Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept: How The Armed Services Committee, In The Middle Of A Pandemic, Approved A Huge Military Budget And More War In Afghanistan.
For anyone that needs a reminder of what Democrats (and some Republicans) were saying about V.P. Dick Cheney after the Iraq War, go back and read this article from The Atlantic:
“When Vice President Dick Cheney left office, his approval rating stood at a staggeringly low 13 percent. Few political figures in history have been so reviled.”
Apparently all is forgiven (or forgotten) as Republicans and Democrats teamed up with the heir of the Cheney war hawk clan, daughter Liz Cheney, to pass a series of amendments that set conditions on removing troops from Afghanistan (essentially blocking the Trump administration) and increasing military spending while the country is economically suffering from the coronavirus response.
As we reported last week, pro-war and militaristic Democrats on the Committee joined with GOP Rep. Liz Cheney and the pro-war faction she leads to form majorities which approved one hawkish amendment after the next. Among those amendments was one co-sponsored by Cheney with Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado that impeded attempts by the Trump administration to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and another amendment led by Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Cheney which blocked the White House’s plan to remove 10,000 troop stationed in Germany.
While those two amendments were designed to block the Trump administration’s efforts to bring troops home, this same bipartisan pro-war faction defeated two other amendments that would have imposed limits on the Trump administration’s aggression and militarism: one sponsored by Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to require the Trump administration to provide a national security rationale before withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, signed with the Soviet Union in 1987, and another to impose limits on the ability of the U.S. to arm and otherwise assist Saudi Arabia to bomb Yemen.
In Washington their is only one party – the war party.
