Our post-9/11 wars absolutely were and are regime-change wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, with Iran they’re hoping yet to come. These are all immoral and reverse-Christian. And U.S. troops have been illegally in Syria from the beginning.
Tulsi is the only one telling the truth, but gets no applause. At least she wasn’t booed, like Ron Paul was in 2008:
This is the way to educate Americans who live in a vacuum of truth, standing tall, boldly proclaiming! All 11 times shown in red.
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[ANDERSON] COOPER: Congresswoman Gabbard, last week you said that American troops should get out of Syria now. You don’t agree with how the president handled the withdrawal. What would you have done differently? How would you have pulled out troops without the bloodshed we’re seeing now?
[TULSI] GABBARD: Well, first of all, we’ve got to understand the reality of the situation there, which is that the slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime change war that we’ve been waging in Syria.
Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war.
Not only that, but the New York Times and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war. Just two days ago, the New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist and all these different smears. This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I’m an asset of Russia. Completely despicable.
As president, I will end these regime change wars by doing two things — ending the draconian sanctions that are really a modern-day siege the likes of which we are seeing Saudi Arabia wage against Yemen, that have caused tens of thousands of Syrian civilians to die and to starve, and I would make sure that we stop supporting terrorists like Al Qaida in Syria who have been the ground force in this ongoing regime change war.
COOPER: Thank you.
GABBARD: I’d like to ask Senator Warren if she would join me in calling for an end to this regime change war in Syria, finally.
WARREN: So, look, I think that we ought to get out of the Middle East. I don’t think we should have troops in the Middle East. But we have to do it the right way, the smart way.
What this president has done is that he has sucked up to dictators, he has made impulsive decisions that often his own team doesn’t understand, he has cut and run on our allies, and he has enriched himself at the expense of the United States of America. In Syria, he has created a bigger-than-ever humanitarian crisis. He has helped ISIS get another foothold, a new lease on life.
I sit on the Armed Services Committee. I talk with our military leaders about this.
COOPER: Thank you, Senator.
WARREN: I was in Iraq and went through the neighborhoods that ISIS destroyed.
COOPER: Thank you.
WARREN: We need to get out, but we need to do this through a negotiated solution. There is no military solution in this region.
COOPER: Thank you, Senator. Mayor Buttigieg, Mayor Buttigieg, like many of your fellow candidates on the stage, you’ve been calling for an end to endless wars. What’s your response on Syria?
BUTTIGIEG: Well, respectfully, Congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong. The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It’s a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values.
Look, I didn’t think we should have gone to Iraq in the first place. I think we need to get out of Afghanistan. But it’s also the case that a small number of specialized, special operations forces and intelligence capabilities were the only thing that stood between that part of Syria and what we’re seeing now, which is the beginning of a genocide and the resurgence of ISIS.
Meanwhile, soldiers in the field are reporting that for the first time they feel ashamed — ashamed — of what their country has done [then why all the G.I. suicides, Buttigieg? – ed.]. We saw the spectacle, the horrifying sight of a woman with the lifeless body of her child in her arms asking, what the hell happened to American leadership?
And when I was deployed, I knew one of the things keeping me safe was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country known to keep its word. And our allies knew it and our enemies knew it.
COOPER: Thank you, Mayor.
BUTTIGIEG: You take that away, you are taking away what makes America America.
COOPER: Thank you, Mayor.
BUTTIGIEG: It makes our troops and the world a much more dangerous place.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Congresswoman Gabbard, your response?
GABBARD: Yeah, absolutely. So, really, what you’re saying, Mayor Pete, is that you would continue to support having U.S. troops in Syria for an indefinite period of time to continue this regime change war that has caused so many refugees to flee Syria, that you would continue to have our country involved in a war that has undermined our national security, you would continue this policy of the U.S. actually providing arms in support to terrorist groups in Syria, like Al Qaida, HTS, al-Nusra and others, because they are the ones who have been the ground force in this regime change war? That’s really what you’re saying?
COOPER: Mayor Pete — Mayor Buttigieg?
BUTTIGIEG: No, you can embrace — or you can put an end to endless war without embracing Donald Trump’s policy, as you’re doing.
GABBARD: Will you end the regime change war, is the question.
BUTTIGIEG: What we are doing…
GABBARD: What is an endless war if it’s not a regime change war?
Watch this exchange, starting at 23:19. Ends at 28:20:
Part 2 of the CNN/NYT Democratic Presidential Debate
Full transcript:
Transcript of Westerville, Ohio, Democratic 2020 debate — Oct. 15, 2019
Related:
Tulsi Stands Tall: Tells America we use terrorist groups to regime-change Syria!
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