[rad-green] Trump Is a Reckless and Dangerous Warmonger, But Too Many Democrats Continue to Work Against Peace

*https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/09/trump-reckless-and-dangerous-warmonger-too-many-democrats-continue-work-against
<https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/09/trump-reckless-and-dangerous-warmonger-too-many-democrats-continue-work-against>Common
Dreams          January 9, 2020*





*Trump Is a Reckless and Dangerous Warmonger, But Too Many Democrats
Continue to Work Against PeaceMuch has changed during the last five
decades, but deception remains central to the state of perpetual war that
funnels mega-billions in profits to the military-industrial complex. And
Democrats continue to play a central role in this costly destruction.by
Norman Solomon*

[image: U.S. Senator Wayne Morse (D-Or.) at a peace rally during the U.S.
war in Vietnam stands in front of a banner that reads "Napalm use if an
atrocity." (Photo: Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics / University of
Oregon)]

*Former U.S. Senator Wayne Morse (D-Or.) at a peace rally during the U.S.
war in Vietnam stands in front of a banner that reads "Napalm use is an
atrocity." (Photo: Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics / University of
Oregon)*

The huge crisis with Iran is more dangerous because so many Democrats have
been talking out of both sides of their congressional mouths.

An example is the recent rhetoric from Sen. Chris Murphy. “The attack on
our embassy in Baghdad is horrifying but predictable,” he tweeted
<https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1212019681688727552> on the last
day of 2019. “Trump has rendered America impotent in the Middle East. No
one fears us, no one listens to us. America has been reduced to huddling in
safe rooms, hoping the bad guys will go away. What a disgrace.”

Fast forward one week: Murphy was on the Senate floor declaring
<https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-since-trump-inaugurated-iran-is-stronger-and-we-are-less-safe->
“we
can choose to get off of this path of escalation and make decisions that
correct this president’s recklessness and keep Americans safe.”

"At a time like this, the spirit of former U.S. Senator Wayne Morse is
badly needed. During his 24-year career representing Oregon in the Senate,
he rose to prominence as a rigorously consistent defender of international
law as well as the U.S. Constitution. An unwavering foe of
might-makes-right foreign policy, he unequivocally opposed the Vietnam War
from the outset."

On the same day, in Murphy’s home state, the *Connecticut Mirror* reported
<https://ctmirror.org/2020/01/07/murphy-on-front-line-of-opposition-to-trump-iran-policy/>
that
he “has emerged as a leading critic of Trump administration hostility to
Iran” and called him “the most vocal” Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee “in criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to
kill Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.”

It’s a partisan pattern that’s all too common among Democrats on Capitol
Hill—goading Trump as a wimp and then bemoaning his aggressive actions. And
so, in a matter of days, Murphy was decrying the “recklessness” of the same
president he’d alleged “has rendered America impotent in the Middle East”
because “no one fears us.”

Murphy is one of the better senators on foreign policy—and that’s a key
point here. He still couldn’t resist baiting Trump in a way that implicitly
scorned him for failure to use enough military violence.

At a time like this, the spirit of former U.S. Senator Wayne Morse is badly
needed. During his 24-year career representing Oregon in the Senate, he
rose to prominence as a rigorously consistent defender of international law
as well as the U.S. Constitution. An unwavering foe of might-makes-right
foreign policy, he unequivocally opposed the Vietnam War from the outset
<https://waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/wayne-morse-and-vietnam-war>.

Morse never backed down. And he refused to play along with questions based
on false premises, as network TV footage
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLV-Xeh8bA> makes clear. During his
appearance on the *CBS* program “Face the Nation” in May 1964, fireworks
began a split second after moderator Peter Lisagor said: “Senator, the
Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole
responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”

“Couldn’t be more wrong,” Morse shot back. “You couldn’t make a more
unsound legal statement than the one you have just made. This is the
promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president
of the United States. That’s nonsense.”

Lisagor sounded a bit exasperated: “To whom does it belong then, senator?”

Morse didn’t hesitate. “It belongs to the American people,” the senator
fired back. And he added: “What I’m saying is—under our Constitution all
the president is, is the administrator of the people’s foreign policy,
those are his prerogatives, and I’m pleading that the American people be
given the facts about foreign policy—”

“You know, senator, that the American people cannot formulate and execute
foreign policy --”

“Why do you say that? Why, you’re a man of little faith in democracy if you
make that kind of comment,” Morse retorted. “I have complete faith in the
ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them. And
my charge against my government is we’re not giving the American people the
facts.”

Three months later, Morse was one of only two senators to vote against the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution that opened the floodgates to the mass carnage of
the Vietnam War.

When President Lyndon Johnson’s iconic adviser Gen. Maxwell Taylor—a former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ex-ambassador to South Vietnam—
appeared
<https://books.google.com/books?id=QWMoAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA454&lpg=PA454&dq=Morse+/+are+you+going+to+take+the+position+thats+a+weakness+on+the+homefront+in+the+democracy?&source=bl&ots=4H26dRE2pa&sig=ACfU3U2xXkoWHE1z6FkGk4f8izWCW4f14Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix4fLDiPbmAhXdIDQIHR4FBKYQ6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Morse%20%2F%20are%20you%20going%20to%20take%20the%20position%20thats%20a%20weakness%20on%20the%20homefront%20in%20the%20democracy%3F&f=false>
before
the Foreign Relations Committee on February 17, 1966, this exchange
(preserved on video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2ZrD0CKrBQ>) ensued:

SEN. MORSE: “We’re engaged in a historic debate in this country, we have
honest differences of opinion. I happen to hold to the point of view that
it isn’t going to be too long before the American people as a people will
repudiate our war in Southeast Asia.”

GEN. TAYLOR: “That of course is good news to Hanoi, senator.”

SEN. MORSE: “Oh I know that that’s the smear artists that your militarists
give to those of us that have honest differences of opinion with you, but I
don’t intend to get down in the gutter with you and engage in that kind of
debate, general. I’m simply saying that in my judgment the president of the
United States is already losing the people of this country by the millions
in connection with this war in Southeast Asia. And all I’m asking is -- if
the people decide that this war should be stopped in Southeast Asia, are
you going to take the position that’s a weakness on the home front in a
democracy?”

GEN. TAYLOR: “I would feel that our people were badly misguided and did not
understand the consequences of such a disaster.”

SEN. MORSE: “Well, we agree on one thing, that they can be badly misguided
-- and you and the president, in my judgment, have been misguiding them for
a long time in this war.”

Much has changed during the last five decades, but deception remains
central to the state of perpetual war that funnels mega-billions in profits
to the military-industrial complex. The vast majority of Congress members
are part of that complex, including most Democrats
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/12/atrocious-188-democrats-join-gop-hand-trump-738-billion-military-budget-includes>.
Instead of thanking those members of Congress for not being worse,
progressive constituents should organize to insist that they quickly become
much better—or face escalating protests as well as political consequences.

Norman Solomon <https://www.commondreams.org/author/norman-solomon> is
co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org
<http://rootsaction.org/>. His books include *"War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047179001X?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20>"*
 and *"Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977825345?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20>."*
 He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public
Accuracy.

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