Action Page: Absolutely NO Syria Attack Without International Consensus

Yesterday, President Obama agreed yesterday to seek congressional approval for a strike on Syria. The bad news is that in the same breath he continued to assert that he has the authority to do so regardless of what Congress says.

This is totally outrageous and unacceptable, and we don't care how many Nobel Peace prizes he's got.

No Syria Attack Without International Consensus Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1133.php

It is still not absolutely proven who is responsible for the release of chemical weapons in Syria. One report suggests that it might actually the "rebels" who had the nerve gas, which was then released when struck by a Syrian government rocket, or even by accident. To be clear, we are NOT saying that nothing should be done in response. What we are saying is we must be 100% certain of all the facts before anybody starts firing off cruise missiles.

But more to the most important point, in the new authorization for military force measure proposed by the White House much lip service is given to previous UN resolutions, international norms, and the like. So why is it that not a SINGLE other country in the world is interested in joining us in this rash assault? Maybe it's because the last time we made such a case for war it turned out to be all lies, all of it.

Nobody else is going to believe a single word we say until the UN inspectors have the time to investigate, deliberate and render their own verdict. And if any action is to be taken, it will lead to nothing but greater evil unless there is a WORLD consensus about what that action should be. That can properly only come from the United Nations, not from some coalition of the cronies, and we haven't got even one of those left right now.

Until then we say absolutely NO military action by the US acting alone.

And Congress must further expressly repudiate President Obama's assertion that he personally can act unilaterally as the world's executioner-in-chief. In particular, the Authorization to Use Military Force of 2001, from which he claims some purported authority, must be IMMEDIATELY REPEALED.

That's what Congress needs to do next week instead of writing yet another authoritarian blank check.

No Syria Attack Without International Consensus Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1133.php

So let us repeat it again, because some over the weekend have hysterically accused us of not caring whether women and children are gassed with nerve poisons.

We are not saying nothing should be done.

Here is what President Obama should and must do instead. He must reiterate that use of chemicals weapons is an unforgivable war crime. He must emphasize that anyone who uses them will ultimately be brought to justice by the WORLD acting in concert, and that the United States will fully support that collective initiative. He must declare that war criminals will find no refuge or hiding place anywhere on any square inch of this planet, and that no country may be permitted to protect them in defiance of that international consensus.

And then . . . he must direct the attorney general of the United States to indict all those responsible for the chemical weapons attacks on the city of Fallujah, using white phosphorous that burns the flesh right down to the bone.

Did you see THOSE horrific pictures on your splashy TV news shows, or just the ones to manipulate your emotions for supporting a new war?? No, you did not. Those photos, and many much more gruesome than the ones you did see from Abu Ghraib were suppressed, hidden and banned from release by, you guessed it, President Obama. Graphic evidence of torture by the United States, including video tapes from Guantanamo, was destroyed in direct defiance of a federal court order, and nobody has been charged with that crime either.

Yes, torture, including people tortured to death. Is it any wonder that the whole entire rest of the world sees America as monstrous hypocrites. Do you want to be the one to tell Assad we're going to look forward not backward? It's a complete, abject disgrace.

The day President Obama stops protecting our own war criminals, our confessed and bragging torturers, our chemical weapons attackers, the day he tells his attorney general to stop ignoring such crimes as we are so anxious to bomb other countries for committing, THAT'S the day we can preach to the rest of the world about any of this.

Speaking of which, if you are interested, we did happen to make a full length feature dramatic film, The Last War Crime, now finished and soon to be released, that directly confronts all these issues.  And you can find out more about it at this page.

The Last War Crime Movie Page http://www.peaceteam.net/tickets.php