Obama’s Syria Policy Looks a Lot Like Bush’s Iraq Policy

Dees Illustration

Dr. Ron Paul

President Obama announced late last week that the US intelligence community had just determined that the Syrian government had used poison gas on a small scale, killing some 100 people in a civil conflict that has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. Because of this use of gas, the president claimed, Syria had crossed his “red line” and the US must begin to arm the rebels fighting to overthrow the Syrian government.

Setting aside the question of why 100 killed by gas is somehow more important than 99,900 killed by other means, the fact is his above explanation is full of holes. The Washington Postreported this week that the decision to overtly arm the Syrian rebels was made “weeks ago” – in other words, it was made at a time when the intelligence community did not believe “with high confidence” that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons.

What’s the difference between Obama’s Libyan war and neoconservatism?

David Rieff
The New Republic

Well, that was quick! It usually takes some time for the gap between how a White House justifies a military adventure to the public, and the reality of what is really going on to be revealed. It took the fall of Saddam Hussein for the Bush administration’s pretext for war—the threat of weapons of mass destruction—to be shown up as a fabrication. But from President Obama’s televised address on the evening of March 29, in which he claimed that the intervention in Libya was not about regime change, to the Reuters story revealing that he had signed an order allowing covert U.S. operations in Libya at least a week before the speech, and possibly longer, took—what?—24 hours. And so in we go to Libya, as both neoconservatives and liberal interventionists have been pressing for all along.

In his speech, the president insisted that there was no comparison between Iraq and Libya, and that broadening the U.S. military mission “to include regime change would be a mistake.” In reality, of course, that is exactly what Washington has done. President Obama made much of U.N. sanction and the multinational nature of the no-fly zone, and boasted that the United States had now handed over the lead role to our “allies and partners in NATO.” But this is disingenuous nonsense. From a military perspective, NATO without U.S. military assets is not a particularly redoubtable force. It is true that, politically, the French government pressed hard for more aggressive military moves to support the Libyan insurgency. But despite President Obama’s assertions to the contrary, the overwhelming preponderance of bombs, missiles, and bullets fired at Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have been from U.S. ships and aircraft.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
Liberals Willing to Trade Blood for Oil Under Obama

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

MUST SEE: Kucinich Exposes the Entire Libya Agenda on The House Floor (Video)

Youtube - DJKucinich
Congresman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) speaks for a powerful hour on the House floor about the illegality of the Libya war.  This is a MUST SEE speech as he reveals the entire agenda behind the Libya attack. He connects the dots to the CIA quite convincingly.  And he asked the big philosophical questions: "Our dear nation stands at a crossroads. The direction we take will determine not what kind of nation we are but what kind of nation we will become. Will we become a nation which plots in secret to wage war? Will we become a nation that observes our Constitution only in matters of convenience? Will we become a nation which destroys the unity of the world community painstakingly pieced together from the ruins of World War II, a war which itself followed a war to end all wars?"


You MUST WATCH Part 2 and beyond to hear Kucinich thrash Obama and the Congress

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Liberals Trade Blood for Oil Company Profits Under Obama

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Obama DOCTRINE: Congress Just Declared Preemptive WAR on Iran

Eric Blair

Activist Post

War with Iran has already been decided by the powers that be and the modern-day quasi-declaration happened last Thursday.  Using the same legislative and propaganda playbook that led to the Iraq War, the U.S. Government has just officially declared War on Iran.  Reuters reported “Congress on Thursday approved tough new unilateral sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran’s energy and banking sectors, which could also hurt companies from other countries doing business with Tehran. The House of Representatives passed the bill 408-8 and sent it to President Barack Obama for signing into law. The Senate had approved it 99-0 earlier in the day.”

Congress hasn’t officially voted for a Declaration of War since World War II.  In modern times they use creative wording in bills that authorize the broad use of force across borders in the sweeping “War on Terror."  The Bush Doctrine of preemptively attacking countries because they may pose a threat to America in the future was universally trashed by progressives, but is alive and well under Obama, the Prince of Peace, without one dissenting vote in the Senate.  This authority is what the Obama Administration claims also gives them the legal argument to bomb sovereign countries likePakistan.

This unilateral decision by the United States Congress comes on the heels of a 12-2 U.N. Security Council vote on June 8th to impose a “modest tightening of sanctions” against Iran. Of course, Russia and China have been assured that sanctions won't apply to their energy needs in order to secure their votes. After the vote President Obama asserted that, "these sanctions do not close the door on diplomacy."

However, the United States preempted this embargo vote in Congress by taking up an aggressive posture in tandem with Israel by deploying anArmada of Battleships to the Red Sea.  There are now reports from theIsraeli National News that, “The Israeli Air Force recently unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabia base, a semi-official Iranian news agency claimed Wednesday, while a large American force has massed in Azerbaijan, which is on the northwest border of Iran.”

Now, it seems that the United States is working overtime to sell their war plans to potential allies.  CIA chief, Leon Panetta appeared on ABC’s This Week and announced that the Iranians, “have enough low-enriched uraniumright now for two weapons. They do have to enrich it, fully, in order to get there. And we would estimate that if they made that decision, it would probably take a year to get there, probably another year to develop the kind of weapon delivery system in order to make that viable.”

While world leaders negotiate their piece of the Iranian pie in G8 negotiations, the multinational fear campaign has begun. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that a CIA warning that Iran has enough uranium to build two atomic bombs was "worrying," and criticized Tehran's secrecy over its nuclear program.  Gathered at the G8 Summit in Ottawa, world leaders now “fully believe” and are “worried” that a preemptive attack by Israel on Iran is inevitable.  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters that “Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively.”

Enforcing an unprovoked embargo on a sovereign nation has been historically defined as an act of war.  Unfortunately, very few of our elected officials know or understand history and therefore overwhelmingly voted for the new sanctions.  Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), an outspoken critic of Iran sanctions, was one of the eight house members to vote against the measure.  Here is Ron Paul from a few months ago comparing sanctions to an Act of War while discussing this bill; H.R. 2194 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.

The Bush-Obama Doctrine is the rule of tyrants.  Clearly it looks like Israel and America are determined to preemptively strike Iran even though Iran has always maintained that their nuclear program is for peaceful energy production only. America has once again engaged in an Act of War on a sovereign nation that has not harmed, or even threatened to harm her.  Iran's biggest crime appears to be sitting on a sea of crude at a time when oil-thirsty Neo-cons, who penned the Doctrine, rule the world.  The coming war with Iran will not be pretty.

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

ObamaBush: Semper Fi, Barack!

Ralph Nader
CounterPunch

After nearly two years out, I can imagine George W. Bush writing his successor the following letter:

Dear President Obama:

As you know I’ve been peddling my book Decision Points and while doing interviews, people ask me what I think of the job you’re doing. My answer is the same: He deserves to make decisions without criticism from me. It’s a tough enough job as it is.


But their inquiries did prompt me to write you to privately express my continual admiration for the job you are doing. Amazing! I say “privately” because making my sentiments public would not do either of us any good, if you know what I mean.

First, I can scarcely believe my good fortune as to how your foreign and military policies—“continuity” was the word used recently by my good friend, Joe Lieberman—has protected my legacy. More than protected, you’ve proven yourself just as able—and I may say sometimes even more so—to “kick ass” as my Daddy used to say.

My pleasant surprise is darn near limitless. Your Justice Department has not pursued any actions against my people—not to mention Dick Cheney and I—that the civil liberties and human rights crowd keep baying for you to do.
Overseas, all I see are five stars. You are roaring in Afghanistan, dispatching our great special forces into Yemen, saying, like me, that you’ll go anywhere in the world to kill those terrorists. When you said you would assassinate American citizens abroad suspected of “terrorism”—that news came over the radio during breakfast when I was eating my shredded wheat and I almost choked with amazement. You got cajones, buddy. I was hesitant about crossing the border into Pakistan—but you, man, are blasting away. Even Dick, who would never say it publically, told me he is impressed.The Leftists are always trying to have your policies show me up negatively. Hah—they’re having one hell of a tough time, aren’t they?

Read Full Article


Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

Wolfowitz Directive Gave Legal Cover to Detainee Experimentation Program

Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye
TruthOut

In 2002, as the Bush administration was turning to torture and other brutal techniques for interrogating "war on terror" detainees, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz loosened rules against human experimentation, an apparent recognition of legal problems regarding the novel strategies for extracting and evaluating information from the prisoners.

Wolfowitz issued his directive on March 25, 2002, about a month after President George W. Bush stripped the detainees of traditional prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions. Bush labeled them "unlawful enemy combatants" and authorized the CIA and the Department of Defense (DoD) to undertake brutal interrogations.

Despite its title - "Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research" - the Wolfowitz directive weakened protections that had been in place for decades by limiting the safeguards to "prisoners of war."

"We're dealing with a special breed of person here," Wolfowitz said about the war on terror detainees only four days before signing the new directive.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:

Another Nuremberg in the Making: Intelligence Agencies Employ Physicians to Torture Detainees

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

America’s Torture Doctrine

John Galt
Activist Post
September 11, 2010

	Inquisitions were supplanted by a new type of faith: The State.

The new mainstream American value of torture is steeped in self-deception, legal justification, and propaganda.  We idolize torturers in our favorite TV programs, and are happy to see our enemies (real and imagined) vicariously taken apart in order to protect our beacon of freedom.  It is an Orwellian undertaking.  Only a massive propaganda effort and a healthy dose of self-delusion can explain poll numbers that show a split verdict on the subject of torture’s legitimacy, when it has been proven to be completely unreliable in true intelligence gathering — not even when a “Jack Bauer” is working against a ticking bomb.  We must conclude, then, that it is a type of blood sport, or a self-righteous power trip that expresses itself in the sheer enjoyment of the punishment inflicted against evildoers.

Long before there was Jack Bauer to hold a blow torch to someone’s chest, there was the blood-soaked march across the ages, and the planet, inspired by fundamentalist religions.  Sacrifices to Gods eventually waned, Inquisitions passed, and formal witch trials disappeared, to be supplanted by a new type of faith:  The State.

The slaughters conducted by Stalin, Mao, and other decidedly Left governments, were never to be outdone by the iconoclasts of the Right.  It is a cynical admission, but it seems that torture has been around so long, and in so many forms, that it is part of who we are.  Evidently, we are easily whipped into a frenzy of self-righteousness that will not stop until the torture apparatus is turned upon the screaming body politic.  By then, it is too late.  The next generation is left to evaluate what could have led to such horrendous mass insanity.

The melting pot of modern America would seem immune to a torture doctrine; each ethnicity has their own history of horrific religious or State persecution. Many times, the arrival to America was an escape toward a nation of sound laws and founding documents that elevated the individual rights they sought.  Could it be that a nation built by rugged individuals simply cannot believe that their government could become a tyranny similar to those they fled?  And, yet, the evidence of history is clear:  any government that uses torture never stops with the initial target of revenge.  It becomes a point of no return, past which no one is immune.  And, sure enough, today we see the progression from overseas non-citizens, to American citizens overseas, then citizens on American soil, and now we learn of a new bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Agency that will set up the new parameters for the sweeping inclusion of both action and thought for main street America.

But we are a nation of laws, right?  Wrong.  The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with the most bloodthirsty, well-documented, torture gang on the planet — the CIA.  They have ruled that the secrets of the State are more important than the rights of the individual.  Openly.  Until this point, the research and actions of the CIA have been clandestine, hidden under jungle canopies, and given plausible deniability by their black ops missions.  So, down the slippery slope we slide to a place where torture has become a mainstream debate.  This era will not be one looked upon fondly in the annals of American history.

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

In our hearts, we know what torture is.  We don’t need the ACLU to define it for us, nor for Jack Bauer or the courts to convince us that there are certain exclusions.

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"! Print this page

American History, American War, American Empire

American Empire Before the Fall. By Bruce Fein. Campaign for Liberty, 2010. Vii + 219 pages.

David Gordon
Lew Rockwell

It is hardly news that George Bush’s Iraq War has been a disastrous failure and that Barack Obama, learning nothing from his predecessor, has renewed and expanded our crusade in Afghanistan. Criticisms of recent American policy have not been slow in coming, and Bruce Fein, in this excellent book, has given us one of the best of these. But he does more than this. He embeds his criticism of our current military misadventures within a full-scale account of the history of American 
foreign policy.

As Fein sees matters, our country began well. Washington and Jefferson rejected empire and instead sought to limit military action to the defense of the United States. Unfortunately, the lesser lights who assumed control of American foreign policy in the nineteenth century proved unequal to the task of upholding the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. Fein sees an early portent of trouble in the Monroe Doctrine, which exceeds the bounds of strict self-defense. Matters really got out of hand with the Mexican War, clearly an imperialist venture; and since then our policy has abandoned restraint, culminating in the twentieth century with the pursuit of world mastery.

Read Full Article

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!