Would one of you lovely ladies please come sit in my lap? No, sadly, the old TomCat has not remembered how to prowl. I just need help holding my leg steady. I have a strong urge to jerk the knee, because the US is conducting airstrikes in Iraq. The target is ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), although Obama and others call it ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). This group would not exist were it not for GW Bush and the Republican Party. Prior to the Republican War for Oil in Iraq, there were no Sunni extremists. They came to fight in Iraq because Bush was supporting the Shia there. During the surge, Bush and the Republican party armed, financed and trained Sunni extremists to bribe them into not attacking us. The took the money, learned, grew stringer and waited. We bare some responsibility for this mess, because it’s a Republican mess. Now it has become a murderous crisis.
The catastrophe of Iraq has been growing steadily worse for weeks, but by Thursday, it became impossible for the United States and other civilized nations to ignore it. Iraq’s bloodthirsty Sunni extremists were threatening the extermination of tens of thousands of members of religious minorities who have refused to join the fundamentalist Islamic state the terrorist forces want to create.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, drove Christians, Yazidis and other minorities from their homes by giving them a choice between religious conversion or slaughter. There have been reports of scores of civilians being killed. Many of these frightened and desperate people have surged toward the Turkish border and some 40,000 are estimated to be suffering from heat and thirst on Mount Sinjar in northeast Iraq.
So it was not surprising to hear President Obama announce Thursday night that the United States was dropping food and water supplies in northeast Iraq and that he had authorized targeted airstrikes against ISIS, if needed. Mr. Obama made a wise policy call, and showed proper caution, by keeping his commitment not to reintroduce American ground troops in Iraq, but humanitarian assistance for the imperiled civilians was necessary…
Inserted from <NY Times>
Here is Obama’s complete statement:
For a complete transcript, click here:
I can’t really fault him, as much as I cringe at any involvement in Iraq. ISIS is one scary group of pseudo-Muslims, and I can’t see standing by and letting them slaughter people they oppose, like US Republican pseudo-Christian Senators and Representatives tried to slaughter gays in Uganda and want to return latino Children for slaughter in Central America. I think what Obama has done of far to help refugees and protect US citizens in Erbil is a legitimate use of military force, but the way forward worries me to the max.
As for the Republicans, there are three groups. Some threaten impeaching Obama for not doing enough in Iraq. Some threaten impeaching Obama for doing too much in Iraq. And some threaten impeaching Obama for both.
20 Responses to “Responding to a Republican Mess”
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If I though it would do any good and stop this fiasco, I would gladly go out west to sit on your lap. Unfortunately, we can do nothing but shake our heads in dismay and our fists in anger. We can put our pens, computers and phones to work to voice our outrage. But again, it seems futile. I will just pray for the innocent victims of war instead.
As much as I abhor the word "genocide", I decided to look up the history of the word. To my surprise, it is a modern word. President Obama is correct in using the word, genocide, in his recent speech, statement on Iraq and for the people on Mount Sinjar.
WHAT IS GENOCIDE?
THE TERM "GENOCIDE"
The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out in the US Bill of Rights or the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the rights of individuals.
In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, derived from the Latin word for killing. In proposing this new term, Lemkin had in mind "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." The next year, the International Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, Germany, charged top Nazis with "crimes against humanity." The word “genocide” was included in the indictment, but as a descriptive, not legal, term.
THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE
On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust and in no small part due to the tireless efforts of Lemkin himself, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.” It defines genocide as:
[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout history and even since the Convention came into effect, the legal and international development of the term is concentrated into two distinct historical periods: the time from the coining of the term until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948) and the time of its activation with the establishment of international criminal tribunals to prosecute the crime of genocide (1991-1998). Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007043
Thanks Jim for doing the legwork for us. I knew the meaning but not the history. Interesting to know that it is a word that is born of the Holocaust by one who was being persecuted, but one that is being used by the victims of the Holocaust to decide the fate of another "tribe" . . . the Palestinians.
I also checked out the Wikipedia article about Raphael Lemkin finding this following:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Lemkin
Need I say more? Putin is carrying on with what was started back in the 1930s.
And so as to not be totally off topic, ISIS is doing the same . . . a genocide of all peoples including Shia Muslims, Christians and Yazidis. All that ISIS sees as blasphemy against Allah.
Thanks, Jim. I did not know the origin of the word and I wish it had never had to be coined.
Thanks. Most informative.
Rachel Maddow 08/08/14
American relationship with Iraqi Kurds long, complicated
Steve Kornacki traces the history of the U.S. relationship with Iraqi Kurds, from the failure to deliver support to an anti-Saddam Hussein uprising during George H.W. Bush administration to President Obama’s humanitarian airdrops and targeted military strikes against ISIS. VIDEO:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/us-history-with-iraqi-kurds-long-complicated-316734531899
My Commentary:
President George H.W. Bush (first bush) had Dick (Darth) Cheney as Secretary of Defense at that time during his presidency. Dubya (second bush) picked up where his father left off in Iraq and Dick (Darth) Cheney was his vice president. Yes, IMO, the gop mess, policies created and led by Dick (Darth) Cheney during and in those two gop administrations continues even today, although not Obama's fault in his current administration. It is simply time catching up, exacerbated, with and by what Dick (Darth) Cheney initiated… What a f***ing mess! and it has been going on for hundreds of years.
I am often fond of saying: "All religions are flawed as are men."
Some republican messes can't be cleaned up, kind of like a permanent s**t stain on the fabric of the US.
I agree Jerry, dip them in bleach and the $hit stain remains… 🙄
Of course this is a mess that we created. But that does not mean we have the obligation to intervene if our intervention would only make it worse no matter what we do. Humanitarian aid is not in that category, and I do support it. Any military involvement – well, the problem is, we should do the right thing, but the Republicans are so convinced that what they want to do is the right thing, no matter how many times it has been proven wrong, that finding the right thing to do is going to be next to impossible.
Genocide is a modern word because it is a modern crime. Killing an entire group of people, wherever they are, just because they are what they are, was never contemplayed in history until the 20th century. It was not contemplated in the Third Punic War. It was not contemplated in the Crusades. Both those conflicts were considered to be the ultimate in savagery. Now genocide seems to be contemplated all the time. How can anyone possibly think it is a good idea?
It's not about ideas. It's about an emotion, specifically, hate.
LET'S BE ARMED WHEN THE RETHUGLICAN SHILLS START BLAMING OBAMA FOR BUSH'S MESS
Just to be crystal clear – and ARMED with LINKS documenting it – when Rethuglicans start claimg that Pres. Obama withdrew forces from Iraq too soon – as they already have started doing.
IT WAS THE BUSH/CHENEY ADMINISTRATION WHO SIGNED THE STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SOFA) LOCKING IN THE TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWN\AL … NOT NOT NOT PRES. OBAMA – Obama tried to extend it, but Iraq REFUSED!!!
(Sorry – sometimes my "Caps Lock" key sticks)
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/09/obama-destroys-bogus-wrong-republican-talking-point-blaming-leaving-iraq.html
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140808162834AAc7t63&act=aq
And I'm sure there's a gazillion more you can Google ..
Thanks Nameless.
I am sad to say the Iraqi's were better off under Hussein than they are since our intervention. Dubya made a mess that will take hundreds of years to resove, if at all. We have to give humanitarian aid to these people! They would never have been in this plight if we had not invaded their country and set up a government that was so corrupt no one was safe.
Here is today's (Saturday) headline in the LA Times on page A6 atop the continuation of the story from page A1:
"U.S. warplanes target militant advance near Iraqi oil city"
Genocide makes good copy and garners popular support, but is this really about OIL?
Follow the money!
Erbil is mlore than an oil city. It is the capital of the Kurdish area.
As far as the American Consulate in Erbil and the forces sent to protect it, would it not be better to pull all Americans out of Iraq? I must say that I can see ISIS say "Look at the American dogs run!" and use that as a ego stroking exercise, but after the Benghazi affair and reaction at home, it might be better. I really do not expect ISIS' or ISIL if you like, to honour diplomatic protocols. Or maybe Obama should call Congress back from holidays to expeditiously make decisions. Scrap that idea. The Congress couldn't make a decision to leave a burning building before the building collapsed about them! Perhaps the best solution is to send Baby Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld to Iraq to deal with ISIS and clean up the mess their illegal war for oil created. I wonder if Cheney's new heart could keep pace? Send Lizzie Cheney to watch over her daddy.
As human beings, we have a an obligation to help each other. So providing relief to the people trapped on Mount Sinjar is vital. But I also think that the United Nations needs to come to an agreement, and very quickly, on a response from all member states to the threat posed by ISIS to the peoples of Iraq and the Levant. The only stumbling block to this is the veto of Russia and likely China. (Those veto powers — all of them — have to go but that is a matter for another discussion and time) There is, without doubt, a genocide being perpetrated by ISIS on the various different ethnic and religious groups in Iraq.
I posted an article on Care2 from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/07/world/meast/iraq-isis-christian-city/index.html
It is not just Christians. Yazidis, Shia Muslims, just about anyone that is not part of this radical Sunni Muslim sect is being targeted, and make no mistake, this is genocide.
I suggest you also look at 2 videos on the lefthand side bar — Christian Leader: ISIS beheading children, and Murderous March of ISIS Continues. ISIS is more terrifying than Al Quaeda and they have begun to wipe out all sense of history, ancient history.
It would be better to evacujate the US consulate, if that were all Obama is up to. The refugees of all the persecuted groups you refverences above, except the Yazidis, have fled to Erbil, where Kurdish Muslems are harboring and protecting them, including thousxands of Chaldean Christians. By helping protect the city, rather than evacuating the embassy, Obama is defendsing them too.
Thanks all!
Defiant Cheney accepts no blame for Iraq
The Lead with Jake Tapper|Added on July 15, 2014
Fmr. Vice President Dick Cheney blames the crisis in Iraq on President Obama and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/07/15/lead-intv-dick-cheney-iraq-mideast-crisis.cnn.html?iid=article_sidebar