[Peace-discuss] Obama: Press Turkey to save Syrian Kurds

Sun Oct 12 22:34:19 EDT 2014

Bob--

Have you adopted the awful Samantha Power's R2P? Your group seems once again to be 'lending critical support' to the Obama administration's war in the Mideast:

"...to pressure [sic] Turkey to allow Syrian Kurdish civilians to escape Kobane” - i.e., to open the recently-closed border - is hardly the same as 
"...to pressure [sic] Turkey to allow Kurds to defend [sic] the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane..." (with Turkish troops and/or bombs?)

Turkey (vis-a-vis the Kurds) has roughly the same relation to the US as Israel (vis-a-vis the Palestinians). In each case, the USG could effectively demand the cessation of  its client's oppression of its minority. Instead, the USG continues its hypocritical calls for 'restraint' while its clients do as they wish, so long as their actions are consistent with US imperial control of the region.

But rescuing the Kurds of Kobane (with US airstrikes) is roughly similar to rescuing the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar (with US airstrikes) - an excuse for the continuation of the war that the US wants in the region <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/iraq-crisis-us-britain-rescue-yazidis-mount-sinjar>. 

The Obama administration is particularly good at inventing lying excuses for extending their control of the Mideast (and its energy resources). Their lies are simply sneakier - they lack the bluff candor of the Bush administration's lies.

But they seem adequate to garner the support of 'Just Foreign Policy' and 'MoveOn.'  

The US is by far the power most responsible for mass murder in Iraq in this century. If our government were in fact concerned with a 'just foreign policy' in the region - or the safety of the Kurds - it would take the matter to the Security Council, as the UN Charter requires: "...the Security Council ... may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security" (Art. 42).

But the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations have consistently avoided the requirements of international law because they knew that their actions were crimes under that law - as they continue to be. 

If you don't mind the split infinitive, how about a petition to "Urge President Obama and Members of Congress to strongly back the U.N. Charter, to which it is committed by treaty, as the supreme law of the land"?

--CGE

On Oct 12, 2014, at 6:32 PM, Robert Naiman <noreply at list.moveon.org> wrote:

> Dear C G ESTABROOK,
> 
> Press reports say ISIS fighters have captured half of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, near the Syrian border with Turkey. U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that 12,000 civilians in or near Kobane face massacre if the town falls to ISIS. [1] In a very rare move for a U.N. official, de Mistura urged Turkey to allow Kurdish fighters to cross the border from Turkey to help save Kobane and its civilian residents from ISIS. 
> 
> Urge President Obama and Members of Congress to strongly back U.N. envoy for Syria de Mistura’s call on Turkey to change its policy and save Syrian Kurdish civilians from massacre by ISIS, by signing and sharing our petition at MoveOn:
> 
> http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/save-kobane
> 
> Here is the petition text:
> “President Obama and U.S. officials, including Members of Congress, should do everything in their power to pressure Turkey to allow Kurds to defend the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane from the ISIS assault, and should do everything in their power to pressure Turkey to allow Syrian Kurdish civilians to escape Kobane.” 
> UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has warned that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including 700 mainly elderly people in Kobane's center, "will most likely be massacred" by ISIS if the town falls to ISIS jihadists.
> 
> De Mistura called on Turkey "to support the deterrent actions of the coalition through whatever means from their own territory," and appealed to Turkey to "allow the flow of volunteers at least, and their equipment to be able to enter the city to contribute to a self-defense operation."
> 
> Urge President Obama and Members of Congress to do everything in their power to pressure Turkey to help stop the massacre of Syrian Kurdish civilians in Kobane by signing and sharing our petition.
> 
> http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/save-kobane
> 
> Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,   Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy
> 
> References:
> 1. “Jihadists seize Kurdish HQ in Syria's Kobane, massacre feared,” Fulya Ozerkan and Sara Hussein, AFP, October 10, http://news.yahoo.com/fighters-capture-kurd-hq-syrias-kobane-monitor-113638651.html [Some English-language media transliterate the name of the town as “Kobani”; we followed the AFP usage in our petition and alert.]  
>  
> 
> This message was sent to C G ESTABROOK by Robert Naiman through MoveOn's public petition website. MoveOn Political Action licensed and paid for this service, but does not endorse contents of this message. To unsubscribe or report this email as inappropriate, click here: http://petitions.moveon.org/unsub.html?i=25676-2656067-jkvtXX
> 
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> 
>   

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