by Diane V. McLoughlin - September 24, 2014
Two essentials necessary, for both armies and uprisings, to advance, are arms and cash. The U.S. has just authorized 500 milion dollars-worth of training and weapons for Syrian rebels and the wisdom of doing so must be questioned.
Certainly American 'PNAC' neocons want to keep arming so-called 'good' rebels to help them overthrow Syria's government. The U.S. should not be involved with the attempt at overthrowing Syria's secular regime, and the reasons for wanting to do so must be questioned, as well. Why would U.S. interests be keen? Who profits?
Israel continues to illegally occupy Syrian territory, and has recently put out tenders for oil exploration contracts on the occupied Golan Heights. (How about Gaza? Does Gaza have natural resources, too? Check - Gaza has a territorial stake in the vast wealth of off-shore natural gas.)
What seems a fairly predictable eventuality may have come to pass: The Syrian rebels reportedly have agreed to a ceasefire with ISIS (also known, variously, as Isil; Is, or Islamic State) circumstances in which you cannot expect arms provided to one will be used to degrade the military capabilities of the other.
Nevertheless, U.S. pro-war cheerleaders such as U.S. Senator John McCain, assert that they can tell the 'good' guys from the bad in the quest to pump more U.S.-manufactured arms in. Profitable, yes. Potential pots of gold at the ends of various political rainbows, no doubt.
There are pictures purportedly showing McCain hobnobing with ISIS rebels. Some pundits are rubbing their hands with glee at the karma, that McCain may ultimately find himself charged with the crime of aiding terrorists.
Iraq and Syrian oil that ISIS is reportedly selling on the global black market also keeps ISIS in arms and other necessary supplies, in addition to Syrian rebel-held American weaponry somehow being added to their arsenals. Looting, including banks, keeps their conquest going, too.
Bombing campaigns are destructive, rather indiscriminate, and they make more enemies. This is not the answer to ISIS so far as western strategic interests are concerned, if we actually are concerned with not stirring a terrorism hornet's nest any further than we have already. Cut off the flow of arms and cash and frustrate supply lines, instead.
As for beheadings, Saudi Arabia, treated as one of the good guys and part of the ad hoc coalition fighting ISIS, has had something like 41 beheadings as judicial punishments this year alone - the country where the 9/11 terrorists came from.
So ISIS utilizing the violent propaganda tool of beheading innocent people might be viewed in a wider context. Our own political leaders garner political traction with the ISIS beheadings, as well.
Bombing ISIS targets legitimates their propaganda that 'the west' is the enemy.
Showing posts with label neocons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neocons. Show all posts
September 24, 2014
September 25, 2012
On the Precipice of War - Press Conference with Rep Walter Jones & Retired Military on HCR107
Diane V. McLoughlin, September 25, 2012:
Please encourage everyone you know to contact their elected representatives to ask them to support H.R. 107. [Find your representative's contact information, here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find ]
According to the Constitution, only the duly elected representatives have legal authority to green-light war. The executive branch - regardless of which political party is in power - has over time aggressively and illegally shunted the will of the People aside, to the degree that we are now at risk of nuclear war.
The truth is heard in quiet rooms such as the one in the above video. It is unsettling how quiet and under-attended this moment captured on film with these top officials, is.
Any president must understand that if they try to launch offensive war without the consent of the People, they will be removed from office through the legal mechanism of impeachment. This legal fail-safe, thoughtfully built into the Constitution, may be the last frail thing that stands in the way of nuclear war.
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A sample form letter:
Dear Congressman _________:
I am writing to respectfully urge you to support H. Con. Res. 107:
'Expressing the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.'
Congressman, I am including a link to a Youtube, wherein Rep. Walter Jones; Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan; and, Lt. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (USA Ret.) former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell (2002-05), each lay out their views as to the current state of the nation, particularly with regard to the perilous status of global political affairs:
['Press Conference with Walter Jones & Retired Military on HCR107; Sept. 21, 2012]
We attacked Libya without authorization. Iran (and beyond?) may be next. Please support HCR 107.
Most respectfully,
(your signature) __________
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September 24, 2012
August 06, 2012
Ron Paul Talk 080612 Sanctions on Iran and Syria - Closer to Another Criminal War
Similar to the fireside chat idea, every week Congressman and presidential candidate, Ron Paul, makes a phone recorded message that anyone can listen to by dialing, toll-free, 888-322-1414. The text of this week's political commentary by Ron Paul follows, below:
| Moving toward War in Syria |  |  |  |
Last week the House passed yet another bill placing sanctions on Iran and Syria, bringing us closer to another war in the Middle East. We are told that ever harsher sanctions finally will force the targeted nations to bend to our will. Yet the ineffectiveness of previous sanctions teaches us nothing; in truth sanctions lead to war more than they prevent war.
Until last year, Libyan sanctions were touted as a great success story. The regime would change its behavior. Yet NATO bombed the country anyway.
Last week we learned that President Obama signed an intelligence “finding” directing the CIA to covertly assist rebels in Syria. The administration seems determined to fight yet another war in Syria that has nothing to do with American national interests.
We already know that a similar “finding” was signed under the latest Bush administration directing US intelligence to undermine the Iranian government and promote regime change there. Neoconservatives have long demanded that we overthrow the Syrian government before moving on to war against Iran. This bellicosity continues regardless of which party is in the White House.
In Syria we see once again we see how our interventionist policies backfire and make us less secure. Recent news reports point to ties between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaeda (and other extremist groups). A recent article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, exclaimed that, “Al-Qaida turns tide for rebels in battle for eastern Syria.” The article quotes an al-Qaeda leader in Syria saying that he meets with the main US-backed Syrian rebel organization, the Free Syrian Army, “almost every day.” So by promoting civil war in Syria we end up fueling al-Qaeda.
According to another recent press report, German intelligence services estimate that nearly 100 terrorist attacks have been committed by al-Qaeda or related organizations in Syria over the past six months. Last month a suicide bomber in Syria killed a defense minister and several top government officials. The US government, which has been fighting a “War on Terror” for more than a decade now, refused to condemn that act of terrorism.
This raises the question of whether the US administration is supporting the same people in Syria that we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed these same concerns earlier this year when asked whether the US has been reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels. She answered, “To whom are you delivering them? We know al-Qaida. Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria. Are we supporting al-Qaida in Syria?”
That is a very good question. It clearly demonstrates that the United States has no business at all being involved in the Syrian civil war. In the 1980s we supported a resistance movement in Afghanistan that later gave birth to elements of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. When will we learn our lesson and stop intervening in conflicts we don’t truly understand, conflicts that have nothing to do with American national interests?
- Congressman Ron Paul
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