Bernie Sanders: War in Iran Would Be Bigger Disaster Than Iraq



Framing their bill in terms of socioeconomic inequality, Sanders and Khanna urged their fellow lawmakers to pass their legislation because "We know that it will ultimately be the children of working-class families who will have to fight and die in a new Middle East conflict—not the children of the billionaire class."




Reader Supported News
03 January 20
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

Bernie Sanders: War in Iran Would Be Bigger Disaster Than Iraq
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Jamie Ross, The Daily Beast
Ross writes: "Sen. Bernie Sanders has pleaded with President Trump and Republican lawmakers not to go to war with Iran, warning that military action would prove to be a bigger disaster than the war in Iraq."

In a video posted to Twitter early Friday, hours after the Pentagon confirmed it had carried out a deadly Trump-ordered drone strike on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, the Democratic presidential hopeful urged the president to get off the path to war. Sanders explained that he opposed the war in Vietnam as a young man, and that he helped lead the effort against the war in Iraq. “That war was the worst foreign-policy blunder in the modern history of the United States,” said Sanders, referring to Iraq. Sanders went on: “I’m going to do everything I can to prevent a war with Iran, because if you think the war in Iraq was a disaster, my guess is that war in Iran would be even worse... So let’s work together and prevent that war, and if people want to criticize me for that, go for it, that’s OK, I don’t apologize to anybody.”

U.S. Army Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division, deploy from Pope Army Airfield, N.C. (photo: Robyn Haake/US Army)
U.S. Army Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division, deploy from Pope Army Airfield, N.C. (photo: Robyn Haake/US Army)

Pentagon to Deploy Roughly 3,500 More Troops to Middle East Amid Tensions With Iran
Elizabeth McLaughlin, ABC News
McLaughlin writes: "The Pentagon is deploying roughly 3,500 more troops to the Middle East in response to rising tensions in the region with Iran and one day after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian military commander."
READ MORE

The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, ISIS, destroyer Russell and cruiser Bunker Hill conduct routine operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean. (photo: US Navy)
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, ISIS, destroyer Russell and cruiser Bunker Hill conduct routine operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean. (photo: US Navy)

The Imperial Presidency Helped Bring Us to the Brink of War in Iran
Branko Marcetic, Jacobin
Marcetic writes: "Trump is trying to drag us into war with Iran. We have to stop him — and the imperial presidency that so many Democrats continue to help expand."
READ MORE

Roll for the right to a safe abortion in front of the Supreme Court in 2019. (photo: Bill Clark/Getty Images)
Roll for the right to a safe abortion in front of the Supreme Court in 2019. (photo: Bill Clark/Getty Images

Republicans Call for Overturning Roe v. Wade in Supreme Court Filing
Katelyn Burns, Vox
Burns writes: "Two days into the 2020 election year, Republicans are staking their ground: They’re coming for Roe v. Wade."
READ MORE

A police officer stops a driver in Santa Rosa, California, 10 October 2019. (photo: Christopher Chung/AP)
A police officer stops a driver in Santa Rosa, California, 10 October 2019. (photo: Christopher Chung/AP)

Black People in California Are Stopped Far More Often by Police, Major Study Proves
Darwin BondGraham, Guardian UK
BondGraham writes: "Black people in California were stopped by police officers much more frequently than other racial groups in 2018, and police were more likely to use force against them, new statistics from eight large law enforcement agencies in the state reveal."
EXCERPT:
The stark findings are based on an analysis of records of 1.8 million people stopped by the eight largest police agencies in California in 2018. The data was collected by each police agency and provided to the California Department of Justice under a 2015 state law that mandates efforts to eliminate racial profiling by law enforcement.

The racial disparities revealed in the new statistics reflect the findings of older studies about racial profiling in US police departments that were based on smaller, less-detailed data sets. But California’s new numbers make up the largest-ever dataset compiled about police stops in the US, and they lend considerable support to minority groups who have long complained about biased policing.

Supporters of Movement Toward Socialism in Bolivia. (photo: Prensa Latina)
Supporters of Movement Toward Socialism in Bolivia. (photo: Prensa Latina)

Bolivia: Socialists Lead Polls, Coup Plotters Frightened
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Local media Unitel Friday released a poll according to which 20.7 percent of the Bolivians will vote for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate, whoever he or she might be."

EXCERPT:
Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal will launch the call for presidential elections next January 6.
On the last days of December, the MAS leader Evo Morales announced that his party will elect its presidential candidate on January 19.
"More than 1,000 people have been victims of human rights violations in Bolivia by the Jeanine Añez dictatorship."
Given the difficulties in carrying out legal maneuvers that could leave the MAS out of the elections, Añez called a "summit of political leaders," in which she hopes the Bolivian elites will agree to defeat the Socialists through a single presidential candidacy.
"We do not want dispersion of the vote, we do not want what happened on Oct. 20," she said tacitly referring to the date when Morales won the 2019 presidential elections. 
Meanwhile, citizens have realized the despair that the right is experiencing because of the possible emergence of a progressive government.
"The imminent triumph of MAS makes murderous coup plotters and traitors to their homeland tremble because they will soon be held accountable for their actions," citizen Nelly Salazar tweeted. 


Firefighter in Australia. (photo: Saeed Khan/Getty Images)
Firefighter in Australia. (photo: Saeed Khan/Getty Images)

Australia Is Blazing Into the Pyrocene—the Age of Fire
Matt Simon, Wired
Excerpt: "If you want to gaze into the hellish future of human existence on Earth, look to Australia."
EXCERPT:
“We're really struggling to be prepared because we rely on personnel and also equipment,” says Martin Rice, head of research at Australia’s Climate Council. “Australia doesn't really have the aerial firefighting capacity that California does.”
The supercharged blazes of the Pyrocene are putting millions upon millions of people around the world directly at risk, and even larger populations indirectly at risk with smoke. Australia’s fires have darkened the skies of Sydney, and sent smoke all the way to New Zealand. Wildfire smoke is absolutely terrible for any human to inhale, but especially for the elderly and asthmatic, with long-lasting effects on the immune systems of children. Australia’s wildfires, then, are both a rural and urban emergency.
But perhaps with climate change hitting Australia with such a dramatic assault, the nation can galvanize to confront the threat. “The metaphor I'm using is it's our Gallipoli,” says Bowman. “It was a massive military defeat, which we celebrate in a typically Australian way, because we say that it's nation-building.”
“I hope that's what's going to come out of this,” he adds. “We’re going to have to reimagine this whole experience somehow.”













Comments