President Obama continued on his lawless course to Syria at his press conference today.
Twice he wouldn't answer whether he'd go it alone if Congress didn't authorize military action, though it would be illegal under the Constitution and the War Powers Act if he did.
And he said that Security Council "paralysis" means that he could go ahead with its approval, either. The paralysis he was referring to was the opposition of Russia and China. Going ahead without Security Council approval is against international law and the U.N. Charter, as Ban ki-Moon has repeatedly noted.
Obama insisted that an "international response is required" for "upholding a ban on chemical weapons use."
But who are we to uphold it?
We used depleted uranium shells in Iraq, which have caused many, many birth defects there.
We dropped 20 million gallons of napalm on Vietnam, killing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people in the process and causing a generation of birth defects.
Under Obama's rationale, any country, including Syria, would have been justified in bombing the United States for those actions.
Or take another example: Our biggest ally Israel used white phosphorus against the people of Gaza a couple years of ago, and we didn't shell Israel.
Our hands are not clean here, and waging this illegal war against Syria will only make them dirtier.
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story Bradley Manning's Unjust Sentence.
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