Criminal Stupidity on the American Right

I listened to Obama’s speech last week on CNN here in Doha. While not agreeing with all of it, it was a well-reasoned statement of intent and limitations of actions for US foreign policy. Something that was located in some black hole when Bush was in power. It spoke to working with allies and rule of law – not the go-it-alone crap spewed by the neo-cons and religious right allies for eight horrendous years, stupendous human cost and which broke the financial stability of the US.


The Republican and Donald Trump response was predictable as well as displaying, yet again, their leadership’s gross, criminal ignorance. Some examples:

Michelle Bachmann. What more can be said of her deep level of dumb? Does she even know where Libya is without some ten-year old telling her? This is what she said:

“I have been very reluctant to see the United States to go into Libya. For one thing, we haven’t identified yet who the opposition even is to Qaddafi. We don’t know if this is led by Hamas, Hezbollah, or possibly al Qaeda of North Africa. Are we really better off, are United States, our interests better off, if let’s say Al-Qaeda of North Africa now runs Libya?”

As Juan Cole has pointed out, Hamas is a Palestinian organization with no affiliates or subsidiary groups. Al Qaeda of North Africa is a joke. Hezbollah is Shiite – there are none in North Africa. None, Michelle, are involved in Libya. They either have no interest or would not be welcome. Please, Michelle, STFU, go crawl under a rock and let adults run things.

Donald Trump. Donald. Stick to real estate and co-authoring self-improvement business books. Because you know nothing about international affairs and it shows. His claim that Iran might be involved is so incredible that it ignores Iranian political reality. Aside from being Shiite they condemned the no-fly zone and foreign interference. They are likely more concerned about Bahrain (Shiite majority) and Yemen (in the backyard of their enemy Saudi Arabia) but they have no dog in the Libyan fight. They are not on the side of the rebels.

The less said about the other Republican leaders, including that tired old white man, John McCain, and their concept of how US foreign policy should be conducted in general and in Libya in particular, the better. Last year, because of lies and bigotry as well as the petulant 2 year olds' on the American left, many Americans voted these morons into power and are now paying the price - and there is a price. One can only hope that the protests against the new Republican leadership in Wisconsin spread throughout the country, getting them out of positions of power sooner rather than later. It is frightening and a threat to the world that these pandering idiots will likely take power and continue the US decent into banana republic status.