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LETTER: Syria attack narrative should be challenged

Those who occupy the White House should learn from past history. The latest charges by the Trump administration that Syrian President Bassar Assad released chemicals, killing up to 70 people including children, sounds like a familiar story played during the Obama administration.

In August 2013, President Obama charged that Assad was responsible for a missile-delivered sarin attack. Investigative and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh found compelling facts that challenged the U.S. government’s official account. In fact, he showed that the attack was most likely the work of the rebels opposing the Assad government. He said al-Nusra, a Syrian al-Qaeda division, had “mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity.”

Because the mainstream media would not publish Hersh’s comprehensive article alleging that the Obama administration was “cherry picking” intelligence to serve its own purpose of regime change, the account was published in the London Review of Books. Later on, James Clapper, Obama’s national intelligence director, reportedly had warned the president that the intelligence information that Syria released the sarin was not a “slam dunk.”

For the past several years, Assad has been fighting against the rebels including al-Nusra and ISIS, to prevent their takeover of Syria. The rebels, funded and trained by the U.S. and its allies, have incited chaos and violence throughout the country. It makes no sense after making strides against the opposition that the Syrian leader would initiate a chemical attack. Why hasn’t the mainstream press or members of Congress asked for more evidence from the Trump administration or called for an independent investigation of this matter?

Deborah K. Smarth

Trump pursuing more foreign involvement

The same candidate who portrayed himself as the supposed “peace” candidate when he said we’ve been in too many conflicts in the Middle East and too many wars is now sending troops to Syria. He has expanded the CIA’s power, authorizing drone strikes in Syria and beyond. According to news accounts, he is dissolving certain protections on combat drone use that the Obama administration had used; since 2004, there have been approximately 2,179 confirmed minimum drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, killing up to 8,897 people according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. These strikes kill innocent civilians and medical rescue personnel, in the hope of assassinating targeted terrorists, on suspicion only.

There have been many experts who have reported that these drone strikes are nothing more than recruitment tools for more terrorists/jihadists against the U.S. This policy has caused tremendous suffering and blowback. And, so, now President Trump decides he’s going to lower the bar “for reasonable civilian loss.”

Not even in office for 100 days, and he has erred in carrying out the Yemen drone strike which was planned by the Obama administration; he could have studied the situation further in Yemen, where America has aided and abetted the Saudis war there. But, he implemented that strike, killing an American soldier in the process and many innocent civilians, including women and children. Now, he is further empowering the CIA to execute more horrific acts of murder.

Posing as a candidate saying one thing, and now continuing America’s policies of interventionism everywhere again, does not hold out much hope for a peacetime presidency. Instead, he wants to increase the military budget, which only serves to assist the military industrial complex’s profits and promotes more wars. The administration’s latest actions are deeply disappointing in light of his campaign speeches.

He has surrounded himself with corporatists and financial elites. His inner circle appears to be too influenced by the neoconservatives who are war hawks. It’s time for Trump to rely on foreign policy experts who understand diplomacy and non-interventionism, rather than going down the path he is currently charting. It’s time to re-examine Mr. Trump’s campaign words versus his presidential actions.

Hopefully, the American people will educate themselves on these issues and be emboldened enough to oppose a foreign policy that goes in the same direction as his Republican and Democrat predecessors, which have caused disasters globally.

Deborah K. Smarth

PUBLISHED IN USA TODAY https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/letters/2017/03/15/trump-pursuing-foreign-involvement/99196330/

Here’s how to Make America Great Again

A new era has arrived with President-elect Donald Trump. The success of his administration depends on the ability to tackle key issues. They include:

Enacting tax cuts for middle class Americans and tax code simplification. While business tax cuts may improve corporate decisions to stay in America, entrepreneurs and small business owners must become a top priority. Those who have been most hurt under the current capitalist system are middle class Americans;

Reducing and eventually eliminating the $19 trillion-plus national debt;

Striving for global “peace” and the halting of regional and worldwide conflicts; following 2008/2012 presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul’s call for non-interventionism is a necessity. End the influence of neoconservative philosophy aimed at endless wars;

Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli issue, which has been cited as a very significant concern causing a very unstable Middle East; a two-state solution must be pursued;

Rolling back and eventually terminating American foreign aid to all current recipients; halting the flow of military aid including lethal weapons of destruction;

Re-examining relationships with America’s allies and elevating the values of non-violence and human rights as the key for such designated friendship;

Re-examining America’s drone program, which authorizes targeted assassinations of suspected terrorists in various parts of the world. Killing innocent civilians (children included) and rescuers (including medical personnel) by unmanned drone attacks has resulted in blowback and the creation of young terrorists. This destructive policy must end;

Respecting the legal process and habeas corpus by ending certain provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which allows the U.S. military to unlawfully detain American citizens on suspicion only and without charge or trial. This is a complete abrogation of constitutional principles;

Rolling back the powers of the National Security Agency to prevent the overzealous collection of metadata on all citizens at the expense of the right to privacy. There should be further protection of “whistleblowers,” who have put the principles of the U.S. Constitution first, and who have exposed the Government’s violation of such principles at the expense of liberty and freedom.

In America, we can only have prosperity by pioneering a path of peace, not war. Trillions and trillions of dollars have gone to wars with inevitable destruction to other nation-states and their citizens as well as the killing of thousands of American military troops. Without peace, we cannot have liberty or prosperity. If a Trump presidency keeps these big picture issues in mind, America will be great again.

Deborah K. Smarth

PUBLISHED IN DAILY RECORD https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/letters/2016/11/16/trump-make-america-great/93927686/

Establishment undermining Trump

It’s sad to see the bankruptcy of the GOP national party leadership and structure. Everyone should know that the national GOP war room is hard at work trying to steer their wishes concerning the GOP presidential nominee coronation. They did it in 2012 in Tampa and that’s what they’re trying to do in this 2016 presidential race.

The falsities put out by Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and even John Kasich, are appalling. As presidential candidates, they should have the real facts concerning what is happening in Syria and other hot spots of the world. Not a thing is ever said how the U.S. planted the catalysts for civil chaos in Syria, actually arming and funding the rebels associated with al-Qaida!

RABBLE ROUSER:American democracy is at stake

Not a word is ever said about our ally Saudi Arabia, whose bombing campaign of Yemen the U.S. supports and enhances. Not one word in the debates occur about: “Audit the Fed” legislation to actually have a full monetary accounting of what type of financing is provided to foreign banks and foreign countries from our central banking system; the unending printing of monies that devalue the dollar and promote congressional spending sprees to the tune of $18-plus trillion in national debt; and the manipulation of interest rates by the Federal Reserve!

The so-called candidate to end the Washington cartel, Cruz, is part of the cartel himself. His wife has been an executive at Goldman Sachs and he’s pulled in big cash from the economic elites. Cruz was sent in to split the vote against former presidential candidate Rand Paul — as was reported many months ago — promoted by economic elites like Nevada billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

Rubio, a full puppet on a string, is the perfect order-taker for the economic elites and national political establishment. All you had to do is listen to the one-sided oratories on the Palestinian-Israeli issue at the March Florida GOP debates.

And now they’re blaming Trump for the violence at rallies. They’ll try anything to see if they can control the nomination with one of their puppets.

RABBLE ROUSER:Arrogance is embarrassing

And, yes, if Trump does not win enough delegates to be nominated outright at the Republican National Convention in July, the national GOP structure and leadership will repeat its 2012 acts regarding decredentialing delegates of candidates whose names they don’t want in nomination; the RNC rules committee will also somehow find it favorable to change the rules governing the threshold number of states concerning the plurality of delegates needed to have a presidential candidate’s name to be placed in nomination.

They did this at the 2012 convention in Tampa to Ron Paul, but, the media never reported on it or gave it the full coverage it deserved so the American public would know about these shenanigans. A book on the subject matter documents these incriminating acts. Can it happen again? Why not? If the GOP structure did it once, with the full silence of the entire establishment and national mainstream media, why not do it again?

It’s apparent that America has become more and more of an oligarchy. That’s why real changes never occur to help the very poor and the middle class who pay for everything, including the immoral wars, corporate subsidies and the welfare state.

Wonder why Americans are angry?

Deborah K. Smarth is the author of “America’s Lost Opportunity: Stolen Victories 2012.” 

PUBLISHED IN COURIER POST https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/opinion/readers/2016/03/15/commentary-establishment-undermining-trump/81831682/

Letter: Stop the killing and destruction in Gaza

We are all created equal; our rights emanate from the creator, not from the political state.  Since 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes in the 1940s, displaced into Gaza and the West Bank, growing despair and deplorable living conditions have ensued. Countless peace negotiations on a two-state solution have failed. This is evidence that Israel has no intention of giving back land to the Palestinians.

Israeli settlement building in Palestine is up 130 percent during U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration. The U.S. perpetuates the problem, increasing foreign aid to Israel ($2.994 billion in 2011 to $3.1 billion in 2013), notwithstanding additional lethal arms.

Any politician who refuses to call Gaza occupied territory under international law is guilty of political pandering. The recent disproportionate use of Israeli military force against the civilian Palestinian population should not be tolerated by any civilized nations.

The conflict started when Israeli snipers murdered two unarmed Palestinian teens in May. No one supports violence by Hamas or Israeli Zionist extremists.  But the thousands of targeted attacks on Gaza with almost 2,000 Palestinians versus 67 Israelis killed, 7,000 Palestinians wounded, more than 200,000 Palestinians displaced and the destruction in Gaza shows Israel’s lopsided response.

America’s politicians should be ashamed of their continued, unabashed support for one side only.

— Deborah K. Smarth,
Manalapan