I received an email from Dave Ratcliffe of ratical.org alerting me to Dave Lindorff's post which includes Lindorff's comments on an interview (transcript included in the post) with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) conducted by George Stephanopolos and broadcast on ABC News. Below I am quoting Ratcliffe's email introduction to this post. So, I advise you to read the Dave Lindorff's post first, and then read Ratcliffe's emailed introduction as follows:
The following highlights the straight-jacket thinking enveloping virtually all national legislators - including the incisive and straight-talking Representative from Hawaii. In the January 14 ABC News transcript at the bottom of this message, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard states clearly, "we've got to understand North Korea is holding on to these nuclear weapons because they think it is their only protection from the United States coming in and doing to them what the United States has done to so many countries throughout history." After then being asked, "Was it a mistake for the United States to take out Gaddafi and Hussein?" Gabbard responds, "It was. Absolutely." How clearly does any Federal legislator ever address head-on what Ms. Gabbard does here? And yet, in contrast to this, earlier in the transcript, Gabbard states, "We absolutely need to bolster our ballistic missile defense system, specifically for Hawaii and for this country." The fantasy of pursuing so-called missile defense capabilities serves to increase the risk of war by promoting a chimerical will-o'-the-wisp shield from that which cannot be protected against. (The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space provides a diverse archive of Useful Links on Missile 'Defense'.) The supreme necessity is to exercise our inborn intelligence and common sense to critique and assess what is presented by media, academicians, and state actors, and decide for ourselves what is down-to-earth and what we spend our energy and time engaged in.