If there was a litmus test for serving in Congress, Michelle Bachmann would fail.
Rep. Bachmann has given the news cycles a lot of fodder since she announced her run for the Presidency, but last week she took it up another notch.
As a Member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, a member of the Subcommittee on Oversight, and a member of the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, Rep. Bachmann should certainly be one of the people to know that we have not had an embassy in Iran since 1980. Campaign officials later explained that she was taken out of context.
Bachmann's claim that she has been gaffe free was refuted on Fox News on November 18th.
The reality is, Bachmann is a good example of what is wrong in politics today. Just as Fox News uses "some have said" or "some have reported" to establish some kind of factual basis to their news reports, many followers of Bachmann assume that since she has been elected to Congress she is well-rounded and intellectually competent. Too few voters actually take the time to research the issues and come to their own opinion. It is easier to just adopt the party line and follow the RNC talking points in a sheep-like daze.
Since World War II we have meddled in Middle East politics and we have made some poor choices. Noam Chomsky had a valid point in March 2010 when he spoke at Harvard's Memorial Church that, "hostile actions of the United States and its Israeli client are a major factor in Iran's decisions of whether or not to develop a nuclear deterrent." See the entire article here.
The US record in the Middle East has been less than stellar.
Starting in 1919, in efforts led by President Woodrow Wilson as part of the League of Nations, mandates for the colonial boundaries of the Middle East were established for what had been the Ottoman Empire (source here). These artificial boundaries have contributed greatly to the unrest in the Middle East. In a paper published by Lauren Squires at academia.edu, she concisely outlines the conditions for insurgency under artificial statehood. The same can be said for the mandates placed upon Germany after WWI which would eventually give rise to the Third Reich and Hitler.
During the Reagan administration, Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein in 1983 in Baghdad. Rumsfeld supported Hussein. Up until 1991, the US sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever and botulism to Iraq. These chemicals were used against the Iranians in the First Persian Gulf War.
Again, during the Reagan administration, we sold arms to Iran. Known as the Iran-Contra Affair, this was an arms-for-hostages scheme in which Israel would ship weapons to Iran, Israel would pay the US and, thanks to Oliver North (then with the National Security Council, now a Fox News Contributor) diverted funds to the Contras (anti-Communists rebels) in Nicaragua. This was to secure the release of 6 US hostages being held in Iran.
Our recent history in Iraq and Afghanistan need not be reiterated here. I think we are all well aware of what our role has been and where we succeeded and failed.
A federal report, worthy of spending some time reviewing in light of the Presidential election next year, is the U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East: Historical Background, Recent Trends, June 15, 2010 report published by the Congressional Research Service, found here. In this report it outlines historical trends and our fiscal spending on foreign aid. Israel has been number one, estimated to receive $3.1B by FY 2018. Egypt receives close to $2B in economic and military aid. Jordan receives $660M per year. Palestine has averaged $388M per year since the death of Arafat. For FY 2011, the report indicates that the Obama administration would be seeking $246.3M for Lebanon.
The $5.7B noted above is just a fraction what we spend overseas every year in foreign aid. This doesn't even address what we have spent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Add to that the costs of our deployed military forces in Korea, Japan and Germany and you start to see the scope of money we send overseas to support other governments and bolster overseas economies.
Another report worth spending some time reviewing came out this past June by the Committee on Foreign Relations. It stated that between FY2002-2010, the US provided $18.8B in assistance to Afghanistan. Yet, while we are trying to improve infrastructure such as building schools, human rights remain an issue as outlined in the story of Galnaz, a rape victim that gave birth to her rapists child while serving a 12 jail sentence for having sex outside of marriage.
When you read reports like this, it is no wonder that people who are aware, who take the time to educate themselves, are so very frustrated by the lack of domestic spending on infrastructure and job creation. We have to cut taxes, cut domestic spending, cut medicare and Social Security and strip unemployment benefits and payroll tax deductions for American workers. So I have a few questions for you. If the opportunity arises and you have the chance to speak with your elected officials, or a candidate, keep these in mind:
What do you think that $24.5B could pay for? (The total for the foreign aid I outlined above.)
Do you have a bridge in your area that you're afraid will fail? How about a levy? A sea wall?
What added expenses have you incurred in car repairs due to bad roads?
How many students are in your child's classroom? How many schools in your district have closed? How many teachers have been laid off?
Do you have child of college age? What are you expecting to pay for his/her education? Or did that dream go the way of your 401k?
Have you been one of the millions that lost a job in the last 4 years? How long did it take you to find another one? Were you even able to find one? Have you exhausted your unemployment benefits?
Did you or a family member loose a home through foreclosure? Would your bank even work with you to modify that mortgage? If they did, how long did it take? Three months? Six months? Did your home go into foreclosure due to the banks' failure to negotiate in good faith?
Do you have medical insurance? Can you afford insurance? Can you afford to go to the doctor? How much do you have to spend on medications? Is you health suffering because you cant't afford medical treatment or medicine?
My reason for bringing up these issues is that I expect our elected officials to have at least as much knowledge as I do on foreign affairs and domestic issues, and I don't have a staff that can read reports and newspapers for me. Ms. Bachmann's gaffe, even unintentional as her staff claims, as well as her Tea Party stance (to be covered later) is still an outrageous example of the pandering to the least educated common denominator and rampant partisan idiocy in DC.
