Gates’s GOP Critics

Gates’s GOP Critics

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense by a vote of 95 to 2. Who were the two dissenters? Barbara Boxer? Russ Feingold? John Kerry?

Nope. Republicans Jim Bunning and Rick Santorum, aka Senator Dementia and Senator Man on Dog.

Both Bunning and Santorum rejected the idea–peddled by Gates and many others–that the US should negotiate with Iran and Syria as a way of resolving the mess in Iraq. “I do not support inviting terrorists to the negotiating table,” Bunning said. “We should not be negotiating with Iran,” Santorum added, “we should be confronting Iran.”

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense by a vote of 95 to 2. Who were the two dissenters? Barbara Boxer? Russ Feingold? John Kerry?

Nope. Republicans Jim Bunning and Rick Santorum, aka Senator Dementia and Senator Man on Dog.

Both Bunning and Santorum rejected the idea–peddled by Gates and many others–that the US should negotiate with Iran and Syria as a way of resolving the mess in Iraq. “I do not support inviting terrorists to the negotiating table,” Bunning said. “We should not be negotiating with Iran,” Santorum added, “we should be confronting Iran.”

In perhaps his final speech as a member of the Senate, Santorum did not mince words. He called the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, of which Gates was a member, “a prescription for surrender.”

With views like these, it’s little wonder why he’ll be unemployed next month.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x