Peace and Justice Post

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by Paul Craig Roberts, Foreign Policy Journal,  November 21, 2012

The United States government and its subject peoples think of the US as “the world’s only superpower.”  But how is a country a superpower when its entire government and a majority of the subjects, especially those members of evangelical churches, grovel at the feet of the Israeli Prime Minister? How is a country a superpower when it lacks the power to determine its own foreign policy in the Middle East?  Such a country is not a superpower.  It is a puppet state.

In the past few days we have witnessed, yet again, the “American superpower” groveling at Netanyahu’s feet. When Netanyahu decided to again murder the Palestinian women and children of Gaza, to further destroy what remains of the social infrastructure of the Gaza Ghetto, and to declare Israeli war crimes and Israeli crimes against humanity to be merely the exercise of “self-defense,” the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, the White House, and the US media all promptly declared their support for Netanyahu’s crimes.

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• Seumas Milne,
• The Guardian, Tuesday 20 November 2012

Egypt’s foreign minister and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (second and third from left) in a hospital in Gaza City on 20 November, visiting a Palestinian woman wounded in an Israeli air strike. Photograph: Ahmed Zakot/REUTERS

The way western politicians and media have pontificated about Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, you’d think it was facing an unprovoked attack from a well-armed foreign power. Israel had every “right to defend itself”, Barack Obama declared. “No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

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Richard Falk, 18 November 2012

[This post is an updated version of an article published in the online English edition of Al Jazeera, 17 Nov 2012, taking account of some further developments in the new horrifying unfolding of violence in Gaza.]

President Obama, upon his arrival today in Bangkok at the start of a state visit to several Asian countries, reminded the world of just how unconditional U.S. support for Israel remains. Obama was quoted as saying, “There is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside of its borders. We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.” Much is missing from such a sentiment, most glaringly, the absence of any balancing statement along the following line: “and no country would tolerate the periodic assassination of its leaders by missiles fired by a neighboring country, especially during a lull achieved by a mutually agreed truce. It is time for both sides to end the violence, and establish an immediate ceasefire.”

But instead of such statesmanship from this newly elected leader what we hear from Ben Rhodes, his Deputy National Security Advisor, who is traveling with the president in Asia is the following: that the rockets from Gaza are “the precipitating factor for the conflict. We believe Israel has a right to defend itself, and they’ll make their own decisions about the tactics they use in that regard.” Of course, these tactics up to this point have involved attacking a densely urbanized population with advanced weaponry from air and sea, targeting media outlets, striking residential structures, and killing and wounding many civilians, including numerous children. Since when does ‘the right to defend oneself’ amount to a license to kill and wound without limit, without some clear demonstration that the means of violence are connected with the goals being sought, without a requirement that force be exclusively directed against military targets, without at least an expression of concern about the proportionality of the military response? To overlooks such caveats in the present context in which Gaza has no means whatsoever defend itself indicates just how unconditional is the moral/legal blindfold that impairs the political wisdom and the elemental human empathy of the American political establishment.

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 Nasir Khan, November 7, 2012

Those left-of-centre Americans who had opted to vote for a lesser evil than the bigger evil in the shape of Mitt Romney have some ground to celebrate. In fact, anything was possible; Romney could have also found his way to the White House. American political system is deeply flawed and has become more mouldy and outdated. It does not represent the hopes and aspirations of the American people any longer.

The presidential election itself is a contest in which big money talks and imposes its decisions on the masses. Actual problems facing the superpower that has hegemony over a large part of humanity and regions of the world are brushed aside and a diversionary picture put before the electorate that produces much sound but signifies nothing. Big gala shows and rallies make the whole thing look comical and cheap advertisement. That’s not what the democracy is about or can ever be justified for hiding the concerns of millions of ordinary men and women and their economic and social hardships.

President Obama in his first term proved to be a true representative of American military-industrial complex. He carried out where Bush had left. He also extended the Afghan war of aggression into Pakistan and in most cowardly fashion has been conducting the killings of Pakistani ‘militants’ in Pakistan by his drone attacks. The people of Pakistan and other places who become victims of such assassinations have no means at their disposal to combat the advanced technological robots that kill them at his orders.

Now the question is: Will he continue his policy of such killings and disregard international law and the Geneva Conventions? Like Bush and Condi Rice, his foreign policy in the Middle East has been a total charade. Has he any sense of moral responsibility towards the Palestinian people who are still under occupation of Israel and its cruel policies? Without American military and financial support, Israel couldn’t have carried out the occupation or oppression of a captive population.

These things are not a secret and certainly President Obama is well aware of all these things. Now he has a new four-year term of office. Will he be able to change the course of his foreign policy or will he continue what he did during the last four years? Only the time will tell. But he has some opportunity to show respect to international law, the Geneva Conventions and stop the illegal killing of people in foreign countries. He can also advance the cause of peace in the Middle East, not by reiterating the American mantra of the ‘security of Israel’ but stand for the legitimate rights of the Palestinians under Israeli Zionist occupation and oppression.

People will judge President for his actions, not his words. Let’s hope his words and actions match from now on. The oppressed and victimised people and nations at the hands of US imperialism and its allies will be truly glad if he shows resolute courage to stand for what is right and not military might.

What has he done?

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By Stephen Lendman, Information Clearing House, November 1, 2012

Perhaps one day they’ll arrive over a neighborhood near you. Drones are becoming America’s weapon of choice. Domestically so far, they’re used only for eyes in the sky spying.

Big Brother wants to watch everyone all the time. Don’t bet against eyes not being weaponized one day to punish as well as spy. That’s how rogue states operate.

America is by far the worst and most dangerous. Waging war on humanity is policy. Imagine living in a country run by officials who think war is good.

The more the better. Permanent ones. Wage them while pretending it’s done for peace. Few question why America is always at war somewhere. Scant attention is paid to the trillions of dollars spent at the expense of vital domestic needs gone begging.

Militarism is prioritized. Budgets are virtually open-ended. America’s duopoly assures it. Imagine policy makers deciding on which country they’ll ravage next.

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If life is sacred, how can we justify the random killing of innocent children?-

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PACOM / Flickr

My pro-life position is simple: Life is sacred. Life is so sacred that for it to be taken there must be an extremely good reason—and there are few good reasons. Convenience is certainly not a good reason. This innate sanctity of human life is something virtually all civilized people recognize despite one’s politics. Even those who identify as pro-choice are only comfortable with abortion to the degree that they can downplay or dismiss the humanity of the subject at hand.

Barack Obama has never claimed to be pro-life. As the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney writes: “President Obama has killed hundreds of civilians, including women and children, in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia through a drone war aimed at exterminating the suspected terrorists on his unprecedented and ever-expanding ‘kill list.’”

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By STEPHEN HAWKING And LEONARD MLODINOW,

The Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2010

According to Viking mythology, eclipses occur when two wolves, Skoll and Hati, catch the sun or moon. At the onset of an eclipse people would make lots of noise, hoping to scare the wolves away. After some time, people must have noticed that the eclipses ended regardless of whether they ran around banging on pots.

Ignorance of nature’s ways led people in ancient times to postulate many myths in an effort to make sense of their world. But eventually, people turned to philosophy, that is, to the use of reason—with a good dose of intuition—to decipher their universe. Today we use reason, mathematics and experimental test—in other words, modern science.

Albert Einstein said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” He meant that, unlike our homes on a bad day, the universe is not just a conglomeration of objects each going its own way. Everything in the universe follows laws, without exception.

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by Stephen Lendman, Veternas Today, October 24, 2012

Daily incidents reveal Israeli state terrorism writ large. Praying to the wrong God is called terrorism. So is wanting out from under Israel’s repressive boot.

Occupation harshness knows no limits. Torture is official policy. So are virtually all other crimes against humanity. Palestinian civilians suffer most. Children are treated like adults. Going to and from school is hazardous.

Dedicated human rights advocates are targeted. Ayman Ameed Ahmad Nasser is one of many. He’s a researcher and member of Addameer’s Prisoner Support Association.

Established in 1992, Addameer provides legal services for Israeli political prisoners. It supports them nationally and internationally. It works to end torture and other abuses. It conducts solidarity human rights campaigns.

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               by Badri Raina

I refuse, yes, refuse, this Dusshera

To burn  at your hands—

You  who deserve the burning more

Roundly than do I.

That is why the rains came, rendering

Your  self-righteous fire  limp

Among the multiplying perfidies

Of the day.  Come to think of it,

You do so get  away, year after sinful

Year, by simply taking it out on my effigy.

Your ritual ablution done, how you return

To  ungodly pillage and murders foul,

Hiding your evil under all kinds of cowl.

While I,  knowledgeable envy of the gods,

Never once touched that fair lady, 

Go count the rapes you commit, in city

And  town,  in home and workplace, field

And farmland, school and  dharamshala,

On  women,  strangers and kin,  and ages

Of  every definition from  infancy to

Vrid  avastha. 

Not a single citizen of my Lanka

Ever went hungry or ill, unlike your republic

Where  your grubby hands are always in the till

That  rightfully belongs to those millions

Who keep you  clean and  going, while

Without the least lajja, you preach

Of  Ram’s  love of his praja.

And,  I refuse, also because you who

Set me afire with glee  have not an iota

Of  the ngyan  I have  of life and death,

Heaven and earth, more than all your

Godmen  and charlatans of other hue

Put together. 

Thus  I take a stand; I refuse;

And  I advise that before the catastrophe

You breed every minute of every day

Crush you to smithereens of screaming

Sin,  go  feel your  so repugnant hypocrisy,

And  a  new life of self-knowledge begin.

This easy way out of burning my effigy

Once  each  rapacious year is running

Its course;  go among the suffering,

And their countless  agonies endorse

As a first step to viewing the real ravana

That   degrades  your  fallen eye, 

Slithers across your slick faces,

And  hides in your beard,

Then  fall at my feet and  learn

Of the truths  that even the gods

Acknowledged only I discern.

–November 24, 2012