Count me among those who oppose authorizing a U.S. military attack on Syria.
There’s just so much wrong with the picture being painted by President Obama and his administration.
I tried again on the issue in my Hawaii Monitor column which appears today over at Civil Beat.
It’s no wonder Americans are alarmed at the prospect of seeing our country drawn into yet another chaotic situation in a region where two wars have already sapped our economy, undermined our values, cost thousands of lives, and left Iraq in ruins and Afghanistan still at war.
There’s more. Let me know if you have trouble accessing Civil Beat. I’ll post a copy here if needed.
By the say, have you seen the reports that Iraq will not allow the U.S. to use its territory or air space in any military action against Syria?
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Good for Iraq and good for you, Ian, both making a humane stand..
I’m definitely opposed to a unilateral move by the US. It’s not like we don’t have other things to do with the money in our own country.
Would like to read your article, but you can only see so many ‘free’ articles on CB before you get “paywalled.” I’ve hit my limit, so if you have a link to it somewhere, that’d be awesome. RE: Commenting using FaceBoook: I don’t do FaceBook. 🙂
Thanks.
Ian, I was able to read your CB report via your link. In the past I wasn’t able to read any — pay message blocked your article immediately. Thanks for shsring your thorough research, evidence backed arguments — for free!
NYT September 4, 2013
By RICK GLADSTONE
In the shadow of a confrontation over whether Syria’s government had attacked civilians with internationally banned chemical munitions, a rights group reported Wednesday that Syrian armed forces had repeatedly used cluster bombs, another widely prohibited weapon, in the country’s civil war.
The group, Human Rights Watch, said in a report on cluster bomb use that it had documented dozens of locations in Syria where cluster bombs had been fired over the past year.
Cluster bombs are munitions that may be fired from artillery or rocket systems or dropped from aircraft. They are designed to explode in the air over their target and disperse hundreds of tiny bomblets over an area the size of a football field. Each bomblet detonates on impact, spraying shrapnel in all directions and killing, maiming and destroying indiscriminately.
Those that fail to explode on impact can still detonate like land mines when disturbed later. A growing number of countries have agreed to a treaty banning the weapons and have destroyed stockpiles; Syria is not among them.
“Syria is persisting in using cluster bombs, insidious weapons that remain on the ground, causing death and destruction for decades,” Mary Wareham, the advocacy director for the arms division at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, other countries around the world that have joined the treaty are showing a strong commitment to get rid of cluster bombs once and for all.”
Syria’s government has denied using cluster munitions in the civil war.
The Human Rights Watch report said that representatives of the 112 nations that so far have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, are scheduled to meet on Sept. 9 in Lusaka, Zambia, to monitor adherence.
According to another rights group, the Cluster Munition Coalition, based in London, there are 85 countries that have not signed the convention, including three permanent members of the Security Council — China, Russia and the United States. Most countries in the Middle East have not signed, including Syria, Israel and Jordan. Two of Syria’s neighbors have: Lebanon and Iraq.
The coalition said that children make up one-third of all casualties caused by cluster munitions. It said 60 percent of the total casualties caused by the weapons are civilians going about normal activities.
Ben Swann Reality Check: What The Media Isn’t Telling You About Syria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCBhyzRELLw
Why am I doubting our government’s claim of “convincing evidence” and the reasons why we “must” attack Syria?! When one has lived through the misinformation of the Vietnam war, then ditto with Iraq (with “rock solid evidence”), cynicism sets in. And everything I am reading lends itself to reasonably doubting what I am being fed by our government about who did what.