Grahamismo and the Muslims

Senator Lindsey Graham is living proof that the citizens of South Carolina are a lot more tolerant than they are generally thought to be by folks from the Deep North.  More than that I will abstain from saying.

Lindsey Graham was on "Morning Joe" today.

It is true that Graham comes from humble circumstances.  He and Boehner share the distinction of having worked in their respective fathers' saloons.  More power to them!  It used to be a cultural trait in Euro-Americans that whatever your economic level of upbringing it was thought to be a good thing that you should learn to do hard manual labor as a youth and then you went to college, maybe.  I will not be self-referential but I fully understand the idea and approve of it.  Some Europeans have explained to me their revulsion at the thought of that experience.  Ah, well...

Graham is often described as the only presidential campaign candidate for 2016 who has any military service experience.  Well, yes, Trump was at NY Military Academy, a private prep school at Yonkers, and he, Trump, says he is the most "militaristic" of all the candidates.  One wonders if he understands the word.   Tojo was  a militarist.  Mussolini was a militarist.  Militarists are politicians with an inclination to rely on armed force to follow aggressive and usually nationalist objectives.

Graham served seven years as an air force lawyer, nearly all of it in Germany at the former Rhein-Main air base at Frankfurt where he tried cases involving misbehavior on the part of locally assigned USAF people.  He then returned to civilian life and was an Air National Guard and later USAF reserve lawyer for a long time while he pursued his civilian life as a lawyer and politician.  Well, pilgrims, the Grunts, Tankers, Combat Aviators and SF men here will have a hard time taking Graham seriously as a "military man."  Sorry, counselors. but that is how I see it.  Sooo, IMO Graham has no military knowledge or experience that should be taken seriously, but he has a lot to say, none of it based on much of anything but briefings received in his senate offices and in Israel.  He evidently knew nothing of the ME until Joe Lieberman arranged for him and McCain the Furious to be fully hasbarized in the Land God gave to the Chosen People  "How do we know? The Bible tells us so!"  IMO most of the Izrul devotees are merely cynical politicians courting moneyed Zionists, and Bible thumpers, but IMO Graham actually believes his own crap.

Some of his opinions:

- The US should generate however large a ground  force in Syria and Iraq that would prove necessary to "destroy" IS.  When asked how many Americans would be in that force he mumbles about 10,000 (if I heard him right).  Where would the others come from?  He says from the Turks and the Arabs.  Well, Turkey under Erdogan is an undeclared ally of IS.  Erdogan has just regained a parliamentary majority and has declared his intention to seek a new constitution for Turkey, presumably something grand will be in it for him.  The EU has stated that such a power grab will be a bar to Turkey entering Europe but I doubt if he cares.  The "Arabs?"  Saudi Arabia and Qatar are main supporters of jihadism.  Jordan has its hands full.  Lebanon has no military power worth talking about.  Iraq?  Well, we should know the answer to that by now.  So, what is he talking about?

- Islam.  Graham goes on about the need to fight IS because they want us to "bow down to Islam."  Half the time he does not differentiate between the takfiri wahhabi jihadis and all other Muslims. He clearly sees the Muslim menace in ways that his Israeli friends must relish. 

- Iran.  The Israelis always see their enemies.  They do not see them clearly but they do see them.  For a long time they saw Iraq as their greatest enemy.  We destroyed Iraq for them.  Now their bête noire is Iran, an enemy so fearful that nothing, nothing is to be shrunk from in destroying this enemy.  Their goal is to use "useful idiots" like Graham and his friend McCain "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!"  to lever the Americans into destroying Iran.  Unfortunately for the concept the American people want neither McCain nor Graham.

Russia - "a threat to American dominance"

Trump is starting to look good.  pl   

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article44231415.html

 

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

There used to be a joke : "A Methodist is a Baptist who can read & write."

Is Senator Graham a Baptist, by any chance?

[Jill]

I don't know what to make of Graham. He doesn't exude malice as some clearly do. In unguarded moments he seems quite rational. So, I never know if he is saying crazy stuff to garner support or if he actually believes the crazy stuff. Those "unguarded moments" earn him significant opposition and derision in his home state.

At the end of the day, I must believe that what the politician says expresses his sincere beliefs and intentions.

(I never really got to hear what Jim Webb had to say. It was always my opinion that he would tick off both sides and so had no chance with either bunch.)

[S Wood]

Col. Lang,
Wonderful piece and analysis. I almost died laughing. As a former AF Maj. I think your analysis is spot on.

[Green Zone Cafe]

Graham did two weeks of annual training as a reservist in Iraq in 2007. I saw him walking around the Palace in desert cammies with an M9 in the holster.

He took a trip to the MEK camp up in Ashraf. Someone Who Was There told me they gave him a big welcome. He also said the place creeped him out, it was a cult with pictures of Maryam or whatever her and her husband's name is all over the place and that the MEK members could not have sex without permission. Graham's interest in the MEK was probably a part of his interest in taking on Iran. The whole engagement of American elites like Howard Dean, Mukesey and others with the MEK is one of the most corrupt things going on.

I don't get why the guy is so much in favor of aggressive military action all of the time.

[Matthew]

Jill: Unlike Huckabee or Carson, Graham doesn't "hate" the Muslims. He just wants them to politically powerless at home and obedient servants of US foreign policy abroad.

Basically, "good" Muslims do whatever Israel wants.

[oofda]

Colonel- spot on about Graham being a "military man"- and would assume that others, such as submariners would also concur. Recall how he called himself a "Gulf War veteran"- after being activated and doing wills at a Stateside air base.

[Fred]

Col.,

"Some Europeans have explained to me their revulsion at the thought of that experience."

That describes many academics I know.

[Tigershark]

Col.

Love your abstention.

[BostonB]

Here's a somewhat related joke told by my favorite professor in college (Jewish, btw):

Why are Baptists opposed to premarital sex? Because it might lead to dancing.

(Btw, this in the early 90's-- such a joke could NEVER be told in 2015, even with tenure.)

[BostonB]

OT: Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz: Doctors Without Borders Really Is ‘Doctors Without Morals’

http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/11/dershowitz-doctors-without-borders-really-is-doctors-without-morals/

[Babak Makkinejad]

Ah yes, that references another joke in which this fellow goes to his Rabbi to discuss sexual positions etc. All are blessed, it turns out, except doing it standing up - since it might lead to dancing.

[Castellio]

I came across this article and thought it might interest you:

http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/WCT_Martyrs_Extract.pdf

[William R. Cumming]

IMO NO Member of Congress should be in the active military reserves. I assume the Senator is retired? Dual compensation [double dipping?] law changed so that now may retired military are federal civil servants and receive full military retirement and full civil service salaries. The result is VA and DoD civilian doctors no longer the highest paid civil servants.

Please correct me if I am wrong?

[Babak Makkinejad]

Thank you very kindly.

[Ryan]

Colonel,

This is a nicely written package you have here of about another militarist, Lindsey Grahamnesty, all wrapped up just in time for Christmas.

The only contribution I might make is this. It does seem that Graham's re-elections are due to tolerance or maybe perhaps it might be due to other things? My opinion is it is the influence of the religious right, especially those poor misguided souls known as "dispensationalists" or "Christian Zionists", an oxymoron if there ever was one.

It is too bad SC didn't remove him back in when "Flat top" Bob Conley ran against him in 2008. Conley is a conservative. Unfortunately, he ran as a Democrat. Being next door in GA I followed this campaign closely and despite being a Christian conservative, they chose Graham. They just couldn't bear to pull the lever for the guy with the "D" next to his name. I guess they weren't familiar with the late Cong. Larry McDonald.

I know you're familiar with the story about the Northern gentleman who was in Columbia at the time of the vote for the Ordinance of Secession. He asked a South Carolinian about all the hooting and hollering coming out of the state house. At the reply of the Southern gentleman he thought to himself that South Carolina is too small to be a country and too big for a lunatic asylum. While I have always believe the story to be apocryphal when much younger I would bristle at hearing this nonsense. Over the years I've had to modify my view somewhat based on my observations that the career of Lindsey Graham being a case in point.

Seriously, this clown has been a disaster not just for South Carolina, but also America as a whole. Here we have a person who in addition to what you wrote doesn't have any problem with Israel stealing land with its colonization project in the West Bank and dreams of elsewhere in the Middle East nor does he have any problems with illegal aliens invading the US to do the same to us.

My conclusion of him is that he's an opportunist and a coward to boot along with a number of elected official of my fellow Southern state. Graham, the governor and a host of others couldn't put together a press conference quick enough to announce they wanted the legislature to pull down the ANV flag over the Confederate war memorial. For this craven cowardice they received accolades from the mob and the media. From the rest of us who admire brave people who put of the good fight there's a term that fits him and the rest of that crowd of cowards who gathered together to trash their past, scalawag.

On a more positive note, John McCain has a primary opponent who is leading him right now in his bid for re-election. Hope springs eternal as US is a nation run by the inmates of a lunatic asylum.