I woke up in the middle of last night feeling outraged at Nobel Peace Prize winner, President Barack Obomber’s determination to persuade the US Congress to launch into an aerial attack on Syria to dump more suffering on yet another Muslim nation.
I got up, made a cuppa tea, and sat down and wrote some notes for this blog.
This will be the eighth Muslim nation that the Bomber-in-Chief in the White House or previous incumbents has ordered to attack – with war planes, cruise missiles or drones. These countries constitute some of the world’s poorest and most defenceless countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, (northern) Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. We can predict that the next target will be nuclear and military installations of Iran.
Britain, the US poodle since World War 2, has finally summoned up enough democratic will in the Houses of Parliament to bark, a quiet bark, at the US and refuse to join the US military on the probable upcoming air attack on Syria. Thirty members of Prime Minister Cameron’s own Conservative Party voted against his motion. This leaves the US with only one real and loyal ally, Israel, left in the world out of 196 nations.
Sadly, President Obomber has no capacity to reflect on US history, no willingness to dig deep into the American conscience, no willingness to look at the foreign policy of the USA in terms of its use of weaponry, no capacity to look at the depth of mass deception of the public, nor offer deep condolences and compensation to the families of countless millions who have died from the wars launched and created for American gain.
Here, Mr President is a few points that you need to remind you in terms of US history. Successive US Presidents have never hesitated to cross the Red Line you referred to with Syria. I believe the UN should hold the ongoing US governments accountable under international law for various war crimes over decades.
- The US dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The greatest act of mass murder in a single day took place while Japan was suing for peace, defenceless, enabling a single plane to fly over and wipe out one city and then come back another day and wipe out another city.
- The US military engaged in the mass murder of Vietnamese citizens through Agent Orange/napalm with an estimated 400,000 deaths/maiming and another estimated 500,000 children born with birth defects, as well as massive deforestation of Vietnam to wipe out cover for Vietnamese soldiers fight for independence from occupation. Monsanto and Dow Chemicals, two of the world’s most reviled corporations, provided all that was necessary for the use of the US military to make chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment.
- CIA files reveal that the USA provided chemical/biological weapons and anthrax to Saddam Hussein in the Iraq war on Iran during the 1980’s. The USA provided the chemicals for the Iraqi army that were used to slaughter around 5000 Kurds in March 1988.
- The US employed depleted uranium in its war on Iraq, especially in southern Iraq causing terrible deaths and immense suffering. A Dutch foundation estimated that United States terror campaign left behind 300-800 tons of radioactive waste from this depleted uranium ammunition all over Kuwait and Iraq. When inhaled or ingested, the depleted uranium particles becomes a primary cause for cancer in adults and children, as well as poisoning land, water and air.
- The widespread number of suicides, depression and domestic violence of USA military personnel who had to engage in inflicting atrocities on adversaries and witness the suffering and deaths of their fellow soldiers – often accelerated through the use of chemical weapons.
- The US used white phosphorus shells in Iraq especially in the US massacre in Fallujah, a city of Muslim pilgrimage, to kill and maim civilians, as well as the capacity of the same shells to light fires that water cannot put out.
- The US government provided the chemicals for the Israel army to employ white phosphorus in artillery shells, a highly incendiary weapon in Gaza city in its densely populated residential areas. Amnesty International found indisputable evidence of such chemical weapons intended to burn the skin, muscles and bones until the victims are deprived of oxygen. Following worldwide protest, including within Israel, the Israeli army admitted to the use of chemical warfare on the Palestinians. The Israeli army subsequently withdrew white phosphorous from its use in shells.
The UK has soul searching to do as well with regard to Syria, as well as much of the rest of the world. While this terrible civil war waged on in Syria in the past two and a half years, the British government had approved the export from the UK to Syria of the chemicals necessary to make the highly toxic nerve agent, sarin, the probable chemical weapon that brought about somewhere between 300 to 1400 painful deaths and maiming of men, women and children.
Television viewers worldwide witnessed the agonies and the corpses in hospitals and on the Damascus streets after the explosions of the chemical weapons. The UK government said these chemicals were not delivered to Syria following tightening of European Union sanctions. The government said the export of these chemicals were for use to make window frames!
Within a few days of the terrible events of the probable use of sarin in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, President Obomber, Secretary of State John Kerry and the so-called US intelligence agencies had made up their mind that the Syrian government were responsible for the launching of chemical weapons – based on the most flimsy of views of interpretation from surveillance. It does not take much effort to inquire into various possible explanations while not doubting for a moment the terrible horror of chemical weapons inflicted on adults and kids.
Here are some viewpoints, feasible or not.
- The Syrian government deliberately ordered the use of chemical warfare on the enemy in the civil war. They did not believe the US warning of retaliation if the Syrian army crossed the red line mentioned by the US President last year. It was rather bizarre for the Assad government to choose the exact time to employ chemical weapons on its citizens just when the UN Weapons Inspectors arrive to inspect a claim of the Syrian government of their enemy’s use of gas warfare.
- A renegade military group in the Syrian army sought revenge and they launched the explosion of chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb without authority of the leadership.
- One or more of the various armed organisations engaged in the struggle for control over Syria caused the explosion of chemical weapons to time with the arrival of the UN inspectors to get the USA to launch an attack on the Syrian government and military.
- In the madness of the street fighting, the military or the armed opposition launched these shells of chemical weapons government without realising the extent of the deadly chemicals they contained.
- The Saudi Arabian government exported the chemical weapons to the opposition. The shells blew up during street warfare in the suburb of Damascus.
- The opposition tried to dismantle the shells not realising the consequences of releasing the chemicals into the area.
- The government or the opposition were moving the shells from one destination to another and the army or the opposition blew up the vehicles.
- A stockpile of chemical weapons, either captured or imported, had accumulated in the suburb of Ghouta and then something occurred for them to explode with wholesale loss of life and suffering.
- An individual or a small handful, Syrian or foreigners, government agents or terrorists, Western or Arab, exploded the chemical shells to trigger the cause for Western iintervention.
The UN inspectors can only take the blood samples of the victims to European laboratories to show the chemicals employed but cannot show the cause for their explosion. The US President and advisors have made their mind up without showing any substantial evidence to UN experts – just like President Bush and the non-existent weapons of mass destruction to launch the war on Iraq. We recall the claims of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his infamous UN speech about WMD in Iraq.
Finally, a week after the terrible events in Damascus, and much else in the obscenity of the Syrian civil war, the US marked the 50th anniversary of the I have a Dream speech of Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
The US President claimed Martin Luther King as his hero when he spoke on the same steps to mark the anniversary. It is a great pity that the President-in-Chief did not read with any degree of seriousness the actual speech of Martin Luther King and apply the same principles to the Arab world.
Extracts from Martin Luther King include:
“We have come here today to dramatise a shameful condition….
“In the gainful of our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds…
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline…..
“We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence.”
Martin Luther King made a plea for his children, and by implication citizens worldwide, to be judged by the “content of their character not by the colour of their skin.”
Yes, Mr Commander-in-Chief. That certainly holds true for you. We judge you not by the colour of your skin but by the content of your character.
You have no mandate whatsoever to be a Global Policeman, Judge and Executioner. You have no right to pronounce life and death over people. You appear contemptuous of the will of the UN, dismissive of the views of the majority of the citizens of the world and you show no regard for the rule of international law. You show little regard for the democratic will of people in the USA and elsewhere. At the time of writing, opinion polls in the USA show that more than 50% of US citizens are against the launching of missiles on Syria.
You and your advisors are accountable for the moral obscenity you are trying to unleash on Syria.
Mr. President: Here are some of the alternatives to launching air attacks on a sovereign country. (alphabetical order) as well as including a major apology to the UN for the US crimes against humanity by successive US governments and NATO inflicted on various nations. Engage in:
- Constant work for a ceasefire and renewal of civil life for all citizens
- Diplomacy through the UN, countless organisations and political leaders
- Huge aid for Syria to deal with the tragedy of the worst humanitarian crisis in two decades,
- Humanitarian relief for Syrian neighbours such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Iraq.
- Improvement of international relations and for the US to take its place as an equal member of community of nations instead of displaying an arrogant superiority.
- International and domestic ban of sales of all kinds of weapons, chemical and otherwise
- Leverage on countries that supply weapons to governments and rebel organisations
- Negotiation with all political/military parties involved in disputes
That’s the way forward. Not the launching of cruise missiles on the innocent and guilty alike in Syria.
Mr President. Are you the head of a rogue nation? There is substantial evidence Look at the recent history of the USA. Read the speech of Martin Luther King. Face up to the nightmare of millions of lives, fearful and poor, within the USA as well as overseas.
May all be beings live with morality
May all beings take direct action to end suffering
May all beings engage wisely and compassionately with international issues.