News – Page 760 – Antiwar.com Blog

A Two-Step Disengagement Would Eliminate ISIS

Bombing cities, as France did yesterday, and as the US and Russia continue to do, will only create more radicalization by killing still more civilians. Want to eradicate ISIS?

Step 1: The West should just stop supporting the Syrian insurgency, and stop supporting the Gulf States that are also supporting the insurgency. With the flow of weapons and money halted, rebels will defect, and the ground forces of the secular Syrian regime that the US has been trying to overthrow will be able to push ISIS and Syrian Al Qaeda out of Syria.

Step 2: The US should stop supporting the sectarian Shiite government in Iraq. Only then will that government be willing to compromise with the Sunnis they have been ethnic cleansing for so long, and only then will the tribal Sunnis feel they can afford to turn against ISIS again, as they did in 2006. This will give the Salafists fleeing Syria nowhere to run to.

Just stop constantly making everything worse. Just stop intervening.

The Paris Attacks Were Probably All About the “Grayzone”

Tragically, with today’s attacks on Paris, the cycle continues apace. As I wrote in March:

“To take a more recent example, as Juan Cole convincingly argued, the unjust violence of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris were meant to polarize or “sharpen the contradictions” between Muslims and non-Muslims in France by provoking unjustly violent oppression:

‘Al-Qaeda wants to mentally colonize French Muslims, but faces a wall of disinterest. But if it can get non-Muslim French to be beastly to ethnic Muslims on the grounds that they are Muslims, it can start creating a common political identity around grievance against discrimination.’ (…)

The neocons and the terrorist leaders, as Justin Raimondo put it, are “funhouse mirror counterparts” of each other. Both “see world events through a Manichean prism,” and seek to more completely realize that severe dualism by polarizing the world into two irreconcilable camps deadlocked in a civilizational Ragnarök. To this end, each pursues innocent-consuming savagery, and each counts on and even hopes for like savagery from the other.”

In fact, as I just learned tonight on Twitter, in one of its own publications following that attack, ISIS wrote of driving to “extinction” the “grayzone” between Islamic extremism and “the crusader coalition.” Again, it’s all about using terrorism to “sharpen the contradictions” and polarize the world.

And now indeed French president Hollande has said, “To all those who have seen these awful things, I want to say we are going to lead a war which will be pitiless.”

And there are even unconfirmed reports of a Calais migrant camp being set on fire.

Enough with this madness. Break the damn cycle. Stop being manipulated by extremists on both sides. This is the only world we have.

Panel: US-Russian Conflict From Ukraine to Syria: Did US Policy Contribute to It?

November 23, at 6 pm – Jordan Center – New York University

If you’re in the area, don’t miss this exciting panel discussion sponsored by the American Committee for East-West Accord.

The general purpose of the event is to discuss questions and perspectives often missing in the current public discourse about what some observers are calling a “New Cold War.”

Panelists:

Bill Bradley: A U.S. Senator representing New Jersey for three terms, and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, Bradley is a Managing Director of Allen & Company LLC. Before entering the Senate, he was a 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist in basketball and a member of New York Knicks team from 1967 to 1977, including its two NBA championship teams.
Stephen F. Cohen: Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies, History and Politics at New York University and Princeton University, Cohen is the author of numerous books, a regular contributor to mass media and recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships for his scholarship.
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.: U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union under Presidents Reagan and Bush, from 1987 to 1991, Matlock previously served as a Senior Director on the National Security Council and as ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Subsequently, he was Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Matlock is the author of three books and many articles about the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and U.S. foreign policy since the 1990s.
John Pepper: A former Chairman and CEO of the Procter & Gamble Company, Pepper has also served as Chairman of the Walt Disney Company and of the Yale Corporation. He is the author of two books, including one recounting his leading role in establishing Procter & Gamble in Russia.
Moderated by Yanni Kotsonis, Director, Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, Professor of History and Russian and Slavic Studies.

Check out the ACEWA website here.

Sorry, But It’s No Longer Boxer Rebellion Time

It was all reminiscent of that historic American milestone in 2004 when President George W. Bush, wearing an Air Force suit that made him resemble a genuine combat veteran, stood proudly on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner triumphantly heralding another "Mission Accomplished" for the world’s "indispensable" nation.

So too in November 2015 when Ashton (Ash) Carter, our Defense Secretary, was on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt warning the Chinese that the US means business if they dare interfere with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and our domination of the region now and into the future.

The US had recently dispatched a guided missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese islet in the Spratly Archipelago, some of whose barren and rocky islets are claimed by the Chinese but also by other Southeastern Asian nations who expect the US military and its "boots on the ground" to fight and if necessary die on their behalf in the event of war.

"Teddy Roosevelt’s presence there and our visit is a symbol of our commitment to our rebalance [to Asia] and the importance of the Asia-Pacific to the United States," Carter declared, somehow overlooking that the real Teddy loved war, I mean he LOVED it, that is until his son died in WWI.

Continue reading “Sorry, But It’s No Longer Boxer Rebellion Time”

Ron Paul: US Isolationists Still Block Iran Trade

While France and the rest of Europe — not to mention Asia — are busy signing trade deals with Iran for when UN sanctions are lifted early next year, US companies are hampered by myriad legal restrictions on doing business with Iran. Will these restrictions continue even after UN sanctions are lifted, keeping US companies out in the cold? That is what the real isolationists hope for. Who are they? Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Jail Guards for Jesus – NYC Vets Parade

I caught the New York City Veterans Day parade yesterday. Never saw so many cops in one place – I’m glad I don’t have any outstanding warrants in New York state. There was endless adulation with no questions asked about the politicians who send American men and women to get killed and maimed for no good reason. Here are a few photos from the event.

Jail Guards for Jesus:

I avoided getting arrested even though I forgot to bring my press pass.

Continue reading “Jail Guards for Jesus – NYC Vets Parade”