The Watering Hole, Thursday, October 18th, 2012: Romney’s Foreign to Foreign Policy

While we’re all still on a bit of a contact high from President Obama’s excellent performance in Tuesday night’s debate, the final Presidential Debate, supposedly covering U.S. foreign policy, looms just around the corner. As a follow-up to my post on Monday, I’m offering two pertinent articles from Foreign Policy magazine.

The first is a piece of rather hawkish advice offered to President Obama by David Rothkopf, which, in part, points out the frightening fact that:

“To get to buried Iranian facilities, such as the enrichment plant at Fordow, would require bunker-busting munitions on a scale that no Israeli plane is capable of delivering. The mission, therefore, must involve the United States, whether acting alone or in concert with the Israelis and others.”

Oy!

The second, as I mentioned on Monday, is a return to Mitt Romney’s recent foreign-policy speech at VMI (Virginia Military Institute.) While I find it disturbing for a Presidential candidate to be obviously undermining his audience’s Commander-in-Chief, even more disturbing were Romney’s comments about the recent tragic attack on our embassy in Benghazi. This line in particular jumped out at me: “These mobs hoisted the black banner of Islamic extremism over American embassies on the anniversary of 9/11.” I’m still looking, but I have not found ANY independent corroboration of this little tidbit.

The following are a few more excepts. Of course, it figures that Romney is a proponent of an Obama Administration policy with which many of us liberals take great issue.

“Drones and the modern instruments of war are important tools in our fight, but they are no substitute for a national security strategy for the Middle East.”

Anyway, Romney continues…

“It is time to change course in the Middle East. That course should be organized around these bedrock principles: America must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose and resolve in our might. No friend of America will question our commitment to support them. No enemy that attacks America will question our resolve to defeat them. And no one anywhere, friend or foe, will doubt America’s capability to back up our words.”

Based on this attitude, Romney wants to pour an unnecessary and unasked-for $2 trillion-with-a-T into the Department of Defense.

“I’ll work with Israel to increase our military assistance and coordination. For the sake of peace, we must make clear to Iran through actions, not just words, that their nuclear pursuit will not be tolerated.
I’ll reaffirm our historic ties to Israel and our abiding commitment to its security. The world must never see any daylight between our two nations.“

Why? The United States of America is NOT the same country, we don’t share the same culture or the same history as Israel; we are not geographical neighbors experiencing common challenges. The Constitution says nothing about our country’s ability to create a new country, nor about then being responsible for that new country forever. The President of the United States swears an oath to protect and defend our Constitution, and that oath does not mention protecting and defending Israel as well. Israel is fully capable of defending itself, having been greatly helped by our military and financial assistance. Isn’t it time to cut the cord and let the allegedly adult sovereign state of Israel be responsible for its own actions? But I digress…

“Finally, I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the President has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new President will bring the chance to begin anew.”

Now, that’s the ultimate lying hypocrisy from Romney, who, in the infamous, supposedly-private “47% speech” to big-money donors, said:

“And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way. And so what you do is you say you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that it’s going to remain an unsolved problem. I mean, we look at that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve. We don’t go to war to try and resolve it.“

In other words, Romney has no plan for the Middle East. Does this mean that Romney’s believes in “hopey-changey”?

I also ran across this interesting and helpful analysis on Romney’s VMI speech, by Andrew Quinn.

This is our daily open thread–what do YOU have to say?

The Watering Hole: Wednesday, June 20, 2012: Does it really Matter?

Ok, so for the next few months, if you’re in a “swing” State, you’ll be inundated with SuperPAC commercials designed to get you to vote against your own best interests. We will also be systematically bombarded with messages from the Mainstream Media designed to influence our thinking.

IT’S ALL A SHOW. IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER.

If the Powers That Be really want Obama out, all they have to do is raise gas prices to about $5.00/gallon. Instead, gas prices are going down, heading into the summer vacation season. That’s not to say they won’t go up between now and the election – but they are an accurate predictor of where our economy will head. So, pay attention to the pump, not the talking heads.

Ok, that’s my $0.0199 cents. And you?

OPEN THREAD
JUST REMEMBER
EVERYTHING I SAID
DOESN’T REALLY MATTER

 

The Watering Hole, Monday, May 14th, 2012: Teh Crazy, Local to International

For this Monday’s mix, let’s start with local (to me, anyway) weirdness:

A different aspect on ‘robbing the poor’ involves attempted theft from a local drop box. According to the Patch news article, three men allegedly were not only stealing from the drop boxes, they were stealing the drop boxes themselves. The men stated that they worked for a company called “God’s Property”, although my quick search of the googles/bing could only come up with a house-cleaning service by that name.

On the national crazy homefront: The religious right is celebrating what they believe to be President Obama’s downfall in November, now that the President has officially endorsed same-sex marriage. Adding to the craziness in this article from The Daily Beast is the following quote from Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association:

“President Obama just torpedoed his chance to win in November,” Bryan Fischer, the firebrand spokesman for the American Family Association, told The Daily Beast. “This was a move born of desperation, a Hail Mary pass. The results in North Carolina make it abundantly clear that the American people are not with him on gay marriage. This is a golden opportunity for Mitt Romney. If he will send a strong, consistent and unambiguous message in support of natural marriage he will win the election in a landslide.”

Yet this is the same Bryan Fischer who managed to get Mitt Romney’s openly gay foreign policy adviser, Richard Grenell, to resign from Romney’s campaign staff; then accused Romney of weakness for caving to a self-described “yokel.”

“If Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin? How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me? I don’t think Romney is realizing the doubts that this begins to raise about his leadership.”

So, I’m guessing that Bryan Fischer is going to stay home on Election Day this November?

For the foreign crazy, here’s a pair of articles from Foreign Policy’s website about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the possibility of an Israeli strike against Iran. It appears that some former Mossad leaders are speaking out against the idea, while Netanyahu’s recent political moves send mixed signals both for and against an attack on Iran.

Lastly, from Slate, some interesting little stories about various Vice-Presidents, from Aaron Burr to Joe Biden.

This is our daily open thread — feel free to discuss one of the above topics, or whatever’s on your mind!

The Watering Hole: December 27th – Headlines

Some headlines for today:

Hope: The tanks are being withdrawn, relief for the people of Homs.

No Surprise: Vladimir Putin rejects scrutiny into last elections 

Kill the Poor: Britain’s poorest hit by Stealth Tax

Critters and such: Confusing Weather Patterns for Britain’s Wildlife

Nature Victimized and her victims: Rising Seal Levels and Erosion leave landmark crumbling.

Romney: Inevitable? Well…

Not Romney: The Molotov Party

Cute Overdose: Red Panda

This is our daily Open Thread, what’s your news?

Picture of The Day – Queue

Women queueing to vote in Egypt

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my

The writing on the wall says “We build Egypt together” They had to act twice, once to get rid of Mubarak and now again, when the military tried to introduce their concept of Democracy. I am afraid their struggle is not over yet. Democracy is hard to come by, let’s not ours go to waste.

The Watering Hole, Thursday, October 27th: …and in other news…

After mulling over topics for today’s post, I decided to just present a mixed bag of ‘things that caught my eye on the internets during the past few days.’ The articles range from serious to tongue-in-cheek to outright ridiculous. The following are from Foreign Policy Magazine online and from Newsmax.

From FP: The title of Ryan Caldwell’s article, “An Islamist, a Liberal, and a Former Regime Loyalist Walk into a Cafe”, snagged my attention. The article gave an interesting presentation of the post-Gaddafi views of three Libyans of different stripes working together. Also, for some reason I found it just wondrous that the interview was done via Skype, from Caldwell’s home in California to a cafe in Benghazi. Plus I learned that ‘celebratory gunfire’ is called rasaas al-farah, which means, literally, “bullets of joy.”

From FP: In “Dumb Power: Republicans Introduce the “What Wouldn’t Jesus Do?” Foreign Policy”, David Rothkopf gives his reaction to the Republican debate on foreign policy.

From Newsmax: In the Newsmax “Breaking News” email, this article was billed as “Thomas Sowell: Herman Cain Is Real Black, Obama Not Typical“. The article includes such tidbits as:

“His prescription for fixing the economy: “I would love to have a constitutional amendment that says politicians are not allowed to intervene in the economy under any circumstances. I think there would be a boom following that.””

From Newsmax: The title of “Hensarling: Supercommittee Need Not Cut Entitlements” sounds hopeful, doesn’t it? Sure…read the whole article: Hensarling, the Republican co-chair of this “Supercommittee”, has some strange ideas. Here’s one:

“I would like to pick up the Internal Revenue Code by its roots and throw it into the nearest trash can. Having said that, realistically, that’s probably a bridge too far for this committee,”

From Newsmax: And finally, Frank Gaffney being Frank Gaffney:

“Frank Gaffney warned in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview: “I’m afraid there’s a war coming, a very serious, perhaps cataclysmic regional war,” he said. “It will be presumably over, at least in part, the future existence of the state of Israel. It may involve all of its neighbors, as they have in the past, attacking Israel to try, as they say, to drive the Jews into the sea.”"

Enjoy!

This is our Open Thread. I’m sure you can find something to say about any one of the above, so Speak Up!

The Watering Hole: August 27 – A Quick War

Disposition of British and Zanzibar-an Naval Forces in Zanzibar Town Harbor

The Anglo-Zanzibar War fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896 lasted but 38 minutes. It was the shortest war in recorded history.

Of course, The Gunfight at OK Corral a bit shorter at 30 seconds does not count because it was fought between rival gangs. To be classified a war, a gang fight had to be between nations.

The war came because of the death of Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on the 24 of August. During his reign he had co-operated with the British colonial administration in running of his country. Tensions had being growing in the area for some time before this. The British a freedom-loving and compassionate world power were pushing to end the slave trade in Zanzibar dating back to the Omani in the 17th Century. Sultan Hamad bin Thuwainis’s nephew, Khalid bin Bargash, took over on the Sultan’s death. The British favored a cousin, Hamud bin Muhammed, another cousin who supported slavery but to a lesser extent than Bargash. The British delivered an ultimatum ordering Bargash to give up the throne.

The ultimatum ran out at 9.02 am on August 27, at which time the Royal Navy ships opened fire on the palace. The Sultan’s Fleet was sunk; the palace was taking a beating and Bargash was losing a lot of men. He made a tactical retreat to the German embassy where he requested and was granted asylum. The shelling stopped at 9.40 thus ending the war. The death toll stood at about 500.

Now compare that conflict to one in Iraq. You can say that the British knew how to start and finish a war.

This is our Open Thread. You can have at it now.

The Watering Hole: February 1, The March of Millions

Nefertiti

It is still early in the day, but hundreds of thousands Egyptians have already taken to the street. Let us hope the protests will be peaceful. For live updates on the situation, you can go to the following sites:

The BBC

The Guardian

Meet Mohamed El Baradei at The Independent. Remember, this was the man who couldn’t be pressured, nor bribed into supporting Bush’s Iraq war reasoning. And he couldn’t be pressured, nor bribed into saying Iran’s nuclear program was entirely peaceful. I, for my part, would be happy for the Egyptians, if he was too be Mubarak’s successor.

This is, however, our open thread, so don’t hesitate to change the topic!

Across the Pond – Europe’s News

What’s in the news? Egypt again, of course. The situation has not dramatically changed. Mubarak still tries to smother the unrest the only way he knows, by banning the TV and the internet.

Mr. Mubarak, I have news for you: Your people is out in the streets protesting you and not sitting in front of the TV set or computer. There is no way back. There is a plane waiting for you somewhere. Your cronies have already seen the light, many rich families have fled the country and are sipping their tea in Dubai now.

What violence occurs now, is mostly looting and criminally motivated. Prison breaks are rampant and add to the confusion.

Here’s what we find on the news sites  in Europe:

The Independent:

In the pantomime world of Mubarak himself – and of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Washington – the man who still claims to be president of Egypt swore in the most preposterous choice of vice-president in an attempt to soften the fury of the protesters – Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s chief negotiator with Israel and his senior intelligence officer, a 75-year-old with years of visits to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and four heart attacks to his credit. How this elderly apparatchik might be expected to deal with the anger and joy of liberation of 80 million Egyptians is beyond imagination. When I told the demonstrators on the tank around me the news of Suleiman’s appointment, they burst into laughter. (read more)

The Guardian:

And Arabs from the Mashreq to the Maghreb are watching, egging on those protesters to topple Hosni Mubarak who has ruled Egypt for 30 years, because they know if he goes, all the other old men will follow, those who have smothered their countries with one hand and robbed them blind with the other. Mubarak is the Berlin Wall. “Down, down with Hosni Mubarak,” resonates through the whole region. (read more)

Der Tagesanzeiger

Die Aufstände in Tunesien und Ägypten beseelen den Westen mit neuer Hoffnung auf eine demokratischere Welt. Doch das Beispiel der ehemaligen Sowjetunion zeigt deutlich: Demokratie ist nicht ansteckend. Und selbst wenn es zum Aufstand kommt: Dass dabei ein demokratischer Staat entsteht, ist die Ausnahme und keinesfalls die Regel.

The uprising in Tunisia and Egypt instill new hopes in the west for a more democratic world order. But the developments in the former Soviet Union show clearly: Democracy is not contagious. And even if there is a general uprising: The creation of a democratic state is the exception not the rule.  (full story)

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

Würde Ägypten in einem revolutionären Strudel versinken, fiele ein wesentlicher Akteur des nahöstlichen Friedensprozesses für geraume Zeit aus. Überdies gibt es in Ägypten im Unterschied zu Tunesien eine starke islamistische Bewegung, die von Mubaraks Regime unterdrückten Muslimbrüder.

If Egypt went down in revolutionary turmoil, an important actor in the Middle East peace process would drop out for a considerable time. Moreover, there is a strong islamist movement in Egypt, the oppressed Muslim Brotherhood. (full story)

Der Spiegel:

In the wake of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, the Egyptians are now revolting against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The country feels as if it were waking up from a bad dream, but the West stands to lose a reliable partner — and Israel one of its few Arab friends. (read all)

The Jerusalem Post:

The fear and trembling is that what happened in France in 1789, in Russia in 1917 and in Iran in 1979 will repeat itself in Egypt and the Arab world in 2011. After the old was thumped out by the new in those countries, there was a brief moment when democratic forces arose – be it the National Constituent Assembly and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France, Alexander Kerensky in Russia, or Shapour Bakhtiar in Iran – only to be swept away by the radicals: Robespierre in Paris, the Bolsheviks in Moscow, Ayatollah Khomeini in Teheran.

In Egypt, too, democratic forces are on the march, but the radical extremists are lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce. (read more)

Enjoy your reading. The situation will further unfold today and, if necessary I’ll update this post accordingly.

Unrest in the Middle East

Picture Source: harleyk.com

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

[...]

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them.

George W. Bush: Second Inaugural Address 2005

Nice.

Now the people in the Maghreb and the Middle East are demanding their liberty. Is George W. Bush’s professed agenda for bringing democracy to the region working out after all?

Tunisia:

For decades, Tunisia has promoted itself as an Arab world success story, a place where the economy is stronger than in neighboring countries, women’s rights are respected, unrest is rare and European tourists can take stress-free vacations at beach resorts.

But the recent protests have exposed a side of Tunisia that the country has long tried to hide: the poverty of the countryside, poor job prospects for youths and seething resentment at the government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has ruled Tunisia with an iron fist since 1987. (read more)

Egypt:

Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month.

Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia – rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption. (read more)

Yemen:

“We will not accept anything less than the president leaving,” said independent parliamentarian Ahmed Hashid. “We’ll only be happy when we hear the words ‘I understand you’ from the president,” invoking a statement issued by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before he fled the country.

Nearly half of Yemen’s population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn’t have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities. (read more)

Algeria:

The riots are widely seen as drawing on deep frustrations with the ruling elite and a lack of political freedom, as well as more immediate concerns about the cost of living, housing, and jobs.

The prices of flour, cooking oil and sugar have doubled in the past few months.
(read more)

Jordan:

Demonstrators in Jordan say they are preparing for more protests. Massive demonstrations inspired by unrest in Tunisia have shaken what historically has been one of the most stable nations in the Middle East and raised questions about the future role of the country’s popular monarch.

Some protesters in last Friday’s demonstration waved pieces of bread. (read more)

Oman, has had some bouts of protestestation, really unusual for the country. The Saudi King has issued a statement today about the situation in Egypt:

“No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt by those who infiltrated the people in the name of freedom of expression, exploiting it to inject their destructive hatred.”[...]
“As they condemn this, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and government declares it stands with all its resources with the government of Egypt and its people,”

The Saudis and most of our other “friends” in the region are none too happy, of course, to see what was basically widespread food revolts turn into a movement for democracy across the region.  The words of G.W. Bush may have inadvertently come true. Not as a result of  his  ”Freedom Agenda”, but because his administration’s disastrous economic policies, which have triggered the latest economic crisis, which has triggered the social unrest and which may well trigger the fall of the former President’s Middle East pet despots.

But will they really be replaced by democratic  governments? I have my doubts. The Middle East is not a monolithic cultural area. Yemen and Tunisia are worlds apart. There  are marked differences in the societies of Egypt and Algeria. Just look at the pictures in the news. While in Tunisia you could see many young women joining in the protests, you see mostly men in Egypt and a still more marked difference in Yemen. In the end there may be just more bloodshed and instability in the region and no marked improvement for the people of the countries involved.

Want to read more on this? See:

Rupert Cornwell

Robert Fisk

Soumaya Ghanousshi

The Guardian: Live Updates on Egypt

 

And the killing goes on..

Again, multiple blasts have rocked Baghdad. Latests news claim 127 people have died and 448 men, women and children have been wounded.

The explosions on Tuesday shook houses across the capital.

Official buildings located near the blasts include the interior ministry, the social affairs ministry, a university and the institute of fine arts.

There were civilian and security force personnel casualties, officials said.

Survivor Ahmed Jabbar, emerging from a damaged ministry building, told AP news agency: “What crime have we committed? Children and women were buried under debris.”

If anybody needs a reminder that not all’s well, even if the media have mostly stopped reporting on the violence unless it’s as devastating as the latest attack, here’s icasualties.com.

Open Thread for Friday – The Six Day War (June 5-11, 1967)

If you are seeing a trend here, June may be a month for upheaval in the history of mankind. This trend may settle down later in the month. Here is a short video on the Six Day War in 1967:

This war was and is the crux of the unrest that we are experiencing today in the middle-east. It is especially poignant in light of President Obama’s visit to Arab countries over the past few days. His visit to a Holocaust site today offers a dramatic postscript to his trip.

This is an open thread and you can comment on any subject. Merely keep things decent. Also feel free to comment in threads that open during the day.

Obama’s speech in Cairo, Egypt

President Obama gave a speech today in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discussed how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them.  (This according to the White House).

“A New Beginning”

Full text at The Huffington Post

The truth about the run up to the Iraq war must be published – in the UK

This will shed a lot more light on the decision making in the run up to the Iraq war. I can hardly wait to see the documents.

Secret government discussions about the Iraq war are to be disclosed after an information tribunal today ordered the release of cabinet minutes from 2003.

The decision follows a lengthy battle by campaigners, who have argued that the public interest in learning what was said about the planned invasion outweighs the public interest in cabinet discussions being kept secret.

Ministers have strongly opposed the request, arguing that the Freedom of Information Act was never intended to allow for the publication of information of this kind. (read full article)

Nevermind this is starting in the UK, it will make it across the pond in a hurry.

Saudi Arabia’s Patience is Running Out

Well, bully for them.

Saudi Prince Saud Al-Faisal wrote an OpEd piece in today’s Financial Times of London:

Unless the new US administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the US-Saudi relationship and the stability of the region are at risk.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister, told the UN Security Council that if there was no just settlement, “we will turn our backs on you”. King Abdullah spoke for the Arab and Muslim world when he said at the Arab summit in Kuwait that although the Arab peace initiative was on the table, it would not remain there for long.

I am not against what Al-Faisal is saying; I firmly believe that what happened in Gaza over the last couple of weeks was both an abomination and an affront to human life and dignity.  That said, I am wondering why this OpEd was written during President Obama’s first week in office.   I wonder why Saudi Arabia was silent during the Bush years. It couldn’t be the relationship between the Bushes and the House of Saud, could it?

Read the whole piece. It is quite interesting.

Gaza Update

As expected, Israel is pulling out of Gaza before Obama takes office:

Israel to pull out of Gaza by Obama inauguration

By getting its soldiers out before the Obama inauguration, Israel hopes to pave the way for a smooth beginning with the Obama administration and spare the incoming president the trouble of having to deal with a burning problem in Gaza from his first day, the Israeli officials said.

Translation: the days of the Bush Administration and America turning a blind eye to Palistinian suffering are over.

Gaza Update – It’s About Time

Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed Sunday to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel.

Vote for Informed Comment!

Go here to vote for Professor Juan Cole of Informed Comment for Best Middle East or Africa Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards!!

You can vote once every 24 hours. Voting ends tomorrow morning.

Professor Cole is a great resource to learn what is happening from that part of the globe, drawing on his vast knowledge and experience, and offering his excellent insight and perspective. Here are a couple of my recent favorites:

Top Ten Myths about Iraq, 2008

What’s in a name?

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Protest!

shalom2salam writes in the text for the video:

This song is dedicated to the thousands of ordinary people around the world, including many Jews, who worked together to break the Israeli siege on Gaza in August 08 by sailing two small wooden boats from Cyprus to Gaza and bringing medical supplies, baby food, and other necessities. Since that first siege-busting voyage, the Free Gaza movement has succcessfully sent to Gaza four additional boats, and are planning on sending many more. They have shown that the concerted efforts of ordinary civilians working together in the name of justice can confront and successfully challenge Israel’s brutal policies.

And in an update:

At a time when Gaza civilians, including women and children, are being slaughtered by the hundreds (by now 700 Palestinians have been killed, and some 3,000 others are wounded — most of whom are civilians, including women and children) it is not time to sing about peace. It is time to act, productively, to stop this barbarism and insanity.
1. If you are Jewish or have Jewish friends, ask them to sign:
“Jews Call on Israeli Soldiers to Stop War Crimes”
http://www.ajjp.org/campaigns/signSta…
2.Demand from your leaders immediate international intervention to stop the massacres. Demand the U.N. General Assembly establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel under Article 22 of the UN Charter.
Details here:
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3856

Must-reads…

In view of the escalating conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestineans, please read this:

Party to Murder by Chris Hedges

Then head on over to Informed Comment by Juan Cole (daily) and keep up to date with what is happening by someone who follows it closely. Juan Cole, who is a Middle East expert, reports daily from reports around the globe, not just depending on the US corporate press.

20’000 disappeared, Obama inherits torture and death

: : : : : : : : : :

When I wrote my wish list for Obama, I did mention the necessity for the US to join the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. Now stories are coming up, or are being reported again after the election hubbub dies down, that makes subjecting the Bush Administration to the scrutiny of the ICC imperative.

During Bush’s “war on terror” some 20’000 mostly muslim men vanished from the face of the earth, probably to find themselves victims of extraordinary rendition in a torture cell in some remote part of the globe. Robert Fisk, the most reputable source on all things Middle East writes in an article on Bush’s legacy and Obama:

There is just one little problem, though, and that’s the “missing” prisoners. Not the victimswho have been (still are being?) tortured in Guantanamo, but the thousands who have simply disappeared into US custody abroad or – with American help – into the prisons of US allies. Some reports speak of 20,000 missing men, most of them Arabs, all of them Muslims. Where are they? Can they be freed now? Or are they dead? If Obama finds that he is inheriting mass graves from George W Bush, there will be a lot of apologising to do. (read more)

Mass graves.

The treatment of prisoners by the American and Iraqi military deserves another hard look as well. Especially the torture of children, juveniles, the rape of women and girls have not yet received the attention needed to highlight the necessity of further criminal investigation. Sherwood Ross from MWC news is making a case that is hard to read, it is so upsetting:

Since it invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. has detained thousands of juveniles—some of whom were tortured and sexually abused, according to published reports. Figures of the number of children behind bars vary. Some estimates put the number as high as  6,000. (read more)

Bush and Cheney et.al. have to be held accountable for their actions. I want to see them in dock, like Karadzic and Taylor. I want them tried in The Hague and the Obama Administration can pave the way by signing the Rome Statute.

A Study of Contrasts: Bush vs Obama Eras

Bush Era

Obama Era

Saudi journalist Samir Saadi said that Obama’s election means “the U.S. has won the war on terror.”

“Given Obama’s name, his background, the doubts about his religion, Americans still voted for him and this proved that America is a democracy,” he said. “People here are starting to believe in the U.S. again.”

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Warning: This powerful video is not work friendly.

Spying on Congress

I’ve long said that there is something off about how Congress has, for the last nearly eight years, bent over for this administration. At first, I had assumed it was that each member had been Watergated (vis a vis illegal wiretapping AKA spying). I’ve even crawled under a tin-foil hat and wondered about that all too forgotten Anthrax attack just after 9/11 where several Democrats were on the receiving end. That, indeed, would be a mighty powerful message: play ball with this administration or die.

Now, it appears that Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, will be coming out with proof that the administration did indeed spy on Congress. This from OpEdNews:

Edmonds and the group she founded, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, will be coming forward with hard evidence, obtained legally from third-party sources, demonstrating that the Bush administration has used FISA warrants to engage in unauthorized surveillance of members of Congress and their staffs, and allegedly the FISA court was not aware of this misuse of the warrants.

Don’t know much about Sibel Edmonds? You, and every American should. Read about this amazing woman below the fold.

Let the fallout begin…

: : : : : : : : : :

George Bush may soon regret his poor choice of words. Or, knowing George Bush, maybe not… His cheap shot (and fear-mongering tactics) directed at Barack Obama and the Democratic Party may very well come back to bite him in the ass. This man is so very short-sighted.

With great power comes great responsibility. What this man did while representing the United States of America was totally irresponsible. There can be consequences for words used carelessly or maliciously. There may well be fallout, with unintended consequences… Words matter.

Bush An “Appeaser,” Says Egyptian Press – CBS News

Egypt’s state-owned press opened fire Saturday on U.S. President George W. Bush as he arrived for talks with regional leaders at the conclusion of a five-day Mideast tour.

The newspapers, whose management are all appointed by the government, criticized Mr. Bush’s speech Thursday in front of the Israeli Knesset for being overly supportive of the Israelis and not mentioning the Palestinians’ plight.

“The Torah-inspired speech of Bush raised question marks over the credibility of the U.S. role in the Middle East,” wrote Mursi Atallah, the publisher of Al-Ahram, the flagship daily of the state-owned press. “Bush aims to do nothing but appeasing Israel.”

Mr. Bush’s tour, which included stops in Israel and Saudi Arabia, represents another effort to push Mideast peace talks forward as his time in office winds down.

In his speech marking the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding, Mr. Bush reiterated the U.S.’s close ties to its regional ally, and dismissed the notion that the Jewish state should have to negotiate with its armed adversaries.

A front page editorial in Al-Gomhouria, another Egyptian state-owned daily, described Mr. Bush as “a failed president who delivers nothing but a lousy speech.”

Akhbar Al-Youm also on Saturday published a picture of Mr. Bush hugging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and captioned it “lovers.”

The paper also ran a front page cartoon showing an Egyptian peasant consoling President Hosni Mubarak for having to meet with “this burdensome guy who will be leaving soon,” in reference to Mr. Bush.

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(AP Photo/Amr Nabil)