<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Stuart--</div><div><br></div>What about (as Ron would say) presenting Swanson's argument on AOTA next Tuesday, 2 Sept.?<div><br></div><div><br><div><div><div>On Aug 28, 2014, at 12:51 PM, Stuart Levy via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div class="moz-forward-container"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><b><font size="6">What to Do About ISIS</font></b><br>
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By David Swanson<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://warisacrime.org/content/what-do-about-isis" target="_blank">http://warisacrime.org/content/what-do-about-isis</a><br>
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Start by recognizing where ISIS came from. The U.S. and its
junior partners destroyed Iraq, left a sectarian division,
poverty, desperation, and an illegitimate government in
Baghdad that did not represent Sunnis or other groups. Then
the U.S. armed and trained ISIS and allied groups in Syria,
while continuing to prop up the Baghdad government,
providing Hellfire missiles with which to attack Iraqis in
Fallujah and elsewhere.
<br>
<br>
ISIS has religious adherents but also opportunistic
supporters who see it as the force resisting an unwanted
rule from Baghdad and who increasingly see it as resisting
the United States. It is in possession of U.S. weaponry
provided directly to it in Syria and siezed from the Iraqi
government. At last count by the U.S. government, 79% of
weapons transfered to Middle Eastern governments come from
the United States, not counting transfers to groups like
ISIS, and not counting weapons in the possession of the
United States. <br>
<br>
So, the first thing to do differently going forward: stop
bombing nations into ruins, and stop shipping weapons into
the area you've left in chaos. Libya is of course another
example of the disasters that U.S. wars leave behind them --
a war, by the way, with U.S. weapons used on boith sides,
and a war launched on the pretext of a claim well documented
to have been false that Gadaffi was threatening to massacre
civilians. <br>
<br>
So, here's the next thing to do: be very sceptical of
humanitarian claims. The U.S. bombing around Erbil to
protect Kurdish and U.S. oil interests was initially
justified as bombing to protect people on a mountain. But
most of those people on the mountain were in no need of
rescue, and that justification has now been set aside, just
as Benghazi was. Recall also that Obama was forced to
withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq when he couldn't get the
Iraqi government to give them immunity for crimes they
commit. He has now obtained that immunity and back in they
go, the crimes preceding them in the form of 500 pound
bombs. <br>
<br>
While trying to rescue hostages and discovering an empty
house, and racing to a mountain to save 30,000 people but
finding 3,000 and most of those not wanting to leave, the
U.S. claims to know exactly whom the 500-pound bombs are
killing. But whoever they are killing, they are generating
more enemies, and they are building support for ISIS, not
diminishing it. So, now the U.S. finds itself on the
opposite side of the war in Syria, so what does it do? Flip
sides! Now the great moral imperative is not to bomb Assad
but to bomb in defense of Assad, the only consistent point
being that "something must be done" and the only conceivable
something is to pick some party and bomb it. <br>
<br>
But why is that the only conceivable thing to be done? I can
think of some others:
<p>1. Apologize for brutalizing the leader of ISIS in Abu
Ghraib and to every other prisoner victimized under U.S.
occupation.</p><p>2. Apologize for destroying the nation of Iraq and to
every family there.</p><p>3. Begin making restitution by delivering aid (not
"military aid" but actual aid, food, medicine) to the
entire nation of Iraq.</p><p>4. Apologize for role in war in Syria.</p><p>5. Begin making restitution by delivering actual aid to
Syria.</p><p>6. Announce a commitment not to provide weapons to Iraq
or Syria or Israel or Jordan or Egypt or Bahrain or any
other nation anywhere on earth and to begin withdrawing
U.S. troops from foreign territories and seas, including
Afghanistan. (The U.S. Coast Guard in the Persian Gulf has
clearly forgotten where the coast of the U.S. is!)</p><p>7. Announce a commitment to invest heavily in solar,
wind, and other green energy and to provide the same to
democratic representative governments.</p><p>8. Begin providing Iran with free wind and solar
technologies -- at much lower cost of course than what it
is costing the U.S. and Israel to threaten Iran over a
nonexistent nuclear weapons program.</p><p>9. End economic sanctions.</p><p>10. Send diplomats to Baghdad and Damascus to negotiate
aid and to encourage serious reforms.</p><p>11. Send journalists, aid workers, peaceworkers, human
shields, and negotiators into crisis zones, understanding
that this means risking lives, but fewer lives than
further militarization risks.</p><p>12. Empower people with agricultural assistance,
education, cameras, and internet access.</p><p>13. Launch a communications campaign in the United States
to replace military recruitment campaigns, focused on
building sympathy and desire to serve as critical aid
workers, persuading doctors and engineers to volunteer
their time to travel to and visit these areas of crisis.</p><p>14. Work through the United Nations on all of this.</p><p>15. Sign the United States on to the International
Criminal Court and voluntarily propose the prosecution of
top U.S. officials of this and the preceding regimes for
their crimes.</p>
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