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Trump’s troops

Published by digby on December 27, 2018

Trump’s troops

by digby

That is troubling. It is 100% inappropriate, and just a teensy bit fascist, that Trump turns his appearances with people in uniform into MAGA rallies. In his Iraq visit yesterday he got down and dirty with it in his address to the troops:

I don’t know if you folks are aware of what’s happening. We want to have strong borders in the United States. The Democrats don’t want to let us have strong borders — only for one reason. You know why? Because I want it. (Laughter.) If I said — you know, I think, just standing here looking at all these brilliant, young faces — these warriors. You’re warriors. You know, you’re modern-day warriors. That’s what you are.

But you gave me an idea, just looking at this warrior group. I think I’ll say, “I don’t want the wall.” And then they’re going to give it to me. (Laughter.) I’ve figured out the solution, First Lady. (Laughter.) Tell Nancy Pelosi, “I don’t want the wall.” “Oh, we want the wall.” And then we get the wall. (Laughter and applause.) That’s another way of doing it. (Applause.) That’s another way of doing it.

No, we have to have it. And, you know, not only human trafficking; drugs; illegals; a lot of criminals — bad records. We’ve seen murderers come in through the — you saw what happened with the caravan, as we call it. A caravan of thousands of people.

And then he really went low:

While American might can defeat terrorist armies on the battlefield, each nation of the world must decide for itself what kind of future it wants to build for its people, and what kind of sacrifices they are willing to make for their children. America shouldn’t be doing the fighting for every nation on Earth not being reimbursed, in many cases, at all.

If they want us to do the fighting, they also have to pay a price — and sometimes that’s also a monetary price — so we’re not the suckers of the world. We’re no longer the suckers, folks. And people aren’t looking at us as suckers. And I love you folks because most of you are nodding your head this way. We’re respected again as a nation. We’re respected again.

All the dead soldiers are suckers too, apparently. But not because they were fighting in useless wars. They were suckers because “other countries” didn’t pick up the tab. He isn’t an isolationist or a protectionist. He has no clue what those concepts areIt’s just that everything in the world to him is like a contract for floor tiles in one of his hideous hotels. He is simply incapable of seeing things any other way. It’s his only framework.

I’m guessing all those troops in the MAGA hats cheered and cheered. Sadly, many of them are cultists too.

The Iraqis weren’t quite so happy about it:

Iraqi political and militia leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and lawmakers said a meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was canceled due to a disagreement over venue.

Sabah al Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, called for an emergency session of parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: The U.S. occupation of Iraq is over.”

The Bina bloc, Islah’s rival in parliament and led by Iran-backed militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, also objected to Trump’s trip to Iraq.

“Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government,” said a statement from Bina.

Abdul Mahdi’s office said in a statement that U.S. authorities had informed Iraq’s leadership of the president’s visit ahead of time. The statement said the Iraqi prime minister and U.S. president talked by telephone due to a “disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.”

Iraqi lawmakers told Reuters that the pair had disagreed over where their planned meeting should take place: Trump had asked to meet at the Ain al-Asad military base, an offer which Abdul Mahdi declined.

They also didn’t love his blunt comment that he didn’t plan to withdraw troops for a very long time. Imagine that.

This didn’t go over either:

“We can use this as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria,” he said. “If we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard” that they “really won’t know what the hell happened.”

Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, promised on Twitter that Iraq’s parliament would vote to expel US forces from Iraq, or the militia and others would force them out by “other means.”
[…]
“The American occupation of Iraq is over,” al-Saida said. Trump should not be allowed to arrive “as if Iraq is a state of the United States.”

Trump believes that Iraq owes him a lot of money for the war. Because we did them a big favor. I’m not kidding. And he resents the fact that it’s still a war zone:

Q: Did you have any concerns about coming here today?

“Sure. When I heard what you had to go through?”

Q: What did you have to go through?

“I had concerns about the institution of the presidency. Not for myself personally. I had concerns for the First Lady, I will tell you. But if you would have see what we had to go through in the darkened plane with all window closed with no light anywhere. Pitch black. I’ve been on many airplanes. All types and shapes and sizes.”

“So did I have a concern? Yes I had a concern.”

President Bone Spurs was concerned for “the institution of the presidency.” Haha. He’s so much more responsible than all the other presidents who have flown into war zones for the past 60 years.

He’s been on airplanes of all types and shapes and sizes but it’s obvious that flying into the airbase with no light scared him to death.  Like most blowhards, he is a total coward. 

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Buckle up everybody. It’s going to be a very bumpy New Year …


 cheers — digby

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