… we tend to repeat them.
Last night, President Obama told the American people that we learned nothing from the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell debacle that was our last invasion of Iraq. Somehow, this administration learned nothing from its predecessors. One lesson they should have learned is that you can’t bomb your way to peace. It’s just plain impossible.
So what should we be doing about the legitimate horror that is ISIS (or ISIL or the Islamic State)? Stephen Miles, Advocacy Director at Win Without War joined me on the show this morning with response to last night’s address.
Before the speech began, Stephen opined on what he would have liked the president say…
American bombs simply cannot eliminate the threat of ISIS and may indeed make the conflicts in Iraq and Syria worse and harder to solve. Fortunately, we have alternatives, and, while they lack the immediacy of bombing, they are ultimately far more effective in keeping America safe, protecting innocent lives and crippling violent extremists.
At moments like this, we would do well to remember Santayana’s famous adage: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Sadly, we seem to be condemned to that make a mistake, justify it, whitewash it, repeat process cycle.
Of course, I had my own thoughts on the speech – especially the “America is the greatest fucking nation on the planet and the rest of the world would just be lost without us” part. You’ll just have to hit the play button at the top of this post to hear it…
After a news update from Bob Ney at the Talk Radio News Service, I was thrilled to welcome to Barry Lynn back to the show.
Barry Lynn is Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization that continues fighting for church/state separation as the only true way to achieve religious freedom. We spoke about the sad reality that most wars are fought over “my religion is better than your religion” insanity, plus the Hobby Lobby-fication of America, religious groups tax-exempt status and much more.
I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up our week with the latest news and information, and for Flashback Friday, we’ll talk with Angela McCluskey, formerly of Wild Colonials (and I’ll pull out an old session with them too) about her current projects and get her take on Scotland’s upcoming vote on Independence!
