The conflict in the Middle East post 9/11 has been a part of many Americans lives for almost twenty years. Virginians all across the Commonwealth and the country have been touched by endless wars, operations and deployments. The Commonwealth's economy is significantly impacted by the military as Virginia is home to large contingent of not only military forces but civilian contracting and a defense industry complex dependent upon Congressional appropriations.
Democrats have long called for the draw down in the Middle East. Former President Obama campaigned on getting the United States out of Iraq and ending military operations. However, during the Obama administration implementation of its foreign policy the world witnessed the rise of ISIS or as Obama would call ISIL. Obama would be forced to commit troops to Syria. Obama had placed a line in the sand to the Assad regime regarding chemical weapons being used on civilians but in the end backed down in the face of Assad doing just that.
The fecklessness of effective policy to address Syria resulted in the 2013 invasion of Crimea by Russia and further aggression in Ukraine. These events stemmed from the inaction of Obama and Democrats to address the crisis in Syria. Obama did not believe Syria represented any real strategic importance and it was the assessments by the intelligence community that moved Obama in the direction of inaction regarding Syria with severe consequences not only to the reputation of the United States but to Europe given the mass exodus of Syrian refugees flooding European nations and Turkey.
Turkey. You may have been hearing alot about our NATO ally in recent weeks right? The roots of the issue faced in Syria today is being placed at the foot of President Trump by the Democrats but the truth is the problem with Turkey is one that the Democrats created. By not dealing with the Assad regime, permitting Russia to attain dominance in the region and creating a crisis resulting in hundreds of thousands of fleeing Syrians arriving on the Turkish border, our ally has had to deal with the instability of its border with Syria and the rise of the Kurdish PKK which it has been fighting for years.
The media refuses to address the recent history and merely wants to use Syria and the Kurds as a sword against Trump and Rep. Abigail Spanberger has joined those Progressives who seek to hang the turmoil in Syria and the issues with Turkey on Trump.
The media refuses to acknowledge the Democrat policies that led to Aleppo tragedy.
This remains problematic for Spanberger on a number of fronts. First, the Syrian issues is one created by Obama and Democrat policy. Second, the Syrian issue is one also created by the intelligence community that Rep. Spanberger worked for before running for Congress and thirdly Spanberger's demonstrates a level of utter hypocrisy in her criticisms of Trump policy in the region.
Constituents have no way of knowing what Spanberger did for the intelligence community and the CIA. Voters could potentially seek freedom of information findings but likely its classified yet Spanberger continues to leverage her intelligence background along with Rep. Elaine Luria on the VA02 when it comes to releasing statements or criticizing the Executive. Spanberger recently had a go at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a hearing on the Hill. Pompeo interesting enough was the Director of the CIA from January 2017 to April 2018 the very year Spanberger and Luria were elected to Congress. It was clear Spanberger has little respect for Pompeo.
The intelligence angle begs many more questions than can be addressed here but its alarming that Spanberger and Luria both are backing impeachment of Trump based on revelations of an "intelligence officer" regarding second and third hand conversations regarding the Ukrainian phone conversation. It appears as though these leaders appear to be backing their former employer over the majority of the constituents in their districts whom do not support impeachment. Understand, neither Rep. Spanberger or Luria have demanded a formal vote or inquiry in the historical sense regarding impeachment. They both are supporting closed door, secret hearings where the opposition is nopt permitted to call witnesses of its own. That in itself should be alarming but coupled with the hypocrisy on foreign policy its disturbing for voters.
Rep. Spanberger released the following statement on her facebook page :
Release from Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D)-VA07
This morning, my colleagues and I returned from a bipartisan congressional trip to Turkey, Afghanistan, and the Syria-Jordan border. We met with security, intelligence, and diplomatic leadership from our U.S. forces and foreign partners. Over and over, we heard about the danger posed to Americans if we abandon our Kurdish allies, the Syrian Defense Forces. The SDF has been our primary ally on the ground in the fight against ISIS, working and dying alongside American troops.
To walk back our support of the SDF and invite Turkey to act aggressively in northern Syria is a misguided & catastrophic blow to our national security interests. Not only will this decision further destabilize the region, it will make it more difficult for the U.S. to recruit allies and partners in our ongoing counterterrorism efforts.
A constituent of Spanberger posed a great question on the Representative's facebook page:
"So Turkey is a NATO member who has been given the authority and task to maintain security to the region and the president is upholding his promises to remove our troops from this region. To continue staying in this region is no longer in our national interest at this point to remain there. It is however within the congressional to do otherwise and even state declaration of war if you so elect to stay in the region. Is this your desired stance?" (Marty Juergenson)
The true hypocrisy of Abigail Spanberger and Progressives is Yemen.
However, Spanberger has supported in Congress a cessation of support for the Saudi-led coalition. On her House website she stated:
U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger led to block the sale of certain offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Under the administration’s emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia, thousands of additional precision-guided munitions would transfer to Saudi coalition forces without Congressional review. Additionally, the United States would transfer the manufacturing technology needed to produce these weapons in Saudi Arabia. These wholly offensive weapons have been responsible for significant civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Spanberger’s resolution—which she introduced in the U.S. House last May—would reject the emergency transfer of these precision-guided munitions from the United States to Saudi Arabia. Her joint resolution is led in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Spanberger would also assert on her House page:
“Today, I voted to pass this important resolution, which would help hold our partners accountable for destabilizing behavior and allow Congress to reassert its role in authorizing the use of military force”. “We must seriously review U.S. military engagement abroad, and this strategic process begins by ensuring our military support does not compromise our values, exacerbate human suffering, threaten our close relationship with Israel, or jeopardize the safety of American citizens or interests. I urge the President to sign it as soon as possible.”
Place these assertions in the context of Syria. What has Trump done other than remove the possibility of the United States getting caught up in another unrecognized war or conflict by Congress. Had Trump added troops to the region with massive deployments what would Spanberger's position be?
Spanberger has worked to undermine our allies in Yemen repeatedly since entering Congress in January. There have been numerous bills like HJ 37- restricting our armed forces from engaging in Yemen, H.R. 910- Yemen Refueling Act preventing our military from refueling Saudi and coalition aircraft engaging the Iranian backed terror Houthi affiliate and HJ56 restricting use and cooperation of our military with our allies in the coalition and supporting them with intelligence or support.
So one the one hand Spanberger and progressives want to criticize Trump policy regarding Syria but refuse to examine their own position with regard to Yemen. Democrats like Spanberger advocate for abandoning our allies in the region like Saudi Arabia who has come under attack directly by Iranian affiliates with its oil fields being hit recently yet step up to the podium and criticize Trump's current policy as abandoning the Kurds.
It is unclear what Spanberger's real position is regarding Syria having been part of an administration that determined Syria was not of strategic importance. Those assessments came from the intelligence community Spanberger was part of. Is she merely echoing the Obama policies of 2015-16 with regard to Syria?
Or is Spanberger like she does so often merely using the situation in Syria as simply another sword against Trump?
Constituents in the VA07, historically a Conservative district in Virginia and supported Donald Trump for President in 2016 is on very shaky ground having supported impeachment and now appears to leave voters with more unanswered questions regarding Syria. Many like those at Bearing Drift, a "conservative" Virginia site clearly have opposed Trump and over the last year or so appear to be moving away from the values that the VA07 endorse and propped up Rep. Spanberger but her votes in the House just are not there to support such.
One thing is clear however, Abigail Spanberger has not worked in a bipartisan effort with Virginia Republicans in the Virginia Congressional Delegation over the last year and has voted with Nancy Pelosi 94% of the time and along with Progressives like Rashida Tlaib(MI) and Ilhan Omar(MN) 90% of the time since joining Congress.
#Spanberger #VA07 #VA02 #ElaineLuria #AbigailSpanberger #Pompeo #Yemen #Syria #Kurds #Houthi #Tlaib #TrumpSyria #TrumpKurds #Turkey #ObamaSyria #Aleppo #BearingDrift
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