Let’s cut to the chase.
First, The Trump-Ukraine Marx Brothers Upside/Down Heist-Bungle is an Impeachable Offense. Don’t even worry about it. It’s not even a close call. The House will vote to Impeach on that, at least, and there will be a trial in the Senate. Bet on it. Mitch McConnell has said as much.
Second, Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria is well within presidential prerogatives and not, by any stretch of the imagination, an Impeachable offense.
Third, Trump’s move out of Syria while totally legal and, in my opinion, wise and proper, made a successful vote to Impeach a sure thing. Why is that? The Israel Support Community would like as many American soldiers as possible stationed between any part of Iran and any part of Israel. Any reduction in that number will get their attention and Congress will get an earful and do as they’re told. Just like in Animal Farm, all citizens are equal but some are more equal than others.
Trump’s move of our troops out of Syria left the Kurds, a people without a country, in a position where our soldiers would not be there to protect them, with their bodies, from threats real and imagined. Israel and its supporters love the Kurds because the Kurds are a consistent irritant and threat to Iran and Turkey. The Kurds want a country of their own. They want it on land that is now part of Turkey and Iran. It’s not surprising that those countries are unwilling to volunteer to give the Kurds sufficient land for their country. Does anybody know any state that would? Does Israel want to Donate the Golan Heights to help the Kurds, their new best friends, get started on their new State?
Israel, of course, knows what’s what. It views its interests are being served if Turkey and Iran have to deal with border skirmishes and bad publicity from the American press for not being nice enough to the Kurds. (Israel Firster Richard Engel on MSNBC has gone into full blown hysteria about the Kurds that I’m expecting his next step is self immolation in their honor… RIP Richard Engel, What A Kurd?). Strange he never seemed very interested in the children in Gaza when Israel last engaged in “mowing the grass” in Gaza in 2014. Maybe he didn’t know the term meant killing kids. Oh well, you can’t know everything.
What’s shocking to the Israel support community is that Trump would surprise them.Through Kushner, Adelson, Pompeo, and Netanyahu they had every reason to believe they were “protected” from unpleasant surprises. Removing a layer of American soldiers between Iran and Israel was not the kind of surprise to which Israel is accustomed.
CONCLUSION
When the Israelis and their supporters in the US are aggrieved, they do not suffer in silence. They act. There is anger there and Capitol Hill has heard their wrath. That’s why there will be a vote to Impeach and it will win.
Interesting side story… who is more important to Republican Senators on the make like Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and little Marco Rubio? Donald Trump or Sheldon Adelson? Are the two as closely aligned as they were or has Trump’s pull out of Syria altered the relationship?
Las Vegas Rules Apply: Money Talks and Bullshit Walks.
ELIJAH CUMMINGS (1951-2019)
I knew him before he came to Congress. Not well. He was in the Maryland Legislature and I was representing an out of State Trucking Company. I remember the crisp white shirt, dark suit, and quiet dignity. Everybody respected him. He gave respect to all and respect flowed back to him. Because of his manner and quiet confidence I assumed he was quite senior… definitely older than me.
He died at 68. I was shocked at how young he was. Way back in the 1990s he moved with the quiet dignity of someone who had been earning it for a long time.
I will post again on Tuesday January 7, 2020.
Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.