In 2020, Sanders is campaigning as a peace candidate. But his congressional record, and his top foreign policy adviser, suggest that events could turn him into a war president.

By BILL SCHER June 23, 2019

“Sanders is not a pacifist and his opposition to war is not absolute. He has supported military operations on humanitarian grounds. He’s campaigning as a peace candidate, but it’s not implausible that he could end up a war president.

…Not only has Sanders neglected to offer much policy detail for how he would achieve his peacemaking objectives, but he also has failed to explain how his antiwar rhetoric squares with some of his past positions. Most notably, he supported the 1999 American bombing operation in Kosovo.

…Ajamu Baraka, the last vice presidential nominee for the Green Party, said in an interview that Sanders’ openness to military action amounts to “saying one thing publicly but then appearing to have a different position that is reflected sometimes in his legislative decisions, and I think the Kosovo situation was a very important example of that.”

…Before President Barack Obama’s 2011 intervention in Libya, another instance of the use of American force to try to stop genocide, Sanders initially indicated support for military action.

…Sanders has views about military intervention that are more complicated than his campaign rhetoric. And that may explain why he hasn’t delved into much detail about foreign policy. Once a candidate wades into the sea of international crises and hypothetical threats, eventually the possibility of military force arises. Any discussion of that risks making Sanders look more like a conventional commander in chief than a revolutionary one.

APRIL 12, 2019

No, Bernie’s Not Anti-War

by KOLLIBRI TERRE SONNENBLUME

“Those who have watched Sanders for years – e.g., anti-war activists from Vermont – know better than to trust Bernie “Chavez is [a] dead, communist dictator” Sanders. When push comes to shove, he will side with imperialist power – e.g., voting against the invasion of Iraq but voting to fund the occupation.”

–Phil Rockstroh (2/27/19)

 

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“According to opensecrets.org, in the 2016 race, Sanders took $366,458 from the Defense Industry, only 8% less than Trump”

We have absolute proof that Bernard Sanders has been voting for, funding and

supporting corporate American wars about extraction for the past 33 years. And he continues to support them today.

Bernie talks the talk about equity, but votes for wars which prevent it.

The congressional record says Bernie votes for war. This cannot be unwritten.

“Biederman described Sanders as discarding a progressive worldview in exchange for a better vision at home.”[Foreign policy is] not a giant priority for him, but because American liberals default to endless war, that’s what he defaults to,” Biederman explained.”