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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Ernest Hemingway: Selections on war
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Ernest Hemingway
From A Farewell to Arms (1929)
A few days ago we mentioned a brighter side of what's going on in North Carolina, Cecil Bothwell's reelection campaign. As Reid Wilson pointed out in his Washington Post column yesterday, the fascist-controlled Art Pope legislature really is wrecking the state government.
By Neil Clark | RT | September 6, 2013
The issue of Syria has demonstrated the massive gap that has opened up between the elite and ordinary people in both the US and Britain.
Poll after poll after poll shows very large majorities against strikes on Syria. People are war-weary, and the last thing they want is for their countries to become embroiled in another Middle-East war.
It was September 19, 2002, and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was scheduled to address the Senate Armed Services Committee about why it was necessary to invade a country that never attacked us: Iraq. I was so concerned about the pending war that I flew to Washington DC from my home in San Francisco. […]
At least four Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in newly reported attacks. In Iraqi Kurdistan, rare political violence occurred today and earlier this week. Elections will take place there later this month.
Despite the Obama administration’s supposedly “high confidence” regarding Syrian government guilt over the Aug. 21 chemical attack near Damascus, a dozen former U.S. military and intelligence officials are telling President Obama that they are picking up information that undercuts the Official Story.
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Is Syria a Trap?Precedence: IMMEDIATE
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
September 6, 2013
Brillian Arrow Provides Realistic Training For Aircrew
SHAPE Public Affairs Office
Consortium News | September 6, 2013
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Is Syria a Trap?
By James Petras :: 09.05.2013
Introduction
As President Obama announces plans for another war, adding Syria to the ongoing and recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere, a profound gap has emerged between the highly militarized state and US public opinion.
By Maria Young | RIA Novosti | September 6, 2013
WASHINGTON – After three days of non-stop phone calls from hundreds of Colorado constituents opposed to a US military strike on Syria, Rep. Doug Lamborn announced Friday he was “leaning against” a resolution giving US President Barack Obama the authority to take limited action.
So... I changed the headline?!It's from Pepe Escobar. It is a good read and the pdf is a must read. And yah, I read through it, while relaxing and enjoying a nice red wine. (Pinot Noir to be precise).... anyway, here it is!Oops, first thanks to anonymous for leaving this. AnonymousSeptember 6, 2013 at 12:21 PMhere is the script.
When is a war not a war? According to John Kerry, launching cruise missiles at Syria is not a war. Testifying before the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry said, "President Obama is not asking America to go to war."
Trend News Agency
September 6, 2013
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister: Use of force in Syria to be felt worldwide
The use of force in Syria is fraught with echoes worldwide including the Caucasus, the Near and Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said, RIA Novosti reported.
Xinhua News Agency
September 6, 2013
U.S. faces divided Congress, int’l community over Syria strike
BEIJING: Support for a potential military strike against Syria didn’t pick up in U.S. Congress Thursday, and world leaders failed to agree on the issue as they met in Russia’s St. Petersburg for the Group of 20 (G20) summit.
President Obama almost got a third of the votes in Mike Simpson's congressional district last year, down from a whopping 37% against McCain four years earlier. ID-02, like ID-01, is one red hellhole! Mike Simpson has been the congressman there since being elected in 1998. Before that, he was Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives. Since being elected, Simpson's lowest share of the vote was last year (65.1%, not quite two to one). He's had over 70% three times. He gets challenged by extremists from time to time but always beats them to a pulp without breaking a sweat.
RT | September 6, 2013
State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin has told the press that no Russian parliamentary delegation is going to the United States to discuss the Syrian issue, adding that the US refusal to meet was regrettable.
China Daily
September 6, 2013
Obama lacks legal basis
With US President Barack Obama’s push for military action against Syria passing its first hurdle in the Senate, the countdown to military intervention by the United States in a Middle East country has begun ticking again
The majority of the world’s countries support political solutions to the Syria crisis, it is the US’ unilateralism and defiance of international law that are really weakening its claims to global leadership.
Itar-Tass
September 6, 2013
Russia will help Syria in case of external aggression
STRELNA, St Petersburg: The United States, Turkey, Canada, France, Saudi Arabia and Britain back the strike on Syria at the G20 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Speaking at a final press conference, Putin said Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Italy came against military actions in Syria.
As we approach the 12th anniversary of 9/11, it is time for 9/11 truth to mature as a movement before it stagnates into insignificance. Either the movement will live up to its potential by naming names and identifying suspects in the crime, or it will become another JFK assassination investigation, doomed to spend half a century fighting pointless territorial battles while the real perpetrators walk free. Join us for this 9/11 anniversary edition of The Corbett Report as we ask the question and demand an answer: Who was really behind the attacks?
RT | September 5, 2013
Pope Francis called on world leaders attending the G20 summit in Russia to seek peace in Syria through diplomatic means and to lay aside the “futile pursuit” of a military solution.
In a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is hosting the G20 summit, Francis said that lopsided global interests have blocked a diplomatic course in the Syrian conflict and have led to the “senseless massacre” of innocent people.
Al-Akhbar | September 6, 2013
The United States on Friday said it evacuated its embassy in Beirut of “non-emergency personnel” because of alleged “threats” against it, and urged all the US citizens in the country to leave.
Al-Manar | September 6, 2013
The deactivation of the Lebanese public institution, the deterioration of the socio-economic and security conditions in Lebanon as well as the regional challenges that threaten the local stability topped the agenda of the meeting that was held by the Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc.
Obama, Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid are asking a lot of progressives who are skeptical over the rush to bomb Syria. Aside from asking them to overlook the lack of definitive proof that it was Assad who used the chemical weapons and to overlook the fact that the strategy to punish him is fatally flawed, they're also asking them to forget about their own integrity and-- in some cases, more importantly-- their own constituents' expressed desires about keeping the U.S. out of another pointless Mideast war.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 6, 2013
Russia to Keep Helping Syria in Case of Airstrikes – Putin
Tomahawk cruise missile
The Wall Street Journal reports on intelligence suggesting militants in the region will abruptly go on the offensive against the U.S. if the Obama administration bombs Syria:
I have been keeping up with all of the information coming out fast and furiously in both the blogosphere and the lying scumbag mainstream media, and I have long wondered... When will the criminals who want war on Syria, finally either scream "Holocaust" or even better, try to somehow link Bashar al-Assad with "Adolf Hitler"?
By Sharmine Narwani | Al-Akhbar | 2013-09-06
Informed insiders have confirmed that Syria and Hezbollah plan to retaliate against Israel in the event of an American-led military attack on Syria. Says one: “if even one US missile hits Syria, we will take this battle to Israel.”
Maaloula Syria. You might have heard about this small town? The western media was and still is reporting the attack on Maaloula as a strike on yet another christian town. That is, unsurprisingly, a grossly inaccurate, and overly simplified reporting. Sure, the strike on the town report is correct, but Maaloula is not just another christian town.That said, a brief recap of what happened is in order
War on Syria: Is a photo able to prevent the US-led attack?
(Syria News) – Something remarkable has happened. The New York Times, the most influential newspaper in the United States, has published a photo on its front page on Thursday that may be able to prevent the attack on Syria.
McCain had planned to talk about immigration and other issues at the gathering at a public library, but Syria dominated the conversation. He was interrupted from the start by someone shouting that his response on the topic wasn’t good enough.
A few people held up signs from their seats with messages such as “Don’t bomb Syria” and “Security thru peace.”
Syrian Woman Rips Into McCain At Town Hall For His Support For Bombing Syria
At a Town Hall meeting a Syrian woman who lost a member of her family at the hands of the U.S. backed Syrian rebels that would benefit from a U.S. strike against Syria, one that AZ Senator John McCain supports, rips into him about spilling more Syria blood.
This video, introduced by journalist Joshua Blakeney, offers a selection of the best anti-war speeches delivered during the House of Commons debate on Syria that took place on August 29, 2013. The Con-Dem Coalition had proposed taking Britain into yet another war to help destabilize one of Israel’s adversaries, Syria. However, unlike in 2003 with the Iraq war, a sufficient number of British MPs were able to see through the war propaganda and voted to refrain from deploying UK forces to flight against the people of Syria.
Xinhua News Agency
September 6, 2013
News Analysis: Sluggish support in U.S. Congress for Syria strike spells trouble for Obama
WASHINGTON: Support for authorizing a military strike against Syria didn’t pick up in U.S. Congress Thursday, which could mean trouble for the Obama administration as it would need to spend more time and precious political capital to cajole the undecided lawmakers, as well as the American public, to its side, experts say.
As we've mentioned, the first time voters will have a chance to vote on going to war in Syria will be October 15, when Democrats in MA-05 pick between 7 candidates to replace Ed Markey in Congress. The Blue America-endorsed candidate, Carl Sciortino, has been the only one willing to come out against war.
Voice of Russia
September 5, 2013
U.S. attack on Syria will be a historic crime – Rick Rozoff
Recorded on September 3, 2013
Audio
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Arnold Zweig: Selections on war
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Arnold Zweig
From Young Woman of 1914 (1931)
Translated by Eric Sutton
By Steven Elliot | RT | September 6, 2013
The G20 should be focusing on their flagging economies rather than planning a military operation in Syria they can’t afford, analyst, Alex Korbel, told RT. France, in particular, is at full stretch, with 16 military campaigns abroad and an ailing economy.
Nile BowieRussia TodayRegardless of how Congress votes, Obama is going to attack Syria. The president is doing his best to avoid constructive dialogue when the focus should be international law, not ‘international norms’ as defined by Washington.As world leaders descend on the Russian city of St.
Sibel Edmonds of BoilingFrogsPost.com joins us for an update on the NATO/Russia negotiations over Syria, and her latest article on the subject, “Obama May Have Come Up with the Needed Bone for Russia on Syria.” We also discuss three former State Department officials whose careers circle around the US involvement in Balkan/Caucasus/South Asian/Middle Eastern terrorism:
Here’s a question for you: Can a military tiptoe onto a continent? It seems the unlikeliest of images, and yet it’s a reasonable enough description of what the U.S. military has been doing ever since the Pentagon created an Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2007. It’s been slipping, sneaking, creeping into Africa, deploying ever more forces […]
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its […]
The American people are "war-weary," we are told, and that’s the only reason they’re overwhelmingly opposed to bombing Syria: this bit of conventional wisdom is invoked by warmongers and peaceniks alike, but is it true? Well, to some degree, no doubt, but not in any tangible sense: after all, there is no conscription, we have […]
Viktor Titov — NEO (New Eastern Outlook) September 5, 2013 The time is running out, the S day is scheduled on September 9, when the Congress is almost sure to give President Obama a carte blanche on Syria. The closer the date, the more dirty secrets become known by the World… It’s now clear [...]
by KenFor reasons that might be worth talking about some other time, I've started reading stuff by the legendary New Yorker reporter Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996), and in a 1940 nonfiction piece called "Mazie," I came across a moment that hit me so hard, and so purely and simply, that I had to share it.By way of background, Mitchell loved the gritty side of New York City, whose often sorely pressed denizens he felt singularly at home with.
At least 16 people were killed and 44 more were wounded in fresh attacks. Kirkuk suffered three bomb attacks alone.
