If there’s any surprise that Senate Democrats, almost virtually indistinguishable from pro-war Republicans, are about to coalesce in support of the newest version of the AUMF, then you have seriously not been paying attention, says Renee Parsons.
By Renee Parsons
The proposed Authority for the Use of Military Force of 2018 (AUMF) of 2018 would replace AUMF 2001 and repeal AUMF 2002 while it will codify an “uninterrupted authority to use all necessary and appropriate force in armed conflict” against the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS and as yet unidentified “designated associated forces” who might “pose a grave threat to the US” in whatever country they occupy.
Since its adoption in 2001 within days of the 911 attack, the AUMF has served to justify every expansion of the US military’s role in the Middle East with every relevant Congressional oversight committee acting as little more than a syncopation of bobbing heads.
The AUMF 2018 offers no restriction on military ops and no expiration or sunshine date while it abdicates all Congressional statutory war making authority as defined in the Constitution to the executive branch with no meaningful oversight or accountability.
In other words, the AUMF 2018 represents a complete capitulation to the MIC in a permanent continuation of almost two decades of “forever war” ostensibly in the Middle East for future generations of American troops as the country is driven deeper into an indisputable ditch of financial insolvency and a wicked, amoral quagmire at home.
It has been fifty years since Congressional Democrats were in the vanguard of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Since the 1960’s few elected Democrats have dared challenge the party leadership to speak for peace or challenge any administration’s military interventionist policy and yet it is the Democratic party which claims the moral high ground.
Daschle: The prime sponsor.
Still instructive is an analysis of the October, 2002 Congressional AUMF resolution approving GW Bush’s grotesque invasion of Iraq. The original AUMF was adopted by Congress three days after the 911 attacks with Senate Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle (SD) shepherding the resolution to enactment as its primary sponsor. The Senate approved the use of military force in Iraq with a 77 – 23 and House approval was on vote of 296 – 133. In both houses, Democratic ‘liberals’ provided the necessary cushion of support for the resolution which initiated the next 17 years of extreme civil devastation, death and destruction throughout the Middle East and a US indebtedness crisis that threatens a massive financial implosion.
And yet there appears to be no accountability aimed at those alleged ‘liberals’ still in office who continue to support funding for every Defense appropriations bill with no regard for any consequences.
Democrats at War
It may come as a shock to loyalist Democrats that the majority of every major war in the 20th Century was initiated and/or conducted under a Democratic president. WW I aficionados can thank Woodrow Wilson, the revered FDR took the US into WWII, the unprepared Truman allowed the use of atomic weapons on the civilian population of Nagasaki and Hiroshima before initiating the Korean War in 1950 and LBJ’s escalation in Vietnam became a metaphor for his Great Society. In the early 1990’s, with NATO acting as its proxy, the Clinton Administration initiated a military effort to break up the non-aligned socialist Yugoslavia ending the decade with ‘humanitarian bombing’ that devastated the civilian population while disintegrating the once-prosperous country.
On the other hand, former President Jimmy Carter, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity since leaving office, can proudly assert that
“We kept our country at peace. We never went to war. We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet.”
Most recently, is Barack Obama, who campaigned as a Constitutional scholar and whose fraudulent 2009 Noble Peace Prize was awarded prior to a bombing spree on seven Islamic countries. During his eight years in office, Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs in his last year in office including a multitude of drone strikes, established a Tuesday morning assassination list and began war in four countries living in peace when he took office in 2008.
Carter: Never dropped a bomb.
There is something more than a cosmic coincidence going on here as all those aforementioned Democratic Presidents are today considered by party loyalists to be ‘liberal’ on the ideological spectrum.
Introduced by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), retiring Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, AUMF 2018 is co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (VA), Chris Coons (DE) and Bill Nelson (FL). Kaine, HRC’s vice president candidate, and Coons serve on Foreign Relations while Nelson is on the Armed Services Committee. Kaine and Nelson are both up for re-election this year as are three other Democrats on the committee; Sens. Robert Menendez (NJ), Chris Murphy (CT) and Ben Cardin (MD). In addition, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) who also serves on Foreign Relations, has opted to not seek re-election.
Corker has indicated that a potential Senate floor vote depends on the strength of AUMF support within the Foreign Relations Committee and that a wide margin in favor would facilitate Senate floor passage. Sen. Rand Paul (R-SC) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR) have announced their opposition to the resolution. Foreign Relation Committee members who attended the recent 2018 AIPAC Policy Conference included Senators Cardin (D-MD), Coons (DE), Menendez (NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rob Portman (R-OH) as well as Sen. Tom Cotton (AK) who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Can there be a more pathetically farcical example of the “world’s greatest legislative body” so utterly devoid of conscience, so disconnected from life’s reality with no awareness of their own culpability for war crimes. As the committee deliberates on whether to lessen its Constitutional responsibilities and lighten its legislative duties, approval of the AUMF 2018 will confirm the public’s perception that, despite a cushy career with great benefits, the Congress is a completely irrelevant and obsolete forum.
This article originally appeared on Global Research.
Renee Parsons has been a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist and staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She can be found on Twitter @reneedove31
Ms. Parsons unfortunately lets President Carter off too easily. It was Carter who tried to keep Somoza’s National Guard intact right up until the Sandinistas rolled into Managua in July 1979, and he then set up the Guard’s remnants in Honduras, where they formed the nucleus of the infamous terrorist proxy army known as the Contras. Carter also encouraged Saddam Hussein in his confrontation with Iran, helping to propel Iraq into its disastrous war with Iran, while also promulgating the so-called Carter Doctrine that labeled the Middle East as part of the vital interests of the United States. Worst, his National Security advisor set up the mujahideen in Afghanistan, beginning that country’s almost half century of chaos and suffering, and setting the stage for the CIA’s asset there, Osama bin Laden, to create al Queda and the ruinous blowback of 9-ll and all the subsequent turmoil. Central America is still roiled by the mess that Carter helped create, the situation in the Middle East is in some significant measure a reflection of Carter’s meddling, and Afghanistan remains a hellish place as a monument to his incompetence. Three major wars that are still on-going and one Nobel Peace Prize, almost as undeserved as Obama’s–not a bad haul for a one-term POTUS.
as Annie replied I didn’t even know that any one able to earn $8091 in four weeks on the
computer . why not check here…
.??????O OPEN~JOB~START
The Democrats and Republicans have ignored the working class and poor for decades. Both parties agreed to bail out the banks that brought down the global economy, but who bailed out the people who lost their jobs and homes?
The banks were on the knees, begging to be saved, and politicos could have asked them for anything in return, i.e., to extend mortgage loans for fifty, sixty years, or even loan forgiveness, whatever it took so people could stay in their homes.
Dispossessed home owners may have held onto an asset that could have become a cornerstone of family wealth for their children. Instead, absolutely nothing was asked of the banks that were saved with tax payer money. Foreclosed homes stood empty for years because banks refused to write down values, while bankers feasted on obscene bonuses.
The allowed hedge funds like Blackstone to become the largest homeowner in the country, while financial networks cheered the opportunity to buy their neighbors homes for fifty cents on the dollar.
For the last thirty years with military bases closing across the country, leaving literally thousands of empty barracks everywhere, yet our politicians could find no place to shelter the poor and homeless. Instead, our leaders took pride in fighting for legal pot and gay marriage, as if lifestyle issues somehow took precedence over food and shelter for the poor.
While work and industries were disappearing from our borders, our leaders engaged in decades long wars, in the Middle East and EurAsia, where the neo-con strategy of regime change has left in its wake the wreckage of fallen states, the blow-back of global terrorism, and an enormous EU refuges crisis, to say nothing of the waste of lives and treasure.
Our progressive leaders, Obama and Hillary, both supported and expanded these wars, with Hillary claiming that a nuclear armed Russia is our foremost enemy, a position that was roundly derided by all progressives when it was backed by Romney in his Presidential campaign.
As a lifelong Democrat and peacenik, I am deeply disappointed and angered to see peace is no longer a priority for Democrats (nor Republicans), an absence that continuously neglects their constituencies weariness over endless wars. Indifference to our people’s basic human needs may just be the most serious political crime.
Until that changes, not just in words but actions, my membership in the Democratic party remains suspended.
Very well said, Bob, and I heartily agree. The Dems are now the DemReps. We need true progressive parties that honestly represent their members, to form governing coalitions for a humanitarian future.
Sad! And here’s how this recipe got concocted for perpetual war: https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/04/recipe-concocted-for-perpetual-war-is-a-bitter-one/
Thank you!
“We kept our country at peace. We never went to war. We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet.”
– Jimmy Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYvO3qAlyTg
“We haven’t intervened in the war in Syria since it began seven years ago […] We are not intervening”
– Israel Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5241923,00.html
Lieberman’s April 26 2018 interview with Elaph, a London-based Arabic news site, is the latest in a series of high-profile interviews that put across Israeli official positions to Arab readers.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in November 2017 that an interview given to Elaph by Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot was part of Israel’s attempts to build relationships with Gulf states. In the interview with Elaph, Eisenkot similarly claimed ““We have a clear policy. We will not intervene in the fighting in Syria […] We help only in humanitarian ways.”
In fact, Israel routinely drops bombs and fires bullets at Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frequently boasts about growing friendship with Arab states since the rise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Lieberman is currently in the U.S. for meetings with Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser John Bolton.
With the demise of its “regime change” terrorist proxy forces in Syria, the Israeli-Saudi-U.S. Axis is preparing to intensify the war.
Jimmy Carter created the Contra terrorist army in Central America and the Muj to kill Russians in Afghanistan. They exploded many bombs and fired numerous shots.
“We kept our country at peace. We never went to war. We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet.”
– Jimmy Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYvO3qAlyTg
Jimmy Carter did not create the Contra army. His successor Ronald Reagan did, unleashing them on April 1st 1981 from the neighboring puppet states of Honduras and Costa Rica from where they could conduct hit and run raids against the civilian population. In fact, to his credit, in his last 18 months in office Carter continued to give the left wing Sandinista government the same foreign aid as to the Somoza regime.
He did, however, start the proxy war in Afghanistan, after following the advice of the uberwarmonger Zbigniew “grand chessboard” Brzezinski. Had he instead listened to State Secretary Cyrus Vance who strongly advised him against it, there would have been no Mujaheddin, no Taliban, Afghanistan would be a prosperous stable country at peace, and the world would be vastly different.
There was a big stink about Steny Hoyer telling “progressive” Levi Tillemann, to bow out of the race for US Senator from Colorado. If you look as his stance on the issues, there is NO mention of ending our overseas military interventions or even cutting military spending. He is also the gradson of former congressman Tom Lantos who facilitated our entry into the first Gulf War by allowing the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to testify in camera about “babies thrown from incubators”.
https://www.leviforcolorado.com/issues
Sounds like it’s good that he lost. Tom Lantos was one of the most unprincipled warmongers ever.
And it’s good that the dirty tricks of the corrupt, soulless Democratic Party have been further exposed.
It’s now official. There will be no peace on my lifetime. Orwell was right about never ending wars. Only the enemies change as the war machine grinds on relentlessly.
Friends..
Thanx for your many thoughtful comments and feedback.
I wanted to let you know that i am following Foreign Relations schedule on AUMF.
Originally when Corker announced the resolution, a vote was scheduled early the following week…. that has apparently been postponed for now.
it may be that the ‘problem’ with no expiration/sunshine date is being negotiated as Menendez and others were ‘concerned’ …
will let you know how the Committee votes and will follow it to the Senate floor..
Thank you Very Much.
Thanks a lot. Good to hear.
Just read a good quote from Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com, “When it comes to Middle East wars, Israel will fight to the last American”.
Where have all the flowers gone? When will we ever learn? (Pete Seeger)
Mike: to be true democrat means to vote against the Democratic Party. This party is just a criminal interprise serving mainly corporate America.
Don’t leave Carter off the hook. Taking the advice of Zbig Brezenzki, he funded the Al Queda resistance to the Soviet Union invasion, but also put US troops in Saudi Arabia. That was why Osama vowed eternal hostility to the US and created 9/11.
phillip sawicki, I have become an avid follower of Greg Maybury who is an ex high school teacher and if I read him correctly, he is deeply researching the incorrect history going back to at least WWI. It seems to me that he’s likely correct. Certainly all presidents post Kennedy are not exactly what they appear to be, it’s up to us to root out the truth, whatever that may be. I actually believe that’s our only hope…
Yes, Carter had a Doctrine and helped to drench East Timor in blood.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/
“In late 1975, Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford gave the green light to Suharto to invade neighboring East Timor. After occupying the capital city Dili, Indonesian troops systematically rooted out resistance by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) and the civilian population across the island. Residents of occupied areas were subjected to massive re-education brainwashing campaigns. The death toll from violence by Indonesian forces, malnutrition and disease quickly climbed into the tens of thousands.
The genocidal slaughter reached its peak in 1977, On March 1, 95 members of the Australian Parliament sent a letter to Carter claiming the Indonesian troops were carrying out “atrocities” and asking the American President “to comment publicly on the situation in East Timor.” [3]
The response was crickets. Carter ramped up aid with funding and weapons to the murderous Indonesian regime, brazenly flaunting the human rights requirements imposed on American aid.
As journalist Richard Dudman reported at the time: “amid all the talks about human rights, the country with perhaps the worst record has been getting increased amounts of economic and military aid from the Carter administration,” which is attributed to the “bonanza enjoyed by American oil companies and multi-national corporations since the present military regime came to power.” [4]
Precise statistics on the death toll of East Timorese at the hands of the Indonesian forces – who enjoyed the unconditional support of the US government – are hard to come by, but FAIR noted in a 1994 article that “by the time Carter left office, about 200,000 people had been slaughtered.””
Carter also aided a murderous junta in El Salvador after ignoring a plea from Archbishop Romero.
“It should be noted that Carter’s actions after leaving the White House have been, by far, the most impressive of any ex-President. Most importantly, he was the first mainstream political figure to call Israel’s policies in the occupied territories Apartheid. This major paradigm shift has paved the way for the mainstream legitimacy of international Palestinian solidarity movements such as BDS to challenge the state of Israel’s crimes.
His Carter Center also has done extensive work studying voting systems and certifying the validity of electoral processes. In 2013, Carter debunked Secretary of State John Kerry’s description of the Venezuelan election of Nicolas Maduro as questionable by stating that that the voting was “free and fair.” This was an strong counterweight to American state propaganda, which sought to empower the losing Venezuelan opposition by refusing to grant legitimacy to the socialist, democratically-elected government.
But Carter’s post-Presidency activism cannot bring back to life the millions of people whose lives he was complicit in extinguishing. Carter leaves behind a blood-soaked legacy strongly at odds with the view he evidently held of himself as a human rights champion. The fact that he is probably the least violent of American Presidents is as much an indictment of the American public – among whom he is still perceived as a pacifist – as it is on his murderous presidential peers.”
Gregory Herr I want support your thoughts here. This is why we need a broad and substantial forum; to determine our true past, issue blame for severe wrongs committed, and judge whether those individuals acted with Malice… Thank you it’s been exciting as we parallel our studies.
Bob, I agree. The way to prevent severe wrongs in the future is to address the severe wrongs of the past and present. And of course determining motives, or the “why”, is just as important as determining guilt, intent, and “what” happened. The Counterpunch article attributes motive in the case of East Timor by reference to the “bonanza enjoyed by American oil companies and multi-national corporations since the present military regime came to power”.
Seems like we need to break the grip Wall Street/CIA has on American foreign policy “endeavors”.
Very good point. Allowing that racist, evil gnome Zbigniew Brzezinski to invent transnational Islamic extremist warriors, just to satisfy his ancestral hatred of Russians, was a very bad mistake. It transformed Afghanistan from a place with many female engineers to what it is now. It continues to cost us and to create hell on earth for whole countries.
Also, Carter unleashed the CIA in Nicaragua. On the plus side, the work of the Carter Center, in vote monitoring and conflict resolution, has been great, as well as some later truth-to-power statements of his.
When immorality is rife in the land, laws become simply instruments of oppression. Long ago Montaigne wrote an essay titled L’esprit des lois (the spirit of the law). In it he showed how laws must be interpreted and applied according to the moral and ethical spirit they are intended to support. Otherwise these laws can be used and interpreted in ways directly contrary to their original intent. Everything depends on what is in the hearts of those who would invoke the law.
Jesus supposedly said, “the law killeth, the Spirit giveth life.” The Pharisees used the laws and religious dogmas to oppress the people. Rather than proposing new laws, Jesus called on people to cultivate their true and loving hearts, so that this could be their inner guide to what is right or wrong.
Our fundamental laws have been so thoroughly and deliberately misconstrued to serve oligarchy, and these deceptions so well hidden in citations of former cases, that even legal activist citizens get nothing but technically normal-looking decisions that are in fact nothing but compendia of past fraudulent decisions. Very few citizens even see those. US state and federal law are complete frauds, and their judges are traitors, the lawyers scoundrels. The politicians who appoint the judges are traitors as well, living for bribes alone.
Many of us are far more principles, and must awaken others and arouse them to action for government reform.
So very right mike k and Sam F., we of a certain age have personally experienced the unraveling of the most profound Enlightenment thinkers. It’s up to those that understand the importance of that loss to stop it here and help the healing where possible.
Sam F. a personal hat tip for your advanced planning, I for one, am exceedingly grateful. May we make it happen.
By the way ALEC is particularly Bad in this regard Sam F…
Over here in the UK in London there is a big sign painted on the side of someone’s house saying, “if voting ever changed anything they would do away with it” ! Whether you vote democrat or republican, or in the UK one votes labour or conservative, the outcome is the same. Tony Blair (a well known war criminal) was a socialist Labour leader, but he dragged us into the Iraq war doing so on the basis of lies. The Democrats are even more war blood thirsty that the Republicans seem to be. As long as we keep on voting for the same slime balls that we do, we will have more of the same forever!!!
Thank you john wilson, it is extremely important that People understand that the manipulation is wide and varied but broad and pernicious… Many thanks for your important revaluation…
this is the problem Who to vote for?? But it is good to see at least some of the population is getting the truth!
You people need to see this DCCC favoring other candidates. Rep. Hoyer caught on tape. big big big!!! see link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czH6z6jmPOc
David, really educational and totally appropriate addition. Many thanks. I nearly stopped watching with the initial Obama entry but the further explination is precisely what our elections are about. Here in California, a supposedly liberal state, we have the same corporatist push behind the scenes. It’s very important for the electorate to realize that the Game is rigged, the Lables are simply that Labels, it’s like shopping in America, the Lables are as disingenuous as the politicians are.
Thank you David, Renee Parsons and CD…
With this bill, the Dems essentially give Trump carte blanche to fight any wars that strike his fancy, yet they will bellyache, and we are to take them seriously, when he does so. Most notably he will wipe his posterior with the treaty that Obomber laboriously hammered out with Iran (his one smart move over the course of eight years), then start a shooting war with the land of the ayatollahs to please the chosen ones and these same Democrats will feign outrage, mumbling nonsense about how wonderful things should have been under Hillary the First. Obviously these morons believe that the best way to achieve world peace and economic prosperity is to start wars in the Middle East and blame Russia (or instigate coups in Eastern Europe and the Caucuses and blame Russia). I wonder if they’ve ever noticed that their brilliant trick has never worked yet, and that it’s past time to invoke the Einsteinian Conjecture on their mental health.
Realist: I think that it was Einstein that said about two constants: the universe and human stupidity. The first one I am not sure off but the second one …
This quote comes from A Einstein’s “Human Behavior”.
“The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has its limits.”
The Iran deal is a nothingburger because they aren’t trying to make nukes anyway, as even the CIA and Mossad agree.
The proposed 2018 AUMF reflects the pro-Israel Lobby push for the United States to wage war against Syria and Iran.
Israel and the pro-Israel lobby have been pushing hard for U.S. attacks on Syria and Iran to advance Israel’s own interests in the Middle East.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s primary pro-Israel Lobby group, claims that “Moscow has unleashed a dynamic in which Iran and Hezbollah can directly threaten Israel militarily while chipping away at U.S. credibility in the region.”
https://www.aipac.org/-/media/publications/policy-and-politics/aipac-periodicals/near-east-report/2018/near-east-report-april-2018.pdf
Following the false flag chemical incident in Ghouta in 2013, AIPAC pushed hard use-of-force authorization.
An AIPAC statement in September 2013 explicitly urged Congress to grant the president the authority to purportedly “protect America’s national security interests and dissuade the Syrian regime’s further use of unconventional weapons”. The AIPAC statement claimed that “Failure to approve this resolution would weaken our country’s credibility to prevent the use and proliferation of unconventional weapons and thereby greatly endanger our country’s security and interests and those of our regional allies.”
A senior official with AIPAC called the 2013 effort a “full court press.”
Numerous false flag chemical incidents, including the 2017 Khan Shaykhun and 2018 Douma incidents, have been accompanied by loud cheers for U.S. military action issued by Israel and pro-Israel Lobby.
The pro-Israel Lobby is mounting yet another brazen effort, thus time to secure unlimited authorization the use of military force against any so-called “associated force designated by the President” . The proposed resolution would provide Trump with an unlimited pass to wage war.
Israel has already “designated” the “associated” targets: Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Russia if it gets in the way.
Yes, the exceptional people being tasked by their deity to serve the chosen ones. There is nothing so fine as a day in May on the plains of Armageddon.
Any bets down on the identity of the Antichrist when he reveals himself?
The Antichrist is a Spirit that lives through the personas of many of our “leaders”. It is the dark spirit of evil that they serve, not the good that they pretend to be.
So, you interpret the term as sort of a synonym for the malevolent zeitgeist of our times. I don’t consider it anything more, but some folks have been awaiting a literal manifestation of their theology in geopolitics, they have been very vocal about it, and they are usually very bellicose–not even a pale imitation of what their Jesus instructs them to be. Bring on the Apocalypse these end-timers say. Supporting Israel and vanquishing Russia seem to be key elements to their prophecies. It’s scary to think that several prominent U.S. generals have signed on to this set of beliefs.
Realist, I have for many years been aware of the truly unique and possibly profound influence of Alexander Solzhenitsyn on both American and Russian Society, there is a truly important recent article at Unz that I will link below. It’s vitally important, I think, that he be available to English readers that all of his work is translated quickly. I’m convinced that he has much positive philosophy to contribute, but it needs to be available.
http://www.unz.com/akarlin/prophet-solzhenitsyn/
Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”. Solzhenitsyn was afraid to go to Stockholm to receive his award for fear that he would not be allowed to reenter. He was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994.
In September 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Solzhenitsyn at the writer’s house in Troitse-Lykovo. The two discussed public and social problems of modern Russia. In August 2001, Putin stated that, prior to implementing education reforms in Russia, he had contacted eminent people “known and respected by the country, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn.”
Solzhenitsyn won the 2006 Russian Federation state decoration for outstanding achievements in the cultural and educational spheres.
In 2007, Putin conferred on Solzhenitsyn the State Prize of the Russian Federation for his humanitarian work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28U0Wsfyxu0
During the ceremony, the Russian President said “millions of people around the world associate” Solzhenitsyn’s name and work “with the very fate of Russia itself.” In a pre-recorded video message played at the ceremony, Solzhenitsyn (who was unable to travel due to his advanced age) said Russia’s “bitter experience” in the 20th century “will warn and divert us from ruinous failures” in the future.
Putin then personally visited Solzhenitsyn at the writer’s home on 12 June 2007. The two discussed Russia’s situation and the country’s future. Putin drew the writer’s attention to the implementation of policies that were to a large extent harmonious with Solzhenitsyn’s writings. The President emphasized that Solzhenitsyn immediately drew attention to the fact that today there are more and more opportunities available for municipalities and local self-government.
In October 2010, after it was announced that Solzhenitsyn’s works would become required reading for all Russian high school students, Putin described The Gulag Archipelago as “essential reading”: “Without the knowledge of that book, we would lack a full understanding of our country and it would be difficult for us to think about the future.”
Great comment and video clip Abe! Thank you.
Might Robert Parry become our Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?
Robert Parry was an investigative journalist.
Solzhenitsyn was a novelist, historian, and short story writer.
A major difference, Bob.
Putin time and again reflects well upon himself in what he chooses to recognize as “essential” or meritorious.
I totally agree Gregory.
I totally agree Gregory, I thought you should know…
Many thanks Abe…
The proposed 2018 AUMF reflects the pro-Israel Lobby push for the United States to wage war against Syria and Iran.
Israel and the pro-Israel lobby have been pushing hard for U.S. attacks on Syria and Iran to advance its own interests in the Middle East.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s primary pro-Israel Lobby group, claims that “Moscow has unleashed a dynamic in which Iran and Hezbollah can directly threaten Israel militarily while chipping away at U.S. credibility in the region.”
https://www.aipac.org/-/media/publications/policy-and-politics/aipac-periodicals/near-east-report/2018/near-east-report-april-2018.pdf
Following the false flag chemical incident in Ghouta in 2013, AIPAC pushed hard use-of-force authorization.
An AIPAC statement in September 2013 explicitly urged Congress to grant the president the authority to purportedly “protect America’s national security interests and dissuade the Syrian regime’s further use of unconventional weapons”. The AIPAC statement claimed that “Failure to approve this resolution would weaken our country’s credibility to prevent the use and proliferation of unconventional weapons and thereby greatly endanger our country’s security and interests and those of our regional allies.”
A senior official with AIPAC called the 2013 effort a “full court press.”
Numerous false flag chemical incidents, including Khan Shaykhun in 2017 and Douma in 2018, have been accompanied by loud cheers for U.S. military action issued by Israel and pro-Israel Lobby.
The pro-Israel Lobby is mounting yet another brazen effort, thus time to secure unlimited authorization the use of military force against any so-called “associated force designated by the President” . The proposed resolution would provide Trump with an unlimited pass to wage war.
Israel has already “designated” the “associated” targets: Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Russia if it gets in the way.
The proposed 2018 AUMF reflects pro-Israel Lobby pushing for the United States to wage war against Syria and Iran.
Israel is pushing for U.S. attacks on Syria and Iran to advance its own interests in the Middle east..
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s primary pro-Israel Lobby group, claims that “Moscow has unleashed a dynamic in which Iran and Hezbollah can directly threaten Israel militarily while chipping away at U.S. credibility in the region.”
https://www.aipac.org/-/media/publications/policy-and-politics/aipac-periodicals/near-east-report/2018/near-east-report-april-2018.pdf
Following the false flag chemical incident in Ghouta in 2013, AIPAC pushed hard use-of-force authorization.
An AIPAC statement in September 2013 explicitly urged Congress to grant the president the authority to purportedly “protect America’s national security interests and dissuade the Syrian regime’s further use of unconventional weapons”. The AIPAC statement claimed that “Failure to approve this resolution would weaken our country’s credibility to prevent the use and proliferation of unconventional weapons and thereby greatly endanger our country’s security and interests and those of our regional allies.”
A senior official with AIPAC called the 2013 effort a “full court press.”
The pro-Israel Lobby is mounting yet another brazen effort, thus time to secure unlimited authorization the use of military force against any so-called “associated force designated by the President” . The proposed resolution would provide Trump with an unlimited pass to wage war.
Israel has already “designated” the “associated” targets: Syria, Iran, and Russia if it gets in the way.
Your comments on this forum really helped me to understand Donald Trump’s actions. I didn’t understand why he was for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and against more wars in the Middle East during his campaign, and then changed his mind after he got elected. He said “America first” but he meant “Israel first” because that’s who he works for.
Indeed Congress has not functioned as a forum of debate since the early federal period, and is no longer a bargaining entity among factions, but a facade for the dictatorship of the rich, allowing the executive to conduct its secret foreign policy by unconstitutional wars. We can stop this tyranny.
When the mass media are protected from money, we will have public debate of all policy viewpoints by experts. When elections and the federal branches are reformed, we will have far more beneficial policies. This requires amendments to restrict funding of elections and mass media to limited individual contributions, and better checks and balances to limit executive power. We must rely upon diplomacy and aid rather than bullying, renegotiate NATO as purely defensive, and eliminate AUMFs.
Our institutions have failed to teach morally, have selected the worst to wield power over media and elections, and have created a morally corrupt media culture. New ways of thinking are the key, and new institutions forming a new public mind, to permit real debate, the celebration of human values lost in our culture of greed, lying, and bullying.
I am working to set up a college of policy debate CPD constituted to protect all points of view, and to conduct moderated text-only debate among experts of several disciplines the status and possibilities of each world region, and the policy options. Debate summaries commented by all sides are to be made available for public study and comment.
The debates will require a higher standard of argument in foreign and domestic policy on both right and left, and would have much reduced the group-think that led to our mad wars since WWII. Extreme and naïve politicians will be easier to expose, and media commentators will have a starting point and a standard for investigation and analysis.
While most politicians will ignore and attack careful analysis, and “the common man avoids the truth [because] it is dangerous, no good can come of it, and it doesn’t pay” (Mencken), the CPD can bring the knowledge of society into public debate, educate the electorate, discourage propaganda, and expose the wrongs of society and the corruption of government that desperately needs reform.
Love that idea Sam F. Thank you. Possibly we can organize some pressure?
Right Sam. Only a new mind will yield us a new and better world. Our work is to create that new mind in ourselves, and spread it to others. The battle is truly in and for hearts and minds. This CN blog is part of that crucial battleground.
I am working out processes to become website and admin procedures for the national College of Policy Debate.
The primary unsolved problem is prevention of infiltration by partisans and prejudiced persons.
Here are some prejudice-avoidance measures that you may have ideas on:
1. Requirement that debate statements rationally advance essential interests represented
Evaluation of experts and exclusion of debaters who persistently use false arguments
2. Debate and Exclusion of False Arguments:
a. Presuming good or bad motives or special rights of a group or movement
(e.g. choosing sides in conflicts of religious, cultural, or other groups )
(e.g. we want democracy because we say so despite contrary evidence)
b. Presuming a group’s essential interests conflict with those of opposing groups
(e.g. oil state will deny oil supply if an opposing group comes to power)
(e.g. state will block nearby shipping if opposing group comes to power)
c. Presuming a group’s intent by the means it employs
(e.g. revolutionaries seek dictatorship, or are the sole cause of revolutions)
(e.g. one-party states are not merely preventing superpower dictatorship)
d. Presuming group’s intent by its increasing range or popularity
(e.g. revolution will spread everywhere if not opposed in certain cases)
(e.g. security of US democracy requires opposing rebels against dictators)
e. Presuming that war or secret coercion operations are a necessary means
(e.g. subversion/war against govts/rebels is only means to secure interests)
(e.g. force results in conflict resolution or democracy, without evidence)
f. Logic errors
(e.g. some group members are As therefore all are As)
(e.g. not all As are B therefore “all As are not B”)
3. Advance Debate and Evaluation of Evidence
a. No statements of authorities having clear prejudice without evidence/argument
b. Per evidence: debate of quality for specific purpose of debate
c. Per evidence: debate of relevance and sufficiency to proposed debate
d. Debate of general sufficiency of evidence for proposed debate
e. Modes of evidence decided: comment and debate on evidence within the debate
4. Acceptance of standards of moderation (to exclude demoralizers and social attackers)
a. No personal remarks at all; moderators score debaters and experts
b. No extreme solution threats or demands: may propose necessity if rational
c. No statements that there is no solution or that one side must prevail, etc.
d. No unsupported conclusions (may be objected and later edited)/conclusory
5. Acceptance of standards of focus of debate
a. No “what about” diversions to related instances (comparison OK if limited?)
Side skirmishes annotated but deleted from debate summary
b. No “it’s all about” generalizations: may note or comment, but not divert topic
c. No “wild theory” distractions: propose side debates without distraction
d. No technical claims to divert or end debate: propose side debates
Decisive side issue claimant continues but can comment on invalidity
Invalidity claims: all debaters comment on side debate relevance
6. Suppression of Rules Manipulations to Suppress Topics, Evidence, or Argument
a. Floods of nonvalid objections to ***
b. Floods of nonvalid motions to ****
7. Suppression of Illusory Abstractions to Suppress Topics, Evidence, or Argument
a. Obfuscation,
b. Conflation,
c. Attempts to impose an abstraction that ignores evidence or argument
Many thanks Consortiumnews, your timing remains pitch perfect. The AUMF will pass with broad bipartisan support because that is what our government does for its controllers, the people be damned. I’m hoping for a follow up essay and broad listing of those for and against then possibly we can strategize a broad response. It’s long past time to shine an intense light on these intransigent cowards…
Agreed. Every member of congress who votes for this travesty must be targeted for removal from office. They need to start feeling the heat of their constituents’ anger and face the consequences of facilitating war crimes for the profit of the western elites. Imperial Rome had nothing on these lowlifes.
Considering the direction and rapidity of events unfolding in the Middle East (e.g., Israel threatening strikes against Russia should they deploy S-300 missiles in defense of the Syrian government) we may not even make it to the primaries before the proverbial Scheiße trifft den Fan. I suspect the elections will be rescheduled by any survivors of the first nuclear exchange.
ROTFLMAO. I hadn’t heard that one before. The Israelis are a bunch of arrogant bastards (I’ve been there). They may well be stupid enough to attack Russia. If they do, I suspect that Russia will simply flatten them.
Don’t forget, they’ve got a struting, ill-tempered uncle who loves to throw his weight around. They see Washington as the guarantor of their every ill-considered whim. And, Washington is full of end-timers who see nuclear war in the Middle East as the fulfillment of biblical prophesy. There are enough exceptional and enough chosen maniacs on this planet to make one concerned.
The inherent ‘mixed message’ here from Israel protesting the S-300s is proving their game plan to the hilt. The defense minister of Israel has admitted the S-300s are a DEFensive weapon, and yet they are opposed to its deployment. So Israel is essentially saying the defensive weapons will prohibit their offensive strategies in Syria. Israel is admitting outright the plans to be the aggressor in Syria and will protest to the world if one of their planes is shot down.
What a convoluted backaxwards strategy Israel is using. They will be the ones harmed if the S-300s are deployed but only if they are the aggressors. Something is terribly wrong with this picture……. how is it possible to be the ‘innocent aggressor?’ They are twisted and cruel in their thinking and yet somehow it will be the fault of a defensive weapon, or better yet, an anti-Semitic weapon as well.
What garbage.
The malign impulses of Israel began in 1948, a story well told in the book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by the Jewish author Ilan Pappe. Published by One World Publications, Oxford, 2006.
How dare anyone defend their air space against our attacks!
Our “representatives” are mostly greedy, cowardly scum. Our flawed society spawns these moral defectives and rewards them, so that the scum rises to the top.
WE OBVIOUSLY NEED A NEW SOCIETY.
I agree, but how many people actually bother to tell the scum what they think of them and their behavior? I told off my “progressive” rep after he voted as a super delegate for Hillary the war queen. How many others did the same? I’ll bet few if any. These gate keepers of the realm remain pretty much unmolested by their angry public.
The reason Jill Stein is being sued by the DNC is because she had the audacity to run and “steal” Hillary’s votes. She’s fighting back. We need a million more Jill Steins.
Many thanks Lois Gagnon…
One correction. Jill Stein is not being sued by the DNC, but had to turn over documents to a congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the election.
Yep, I voted Green.
Thanks. I’m helping to collect signatures to get 3 Green Party candidates on the Massachusetts ballot for state wide positions. It’s definitely David vs. Goliath, but we have to start somewhere and the Greens at least have party infrastructure in place. Jill has been going around the states tapping people she knows through party organizing to run for office.
Has there ever been a better time to point out the difference between the corrupted duopoly and the Greens who accept no corporate funding?
mike k they’re delluded by perhaps the most deeply sophisticated propaganda platform ever assembled, think of “Mad Men” on steroids, once that is investigated, exposed and the guilty identified we can then concentrate on building a more resilient and better educated electorate. Thanks mike.