Sunday Roundup - August 24, 2014

"I wonder how foreign policies would look if we ...thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never...wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children."

- Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

This is the weekly selection of news from sources outside the mainstream US corporate media.  Today we look at Syria, the Iran nuclear talks, Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, and, in brief, the right-wing criticism of Obama's foreign policy.

Syria
More than 191,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict up to April, the UN human rights chief says.  Navi Pillay said the figure was "probably an underestimate" and criticised what she called "international paralysis" on the issue.  [BBC, Aug 22] Approximately one-third of the casualties are civilians.  Nine million Syrians have been displaced by the fighting.

On August 19, OPCW director Ahmet Üzümcü announced the completion of the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons.  The U.S. Maritime Vessel Cape Ray has completed destruction of its entire consignment of 600 metric tonnes of Category 1 chemicals from the Syrian Arab Republic. This ends a crucial stage in the complex international maritime operation to remove and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile...The Cape Ray’s consignment included the most dangerous chemicals in Syria’s arsenal: 581 metric tonnes of DF, a binary precursor for sarin gas, and 19.8 metric tonnes of ready-to-use sulfur mustard (HD).  The operation was completed weeks ahead of schedule and Üzümcü thanked and congratulated the United States, the crew aboard the Cape Ray, and our OPCW inspectors and demilitarisation experts for this remarkable achievement.

Iran Nuclear Talks
The IAEA's monthly update notes that Iran is moving to meet the terms of the extended nuclear talks.  The talks were extended last month to resolve differences in the permissible future scope of Iran's uranium enrichment.   Iran has started taking action to comply with the terms of an extended agreement with six world powers over its disputed atomic activities, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report obtained by Reuters on Wednesday showed. The findings in a monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency - though no major surprise - may be seen as positive by the West ahead of the expected resumption next month of negotiations on ending the decade-old nuclear dispute.  The IAEA document made clear that Iran is continuing to meet its commitments under the interim accord that it reached with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia late last year and that took effect in January. [Reuters, August 20]

Iraq
The truth is violence never ceased in Iraq. The cracks never filled. The wounds never healed. Our continued support has been catastrophic, costing thousands of innocent lives and delivering the final blow to a divided society. ‘We need a comprehensive plan for the Middle East that correctly learns the lessons of the past decade,’ [wrote former Prime Minister Blair in a June 14 essay]. Sadly, he still appears to need to include himself in that ‘we’.  [Iraq Body Count website: "The Casualties of Support" by Lily Hamourtziadou, June 16]

In response to international criticism, Iraq's president Nuri al-Maliki agreed to resign on August 14. Maliki's critics, from Washington to Riyadh, say he has systematically alienated Sunnis from the political process, thus fuelling support for the Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS or ISIL) who have now seized towns and cities across northern Iraq and have threatened to march on Baghdad. The Islamist group, which now calls itself the Islamic State, poses the biggest threat to Iraqi stability since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.  Sectarian and inter-religious violence has again become widespread, reaching levels not seen since unrest peaked in 2006-2007 in the era following the US-led invasion. [France24 website, Aug 15]

In a grim reminder of the civilian toll caused by 21st century wars, The Guardian website has re-posted a link to a 2010 video revealing the extent of violent civilian deaths following the US-led invasion.  As of YE 2009, 65% of the 109,000 violent Iraqi deaths were civilians.  The leaked documents led the UK-based organization Iraq Body Count to increase the civilian death toll by 15,000.  Iraq Body Count has continued to update its tally as sectarian fighting engulfs the country.  The figures as of August 22 are:

Documented civilian deaths from violence:  127,685 – 142,924  

Total violent deaths including combatants: 195,000

Gaza

The Egyptian-brokered talks and the ceasefire aimed at stopping the violence in Gaza collapsed on Tuesday and hostilities resumed.  The primary sticking point is the end of the seven-year blockade against Gaza, which would include the reopening of the air and seaports.  The blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas came to power in 2006 has done much to destroy the Gaza economy and prevent the repair of buildings destroyed in the Israeli sieges of the enclave since then.  The violence since the end of the cease-fire has so far claimed 65 Palestinian and one Israeli life, bringing the total death toll for Palestinians in this latest siege to 2,090 - 70 to 80% are civilians - and for Israelis to 68,  four are civilians.

An offer from the EU was apparently on the table and receiving positive consideration by Hamas.  The European Union...offered to take charge of Gaza's border crossings and work to prevent illegal arms flows, insisting on a durable truce with Israel and saying a return to the status quo for the region "is not an option." ...Hamas negotiators met in Qatar with the group's leadership to discuss a proposal for a long-term truce with Israel. An official said the group was inclined to accept the Egyptian-mediated offer.  The Gaza blockade remains the main stumbling block to negotiating a truce. The blockade has greatly limited Palestinians’ movements in and out of the territory of 1.8 million people, restricted the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports...[The EU foreign ministers said,] "The situation in the Gaza Strip has been unsustainable for many years and a return to the status quo prior to the latest conflict is not an option." [Al Jazeera, August 15] 

Palestinians walk through rubble during a ceasefire
in the Shujai'iya residential neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
(The Guardian, July 26)

It will be a long time before we know the actual reason the truce negotiations failed.  Mouin Rabini, in an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, writes:  Available reports coming out of the Cairo talks indicate that the Palestinian delegation showed flexibility on the implementation of any agreement, provided it entailed the removal rather than simply relaxation of the siege of the Gaza Strip. But any such truce, even if it conformed with the international consensus on ending the blockade of Gaza, would pose a major domestic political risk to the Israeli leader. Palestinian analyst Khalil Shaheen of the Palestinian think tank Masarat said, “It would be very difficult for Netanyahu to sign an agreement whose main element is the end of the siege and makes no mention of Palestinian disarmament and continue to declare victory.”  Meanwhile the blockade, death and destruction in Gaza continue as Israel attempts to destroy Hamas and end the Palestinian unity government. The international community makes the right noises but, in the end, stands by impotently.

Links
 [Haaretz, August 22] The Israeli newspaper Haaretz pointedly asks "How many Palestinian civilians is a single militant worth?" As of Thursday, 76.8 percent of the 2,090 fatalities documented by the Gazan human rights organization Mizan have been civilians.

[Al Jazeera, July 31] "Gaza’s kids affected psychologically, physically by lifetime of violence" - Beyond the immediate loss in Gaza... Israel’s onslaught will have long-term mental and physical effects on the Palestinian children who survived weeks of airstrikes and naval and tank shelling. 

[The Nation, July 16 post; Aug 4-11 print edition] "The War on Gaza and the Cycle of Impunity" - If Israel is not brought to justice, it will commit the same crimes again and again.

Ukraine
A controversial Russian aid convoy to eastern Ukraine has been completed. After being delayed at the Ukrainian border for a week, the convoy proceeded without permission from the government in Kiev.  Russia’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed humanitarian aid has been delivered to the besieged city of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile all trucks that delivered aid had returned to Russia....All trucks have returned empty, Ukrainian and Russian border guards confirmed, Russian Deputy Emergency Minister Eduard Chizhikov said....The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also confirmed that all 227 vehicles that entered Ukraine as part of a Russian aid convoy have now returned home....The convoy approached the Russian-Ukrainian border on August 14, and only entered Ukraine a week later, as Kiev had been postponing its final approval for the trucks to go ahead. [Russia Times, Aug 23]  Getting to the aid is being complicated by the continuing hostilities in the area.  Rebel leaders in Luhansk said the aid had been delivered and that distribution would begin, but pro-Russia media said that shelling was preventing people from getting to the aid...Meanwhile, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel arrived in Kiev on Saturday for talks with Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko... She later said that the standoff over Ukraine could be solved but only if control was tightened over the Ukraine-Russia border. "There must be two sides to be successful. You cannot achieve peace on your own. I hope the talks with Russia will lead to success," Merkel said, looking ahead to the meeting on Tuesday involving Putin and Poroshenko. [The Guardian, August 23]

In Brief - The Attacks on Obama's Foreign Policy

[Daily Kos, August 12, "Obama slams reporter's right-wing adopted talking point as bogus" ] It is a continuum of doing stupid stuff and being presumptuous internationally that has cost us thousands of lives, cost hundreds of thousands of lives overseas, and depleted our treasury. Those who criticize President Obama for being overcautious should check history for America’s continuous blunders internationally that have kept us at war for decades with little marginal increase in security (Iraq twice, Iran, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, etc.) 

Earth to Hillary: We don't need an ignorant hawk in the White House

Sunday Round-Up: October 13, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Nobel Peace Prize, Syria, the West's inadvertent role in the spread of terrorist groups, the German elections, World Cup European qualifiers and the death penalty.  Sources include The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera and the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Guardian reported on Friday's selection by the Nobel Committee of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as the winner of the 2013 Peace Prize.  "The international chemical weapons watchdog, a relatively new global body, set up in 1997 in The Hague, with a relatively tiny annual budget of around £60m, trumped the established bookmakers' favourites of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl turned advocate for female education, and Denis Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who has helped huge numbers of rape victims."  The announcement was made by Nobel Committee chair Thorbjørn Jagland.  The prize was awarded for OPCW's " 'extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons'and nudge the few remaining nations that had not yet signed up to the organization."  Angola, Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan, and Syria (which have not yet signed the Chemicals Weapons Convention) plus Israel and Myanmar (which have signed but not yet ratified the convention) are considered non-member states. "Addressing reporters, Jagland said the award was a reminder to nations with remaining chemical weapons, such as the US and Russia, to get rid of them, "especially because they are demanding that others do the same, like Syria". He added: "We now have the opportunity to get rid of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction … That would be a great event in history if we could achieve that."

In the October issue of Le Monde Diplomatique, Serge Hamili takes on Obama detractors, who claim America's credibility was lost when Obama did not bomb Syria.  "The warmongers urged him to take a strong line in Syria: to violate international law by resorting to force without Security Council authorisation; to take no notice of anything Congress had to say; to disregard what it did say if that contradicted his expressed wishes; and to launch a military operation with far fewer allies than Bush’s “coalition of the willing” in 2003."  As for credibility, he notes America lost much of its credibility in pursuing unjustifiable, misguided wars such as "domino-theory" Vietnam ("Three million Indochinese perished. In 1979, four years after the US defeat, China and Vietnam were [engaged in a border] war") and "axis-of-evil" Iraq ("Today, Iraq is in ruins and the Baghdad government established by US soldiers is closer than ever to Iran.")  In October 2002, a young Senator Obama, in defining his opposition to the coming invasion of Iraq declared his opposition to what he called "dumb wars."  By pursuing a diplomatic solution to Syria, Obama "seems to have concluded that his credibility would easily survive a refusal to enter another dumb war in the Middle East."

In the same issue of Le Monde Diplomatique, Philippe Rekacewicz writes of the West's inadvertent role in the spread of the influence of jihadist terrorists: "Since 9/11 there have been four major western interventions in the Middle East and North Africa (not counting Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza), which have contributed to the weakening of states and spread of jihadist groups."  He cites Afghanistan ("...the Taliban are stronger than ever [since their expulsion]. The conflict has spread to Pakistan, mainly through the use of drones."), Iraq ("Al-Qaida, not previously present, forms, drawing thousands of volunteers, mainly from the Caucasus and the Gulf, and mujahedin who first took up arms in Afghanistan. The state is struggling to rebuild itself."), Libya ("Thousands of fighters, largely African, who were enrolled in the Libyan army, swarm across the region, abandoning their arsenals, which are plundered. No one controls the border areas."), and Mali ("Although UN troops take over, France remains the central pivot of security in a phantom state. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) fighters are scattered across the region.") 

 



Al Jazeera reports on the start of the regimen to destroy the Syrian weapons.  "On Sunday [Oct 6], the U.N. began the long process of securing and destroying Syria's estimated 1,000-ton stockpile of chemical weapons. Syrian personnel, under the supervision of international disarmament inspectors, are working under a Nov. 1 deadline set by the U.N. to destroy the Assad government's capability to produce and use the weapons."  But Al Jazeera also reminds us that the Syrian civil war continues "Syrian government warplanes bombed rebel positions near a strategic northern town Tuesday...The warfare is a reminder that the agreement to destroy the Assad regime's unconventional weapons doesn't address an ongoing civil war that has seen more than 100,000 killed with conventional arms."

"Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrat party (CDU/CSU) have won a resounding victory in Germany’s general election," writes Chris Bickerton in October's Le Monde Diplomatique.  This is not surprising since Germany has uniquely survived the Eurozone crisis.  German industry "reformed itself in the early 2000's and rode an export-led boom that continues today....Germany’s current account surplus, at $246bn over the last year (6.6% of GDP), is greater than China’s."  Another factor in the victory was Merkel's steady drift leftwards.  Her adopting  "policies that first came from the left...had the effect of emptying much of the campaign of any traditional ideological conflict.... Instead, the campaign was fought around the language of risk and of personality. Germans preferred Merkel’s low-key, homely aspect to Steinbrück’s debonair image and, seeking reassurance in the widespread depoliticisation, voted for Merkel’s motherly, risk-averse approach."   As for the meaning of Merkel's victory for the rest of Europe: "It is possible that Merkel will soften her stance to some extent now the election is over... [She also] may compromise...on measures to boost domestic demand. If Germans were to consume a little more rather than save so much, that would help pull other Eurozone economies out of their deep depression."

An October 10 article in The Guardian shows once again the divergence between the United States and other advanced industrialized nations on executions.  "A German manufacturer confirmed on Thursday it had taken the extraordinary step of suspending shipments of a widely used drug to a US distributor this year after 20 vials were mistakenly sent to the state of Missouri to be used in executions."  The death penalty is banned in the European Union, and it bans the export of drugs for use in executions.  Missouri had been expected to "become the first US state to use the drug in an execution scheduled for 23 October...The German company's confirmation it had suspended the shipments came a day after Missouri announced that it would return the drugs to the distributor. Missouri is taking the unusual step some 11 months after the distributor frantically pleaded for the return of the vials, according to emails recently made public."  The Death Penalty Information Center reported on October 11 that "Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has stayed the execution of Allen Nicklasson, which was scheduled for October 23, due to concerns surrounding the use of propofol in executions. Gov. Nixon has directed the Department of Corrections to modify the execution protocol to include a different form of lethal injection."

The qualifying rounds for the 2014 World Cup move towards completion over the next few weeks, with many important games occurring through October 15.  The Guardian lists "10 things to look out for" in these qualifiers in an entertaining October 11 post.  Some European teams that haven't been to the World Cup tournament for a while (e.g., Belgium) are in a position to qualify for the slate of 32.

Photos
Map of the multiplying jihadist paths is from Le Monde Diplomatique
Photo of chemical weapons inspectors by Mohamed Abdullah/Reuters was published in Al Jazeera.

Are You in a Death Penalty State?
32 states in the US still have a death penalty. 18 states plus the District of Columbia have abolished it.  Link to DPIC fact sheet on the death penalty.  Want to do something about it?  Click on the link for your state at the DPIC's State Information page then scroll down to "Resources".  Information there will include organizations that work for the abolishment of the death penalty in your state.