CEO of the US Institute of Peace? Not good enough. I say give Marshall the Nobel, like that other guy.

July 2004: ‘There’s not much of a difference between my position and George Bush’s position [on Iraq] at this stage.’ In a meeting with Chicago Tribune reporters at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said, “On Iraq, on paper, there’s not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago. […] There’s not much of a difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who’s in a position to execute.” [Chicago Tribune, 07/27/04] [No difference? Bush supports war]

Obama on 2002 Iraq resolution vote: ‘What would I have done? I don’t know:’ “When asked about Senators Kerry and Edwards’ votes on the Iraq war, Obama said, “I’m not privy to Senate intelligence reports,” Mr. Obama said. “What would I have done? I don’t know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.” [New York Times, 07/26/04]

As a Senate candidate in November 2003, Sen. Obama said he would have ‘unequivocally’ voted against war funding because it was the only way to oppose Bush on Iraq. “Just this week, when I was asked, would I have voted for the $87 billion dollars, I said ‘no.’ I said no unequivocally because, at a certain point, we have to say no to George Bush. If we keep on getting steamrolled, we are not going to stand a chance.” [Obama remarks, New Trier Democratic Organization forum, 11/16/03; Video]

In September 2004, Obama says he ‘ would be willing to send more soldiers to Iraq.’ [AP, 9/19/04] [Sounds like a supporter in every way]

Obama on Iraq: U.S. Senate Record
Upon arriving in the Senate, Sen. Obama supported every funding bill for Iraq, some $300 billion….until he started running for President. [2005 Vote # 117, HR1268, 5/10/05; 2005 Vote # 326, S1042, 11/15/05; 2006 Vote # 112, HR4939, 5/4/06; 2006 Vote # 239; 2006 Vote # 186, S2766, 6/22/06; HR5631, 9/7/06]

from one of the articles

“According to the organization’s website, it has recently worked in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and the two Sudans.”

(website)….

“The United States Institute of Peace winds up working very closely with our military. There are three American agencies that were in Iraq through thick and thin,” Marshall said. “It was (the Department of Defense), the State Department, and the United States Institute of Peace.
And the United States Institute of Peace was not in the Green Zone.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/14/168480/ex-us-rep-jim-marshall-named-united.html#storylink=cpy

Makes more sense to me now.

Yet another reason why I turned my back on the World’s Oldest Political Party.

By the way, Rahm the Magnificent can burn in political Hell for recruiting DINO Blue Dogs and blowing off progressive challengers in the Northeast and Midwest.

And then walking away from the mess he had made.
Fairly typical, I think.

“….but by 2007, at which point virtually everyone on the left side of the aisle understood the war was a failure…”

but continued to fund it.

My congress critter has voted again every supplemental and I’m so proud of her.

Too bad the Nobel committee doesn’t give a prize for hypocrisy, or at least irony.

Makes perfect sense. Next year they will rename it the US Government’s George Orwell Institute of Peace.

His good buddy Saxby Chambliss got him appointed.
Now you understand the state of the Democratic Party in Georgia. It ain’t pretty.

USIP has a fantastic new building “to enhance its peacebuilding mission.”

Designed by Moshe Safdie, the $186 million project is a public-private partnership that will significantly increase USIP’s programming and its work on behalf of the American people to advance international peacebuilding.

A hundred and eighty-six million! The USIP owes somebody, for that. Not you and me, for sure.

That’s even more than one F-22 Falcon costs, for heaven’s sakes! (That’s the plane that Romney wants to go back into production.)

This isn’t all that important, but what the heck, it’s Friday afternoon, and I think this little story is indicative of the funhouse mirror that is Washington, DC.

Run a little short on that exciting mortgage news, did we Davey? :-)
Reminds me of my wife when for dinner “all we have is what I could scrape together” and it turns out to be a(nother) gourmet meal.
IOW when Dayen’s cold he’s still hot. Or especially when.
Let’s drop it.

I lived in Marshall’s district for a little while. He either took a lot of Republican stands, or he lost his seat in what was a largely Republican state, which happened eventually anyway. Not a profile in courage maybe, but he lasted longer than he would have otherwise …

Why would Imperial WashingtonDC ever want a Peace Hawk to head up US Institute of Peace? What would be the point or gained from that?

Iraq War Hawk? Not difficult to find to be sure. During 2002 being a Iraq War Hawk was every bit the “bipartisanshipy” thing POTUS Obama is always talking up,striving towards and doing so much of the time as the good DINO Obama is. During this WH election cycle being bipartisan is big Obama “why you need to re-elect me” election throw out here in 2012. Clearly being a pro bipartisan warcriminal is easier than being a partisan warcriminal. Just ask Barack Obama. Or ask G.W.Bush.

Peace Hawk? Americans do not do Peace. Americans do Imperial Empire. Any peace that remains or results from doing American Empire is a byproduct of that imperialism. See Much Better Iraq. See Much Better Libya. Both these now torn up/torn apart lands and peoples displaying US imperial “peace”.

American Empire use to have what was called a War Department but post WW2 that archaic term was made obsolete by the post corporatist themed Department of Defense to go along with the massive newly built Pentagon building. A building that in these times of USA economic distress and austerity and need to make/take sacrifices in stride oddly does not see any one of its five sides being closed down and shut down.

American Militarism just does not get to do economic downturn like so much of the rest of America since 2008 is now getting and getting large,ongoing doses of. Except Wall St. and the Mega Gangster Banks.

A coincidence? Or something else entirely?

Not a profile in courage maybe, but he lasted longer than he would have otherwise …

But, but, but . . .lasting longer is what HE wants, not what WE expect.
It’s a good argument for term limits. There are too many suck-asses lasting longer.

Regarding hawks and doves, and reading the current news, from the Middle East and Afghanistan, from India and Russia, and elsewhere, the chickens are coming home to roost. I hope so. It should be. The news is all bad, all of it. And it’s been earned. They’ll either have to change or they’ll be forced to change, which could be ugly.

A distinction has been drawn between voting against going to war and voting against funding a war once it has commenced. It’s too convenient by half, but politicians have bloviated about it.

And, I am sure that, if asked, Obama would also bloviate about it–and repeat his point about us dummies not getting the same intelligence as politicians get. (BTW, why don’t we? It’s all our money and mostly our children that they are bloviating about when they say “blood and treasure.”)

So, let’s jump to the surge in Afghanistan, which President Obama campaigned on, albeit not quite as clearly and often as he campaigned on things like the public option, transparency, etc. Surging in Afghanistan is a campaign promise that he made more infrequently and more obliquely than his populist sounding promises, but it was a campaign promise that he actually kept.

How many Democrats in Congress voted against Obama’s surge?

How many prominent Democrats who were not directly in politics condemned that surge publicly?

How many street demonstrations were there against Obama’s surge?

And that, friends, is why I have come to fear “New” Democrats more than I fear the Republicans whom “New” Democrats so rarely oppose, except in verbiage that so many of us fall for over and over, of course.

War is peace.

Wars of choice are defensive wars.

Not a lot of peace evident in the Muslim world this morning, and this, about Libyans holding target practice on the U.S. drones flying over them, is interesting:

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/09/14/attacks-on-us-drones-shutter-benghazi-airport/

And this: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/14/168577/new-violence-sweeps-countries.html

And this:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/14/168577/new-violence-sweeps-countries.html

Not a very passionate speech.

Never understood the role of a Inst. or Dept. of Peace. Isn’t that what the State Dept. is supposed to be? Using diplomacy to resolve issues?

lasting longer is what HE wants, not what WE expect.

Well, his replacement votes Republican virtually 100% of the time, as opposed to maybe 50% of the time for Marshall. And that seems to be what the voters in that district want, Republican votes. In other words, it’s a Republican district where voters didn’t want what, “we expect” …

We’ve adopted the IDF playbook, or vice versa.

It’s the name that WHINSEC, aka The School of the Americas, uses when operating outside of the Americas./s