I congratulate our special forces, our intelligence community, and all our brave military professionals on delivering justice to the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It is thanks to their courage and relentless determination to carry out their mission that ISIS has suffered a vital loss.
As the key figure behind the creation of ISIS, Baghdadi’s corrosive message inspired attacks that claimed thousands of innocent lives around the world — including in the United States. He proclaimed not the teachings of Islam, but a warped ideology of hate and brutality, built on mass slaughters, public executions, the enslavement of ethnic and religious minorities, and evils that have no place in any society. The world is better and safer without him in it.
We cannot afford to get distracted or take our eye off the target. ISIS remains a threat to the American people and our allies, and we must keep up the pressure to prevent ISIS from ever regrouping or again threatening the United States. That task is particularly important as the chaos of the past few weeks in northern Syria has jeopardized years of hard work and sacrifice by American and Kurdish troops to evict ISIS from its strongholds in Syria.
Joe and Jill Biden will be interviewed tonight at 7 pm on 60 Minutes.
I hear he didn’t hold back.
“Trump’s an idiot for calling Russian election interference a ‘hoax’.” Joe Biden
Now, that’s what I call not holding back.
“The Russians don’t want me to be president and Trump doesn’t want me to be the nominee.” Joe Biden
No gaffes here.
Also Biden this weekend.
https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1188824853220073472
When asked how he can be trusted now that he’s opened the door to SuperPAC money being spent to support his campaign.
“Look at my record, child.”
We can always count on you to portray a paragon of the party in the worst light:( I say raise money whatever legal way is to your best advantage. Plus isn’t this the same group who tried to badger Sen. Feinstein then make her look bad with a few seconds of video devoid of context?
“paragon of the party”
Yeah, I really don’t care about that. His record is awful especially when looking at how he has interacted with corporate interests for 40 years.
Yes, you’ve made it clear over and over that you don’t care about greater values when it comes to money in politics.
I don’t think specific military operations should have anything at all to do with presidential politics.
I don’t like it when civilian political figures of any party call for and celebrate the killing of specific enemy figures. I was disgusted by the national celebrations when Khadaffi was killed, and felt the same about OBL. I am similarly disgusted by the killing of whoever this guy was. I am dubious that any of these killings have strategic value beyond their headlines. The execution of Saddam Hussein solved absolutely nothing.
I have a difficult time finding a significant difference between the Saudis finding and killing a political figure they declared to be an enemy of the state and any of the killings we’ve celebrated. I will not be surprised when Erodogan executes Fethulla Gülen after the Trump administration hands him over to Turkey — which I’m confident is already in the works.
I wish that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden would just shut up about this.
I am weary of the cheerleading for war, as if our perpetual wars are some kind of spectator sport. In my view, the Roman exhibitions of gladiators were a symptom of a failing empire rotting from within.
I view war — any war — as a failure, not a success. I understand that at times a nation must defend itself from attack, as when the Nazi juggernaut was rolling over the civilized world. I’m glad that the Allies won WWII. I think the world would be a better place today if WWI and WWII had never happened.
More than anything else, I’m weary of the war-mongering. I’m tired of political figures celebrating our “brave military professionals” — just as I grew weary of the relentless accolades offered to the “brave firefighters who ran up the stairs of the WTC” in 2001.
I think we pretty much guaranteed the long-term survival and prospering of ISIS by our decision to abandon the Kurds and give Turkey to Russians. The leader killed today will be replaced tomorrow by somebody else, just as OBL was quickly replaced. Al Queda is still the key player in Afghanistan, and ISIS will continue to be a key player in Syria and the ME.
I think this killing is nothing more than a photo-op for Donald Trump. I wish that Joe Biden and the rest of the Democrats would treat it that way.
It’s also important to note the situation room picture was obviously staged and this operation was substantially riskier than it needed to be because Trump withdrew precipitously and left some Americans behind Turkish lines. I think a war weary public tires of being told that we are just a few months away from victory or that killing one of these disposable leaders somehow stops the organization.
There is a middle ground between withdrawing hastily from the Middle East and to the benefit of regional actors hostile to American interests and doubling down on foolhardy surges. It is reframing the entire region around questions of stability and restoring a balance of power. This means reducing or even cutting military aid to problematic client states such as Israel and Saudi Arabia while restoring diplomatic relations with Iran and restoring the nuclear deal. That is the real Nixon to China gambit I see nobody on the Democratic stage proposing.
What we’re doing now is literally Orwellian, lifted straight out of “1984”. Each day is a different “enemy”. Language and vocabulary constantly changes to support the whim of Big Brother.
I think this will continue so long as it suits the purposes of the mainstream media. I think both the Trump administration and the Joe Biden campaign pander to it.
I agree with your comment, I just think it’s mostly irrelevant to the theater playing out.
I don’t think anybody cares about actual diplomacy or foreign policy any more.