Thursday, March 28, 2024

Yes, Why the GOP Is Suddenly the Party of Peace.

September 8, 2013 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

Like
Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry

(ThyBlackMan.com) The stunning number of GOP law makers that are vehemently opposed to US war making against Syria has been nothing less than astounding. Lame duck Minnesota GOP congressperson Michelle Bachman’s flat-out assertion that Syrian intervention would be a bad call and the US is war-weary seemed to punctuate much of the GOP’s new thinking about war. The eye-catching part of their sudden remake as the party of caution, even peace, can’t be overstated. A string of GOP presidents, Reagan, Bush Sr., and George W, Bush, GOP lawmakers and top GOP administration officials for three decades drilled into the public the party’s hard as nails stance on defense spending, military preparedness and unlimited, with or without congressional approval, war making. Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon and of course Iraq and Afghanistan, have been testimony to the GOP’s unfettered affinity for military intervention.

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, the GOP hit plan on then Democratic presidential candidate Obama was simple. Pound him relentlessly as soft on the war on terrorism and the military. Reagan, Bush Sr. and especially George W. Bush in 2004 in his reelection fight with Democratic presidential foe Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, used this ploy masterfully against their Democratic opponents.

GOP strategists believed that the soft-on-terrorism and the military smear would work on their Democratic opponents because the party had so firmly staked out its position as the party of military toughness. They had the numbers to back them up. In the months before the 2004 election, polls showed that the overwhelming majority of Republicans unequivocally backed the Iraq War. A decade later, the well-documented fact was that Bush’s claim that Weapons of Mass Destruction were stockpiled in Iraq was a sham and aGOP-2013 fabrication, and that he and the war hawks in his administration shamelessly deceived Congress, the UN and the public on the war. Yet, a majority of Republicans still held fast to the notion that the Iraq war was the right war to wage.

The GOP’s attempt to tag Obama as soft on defense and military action during the campaign did in part work against Obama. During the 2008 campaign, polls consistently showed that despite the mountain of political baggage GOP presidential contender John McCain and the GOP carried, and the sky-high voter disgust with Bush’s domestic and foreign policy bumbles, the soft-on — terrorism concern about Obama still had enough resonance to keep McCain competitive.

Recently, the GOP’s unconditional love affair with the defense industry was again on display in the rancorous congressional debates over the sequestration cuts. House GOP members paid lip service to the need to make some cuts in the bloated military budget along with cuts in the dizzying array of domestic programs that it demanded be axed. But in repeated votes, last spring, House Republicans sought to water down the military cuts and hack more money from everything from food stamps to disaster relief programs. The aim as always was not give an inch on the military.

Despite that history, the reversal by many GOP officials on waging aggressive wars is real. It’s driven by several factors, among which are the astronomical cost of defense spending on military actions, the libertarian ideals of party leaders such as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, neo-isolationism, the dawning realization that US military actions have done absolutely nothing to enhance national security or promote stable democratic regimes in the Middle East.

The other compelling factor is that Obama has been unflinching on the use of military action against wayward states. This has been evident in the relentless drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, the ramp up of the Afghan war, missile shots at Libya and now his full-throated push for a Syria strike. This has his personal stamp all over it. And since GOP leaders have spent five years in an unbroken, unapologetic campaign to obstruct, delay and torpedo any and every program and initiative that he has proposed, a congressional refusal for a Syria strike authorization would simply be a continuation of the pattern. It would put Obama in the position of invoking the War Powers Act and authorizing a strike against Syria. This would raise instant howls that Obama is subverting the constitutional process. If he doesn’t act, there will be howls from the still prominent GOP war hawks such as McCain that this is just another example of an administration that’s inept, adrift and indecisive in its foreign policy initiatives.

Obama sought to avoid that very trap by tossing the ball for Syrian action back to Congress. But with a solid majority of the public opposed to a Syria strike, and memories short about the GOP’s hawk like history of military cheerleading, it’s a cynical, but easy, call for the GOP to try to reimage itself as the party of peace — at Obama and the Democrats expense.

Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

One can find more info about Mr. Hutchinson over at the following site; TheHutchinson ReportNews.

Also feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

 


Comments

3 Responses to “Yes, Why the GOP Is Suddenly the Party of Peace.”
  1. Scotty says:

    Both Democrats and Republicans have supported war and Both Democrats and Republicans have been against it. If we look at Syria, all of the Republican leadership, Boehner, Cantor, and others are supporting strikes on Syria. Most of the rank file Republicans are against it as the majority of their constituents are against it. These are also alot of new rank and file Republicans just elected in 2010. This is not a partisan issue, you can not hold someone accountable for someone else did when they were not even around. Both Democrats and Republicans have psychopathic warmongers who support Zionism and the military industrial complex. To paint this as a Dem vs Rep is disingenuous and does a disservice to the political maturity of Black Americans who do vote.

  2. Dcarter910 says:

    People wonder how the murder of christains in the time of the end as for told in Revelations and Matthew chapter 24, but look…the alligence of man to man even above the God of celestial lights. Who will come to your rescue when such a man is after you? And who will be all answer to when our last breath has been drawn? I speak to the earless, I plead to those hard of heart and yet the truth is clear though they are blind.

  3. ROBERT says:

    THIS article is a astonishing admission by a loyal O-BOT that OBAMA has out war hawked the war hawks
    HE SAY’S[BUSH’S claim that WMD’s were stockpiled in IRAQ was a sham and a fabrication and the he and the war hawks in his administration shamelessly deceived congress] WHAT!

    HE and the rest of the O- BOT’S don’t see the contradiction of OBAMA in alliance with the same war hawks telling the same lie’s about WMD’s as a pretext to attack another innocent nation[SYRIA].

    IT seems the author is proud of OBAMA’S drone strikes and the destruction of LIBYA and [OBAMA’S unflinching on the use of military actions against wayward state’s]

    THE only problem the military strikes are illegal and immoral; the state of LIBYA did nothing to AMERICA to deserve to be destroyed .
    THE same for SYRIA which poses no threat to AMERICA in any way and yet OBAMA for two years now have financed and armed a insurgency that has cost the lives of over 110;000 people so far.

    I would like to tell the black O-BOT’S something since many of us claim to be CHRISTIAN’S.
    SYRIA is home to some of the oldest CHRISTIAN communities in the world; many of these places are mentioned in your bible; they date all the way back to the first century.

    IF your black president is successful in destroying the SRYIAN government you will be sentencing your SRYIAN CHRISTIAN brothers and sister’s to death because the insurgents that OBAMA is backing are ISLAMIC fanatic’s that has vowed to cleanse SYRIA of CHRISTIAN’S.

    THIS has already taken place in area’s of their control; there are you tube video’s of beheading’s of priest and desecration of ancient church’s.
    RECENTLY the insurgent’s took control of the CHRISTIAN town of MAALOULA near the capital these people trace their lineage back to the first century and still speak ARAMAIC the same and dialect that JESUS himself would have spoken.

    HOW could you explain to JESUS that you supported a man that destroyed his home and descendant’s ?

    MY people please consider what you are doing this is not just some game between us and the racist REPUBLICAN’S these are peoples lives and countries and they have a right to live in peace!

Speak Your Mind

Tell us what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!