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Obama & His Supporters Are Going All Out to Make War w/ Syria a Reality

September 9, 2013 By
Melissa Harris Perry

Melissa Harris Perry

Yesterday I watched Melissa Harris Perry on her MSNBC show look into a camera with a straight face and run this argument about how we the public are frequently wrong about our decisions to oppose rushing off to war.. She gave a historical overview dating back to World War II and talked about how the public was opposed war back then but decades later it would be hard to find anyone who would argue that entering into World War II was the wrong thing to do..

Perry then paints a picture of how America prospered after WWII and how things were all rosey…After that she magically leaps over public opinion about various other war and threats of war efforts from the Korean War to Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam to Grenada etc to talk about how the public came out and supported Bush’s rush to war and got that wrong..

Hence she implies the pattern is such that even though 51% of the public polled is opposed to bombing Syria, we are probably wrong on this as we were during WW II.  If I hadn’t seen this and then re-saw it on the clip I posted below would’ve thought one was lying if they told me Ms perry did this.. To say the least this was ‘fascinating’ to watch and gravely disappointing she took such a ‘hawkish’ position..

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So apparently this looks to be the new Obama talking point: Tell the people; ‘yes the public is opposed to war but the public is often wrong’ .. And to underscore this talking point we now have this compilation of footage already floating around the internet that’s been repackaged by the CIA and presented to members of Congress and local newscasts as ‘new footage‘ showing dead bodies and children gasping for air as a result of chemical weapons.

Here in Cali Senator Diane Feinstein got one of these repackaged films and personally called local Bay Area TV stations asking them to run it so the public can see what’s ‘really’ going on in Syria.. MHP referenced this footage on her show  and asked what are we gonna do about this atrocity, as if the only answer is to bomb Syria..The footage shown below is similar to what we saw on local newscasts last night and what’s in the package being shown to members of Congress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaY_vySvq6w

You can link here to see the actual repackaged version

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90051&sitesection=nydailynews_nws_us_sty_vmpp&VID=25143036

After Melissa Harris Perry’s  history lesson  one of her guests syndicated columnist Bob Franken said if we don’t do anything we are giving up our position as the world super power and we will sink further in world standing because of upcoming sequester cuts..His remarks seem to imply that  ultimately US actions are not about saving lives it’s about saving money, saving face and maintaining prestige..

Another MHP guest Michelle Bernard, a political strategist was using her ‘strategy’ to tell us that President Obama was always a ‘dove’ while former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was a ‘hawk‘, implying that somehow our President who is a frequent user of drones which are considered tools of terror around the world, to the tune of at least 300 times in Pakistan alone, was ‘reluctant’ to come to this bomb dropping position on Syria he’s pushing…

Racist People are suspicious of President Obama, with or without a hoodie

President Obama is being depicted as a reluctant warrior in this Syrian Crises

Obama has been pretty decisive even as a candidate about using pre-emptive strikes and violating laws by using drones on foreign soil without permission or knowledge of the government in that land. He said he would do it as a candidate and he’s been doing it as president. The only regret President Obama seems to have is that his decision to bomb Syria might bring about a political backlash including impeachment hence he’s being depicted as a sympathetic figure.

What we should be clear about is that President Obama is going all out to make this bombing situation happen. This is his biggest push since his Healthcare Initiative.. That’s how important bombing Syria is to President Obama..Imagine if he went in this hard to bring about Peace?

Bernard in her remarks attempted to amp up the ‘outrage’ by noting; ‘yes the children being gassed are bad, but what’s really bad are the rapes that are also happening. She leaves of us concluding that the US must intervene to stop the rapes..Talk about pulling emotional chords.

Let’s be clear folks.. Children being gassed are horrific, indefensible actions. People being raped are horrific, indefensible  actions. No one with half a conscious wants to be attached to any of this, but before we go running off to the missile launchers to bomb Syria ask yourself what role are we as individuals supposed to play to stop such horrors directly and indirectly? We must challenge ourselves as to what roles we play directly and indirectly in the facilitation of rapes and children being killed not just in Syria but in other areas around the world.

Are we outraged about child soldiers?

Are we outraged about child soldiers? Enough to give up our cell phones & laptops?

For example, take a place like the Congo where an estimated 6 million people have been killed over the past decade and hundreds of thousands rapes and the deaths and maiming of thousands children are taking place routinely to ensure we have access to precious minerals that are used in our laptops, smart phones and other electronics.

Such atrocities continue in spite of the amendment put into Dodd Frank Protection Act which many had no idea about or even cared that in theory would push for companies to be conflict mineral free. Many say that amendment is weak and full of holes. Do we care or did it serves as a nice excuse to avoid dealing with a harsh reality and our collective conscience?

Genocide continues to this day in the Congo. Where’s our outrage  and national debate both in Congress and amongst ourselves calling for it to end?  Many are quick to talk about international law and how it needs to be enforced around the use of chemical weapons but are nowhere to be seen about the use of child soldiers which number in the hundreds of thousands used on the front lines in the Congo conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFXgEk-w44s

We must ask ourselves where is the outrage and what is our responsibility about all the Black people being raped and tortured by the racist rebel forces that we supported who took over Libya? Why is that not even talked about? Why are we not talking about the fact that many of those same brutal rebel forces in Libya are now among the rebel forces in Syria?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhT5u6ecTQ

If we are and should be upset about rapes as noted on this MHP Show, then ask yourself, what’s our thoughts about Egypt? Are we demanding Congress stop funding folks over there knowing that it was less than a month ago our collective conversation was on the drama unfolding  including widespread reports of rapes? That is still going on. Have we forgotten or did we think that all those problems somehow got resolved overnight in time for us to have this debate about Syria?

White Prophorous GasIf we are to be upset and down to go on the offensive for the use of chemical weapons, what’s our take on the use of white phosphorous used on Palestinians in Gaza in 2009 by Israel? Was there a call to bomb her or did we as a country ignore it?  Or did the US find ways to work things out diplomatically?

In recent days since this contradiction in policy and subsequent action was pointed out the government of Israel has been on a PR tear sanitizing what took place and insisting that media outlets no longer call white phosphorous chemical weapons. Yesterday the UK Observer which is owned by the Guardian agreed to Israel’s demands after what was described as a ‘degree of give and take’.

All of us have to wrestle with our own decisions and moral compasses about what atrocities we will jump up to fight and which ones we will ignore? As I asked in previous articles; are we upset that 100 thousand people have been killed in Syria including tens of thousands of children or are we upset that certain types of weapons that fit a strict definition that deem them chemicals were used?

In other words, if Assad had simply shot, stabbed, drowned, used white phosphorous gas or perhaps used drones like we do in the US, resulting in 1400 people dying would there be a debate in Congress or would it be business as usual for most Americans? Is this really about the use of nerve gas or something else? Does it matter that England sold Syria the key materials sodium fluoride used to make chemical weapons?  Think on that for minute..

We should be very careful about jumping into a civil war..The so called rebels in Syria are not a bunch of sign waving beleaguered college students who are being pushed around.. They are armed, well-trained professional militia types fighting other armed and well-trained militia types over who will control a country..There are lots of forces both inside and outside the country vying for power..Caught in the middle are folks who have no peace at all from either side..Whoever wins does not mean an end to oppression for the average person on the ground.. That’s not a discussion being held..Talks about peace and how we can at all cost find a diplomatic solution were not emphatically discussed both on MHP show and in other circles where pundits are telling us that what the public thinks about War is often wrong..

Lastly there are hundreds of Syrians who live here in America.. What I saw yesterday were 5 people on MSNBC talk about bombing a country and why the public is somehow ‘wrong’ to oppose war without any Syrians to speak for themselves.. I like folks like journalists Faria Chideya and Michelle Bernard seems nice, Same with Bob Franken? and former congressional rep Patrick Murphy but are they from Syria? Have they been there? Stay woke people, Stay Woke 24/7!!!

You Can’t Bomb the World into Peace..Power to the Peaceful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICL-4Onk0PA

In the meantime here’s a Syrian-American we recently interviewed named May Alhassen whose immediate family is still in Syria. In our recent interview she was candid about how she is opposed to US Intervention.. and how her family in Syria is divide on this issue for a number of reasons…She’s a seasoned journalist who perhaps should’ve been on that panel.. Peep out what she has to say.. http://bit.ly/15II78b

Filed Under: 2013 Daily News Tagged With: , , ,

Should the US Intervene in Syria’s Civil War?

August 29, 2013 By

Syria fightNow that we done finished celebrating Dr King 50th anniversary of the  I Have a Dream Speech and the great March on Washington, now its back to business…Many who attended this weekends festivities are now saying, ‘Lets put all that talk about peace and love to the wayside and get ready to do War with Syria’.. Pay close attention to the folks cheer leading the effort and the justification given to jump into what is now emerging to be a Civil War…

As for the use of Chemical weapons.. That’s terrible and we should figure out a way to stop them from being used..For many sending in cruise missiles is not the way to go. It sounds like another excuse for endless war and another way for those who operate within the military industrial complex to pad their pockets.  Destabilization in the Middle East is good for business.

It’s also interesting to note that folks are upset about chemical warfare in Syria while ignoring what many feel is chemical warfare here at home.. Death by chemical misuse come in many forms. It’s the gassing we’ve seen in Syria where death is immediate and  horrific as we have on TV.

Other times it shows up in GMO foods, radiation and oil leakage which compromises our water and fish supplies. It shows up in the pollutants caused by multinational corporations that are allowed to be spilled into our air and water. It shows up in the form of fracking. It shows up in the form of big businesses that often break laws, hide their wrong doings on top of spending billions of dollars in lobbying funds to resist laws and regulations compelling them to be clean.. The end result is millions die prematurely from compromised respiratory systems, heart disease, cancer etc..

And so as we jet off to Syria to stop them from using gas on their own people, we remain silent or in deep denial about the chemicals used on us.. Consider this.. There is  little difference in a king or military being oppressive towards its people and a corporation being oppressive towards its people. It’s all a matter of perspective.

In the clip below I like what Ed Husain has to say about this situation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KGz0bpOIYo

 

Here’s a recent statement from the AROC Arab Resource Organizing Center

STAND WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE ARAB WORLD 

STAND AGAINST US WARS FOR EMPIRE!

Once again, the Arab people, like the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, and Asia before them, find themselves at the receiving end of US imperialism and ravages of US wars.

The US is preparing to strike Syria at any moment as reports are circulating of the US Sixth Fleet carrying a total of 300 cruise missiles and positioned off the Syrian and Lebanese coasts. This comes on the heels of graphic footage surfacing of another heinous crime committed in Syria’s brutal civil war, where civilians were filmed suffocating and dying as a result of suspected use of chemical agents. The scene is on the outskirts of Damascus and the massacre occurred on the evening UN weapons inspectors arrived in Syria to investigate the possible use of Sarin-like nerve agent or Chlorine gas in the Aleppo area back in May 2013. Even according to some US admissions, the Syrian armed militias orchestrated the attacks in May. It is known that the Syrian regime had decisively scored military victories in Mid Syria and would therefore stand to suffer the most damage if it were to deploy non-conventional weapons on the day UN inspectors arrive in Syria. And yet the US chose to level unsubstantiated allegations against the Syrian regime that it used chemical weapons and mobilized its forces for a military strike, even prior to the UN commencing its investigation.

Ultimately, we know that both the Syrian regime and the US-funded militias are guilty of attacks against civilians. The Syrian civil war is being fought at the expense of Syrian families, workers, political activists, and the long legacy of Syrian cultural production.   It is still the people of Syria that possess the vision for a Syria free of autocracy and US imperialist interests, free of sectarianism and political repression, and their vision is the only true moral compass.

Syrian cultural and political activists have long been demonstrating their steadfastness against political repression and their commitment to self-determination. Time and time again they have denounced the destruction and devastation of the social and material fabric of Syria.  These are the voices absent from dominant narratives plastered across TV screens, radio broadcasts and newsstands.  Their messages remain draped across walls and buildings throughout Syrian towns and villages uplifting voices for change, dignity and liberation.

OBAMA AND THE LEGACY OF US IMPERIALISM

The Obama administration is anything but a passive observer in the deepening of sectarianism and destruction in Syria. For the divisions in Syria and the Arab World only serve to secure US interests as defined by an elite who only stands to profit from war and weaponry. Have we forgotten the infamous “White Powder” scene, where Collin Powell was oddly shaking a vial of biological agent at the UN Security Council as he applied pressure on the voting members to sanction US colonization of Iraq? It was then done under the pretext of preemptive strikes to eliminate the non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Today, Obama perpetuates the same policies of the Bush Administration in deepening the sectarian division, arming and training one group to fight another and exporting the war from Iraq to Syria and to the region as a whole.

The US, along with its client monarchies who brutally rule Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, have reacted to the wave of anti-autocratic uprisings by expanding the Iraq conflict. Today, Iraq bears witness to over 700,000 dead as a result of the US blockade and more than 1 million murdered during the US occupation of Iraq. Today, car bombs and sectarian conflict continue to engulf the country. Obama is clearly perpetuating Bush’s policies by continuing the destabilization of Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Lebanon and now Syria, all of whom are entrenched in a spiraling civil war that directly implicate the US militarily or politically.

THE BANKRUPTCY OF US MORALITY 

On August 26, Secretary of State John Kerry stated that morality compels the US to act and attack Syria. We are left to ask, how would killing more Syrians with 300 cruise missiles decrease the bloodshed? While all atrocities are heinous and must be condemned, let us examine the moral standing of the US. Less than 10 days prior to the surfacing of the Syrian footage, US-funded Egyptian military were shooting unarmed civilians mobilizing throughout the streets. More than 1000 people were murdered in cold blood and Obama is yet to cut aid to Egypt in the hope of maintaining leverage over a continued peace treaty with Israel. In 2009, Israel was using phosphorous bombs on a besieged civilian population in Gaza, killing over 1,200 people and injuring approximately 10,000. Had it been about moral compulsion, we would have seen cruise missiles rain on the Knesset in Tel Aviv. In fact, Israel continues to bomb, kill, displace and steal Arab land on a daily basis while Obama’s policy is to increase financial and military support for Israel by billions of dollars. And let us not forget the US use of depleted uranium in Iraq. Iraqis continue to suffer from devastating mortality and birth defect rates as the ramifications of US war crimes and use of nuclear agents are inherited from one generation to the next. The contemporary record speaks for itself and we need not go back in history to mention the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the two Hydrogen Bombs dropped on Japan and the purposeful deployment of small pox to wipe out whole indigenous American nations.

The US allies itself with monarchies and military dictatorships that are growing increasingly worried by the wave of Arab uprisings and is attempting, in unsubtle ways, to divert the people’s energy into sectarian conflict along a Sunni-Shia divide. It is well documented that the US-funded Syrian rebels are linked to Al Qaeda, the same group the Obama administration uses as a pretext to maintain the march of death in Afghanistan. It is these same groups, with US training and funding, that are planting car bombs in the heart of Lebanon in an attempt to trigger another sectarian war and creating an internal quagmire, allowing for Israel to strike both Hezbollah and Iran in the future.

SELF-DETERMINATION NOT US IMPERIALISM

Join us in condemning in the strongest possible terms Obama’s complicity in these bloody wars and crimes against humanity. Join us in calling for an end to this madness, and end to the perpetual strengthening of theocratic, monarchical and Zionist regimes.

How many wars must be fought and how many people must die before the US ruling industries are forced to cede to the calls for freedom? Exactly fifty years ago-today, Martin Luther King called for ending US imperialist wars in Vietnam and the Indo-China regions. Today, and under the pretext of morality, Barak Obama is planning to expand the Syrian conflict by bombing Syria and in reaction to a massacre of Syrian civilians.

We stand in support of the self-determination of the Syrian people and as such, oppose all attacks on Syria! As Libya and Iraq have so sadly taught us, there is no bigger loss than the loss of sovereignty to empire.

 We condemn any US involvement in the attacks on Syria!

We demand an end to US military, political and financial support of Israel, Arab dictatorships and repressive regimes!

 Join us in the streets at protests planned across the US to stand against any attack on Syria! 

 No to war. No to occupation. No to US-Israeli hegemony in the Arab World.

SUPPORT THE ARAB PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION FOR SELF-DETERMINATION!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjEWrhkb6g

 

Filed Under: 2013 Daily News Tagged With: , , ,

Have We Sold Our Souls By Turning a Blind Eye to Obama’s Drones?

February 8, 2013 By

Davey-D-purple-frameThere’s a lot of talk about President Obama and his use of drones as well as him having a kill list which has asserts that he can kill American citizens that he deems to be working against America and somehow down with al-Qaeda.. This is indeed very scary and something all of us should seriously reflect on, because whatever steps Obama takes will not be limited to him.. Whoever sits in the Oval office will be able to pick up where Obama leaves off..

Seems like quite a few are giving the President a pass on his policies.. Would we be comfortable with those policies if we had President Romney as opposed to Obama? What if it was former President George Bush saying he has a kill list and has a right to use it on American citizens? Many of us took to the streets and raised a ruckus for far less.

Yesterday in Washington, there were confirmation hearings for John Brennan who is said to be the brains behind Obama’s insidious drone policy…Brennan is shooting to be director of the CIA.. Are people really comfortable with his policies? Are we comfortable with the US setting up drone bases in Niger, knowing that during the Bush administration Bush had Colin Powell lie before the United Nations about the African country providing uranium for terrorists? His testimony was briefly interrupted by folks upset with the drone policies he later defended..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEycDKgUwbw

Barack Obama rightAre we comfortable with Obama having a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia and mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post agreeing not to report this to the American people?

I want people to be aware of a tactic that is being used in support of White House policies around the discussion on drones.. There is a set of talking points and particular phrasing being used by stealth surrogates and ‘supporters’ of the President designed to frame the conversation in way that moves one away from talk about diplomacy and de-escalation and into the arena of ‘All  We must fight terrorism at e

Inevitably someone will make try to put the onus on you for objecting..Pay close attention when someone responds or inserts themselves in a conversation and ask questions or makes statements along these lines:

1-If we don’t use drones what better ideas do you have to eliminate top terror operatives? Instead of complaining about the President fighting the war on terror, perhaps you should help him..This is difficult work..

2-Troops on the ground are not as effective..Drones are the only way to fight back… Do you have another way for us to take out top terrorist without troops?

3-There are Bigger threats that you can’t see. Bush started something that Obama unfortunately must finish to protect us all.. It took us over a decade to find Bin Laden

4-Those so-called innocents who have been killed by drones hide or aid terrorists..The terrorists use kids to fight us and then claim innocence. We haven’t killed that many innocent people.. They killed innocent people during 9-11…Our drones are doing the job of fighting terror more effectively

5-The terrorist plan there and then come here or against our interests around the world. They started it-remember 9-11. Its better for us to fight them over there then at home..

6-We must use drones because we have no other options Our allies like Pakistan hid Osama for years and lied to us.

7-Diplomacy doesn’t work..They want to kill us. They have an advantage on their land..they know it better than anyone. I don’t condone killing innocent people but so we must use drones to level the playing field.. They must be stopped!

Drone ProtestsBasically the tactic used is to situate the discussion as if we have no other choice but to fight the war on terror. Its designed to make you forget that the War on terror was a manufactured war with the goal of keeping it open-ended, and perpetual.. so we could expand it as necessary.

Obama is depicted as a reluctant participant who would rather have peace, but is ‘forced to clean up the mess’ that George Bush has started..

We are also reminded that its better for us to fight the war on terror overseas then have it here at home..Innocent people being killed is justified as being a part of war which is ‘ugly’. We are also reminded that terrorists use kids to fight us and hence we shouldn’t be ‘fooled’ or overly sympathetic..

There are Black and Brown faces increasingly being used to push these arguments.. Some are literally paid pundits and operatives. Others in a misguided sense of Black pride and unity have sold their souls and turned a blind eye to actions and policies that they know are dead wrong.. Others who once upon a time have been excluded, have been made to feel ‘special’ because they were put on some sort of White House mailing list,  got a phone call from someone important asking for their help or been invited to informal White House briefings.. The end result is a misguided sense of loyalty at all costs.. As fellow journalist JR Valrey of the Block Report once famously noted, many are not interested in justice or preserving life, they just want their turn to hold and crack the whip..

Obama's drones are terrorismBottom line be wary of the attempts to get folks to buy into a concept that we once railed against called ‘preemptive strikes‘..When Bush kicked this off we hit the streets by the thousands.. Obama doesn’t use the that term, instead he invokes the image of us being in a life and death struggle against ‘evil terrorists‘. As a result many have checked their conscience at the door to pick up a sword to join in sable rattling while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that youth in our community have turned to violence as a solution to problems vs de-escalation and diplomacy..

Filed Under: 2013 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,