Antiwar.com Blog

FYI – There are two terrible Cotton amendments that would essentially open, not shut the door, to US involvement in the war. Cornyn also offering three problematic amendments though not as poison pill as Cotton.

If groups can weigh in OPPOSITION TO Cotton #4097, Cotton #4098, Cornyn #4096, Cornyn #4090, Cornyn #4095, and IN SUPPORT of Sanders #4105 & Young #4080 it would be very impactful to tomorrow afternoon’s votes.

See below for more details.

By unanimous consent, the Senate adopted the following agreement for consideration of S.J.Res.54:

At 1:45 pm on Thursday, December 13th, all time be considered expired on S.J.Res.54, and the Senate vote in relation to the following amendments in the order listed, with 2 minutes equally divided in the usual form prior to each vote:

• Young #4080
• Cornyn #4096
• Cornyn #4090
• Cornyn #4095
• Cotton #4097
• Cotton #4098
• Sanders #4105

Further, that following disposition of the amendments, the resolution, as amended if amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage with no intervening action or debate

As a result, there could be up to 8 roll call votes on the resolution tomorrow beginning at 1:45 PM (EST).

Originally appeared on The American Conservative.

The Guardian published three accounts from Yemeni aid workers working with the Norwegian Refugee Council about their experience of the war and the humanitarian crisis. This comes from Marwan Al-Sabri, a 32-year old water and sanitation officer from Taiz:

We already know that the shelling kills people, but I am seeing what a broken economy does too. People have been left so desperately poor that they kill themselves before the hunger does.

The economic war being waged against the civilian population is often overlooked in coverage of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, but it is one of the major reasons why almost 16 million people are food insecure even with humanitarian food aid and more than 20 million are food insecure without it. Of those, there are 1.7 million people in the Taiz region that are at crisis, emergency, or catastrophe levels of food insecurity, and that’s with humanitarian food aid. Approximately the same number of people in the Hodeidah governorate are enduring the same deprivation. More than two-thirds of the population of Hajjah governorate in the northwest are suffering the same hardship. More than half of the country’s entire population is in the same position, and conditions are going to keep deteriorating unless the war is brought to a halt and the economy is stabilized.

Continue reading “The Costs of the War on the People of Yemen”

Al-Tanf, Idlib, Kurdish areas in the northeast. Three Syria powder kegs and the US is holding a handful of matches. The continued US occupation of a large chunk of Syrian territory is not providing stability. It is illegal and it is emboldening terrorist organizations. Now some senior military figures are saying we must stay in Syria to protect against “pro-regime” forces. Does this make any sense? We are back to “Assad must go”? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Pride goeth before the fall, we are told in the Bible. Unfortunately pride and arrogance are the lynchpins of our foreign policy. From the refusal to end the 17 year war on Afghanistan to the ever-growing military budgets to a new Joint Chiefs Chairman who promises to destroy our “enemies,” it is an excess pride and arrogance among the US foreign policy and political establishment more than anything else that is undermining our national security. More in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Did President Trump really have no idea that a top Chinese businesswoman and member of the country’s political elite was going to be arrested in Canada just as the US president was having dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping? If so, did the neocons surrounding him knowingly keep him in the dark? The implications of this arrest are incalculable, as the Huawei CFO, Weng Wanzhou faces 30 years in US prison for allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran! What to expect? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Back in 1992, when I was thinking about what to write my dissertation on, I put together a statement of intent and a bibliography. My statement was titled, “Economic Mobilization and National Strategies in Great Britain and France during the Great War.” As it turns out, I decided not to pursue a military subject, turning instead to science and religion, an area I examined when I pursued my master’s degree. I was reminded of all this as I looked through old documents this weekend in pursuit of references for a friend.

Anyway, here’s my statement from 1992 about World War I as a killing machine:

The Great War was a struggle waged by modern industrial juggernauts. The Western Front witnessed organized destruction on a scale heretofore thought impossible. Staggered by the costs of modern war, all combatants mobilized their economies, with varying degrees of success.

Continue reading “Nations as Machines for War by William J. Astore”