CREDO Action, MoveOn, Chemical Warfare in Syria, and the trains to Auschwitz
September 10, 2013 at 1:23 pm | Posted in Fairness | 2 CommentsTags: Anna Galland, Auschwitz, Carrie Olson, chemical warfare, CREDO Action, CREDO Mobile, Eli Pariser, Joan Blades, Jordan Krueger, Justin Ruben, Matt Lockshin, MoveOn, MoveOn.org, Syria, the Holocaust, Wes Boyd, Working Assets
The main entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp (Wikipedia’s caption in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz). Photo by Angelo Celedon (AKA Lito Sheppard) on August 2006.
CREDO Action (an arm of the company CREDO Mobile) , Move On, and like-minded organizations oppose punishing al-Assad’s regime for using chemical weapons.
A previous post has argued that physically punishing the al-Assad regime for this act is essential for preventing a huge amount of cruel, indiscriminate future slaughter.
In the 1940s there occurred a choice that is exactly analogous to the present one.
The question was whether or not to bomb the railroad lines that transported victims to the concentration camps.
Although that question was not posed to the public, if it had been, the exact analog of the position presently taken by CREDO Action and Move On would have been to oppose bombing the railroad lines.
CREDO Action, MoveOn, your position is morally indefensible.
A Deutsche Reichsbahn “Güterwagen” (goods wagon), one type of rail car used for deportations (Wikipedia’s caption, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz). Photo by Claus-Joachim Dickow, 1 October 2006.
Hungarian Jewish children and an elderly woman on the way to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau (1944). Many of the very young and very old were murdered immediately upon arrival and were never registered. (Wikipedia’s caption in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz). Photographed by Bernhard Walter, May 1944. Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-74237-004 / CC-BY-SA .
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If we do not punish al-Assad
September 3, 2013 at 8:45 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Crime and punishment, Enemies of Freedom, Terrorism | 1 CommentTags: al-Assad, Assad, biological warfare, British Parliament, chemical warfare, civilians, Geneva Convention, non-combattants, nuclear terrorism, Syria, terrorism, torture, treatment of captured soldiers
A 1939 Second World War-era baby’s gas mask in Monmouth Regimental Museum. This design covered the whole of the baby except for its legs. (The caption was obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mask). Photo taken by Rock Drum on 19 May 2012, at the Monmouth Regimental Museum.
If we do not physically punish the al-Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons:
=> All treaties on the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, on the use of torture, on terrorism, on the treatment of civilians, and on the treatment of captured enemy soldiers, become meaningless.
=> The U.S. and others should immediately begin stockpiling chemical and biological weapons, and radioactive contaminants, and methods for delivering them, because others will do so.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. We must physically punish the al-Assad regime.
As for the vote in the British Parliament, those who voted against action have learned nothing from Chamberlain’s mistake in Munich.
For background, see here, here, and here.
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Why Gaza Now?
November 20, 2012 at 6:24 pm | Posted in Enemies of Freedom | 1 CommentTags: al-Assad, Assad, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Syria, Turkey
Map of Gaza Strip, Stand December 2008 (SVG version of File:Gaza Strip map.png by Lencer, adapted by Gringer)
Why Gaza Now?
The timing is suspicious.
Israel had done nothing new to provoke Hamas.
Yet suddenly Hamas started firing rockets into Israel. Hamas seems to be asking for a violent defensive reaction by Israel.
Why Gaza now?
Here is a guess: the primary instigators reside well north of Gaza.
Very large demonstration in Homs, Syria against Al Assad regime in the Syrian Uprising, 18 April 2011, photgraphed by Bo Yaser.
The civil war in Syria has stressed Hezbollah and Iran, as well as Syria. Hezbollah has developed a split between those within it who side with Assad and those within it who side with the rebellion. Also, because Hezbollah had previously wholeheartedly sided with Assad, it has lost the support of large parts of the public in Lebanon, as well as elsewhere in the Arab world. For the same reason, Iran has lost a lot of outside sympathy.
So the guess is that Hezbollah and Iran told Hamas to heat things up.
The goal was to divert attention away from Syria, Iran, and Lebanon, by drawing the world’s gaze towards Gaza and Israel.
The goal was also to reunite Hezbollah, by re-focusing on its traditional enemy. The hope was also to thereby win back for Hezbollah some of the support of the Lebanese public.
Evidence for this guess is contained in a headline to an article by Annne Gearan on page A9 in the November 20, 2012 print edition of the Washington Post: “Israel-Hamas fighting put U.S. at odds with Turkey, Egypt”. (That was the headline in the print edition. The headline in the online edition always differs from that in the print edition.)
Russia and China, too, must be delighted by the sucess of this new ploy.
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