This is a companion to “Update on Saleh v. Bush about War on Iraq - (N.D. Cal. 2014) – Now in Ninth Circuit Appeals”
For background information see this video discussion held today Blood Year : Terror and the Islamic State. Inspect this analysis of the civil war and its impact on the region Syria in Crisis. There is a report here worth considering.
What sane person would now send 450 more U.S. service members to Iraq? The 450 that Obama is sending will join the 3,000 troops already there, risking their lives and what bit of remaining national wealth and good reputation we have in a deepening crisis that has no U.S. military solution. This is worse than LBJ continually escalating Viet Nam all those years ago because the U.S. in Iraq is a lot longer history than is U.S. in Viet Nam or U.S.S.R in Afghanistan ever was. In 1990 the U.S. launched the shock-and-awe hit made for TV series, Operation Desert Storm – Military Victory: Moral Defeat. And it’s been war ever since for 25 years!
Stephen Miles, advocacy director for Win Without War, stood up against the escalation of the war in Iraq in a piece he authored for USA Today. Please click here to read the full article. Then help grow our movement by sharing it with your family and friends. In a recent e-mail, Stephen said "The hard truth is that American troops will not bring peace to Iraq nor heal the bitter sectarian divide fueling the conflict. America has spent the past 25 years trying to bomb our way to a secure Iraq, but we have only managed to fuel the violence. Some have pointed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and invoke former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s infamous rule: We broke Iraq, so we own it. But by continuing to wage war, we are only continuing to break Iraq."
Previously Jeffrey S. Tolk wrote "The Moral Failures ofOperation Desert Storm" in which he said:
The nation allowed itself to be cajoled and manipulated, through the rhetoric of jingoism and commercialized patriotism, into developing an unexamined conviction of our total moral correctness and forsaking the Christian mandate of compassion for one's neighbor.
Mr. Tolk put good effort into that journal (excellent bibliography) and the same names are used repeatedly, Kurds, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc. How long are we going to let these lies of the necessity of war and the $-trillions we spend go on for no good means, for no good ends? Basta! Enough!
Today (Monday): Reports are out, as they have been before, AQAP head Nasir Wuhayshi killed in drone strike (this time said to have been on Friday). The US has launched eight drone strikes in Yemen so far this year. The last four strikes have taken place in Hadramout, the ancestral home of al Qaeda’s founder and former emir Osama bin Laden.Track the drone war in Yemen day by day. And weep.
United States signed (1933-12-26) the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States at Montevideo, Uruguay. It is in force now since 1934-12-26. There are 16 Articles of which the first 6 are shown below. Article 1 has 4 requirements to be considered a state. ISIS/ISIL arguably meets these 4 requirements. Article 3 says the state does not have to be recognized by any other state. ISIS/ISIL has a standing highly lethal coordinated military. Therefore, our U.S. policy of convincing public citizens the world over that actions by the U.S. and others against ISIS/ISIL are actions of counter-terrorism against a death-cult is completely wrong-headed and indefensible.
Equally wrong-headed are mass surveillance and drone strikes. The people of other nations who are currently leaving their home nations to enter ISIS/ISIL territory for the purpose of joining ISIS/ISIL are engineers, and others (nurses, etc.) who are not warriors nor do they want to become warriors. In Syria a negotiated settlement is and must be the top priority for we who want to end this perpetual war of the last 15 years which has changed so dramatically with the rising influence of ISIS/ISIL since June, 2014 just a year ago (right after President Obama spoke at West Point (May 28, 2014, transcript) linked, stitched together, until a large enough geographical and geopolitical area is affected that the pressure on leaders to fully implement a unified accord would be effective. Humanitarian corridors can also be established. People in the affected area in and near Mosul, for example, need electricity, water, flour (such as wheat flour). Kurdish people also have just recently established what amounts to an independent territory and are at this point not going to commit into a deadly conflict the vigorous (young) population that is within their fighting force.
Women in fair number absolutely must be influential parties in any discussions, planning, negotiations, and implementations of any operations designed to engage populations in efforts and successes to achieving reductions of violence as is known by anyone who has ever worked with tribally based conflict resolutions. People the world over listen to their grannies. POTUS Obama recognized the first all-female command team in West Point history last year and that should be a clear piece of evidence to support the assertion in this paragraph.
The Governments represented in the Seventh International Conference of American States: Wishing to conclude a Convention on Rights and Duties of States, have appointed the following Plenipotentiaries: [List of plenipotentiaries omitted] Who, after having exhibited their Full Powers, which were found to be in good and due order, have agreed upon the following:
Article 1
The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a.) a permanent population; b.) a defined territory; c.) government; and d.) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Article 2
The federal state shall constitute a sole person in the eyes of international law.
Article 3
The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states. Even before recognition the state has the right to defend its integrity and independence, to provide for its conservation and prosperity, and consequently to organize itself as it sees fit, to legislate upon its interests, administer its services, and to define the jurisdiction and competence of its courts. The exercise of these rights has no other limitation than the exercise of the rights of other states according to international law.
Article 4
States are juridically equal, enjoy the same rights, and have equal capacity in their exercise. The rights of each one do not depend upon the power which it possesses to assure its exercise, but upon the simple fact of its existence as a person under international law.
Article 5
The fundamental rights of states are not susceptible of being affected in any manner whatsoever.
Article 6
The recognition of a state merely signifies that the state which recognizes it accepts the personality of the other with all the rights and duties determined by international law. Recognition is unconditional and irrevocable.
Any questions? Sanity.
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