Today President Obama said America’s invasion of Iraq is nothing compared to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Coffin makers agree.In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq, a stable country, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The UN Se…
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The Scott Ross: Why Russia’s Crimea is different from America’s Iraq
Today President Obama said America’s invasion of Iraq is nothing compared to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Coffin makers agree. In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq, a stable country, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the US invasion was illegal and
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Russia’s Crimea is different from America’s Iraq
Today President Obama said America’s invasion of Iraq is nothing compared to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Coffin makers agree. In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq, a stable country, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the US invasion was illegal and
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Report: Canada ranks last out of 27 developed countries on environmental protection: Canada’s COP 19 ‘irrelevance’
Top: Canada environment minister, Leona Aglukkaq Canada’s climate policy – rated as the worst in the developed world – makes environment minister Leona Aglukkaq’s presence at COP 19 in Warsaw seem more of a formality than anything else. Christian Holz head of Climate Action Network Canada is quoted by CBC
Continue readingwRanter.com: A clear message to the world
Share this: Regardless of one’s political predilections, one’s attitude toward the policies of Israel’s current government, or one’s view of Benjamin Netanyahu’s strengths and weaknesses as a retail politician, one has to admire the Israeli prime minister’s ability to make his point. His speech before the United Nations General Assembly
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Harper, The UN and Aboriginal Issues
Once again, we find The Harper Government (which, I am more and more convinced is not a Canadian government), squabbling over the UN’s initiatives to review Canada’s treatment of our Aboriginal population. Countries have their rights records reviewed every four years by the Geneva-based UN forum, but the Harper government has
Continue readingThings Are Good: Building Better Homes for Refugees
Ikea’s charitable arm has used the expertise of the cheap furniture manufacturer to design a better housing unit for refugees with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Hopefully these designs will help people around the world who are living in poor conditions. The Refugee Housing Unit started working on a project
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why US Narrative On Syria’s Chemical Weapons Stinks
The thing about chemical weapons is that an odor usually follows their use, what is odd about Syria is that it is the United States’ decision to arm the rebels that stinks. The US, despite its poor track record of linking weapons to nations, has recently announced that because it
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why US Narrative On Syria’s Chemical Weapons Stinks
The thing about chemical weapons is that an odor usually follows their use, what is odd about Syria is that it is the United States’ decision to arm the rebels that stinks.
The US, despite its poor track record of linking weapons to nations, has recently announced that because it now believes the Syrian government did use chemical weapons, arming the rebels is now a moral imperative. However the often under-reported and plainly ignored facts strongly suggest it was not the Syrian government that used chemical weapons, but the rebels.
Besides of course that a significant amount of rebels belong to Jabhat al-Nusra a group classified as terrorists by the US and the UN, perhaps the most striking evidence that the Syrian rebels used chemical weapons is that a large portion of those who died from them are government soldiers.
Time World has reported that there are four alleged instances of chemical weapon use in Syria with other news agencies reporting that in at least one of these the majority of deaths were pro-Assad forces.
From Time, June 5 2013: “On Monday, the U.N. panel charged with investigating Syria’s hostilities issued a report in Geneva, saying that there was evidence that “limited quantities of toxic chemicals” had been used in four attacks in March and April, twice in Aleppo, once in Damascus, and once in Idlib.”
In March of this year both Fox News And Reuters confirm that most of the deaths in a chemical weapon attack in Aleppo were government forces: “Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that 16 Syrian Army soldiers were killed in the explosion, and 10 others died in a local hospital. He did not elaborate whether they were soldiers or civilians.”
The idea that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would use chemical weapons to kill his own soldiers who at the time were fighting the rebels is just one of the many inconsistencies in the US narrative in this civil war.
Another is that Assad, who knew using chemical weapons would bring US intervention, would have little reason to fire them, especially since his forces have had the upper hand for months. And not only did he not have a reason to use them, but using them to only kill a total of 100 to 150 people in four separate incidences would be inefficient; more traditional rockets and firepower are more accurate and far cheaper.
On top of all this is of course the fact that the UN has not only reported there is no evidence that Assad used chemical weapons, but that a UN inspector, independently, said it was the rebels who were the ones who used chemical weapons, which just so happens to explain why so many Syrian soldiers died from them.
Nonetheless, the United States has decided, despite the inconsistencies in its justification, to intervene in Syria’s civil war.
And because of that some may draw parallels between US involvement in Iraq with Syria, but some caution is required. Yes, both involved fictitious weapon allegations and will only lead to more violence, more extremists, and more years if not decades of instability, but this time a government gets overturned, a nation is ruined, and millions of lives are affected without any Americans getting their boots dirty.
Smell that? That’s progress.
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why US Narrative On Syria’s Chemical Weapons Stinks
The thing about chemical weapons is that an odor usually follows their use, what is odd about Syria is that it is the United States’ decision to arm the rebels that stinks. The US, despite its poor track record of linking weapons to nations, has recently announced that because it
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada blocking UN efforts to address sexual violence against women
By: Action Canada for Population and Development | Press Release OTTAWA/GENEVA, June 7, 2013 – Governments and civil society are calling into question the leadership of the Canadian government on the theme of Violence Against Women at the 23rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC). In previous years,
Continue readingTrashy's World: Canada’s refusal to sign the UN arms trade treaty…
…is nothing short of bizarre! And Pit bill Baird’s contention that the Grit and Dipper support for the treaty is somehow related to reintroducing the Gun Registry is stuff from a freaking alternate universe! Seriously? Has the moral compass of the CPC gone that wacky??? (2) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: UN must challenge Canada’s complicity in mining’s human rights abuses
Canada is due for review at the UN human rights council – abuses by its mining companies must not be overlooked By: Meera Karunananthan | The Guardian (UK), Published on Wed Apr 24, 2013: Canada is scheduled for its universal periodic review (UPR) at the UN human rights council on 26 April. The UPR is
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Abstaining above our weight
Canada won’t run for UN Security Council seat in 2014 Canada will focus on other priorities rather than mount a fresh campaign for a spot on the United Nations Security Council, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. Baird’s disclosure that there’s no new campaign in the works comes after Canada’s
Continue readingTrashy's World: The socialists at the International Monetary Fund…
DARE to say that the Harperland economy is WEAK! They DARE! Canada’s economic growth will be the slowest among Group of 20 countries outside Europe as it grapples with a cooling housing market and as policy makers rein in deficits, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Washington-based
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada ranks 17th of 29 for children’s well-being, says UNICEF report
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Canada ranks 17th out of 29 wealthy countries when it comes to tackling child poverty, obesity and related well-being issues, says a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN children’s agency. The Innocenti Report Card 11 by UNICEF’s Research Office also reveals that the Canada
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Harper government ‘an embarrassment’ with bailout on U.N. drought convention "talkfest"
Another first for the UN-phobic Harper government. After earning the distinction of being first to bail out of Kyoto, they are now the first to jump ship from the UN’s convention on drought. Why? Less to do with the needed work the convention is actually doing and more because in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Sitsabaiesan, NDP MPs urge Conservatives to take principled stance on Sri Lanka
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive In Parliament earlier this week, New Democrat MP for Scarborough-Rouge River Rathika Sitsabaiesan and fellow NDP MPs urged the Harper government to take a principled stance on Sri Lanka. They called on the Conservatives to support international calls for an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Vatican Summoned Before UN Committee on Rights of the Child
Groups Submit Report on Worldwide Sex Abuse Crisis By: Center for Constitutional Rights (Press Release) | Feb. 28, 2013: NEW YORK and ROME – Today, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed an alternate report to the United Nations Committee on
Continue readingdrive-by planet: COP 18 Doha: Appadurai ban lifted but youth, civil society voices marginalized
According to recent reports from the UN Climate Conference in Doha the activities of youth delegates, the press and civil society representatives have been significantly curtailed. A Common Dreams article quotes an IPS reporter named Stephen Leahy: For no obvious reason, security at the meeting known as COP 18 is
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