Saudi Arabia: Terrible for humanity; great for war party

One of America's best allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, uses tens of billions of war party weaponry to kill thousands in criminal wars. For the past two years the Saudi's have been using our best killing stuff to kill Houthi rebels (and many innocent civilians) in neighboring Yemen. The Saudi's claim the Houthi's are proxies for Iranian hegemony was all justification needed by Uncle Sam to grease arms sales to them. The worst of the worst are US made cluster bombs, banned by 119 decent nations but neither the US nor Saudi Arabia. They randomly spray hundreds of “bomblets” across a wide area and, almost invariably, some kill innocent civilians. They are also not very reliable weapons as many of these bomblets do not explode upon impact. Often these unexploded bomblets are then picked up by children, who are seriously injured or killed when they set them off. The US finally bowed to worldwide condemnation in May and banned further cluster bombs to the murderous Saudis. But the rest of America's finest is still flowing, and the Yemenese body count keeps rising.

How mendacious is Saudi Arabia? A month ago today the UN had enough and put Saudi Arabia on their blacklist of children's human rights violators for their war crimes in Yemen. But when the Saudi's and their Gulf buddies threatened to cut off funding for UN relief efforts in Palestine, S. Sudan and Syria, the UN caved and quietly reversed their noble effort to isolate the Saudi's.

As bad as that was it pales in comparison to the US, fully aware Saudi Arabia was heavily involved in the September 11 attacks, but giving them a pass to implement regime change in Iraq, instead. Hey, what's more important? Justice for the victims of 911...or endless profits for the war party.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn

Trib demanding more US terrorism in Middle East

The Trib's editorial 'To stop attacks here, stop Islamic State there' is simply more criminal regime change that the Editorial Board has been promoting for 15 years. Your support of our criminal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq changed their regimes but turned both into failed states with hundreds of thousands dead, millions dispossessed, and trillions of US treasure squandered. Not satisfied with that madness you supported regime change in Libya, getting thousands killed, squandering billions and guess what, turning Libya into a failed state. Now the Trib is seeking a regime quadfecta, demanding we listen to 51 delusional diplomats calling for massive bombing of Syrian President Assad's regime to turn it over to forces likely to slaughter Syria's Christian, secular and Shi'ite citizens only alive due to the protection of the elected Syrian president. Our funding anti Assad groups in 2013 when a truce was at hand, simply because we felt Assad was about to fall, squandered a chance to achieve peace then. 

The Board simply mimics every warmongering, neocon group or individual using massacres thousands of miles from the US to demand more war. The only attacks here since 2001 have been US citizens inspired by our relentless bombing of innocents and suspected evildoers alike. Stop US bombing in the Middle East and you remove the most likely motivating factor for such home grown attacks. Your lust for war places us all in danger, including yourselves.  And don't blame the European refugee crisis on the President's 'restraint'. It's the result of 15 years of endless and needless killing to keep US weapons makers scrambling to fill the insatiable demand for WCD (weapons of civilian destruction). 

Your insincerity about getting tough with the Islamic State is breathtaking. Endless bombs only inspire endless recruits to their cause. Put your military age relatives where your pro war pixels are: demand a million man/women army, including them, to conquer the entire region. Anything short of that is simply more business for the war party.  

Da Coach passes on soulmate Da Donald's Cleveland invite

Da Coach and Da Donald are soulmates. Both use the five magic letters of their last name to accumulate fabulous wealth selling everything from soup to nuts with a brand tax which enhances the product not a whit. You might say there's an endless supply of nuts willing to buy their nuts. 

Then their is their politics. Ditka loves Trump's politics and Trump loves that Ditka loves his. Ditka on Trump during a recent phone call:  “Everything you say about things, about the country, I agree with your opinions. You resonate with my kind of people. I believe in what you say wholeheartedly.”

When Trump inquired if soulmate Ditka might reiterate those comments at the Cleveland convention, Ditka demurred:   “I’m not big into doing things like that. I’m not going to change opinions; opinions are like -------s. I believe in the way the Constitution was written. But people want to change that. Immigration. Same thing. People want to change things. I believe in you and what you are saying.”

Don't know about you, but a Da Coach speech for Trump might just be the funniest bit at a GOP shindig since Dirty Harry romanced an empty chair at their 2012 Fest. 

Hawk Kirk needs replacement by dove Duckworth

Illinois Senator Mark Kirk is a dedicated war lover. He never met a failed military intervention he didn't love. Kirk voted for the Iraq war and never wavered in its prosecution in spite of hundreds of thousands dead and wounded, millions displaced and trillions squandered. Not satisfied with that madness, he's supported bombing Syria and Libya. A huge promoter of confrontation, i.e., war with Iran, he compared the sane Iran nuclear deal ...to another Munich. His Senate opponent, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, nearly died fighting in Kirk's Folly. She's learned her war lessons well, opposing every crazed, warmongering blathering emanating from Kirk, who lost his dignity embellishing his military record while Duckworth lost her legs serving bravely.
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Duckworth trumps Kirk on every progressive issue America faces. . But issue No. 1 will always be ending America's descent prosecuting perpetual war. A vote for Duckworth is a vote for sanity...and peace.