Editorial: The silence on the AUMF

Last week, a whore who sold the Iraq War was taken out.  Above is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Nightly News Fill In" on Lester Holt taking over for Brian Williams -- the ousted anchor of NBC Nightly News.

Among the many idiots defending Williams or minimizing his actions was Pacifica con-artist Amy Goodman.

Worthless whore Amy Goodman, of course, promoted the war on Libya.

She did so because she only opposes wars that are started when Republicans are in the Oval Office.

Whore Amy pretended to care about Iraq to attack Bully Boy Bush.

Thursday, Barack Obama's AUMF request (for war on Iraq and Syria) was debated and discussed in a House Foreign Affairs Committee.


Goody whore didn't have time for it on Friday.

Does she ever?

Her audience is unaware of this exchange between US House Rep. Alan Grayson, former US Ambassador James Jeffrey, RAND Corporation's Rick Brennan Jr. and the Center for a New American Security's Dafna H. Rand.



US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Section 2C of the President's draft Authorization of the Use of Military Force reads as follows The authority granted in sub-section A does not authorize the use of US armed forces in enduring offensive ground US operations.  Ambassador Jeffrey, what does enduring me?

James Jeffrey:  Uh.  My answer would be a somewhat sarcastic one.  Whatever the executive at the time defines enduring as.  And I have a real problem with that.

US House Rep Alan Grayson: Dr. Brennan?

Rick Brennan Jr.:  I have real problems with that also.  Not only because it's -- I don't know what it means and I could just see the lawyers fighting over the meaning of this.  Uh, but-but more importantly, if you're looking at-at, uh, committing forces for something that you say is either vital or an important issue to the United States and you get in the middle of a battle and all the sudden are you on offense or are you on defense? What happens if neighbors cause problems?  Uh, wars never end the way that they were envisioned.  And so that's, I think, a-a-a-a terrible mistake to put in the AUMF.

US House Rep Alan Grayson: Dr. Rand?

Dafna Rand:  Enduring, in my mind, specifies an open-endedness.  It specifies lack of clarity on the particular objective at hand.

US House Rep Alan Grayson: Dr. Rand, is two weeks enduring?

Dafna Rand: I would leave that to the lawyer to determine exactly.

US House Rep Alan Grayson: So your answer is you don't know, right?  How 'bout two months?

Dafna Rand:  I don't know.  It would depend -- Again, I think it would depend on the particular objective.  "Enduring," in my mind, does not have a particular objective in mind.

US House Rep Alan Grayson: So you don't really know what it means?  Is that a fair statement?

Dafna Rand: Uhm, "enduring," in my mind, means "open ended."

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Alright.  Section five of the draft for the Authorization of the Use of Military Force reads as follows:  In this joint-resolution, the term "associacted persons or forces" means individuals and organizations fighting for, on behalf of or alongside ISIL or any closely related successor in the hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.  Ambassador Jeffrey. what does "alongside ISIL" mean?

James Jeffrey:  Uh, I didn't draft this thing but uh

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Nor did I.

James Jeffrey:  Nor did you.  But I would have put that in there if I had been drafting it.  And the reason is, I think they went back to 2001 -- of course, this is the authorization we're still using -- along with the 2002 one -- for this campaign.  And these things morph.  For example, we've had a debate over whether ISIS is really an element of al Qaeda.  It certainly was when I knew it as al Qaeda in Iraq from 2010 to 2012.  And these semantic arguments confuse us and confuse our people on the ground in trying to deal with these folks.  You'll now it when you see it if it's an ISIS or it's an ally of ISIS?

US House Rep Alan Grayson: How about the Free Syrian Army?  Are they fighting alongside of ISIL in Syria?

James Jeffrey:  Uh, no, they're not fighting along ISIL.  In fact, often they're fighting against ISIL and ISIL against them, in particular.

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  What about Assad is he fighting for or against?  It's kind of hard to tell without a scorecard, isn't it?

James Jeffrey:  It sure is.

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Yeah.  What about you, Dr. Brennan?  Can you tell me what alongside ISIL means?


Rick Brennan Jr.:  No, I really couldn't.  I think that, uh, what -- It might be that -- The 9-11 Commission uses the phrase radical Is-Islamist organizations and I think maybe if we went to wording like that -- It includes all those 52 groups that adhere to that-that type of ideology that threaten the United States.  But we're putting ourselves in boxes and as you said, Senat - uh, Congressman,  trying-trying to understand what that means, what the limits are, uh, who we're dealing with is very confusing.

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Dr. Rand?

Dafna Rand:  Well, first of all, I believe that confusion is probably a function of the fact that this is an unclassified document.  So it's not going to specify exactly which groups are associates.  That would be for classified setting but second, as I said, in the testimony, the nature of the alliances within ISIL are changing and are fluid.  And those who are targeting -- military experts -- know exactly who is a derivative, an associate or an ally of ISIS at any given moment. 


US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Why are you so confident of that?  It seems to me it's a question of terminology not a matter of ascertainable fact

Dafna Rand:  Uhm, based on my public service.  I've seen some of the lawyers and some of the methodologies and --

US House Rep Alan Grayson:   Alright, here's the $64 billion dollar question for you Ambassador Jeffrey -- and then, if we have time, for you others -- if you can't tell us -- you three experts -- can't tell us what these words mean, what does that tell us?  Ambassador Jeffrey?

James Jeffrey: Uhm, that it's very difficult to be using a tool basically designed to declare war -- or something like war -- on a nation-state -- which has a fixed definition -- against a group that morphs, that changes its name, that has allies and other things.  Do we not fight it?  We have to fight it.   Uh, are we having a hard time defining it?  Uh, you bet. 

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Dr. Brennan?

Rick Brennan Jr.:   I-I agree with the ambassador.  I think -- I think the issue that we need to be looking at is trying to broaden the terminology and understand that it is -- it is a tenant or organization  or groups that adheres to this ideology and make it broad enough that if one pops up in a different country that is doing the same thing, that is a sister of this uh,uh, organization, the president has the authority to act.

US House Rep Alan Grayson:  Dr. Brennan, I think you just described a blank check which I'm not willing to give to the president or anyone else.  But thank you for your time. 



Her audience is unaware that the Democrats on the Committee (who bothered to show) and the Republicans were in agreement in opposing the AUMF -- often for differing reasons, but they were in agreement in opposition.


While Amy The Goody Whore remained silent on opposing Barack's increased war, others weren't so indifferent.  Eric Garris (Antiwar.com) called for public outcry to sink the AUMF:




It’s time for a preemptive strike at the War Party’s congressional fortress. Please call your congressional representative today and urge them to vote no on the AUMF – because we can win this one. We stopped them last time when Obama decided it was time to bomb Syria. One by one members of Congress who were inclined to authorize that military campaign backed away when faced with a deluge of outraged calls from constituents. We can do it again – oh yes we can!
Please make that call today – because the future of this country, not to mention the peace of the world, depends on it.



Congress' reaction to Iraq was so important that Hillary Clinton's 2002 vote was used to knock her out in the 2008 primary.  It's still being used to insist she's not qualified to be president should she seek the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2016.


But whores like Amy Goodman aren't really interested in what politicians are doing with regards to Iraq today.  They only want to revisit the safe past which will allow them to avoid calling out War Hawk Barack.



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The AUMF hearing was reported on by C.I.  in "Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot."