Geraldo, You Had Me from ‘Declaration’
Quick, someone at [This Ain’t Hell] tell the Devil to check his ponds for skim ice. I know it’s gotta be starting to freeze over down there, because I just found myself nodding my head and agreeing with Geraldo Rivera in his appearance on the O’Reilly show.
Geraldo pointed out to Bill that the optimal course to take in dealing with ISIS is to formally declare war on the Islamic State, uniting the Congress and the nation in a determined campaign to ensure the total and complete destruction of said Islamic State. He made the excellent point that ISIS has declared itself a state and has real military and political control over large geographical areas, which means it has therefore self-identified as a nation and is consequently subject to a declaration of war.
Why? Because the world’s newest nation has defiantly thrown down a gauntlet of challenge to the United States by publicly executing two American citizens in the most bloodily brutal way imaginable. Further, they have publicly announced their determination to attack the United States on its home soil. Even the Germans and the Japanese never publicly executed American citizens as an act of provocation, nor did they announce to the world prior to our declarations of war against them any avowed intentions to destroy us.
I confess that Geraldo caught me completely off-guard with his proposal. I previously hadn’t drilled down far enough to consider a declaration of war as being the course to pursue in bringing down this new manifestation of fascism cloaked in Islamic clerical garb. But it does make sense that we turn the tables on ISIS by giving them the formal recognition they want and then use that affirmation of their political existence to pound them into smoking rubble. A formal declaration takes away some of the restraints that have limited our offensive attempts up to now. In a declaration, our Congress can make it crystal-clear that the intent of our nation is to obliterate theirs, thus making it one of the most short-lived nation-states in history. With such a declaration, America’s gloves come off, because in said declaration we have informed the world of our intention to unconditionally and totally destroy this Islamic State. Surrender or a formal ceasefire is not an option – only obliteration.
And then, as if I hadn’t been surprised enough by the common sense flowing from beneath that ridiculous moustache, Geraldo floored me again with a second recommendation that made at least as much sense as the first: bring Gen. Stanley McChrystal back to active duty and put him in charge of building a Kurdish Army, now loosely defined as the Peshmerga, to help defeat ISIS and then serve as a counter-force to the rise of another such fanatical foe. The general may be a bit too liberal in some of his views for die-hard conservatives, but he’s a tough SOB who knows the terrain and the Middle East mindset.
Damn all, Geraldo, you ruined my Friday night. I’m still sitting here shaking my head at the possibility that we could be in agreement.
Crossposted at American Thinker.
Category: Media
I agree with everything on one condition. If the US actually helps build a professional Kurdish army, it should only be after helping them to declare a Kurdish state. Not this semi-autonomous crap, but a full fledged state separate from Iraq.
ArmyATC…Here-Here! Screw the Palestinians the Kurdish deserve their own state.
I concur. Been saying it for years. If we want a stable allied nation in Iraq, the ONLY option I see is to formally recognize Kurdistan. The the Shia and Sunni fight over the scraps. Turkey would also like to see it happen because then they would not have to be fighting Kurdish rebels along their southern border who are trying to form their own Kurdistan as well. Thus backing up another ally in the region.
Um, not exactly. Turkey would fight that idea like hell – they’d be afraid that all of present-day Turkey from Lake Van east would declare itself part of the “new nation of Kurdistan”.
I don’t think it would be such a bad idea, since it might reunite the Turkish people to throw off the current creeping sharia within their own government.
Turkey had famously been the one secular muslim state, but since Erdogan and his islamic butt boys have gotten ahold of power, there’s been a resurgence of pro-sharia crap going on. Hell, he’s even gotten some radical islamists into the Turkish military as clerics and infiltrated others into the officer corps.
If a huge swath of the Turkish people suddenly self-identify with the Kurds, then that would be fine by me.
Pay the f@ckers back for their last-minute betrayal of the US led Coalition and it’s attack on Saddam.
Jonn, thanks for this thread. I too am taken aback at the comments of Geraldo. But, if this President would come in from the golf course long enough to actually do some, “running of the country” business, he might get something done. But, he won’t. Obama is the worst sort of coward. No regard for America or its citizens beyond what they can do for him and that is the kind of coward who ALWAYS gets others killed by their cowardice. How I wish he would take a stance like this and actually go address Congress for a declaration of war to finally end this. But I am wishing.
Sorry, I forgot to change the name of the author before I published this – it was Poetrooper who wrote it not me. I think I caught the PTSD.
Jonn, you probably caught it from abusive phone calls you deal with all the time.
Caught the PTSD? Would that be PoeTroopers Stupendous Diatribes?
PoeTrooper’s Superior Discourses! 😀
PTS are we going see you at Walmart with two medals of honor and five purple harts pined on an Eisenhower jacket???
That is brilliant and unexpected from that quarter. They should do both those at the same time instead of what they’re currently doing – what’s going on right now can’t even be called fatal half-measures because it doesn’t even go halfway. It’s more of a plan than I’m seeing currently from the White House!
There is no plan from the White House.
Bodaprez has already said he will not do anything about the illegal – oops! immigrant – immigrant problem until AFTER November elections. That’s his entire plan for this month and next.
Do not expect anything from the Fool on the Hill until after November, and then it will be another whine.
Good article. I’m surprised at Rivera for taking this stand, but pleased, too.
Geraldo was on Fox & Friends Friday morning and called himself a “veteran war reporter” as his moral authority to call for Dave Petreaus to return to command in Iraq. So by last night he altered his “veteran war reporter” opinion to McCrystal.
It’s funny how reporters claim that “generals always fight the last war” and here’s Geraldo doing the same thing. Our Second War In Iraq isn’t like this one, btw.
He also opined that morning on the air campaign against ISIS, based on his experience as a “combat journalist”. “Combat journalists” are air warfare experts, who knew? News to me.
IIRC, he got bounced out country in either Iraq or Kuwait for drawing tactical maps in the dust, on camera.
It was Iraq, he was embedded with the invasion force and did that. I think his response was basically “everyone is saying this on every channel.”
I hope the embedded reporter thing doesn’t happen again, especially to the degree it was for the invasion.
I agree, especially with these idiots that that Journalism schools are putting out these days. You can depend on them trying to play “gotcha” with our soldiers and make a name for themselves.
I’d be very happy if our golfer in chief unleashed Petraeus & McCrystal on ISIS or ISIL or whatever this murderous mob calls themselves. They wouldn’t be fighting the last war, they’d be finishing the current war. The war that began with the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. We’ve been at war with Islam since that day.
That’s an excellent point, SFC, they’d only be going back to take care of unfinished business.
I respectfully disagree. My personal preference would be to release the “Mad Dog”!
He absolutely has to be included!
YES! He must be part of that equation.
as opposed to them being at war with us since, what, 1948?
Good thing the Obama administration announced a couple of years ago that they would no longer wage war on a tactic. //end sarc
“Iraq War Resolution” ring a bell there, Mark L?
A declaration of war is really meaningless; there is no legal definition in the Constitution or US law. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorist is a de facto declaration of war.
Jack, you’re being too practical and ignoring the larger aspects of the issue. You don’t honestly see that a “Declaration” of a nation’s intent to totally wage war to destroy an enemy carries a bit more heft in the minds of both the folks making the declaration and the folks on the receiving end, than a weasel word like “Authorization?”
Don’t you think that Vietnam and our ventures in Southwest Asia might have come out better if the United States had declared war in all those situations?
Once war has been declared,our country can’t be quite so easily humiliated into ignominious withdrawals simply because the reigning party in Congress and the White House gets cold feet, as has happened to America in every conflict since WWII.
I do see the power of a declaration of war. However, Ialso note that we’ve fought Korea and our two longest wars underother authorizations. Pres. Bush declared a War on Terror but asked for an authorization to use force, and we are still operati g under it today.
A declaration of war is indeed a powerful symbolic gesture, butit has no legal meaning, unfortunately. An unsupporting Cogress can simply vote with their checkbook and not provide any funds.
I fast forward when Dirtbag Geraldo comes on and last night’s Factor was no different. I thought that clown retired, yet I often see his irrelevant retarded ass appearing to run his suck.
Rivera is actually more conservative then liberal. Listen to him closely he goes back and forth. However on national defense (and when to go on the offense), support of the troops and maintaining a the best possible military posture … He is typically and fairly close to where some or most of us are.
Yeah, I am baised I grew up in Jersey, he is from Jersey. His house was badly damaged during Sandy, I was surround on three side be water and had no power for weeks. He is a Puerto Rican Stud, I am an Irish Stud …
BLUF … He is not a liberal destructionist. He is a Patriot (and no doubt a future conservartive or at least a Reagan democrat type).
Fire away dickweeds!
I would question his patriotism since he has publicly considered Jane Fonda a “Close Friend”.
along with that, he defends her and claims that her actions during Viet Nam were “Just a mistake, she was young…”
Boom.
I don’t that I would call him a flaming liberal, but I certainly wouldn’t call him a conservative. His friendship with “Hanoi” Jane and his backing of the leftist agenda on illegal aliens are definitely not conservative in nature. He’s also not a “friend” to the 2nd Amendment, calling for the registration of all firearms and the wholesale ban of “assault weapons.” But really, when was Geraldo ever truly relevant? His claims to fame are getting his nose broken in a live on-set brawl with a skinhead and drawing tactical sand tables in Iraq (which got him booted out of country).
Don’t forget his “finding” and “opening” of Al Capone’s lost vault. hahahahahaha
Hey, now! I stayed up to watch that shit when I was in middle school. Man, I felt cheated when the only thing he found was two old bottles!
Shit! So did I! uhh, not exactly middle school though. I was Dissapoint in any event…
Geraldo makes two correct statements/opinions, yet he remains a progressive liberal dick no matter where he’s from.
So you’re saying that Mr. Rivera is a stopped clock?
Hey there MCPO NYC USN Ret.
I to was raised in New Jersey, fact of the matter, I had the pleasure of meeting Rivera over in NYC during a boxing match over in Madison Square Garden.
Myself I found him to be a very interesting person, fact is, he was the only person to come up with the big bucks to help those 4 GI’s that got robbed over on Long Island at their Hotel and had no Bus or Air fair back to Dallas, Texas. Seems like everyone from NY had any cash to spare. Just goes to show, those Puerto Rican’s Studs are not all that bad, that is, if you get to know them.
Agreed … He is a local good guy!
Will miracles never cease? That’s one in a row.
With or without a declaration of war, we need to hit these goat boinkers so hard that their grandchildren are born dizzy. We need to put an ass kicking on them so bad that they wake up in the morning and call us to apologize for anything they might say or do during the day that might offend us. The Chinese can build a fertilizer factory there to grind their bones down to dust.
Syrians are starting to step up in this, Turkey needs to do so as well. ANd maybe, just maybe (Not holding my breath on this one…) the Sauis will stand against these fuckwads. (A man can dream, right?) Honestly, other then throwing Tomahawks and other assorted aerial munitions at these guys and the ocasional SOF raid (Killing everyone in sight…) I say we leave this to the Muslim world to solve. With a little luck, they will all kil each other and we will have little more to worry about…