there are two foreign policy stories today that are
unfortunately being under-reported and to me they both highlight
what may unfortunately historically be known as some other bombers
biggest fuck ups so first quote
President Obama is close to having the US military train
moderate Syrian rebels the training program would supplement
a small program led by the CIA to train rebels
which has already been underway for a year so we didn't know this was going on
has been going on
the CIA program was covertly authorized by Obama so US officials
won't discuss it Obama will signal new support for the rebels during a
commencement address
at West Point on Wednesday but so that's the first ori that
where apparently getting more and more involved in Syria it started Colbert now
it's a little bit more out in the open
and the idea is hey we should train the moderate rebels
and then see how everything works out and my question is to what
n why are you trained well what's the point so that they topple Assad but you
do know that if they topple Assad that there's going to be a power vacuum
and there's a high probability that it will be filled by
jihadists again if you look at the
all the articles from the beginning I love the situation in Syria until today
its abundantly clear that well over 50 percent
I love the rebel movement is al Qaeda or not
not technically al Qaeda but their G harvests some of them
our affiliates have al Qaeda there's a al nusra front
and is-is al nusra front is the official al Qaeda affiliate and is-is
get this has even been called too extreme for al Qaeda
they killed too many innocent Muslim civilians supply route Qaeda cerca mom
and that's fucked up
and they are distancing themselves from them that's over fifty percent of the
rebel movement
and you also have the kurds in the north who are extremely just what kinda want
to set up their own state of Kurdistan
arm and the FSA is the only
somewhat moderate rebel movement but here's the problem and
it's gonna it's gonna be impossible to distinguish between
a the moderate rebel forces and the extreme rebel forces
it's gonna be almost impossible to distinguish because even a lot of people
in FSA
are Islamist okay so you in a few even if you do
it right and then you find them in then you train them in the topple Assad then
what
then you're gonna have to hope that the minority
of people who are secular in the Syrian
revolution dat they will end up holding power
after that and there's certainly no guarantee about that because
you have jihadists flooding into Syria from everywhere around the world right
now
so this is yet another example the US getting involved overseas in a way this
can end up fucking backfiring our face
you know what you know what came directly to mind as I was reading this
when
the United States trained n funded
and gave weapons to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan when they were fighting a
war against
that the Soviet Union and what happened the mujahedeen eventually became the
Taliban and al Qaeda
and they ended up fighting us with the weapons that we fuckin gave them
okay because we got too involved we hated the Russian so much
that we said hey will find these guys have the enemy the enemy is my friend
was the same thing going on right now in Syria because we dislike Assad so much
that we say are no fun these moderate rebels but then
how do we know that those you know all the training in all the help is gonna
slip through their hands and
end up helping jihad its are also even end up helping troops on the Assad side
some other hezbollah but who is again an enemy the US
social it doesn't make any sense to get involved your
it's okay to not like either side in the fight you know that's why nobody saying
here
it's okay to not like Assad which I don't and it's okay to not like
the rebels which I don't why so what's likely getting involved why are we
getting involved
and I know the reason is because we're trying to topple Assad and then we hope
that a secular leader can
rule Syria and that leader will do business deals with us and let us run
the pipeline through Syria which by the way Assad rejected which one of the main
reasons
for why we're we don't like him and he's not favor with us
so the idea is topless I get somebody pro-western in there
and then hopefully we can hold the country like that but what i say is
there's no way you're going to be able to beat back the strong jihadist
elements that are fighting
to gain control the region it's just not possible they want it too bad
they wanted to bed so even if you do topple Assad in secular people take over
the government is just a matter of time until they get toppled
but we're getting involved none the less less the first foreign-policy fail
getting more involved in Syria is a terrible idea it's gonna be terrible for
his legacy
and then the other one is the one that's getting a little bit a press now
um The Daily Beast is reporting
that arm we're gonna leave about 10,000 troops
in Afghanistan and listen to the way that The Daily Beast frames the article
because this is Saul stupid they say quote
will Obama's 10,000 troops in Afghanistan be another to stop al Qaeda
the pentagon prevail this week in a fight over how many US forces will fight
in Afghanistan past 2014 but will 9800 troops
be on of to keep a resurgent al Qaeda out
so look at other framing it the frame yet from a further right-wing
perspective
of pay is not enough man maybe we should be more in their woeful always a good
what your job
are you fucking journalists your journal is right social thing it's a relevant
piece of information that only seventeen percent of the American people want to
stay in Afghanistan
the overwhelming majority majority Democrats independent
in republicans want out but you're framing the articles it to suggest
is 9800 troops staying there going to be enough
why are you framing it now way and by the way if you trust our own CIA numbers
it's about a hundred members of al Qaeda they're still in Afghanistan right now
that's it so there they moved to Pakistan Yemen and Somalia
you know molly is a big area where they are right now to the point where the
French are fighting a war in northern Mali against al Qaeda
so they're not bear any more and by the way even if they are there any minute
they stay there
ready for this how's this for a controversial I don't give a shit
I don't give a shit okay at the only it
way or the only reason I would ever want to use the US military is
imminent defensive the homeland cuz there's going to be an attack
but we're be been occupying a country for well over 10 years now
and you want to stay there longer with 9,800 troops
and the by the way the fuckin Huffington Post had the North
to put as their headline on their page in fact let me see if they still have it
up right now
all bomber they don't have it up right now they changed it but it said before
all Obama lays out withdrawal plan
whoa if you're saying we're gonna keep
9000 800 troops there until 2016
and then revisit it and maybe withdraw that's so fuckin withdrawal plan
that's ok we're gonna stay there planned why are you calling a withdrawal
I view this analogy before on-air but is basically like saying
yeah we're gonna have sex but okay I'm gonna pull out now
but I'll just leave the tip in then you're not pulling out if you're leaving
a tip in your not pulling out
the fuckin tip is still a dipshit to all were pulling out we're withdrawing and
by that I mean we're gonna keep 9800 troops there
really could you imagine a China puts 9800 troops in Texas
agarrar okay were withdrawn we're just gonna leave the 9800 sec
well with the USA actor more time for World War three let's nuke 'em
but when we do it Afghanistan a different might not know when we do a
9800 leaving them there's withdrawing
that's what it means but that again that doesn't make any sense
know withdrawing his fuckin withdrawing there's no I we're gonna withdraw
believe people there
that's fuckin counter-intuitive you know it's like dole George Carlin bit
it's like fucking for virginity but you're not a virgin if you're fucking
I again the fact we have to explain these basic concepts
and by the way spare me Spanish maybe that's it put a fork in it
it's done Obama's legacy you know he he likes it England of mister progressive
I'm gonna be this
Democratic president a great progressive guy
Nana now your center-right that's what you are you know
your bill clinton part 2 and maybe even a little bit further to the right on the
political spectrum than him
you not gonna be this amazing FDR Park to figure
okay income inequality has risen under you poverty has risen under you there
still nine hundred military bases
US military bases around the world we can't we try to stay in the open
iraq longer we ended up withdrawing on bush's timetable cuz they couldn't get
an agreement to stay longer
in Afghanistan the same thing we originally wanted to stay eleven more
years
Karzai said no fuck no and then we said hey we're gonna have been puffin do the
zero option pull everybody out
to which Karzai responded go ahead we actually prefer that and also not okay
we can keep 9800 sec
so this is the progressive president the guy who says let's continue to stay in
Afghanistan we've been over 10 years
about what what's victory please some anybody tell me what a victory
I would love to hear a coherent argument for victory
well victories limiting al Qaeda tunes few people as possible
really but I just told you the CIA our own number said that we had about a
hundred members about I left in
Afghanistan so wouldn't that be victory or what's victory
overture is due to be gotta get revenge for 9/11 and killed the leader Osama bin
Laden
you have you been living under a rock he's dead deer he's dad yeah
mission accomplished what the fuck are we doing what are we doing here
somebody define victory in a way that makes sense there is no way that makes
sense
and that's the fuckin point this is how Imperial governments work
this is %uh the military-industrial complex works endless war
for endless profit you know a lot of these defense contractors get very very
rich the longer we stay in these foreign countries
you know and look I'm not saying that these guys think that their evil
but they rationalize it when they're the head hits the pillow at night I'm sure
Obama's got his reasons reasons yes yes Rd we need to give these 9800 troops
there
for continued stability in the region and I'll remember but remember
well here's a here's an interesting fact arm in Iraq right now there's more
violence than when we were there at the end
this I mean we should go back in there's not a single person in the country was
like we gotta go back in there somewhere violence in Iraq
so if we leave from Afghanistan and there's more violence that happens is
there any gonna be anybody america's we gotta go back in Afghanistan I mean look
there's some violence that happened there
we have 32,000 people dying in this country
from gun violence every single year that's more people than died in
in Iraq and everybody was screaming oh my god so bad the violent adorable
it's worse in fuckin Cleveland and Detroit
the the level to which none of this makes sense
is so overwhelming that I could go I could talk about this for three days
straight