Andrew Biggio, why are you surprised at the executive order? Good for you that you're speaking up now about what you know is wrong and cruel. My only surprise is that the Bannon/Trump administration is moving so swiftly with a number of executive orders that are signed without the normal vetting process.Military veterans were dumbfounded and furious when it became clear over the weekend that President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the admission into the United States of people from seven majority-Muslim countries keeps out interpreters who’d risked their lives helping U.S. forces in Iraq.
“They better make a damn exception, because we are here because of them,” said Andrew Biggio, a former Marine sergeant who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. “Our lives, our families, we have everything to thank for our interpreters. We owe them, we owe them, we owe them.”
Biggio, who voted for Trump, said he and other Marines he served with are waiting for a clarification from the White House. Many of them personally pushed for years to obtain visas for their interpreters and then raised funds to help them settle in.
It's understandable that a new president will want to change policies, but the ban on immigrants from seven countries with Muslim majorities, and the attempt by the administration to link Obama to the executive order is despicable. Man up, and take responsibility for your own actions, Mr Bannon and President Trump. Refugees coming to the US are already subject to the most rigorous vetting in the entire world.
Veterans said that honoring the implicit promise made to those who risked their lives to help the United States has nothing to do with politics, and that they can’t believe it would be up for debate.Who is vetting the Bannon/Trump administration's executive orders? Apparently, no one who knows anything about the process is included.
“You will find military veterans unified in support of this; it’s not partisan,” said Brandon Friedman, a former Obama administration official who commanded a platoon during the invasion of Iraq. “This order demonstrates that we don’t have their backs. It’s totally un-American.”
Veteran officials who normally would have reviewed the order’s language to ensure smooth implementation and avoid potential litigation have been cut out of the typical process by the Trump administration — or simply overruled, current and former officials told FP [Foreign Policy].
As one of my friends asked, is the administration trying to incite ISIS to attack the United States? The executive order is probably unconstitutional, and it will not make the people in the country safer. It will increase the danger of a terrorist attack, and, worst of all, US members of the military serving in the Middle East will be put at risk. To ask troops to put their lives on the line, even as the presidential order puts their lives at greater risk is abominable.
President Donald Trump is getting blasted for reorganizing the National Security Council to oust the director of intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [James Mattis] from always attending the Principals Committee -- and installing one of his top political advisers on the key panel.Does anyone on Trump's team know what they're doing? What's going on in the White House? What is Vice-President Pence doing? Standing like a potted plant to watch Trump sign executive orders?
Trump's order makes his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, a regular member of the Principals Committee. The committee is a Cabinet-level group of agencies that deal with national security that was established by President George H. W. Bush in 1989.
Is Bannon/Trump in the middle of an attempted coup to govern by fiat, with no regard for the other two branches of government? Where is the leadership from the GOP? Democratic Senators are expected to introduce legislation as early as Monday that aims to overturn President Trump's executive orders on immigration. Democrats will need cooperation from Republicans to pass a bill to put an end to the madness of the executive order through legislation. And Trump will have to sign the legislation into law. What are the chances for an override of a Trump veto? Probably zero, but Democrats must go on record loudly and proudly in opposing the ban.
The EO needs to be taken to the supreme court to get ruled out. I believe ACLU and 15 governors are working on it now.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, that's the way to put an end to it, but the Democrats must go on record.
DeleteHow much more havoc can this President be allowed to cause. This is so atypical of what we have come to expect of the USA. It is very depressing.
ReplyDeleteJane, it's beyond depressing to terrifying for me.
DeleteSurely there are grounds for impeachment on this EO alone?
ReplyDeleteI don't see the idiot remaining long in the Whitehouse.
UKViewer, I hope not. Trump will be impeached when Republicans in Congress decide there are grounds to impeach.
Delete"The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."
(Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution)
About blaming President Obama. He's a point, but it's weak. It seems that in 2011-12 two Iraqi Us residents were arrested. One of them had left his fingerprints on an IED. Turns out that this sort of material kept by the Army was not a part of the vetting process. The President and them go back over 50,000 plus current residents and check for more of the same. Apparently they found nothing. But the checking of so many slowed down the process for new admissions for anyone coming from Iraq for some months. So there was no ban. It was just for Iraq. And a new source of vetting material just slowed and already process. Trump therefore is not just carrying on Obama's policy. Tom Downs
ReplyDeleteThanks, for commenting, Tom. Dangerous people slip through the cracks, including people who are already here. That will happen during any administration. Obama did not ban people from Iraq or any of the countries the Republicans cite, and the GOP needs to take responsibility for their actions. All during the previous administration, the GOP criticized Obama's policies as weak on terrorism, and now they cite him as an excuse for their sloppy executive order. The irony - it burns!
DeleteI don't know how Trump's executive order will hold up in court, but Acting Attorney General Sally Yates stated she would not defend it, and Trump said, "You're fired."
It is utter nonsense that the ban will make us safer; in fact, it makes us less safe and presents ISIS with an excellent recruiting tool.