Sunday Round-Up: September 29, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today's subjects are the trial and sentencing of Bo Xilai, Obama's UN speech, Eqypt, Syria, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and Pope Francis.  Sources include Al Jazeera, Haaretz, Euronews, The Guardian, America, and The Independent. 


On September 22, Chinese politician Bo Xilai was sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power.  Bo is a popular leader who rose from utter poverty and family misfortune to a seat on the Politburo.  His father was imprisoned for 12 years and his mother was killed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960's and 70's.  Bo eventually rose to the position of party chief in the megacity of Chongqing (pop. ~29 million).  During his tenure, he popularized the state-led "Chongqing economic model" and a "red culture" movement - complete with $15.8 billion spent on public apartment complexes for migrant workers, low-income residents and college graduates.  Bo's police chief Wang Lijun oversaw a wide-scale crackdown on organized crime and corruption.  Ironically, it was Wang who, while seeking asylum at the US consulate, "implicated Mr Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, in the 2011 murder of a British businessman in Chongqing.  Mr Bo’s admiration for Maoism, his ambition and his flamboyant, populist style had long been a worry for party leaders. The incident gave them the chance to take him down." [The Economist, September 28]  Dan Steinbock in an excellent September 17 Asian Times Online post summarizes Bo's political rise and fall.  Though Bo's "trial of the century" was somewhat sensationalized in the American media,  Steinbock writes that the "real story is about rapid economic development, generational change in politics, and the progress of the rule of law in China....Despite all political media hoopla, the Bo Xilai case reflects failures that are typical to rapid economic development, concomitant political shifts and judicial culpability in all countries, including the United States."  Comparing Chonqing to 1920's America ("Chicago on the Yangtze"), Steinbock concludes "It took decades for most advanced economies to get their 'degree of government' right in the early 20th century. Today, China is coping with similar challenges."

In his speech to the UN on September 24, President Obama promised to work for Middle East peace - in seeking a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, in peacefully resolving the dispute with Iran over their nuclear capability, and in eliminating Syrian chemical weapons.  The biggest policy change in Obama's speech was the thaw in relations with Iran, initiated by the election of moderate Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran several months ago.  Western nations suspect Iran is developing nuclear weapons capability.  Iran has long denied this, saying that its aim is to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as is their right as signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.   Al Jazeera reported on Obama's speech and the movement towards a peaceful resolution of the nuclear dispute. "The United States wants to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue peacefully and is not seeking a regime change, President Barack Obama said in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday. Obama said there should be a solid basis to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program following recent statements from Iranian leadership, and directed Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue a deal...Obama said Iran's Supreme Leader's recent fatwa against the use of nuclear weapons signals hope for a breakthrough in nuclear talks. He also mentioned the Iranian victims of chemical weapons attacks by Iraqi troops in the final days of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989 – an attack facilitated by the sharing of U.S. intelligence with the Iraqi regime to the detriment of Iranian forces...[and] he acknowledged U.S. involvement in the ouster of the democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq in 1953..."  The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, noting that Prime Minister Netanyahu still appears "not prepared to examine the possibility of renewed diplomatic efforts", advises that it would be "a serious mistake for Israel and the international community to ignore the recent declarations from Tehran and the change underway in the Iranian government."

The Egyptian government continued its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of the recently deposed President Mohamed Mursi.  As reported on the Euronews website Thursday: Egypt’s high court has issued a ruling on the Muslim Brotherhood outlawing its activities and freezing its assets...Some pro-Mursi activists say all the measures to quash the Brotherhood will have little effect. The movement, founded in 1928, has been banned in Egypt for much of history and has survived all threats to its existence.  Euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim reported from Cairo: “The question remains – how can Egypt achieve real national reconciliation after the decision to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the political scene? It’s been a major political force for decades.”

The UN Security Council voted unanimously to inspect Syrian chemical weapons facilities.  The resolution requires destruction of "all its chemical weapons production facilities by November and [the dismantling of] all its poison gases and nerve agents by the middle of next year, under an accelerated timetable drawn up by the world's chemical weapons watchdog [the OPCW]....The plan states that Syria should 'complete as soon as possible, and in any case not later than 1 November 2013, the destruction of chemical weapons production and mixing/filling equipment'....UN secretary general [Ban Ki-moon] said that the resolution banning Syria's chemical weapons could not become 'a licence to kill with conventional weapons'. He called for a new Syria peace conference in mid-November."  [The Guardian, Sept.27]

On September 27, Haaretz reported on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the UN General Assembly.  Stating that the current round of peace negotiations appears to be a "last chance to realize a just peace", Abbas reaffirmed that Palestinians were not interested in interim agreements or transitional arrangements.  "Our objective is to achieve a permanent and comprehensive agreement and a peace treaty between the state of Palestine and Israel that resolves all outstanding issues and answers all questions, which allows us to officially declare an end of conflict and claims.” Abbas called for an end to the continued settlement activity that was undermining the negotiations.  'There is an international consensus - among the countries of the world, international and regional organizations and the International Court of Justice - on the illegality and illegitimacy of these settlements," he said....Abbas called on the assembly to envision 'a future in which Israel will gain the recognition of 57 Arab and Muslim countries and where the States of Palestine and Israel will coexist in peace.'

Pope Francis' recent interview in the Jesuit publication America received widespread praise from around the world.  In it, he calls (again) for a new emphasis on the Church's mission of serving the poor rather than focusing narrowly on certain issues that divide us: "The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently." He wants a Church that serves as a home for all: “This church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people."  In a September 28 article, the UK newspaper The Independent declares Pope Francis to be "not so much a reformer as a radical." Among his other actions, the article cites his reform efforts directed at the conservative Roman curia, his widely reported "Who am I to judge?" comment on gays, his visit to "the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in July – to show solidarity with the African refugees whose flimsy boats find it the easiest part of Europe for them to reach", his moves to "rehabilitate liberation theology – the Latin American movement which said the Church should work for the political and economic, as well as the spiritual, liberation of the poor" and his removal of the "the block on the canonisation of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the champion of the poor in El Salvador...martyred under a right-wing military government." 

Photos: Bo Xilai, Chongqing Business District, West Bank & Gaza map are from Wikipedia/Wikimedia.

"On God's Side"

[This is the second part of a discussion of Jim Wallis' On God's Side. The first post (September 17, 2013) can be found at this link.]

"Common good is the whole network of social conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a fully, genuinely human life, otherwise described as 'integral human development.' All are responsible for all, collectively, at the level of society or nation, not only as individuals." - Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, The Common Good and the Catholic Church's Social Teaching

In the second part of On God's Side, Jim Wallis discusses "practices for the common good." What actions and behaviors will help our nation achieve the common good so necessary for a democracy and so essential to the Christian view of the world? The first step, Wallis believes, is a return to civility in our political discussion. Indeed, one of the drivers for writing this book in 2012 was the dysfunctional and bitterly partisan politics that had undermined "the people's deep desire for hope and change." How do we return to civility? By all parties focusing on the those ideas of our political opponents that work for the attainment of the common good. Only then will we be able to solve problems rather than assign blame for them.

Both conservative and liberal philosophies have critical contributions to make in solving our problems...The best big conservative idea is personal responsibility...Doing the right thing, the moral thing, the ethical thing in personal decision making is key not only for individual well-being but also...for the common good...The best big liberal idea is social responsibility...Compassion is an essential social virtue and should not be confused with political systems. Hubert Humphrey... expressed it well: "Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."... The question of who will take responsibility [for those, in Humphrey's words, in the dawn, twilight and shadows of life] is a soul-searching one from liberals, especially if those in need are outside of our own families and groups.

Wallis gives two examples of areas where liberals and conservatives could work together to restore the common good- strengthening marriage and ending poverty. In emphasizing his call for a return to civility, he reflects on the shooting of Gabby Giffords, "the least likely person to be targeted by an angry and unhinged man." Wallis contends that the way to get back to civil discourse is by framing it as a moral argument - it's a religious issue, we always speak the truth ("Much of our worst political rhetoric these days is based on outright lies that go viral"), and hold to the early American statement E pluribus Unum - one out of many.

After calling for civility in our political discussions, Jim Wallis writes of the need to redeem democracy (from voter suppression laws, from the Citizens United decision ("one of the most disastrous judicial decisions in American history...which...virtually overturned the beginnings of campaign finance laws") and from the control of money over elections), to restore economic trust (the current global economy is "unfair, unsustainable, unstable, and [makes people] unhappy"), and to have a "servant government" ("the purpose of government...is to protect its people from the chaos of evil and to promote the good of society: to protect and promote").

Besides civility and focusing on solutions, Wallis points to two other necessary elements for making things right - that is, for changing and correcting injustices. The first element is grass-roots movements or post-candidate advocacy. "There are systems that undergird and shape the limits of the political agenda, and challenging those limits to get to root causes and real solutions is always the prophetic task....It is always movements that "change the wind," and only a change in the political wind can change the political policies in Washington..." The second element is healthy households. "Our households are critical places for the practice of human flourishing and for teaching the next generation the meaning of the common good." Wallis sees strong families and the home as the place to nurture values rather than encourage "appetites" (i.e., consumerism, materialism).

Focus on solutions rather than partisanship, encourage movements, and teach values and the common good to your children. Good advice at any time. God bless your optimistic heart, Jim. I hope you're right. 

 

Ten Decisions to Change the World

 

Want to get started on changing the world?  In the Epilogue to his book, Wallis provides "Ten Personal Decisions for the Common Good" and he re-lists these ten decisions in a Sojourners' June 30 post.  Check them out.  Jim's intro to the post reads: After traveling the country this spring — while keeping an eye on Washington, D.C. — I am more convinced than ever that our personal decisions, choices, and commitments will change the world more than our politics. The message in the Epilogue to On God’s Side says this as well as I could do again. It’s short and very practical.

 

Food Stamp Cuts

 

The day before the House of Representatives passed its draconian cuts to the food stamp program, Sojourners issued a press release concerning the call from religious leaders to reject the proposed cuts.  The leaders are from the Circle of Protection, a coalition of more than 65 heads of denominations and religious organizations, plus more than 5,000 church pastors. They have been working for more than two years to resist federal budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people.  From Jim Wallis' letter to Congress: “These immoral cuts are incongruent with the shared values of our nation. They demonstrate the triumph of political ideology and self-interest over sound public policy and concern for the general welfare. Actions like these foster cynicism and distrust of government in the everyday Americans who struggle to meet their families’ basic needs and create a better life for their children.”  The common good took a beating this time but perhaps the pressure from religious and other community leaders will help reduce the size of the cuts (or eliminate them altogether) when it goes to the House-Senate conference. 

Sunday Round-Up - September 22,2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today's topic is gun violence.  Sources include Mother Jones, Salon.com, the Daily Kos, and The Guardian.

Earlier this month, NRA-backed candidates won recall elections in Colorado against two state legislators who were instrumental in passing Colorado's tough new gun control law.  On Monday, a deranged shooter, who was able to purchase a gun legally in the state of Virginia, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. 

Take a look at the Mother Jones special report: "America Under the Gun: A Special Report on Gun Laws and the Rise of Mass Shootings."  It is perhaps the finest piece of research journalism on the subject that I've seen.  The report features "A Guide to Mass Shootings", a profile of the 62 mass shootings that occurred in the last 30 years ("Of the 143 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally."); "More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence?" ("In not a single case was the killing stopped by a civilian using a gun. And in other recent (but less lethal) rampages in which armed civilians attempted to intervene, those civilians not only failed to stop the shooter but also were gravely wounded or killed. Moreover, we found that the rate of mass shootings has increased in recent years—at a time when America has been flooded with millions of additional firearms and a barrage of new laws has made it easier than ever to carry them in public places, including bars, parks, and schools."); 151 Victims of Mass Shootings in 2012: Here Are Their Stories; The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys; Mass Shootings: Maybe What We Need Is a Better Mental-Health Policy  .  In addition, there are links to other relevant MoJo articles and the report is packed with information-rich graphics and data to rebut all of the fallacious arguments proposed by gun lobbyists.

On September 18, The Daily Kos had a short post reporting columnist Frank Rich's grim assessment: "After being asked if there is any way to end the gun violence, his answer: Essentially, no. Perhaps the best thing we can do is at least call out the problem for what it is: state-sponsored terrorism. The American people and their elected representatives allow our own homegrown equivalent of suicide bombers — suicide shooters — legal access to weapons with which they can mow down innocents almost anywhere they please." Rich goes on to say that guns are ingrained in American culture and stopping gun violence may take as long as it took to end slavery.  The blogger concludes: "A grim assessment but I think Frank Rich might just have found the one argument that can move politicians back to reality "So you are saying that you are soft on domestic terrorism?"

Brian Beutler in his September 17 post "How to silence the NRA" on Salon.com writes of the "calculated strategy" by gun lobbyists used after mass shootings. "There’s one time, and only one time, you can count on the NRA to be more subdued than your average gun obsessive, and it’s the 24 to 48 hours after a mass shooting....Two entwined calculations motivate the temporary silence. The first is simple self-preservation. The gun lobby is at its weakest when crazy people use the weapons it has made so easily obtainable to slaughter innocents in public places. The second is more oblique. Mass shootings breathe new life into arguments for gun control, and one way to suffocate them is to feign propriety and indignation — to shame adherents into saying nothing until the public has moved on."  Beutler concludes his post with a comparison between two relatively rare events - mass shootings and airline accidents. " If fatal airline accidents became much more common in the U.S. than they are right now...it would be bizarre for a political movement to rise up after each tragedy to shout down anyone demanding tougher FAA safety inspections. But that’s about where gun obsessives in this country are right now."

The Guardian featured an emotional appeal from the chief medical officer at a Washington, D.C., hospital that treated victims of the Washington navy yard shooting.  Janis Orlowski "has become a rallying point for gun campaigners, calling on Americans to eradicate the 'evil in our society' that led to the tragedy.  'I would like you to put my trauma center out of business,' Janis Orlowski, chief medical officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, told reporters in the aftermath of the massacre. 'I would like to not be an expert on gunshots. Let's get rid of this. This is not America."
In an emotional address to the cameras, she added: "We just cannot have, you know, one more shooting with, you know, so many people killed. We've got to figure this out. We've got to be able to help each other.'  The Guardian September 17 post has a video of Orlowski's comments.

Jim Wallis' "On God's Side"

I've been reading On God's Side by Jim Wallis. The book could well serve as a moral compass for politicians of all stripes. The title, of course, refers to Abraham Lincoln's famous quote: "...my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side."

Jim Wallis has long been one of my favorite writers. He is an evangelical preacher, social activist, public theologian, the founder and president of Sojourners ("Faith in Action for Social Justice") and the editor of Sojourners magazine. On God's Side continues his fine tradition of badgering political and religious establishments. In the first part of the book, he discusses inspiring the common good; in the second part, practices (i.e., actions and behaviors) for the common good.

C.S. Lewis' character of Aslan the lion, the creator and leader of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), is given as an exemplar of a leader working for the common good. Aslan makes "every decision and action in the best interest of the people and the land...always paying special attention to the weakest and most vulnerable." The concept of the common good, writes Wallis, is "something that has been lost in an age of selfishness."

Wallis takes both Republicans and Democrats to task for not serving the "common good". At first, this bothered me: what's he talking about? Surely the problem with not serving the common good is on the right end, not the left end, of the political spectrum. After making this general statement, though, Wallis gradually clarifies his position. Not only are Republicans defective in their ability to advance the public good; Democrats do not go far enough!

In the first section of his book, "Inspiring the Common Good", Wallis provides the heart of his biblical and theological argument for a "gospel of the common good." He writes of the Beatitutdes ("Blessed are the poor in spirit...those who mourn...the meek...those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (justice)...the merciful...the pure in heart (have integrity)...the peacemakers...those persecuted for righteousness' sake") and the Sermon on the Mount as the place to begin to understand what is meant by Jesus' preaching of the Kingdom of God.

After briefly relating his college and activist experiences in the late 60's and early 70's, Wallis dicusses the "Judgment of Nations" in Matthew 25, probably one of the most challenging texts of the New Testament. It's one of the few places where Jesus makes a point of saying who better be watching their backs at the Last Judgment. "Jesus, unlike our religious institutions, continually speaks out against judgmentalism. But the only time Jesus is judgmental himself is on the subject of the poor." The condemned, the goats, are shocked by what Jesus will say to them at the Last Judgment. "When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or without clothes, or a stranger, or sick, or in prison?" He will answer them, "Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me." [Click here for a link to Matthew 25.  The text of the "judgment of nations" is in verses 31 to 46.]

Wallis makes two particular points in his discussion of Matthew 25. The first is that "nations", as well as individuals, are being judged. This is about collective as well as individual decisions about who or what is most important. The second is that "Christ's judgment here is not about having the wrong doctrine or theology; it's not about sexual misdeeds, or any other personal sin or failure. The everlasting judgment here is based on how we have treated the poorest and most vulnerable in our midst and in the world...[The] good or ill we have done to them [is]...the moral equivalent of how we have treated him."

The interests and well-being of the poor are not represented well in American politics. Today it is the rare politician who goes out of his or her way to advocate programs for the poor or working class. Poverty doesn't play well in American politics and "pollsters tell both parties that talking about 'poor people' and 'poverty' will not be popular." There are even those in our nation who stigmatize the poor and blame the victims of social injustice, rather than the system that has made it so. For examples from today's headlines, one needs only look at recent attempts to slash the food stamp program. On an upbeat note, Wallis relates the mostly-untold story of how "faith community leaders protected low-income entitlements in the sequestered automatic cuts agreed to in the August 2011 debt-ceiling deal." Two years later, it looks like it's time to gear up again.

When discussing the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, Wallis writes: "The basic ethic from the Good Samaritan parable - that there are no boundaries for our definition of "neighbor" - needs to be the moral guide and compass for us now in an increasingly globalized world." He further develops the theme with a discussion of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's "beloved community," the spiritual and philosophical vision that inspired and drove his efforts for civil rights. The beloved community is one which "welcomes all tribes." Quoting Dr. King: "All I'm saying is simply this; that all life is interrelated, that somehow we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

On God's Side forces us to reexamine many other issues in light of Matthew 25 and the parable of the Good Samaritan - including immigration reform, the global nature of "our neighbor" (for example, how our clothes and mobile phones are made), the dangers inherent in American exceptionalism, and the war on terror. On the war on terror, Wallis calls for the application of the principles of conflict resolution. He writes of "forging alternative and more creative responses to issues of injustice and violence and rejecting the cycle of terrorism and war that marks Washington's failed strategy and failed moral logic." He excoriates what he calls the theology of war "coming from some political leaders...and even from some...religious communities...Effective campaigns of fear too easily convince anxious people and could lead our nation to decades of virtually endless wars."

Will Jim Wallis' theological and biblical argument for the common good and Martin Luther King's wish for the building of a "beloved community" resonate with today's political leaders and citizens? Or have we gone too far down the road to divisiveness and fear of the "Other"? Will we need to wait for the next generation of political leaders to bring about a truly just, equal and democratic society? The second section of Jim Wallis' On God's Side, "Practices for the Common Good" attempts to provide an answer. I'll take this up in a future post.

Sunday September 15 Round-Up: Voyager 1 Has Left the Building

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the mainstream US media.  Today's subject is NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially leaving the solar system for interstellar space - the first man-made object to do so.  Sources include NASA, La Repubblica, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel.

 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech - Artist's conception of Voyager 1 entering interstellar space.

 

 

This is an historic moment.  Mankind, or at least one of man's creations, has officially reached interstellar space.  Recent data analysis shows that the event - Voyager 1 leaving the heliosphere, that region of space dominated by the sun, actually occurred about a year ago on August 25, 2012.  Launched in the late summer of 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have traversed the solar system, adding immensely to our knowledge - especially of the outer planets.  They are our "Hello World!" to the universe, carrying gold LP's with information about humanity to the stars.

[NASA, Sep. 12, 2013]
Referring to the article published Thursday in the journal Science, NASA reports: "New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident." Interstellar space is dominated by the plasma, or ionized gas, that was ejected by the death of nearby giant stars millions of years ago.  The environment inside our solar bubble is dominated by the plasma exhausted by our sun, known as the solar wind.  Voyager project scientist Ed Stone notes: "The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking -- 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are."  The joy in this accomplishment is evident in the words of NASA's John Grunsfeld: "Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors...Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”

[Der Spiegel, Sept 12]
Before launching into a discussion of the challenges of the technical data analysis, our playful friends at Der Spiegel ask: "What do the rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, the exceptional pianist Glenn Gould and ...Austrian politician Kurt Waldheim [have] in common? They along with other people have been  immortalized on records and have been racing through space away from earth at approximately 60,000 kilometers per hour for 36 years on board two very special spacecraft....The so-called Golden Records aboard the "Voyager" twin probes are meant as messages to alien life forms - even if it would be unlikely that they will ever play."  Hmmm...somewhat pessimistic, aren't they?

[Le Monde, September 12]
Le Monde notes that although the expected life of the Voyager probes was originally estimated to be five years, the probes are still functioning and transmitting data to Earth. "The data collected by the probes make this the most successful scientific exploratory mission of the solar system in space history."  Voyagers 1 and 2 are really only at the start of what could turn out to be a very long journey.  "Scientists believe Voyager 1 and 2...will be in the vicinity of other stars and about two light years (one light year is equivalent to 9461 billion kilometers) from the Sun [in] forty thousand years... 'Nothing can stop the run of  the Voyager 1 spacecraft, it will continue its journey for a very long time, probably billions of years', predicts astrophysicist Marc Swisdal.

[La Repubblica, (TV), Sept 13]
Repubblica TV has a nice video presentation (in English) on the historic milestone, including the transmitted sounds of interstellar space.  They also note the assist given by the Sun with the data analysis that finally confirmed the event.  "The confirmation came through a 'help' just arrived from the Sun, responsible for a giant eruption in the direction of the area where the probe is traveling.  The vibrations of the plasma around Voyager, generated by the expulsion of solar particles..." were consistent with models of what would happen as the spacecraft entered interstellar space.


Voyager's "Pale Blue Dot"

[Photo is from the Cornell University website.]

Above is a re-oriented version of the famous image of "the pale blue dot" photographed in 1990 by Voyager 1 from beyond the orbit of Neptune, some 3.7 billion miles away.  The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan. [Wikipedia]  Two years before he died, in his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Sagan wrote: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar', every 'supreme leader', every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

 

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War or Peace in Syria?

Just when you thought US military intervention in Syria was getting less likely and perhaps diplomacy would win out in the end, there's this from the Washington Post:
The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.

Then, today, on one of the morning news shows was a discussion of how we could be assured that the chemical weapons would be secured and destroyed.  The lead-in was so insane (paraphrased, I think,  a member of the "intelligence" community - "it's a scam") that I didn't bother to listen to it.  So let's hope that the Obama administration is not going to continually move the goal posts on this issue, declare non-compliance, and then violate international law by bombing Syria.  We don't need another $4 trillion war in the Middle East.  You would think that the neocons have been totally discredited by now but somehow they are still yapping and still have their supporters in Congress.  

Unbelievable as it may seem, Russian president Putin seems to have gotten it right in an Op-Ed in the New York Times.  In it, the Russian president says a military strike at Syria "would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism," and "could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa." [USA Today, Sept.12] 

Putin's complete op-ed, in which he also cautions against American exceptionalism, can be found at this link to The New York Times article.

A destabilized Syria will provide Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups with a new base from which to operate.  Bombing Syria in violation of international law will result in still more civilian casualties as well as destabilize the country.  The only real answer is that both the Western powers supporting the rebels and Russia and Iran supporting the Assad government in this civil war must stop the flow of arms to both sides, force them both to the peace table, enact an immediate and indefinite cease fire, and provide massive amounts of humanitarian, not military, aid to the suffering people of Syria.  Any other approach will be counterproductive, ineffective, and, ultimately, tragic.

Monday Round-Up September 9, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the American mainstream media.  Today's topic is Syria.  As the US prepares to take international law into its own hands (again) and as neocons bang the drums for deeper involvement (again), some saner voices are now being heard.   Sources include The Religious News Service and L'Osservatore Romano.

PeaceTeam.NET , has set up an action page: After all the preaching we have heard coming out of the White House this week about "international norms", nothing would violate those norms more than a unilateral US strike. To do so would forever discredit the whole concept of international law, and would counter-productively endorse the idea of other countries taking their own solo "enforcement" actions anytime they please as well. The fact remains that we have absolutely no right to take international law into our own hands.

A MoveOn.org poll showed 73% of its membership opposed to the bombing of Syria. Win Without War, CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and USAction are organizing hundreds of vigils around the country, urging local legislators to vote against the authorization for use of US military force in Syria.  The vigils will be held Monday September 9.



The Religion News Service reported on Thursday of Pope Francis' appeal to the world leaders gathered at the G-20 summit in Russia.  He told them that a military intervention in Syria would be “futile,” urging them to focus instead on dialogue and reconciliation to bring peace to the war-torn country....Francis took the unusual step of penning a letter to world leaders ahead of a global day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria that Catholics will observe on Saturday (Sept. 7).  Francis will preside a marathon five-hour vigil in St. Peter’s Square, and the Vatican has invited believers of all faiths and even nonbelievers to join in in whichever way they see fit.  To reinforce the pope’s peace effort, on Thursday the Vatican also briefed ambassadors from some 70 countries on its position on the Syrian conflict.  The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, explained that the church’s major concern is “stopping violence” and that any future peace plan must ensure that the rights of minorities, including Christians, are protected.  In his letter to world leaders gathered in St. Petersburg, Francis wrote that so far “one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution” to the Syrian conflict.




On Sunday September 1, Pope Francis appealed for peace at the Angelus in St. Peter's Square.  ...in these days my heart is deeply wounded in particular by what is happening in Syria and anguished by the dramatic developments which are looming....With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons: I tell you that those terrible images from recent days are burned into my mind and heart. There is a judgment of God and of history upon our actions which are inescapable! Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence. With all my strength, I ask each party in this conflict to listen to the voice of their own conscience, not to close themselves in solely on their own interests, but rather to look at each other as brothers and decisively and courageously to follow the path of encounter and negotiation, and so overcome blind conflict. With similar vigour I exhort the international community to make every effort to promote clear proposals for peace in that country without further delay, a peace based on dialogue and negotiation, for the good of the entire Syrian people.  The complete text of the Pope's earlier appeal of September 1 is given in the L'Osservatore Romano.