President Obama Calls for a Recommitment to Peace in Europe During his Visit to Flanders Field Cemetery in Belgium to Honor of Our WWI Soldiers

President Obama visits Flanders Field Cemetery with Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo of Belgium and His Majesty King Phillipe to participate in a wreath laying and tour the grounds. 
Following the tour, the President, Prime Minister Di Rupo and His Majesty King Phillipe delivered statements at Flanders Field Cemetery. Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War I cemetery on the southeast edge of the town of Waregem, Belgium. This is the only American World War I cemetery in Belgium and 411 American servicemen are buried or commemorated there.

My Grandfather on Dad's side was one of the soldier's gased in WWI and died from that gasing when my Dad was five years old.  I have a vase that he had engraved to my Grandmother that sits on our old German buffet that reads from Orie to Helen 1919 with roses on the vase.  The very idea that the Germans used chemical weapons in WWI and were allowed to come back under Hitler in the 30's shows a reckless disregard for lives of our military from all nations who refused to stand up to Hitler. There is a huge difference between appeasement they did to Hitler and negotiations/sanctions being imposed by Europe and the United States on Russia.  Shame some loud mouth Republicans cannot see the difference.  How much money was made in Europe from Hitlter by Americans before WWII and was that a reason not to stand up to Hitler?  Koch Bros Father was right at the top of that food chain from Hitler but so were others.  
Unfortunately some of that mentality to rush into war still exists in the Republican Party with comments being made about Ukraine from McCain, Graham, and now Rumsfeld who takes the cake for sleaze since he was part of the rush to war in Iraq knowing a lot of the evidence they were using was false.  He, along with Cheney, could have cared less they were sending young men and women to die in a phony war.

Former Bush Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wasn’t content with disagreeing with President Obama’s foreign policy. He felt the need to compare the first African American president to an ape.

Today's Republicans have the class of a gnat or less.  The crickets on the Republican side when remarks are made like Rumsfeld's paint a terrible picture of the lack of integrity in the Republican Party even today when we honor the men who gave their lives to defend the Belgian people.  Shame on the so-called leaders of the Republican Party to allow these crass comments to go unchallenged.  No wonder the Republican Party is beginning to show signs of disinergration with their lack of empathy and white males only matter mentality where they feel free to say anything they want no matter who gets harmed in the process.  There are no repercussions for bad manners/lies in the GOP today -- everything is fair game.

Our family proudly stands with President Obama and his stance that you only send in your men and women to fight when you are left with no other option.  Applaud the leaders of the G-7 who chose to not meet in Sochi, Russia, but meet in Brussels, Belgium, making it a G-7 not a G-8 meeting after Putin moved Russian troops into part of Ukraine.  G-7 leaders standing together give me hope for the future they will put diplomacy over rush to war and use sanctions not weapons.

As our dead and wounded from WWI are honored today, we need to remember in war more then just the solder feels the pain as it extends to families and friends.  My Dad grew up without a Father because of war.  This Nation has paid a terrible price over the years when it has rushed into war and escalated when there was no need.  We have to elect leaders like President Obama who will not be goaded into going into a war that could be catastrophic no matter how many names the Republicans choose to call him.  President Obama is the adult in the group not the name callers!

President Obama invoked Canadian poem "In Flanders Fields" as a call for a recommitment to peace in Europe.

What Happened to Foreign Policy Stops at the Water's Edge?

This is what I grew up with that foreign affairs stop at the water's edge:

Senator Arthur Vandenberg (1884-1951) of Michigan delivered a celebrated "speech heard round the world" in the Senate Chamber on January 10, 1945, announcing his conversion from isolationism to internationalism. In 1947, at the start of the Cold War, Vandenberg became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Asserting that we must stop “partisan politics at the water's edge," he cooperated with the Truman administration in forging bipartisan support for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO. As recalled by Francis Wilcox, the first chief of staff  of the Foreign Relations Committee, Vandenberg's Senate career stands as a monument to bipartisanship in American foreign policy. Vandenberg died in 1951, but his legacy continues. (From US Senate)

This past weekend I witnessed in politics something I never thought I would see and which disturbs me with sitting US Senators from the Republican Party McCain, Graham, Inhofe calling President Obama weak on Ukraine when he wants diplomacy and the saber rattlers want more war.  Then there is the Junior Senator from Florida Rubio telling the President what to do.  Throw in former SecDef Rumsfeld and you have five men who are still angry President Obama was reelected and defeated Mitt Romney by fairly large numbers.

The words in this house are not fit to print on here but suffice to say that being mad was mild.  Never in my life have I been so angry at five men who forgot they don't don't run the Country and obviously don't give a moment's thought to the Oaths they took as US Senators.  This is all politics all the time and President Obama is always wrong.  If I had my way, I would throw the four out of the Senate for cause.  I am sure there are more but these five men and their comments stood out:

Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called President Obama weak and indecisive for not already having done something about Russia invading Ukraine 

Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., blamed President Obama's "feckless" foreign policy for inviting the crisis in Ukraine on Monday, telling a pro-Israel group that the president has repeatedly failed to demonstrate American strength in the face of adversaries. 

Sen Jim Inhofe "The arrogant actions of President Putin and Russia in recent days is a direct result of President Obama's disarming of America since the beginning of his Administration." said Inhofe, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (may be most hated SecDef ever by troops) on Fox News:  Rumsfeld called America weak. He said, “The U.S. is behaving in a way that tells the world we’re in decline, that we’re in withdrawal. We’ve created a leadership vacuum in the world, and it is being filled by the Putins of the world, by people without our values or our interests.” 

Then there is the Junior Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, who knows all about the Ukraine and has "8 Steps Obama Must Take to Punish Russia" -- please forgive me while I laugh -- this guy couldn't even get straight when his parents came from Cuba or why. The very fact he lectured the President sent me through the roof.  Rubio is the Senator with no backbone because when things got tough with the Immigration Bill he took off for the hills.  The fact that McConnell was dumb enough to put Rubio on the Senate Intel Committee makes me cringe.  Republicans have a habit today of putting junior people on key committees.  Intel of all committees should be reserved for those who have been in the Senate for more then one term and are known not to leak or grandstand which leaves Rubio out as he is one of the biggest grand standers ever.  He also likes to run out to a microphone at every chance.

Some might ask why I am so irritated but my irritation goes way back when it comes to getting this Country into war.  If we are not there to win, then get out or if we don't have a vested interest in going to war like after our Country was attacked on 9/11 from terrorists harbored by Afhanistan, then use diplomacy not troops.  We had no business going into Iraq on trumped up evidence by Cheney, Rumsfeld and Company that made Halliburton (Cheney's Company) and other defense contractors piles of money.  These same Republican Senators voted against veterans just recently but now want to send our military into another clash?  What is the Republican mantra?  Send our troops to war but don't take care of them when they get home?  Beyond words I can use on here.

I lived through the Vietnam War working at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and witnessed kids I went to school with being killed in Vietnam.  I knew countless Air Force officers who were serving in Southeast Asia a lot of them in Thailand because so many Air Force missions came out of Korat AB Thailand or from the B-52's out of Andersen AFB, Guam.  When military from Wright-Patterson started getting spit on when they went to shop in Dayton, word went out if you were an officer not to wear your uniform after work in downtown Dayton.  We also had the bad luck of being close to Berkley of the East at Antioch College with their band of spoiled rich kids who didn't take baths demonstrating every Saturday outside the main gate which last time I was back at Wright-Patt a few were still there.   Don't know if the same guy with the long white hair is still demonstrating or not but he was there probably 6-7 years ago on a Saturday.

Antioch College closed their door the other year and must admit that this pro-education person thought it was awesome the lowlife college shut down.  Nothing but trouble -- trying to shut down our gates, jumping on the cars, spitting on the military, calling us all kinds of names and to this day I can remember protesters surrounding my car and pounding on my windows.  They were the trashiest/scariest looking people I ever saw with their faces pressed the window which frighted me.  It wasn't just military but civilians working at Wright-Patt they were attacking.  After that incident when they called for protests, the guy I sat in an office with picked me up.

I don't care if they were against Vietnam, my friends had died over there and had people close to me still in the area and here are a bunch of unwashed, dirty long hair people, trying to block cars from going in the gate and pounding on our windows.  It left a really bad taste in my mouth for protesters of any kind that is still there today.

We were told if we had a decal on our car not to drive through Yellow Springs on the way to the Upper Valley Mall in Springfield.  They were not non-violent people -- more like stoned on something and very seldom wandered to class.  On of my friends had a rock thrown at her car in Yellow Springs just driving through which broke a side window.  Very non-violent. (sarcasm)

Had my younger brother with me shopping at the mall and he goes "Look there is a hippy" and guy just glared at us -- out of the mouths of a young boy!  He also went with me to the dedication of the new AF Museum at Area B when President Nixon spoke in 1971.  Protesters were sticking daisy's in the guards gun barrel's and taunting them.  They were arrested, taken on buses, dumped out in the middle of nowhere and had to find their way home.  Worked in the Command Section so I had tickets and remember some snotty girl with long dirty hair making a comment as we walked in and I just looked at her and glared -- no way was I going to answer back.

Still love visiting the Air Force Museum and if we when go back in the Wright-Patt area that is a definite stop -- my three kids grew up visiting the AF Museum.  Seeing the history of aviation and all those planes with the new building additions and then taking in IMAX is well worth a trip.  Makes you so proud to have been part of this Air Force tradition in some small way.

When the War in Vietnam was escalated by President Johnson there wasn't this automatic trashing of Johnson by members of Congress like we saw this weekend by Republicans which I am still having trouble comprehending why they would want us in another war this time on Ukraine against Russia.   My only explanation is like Iraq -- money for defense contractors who are seeing their budgets shrink which is about time.  The Defense budget is so far out of control, I have to laugh at Inhofe and others complaining about cuts.  They want cuts to troops now not defense contractors who are their big donors.

How can these same men who pushed so hard to go into Iraq under false pretenses, which led to fighting two wars at once, want us to get into military action against Russia over the Ukraine?  Look at facts:  Putin is not Saddam - KGB versus dictator, we had a no-fly zone over Iraq after the 1st Gulf War, Russia has a military force of airpower, seapower, and ground while Iraq's military was decimated not to mention Iraq is a lot smaller.  If members of Congress would have stopped to think on Iraq, they would have figured out that Saddam was bluffing and he didn't have new weapons -- there was no way with the 'no fly zone' and weapons inspections he could have pulled that off.

This article from the Washington Post is so true today because politics in today's Republican Party who cannot get over Romney lost to the man in the White House, is still against anything President Obama does no matter what.  I swear if Obama said he was going to use our military to go after Russia instead of diplomacy, this group of hard right would be out there calling him a war monger and we need diplomacy.  Those names of Senators and former Sec Def mentioned above have lost all credibility and deserve not one ounce of respect -- Graham, McCain, Inhofe, Rumsfeld, and Rubio.  Know there are more but these five stood out to me.

Found this article on Foreign Policy stopping at the water's edge interesting from Washington Post.  He is right today that politics doesn't stop at the water's edge but I can remember in the years of President of OU then Senator Boren of OK as head of Intel and Senator Sam Nunn of GA as head of Defense making sure partisan foreign policy stopped at the water's edge back in the 80's and early 90's on the First Gulf War-- people like those two great men who worked across the aisle are few and far between today and almost non-existent in the Republican Party:  

Does polarization in domestic politics affect foreign policy as well? There is a long-standing belief that it should not. A classic statement of that view can be found in the widely cited words of a leading Republican senator in the early days of the Cold War. Speaking in 1947, Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (Mich.), the influential chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, provided key support to Democratic President Harry S. Truman and admonished his colleagues that “we must stop partisan politics at the water’s edge.”  And in practice, when it comes to military intervention, both the urgency of events and rally-round-the-flag effects are often conducive to wider support within Congress and among the general public. Thus Gallup has found that in 10 conflicts over the past two decades, initial public approval averaged 68 percent.   

Eventually, as the memory of recent conflicts recedes, and with new threats and challenges, public opinion will evolve yet again. At the same time, partisan loyalties and presidential politics will continue to manifest themselves. In short, politics does not stop at the water’s edge. 

(ROBERT J. LIEBER, 10 Feb 2014, Professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University)

Thank God that President Barack Obama is in the White House not Romney or any Republican because America can be assured he is standing for our Country with a backbone of steel no matter what the Republicans say.  You could see it in his face while talking to the Israeli puppet of the hard right Netanyahu -- he was not happy as he wants progress in the Middle East.

A lot of us have your back Mr. President and our Prayers.

Hubris: Selling the Iraq War MSNBC Documentary Proves SecDef Nominee Chuck Hagel was Right on Iraq

"Powell walked into my office, and without so much as a fare thee well, he walked over to the window and said I wonder what will happen when we put 500,000 troops into the Iraq and come the country from one end to the other and find nothing. And he turned around and walked back into his office. "  -- Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell

As I was doing the background research for this article I ran across the Senator Hagel questioning of Condi Rice to be Secretary of State after General Powell resigned which shows one of the reasons some Republicans got in a snit at Hagel:  
After the questioning of Rice to be Secretary of State, Senator Hagel comments about voting for her confirmation:

But even after all of his disagreements with Dr. Rice, Senator Hagel told Gwen Ifill of PBS, ” I will support the nomination of Dr. Rice. She’s eminently qualified, well prepared. And I think she’ll be an excellent secretary of state.” Yes, this was after Dr. Rice lied to the American people about the weapons of mass destruction, which makes the Republican obstruction of Hagel even more ridiculous. 

In that same PBS interview, then Senator Russ Feingold said of Hagel, “I’m sitting here with a Republican, who had the integrity at hearings from the very beginning to ask the right questions… And you know what, we never got a good answer then. Senator Hagel tried; Senator Lugar tried; it was a bipartisan effort.” 

Hagel represents the truth about the unconscionable Republican foreign policy disaster of the Iraq war; the lie that must not be discussed — the lie the mainstream media whitewashed and ignored, while busily chasing after Benghazi conspiracy theories as if that will rehabilitate them for their failures. 

Hagel is the integrity and morality missing in the values bankrupt modern day Republican Party. 

His existence is a constant rebuke of their own failures. And that is why they hate him.
We do not have a Secretary of Defense right now because the Republican Party refuses to face their own failures and instead chooses to punish all reminders.

Transcript of video is available at Politicus

In the small minds of McCain, Graham, and Inhofe, Hagel had the audacity along with Lugar to question the Bush Administration on taking us into Iraq.  Hagel did not run for reelection in Nebraska in 2008 and Senator Lugar who also questioned what the Administration had done to get us into Iraq lost his reelection bid in Indiana in 2012 to a Tea Party hard right, loony, social conservative Mourdock who lost to Democrat Joe Donnelly who now represents Indiana in the Senate.  That should tell you all you need to know about Mourdock who was the twin to Akins from MO.

Turns out Hagel and Lugar were right which has earned them the disdain of Republicans and why we see so many lies against Hagel that can be easily refuted.  This one sentence from the article sums up the Republican Party:

Hagel is the integrity and morality missing in the values bankrupt modern day Republican Party. 

When you have so many Republicans willing to speak out against the war in Iraq as you see in the video from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, it makes you stop and think.  After reflecting on the outstanding documentary by Maddow, thoughts I had at the time of the Iraq War come back.  My husband who was part of the government/defense industry complex at the time wasn't sure we made the right decision as we were already fighting in Afghanistan and had brought Saddam to his knees due to the no-fly zone and embargo.  Can remember him saying as an Marine forward air controller which went back years, it was a mistake.  Turns he was right.  So many people we knew at the time didn't understand why at that point in time we were going into Iraq and ignoring Aghanistan for the most part.

Why didn't the Bush Administration pursue Bin Laden to kill him as the head of the snake known as the Taliban?  Instead they chose to go into Iraq?  Why?  Cheney went from being against taking out Saddam after the 1st Gulf War, to going to work for Halliburton, to becoming VP and a hawk along with Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz to take out Saddam.  Connect the dots.

The key point to all of this is why do you forge documents, get info from the CIA which Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz changed to fit their narrative to go into Iraq and take out Saddam immediately not wait him out?  What was going through the heads?  Is this the neocon way that our soon to be new Secretary of Defense Hagel warns about their desire for perpetual war?

Hagel represents the truth about the unconscionable Republican foreign policy disaster of the Iraq war; the lie that must not be discussed — the lie the mainstream media whitewashed and ignored, while busily chasing after Benghazi conspiracy theories as if that will rehabilitate them for their failures.

After this documentary, would bet more information will be forthcoming over time on why we went into Iraq while we were fighting the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban.  IMHO further information will only serve to back up even more what Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, and others have been saying about the scam that was the Iraq Invasion.