“Nothing unites people behind the leader more quickly, reflexively or reliably than war” by Glenn Greenwald

"...Trump is going to see – and feel – the establishment and media respect he craves, the sensations of strength he most lacks, by dropping bombs. Every person, let alone Trump, would be tempted to keep pursuing war as a result of this warped incentive framework. Indeed, Trump himself has long been aware of this motivation as he accused Obama in 2012 of preparing to start a new war in response to falling poll numbers...

"Indeed, Democratic Party leaders have explicitly praised Trump’s bombing. They will have to continue to do so even if Trump expands this war. That’s what the Democratic Party has turned itself into to; indeed, it’s what it has been for a long time...

"As it always does, the U.S. media last night was an almost equal mix of excitement and reverence as the bombs fell. People who dissent from this bombing campaign – who opposed it on the merits – were almost entirely disappeared, as they always are in such moments of high patriotism...

"It should be startling and infuriating that Trump is able to order a new attack on the Syrian Government without any democratic debate, let alone Congressional approval...

"What happened to all the warnings about Trump’s towering incompetence and core evil? Where are all the grave predictions that he’s leading the world on a path of authoritarianism, fascism and blood and soil nationalism? They all gave way to War Fever...

"[H]ere is Trump – less than three months after being inaugurated – bombing one of the Kremlin’s closest allies, in a country where Russia has spent more than a year fighting to preserve his government. Will any of this undermine or dilute the conspiracy theory that the Kremlin controls the White House? Of course not. Warped conspiracy theorists are not only immune to evidence that disproves their theories but, worse, find ways to convert such evidence into further proof of their conspiracies...

"If humanitarianism is what motivated the U.S. in Syria, it would take in massive numbers of refugees, but it hasn’t. If humanitarianism is what motivated the U.S. bombing of Libya, it would have given large amounts of aid to that country in the aftermath to help it deal with the ensuing anarchy and misery, but it didn’t. That’s because humanitarianism is the pretext for U.S. wars, not the actual motive...

"Those who oppose Trump’s new bombing campaign – or any U.S. bombing campaign – are instantly met with the predictable objection: we must 'Do Something' about Syria. This mentality is predicated on a terribly false, and terribly dangerous, premise: that the U.S. military can and should solve every world evil...

"[T]hose who insist that the U.S. has a moral obligation to remove Assad or at least bomb him become tongue-tied when it comes to assessing Obama. If, as many claim, Assad is our generation’s Hitlerian figure – and recall how many recent foreign leaders were depicted as The New Hitler when some wanted them attacked – does that make Obama this generation’s Neville Chamberlain for his refusal to attack Assad? And does it mean that Trump has acted more morally than Obama by doing what Obama refused to do?...

"Ultimately, what is perhaps most depressing about all of this is how, yet again, we see the paucity of choice offered by American democracy. The leadership of both parties can barely contain themselves joining together to cheer the latest war. One candidate – the losing one – ran on a platform of launching this new war, while the other – the victor – repeatedly vowed to avoid it, only to launch it after being in office less than 100 days.

"The one constant of American political life is that the U.S. loves war. Martin Luther King’s 1967 denunciation of the U.S. as 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today' is more accurate than ever."

For the complete article, "The Spoils of War..." by Glenn Greenwald, click here.

Aftermath of suspected chemical gas attack in Idlib, Syria on April 4, 2017

Chemical Gas Bomb Attack in Syria, 4 April 2017

There is no morality in war. It is impossible to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. There is no morality in chemical and cluster bombing. There is no sufficient justification for murdering innocent children and others. Nothing will compensate for the intentional wanton destruction of innocent people's property and lives. The indiscriminate slaughter of Syrian children and others is an act of terrorism.


“The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is a multilateral treaty that bans chemical weapons and requires their destruction within a specified period of time. The treaty is of unlimited duration and is far more comprehensive than the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which outlaws the use but not the possession of chemical weapons.

“CWC negotiations started in 1980 in the UN Conference on Disarmament. The convention opened for signature on January 13, 1993, and entered into force on April 29, 1997.

“The CWC is implemented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is headquartered in The Hague with about 500 employees. The OPCW receives states-parties’ declarations detailing chemical weapons-related activities or materials and relevant industrial activities. After receiving declarations, the OPCW inspects and monitors states-parties’ facilities and activities that are relevant to the convention, to ensure compliance.

“The CWC is open to all nations and currently has 192 states-parties. Israel has signed but has yet to ratify the convention. A key non-signatory includes North Korea, which is believed to possess chemical weapons. Syria acknowledged it had chemical weapons in 2012, and used them on multiple occasions.

“On September 12, 2013, Syria sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary General which said that the Assad regime has signed a legislative decree providing the accession of Syria to the Chemical Weapons Convention. In the letter, Assad said Syria would observe its CWC obligations immediately, as opposed to 30 days from the date of accession, as stipulated in the treaty.

“Syria agreed to ship out its chemical weapons and destroy its production facilities. With the help of an international coalition, Syria's declared chemical weapons were completely removed from the country by June 2014. The Assad regime continues to use chlorine gas in violation of the CWC…”

Click Here for the entire article.

“Children are constantly exposed to this chemical through food residues, contaminated drinking water, and pesticide drift from farm fields”—Jean-Marie Kauth

“…If Trump’s proposed 31% cut to the EPA passes, expect increases in childhood asthma, ADHD, autism, auto-immune disease, cancer, and more. Gone are our clean water and air.  Sadly, any government website, including the EPA and CDC, can no longer be trusted, and data is being deleted daily. Climate Change? Forfeiting the meager gains of the Paris Agreement will mean hundreds of thousands of additional deaths in coming years. It is no exaggeration at all to say that the future of civilization is under threat…” (Jean-Marie Kauth).

For the entire article, click here.