Two hours, and during the last GOP debate of the year Tuesday night, the candidates and their moderators said the name “ISIS” 112 times.
That’s nearly once per minute. And yet, it turns out, a lot of untrue statements were made about ISIS and Syria.
So tonight, we’re giving those statements a reality check.
“Assad is one of the main reasons why ISIS even exists to begin with. Assad is a puppet of Iran. And he has been so brutal toward the Sunni within Syria that he created the space that led to the people of Syria themselves to stand up and try to overthrow him.”
That was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explaining why ISIS is in power in Syria in the first place. Rubio says it is the fault of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
After almost a year of civil war, the conflicting forces in Yemen sat down on December 15 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the prospect of finding a political solution to the conflict that has been raging since March 2015. While this is a necessary step towards ending the violence that has killed thousands, crippled infrastructure and led to a critical humanitarian crisis, the peace talks should include a mechanism for rebuilding this impoverished nation. Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for most of the destruction with its relentless bombings, should be forced to pay for the terrible damage it has wrought. So should the United States.
The U.S. involvement in the Yemen crisis can be summed up in four words: allegiance to Saudi Arabia. The United States’ problematic relationship with Saudi Arabia goes all the way back to World War II, when US officials started to see Saudi’s oil as a strategic advantage. Since then, the US has blindly supported the Kingdom in almost every political and economic effort, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is an ultraconservative Islamic monarchy rife with human rights abuses.
“Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Yemen has only destroyed lives and created a state of total chaos, and the US government is complicit in the carnage.”
Peace on Earth and goodwill to all – in a world of conflict, tis the season of peace.
I write about the peaceful angels of our nature every holiday season. I hope to replace “conflict” with “love” soon. Another year over, and it was full of war. But we cannot expect the end of war without first realizing what war is.
Those of us in western nation states, especially those of us my age (born in 1984), have grown up with a steady climate of peace. Violence exists in our society, sure, but recognition of the destructive nature of war is largely missing. Even the attacks of September the 11th, or the Paris attacks of this year, as horrific and terrifying as they were, pale in comparison to the leveling of entire cities – a common element of war.
Host Wolf Blitzer set the tone for last night’s Republican Party presidential debate when he solemnly told the audience that Americans are more fearful now than at any time since 9/11. The fear of terrorism is the number one issue, he emphasized, trumping all other concerns. With the stage thus set, the candidates, with a few exceptions, proceeded to tell voters how many new wars they would start, how many civilians they would kill overseas, how many of our liberties we must give up at home. Today’s Liberty Report takes a look at the dismal future laid out by most of the candidates:
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