“Won’t you give up your ‘assault weapon’ so that poor African children won’t have to do without? After all, shouldn’t African children have the same right to kill for U.S. interests as American women?”
This cartoon & caption courtesy of Tom Blanton, the mastermind of the Project for a New American Revolution, who does some of the best political art around. Check out his other antiwar work at his Flickr page.
From Frank Brodhead of Concerned Families of Westchester:
As President Obama puts his new national security team into place, the likelihood is increasing that no meaningful negotiations about Iran’s nuclear policy will take place before Iran’s presidential election in June. There are several reasons to think this. During his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry gave no indication that President Obama’s policy towards Iran was deviating from “all options are on the table,” and there is no indication that the administration was about to relax its (to Iran, unacceptable) negotiating position. Second, as noted in some articles linked below, it is becoming clear that, in separate talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is not about to allow an inspection of its military base at Parchin (an IAEA demand) until a more comprehensive negotiating framework is developed in the parallel negotiations between Iran and the P5+1.
If there are no negotiations between the Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany), there is little likelihood that sanctions against Iran will be lessened. I’ve linked essays below about the recently augmented sanctions, with several essays stressing the terrible effect that the sanctions are having on supplies of medicine, and thus health.
Continue reading “Iran War Weekly – January 27, 2013”
Could he [Mr. Obama] order the targeted killing of an American citizen [cleric Anwar al-Awlaki], in a country with which the United States was not at war [Yemen], in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
Mr. Obama gave his approval… Secret Kill List’ Tests Obama’s Principles – NYTimes.com
Yep, judge, jury and executioner.
That used to un-American, not to mention illegal — AND a really bad idea. What happened?
IN THIS ISSUE
This week’s top news:
Kerry: US Will Do What We Mustto Stop Iran: Senator John Kerry (D-MA) vowed in his Senate confirmation hearings to be the next Secretary of State that the US would do what we must; to stop Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, adding that the clock is ticking; for Iran to comply with US demands.
US, West Chasing Non-Threats in Africa: As the France-led military intervention in Mali enters its second week, a growing chorus of Western governments, from Britain to the US, are voicing strong support for it by systematically exaggerating the threat posed by militants in Africa’s Sahel region.
Continue reading “Antiwar.com Newsletter | January 25, 2012”
Marc Lynch’s new column at Foreign Policy explores the contradiction in Washington’s rhetoric of democracy and reform with its active support for tyranny and repression in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding Gulf states.
This is an old narrative. Yes, there is a contradiction of sorts. But Lynch and many other academics continue to lend credence to the completely empty and dishonest rhetoric of American support for human rights. Actions matter, not words. And so if we look at what matters we see that there is no contradiction; nothing but straight-forward, consistent, enthusiastic support for the worst kind of state repression and despotism.
Lynch advocates more American support for the Arab uprisings that Washington’s client states have so brutally suppressed. But he concedes the US can’t and shouldn’t “abandon its strategic posture in the Gulf — certainly not overnight.”
“What should the United States do about this changing Saudi Arabia?” Lynch asks. “Its real dependence on Saudi oil, Riyadh’s key role in the current security architecture, and the transition costs of a new strategy can’t be wished away.”
Transition costs? Please. The benefits of US geo-strategy in the Gulf go directly to Washington, and any costs of transitioning out of that posture would go directly to the state and its cohorts. When people talk about “support for the status quo” – Washington-speak for propping up authoritarian governments and actively suppressing democratic uprisings – being necessary for American interests, they aren’t really talking about your interests or my interests.
“National security interests” are just that: interests of the national security state, not of the people.“Under democracy, the rulers constantly urge the subjects to identify themselves with the state, to forget that ‘they’ (the rulers) are not ‘we’ (the ruled) and even to believe that the two groups are one and the same,” economist Robert Higgs writes in the introduction to his latest book, Delusions of power.
“In this country, the powers that be have unfortunately achieved considerable success in indoctrinating the public with this myth,” Higgs writes, “which helps explain why so many people have handed over themselves and their children to serve as cannon fodder in the rulers’ endless, unnecessary wars.” Yes, or yielded to the priorities of Washington’s “strategic interests.”
More than that, an argument could easily be made that propping up the Saudi and Gulf dictatorships is not in Washington’s interests. Geo-political and sectarian rivalries between the Arab states and Iran has been one factor pushing US policy towards an aggressive approach with the Islamic Republic. But the aggressive approach has generated a backlash in Iran and has all but ruined the chances for a diplomatic settlement on the nuclear program. This simply puts the US on the road to (needless) war with Iran, a conflict that high level US military and intelligence officials broadly agree would be a terrible blow to US interests.
Additionally, the hatred bred in the Arab world by our morally repugnant foreign policy is clearly not worth the trouble. And let’s not forget how integral Saudi Arabia’s export of Wahabism has been to the development of groups like al-Qaeda. Indeed, Saudi Arabia is now openly calling for al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting in Syria to be armed.
No amount of strategic and economic benefit to America’s rulers is worth the daily repression and abuse of human rights experienced in places like Saudi Arabia every day. Academics like Lynch need to stop buying into the empty rhetoric of US politicians and balancing Washington’s selfish interests with the interest of millions of innocent people living under tyranny.
John C. Kiriakou, the former CIA agent who blew the whistle on the agency’s waterboarding, was just sentenced to 30 months in prison. The Obama administration absolved the torturers and the higher-ups who destroyed the videotapes and other evidence of torture – and dropped the hammer on the agent who acted honorably. The judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, pissed and moaned about Kiriakou’s plea agreement with prosecutors: “I think 30 months is way too light.”
After Kiriakou indicated that he did not wish to make a statement prior to sentencing, Judge Brinkema declared: “Perhaps you have already spoken too much.”
Maybe this judge feels like she is honor-bound to assist in any government coverup.
Obama represents Nixon-style “change and hope.” What an utter disgrace for all those progressives who promised that this guy would redeem any shred of national honor.
