[pjw] INFO: Americans Brace for More War Under Trump | Common Dreams 4/14

Sat Apr 15 14:49:57 EDT 2017

Friends
A report back from Dawn who attended the Friday rally yesterday on behald 
of PJW indicated there were about 25 people there, it was mostly not 
rained upon until the end, and a number of Iraq Affinity Group fact 
sheets (about the Iraq war, we haven't had time to make one about Syria 
and the "Mother Of All Bombs" on Afghanistan yet).

This article reports that Barbara Lee is calling for Congress to reconvene 
in order to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

I'm surprised that this article doesn't mention Trump's numbers have gone 
up since the Syria bombing last week from 42% to 48%.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/political_updates/prez_track_apr14

This is why it's dangerous for anyone-- especially members of Congress-- 
to state that Trump's actions are somehow appropriate even without 
Congressional approval. If he learns that making war makes him more 
popular, there is certainly more death and destruction to come.

It also doesn't talk about how Trump declared using the largest 
non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal may have sent a "message" to North 
Korea.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-bomb-afghanistan-message-north-korea-237205

You know who blows people up in order to "send a message" to other people? 
Terrorists.
dan h
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:59:49 -0700
From: Lloyd K. Marbet

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/14/americans-bracing-more-war-under-trigger-happy-trump
Published Friday, April 14, 2017 by Common Dreams
Americans Bracing for More War Under Trigger-Happy Trump

*'It is as if he has discovered the keys to the family gun cabinet'*
by Lauren McCauley, staff writer

The American public is bracing for war now that President Donald Trump
has seemingly stumbled upon "the keys to the family gun cabinet," as one
observer put it, after a week of rash and aggressive military action.

The unprecedented use
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/13/commander-chief-trump-drops-mother-all-bombs-afghanistan>
of a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), known as the
'mother of all bombs,' on Thursday was just the latest in a series of
attacks by the U.S. in recent days, prompting demands for a
Congressional debate on the use of military force.

Dr. Gabriela Lemus, president of the Progressive Congress Action Fund
political action group, issued a statement Thursday saying that the use
of "the largest non-nuclear bomb in our arsenal...to target [the Islamic
State or ISIS] without the advice and consent of Congress raises serious
concerns about the potential for the United States' engagement in
unchecked use of military force and blanket authorization for endless war."

Specifically, Lemus said there must be an "immediate and urgent review
of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)" and supports
legislation put forth by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that calls for
repeal of the 2001 AUMF.

Lee also issued a statement
<https://twitter.com/RepBarbaraLee/status/852581758746972160> Thursday
condemning the strike and demanding that House Speaker Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.) "call Congress back into session, so we can immediately repeal
the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and put real
restraints on President Trump's warmongering."

That "warmongering" has been going at full tilt, beginning with a
February failed raid
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/02/without-sufficient-intelligence-trump-raid-kills-yemeni-children-us-service-member>
andescalated fight
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/03/unprecedented-number-us-drone-and-air-strikes-hit-yemen>
in Yemen, and continuing with a number of high-profile actions including
last month'sbombing
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/26/200-iraqi-civilians-feared-dead-carnage-surging-under-trump> 
of Mosul, Iraq that killed more than 200 civilians; the recent deployment
of 59 Tomahawk missiles against the Syrian government; and the
detonation of the 'mother of all bombs' in Afghanistan (not to mention
the overall easing of war restrictions
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/14/after-greenlighting-cia-drone-ops-trump-expand-unchecked-war-powers>,
expansion
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/31/trump-expands-war-terror-battlefield-somalia-and-beyond>
of the War on Terror into the Horn of Africa, and increasing threats
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/14/north-korea-warns-thermonuclear-war-after-trump-threatens-strike> 
directed at North Korea).

Just Foreign Policy is also calling
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/12/55-bipartisan-lawmakers-demand-trump-pump-brakes-military-action-yemen>
for lawmakers to invoke the War Powers Resolution when they return from
recess on April 25, "to explicitly prohibit military escalation in Syria
and Yemen."

Unsurprisingly, a [sic] /Economist//YouGov poll published
<https://today.yougov.com/news/2017/04/12/After-assault-Syria-more-Americans-brace-for-battl/>
on Wednesday found that the number of Americans who think it is "likely
that Donald Trump will get us into a war" jumped more than 10 percent
over the course of a week (from 51 to 62 percent).

As the poll notes, "members of the President's own party are as likely
to say they expect him to get the U.S. into a war as they are to say the
opposite." Among Republicans alone there was a 15-point increase on this
question, with 39 percent now saying they are preparing for a Trump war.
Notably, the survey was taken /before/ Thursday's strike in Afghanistan.

"Having previously decried America's role as world policeman, it is as
if he has discovered the keys to the family gun cabinet," the
/Guardian/'s Simon Tisdale wrote
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/14/afghanistan-bomb-trump-finds-keys-family-gun-cabinet>
Friday. "The Afghan bombing again suggests he cannot resist the urge to
throw his weight around."

"As with the Syria missile strikes," Tisdale continued, "the MOAB attack
is unlikely to have any significant impact on the course of the Afghan
conflict
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/27/afghanistan-is-the-dirty-little-secret-of-the-us-presidential-campaign>.
These kinds of 'shock and awe' tactics rarely do. ISIS has been making
important territorial gains. The Taliban is also resurgent. One bomb,
however big, will not change that dynamic."

Though the Pentagon claimed
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-bomb-idUSKBN17F27U> 
that there were no civilian casualties in Afghanistan and that the strike
killed "as many as 36 suspected ISIS militants," many have questioned
the necessity of deploying such a massive and expensive weapon.

The /Guardian/'s Peter Beaumont broke down
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/14/moab-attack-isis-baffling-choice-cold-blooded-terms-cost-afghanistan>
the calculations in "cold-blooded terms":

     Each MOAB, or massive ordinance air blast--nicknamed the "mother of
     all bombs"--costs $16m out of a total program cost of $314m which
     produced about 20 of the bombs. Crunched down--and in the most
     cold-blooded terms--that means the U.S. military has expended some 5
     percent of its stockpile of MOABs to kill three dozen ISIS members
     at a cost of almost $450,000 per individual.

     In comparison, a typical, general-purpose 450kg (1,000lb) bomb like
     the MK-8 used in numerous airstrikes in Syria in Iraq costs about
     $12,000.

Also commenting on the illogic of employing such a weapon, investigative
journalist Marcy Wheeler pointed to the Pentagon's release
<https://www.defense.gov/Video/videoid/519242/> of a video of the blast
and deduced that the extreme choice was made for its "psychological effect."

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