Back in May, U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert, who is generally known as one of the most incoherent, ideologically extremist right wingers in the U.S. House of Representatives, swerved into the territory of the sane, and actually made sense when he expressed concern that the supposed reform of federal government surveillance activities contained loopholes that would allow continued electronic dragnet spying against American citizens.
Yesterday, Louie did it again, at least for a the better part of a minute. Giving a floor speech on the Obama Administration policy of declaring war against the Islamic State without constitutionally-required congressional authority, Gohmert made some idiotic comments, such as equating the leaders of Iran with Adolph Hitler. But then, Gohmert spent a short bit of time discussing a truly important concern: Obama’s plan to send weapons into Syria.
Gohmert noted that there is a history of the Islamic State taking weapons that were donated to opponents of the Islamic State by the US government. The seizure of these weapons makes small Islamic State victories into significant strategic gains. The Islamic State is using weapons that were sent into Syria by the CIA, as well as weapons that were sent to Iraq, supposedly to keep the country secure and stable.
Gohmert makes an excellent point when he implies that sending weapons to an unstable, war-torn region won’t bring violence to an end, and may actually make matters worse. It’s outrageous that it takes a regressive Texas Republican to introduce this idea into public debate, while supposedly anti-gun liberals are busy supporting Barack Obama’s NRA-style contention that flooding an area with weapons will help to bring lasting peace.
Gohmert is a poor spokesman for peace, but very few of the supposedly level-headed Democrats are willing to criticize their own political party’s President, even when he leads American into yet another Yeehaw foreign policy.