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.
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