Antiwar.com Blog

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

The International Rescue Committee dismissed Saudi coalition “relief” plan for Yemen as a public relations gimmick:

The “relief” plan announced by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to protect civilians living in Hodeidah as they attack the port city is a publicity stunt by the Saudi-led coalition (SLC) coalition meant to draw attention away from the undue suffering the attack is causing. The port is absolutely critical to the survival of many innocent Yemenis, and 600,000 civilians living in the port city and surrounding areas are in immediate danger. An attack on or disruption of operations of the port will be catastrophic.

The Saudi coalition’s intervention has been the main cause of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The coalition governments pay lip service to providing relief to the civilian population only as a means to deflect attention from the collective punishment and atrocities that it has inflicted on them for more than three years. They are attempting to do so again by pretending that their assault on Hodeidah benefits the people of Yemen when it is sure to cause more death, suffering, displacement, and starvation. If the coalition were even slightly concerned with alleviating the suffering of Yemen’s civilian population, they would halt their current offensive, lift their blockade, and cease their indiscriminate bombing campaign.

Continue reading “‘Relief Plan’ Issued By Saudi Arabia Is a Gimmick”

In the state of Georgia’s Glynn County Detention Center, four activists await trial stemming from their nonviolent action, on April 4, 2018, at the Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay. In all, seven Catholic plowshares activists acted that day, aiming to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to "beat swords into plowshares." The Kings Bay is home port to six nuclear armed Trident ballistic missile submarines with the combined explosive power of over 9000 Hiroshima bombs.

This week, five people have gathered for a fast and vigil, near the Naval Base, calling it "Hunger for Nuclear Disarmament."

Kindly hosts in Brunswick, GA turned over their Air B and B to us. The accommodation is a remodeled garage – were we not fasting we might find the kitchen a bit crowded, but for us, this week, the accommodations are ideal. Egrets, ospreys and vultures glide overhead. Huge live oaks surround us, looming and beautiful, draped in Spanish moss. Tannins released from the oak trees seep into the nearby river, historically a source of fresh water because the tannins killed the bugs. Centuries ago, colonizers would fill huge containers with "brown" water from the river, water in which the bugs couldn’t survive, and use that water for their drinking needs throughout their voyages back to Europe.

Continue reading “Hungering for Nuclear Disarmament”

President Trump surprised his audience at the National Space Council yesterday when he announced that he would create a new “Space Force” to be “separate but equal” to the US Air Force. Congress must act to create a new branch of military service, but will the power of the military lobbyists win the day? Is “dominating” space really a matter of critical national security, as Trump claimed, or is this another costly boondoggle? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

Trump announced that he is ordering the creation of a “Space Force” as a new branch of the military. Among other problems with this proposal is that creating a new branch is entirely unnecessary:

But the idea has faced resistance from senior Pentagon officials. Last fall, Rogers and Coopers’ proposal was scrapped after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein said it would lead to unnecessary costs and bureaucracy.

“I oppose the creation of a new military service and additional organizational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint warfighting functions,” Mattis said in October in a memo to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Continue reading “The US Doesn’t Need a ‘Space Force’”

The State Department has warned the Syrian government not to liberate territory in the southwest of the country from the hold of ISIS and al-Qaeda, but the Syrian government has persisted in building up troops for a liberation. This morning, a mysterious attack on Syrian troops has killed some 52 persons. The Syrians are blaming Washington for the attack? The Pentagon has denied it. Who to believe? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Weekends are a good time to sit back, reflect, and think. Here are a few ideas I’ve been thinking about:

1. Remember 9/11/2001? Of course you do. Almost everyone back then seemed to compare it to Pearl Harbor, another date that would live in infamy – and that was a big mistake. In 1941, the USA was attacked by another sovereign nation. In 2001, we were attacked by a small group of terrorists. But international terrorism was nothing new, and indeed the U.S. was already actively combating Al Qaeda. The only new thing was the shock and awe of the 9/11 attacks – especially the images of the Twin Towers collapsing.

By adopting the Pearl Harbor image, our response was predetermined, i.e. the deployment of the US military to wage war. Even that wasn’t necessarily a fatal mistake, if we’d stopped with Afghanistan and overthrowing the Taliban. But, as Henry Kissinger said, Afghanistan wasn’t enough. Someone else had to pay, in this case the unlucky Iraqis. And then the US military was stuck with two occupations that it was fated to lose. And millions of Afghan and Iraqi people suffered for our leaders’ mistakes.

Continue reading “William J. Astore’s Thoughts on a Saturday Afternoon”