Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA — On Saturday, September 07, 2013 over two hundred Atlantans turned out at CNN Center to say NO WAR ON SYRIA.  It was a national day of massive public opposition to “Washington war insanity” in cities across the country.  People are sending a clear message they are weary of unending US military invasion and occupation in the Middle East.

 

Meanwhile, the US lacks any moral credibility with respect to its criticism of the apparent use of chemical weapons on civilians by the Syrian government.

 

Washington’s purported moral outrage and the rush to war is extremely hypocritical when compared to the long history of the US government and military using chemical weapons on civilian populations, both in the US and all over the world.

 

The US military sprayed twenty million gallons of chemicals, including Agent Orange, on the Vietnamese people.  It is estimated the decade-long chemical attack killed or maimed 400,000 people, with 500,000 babies born with birth defects, and two million since having suffered from cancer and other illnesses related to Agent Orange.

 

The US military used white phosphorus in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.  White phosphorus melts the skin off down to the bone and cooks one’s internal organs, causing a very painful death.

 

The US dropped thousands of tons of depleted uranium (DU)-tipped bombs all over Iraq, increasing the cancer rate and birth defects there for generations.

 

“These are weapons [DU]… have absolutely destroyed the genetic integrity of the population of Iraq….with Fallujah having the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied,”  Christopher Busby, the Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk said as part of a recent study.  

 

Israel also used white phosphorus on the civilian population in Gaza, with no concern expressed by the White House or the State Department.

 

As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, the January 2009 Israeli attack on Gaza included civilian targets like schools, hospitals, government offices, infrastructure, water supplies, businesses, police stations, sewage systems, and even the United Nations building. White phosphorus was dropped on civilians, burning their skin off and destroying internal organs.  Over three hundred Palestinian children were killed and thousand more lost arms and legs.

 

 

Despite its newly discovered principled stance on chemical weapons, the US did not stage an “humanitarian intervention” or bomb Israel for that nation’s chemical weapons attack on the children of Gaza.

 

In 1988, the US Central Intelligence Agency helped former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein kill Iranians and Kurds with chemical weapons.  He was a US ally when he was killing Iranians, but became a US enemy when then-President Bush and Vice President Cheney lied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and fraudulently implied that Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attack.

 

Between 1944 and 1945, the US military killed hundred of thousands of Japanese civilians with Napalm.  In 1945, the US government dropped  atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, which certainly released a lot of deadly radioactive chemicals.

 

The media did not show the US public the pictures of the hundreds of thousands of children the US has killed with DU, White Phosphorus, Napalm, Agent Orange, or the Atomic Bombs.

 

In addition, the US government has been responsible for numerous secret chemical experiments, including the CIA’s notorious MKULTRA program.

 

“This is an opportunity for the American people to take control of their government.  A strike by the US would only inflict more suffering on the Syrian people.  The people here today [at the No War on Syria Rally] are the conscience of America,” Kevin Moran, coordinator of Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Atlanta chapter, said.

 

 

It is an old trick to talk up national security, fear, and killing of children, combined with misinformation and false flag incidents, to emotionally manipulate the US public, and to gain public and Congressional support for wars of choice.

 

 

This tried and true formula thus far appears to be failing in the US.  A Pew Research Center poll found only 29 percent in favor or air strikes, while a Washington Post/ABC poll had 36 percent in favor of air strikes.

 

 

Following severe public opposition, President Obama said he would seek Congressional approval for a US military strike on Syria.

 

 

Currently, according to a count maintained by the New York Times newspaper’s website, 25 US Senators have expressed their support for a strike of Syria, while 18 are against, and 57 are undecided.  Meanwhile, in the US House, 40 are in favor, while 153 are opposed, and 211 are undecided.

 

 

“What I’m hearing back home is about one hundred percent no,” US Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) told reporters while explaining her opposition to Obama’s call for action, as reported by the Huffington Post website.

 

 

On Wednesday, September 04, 2013 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution that grants the President a free hand to carry out military strikes in Syria.  It passed the Committee with a ten to seven vote and is the first step in the White House’s drive to obtain Congressional authorization and launch military action as early as next week.

 

 

According to the Global Research website, it has been widely reported that in mid-August, US, Jordanian, and Israeli Special Forces troops led hundreds of insurgents across the Jordanian border into Syria to launch an attack on Damascus.  According to Syrian officials, the government launched a preemptive military offensive in areas around the capital city, including the site of the alleged August 21, 2013 chemical weapons attack, to halt this attack on Damascus.

 

 

This evidently set the stage for the alleged chemical attack that has been seized on as the pretext for a war for regime change: one that is in violation of international law, as it lacks the sanction of the UN Security Council.

 

 

It is clear whatever occurred on August 21 was set in motion by the US in order to save its proxy forces from defeat and escalate its imperialist aggression in the region, reports Global Research.

 

 

The resolution gives President Obama the authority to bomb Syria for sixty days and sixty nights and could extend that for thirty days more unless Congress votes otherwise.

 

 

“This has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, or the killing of innocents in Syria.  The US is taking a gamble by aiding the overthrow of the Assad regime.  They think they will get a government in Syria that is more amenable to Israel and would not support Hezbollah in Lebanon and would not have a relationship with Iran.  A regime change in Syria would weaken Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran,” Dianne Mathiowetz, coordinator of Atlanta International Action Center, told Atlanta Progressive News.

 

 

Most reasonable people seem to agree the use of chemical weapons on a civilian population is horrible.  However it is not the “worst chemical attack of the 21st century” because that distinction belongs to the US, many times over.

 

 

(END/2013)