Michele Bachmann’s performance as a presidential candidate continues to resemble Andy Kaufman’s career as a wrestler.
On “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, Bachmann declared that Iraq should reimburse the U.S. for the war. Yes, the one the U.S. started. Yes, the one that destabilized their country and killed more than 100,000 civilians.
“I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money that we have spent to liberate these people,” Bachmann said. “They’re not a poor country; they’re a wealthy country.”
Bachmann is also waiting for African-Americans to pay back the U.S. for the travel costs and in-flight entertainment associated with the Middle Passage. I believe Herman Cain has already written a check for his share.
Maybe Bachmann has uncovered the secret to ending the U.S.’s economic woes. The nation’s new chief export can be warfare: The U.S. military will come to your country, blow it to bits, and all for no money down and a reasonable payment plan. You don’t even have to worry about minor details such as when, where, or if you even want this service at all. The U.S. will take care of that. It’s what we like to call the “old surprise visit” a la “A Clockwork Orange.”
According to Bachmann, demanding payment for the Iraq War is for the Iraqis’ benefit, as well:
“I think that they need to do that, because what we will be leaving behind is a nation that is very fragile and will be subject to dominance by Iran and their influence in the region, and that’s not good.”
See, Iraq is already fragile after we slammed it in the kneecaps with our military baseball bat, so we need to stick it with a bill for roughly $700 billion.
Bachmann is currently pushing the “Noble Reason” for the Iraq War — liberating the nation from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. This surfaced after the “Self-Defense Reason” was proven about as legitimate as any part of Heidi Montag.
To review, the “Self-Defense Reason” was that Hussein was either involved in 9/11 or supportive through training or might assist Al-Qaeda or was at a dinner party that one of bin Laden’s wives threw and on and on until everyone in the U.S. was thoroughly confused. This was actually educated and perhaps tactical confusion, as the connection to the facts grew more tenuous in the months immediately after 9/11:
Polling data show that right after Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans were asked open-ended questions about who was behind the attacks, only 3 percent mentioned Iraq or Hussein. But by January of this year, attitudes had been transformed. In a Knight Ridder poll, 44 percent of Americans reported that either “most” or “some” of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. The answer is zero.
The intent to save the Iraqi people and “bring freedom to the galaxy” is buried somewhere in the Iraq War Resolution but ultimately the whole invasion was based in U.S. self-interest, which resulted in 4,796 U.S. and Coalition casualties. So, more U.S. citizens died in Iraq than died on 9/11 in an effort to avoid a similar attack on the U.S. that never materialized.
Bachmann and other conservatives are attacking President Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq. It’s hard to make sense of this: We know for a fact that ending the debacle will save U.S. lives. The Iraqi government gets it. That’s why they graciously want us to leave.
…the Obama administration announced it will withdraw all American troops from Iraq by year-end, at the behest of the Iraqi government. Bachmann said Iraq needs more continued U.S. troop involvement to prevent Iran from gaining influence in the region.
Bachmann called the Iraqi government’s insistence that American forces be removed from the nation “outrageous”…
“That’s the thanks we get after 4,400 lives have been expended?” Bachmann said, referring to the number of American troops who have died in the Iraq war.
The families of U.S. soldiers in Iraq will probably be content with the return of their loved ones from a war zone. They will find a way to do without the handwritten thank-you note and a bottle of wine.
It astounds me that we’d actually discuss staying in Iraq when its government wants us gone. If the situation were reversed, I think we’d be pissed. That’s called an occupying force or, as the U.S. refers to it in its history books, “manifest destiny.”
serhasacomplaint 
Herman Cain says he opposes abortion in all cases _ no exceptions – The Washington Post
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain says he opposes abortion in all cases _ no exceptions – The Washington Post.
Herman Cain is now talking like a candidate who thinks he has a serious chance of claiming the GOP presidential nomination.
During an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Cain said he’s “pro-life from conception, period.” Far be it for me to give Cain political advice but at the very least, he should consider what he’s actually saying and whether he wants to include the word “period.” He might be better off with “end of story” or “that’s all, folks.”
This is a turn from Cain’s previous statement made way back sometime last week that confused a lot of people because they had either read it or heard it, which is really not the best way to encounter Cain’s stance on the issues.
CAIN:… Abortion should not be legal; that is clear. But if that family made a decision to break the law, that’s that family’s decision. That’s all I’m trying to say.
Far be it for me to give Cain political advice again but at the very least, he should consider what he’s actually saying and whether, as the former CEO of a pizza chain called “Godfather’s Pizza,” he wants to say it’s “the family’s” decision to break the law.
As wonky as that comment was, it was nothing compared to his attempt to link Planned Parenthood to racial genocide.
Cain said Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger wanted to eradicate minorities by putting birth control clinics in their neighborhoods, a charge that the group denies.
“In Margaret Sanger’s own words, she didn’t use the word genocide, but she did talk about preventing the increasing number of poor blacks in this country by preventing black babies from being born,” Cain said.
The indisputable logic here is that Planned Parenthood today is a racist institution because it was founded by a racist. Presumably, Cain also thinks that the United States is a racist country because it was founded by slave owners.
In his new campaign manifesto, “This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House,” the candidate states repeatedly and without qualification that “Our Founding Fathers did their job … a great job.” He makes no mention of the blacks who fled George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson during the Revolutionary War in search of their freedom, or the Constitution’s protection of slavery, or that the initial Constitution forbade Congress from prohibiting American participation in the international slave trade for 20 years and indeed made that provision unamendable.
Oh, I guess he doesn’t. Well, let’s not keep Cain’s apparent hand-waving over historical wrongs get in the way of his focus on Planned Parenthood’s racist actions in the present.
Cain said Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger wanted to eradicate minorities by putting birth control clinics in their neighborhoods, a charge that the group denies.
Cain said 75 percent of the organization’s abortion facilities were built in black communities.
“In Margaret Sanger’s own words, she didn’t use the word genocide, but she did talk about preventing the increasing number of poor blacks in this country by preventing black babies from being born,” Cain said.
I’m not sure if Cain actually believes this nonsense or whether he’s having fun making racially inflammatory statements that would have resulted in a full-day FOX News marathon of condemnation if Obama had said them or been in the presence of someone who said them. It’s actually possible that Cain supporters, offended by his racial genocide comments, will still blame Obama somehow for it.
During the “Face the Nation” interview, Cain was asked if his anti-abortion stance also extended to cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother. Cain went for the hat trick of reproductive regulation and responded, “Correct, that’s my position.”
Far be it for me to give Cain political advice yet again but at the very least, he should consider what he’s actually saying and whether he wants to utter the phrase “that’s my position” when discussing rape or incest. It’s just odd.
Perhaps instead of pizza, Cain’s next business venture will be “No Exceptions” jeans for women.
Posted by Stephen Robinson on October 30, 2011 in Political Theatre, Social Commentary
Tags: abortion, Face the Nation, Herman Cain