How Many More Need to Die?

Five hundred thousand dead in Ukraine, thousands more in Israel and Gaza; we have no plan but escalation.

Last night, after visiting Israel (where he was snubbed by Palestinian and other Arab leaders), the President gave an address to the American people. This address comes as fighting has been escalating, with increased Hezbollah attacks on the northern border of Israel from Lebanon and attacks on American forces in Iraq. The attacks in Iraq are especially concerning for two reasons - first, why are there STILL American soldiers on the ground in Baghdad? Second, after several tries, the attack that injured Americans in Iraq came just minutes before President Biden’s speech. These and previous actions are clear and purposeful - Iran (and likely Russia and China) wish to draw America into another senseless quagmire in the Middle East.

The President’s speech also coincided with American forces - including sea, air and troop elements - being positioning into an offensive posture near Israel in the Mediterranean and Red Seas over the past week. This is a major escalation of force readiness, that includes 2 aircraft carrier groups, 3 other assault ships carrying 2000 Marines, attack helicopters and amphibious assault capabilities, weapons deliveries, special forces on the ground assisting Israeli assets, and re-positioning many Air Force assets (A-10s, F-15s and F-16s) around the region in support.

So, The Country expected major news from the President’s address. It was a time to announce a new policy for the Middle East, a new doctrine to reflect the changing nature of the threats the world faces. We expected the President to explain how his administration will lead in this time of crisis, what his goals are for the escalations, what winning looks like, how he will keep our troops safe and when we will exit the conflict. We got none of that.

And though we did not expect it to, the speech was also short on something very important - how we got here. Any discussion of the way forward should include an accounting of what’s happened and why. But the speech did not mention the President’s foreign policy blunders, including reauthorizing hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for Palestinians (which of course goes directly to Hamas in Gaza). The speech did not mention his poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan (which enemy observers were certain to pay attention to and see his weakness). The speech did not mention the President’s attempts to appease Iran, restarting talks and releasing billions of funds to the primary sponsor of terror in the world.

Unfortunately, in a speech that was doddering, directionless and void of any policy, strategy or goals, the President simply begged for money. He wants (reportedly) another $100B we don’t have to go to Ukraine and Israel for weapons and war. In selling this plan, he attempted to make an American worker’s argument, stating that we send weapons that are already here, and the $100B would go to American manufacturers to make more weapons. If true, what he leaves out is that these manufacturers are the defense contractors who lobby Washington for war, contribute massively to every politician’s campaign and helped to build the warmongering Military Industrial Complex that seems to run our disastrous foreign policy since World War II.

President Biden also attempted to tie Israel together with Ukraine, calling them “democracies under threat.” This is a half truth - Ukraine is not a democracy, and is quite low on the democracy score at Freedom House. The President’s arguments attempting to connect Israel to Ukraine fell flat, and seemed to be a vehicle to attach unpopular continued funding for Ukraine with more popular funding for Israel. Prediction: the warmongers in Congress will attach these 2 items together and force its members to vote for both or none, in typical Washington foolishness.

I would like to return to Representative Barbara Lee, who was the heroic sole vote against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force for Iraq and Afghanistan. She’s also a candidate for Senate in California - check her out. Here is the reason she gave for that vote:

My father was a retired Army lieutenant colonel who fought in World War II and Korea. He was the first person who called me after that lonely vote. He reminded me that we should never send our troops into harm’s way without a clear plan, objective and exit strategy. Instead, we were asked to approve an authorization that gave the executive branch a blank check to carry out global war in perpetuity.

Well, here we are, with another President asking for a blank check to expand the global war we’ve been fighting for the past 22 years (since 9/11).

As I write this, the House is meeting to attempt to elect a Speaker for the third time this week. I ask all members of Congress before their vote, to get answers from any Speaker candidate, and from the President, to these questions:

• As we position troops for war in Israel (which could escalate into an all out war in the entire region), what is the plan? How do we avoid escalation?

• We’ve spent $100B in Ukraine and 500,000 people have died. The war is a stalemate, reduced to trench warfare. How does any additional money change this situation?

• What are our objectives in these wars in Israel and Ukraine and how do we win them?

• Once you get your way and these new war escalations are in place, what are the exit strategies?

I am confident you will not find any reasonable answers to these questions.