I'm a Rand Paul conservative.
But I respect you alls honesty on the issues.

No candidate running does not worship at the altar of The State. The masses are brainwashed into thinking they need The State to run everything. And on we go electing machine pols to lord over us with prisons and gangs of men with guns to keep them filled, and the money cartel to keep the wheels turning. Socialism isn't than answer. No central government control is interested in anything but retaining power when you get down to it, and power does not attract the good.

Marching on to Moscow and then Beijing is the American foreign policy. It will be done one bit at a time to avoid a world war. Those opposed will be cast aside.

They're all following Zbigniew Brzezinski's world as a chessboard strategies. So even if he was a good guy candidate he'd still be trying to "win". He's apparently for the people domestically but not to foreign.

With the U.S. military able to be cut by 75% and still be the largest military in the world B Sanders has been right for several years in saying we don't have to worry about anyone near that rational for spending. He represents the best of those runing to cut cut cut and at same time being what America should be or an example of restraint and values transparent and stood by.

Another reason why cindy sheehan is right about this slime (why i don't agree with sheehan on domestic issues)

The US President has two terms maximum. I think Bernie will spend more time on economic and domestic issues in his first term and pull the support of most Americans in the end of his term thereby making it difficult for anybody to actually try to kill him. When reelected, he will probably attempt to challenge the MIC. Presidents have been killed because they challenged this entity without preparation and foresight. Lastly, he always corrects someone when they call him 'socialist' with 'democratic socialist'. I think there's a yawning difference between the two.

Let's be clear that what is in the article, and Bernie's statements that are quoted, are consistent with who Sanders has always been. His support of Clinton during the bombings in Kosovo, his support of US actions in Somalia, his consistent support of the US having a strong military, his support of US funding of Nazis in Ukraine and much more are indicators of who Bernie is. In short he is a national chauvinist and just another in a long line of liberal Democrats who support imperialism at most every turn.

The narrative that surrounds Sanders is illustrative of the shallow nature of his progressive supporters who in essence are also in support of imperial policies as long as those policies are dressed up nicely and they are allowed some rationales to defend their depravity.

Bernie's father's family was exterminated by the Nazis in Germany, yet he supports the Nazis in the Ukraine? Give me a break. Bernie is against ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hence his vote in Kosovo. Or are you going to argue that there was no genocide of Muslims going in in Kosovo???

Obviously you are not paying attention to anything. Bernie did indeed support funding of Nazis in Ukraine in a 98-2 vote. Sorry if you don't have the ability to look up and face the truth. It is public record though I'm sure you'll deny any of it.

As for Kosovo those are and were war crimes which Sanders supported. Your cartoon version of history as told by the US Security State might allow you to rationalize all sorts of destruction but that's all it is- complete propaganda.

Yugoslavia as experimental terrain

The ideals proclaimed are often violated by the actions undertaken in their name. The treatment of the Serbs by the “International Community” in the name of “human rights” has been a constant violation of human rights. It is not just that their country has been bombed and torn to pieces – a process that may not be finished.

Worse than that, they have been treated as pariahs by the powers that bombed and dispossessed them, and blamed by a shameful NATO-sponsored Tribunal at The Hague for all that has been done to them.
The Serbs have been used for over fifteen years as guinea pigs in a Great Power experiment. The experiment has many sides.
First of all, the Serbs have been the guinea pigs in an experiment in propaganda demonization. This has been a more or less spontaneous experiment, which various actors: the German media, to start with, followed rapidly by the U.S. public relations
firm Ruder-Finn, working hand in hand with the breakaway Croatian government of Franjo Tudjman, the very active Croatian lobby in the United States and Canada, the Islamic party of Alija Izetbegovic, the Albanian lobby in the United States, and a number of American politicians, such as former Senator Bob Dole and the late Congressman
Tom Lantos. The propaganda techniques used against the Serbs can be used against any country that the United States selects as a target.
They have been guinea pigs in the use of weapons using depleted uranium.

KOSOVO THE SCORE 99

They have been guinea pigs in bringing a defenseless government to its knees by aerial bombing. Since the overwhelming majority of countries in the world are defenseless against US bombing, this could happen to almost anyone. They have been guinea pigs in an experiment in political subversion, spearheaded by the notorious Otpor, financed and trained by the US government first to interfere with the electoral process in Yugoslavia so as to stage a “revolution” to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic. Otpor has gone on to serve its US masters in spreading similar
phony revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine. They have been guinea pigs in a scandalous judicial experiment in The Hague. They are still guinea pigs in a disgraceful exercise of blackmail and enticement– the carrot and the stick – pursued by the European Union, which for the past decade
has held out the mirage of membership in the European Union to bully Serbian leaders into more and more concessions… for which they get a few crumbs now and then, but never anything resembling recognition of Serbia’s right to justice, or even to existence.

The Albanians were also used as guinea pigs. But in laboratory experiments, some rats are starved and others are fattened. The Albanian laboratory rats were fattened.

This was certainly not for their own good.

The Albanians of Kosovo were used as pawns, to achieve three aims:

1. To further weaken and break up Yugoslavia, which had been the only independent socialist country in Europe which had close ties with the Third World, notably Arab countries, through the Non-Aligned Movement. Both Yugoslav socialism and non-alignment were weak and fading. But the United States wanted to wipe out all traces of such independent tendencies, just in case, as well as to weaken Serbia, considered
a potential ally of Russia.

2. To provide a new “humanitarian” mission for NATO, as a pretext to change the nature of the alliance from defense of its members to “out of area” operations anywhere in the world where the United States chooses to intervene.

3. To build Camp Bondsteel, as a part of extension of US bases eastward toward both Russia and the Middle East.

http://www.balkanstudies.or...

I am amazed that the only " interesting " Democratic candidate for president ", socialist " Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont , has been called a contemporary Eugene V. Debs- by political know-nothings . Let Sanders read Deb's famous Canton Speech in which he denounced the Great War as an imperialist war and made the point that the ONLY just war was CLASS war.
It is fatuous for a socialist to even try to act like a STATESMAN-IN-EXILE-looking with favor on one rotten national imperialism or another What CLASS truth is revealed in any of the world's convoluted conflicts? To be sure, no LIE -expressed in English, French, German, Russian,Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.- can ever serve the working class or the cause of socialism.
CLASS TRUTH is what I often find at socialist web sites. But it is hardly ever self-evident. Only lively democratic debate can get to the bottom of tough issues. The alternative is to be mired in absurd personality cults.

Sanders has said he would remove the kill list and significantly reduce the drive program.

So the last paragraph is very misleading.

Obama promised to end the wars Bush-jr had started.

Sanders didn't say he would end the drone program.

So Sanders does not even promise the end of mass-murder? Only "significantly reduce" them? Now I am going to call Sanders a really anti-war politician (sarcasm alert)

I never said he was anti war.

Yeah, Sanders is for USA imperialist wars, so he should be supported by USA imperialist "progressives"

USA? Just say American. Don't sugercoat the empire.

I never said he was worth supporting either

Sanders support for Obamas war mongering in the middle east is a clear warning to both workers and all those opposed to U.S. wars of aggression and social inequality. On the off-chance that he becomes president there will be continued diversion of U.S. resources to imperailist wars, thereby making reduction of inequality at home a deadletter, because the resources to reduce inequality will simply be unavailable. U.S. President Johnsons 'war on poverty' suffered the same fate when resources and attention shifted to the U.S. imperailist war which attempted to subdue Vietnam. Of course, Johnson was operating in a different era, the 1960's, when the war on poverty at least begain before it foundered. In todays' world any nationally based program like Sanders is doomed not only by imperalist wars but by capitalist globalization which forces each nation, and each nations capitalist class, to constantly reduce costs, include labour costs, to compete. Sanders notion that the U.S. capitalist system, with its endless wars, can now be turned around without fundamental transofrmation into a socialist system based on international coordination with other socialist countries is from the beginning a non-starter.

Sanders is a Nationalist who supports some social programs....he is Nationalist Socialist.
However, the issues before working people today will not be solved nationally...internationalism must manifest itself locally...and indeed is doing so in many locals here and abroad.
What local solutions does the SEP support?

"...he is Nationalist Socialist."

Are you seriously proposing Bernie Sanders is a Nazi??

He is a nationalist. He calls himself a socialist. He supports mild social reforms for "American citizens".
He supports Zionism and US global expansionist policies. He supports almost all war production.
What do you call him? A Liberal?
To Euro-Yankee....
Zionism is a political theory like NAZIism. In fact, the similarities are striking.
Both propose that a certain group (Jews, not to be confused with Semites) and Aryans have been oppressed and denied their god given right to dominate others to right that wrong....and anything goes on how they accomplish that end. Zionist may or may not be Semitic...Nationalist Socialist may or may not be Aryan. Both are criminal colonialist war mongers. Both are Fascistic in their orientation.
Who is a Jew and who is an Aryan is a matter of great debate but serves only imperialist interests.
That aside, please read "Zionism in the Age of Dictators" by Lenni Brenner and read Ben Gurion's diaries if you think that Zionism is anything but NAZISM in another form.
Ralph Schoneman does great work on the history of Zionism in "The hidden History of Zionsim".
Sanders is a Nationalist Socialist.
Watch how he cautions about immigrants and throws Palestinian activists out of his rallies as he calls for mild reforms to the criminal banker class just as Hitler did.
Euro-Yankee....fill me in on how you define a "smart war" after you read up on Zionism.
I know what a Yankee is.....anyone living from Key West to the north.

A Zionist believes in "Yretz Israel," just as a German Nazi believed in "Grossdeutschland." Bernie does not believe in Yretz Israel and so he is not a Zionist.

You'll never convince them, unfortunately. Anti-Semitism has run so rampant through swathes of the left that anyone who is Jewish or anyone who remotely supports Israel is demeaned as a "Zionist". There's simply no rational debate with these people.

A Zionist supports Zionist colonization of Palestine aka "Israel". Period.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, Sanders is a 21st century US liberal, rhetorically at least. Imperialism with a stated reformist agenda domestically. Aligned with the trade unions, never fundamentally questioning Capitalist economic relations, etc despite deceptive claims toward Social Democracy to assuage the guilty conscious of his audience.

With the intended effect to defuse social tensions domestically for a targeted upper-middle class layer mostly.

He is also savvy enough and opportunist enough not to criticize Israel, the US prime deputy in the ME oil patch, for to do so is certain suicide for any bourgeois politician in the US who will be targeted for demolition by the Israel lobby, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pentagon.

Examples of politicians who have attempted the breach would be Cynthia McKinney a few years back, and Dennis Kucinich to some extent, neither of them Socialists and both of them robbed of their congressional seats.

National Socialist == Nazi. Sanders is not a Nazi despite your rather a-historical tortured logic.

I abhor Zionism, a particularly pernicious form of identity politics as well as chauvinism of all types, and am also familiar with the works and authors you cite.

Ralph Schoenman (and his wife Maya) in particular have done a very good job of exposing Zionism, especially its early history. For their efforts, and being the last Marxist allowed into those environs, they had their show summarily cancelled by WBAI/Pacifica.

He is anti- stupid wars. As far as being a Zionist is concerned, I ask you to define Zionist.

Zionist is a derogatory term used by anti-Semite elements on the left to disparage anyone who is Jewish in government, and anyone who remotely supports any Israeli policy. It contrasts a confusing behaviour used by elements of the left to disparage anyone who criticises Israel as anti-Semitic.

That's just not true. Being a Zionist means you believe that Israel should have been established as a Jewish state. If you believe that the creation and maintenance of a "Jewish state" is a good thing, then you are a Zionist and at this point in history a right-wing imperialist.

Israel must be overthrown and removed as a Jewish state to be replaced by a single, secular, socialist state uniting Arabs and Jews, as part of a United Socialist States of the Middle East.

There is no such thing as progressive support for Israel, or its policies, as it exists.

Zionist is a person who believes that anyone called Jew has a right to colonize Palestine (and more) and ethnic clean non-Jews (natives)
"Stupid wars"? That is, wars waged by Reps? Last time I had heard those stupid propaganda words it was from Obama before elections. So, it is safe to suppose that Sanders would wage a lot of imperialist wars and other crimes were he to become Obama-2.

“We must be very careful about not making a complex and dangerous situation in Syria even worse,” Sanders said. “I support President Obama’s efforts to combat ISIS in Syria while at the same time supporting those in that country trying to remove the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad.” - from article.

That doesn't even make any sense. Fighting Assad while at the same time fighting his enemy (ISIS) is simply a confusing and nonsensical policy which on its face makes a "complex and dangerous situation even worse".

Not to mention the facts that ISIS is our own creation, we don't appear to really be trying to get rid of them, we have no right to decide who runs the government in a sovereign nation thousands of miles away, we have no legal backing under international or domestic law for being in Syria at all, and al-Assad is not a dictator (he was elected by the people of Syria). He may or may not be a "brute", but since the Syrians themselves re-elected him with something like an 80% margin, I can only surmise they consider him better than the alternatives.

Near as I can tell, we need to be much more concerned with the brutes running the USA.

"We don't appear to really be trying to get rid of them" - What do you think bombing ISIS positions is for? Admittedly that's not a long-term solution to combat religious extremism, but in short-term strategy, crippling them militarily is one way of getting rid of them. What would you suggest as a successful method of getting rid of them?

"we have no legal backing under international or domestic law for being in Syria at all" - the United Nations would disagree.

As for his election margin; does Syria strike you as a beacon of non-corruption and fair democracy?

Assad is a dictator in the same way Al Sisi, the President of Egypt, is a dictator. Elections have nothing to do with it.

Well, yeah except for the fact that Al Sisi is unelected, and imposed his regime entirely by force of the Egyptian army, with US backing, its exactly the same thing as Assad being reelected with a huge majority. And lets never forget that both Al Sisi and Assad staged repugnant kangaroo trials wherein thousands of their political opponents were sentenced to death en masse...oh wait,that was only Al Sisi that did that but what the hell, lets not ruin a very useful liberal equivocation here.

El Sisi was elected after the coup, more specifically.

Sanders NEVER was "anti-war". He is a Zionist and pro-Pentagon. Is it not enough for his "progressive" fans? Do they want Obama-2?

He's not a Zionist. He's Jewish, but aside from his ethnicity, don't you know that AIPAC & the other powerful Zionists lobbies control Congress, including Sanders?

I challenge you to watch this video of Bernie Sanders railing against the Pentagon and to then stand by your words:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

So how does this stand against his recent pronouncement that the US must maintain the "strongest military in the world" and his support for nearly every US imperial venture during his terms in the Senate. Am curious how you might square that particular circle.

By the way, big war profiteer Lockheed-Martin has a strong presence in his home state of Vermont.

It is one thing to have the strongest military in the world - it is another to have a military that is so bloated that it is bigger than the next 11 combined.

Tragically, and frustratingly, progressive-liberals are mired in a "battered-partner" psychology.

They are also conditioned to seek a charismatic (to them) Pied Piper who will serve as a Moses to lead them out of the political desert.

As innumerable Internet comments forums reveal, the "Sandernistas" begin and end with the slogan "Feel the Bern!" Despite the fact that many prog-libs are well-educated, they are typically fiercely anti-intellectual once they've committed to a promising candidate-- in every sense of the phrase.

They preempt critical thinking with dogma and rationalization. Thus, to answer your question, they vehemently reject the notion that Sanders is an "Obama 2.0".

They admit that their optimistic devotion to Obama was a mistake; they were so desperate for a politician to challenge the malevolent Bush II regime that they were sadly misled, fooled, deceived, etc.

Yet, rather than being "twice shy" the next time around, they actually believe that they learned from this mistake.

To them, "sadder but wiser" nevertheless means enthusiastically supporting the Sanders candidacy both because "Sanders is different from Obama", and because they intend to skeptically "hold his feet to the fire" to ensure that he truly supports "progressive" values and policies.

Meanwhile, they simply deny that Sanders is "as bad" as his critics and detractors claim; most outright reject the evidence that he's pro-military, pro-imperialist, pro-Zionist, etc.

Alternatively, they insist that he's "running to the right" to attract the broadest possible following, and will revert to his "true" progressive-friendly nature once he's in office.

If we only believe, and work harder at this relationship, this time it will be different! Again, this is the mantra of the battered partner/mate.

Sanders is different. He is consistent, and has been holding his beliefs for 40 years. He is addressing primarily economic and racial justice issues, not military ones. That much is true. But after 30 years of militarism and adventurism I think it is time for America to look inward.

Reading this saddens me, but we if we get him elected have to stand up to this war-mentality that rules the bloody U.S. empire. It's an empire in decay & words like we have to protect America are so cliche & stupid. Who will it take to say "No More Wars" to the military industrial complex that rules the U.S.? I can never support Hillary because she's worse, but Sanders must stop with this warhawk speech & face those of us who don't want peace. Yes, increase corporate taxes, but cut the Pentagon budget. That will pay for education, healthcare, eliminate the huge homeless population that lives in this 'glorious' land, etc.,

The real tragedy of "progressive-liberals" in USA and beyond is that there is no place for "progressive-liberal" rulers in current imperialist states. Before, when colonialism and imperialist wars were something "normal", the same people could support progressive-liberal laws for imperialist states and colonial wars. So they could have progressive-liberal imperialist rulers. Now, because of the end of the USSR, for ex, imperialists have no problem with waging imperialist wars and not sharing the spoils with "their" workers. So, Sanders' progressive-liberal promises mean nothing but his support for more imperialist wars and Zionism and so on is real.

I would even pity progressive-liberals were not the victims of USA imperialism (including of possible future prez Sanders) much more deserving my compassion.

The so-called progressives in the US are desperate for a candidate that offers even the slightest obstacle to the juggernaut of fascism that has steamrollered the nation for the past 35 years.

The elaborate and sophisticated propaganda system, that the ruling elites through their mouthpieces in the corporate media, has convinced the people that the two-party dictatorship is their only choice in the sham elections. Sanders is simply the next "hope and change" charlatan.

It's not just mere "propaganda" which convinces people that they have no choice within the two-party Capitalist oligopoly, it's the true state of the matter.

Onerous ballot qualification laws, the amount of cash required to mount a "serious" campaign, and of course, the capitalist media itself which gives this system the patina of legitimacy, not to mention the most sophisticated methods of high-tech surveillance are the several means by which the people of the US in particular, and the earth in general, have no meaningful choice in politics. Our very lives and livelihoods are beholden to those same forces.

It is a dictatorship of finance Capital and myriad forms of unaccountable private power backed up by the most murderous military apparatus the world has ever seen.

None of which is likely to appear on Bernie Sanders campaign website or to be included in his increasingly right-wing talking points.

Sadly, seems Bernie is showing his true colors; as a war monger!

Any pro war campaign in the middle east is going to be pro-Israel or pro-Arabia in some way. Some of what he says contradicts because there would be no reason to continue the strikes on Syria if he is not for Israel with his two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict. Why does he say he wants to continue striking the dictatorship? Is Bernie misinformed or just a warmonger?

The War Monger is Hillary Clinton. He is anti-Pentagon, anti-MI. I challenge you to watch this video of Bernie addressing Congress:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...