In the coming second American Civil War,

[Hortensis]

82. :) Has so much time passed since 43/Repubs lied to invade Iraq

to get the oil, beef up our domination in the ME, and "finish" the first gulf war by smashing Iraq?

Right now the trumpist types are feeling sorta isolationist because trump hasn't been blowing the war trumpet. But most of them are frequently huge warmongers, and most of the rest support it as needed.

Btw, and this helps explain so much about them, it's the nature of strong conservatives to know enemies will detroy them if not destroyed first. And they always have enemies. (Unfortunately, instead of Russia or Iran, we're currently #1.)

And it's also their nature to believe only forcing enemies to total surrrender will save us from destruction. 41 let them down terribly by not invading Iraq (and they didn't reelect him) but 44, one of them, returned to invade, occupy, and kill Hussein and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis (and salvage his father's honor).

This is why so many respond with outrage to diplomatic solutions, limited engagements, smart war, etc. It's not just partisan opposition -- typical strong conservatives are typically appalled. Trumpist types opposed all the nuclear test ban and step-down treaties! And, btw, they've always known we will need to use our nuclear arsenal to protect ourselves, nice people placidly accepting the need to murder millions as a certainty.

And very hard-core conservatives like these and worse currently threaten to take over. Situations and reactions change, but personality traits remain the same, including in very educated and experienced strong conservatives at the top of government and business. We've all been amazed at what mean, inadequate little creeps so many are.

China and Russia are of course also ancient enemies, and both are headed by conservative governments. Of course they are allied, somewhat, against us now...