I could hardly believe it; it’s more proof that both the President has a clueless foreign policy and that Lindsey Graham needs to be defeated at the polls in the next election!
The President sent Senators McCain and Graham to Egypt to “mediate” the dispute between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military-led new government. I think I’d left well enough alone, but just days after bludgeoning fellow senators to vote against Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to ban aid to Egypt, they admitted the aid is illegal:
McCain (R-Ariz.) and Graham (R-S.C.) had used the word “coup” at an afternoon press conference to describe the manner in which Egypt’s military had seized power from the Muslim Brotherhood’s elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in early July.
“We have said we share the democratic aspirations and criticism of the Morsi government that led millions of Egyptians into the streets,” McCain said. “We’ve also said that the circumstances of [Morsi’s] removal was a coup.”
Now I agree the law against aid for nations with a military or other coup is a silly one. But that admission ought to make all aid to Egypt in violation of law. But it’s also intervention and unnecessary:
A spokesman for the interim government, Sherief Shawki, immediately dismissed the characterization. “There is a roadmap, which means that what happened was not a coup and that it was Egyptian people who decided on the roadmap,” he told Reuters in an interview. Shawki also said the involvement of McCain and Graham was unwelcome, adding, “We don’t want foreign intervention to be imposed on us.”
I’d throw both of them out if I were the Egyptian government. But maybe Senators McCain and Graham in Egypt is less harmful than them here in the USA. Try this (and remember this is not the Onion!):
During their press conference Tuesday afternoon, McCain and Graham urged the Egyptian government to find a way to reach an accord with the Muslim Brotherhood protesters, and called on the military to release the handful of party leaders who have recently been arrested.
“In democracy, you sit down and talk to each other,” said Graham. “It is impossible to talk to somebody who is in jail.”
That’s the one who famously said:
“When they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer. You are an enemy combatant, and we are going to talk to you about why you joined Al Qaeda.’”
Senator Graham also voted for and supported indefinite detention of US citizens! I am genuinely concerned that this misguided foreign adventure will end in bloodshed. Let’s pray I am wrong this time!
Thankfully for the USA, yet a fourth person might enter the primary race against Graham:
Bright, The State reports, “has long been speculated to be a Tea Party challenger.” All well and good, but there’s also a man named Richard Cash who has claimed the tea party mantle (and received a RedState endorsement) who has decided to run against Graham. For that matter, there is also a woman named Linda Mace (she is the first female graduate of The Citadel) who has claimed the tea party mantle who has decided to run against Graham. Finally, we are all waiting to hear if Lt. Colonel Bill Connor will decide to also claim the Tea Party mantle and run against Graham in the primary.
The President ought to recall McCain and Graham before they start a war.
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
- Web |
- More Posts (1816)
