Category Archives: Military
Used Nerve Gas on His Own People
The Syrian leader used nerve gas on his own people. President Trump responded by using 59 cruise missiles on Syria.
An intelligence report says that the North Korean leader used nerve poison on one of his own people too. His brother.
Nuclear Options Players
As expected, Mitch McConnell pulled the trigger and made Chuck Schumer’s filibuster glow in the dark. As for the boy in the husky pants who runs North Korea: he’s keeping his nuclear options open for now.
Standing Rock Unhappy Campers Threaten Missouri River Watershed
Standing Rock Pipeline protesters became the most immediate threat of pollution to the Missouri river they sought to protect. They had braved the North Dakota winter by camping at the construction site of the North Dakota Access Pipeline.
Standing Rock
But in the end it was trash from the humans, not oil from the pipeline, that immediately threatened the river. Gov. Doug Burgum told The New York Times that melting snow could wash their “garbage and human waste” into the river. Last week authorities forced the campers to leave.
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, which has been active here, said in a statement that the evacuation was a “violent and unnecessary infringement on the constitutional right of water protectors to peacefully protest and exercise their freedom of speech.”
Here’s the story in the Washington Times.
West Bank Red Line Threat
In 2012 President Obama said, “We have been very clear to the Assad regime — but also to other players on the ground — that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.”
Here’s an Arms Control Association timeline of chemical weapons “moving around or being utilized” in Syria.
When it came time to act on his red line threat, Obama got cold feet. But Russia came to the rescue with a deal to remove and destroy the weapons:
The agreement seems to remove the prospect of any strike against Syria following the chemical attacks in Damascus on 21 August which killed up to 1,300 people.
Putin later entered the war with airstrikes in support of Bashar al Assad. That turned the tide in his favor and unleashed a greater flood of refugees and dead.
With the destruction of Aleppo in December Charles Krauthammer wrote that the Obama administration could offer only bitter speechmaking at the UN:
In the end, the world’s greatest power was reduced to bitter speeches at the U.N. “Are you truly incapable of shame?” thundered U.S. ambassador Samantha Power at the butchers of Aleppo. As if we don’t know the answer.
Red Line Threat
Last week the administration drew a new red line through the West Bank and West Jerusalem for building settlements.
1980s Are Calling
1980s are calling
In a 2012 presidential debate Romney claimed Russia was the biggest threat to the United States. Obama mocked him saying, “The 1980s are calling and they want their foreign policy back.”
