Bernie is Right-Wing on War

Bernie voted to fund murders in Gaza.

Bernie also voted in favor of HR 4655, which provided justification for military action for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Sander’s record on Israel is not mixed. Sanders  offered justifications for murders in Gaza and tacitly approves extra-legal wall-building, land-seizures, settlements and assassinations.  Bernie voted against the Iraq war for show, but then voted to fund it 9 times in a row. And Sanders voted for 29 more unprovoked wars of American aggression.

Bernie’s right wing record:

Sanders is a conservative invested in profiteering and Americans Imperialism and expansion of empire. He supports dozens of Obama’s wars and favors sending drones to kill an average of 50 innocents per strike.

In 1993, Bernie voted in favor of S J Res 45 – Authorization for Use of US Armed Forces in Somalia,

In 1996, Bernie voted in favor of HR 3107 – Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996.

In 1997, Bernie voted for HR 2159 – Foreign Operations FY98 Appropriations bill, which included: $3 billion for Israel, including $1.8 billion in military assistance and $1.2 billion in economic assistance; $2.12 billion for Egypt, including $1.3 billion in military assistance and $815 million in economic assistance; $770 million for former Soviet Republics; and $215 million for international narcotics control and law enforcement.

In 1998, Bernie’s name was included as a YEA vote on HR 4655, the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998, which expressed the sense of Congress that it should be the aim of the United States to remove Saddam Hussein from power. President George W. Bush later used the Iraqi Liberation Act to provide justification for military action for the 2003 invasion.

Writes Ron Jacobs of Counter Punch, 3/31/2003:

“For those of us with a memory longer than the average US news reporter, we can remember Bernie’s staunch support for Clinton’s 100-day bombing of Yugoslavia and Kosovo in 1999. I served as a support person for a dozen or so Vermonters who sat-in in his Burlington office a couple weeks into that war. Not only did Sanders refuse to talk with us via telephone (unlike his Vermont counterparts in the Senate-Leahy and Jeffords), he had his staff call the local police to arrest those who refused to leave until Sanders spoke with them.”

Note: In retrospect, the wars on Yugoslavia and Kosovo could have been avoided, but the U. S. Congress and the president jumped the gun.

In 2001, Bernie supported HR 1954, which extended the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996. (This punished the Iraqi people who already had to deal with an authoritarian regime, and its worth noting that Iran has not attacked anyone in 200 years, even when under attack.)

Following the 9/11 attacks, Bernie voted in favor of H J Res 64 – Authorization for Use of Military Force, which allowed President Bush to use the United States Armed Forces against anyone involved with 9/11 and any nation that harbors these individuals. This Authorization was used to justify the U. S. war on Iraq and extend the brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

Sanders also voted in favor of HR 2800 – Foreign Operations Appropriations, FY 2004 bill, which granted $1.8 billion in military and economic assistance to Egypt and $2.2 billion for Israeli military assistance. (It should be noted that Israel did not need the weapons and used them for aggression outside the borders of Israel.

In 2004, Bernie supported HR 4613, which allocated $25 billion for emergency defense spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $77.4 billion for the procurement of new weapons.

In 2005, Sanders supported HR 2863 – Defense Department FY2006 Appropriations Bill, which provided $50 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2006, Bernie voted for HR 5631, which provided $70 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2007, Sanders supported HR 1585 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which granted $187.14 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

In 2009, Bernie called closing the torturous gulag at Guantanamo a “complicated issue” and ultimately rejected a proposal to shut it down.

In 2011, Bernie co-sponsored S. Res. 85, which urged the UN Security Council to take action to protect civilians in Libya from attack, including the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory.

In 2014, Bernie came out in favor of levying economic sanctions (an act of war) against Russia: “The entire world has got to stand up to Putin,” he said. “We’ve got to deal with sanctions.”

Bernie also didn’t object to having his name included – by unanimous consent – in S.498, which backed Israel’s brutal, summer-long military assault against Gaza.

Some time after, Bernie was berated by his supporters at a town hall meeting for supporting Israel, an exchange that included Sanders screaming at the audience to “shut up” and threatening them with police force.

In 2014 Bernie came out in favor of airstrikes against ISIS. He is also in favor of shipping armaments to the Kurds in Iraq for the purpose of fighting off terror groups, a failed strategy that the Obama administration implemented with the Syrian “rebels” some years prior. “I think we should arm them,” Sanders said during a CNN interview. “Even that’s a difficult issue – to make sure that the people that we arm today don’t turn against us tomorrow. But I think providing arms for those people who we can trust and providing air support is in fact something we should be doing.”

Today, Sanders is a presidential candidate. He has stated he is not running against Hillary, and worse, that he will endorse her if he fails to obtain the Democratic Party nomination. Bernie has also managed to largely avoid talking about foreign policy positions.

In the same way that Bernie speaks out against corporate cronyism, yet agrees to endorse Hillary Clinton – the Queen of Corporate Cronyism – Bernie has a habit of directly coming out against wars but then finding indirect ways to support them. He didn’t back troops being sent to Bosnia, but he favored airstrikes. Bernie voted against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but then supported bills which allocated money towards the occupation. He says he doesn’t want war with Iran, yet he has supported sanctions in the past, and continues to accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, even as US and Israeli intelligence agencies say otherwise.

Bernie is just the same as nearly every other US politician. He’s an imperialist.

He thinks it’s America’s job to play Team America: World Police. Using our tax dollars, he has joined with warmongers in both political parties and condoned – directly or indirectly – some of the most gruesome US foreign policy decisions in decades.

http://screechingkettle.blogspot.com/2015/07/if-bernie-sanders-was-against-invasion.html

It is time, with this new declaration of independence from the corporate cons, that we take back this nation, and our lives, from these pretenders. Viva la revolution!

https://thepeaceresource.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/jill-stein-walks-the-talk/

The Wordsmith Collection: Writing & Creative Arts

The Wordsmith Collection: Writing & Creative Arts

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