Graham's 'fire and brimstone' rhetoric could push country to war
“This is a war we’re fighting, it is not a counterterrorism operation! This is not Somalia; this is not Yemen; this is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”
Our own Sen. Lindsey Graham is back at his old tricks, fear mongering to the best of his ability. Graham historically favors the “fire and brimstone” method of rhetorical persuasion, where in if we don’t do exactly what he says we’re all going to suffer the greatest of consequences. If the above quote wasn’t needlessly terrifying enough, Graham added this juicy tidbit at the end of his Fox News interview earlier this week:
“[T]his is the last best chance, to knock him out, then they will open the gates of hell to spill out on the world. This is not a Sunni versus Sunni problem, this is ISIL versus mankind.”
This isn’t the first time Graham has treated politics like his personal parish, to preach to at his predilection. Here’s Graham, in 2013, on the impending nuclear attack on Charleston that will happen if we fail to attack Syria (ironically, in support of ISIS and other rebel groups):
“If we get Syria wrong, within six months, and you can quote me on this, there will be a war between Iran and Israel over their nuclear program. My fear is that it won't come to America on top of a missile, it’ll come in the belly of a ship in the Charleston or New York harbor."
Graham was also one of the leaders who pushed us into Iraq in 2003 because, “Saddam would not voluntarily part with his weapons of mass destruction.” It’s awfully hard to part with something you already don’t have, similar to the way I can’t part with my Lindsey Graham for Senate sticker.
I guess Graham is just really, really terrified of the entire Middle East. Perhaps he should invest in a nightlight. Perhaps someone should be sent to check under Graham’s bed every night for terrorists. Perhaps Graham is one of the least intelligent individuals ever to survive to adulthood. (However, that level of intellect would probably be on par for the course in individuals holding political office.)
Or, perhaps, Graham’s biggest campaign contributor is an energy company that majorly benefits from American intervention in a region swimming in gasoline.
Whichever of the two is the case, Graham’s poor track record should cause us to take pause before we allow him to scare us into another war in Iraq.