{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=412560d6-d9a3-4313-b4d3-eb36ad3b24b8", "Nightmare: Manchin on target | Charleston Gazette", "2014-09-18", "2014", "2014-09", "Democrat", "House", "WV", "Joe Manchin", "M001183", "www.manchin.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "September 18, 2014\n\t\t\t Nightmare: Manchin on target | Charleston Gazette \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWhen Washingtin tries to impose its will on the Middle East, calamity can occur.\r\nThe Reagan White House secretly sent the CIA to arm fanatical Muslim \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d to drive Russians out of Afghanistan in the 1980s \u2014 and that resistance eventually spawned the al-Qaida terror network that attacked America on 9/11. The Bush-Cheney White House pulled America into the disastrous Iraq War in 2003 on false claims of horror weapons \u2014 and now Iraq has deteriorated into a nightmare that spawned the murderous Islamic State or ISIS, which decapitates Americans.\r\nIn the column below, Leonard Pitts asks: \u201cIf we never had kicked this hornet\u2019s nest, would we now find ourselves obliged to confront the criminal gang that calls itself the Islamic State?\u201d\r\nWest Virginia\u2019s Sen. Joe Manchin delivered a superb Senate speech Wednesday making the same point. He said America has no choice but to loose air strikes on the dangerous ISIS conquerors \u2014 but he warned against arming other Muslim militias to fight the deadly fanatics, because they may become tomorrow\u2019s enemy.\r\nCongress must vote soon on a continuing resolution to keep the U.S. government afloat. Unfortunately, the resolution contains money to arm \u201cmoderate\u201d militias that are fighting both ISIS and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.\r\nManchin said the so-called moderates are mostly Islamist \u201choly warriors\u201d \u2014 and that they \u201csold American journalist Steven Sotloff to ISIS, who beheaded him and put the video on the Internet.\u201d The West Virginian declared: \u201cI strongly believe that if our military arms and trains Syrian rebels, we will be involving ourselves in a ground conflict we cannot resolve, where potentially everyone is our enemy.\u201d\r\nWith U.S. weapons, the \u201cmoderates\u201d might team up with ISIS to fight dictator Assad, enlarging the menace to America. \u201cI can foresee a Senate debate a few years from now about how to defeat the next group of Islamist terrorists that we helped train and install,\u201d he said.\r\n\u201cWe have been at war in that part of the world for the past 13 years,\u201d Manchin said. \u201cIf money and military might could have made a difference, it would have by now.\u201d\r\nHe pointed out that 6,600 young Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, with 57,000 others wounded, and U.S. taxpayers have lost $1.6 trillion, \u201cnot including the costs of long-term care of wounded veterans.\u201d\r\nManchin is right: America mustn\u2019t get sucked deeper into this quicksand.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t    By:\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t    Editorial\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=412560d6-d9a3-4313-b4d3-eb36ad3b24b8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4334935694932938, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}