Warmonger to Finally Gain Some Pledged* Delegates
*Superdelegates likely already on Biden Bus
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I won’t say much about tonight’s contest. It was pretty cut-and-dried: VP Biden, leader of the DLC gang of Democratic Candidates finally lived up to his title as “leader of the DLC gang of Candidates” and won a primary election. The 28.6 point victory margin over second place finisher Senator Bernie Sanders (as of the time of writing, with 91% of all votes counted) was predictably hailed as Biden as a resolution to an existential question of Sanders under-performing with black voters. Whatever that means. Others called South Carolina Voters “extremely pragmatic” when attempting to explain black voters’ support for the Vice President. All in all, the punditocracy on TV, who interprets everything for all of us morons out in the country, were quite giddy concerning the fact that Biden performed as strongly as he did, making what was essentially the argument that the only state which matters is the one that Joe Biden wins.
As I said, I won’t spend much time on that election. What I want to talk about Biden’s record. Most specifically his record on the topic which I care more about than any other issue, and the one issue which I suggest guides my vote more than any other issue.
That issue is my opposition to the Wars.
I will start off with a brief reflection. As a kid, when I saw US troops march triumphantly across the Kuwaiti desert, I was impressed with our awesome killing force. When I joined the United States Marine Corps in 1995, I was well aware that the US was at peace, and I appreciated it now that the probability of me killing others in war was much greater than it was before. When the “balloon went up” during the Balkan crises of the late 1990s, things got tense, but ultimately I got out of the Marine Corps without actually having to fight.
I realized how narrowly I had escaped war when I saw two planes crash into the World Trade Center towers a scant two years after I left the service. I thought: Had I just reenlisted one time, I would be going to war now. 9/11 was the last day which I did not count myself among the anti-war folks in the nation.
9/12/2001 was the day I became an anti-war activist. When I saw the horrifying response to the crisis among people who are not directly affected by these attacks in anyway, except that they watched it on television, I realized that I was not part of that. A gathering was scheduled at my university, for the community to gather and reflect on the horrible events of that Tuesday, just a couple days old in people’s memory, rather than almost 20 years old as they are now.
During those raw days, everyone was on edge, not knowing what to do, or what would happen next. I, in my capacity of Student Senate President, as a representative voice of the students on my campus, was invited to speak at this event, which was sponsored by a group called Churches United. I approached the podium, not having any notes prepared. I spoke from a place of raw grief and sadness and confusions, but I said what was in my heart.
My message to the assembled crowd of several hundred people gathered before me was “You people say you are Christians. The message of Christ was to love your enemy. The desire for revenge, while understandable, is immoral. You are charged, by your religion to love those who hurt you. Don’t let these events be used by political leaders as an excuse to get you to support their desires to make war on the world.” As I spoke, I had tears streaming down my face.
My message was met with stone silence and zero reaction from the crowd. Next I was invited to attend a different rally put on by another religious group: This one was held out at the flagpole. This religious group had us all stand in a circle around the flag and hold hands and pray for God to lead our political leaders to strike the fear of God into whoever did this horrible crime. I did not deliver a speech at this rally.
A person who knows recent US history can tell you which message won out.
In October of 2001, I took out a full page advertisement in the Student News Paper calling for people to oppose the war which was coming in Afghanistan. The next spring, we were organizing actions in Rapid City primarily, where there were a bunch of old pacifists there who believed that a silent vigil was the most effective way to bring awareness about the war. They would stand in silence on street corners with signs. Meanwhile, I was passing out socialist propaganda to cars stopped at red lights. Same thing, mine was more active.
Fellow socialists and I, five or six in all, organized several of our own marches in Spearfish SD. We took part in the global day of protest where more than a million worldwide marched in opposition to the war. We held illegal marches where we marched to the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and protested in front of his Rapid City office. We sponsored anti-war events on campus.
When I moved to Missoula Montana, I did counter-recruitment, where we would go into the schools and try to provide kids with alternatives to enlistment in the Armed Forces. We also led the effort to get a ballot measure placed before the voters calling for an end to the War and full funding of Veterans’ services. The measure won 65%-35%, making Missoula one of the early cities in the US to pass such a resolution.
When 2008 came along, I voted for Obama due to his stated opposition to the War. I thought Hillary Clinton was far more qualified for the job, both in 2008 and in 2016. But I refused to vote for her because of her support for the wars. These were the same wars that Obama promised to get the US out of. And when he failed to do so by 2012, he lost my vote in that election.
These are the same wars which his VP running mate, and eventually Vice President of the US, Joe Biden happily supported and these were the Wars that Biden helped Obama maintain and expand to other places like Libya and Syria. And what’s more: it appears that Biden supported the war before there was a war to even support, in the interest of “taking Saddam down”.
I have said I will vote for the Democrat this year no matter who it is. I mean it. I will vote for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, whoever happens to get the nod. I beg the forgiveness of my readers, but I do not much consider Joe Biden as much more than Hillary Clinton when it comes to being a Democrat, and whatever he claims now that he is running for President, he is a warmonger, just like Clinton and countless supporters of the Wars. Both are neo-liberal warmongers, who happily supported the Wars and forced them all down the rest of our throats, funding them largely off the books for a generation now.
This man’s decision on the war was responsible for the death of thousands of American servicemen and women, as well as contractors. It was also responsible for not less than 100,000 Iraqi deaths. Read that number again: the most conservative estimates of Iraqi death due to the war is more than 100 Thousand. Well: the more liberal estimates put the figure well over 1 million, and the most staggering has it at 2.4 million. But we don’t actually know what number it is, because our Generals in Iraq don’t count Iraqi dead.
Two and a half million people dead. One million people dead. One hundred thousand people dead. And for what?
Here’s Biden’s speech in support of the War in 2002. Note that he says he opposed the first draft of what became the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF). Here he also literally promotes the now completely debunked claims about WMDs, to push for the war. He doesn’t sound like he was tricked: He makes the case for the damn thing himself.
The man was no shrinking violet on the matter. He was not dragged along, and he was not tricked, as now claims, hoping that Leftists won’t remember his actual record. In this issue, note that Biden here “wishes that the President would tone down the rhetoric” about the war, but he actually supports Bush’s underlying rationale for the War.
I will never cast a vote for a man who voted for that War, justified it for years and years, when it was vogue to literally call anti-war activists “traitors” as I, and other anti-war protestors were called, described here or here, along with a recommendation that we be imprisoned or worse for standing on the right side of history, and then changed his support when he was trying to become President of the United States.
Yes, I understand that there are many issues in the election. Beating Trump is the number one issue for most Dems. Fine.
Truth be told, then I don’t trust Democrats to make the right decision with regard to keeping a warmonger out of office. So, in line with my prescription to not try to control the outcome, and just do your best with an eye on moderation, I will vote for anti-war candidates, because I do not believe that warmongers, even ones who claim they have learned the error of their acts and have turned over a new leaf now on war, will be good for the office. And I will never forget what people like Biden and those who agreed with him did, to the American people and to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
No Votes for Warmongers. FTW= F — k the War. Bring all service members home now. Fully fund all Veterans services to help those who come home shattered by the wars. That should be the only acceptable stance on the war and will remain my mantra as long as these warmongers continue to exist and continue to try to force themselves into our political system.
I leave you all with Black Sabbath’s “Warpigs”, which may as well describe the clear winner in South Carolina tonight. This one goes out to you, Joe.
Like all articles on The New Haberdasher, this story is presented to you for free. If you like what I do, consider supporting my work with a small monetary contribution at my Patreon and thank you.
