Sound advice

Ed Brayton today:

Foreign Policy magazine published a report that included declassified CIA documents that showed that our government had helped Saddam Hussein use chemical weapons against Iran in 1988 and had then launched a propaganda campaign to blame it on Iran (a mostly successful campaign, by the way). The Vietnam War was justified by LBJ by the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was completely fabricated. So our government has a history of lying to justify going to war and a history of lying specifically about who is responsible for using chemical weapons. So even if it’s true that Assad used the chemical weapons, and even if the evidence actually did support that, we have absolutely no reason to believe them when they say they have that evidence. 

Our government cannot be trusted.

It's hard not to like Francis

No, not the mule. The pope. He's going to "lead a worldwide day of fasting and prayer for peace [in Syria] on Sept. 7". I can't help but like his style (though of course, he stands for a false god and a religion that denigrates women and gays; one can never forget this).

"I forcefully condemn the use of chemical weapons," he said. "I tell you I have impressed in my mind and heart the images of what happened in the last days." 

Usually soft-spoken, Francis raised his voice as he declared, "War brings on war! Violence brings on violence." 

And once again, he takes care not to stomp on atheists:

Francis invited Catholics, other Christians, those of other faiths and non-believers who are "men of good will" to join him that evening in St. Peter's Square to invoke the "gift" of peace for Syria, the rest of the Middle East and worldwide where there is conflict. 

He's a big improvement over that Nazi guy he replaced. What was his name? Oh, right: the popeyguy. Good riddance to her him. I hope for more good stuff from Francis. Maybe in the end, he can make the Catholic hierarchy less hateful. We can hope, anyway.

To bomb or not to bomb

I don't know about you, but I'm not giving this US bombing mission my okay until I hear Colin Powell confirm that chemical weapons were used. Because he would never lie about something as important as this. We can trust him.

Kerry's little Syria chat

I found it difficult to watch John Kerry emote yesterday on the subject of Syria.

The whole bit stank. See, you can't assume the high ground when you're not standing on it. His words could just as easily apply to things the US has done repeatedly:

"What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate torture of random suspects, the launching of a pre-emptive war against the wrong country, the use of drones to attack people who may or may not be terrorists, and the consequent drone attacks on those who come to help the afflicted after such drone attacks, indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by waterboarding, drone attack chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable."

Sorry, John. The US doesn't get to talk like that anymore. Tell you what, why don't you just go sit in a back room and listen in on some American conversations? Maybe it's best to let, you know, the other countries handle this one.

America's decline has real-life consequences. The US no longer has the right to pontificate to other countries. So get off the high horse, John. You can't ride it anymore.

McClatchy today

With concern over the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons stockpile reaching a fever pitch this week, international experts are cautioning against alarmism, saying there’s no confirmation that the Syrians are mixing weapons components or loading them into delivery systems, as some U.S. news organizations have reported.

We're not really going to do this again, are we?

Assad kills Syria's internet

Syria's Assad has killed 48,000 of his own people. If anyone needs to hang, it's this guy. Today, we learn he's cut the internet throughout Syria.

The internet is the tool of the people. It frightens megalomaniacal leaders because they don't want their "subjects" to be able to communicate with each other. They might organize or obtain real information. Can't have that.

The internet has become humanity's lifeblood. I'm not sure everyone realizes this. The internet must never be controlled, misdirected or filtered in any way. And certainly it should be impossible for someone to turn it off. Yet that's exactly what Assad did. And there are many other leaders who'd like to do the same thing. Information is the enemy of despots.

We must ensure that there is always a free internet. In fact, we must be willing to fight for this ideal -- and die for it, if necessary. It's that important. Without the free flow of information, democracy is a pipe dream.