kpete
kpete's JournalThe U.S. Is No Lone Ranger and Should Put That Six Shooter Away
On Syria: The U.S. Is No Lone Ranger and Should Put That Six Shooter Away
Posted on Sep 2, 2013
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I am not arguing that because the United States and its allies have indiscriminately killed large numbers of innocent noncombatants in the past, the Syrian government should be held harmless for its own gas attack at Ghouta, which killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Two wrongs never make a right. I am arguing that the United States is in no moral or legal position to play the Lone Ranger here. The first steps Washington should take are to acknowledge its own implication in such atrocities and to finish destroying its chemical stockpiles and join the ban on land mines and cluster bombs.
Now that we’re in the 21st century, moreover, it is time to cease using the supposedly macho language of violence in response to political challenges. Tossing a couple of Tomahawk cruise missiles on a few government facilities in Damascus is not going to deter the Syrian government from using chemical weapons, and it will not affect the course of the war. Sonni Efron, a former State Department official and now a senior government fellow at Human Rights First, has argued that the United States and Europe could have a much more effective impact by announcing that in response to the Baath provocation they were going to close the loopholes that allow Syrian banks to continue to interface with world financial institutions. This strategy would involve threatening third-party sanctions on Russian banks that provide Damascus with a financial backdoor. A united U.S.-EU push on this front would be far more consequential for the Syrian government than a limited military strike.
the rest:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/on_syria_the_us_is_no_lone_ranger_and_should_put_that_six_shooter_away_20/
"Just shut your fking piehole. Forever. You useless walking, bloodstained pile of casual death."
JUST SHUT UP
By Charles P. Pierce
Read more: Joe Lieberman Syria - Just Shut Up - Esquire
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Let me be more precise. Just shut your fking piehole. Forever. You useless walking, bloodstained pile of casual death.
Lieberman said that he would urge lawmakers -- including his "amigos," Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) -- to approve an action in Syria. "I'm sure that our enemies are cheering now as a result of this decision because they realize it's not clear the president will get authority, and our allies are worried," he concluded. "That's why, again, this resolution or something like it has to pass Congress."
Let us be clear. There is no blazing, murderous maw into which Joe Lieberman would not be willing to feed someone else's child. There is no fiery death from above that he is not willing to inflict upon children in a distant land. The man could care less about the dead. He'd feed on them himself, if he could.
Fk him with a Hellfire.
Now that my throat's clear, let's start the day.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/joe-lieberman-syria-090213
"but...but...but...this is different!"
Remember the "16 words"?The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0720-09.htm
SYRIA: "Concentrating on a different issue that really does require American "intervention":
Here's just one interesting insight that should make us all step back and ask ourselves whether our long term interest might be better served by concentrating on a different issue that really does require American "intervention":
Survival was the key issue. The senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in Syria turned to the USAID program for help. Terming the situation “a perfect storm,” in November 2008, he warned that Syria faced “social destruction.” He noted that the Syrian Minister of Agriculture had “stated publicly that [the] economic and social fallout from the drought was ‘beyond our capacity as a country to deal with.’” But, his appeal fell on deaf ears: the USAID director commented that “we question whether limited USG resources should be directed toward this appeal at this time.” (reported on November 26, 2008 in cable 08DAMASCUS847_a to Washington and “leaked” to Wikileaks )
Whether or not this was a wise decision, we now know that the Syrian government made the situation much worse by its next action. Lured by the high price of wheat on the world market, it sold its reserves. In 2006, according to the US Department of Agriculture, it sold 1,500,000 metric tons or twice as much as in the previous year. The next year it had little left to export; in 2008 and for the rest of the drought years it had to import enough wheat to keep its citizens alive.
So tens of thousands of frightened, angry, hungry and impoverished former farmers flooded constituted a “tinder” that was ready to catch fire. The spark was struck on March 15, 2011 when a relatively small group gathered in the town of Daraa to protest against government failure to help them. Instead of meeting with the protestors and at least hearing their complaints, the government cracked down on them as subversives. The Assads, who had ruled the country since 1971, were not known for political openness or popular sensitivity. And their action backfired. Riots broke out all over the country, and as they did, the Assads attempted to quell them with military force. They failed to do so and, as outside help – money from the Gulf states and Muslim “freedom fighters” from the rest of the world – poured into the country, the government lost control of over 30% of the country’s rural areas and perhaps half of its population. By the spring of 2013, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), upwards of 100,000 people had been killed in the fighting, perhaps 2 million have lost their homes and upwards of 2 million have fled abroad. Additionally, vast amounts of infrastructure, virtually whole cities like Aleppo, have been destroyed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/your-labor-day-syria-reader-part-2-william-polk/279255/
If that doesn't sound like a premonition of many more crises to come, I don't know what does. Perhaps we should stop blowing things up for a little while and concentrate on being a global leader on the real existential crisis of our time: climate change. Tomahawk missiles aren't going to solve it, that's for sure.
I know it's long but please read this entire article. If you are persuaded, send it to your Representative, particularly if he or she is a progressive Democrat who is likely to be arm twisted by the Syria hawks in the Democratic leadership. It's vitally important that we break this cycle of military intervention to solve problems that can't be solved by military intervention. There are much bigger, long term challenges underlying all of this this that are papered over by America's status as the world's policeman and it's not serving any of us well.
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/if-you-want-to-understand-whats.html
Russia Pushes Story (Mint News) Blaming Chem Weapons Attack On Syrian Rebels (Story Has Some Holes)
The problem for this reporter, however, began with the claim that the rebels had used Sarin gas. Already, I had interviewed someone with close ties to the humanitarian effort in Syria, a doctor who was familiar with chemical attacks. Rather than Sarin, the report given pointed to a completely different chemical agent, Tabun, a nerve agent with significantly lower rates of fatalities compared to other chemical agents. This would explain in part why there were such a high number of survivors. Tabun was last used during the Iran-Iraq war, alongside Sarin. Unlike Sarin, which is naturally a gas, Tabun is naturally a liquid, but can be turned into an aerosol for inhalation. Sarin kills within minutes, while Tabun is a far slower, more lingering danger. During the Iran-Iraq war, the two are used together due to their complementary methods of action, a cocktail mixture of agents designed to maximize their effect. However, the final word on what chemical was used, and who used it, is not due until the United Nations releases their findings.
Doing further digging, the earlier mentioned discrepancy over the reporter came clear. Since the initial release, Mint Press News has edited the article, making clear that the piece was written by Yahya Ababneh and not Dale Gavlak. Even more concerning, this appears to have been the sole piece ever written by Yahya Ababneh for the Mint Press News. Mr. Ababnah had previously written for other news agencies, ones which had praised the 9/11 attacks. The question comes, why would the leadership of the Syrian opposition speak to a journalist which worked for news agencies tied to propaganda, now working for a Minnesota news company which only came into existence less than 2 years ago?
Now, it is quite plausible for the Saudis to supply the rebels with weapons, given the bad blood between the Syrian regime and the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia had already been found to be applying pressure on Jordan to allow the rebels to operate out of its territory, a move which would inflame the conflict and potentially spread to Syria’s neighbor to the south. But would they introduce chemical weapons in to such a scenario? And if so, why this particular chemical weapon?
More plausible, should the weapons have been used by either side, their more likely source would be the stolen store of chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein. His regime already had developed the nerve agent cocktail which would fit the profile put forth. It is known that his storage facilities and factories for chemical weapons were looted following the US invasion. It is not a difficult jump to imagine those winding up in Syria, and available to either side of the conflict.
Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/02/russia-pushes-story-attempting-to-blame-chemical-weapons-attack-on-syrian-rebels/#ixzz2dmmWP5AI
Obama To Meet With LGBT Activists While In Russia
Source: BuzzFeed
Following his cancellation of a bilateral meeting with President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barack Obama may infuriate the Kremlin further by meeting Russian human rights activists, including LGBT rights groups, during his upcoming trip to St Petersburg for the G20 summit.
Four Russian non-governmental organizations told BuzzFeed Monday they had been invited to the meeting, scheduled for this Thursday at St. Petersburg’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. The groups include veteran human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, legal aid NGO director Pavel Chikov, and Coming Out, a St.
Petersburg-based LGBT organization. Another local LGBT group, the LGBT Network, is believed to be attending, though director Igor Kochetkov declined to comment to BuzzFeed, saying that he had been “asked not to say anything.”
Election monitoring group Golos is also believed to have been invited, though BuzzFeed could not reach its director or deputy director to confirm. Russia’s justice ministry forced Golos, which used to receive funding from USAID, to disband this summer under a law on “foreign agents” that many believed was created specifically to target the group.
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It is believed to be the first time Obama has met with members of the Russian LGBT community. Asked about Russia’s anti-LGBT law in August, Obama told Jay Leno that he had “no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/obama-to-meet-with-russian-activists-on-g20-sidelines
Rep. John Lewis: "Sometime you have to find a way to get in the way."
Rep. John Lewis to fast food strikers: 'Sometime you have to find a way to get in the way'
Sometimes you have to use your marching feet and sometimes you have to make a little noise. When I spoke at the march on Saturday, I said we need to make some noise. And sometimes we're too quiet.
Sometime you have to find a way to make a way out of no way. Sometime you have to find a way to get in the way. I know some of your coworkers may be a little afraid. But you must tell them, don't be afraid. Be of good courage.
We must remember that Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, died in Memphis trying to help the sanitation workers. That's what this is all about. Some people are getting richer and richer and doing better and doing better and others are getting poor and poor.
That's not right! That's not fair! That's not just! So get out there, keep walking, keep marching, keep talking, keep pushing, and keep pulling, and you will have a great victory, and you can count on my help.
video & more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/02/1235725/-Rep-John-Lewis-to-fast-food-strikers-Sometime-you-have-to-find-a-way-to-get-in-the-way
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