Senate Armed Services: it’s not my fault, there’s nothing I can do, because if I try to help end the Yemen war on the “must pass” National Defense Authorization Act that funds the Pentagon, Trump might veto the bill, and that would be an unspeakable nightmare because it might temporarily interrupt the river of working families’ taxpayer cash flowing to my Pentagon contractor buddies.
That’s what he told peace activists who protested yesterday while Jack Reed was schmoozing with his Pentagon contractor buddies in Newport, Rhode Island.
At long last, let’s take a sledgehammer to the DC Dem “Leadership” Excuse Generator for why they can’t end unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen.
First: if Trump is good at anything, he’s good at Talking Big. Every shopkeeper knows the difference between what Trump says he might do and what he actually will do. Trump says he’s going to build the wall, bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs, take us to Mars, shut down NATO, buy Greenland. Make no small plans. Whether Trump will actually do any of these things is a horse of a different color. Trump could decide to veto the bill that “funds the troops” over his continued insistence on unconstitutionally enabling the Saudi regime to starve Yemeni children to death. Trump could decide to make that a top story on the Evening News. As a matter of Newtonian Physics, it’s theoretically possible. But is it likely? It’s not likely.
Second: suppose Trump did veto the bill. So what? Would the Earth stop spinning on its axis? Would Pentagon contractors have to apply for food stamps to make ends meet? Who thinks Pentagon contractors are about to be cut off from our tax dollars? At worst, Congress and the President would negotiate new Yemen provisions on the bill to make sure their Pentagon contractor buddies don’t have to sell off any of their yachts to keep their mansions out of foreclosure.
Third: it’s standard Trump acquisition procedure to grab everything he can and shed no tears if he can’t hold on to it. Here’s how Trump determines “What’s Mine”: first, I grab everything I can. If you can take back something that I’ve grabbed from you, fine, it’s yours, good for you, enjoy. Otherwise, It’s Mine. In this context, anyone who says, “Gosh, I thought that belonged to me, but Trump says it belongs to Trump, so I guess it belongs to Trump,” is a sucker or a liar.
In the case of a senior Senator, Occam’s Razor says “liar.”
Fourth: it’s standard DC Dem “leader” Do Nothing procedure to poor-mouth their power when peace activists press them to end and prevent wars that the DC Dem leaders don’t actually want to end and prevent. If the DC Dem leaders wanted to be honest – work with me on this hypothetical – they could just say, “Well, maybe you want to end this war, but I don’t, because this war is good for the obscene profits of my Pentagon contractor buddies, and it’s their demands I really care about, not your demands, because they give me my campaign cash, and you don’t.” But such uncouth honesty might invite unnecessary and unpleasant scrutiny. How much more genteel to say: “I’d love to help you! But the Republicans are so mean! Give me a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President and then we’ll talk.” Of course, when we have a Democratic President, it will be the President’s job to peddle new excuses for why we can’t end any wars and Jack Reed will be off the hook.
The bad news is this: if past is prologue, DC Dem leaders will always behave like this when they think they can get away with it. They will always knife peace activists in a dark alley if they think grassroots Democrats aren’t paying attention.
The Good News is this: when grassroots Democratic scrutiny is turned up to eleven, DC Dem leaders become completely different people. When DC Dem leaders think grassroots Democrats will find out about their dirty deeds and hold them to account, DC Dem leaders become Righteous Advocates for Peace. That’s why every single Democrat — even the worst ones — voted for the Sanders-Lee-Murphy War Powers Resolution to end the Yemen war.
Call Jack Reed in his Cranston office now at (401) 943-3100. When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like:
“I urge Senator Reed not to use Trump’s phony NDAA veto threat as an excuse for not ending the Saudi war in Yemen.”
When you’ve made your call, please report it in the comments below and share this post to encourage others to call.
Wednesday, Aug 28, 2019 · 5:56:11 PM +00:00
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Robert Naiman
This post originally encouraged people to call Reed’s DC office. When I called the DC office, I got a voice mail which encouraged me to call the Cranston RI office. When I called the Cranston office, I got a human. I urged the person who answered to tell Senator Reed not to use Trump’s veto “threat” as an excuse not to end the Yemen war on NDAA. Then I updated this post to encourage people to call the Cranston office instead of the DC office. I saved you all a step for reaching a human — at least for now. :)