… thinkin’ about joining al-Qaeda or ISIL — anybody thinkin’ about that?
Well, yeah. He is.
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to say Lindsey Graham is a POS is to denigrate sh*t.
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Oh no they haven’t. Among Republican voters, which is almost half of us, this increases his electability. It’s to the point where anything that offends common decency is seen as offending liberals, and therefore good.
But Graham has no power to lose the election, because he doesn’t have a hope in hell of the nomination. He compromises too much with reality, logic, and other tools of the devil. The election will be decided by the feelings of the base. Is the left more disgusted with Hillary? Or is the right more disgusted with Jeb or whoever? Whichever team stays home, loses.
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I recall reading a recent article (don’t remember where) that described the process of traveling to Syria to take up that special sort of Jihad. The young man had his hopes set on an elite terrorist group (Jabhat al-Nusra) , but iirc, ended up joining his safety terror group when it turned out that his application just wasn’t strong enough.
Graham is an ass for suggesting yet more drone strikes, but “thinking of joining al-Quade” can conceal a multitude of sins that rise above mere thought crime (presuming that concrete actions have been taken)
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Unless there’s an outcome where the government ends up more beholden to the voter than it is to money, we’re all on the losing team.
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Which means we’re screwed.
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except i think graham’s hyperbole exists precisely to help normalize actions re: drone strikes, guantanamo bay, prisoner torture, and preemptive war.
the transcript says:
GONYEA (NPR): The Iowa event was the biggest Sen. Graham has attended as a potential candidate. And on a dime, he turns to a serious topic without abandoning the humor.
GRAHAM: If … you’re thinking about joining al-Qaida or ISIL - I’m not going to call a judge. I’m going to call a drone, and we will kill you.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
he’s “boundary seeking” with his audience. how much can an american presidential candidate get away with saying, and how far are americans willing to step outside the law to “get the bad guys”.
when the audience ( including npr and ourselves ) isn’t calling him out on bad “jokes” like extrajudicial killing, we’re basically saying this joke is okay, and maybe even that idea itself isn’t such a bad one.
there are good reasons for not summarily executing prisoners of war – and i think that same logic applies here too. especially when you look at the economic and privilege status of the us and european citizens who have been joining up.
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Just during the Bush administration, you say? 
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What’s the over-under on the number of years between now and an unarmed black kid being killed by a government drone[1] on US soil?
[1] drone in this case refers to a remote controlled vehicle of some kind.
One terrifying feature of the Christian faith is that it is a sin just to think, not even take any action, but just to consider an immoral thought.
For example, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. " Matthew 5:28
So when I hear of technology scientists are developing that allows people to read your mind, I fear the application of it in places where the religious are in control. Thought crime will become a very real thing.
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Yes, but suppose voters like small men who bluster unconvincingly?
The dude is only troling. To show his seriousness. trollies vote too!
Uh, no thanks, I just ate.
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Now imagine an Iranian politician said something crazy-dangerous like that.
Or at least something that could be interpreted that way when translated badly by a warmongering think-tank.
It would be absolute, irrefutable proof that Iran is a rogue nation that can absolutely not be trusted with nuclear power generation facilities and actually needs to be bombed yesterday.
There’s nothing wrong with making “attempting to join a foreign terrorist group” - or even “attempting to join any foreign fighting body” a crime for your own citizens. It doesn’t sound like Graham knows the concept of “due process” and “proportionate punishment”.
What does American law currently say on that subject? Assuming that the terrorist does not directly fight against American troops. I seem to recall that fundraising for the IRA was legal in America.
The punishment for joining a far-away fight must not be too harsh, though: if the fighter has a change of mind and is faced with a choice of continuing to fight and returning back home to face a prison term, returning should probably be the better option.
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The GOP: if you absolutely must vote for the worse of two evils.
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The article I alluded to earlier is here. Apparently, my imagination had applied quite a gloss.
Drone strikes, besides destroying lives, would also destroy intelligence.
They were more explicit and far ranging about it, then. Obama was just “palling around” with terrorists; during Bush II, democrats were terrorists.
that’s a fascinating article, and challenged some of my assumptions. for brits, the researcher they talked to says:
The average British fighter is… in his early 20s… has some university education… over and over again, we have seen that radicalization is not necessarily driven by social deprivation or poverty.
he further mentions how some join for humanitarian reasons ( i’m guessing this means regime change ), and how some are directed away from other less radical groups because, just as you said – they don’t have a sponsor within the group, they can’t speak arabic, etc. and, basically, isis takes everybody.
it also points out how the cia used to help funnel people to fight in afghanistan, how people have left and returned after fighting qaddafi, but with the reality of isis and al qaeda – the current wave are considered terrorists, even if they have no intention of terrorists acts.
that used to be the case. now when fighters return, they are often barred from reentry, and have to face security screening – which is supposed to both stop people from leaving in the first place, and to prevent terrorist actions at home, but may instead keep fighters fighting.
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