7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them
Buzzfeed: Obama’s national security policy has continued some of the most controversial moves of the Bush administration. Silence from much of the left
"[E]ven as Obama said that “a decade of war is now ending” in his inauguration speech, a drone strike killed three suspected Al Qaeda members in Yemen. […]
If George W. Bush were doing this sort of thing, we’d be marching in the streets about it. Why does Obama get a free pass? (And on Bradley Manning? And on Guantanamo?) Anyone in the press want to ask the President about the legality & moral stickiness of drone strikes at his next press conference?"
kottke.org: Obama’s overlooked war and lethal Presidency (via hipsterlibertarian)
(via hipsterlibertarian)
"I wish we had a peace movement in this country. I wish there were somebody voicing publicly and aggressively that we should be killing many, many, many, fewer people."
Penn Jillette (via letterstomycountry)
(via thefreelioness)
U.N. announces investigation of Obama's deadly drone attacks, special rapporteur says some may be war crimes
The United Nations is to set up a dedicated investigations unit in Geneva early next year to examine the legality of drone attacks in cases where civilians are killed in so-called “targeted” counter-terrorism operations.
The announcement was made by Ben Emmerson QC, a UN special rapporteur, in a speech to Harvard law school in which he condemned secret rendition and waterboarding as crimes under international law. His forthright comments, directed at both US presidential candidates, will be seen as an explicit challenge to the prevailing US ideology of the global war on terror.
Earlier this summer, Emmerson, who monitors counter-terrorism for the UN, called for effective investigations into drone attacks. Some US drone strikes in Pakistan may amount to war crimes, Emmerson warned.
In his Harvard speech, he said: “If the relevant states are not willing to establish effective independent monitoring mechanisms … then it may in the last resort be necessary for the UN to act.
“Together with my colleague Christof Heyns, [the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings], I will be launching an investigation unit within the special procedures of the [UN] Human Rights Council to inquire into individual drone attacks.”
Embarrassing, shameful that it is going to take an international body to hold President Barack Obama and his administration accountable for the supreme crimes against humanity committed they have committed against Pakistan and other countries. Our aspirational Peace Prize Winner might end up becoming America’s First War Criminal President.
(Source: againstpower)
"
The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon’s shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.
The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can’t go farther than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation.
"Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket, 1935. (via latter-day-anti-federalist)
"It is not right for you to occupy our countries and kill our women and children and expect to live in peace and security."
Osama bin Laden (via haereticum)
"Americans have the right to defend themselves against attack; that is not at issue. But that is very different from launching a preemptive war against a country that had not attacked us and could not attack us, that lacked a navy and an air force, and whose military budget was a fraction of a percent of our own. A policy of overthrowing or destabilizing every regime our government dislikes is no strategy at all, unless our goal is international chaos and domestic impoverishment."
Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008)
"For heaven’s sake, what kind of debate is it in which all sides agree that America needs troops in 130 countries?"
Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008)
"I’m often told that my decision to decline my commission in the United States Marine Corps was cowardly. My reply is always the same. I realized that our military had not defended the American people in my lifetime, and certainly was not doing so then. My decision was not based on my refusal to become a defender of freedom, but on my refusal to be a killer of people who were defending their homes - to be a killer of men, women, and children who by any other standard were innocent people. If that is cowardice, then it says more about that standard than it does about me."
Dustin R. Snyder (via disobey)
(Source: disobey)
This day in Wikileaks - June 3, 2012
WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 548 days.Julian Assange has been under house arrest without charge for 545 days.Bradley Manning has been in jail without trial for 742 days.
A secret Grand Jury on WikiLeaks has been active in the US for 628 days.
(Source: thepeoplesrecord)
America officially at war with Yemen as ground troops enter the country
A group of about 20 U.S. special forces are on the ground in Yemen, helping the government fight insurgents in the south of the country, officials say.
Their work includes using high-tech equipment to help the Yemeni military locate targets, the Los Angeles Times reported. The new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadid, is reported to be more willing to work with the United States than his predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down after months of protests.
“There are ways of checking their homework,” a senior U.S. defense official said. “They’ve been trusted partners.”
Antiwar.com’s Jason Ditz reminds us that just days ago, the official word is that the United States is not interested in sending in ground troops:
The revelation comes just days after the most recent denial by Leon Panetta, who insisted that there was no consideration of US ground troops inside Yemen. President Obama had likewise ruled out such a move repeatedly.
Though this is the first official acknowledgement of the mission, the Pentagon accidentally confirmed the operation in early March, when it announced that a US “security team,” which was never reported deployed in the first place, had come under attack in Aden.
I am hoping that the likes of Sen. Rand Paul and other antiwar foes in Congress will bring attention to this, but I suspect that this will not garner any attention in the corporate media. Hopefully, with enough noise in the liberty movement, this very important issue will register in people’s radars. And with government debt spinning out-of-control, could we afford yet another illegal and expensive war?
(Source: againstpower)
"The real, pro-US solution to the problems in the Middle East is for us to end all foreign aid, stop arming foreign countries, encourage peaceful diplomatic resolutions to conflicts, and disengage militarily. In others words, follow Jefferson’s admonition: ‘Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.’"
Ron Paul (via ronpaulrevolution)
(via darrellfalconburg)
“Iraqis have had just about all the help they can take from America.” - Dr. Dahlia Wasfi
