Be wary of Trump, conservatives, be wary

[TBBT]

Be wary of Trump, conservatives, be wary
By Washington Examiner • 1/25/16 7:00 AM

With eight days remaining until the Iowa caucuses, it is clear that Donald Trump has a serious chance of winning. He also holds a robust lead in New Hampshire and in states that follow. In short, he stands a reasonable chance of becoming the Republican nominee for president.

There are reasons to doubt that his campaign can turn out his supporters on election day and get them to vote, but he has enough of them to win if they do. A large share of these people are convinced that his brand of politics — it's a blend of nationalism, celebrity and a will to shock — are the right answers to America's problems.

These supporters are unlikely to be persuaded otherwise. But there are others, conservatives who like Trump's frank disrespect for liberal elite opinion, who want to believe he shares their principles. These people could veer away from Trump before Iowa votes on Feb. 1, and they need to look long and hard at Trump before they boost him further.

To help them do so, Washington Examiner will be devoting all its editorials this week to an examination of Trump's positions in key areas. He says he is likely to "run the table" if he wins Iowa and New Hampshire, and who would bet that he is wrong. So we'll reveal the real Donald Trump each day until Friday, here in Washington Examiner magazine and at our website, washingtonexaminer.com. Conservatives need to weigh Trump's history and record, and realize he is not one of them.

Read the rest here:

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[HAPPY2BME]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAQcZsDzWgk

[massadvj]

I agree that a great deal of the opposition to Trump is from the neo-con wing of the GOP.  However, there is plenty of reason for libertarians, So-Cons and Paleos not to like him as well.  Right now it looks like he is going to be the standard-bearer, so a lot of people are crawling out of the woodwork to ingratiate themselves with Trump early, so as to be in his good graces if and when he wins.  It is pathetic, really. 

[HAPPY2BME]

I agree that a great deal of the opposition to Trump is from the neo-con wing of the GOP.  However, there is plenty of reason for libertarians, So-Cons and Paleos not to like him as well.  Right now it looks like he is going to be the standard-bearer, so a lot of people are crawling out of the woodwork to ingratiate themselves with Trump early, so as to be in his good graces if and when he wins.  It is pathetic, really.

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Who are the NeoConservatives?

...

[aligncare]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAQcZsDzWgk

Anyone who still believes that going into Iraq was helpful for American and world security should look around, and think again.

I supported the Iraqi invasion. I now take it back.

[GAJohnnie]

Iraq was not the issue, FAILING TO FINISH the job in Iraq was the failure point. Once again our political class forced out our military and left the job unfinished. IF the job that was 98% complete in Iraq had been FINISHED, instead of ended by Obama, ISIS would not exist today. They would be dead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

Foundation, 1999–2006
Main articles: Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn and Mujahideen Shura Council (Iraq)
The UN headquarters building in Baghdad after the Canal Hotel bombing, on 22 August 2003

Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his militant group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, founded in 1999, achieved notoriety in the early stages of the Iraqi insurgency for the suicide attacks on Shia Islamic mosques, civilians, Iraqi government institutions and Italian soldiers partaking in the US-led 'Multi-National Force'. Al-Zarqawi's group officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in October 2004, changing its name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, "Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"), also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).[1][80][81] Attacks by the group on civilians, Iraqi government and security forces, foreign diplomats and soldiers, and American convoys continued with roughly the same intensity. In a letter to al-Zarqawi in July 2005, al-Qaeda's then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War. The plan included expelling US forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority as a caliphate, spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbours, and clashing with Israel, which the letter says "was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity".[82]

In January 2006, AQI joined with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organisation called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC). According to Brian Fishman, this was little more than a media exercise and an attempt to give the group a more Iraqi flavour, and perhaps to distance al-Qaeda from some of al-Zarqawi's tactical errors, more notably the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman.[83] On 7 June 2006, a US airstrike killed al-Zarqawi, who was succeeded as leader of the group by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri.[84][85]

On 12 October 2006, the MSC united with three smaller groups and six Sunni Islamic tribes to form the "Mutayibeen Coalition". It swore by Allah "to rid Sunnis from the oppression of the rejectionists (Shi'ite Muslims) and the crusader occupiers ... to restore rights even at the price of our own lives ... to make Allah's word supreme in the world, and to restore the glory of Islam".[86][87] A day later, the MSC declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), comprising Iraq's six mostly Sunni Arab governorates.[88] Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was announced as its emir,[58][89] and al-Masri was given the title of Minister of War within the ISI's ten-member cabinet.[90]

As Islamic State of Iraq, 2006–13
Main article: Islamic State of Iraq
U.S. Marines in Ramadi, May 2006. The Islamic State of Iraq had declared the city to be its capital.

According to a study compiled by United States intelligence agencies in early 2007, the ISI—also known as AQI—planned to seize power in the central and western areas of Iraq and turn it into a Sunni caliphate.[91] The group built in strength and at its height enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad, claiming Baqubah as a capital city.[92][93][94][95]

The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 supplied the United States military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed.[96]

Between July and October 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq was reported to have lost its secure military bases in Al Anbar province and the Baghdad area.[97] During 2008, a series of US and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens, such as the Diyala and Al Anbar governorates, to the area of the northern city of Mosul.[98]

By 2008, the ISI was describing itself as being in a state of "extraordinary crisis".[99] Its violent attempts to govern its territory led to a backlash from Sunni Arab Iraqis and other insurgent groups and a temporary decline in the group, which was attributable to a number of factors,[100] notably the Anbar Awakening.

In late 2009, the commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, stated that the ISI "has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens".[101] On 18 April 2010, the ISI's two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid near Tikrit.[102] In a press conference in June 2010, General Odierno reported that 80% of the ISI's top 42 leaders, including recruiters and financiers, had been killed or captured, with only eight remaining at large. He said that they had been cut off from al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan.[103][104][105]

On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was appointed the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq.[106][107] Al-Baghdadi replenished the group's leadership, many of whom had been killed or captured, by appointing former Ba'athist military and intelligence officers who had served during Saddam Hussein's rule.[108] These men, nearly all of whom had spent time imprisoned by the US military, came to make up about one third of Baghdadi's top 25 commanders. One of them was a former colonel, Samir al-Khlifawi, also known as Haji Bakr, who became the overall military commander in charge of overseeing the group's operations.[109][110] Al-Khlifawi was instrumental in doing the ground work that led to the growth of ISIL.[111]

In July 2012, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which US troops and the Sons of Iraq had driven them in 2007 and 2008.[112] He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons.[112] Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI's car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008.[113]

[HAPPY2BME]

Anyone who still believes that going into Iraq was helpful for American and world security should look around, and think again.

I supported the Iraqi invasion. I now take it back.

=================================

From the grave ..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mO4UCYyef8

[Longiron]

All the Republican Conservative Party are Conservatives just ask them? This is working well for the country. If that is CONSERVATISM Please keep it. The UNIPARTY does not work for anyone except the fools in it called politicians. Luv it when someone tells you what Conservatism is because they think the people are not smart enough to think for themselves. 

[HAPPY2BME]

All the Republican Conservative Party are Conservatives just ask them? This is working well for the country. If that is CONSERVATISM Please keep it. The UNIPARTY does not work for anyone except the fools in it called politicians. Luv it when someone tells you what Conservatism is because they think the people are not smart enough to think for themselves. 

================================

Picking from any crowd of ten people on any street corner, not a single one of them will be able to nail down the definition of a 'Conservative.'

[massadvj]

=================================


Who are the NeoConservatives?

...

Usually pro-Israel war hawks like Krauthammer, Kristol, Jonah Goldberg and many others.

[Sanguine]

Anyone who still believes that going into Iraq was helpful for American and world security should look around, and think again.

I supported the Iraqi invasion. I now take it back.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one.

Well, I didn't really support it, but I didn't really oppose it either.  I guess that made me a supporter.