Author: Chris Ernesto

There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, with 49 countries having a predominantly Muslim population. Of these countries, 4 have been bombed by Israel, and 4 have been bombed by the US this year alone.

Here are the four countries bombed by Israel in 2014

1. Sudan (35.4 million people, 96.7% Muslim)
On July 21, Israel dropped bombs on a suspected weapon warehouse in Sudan. Israel alleged that the site stored weapons that were bound for Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has carried out other bombing attacks inside Sudan in recent years. In 2009, Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy of trucks in Sudan that was believed to be carrying arms to be smuggled into Gaza. And in 2012 eight Israeli planes struck a giant military factory outside of the capital, Khartoum.

Continue reading “Israel and the US Have Dropped Bombs on 8 Muslim Countries This Year”

It’s obvious that Democrats used the antiwar movement during the George W. Bush years.

Clearly, they saw the war in Iraq as a way to make Republicans look bad. Maybe it was because they wanted the Democratic Party in power due to its position on guns, abortion, immigration and LGBTQ issues.

Democrats who protested the invasion of Iraq still say they’re opposed to war. Yet they voted for a man who before he was elected, said, "I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war."

Then they voted for him again in 2012 after he dropped bombs on six Muslim countries.

And for the most part, those same Democrats have not been active in the antiwar movement since Barack Obama took office.

Yep, the antiwar movement was used. And as part of that movement, I can say that many of us are angrier today with the Democrats than we were with the Republicans when Bush was in office.

Continue reading “Step Up to the Plate, Democrats”

Barack Obama has a chance to be a hero.

With Republicans and hawks pushing him to do something in Iraq, he could go in front of the nation today and assertively say:

"It was you, Republicans, who got us into this war in Iraq to begin with, based on false assertions and flat out lies. So I will not listen to you now as you tell the American people that the US must again take military action in Iraq. Remember I was opposed to the Iraq war the first time and given the disaster that we see in Iraq today, I was right. So Senator McCain, William Kristol, and all you other "think tank" talking heads who are trying to create more carnage in Iraq, it’s time for you to crawl into your cubbyhole and keep your mouth shut. You got it wrong the first time and you’re getting it wrong again. As the leader of this country, I will not allow the US to make another mistake in Iraq."

If Obama said these things, 80% of America would give him a standing ovation.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN would all applaud his leadership and American’s reputation around the world would greatly improve. His approval rating would shoot through the roof and it would mean that Obama’s constituency would feel emboldened and proud to be a member of the Democratic Party.

But it’s almost a certainty that Obama will not say this, or anything even remotely close to this, primarily for three reasons.

Firstly, Obama made himself an easy target of Republican critics who claim Iraq is a mess today because the US withdrew too soon. But the troop withdrawal from Iraq was signed into law by George W. Bush – Obama was simply carrying out the law that was in place before his inauguration. By wrongly taking credit for ending the Iraq war, Obama has put himself in a position where he cannot counter Republican criticism of a premature troop withdrawal.

Continue reading “Arming ISIS in Syria … Then Bombing Them in Iraq?”

It’s funny how so many people in the peace and justice movement, in which I’ve been an active participant for the past decade, have been sucked into various distractions in recent years.  This didn’t happen very often during the Bush presidency.

The most recent distraction is the Bowe Bergdahl fiasco, which is pure politics.  If a Republican were in the White House, it would be the Democrats causing a stink – this is simply a matter of the party that’s not in power using an issue to gain political points.

If there were nothing else to read about, think about, discuss and take action on, maybe getting sucked into this political theater would be understandable.

But there are plenty of things today that need the immediate attention of people in the antiwar community – issues on which the establishment doesn’t want people to focus.  Things like:

• National Security Advisor Susan Rice announcing on June 6 that the US is now sending lethal weapons to the “opposition” in Syria, which means that we are arming al-Qaeda.
• Digging into the situation in Iraq, where on Wednesday an al-Qaeda splinter group took control of Tikrit, and on Tuesday took over the country’s second largest city, Mosul.  500,000 people have fled in the past days.  The al-Qaeda group responsible for the takeovers in Iraq is the same group the US is arming in Syria.  All the while, the US continues to funnel tons of weapons to Iraq’s government – including sniper rifles, tank rounds and missiles – so, is the US arming both sides in a country that it has already ruined?
• How the US is creating chaos in Ukraine by siding with neo-Nazis and a government that is bombing its own citizens.
• Exposing how the US is supporting a neo-fascist who took office in Egypt last week.
• Unveiling how a US citizen is leading a violent coup in Libya, and how the rest of Africa is rapidly being populated by the US military in what may be turning into the new Middle East.

So, the US is arming al-Qaeda in Syria, is continuing to devastate Iraq, is crushing democracy in Egypt, is teaming up with neo-Nazis in Ukraine and is re-colonizing Africa.

Continue reading “Sucked Into Distractions”