In his speech, Kerry said "we know." We _don't_ know, as AP reported 3 days later, based on interviews with U.S. intelligence officials. The standard for justifying a new war can not be, should not be, and must not be "preponderance of the evidence." A new war sentences innocent civilians to death. The use of air power guarantees significant civilian deaths. The more air power, the more civilian deaths.
As Win Without War stated, bombing vs. nothing is a false choice. The chief reason many are attacking the claim that "Assad did it" - some quite dubiously, here I would agree with you - is that "Assad did it" is being claimed as a casus belli. Take away the casus belli claim and remove the incentive to challenge it. On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 7:53 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/9/13 8:35 AM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > "pretty sure" does not equal "sure." When something is purported to be a > > casus belli, the standard of proof is very high. You wouldn't impose the > > death penalty on someone based on being "pretty sure." The standard of > > proof here should be higher, because when you escalate a war, you're > > imposing the death penalty on innocent civilians. > > > > > > > > What are you talking about? Nobody can be "sure". This is all about > circumstantial evidence. In any case, in terms of the possibility of a > false flag operation, I find something disgustingly Orientalist about > this as if Muslims would kill their own women and children in order to > provoke American intervention. It smacks of the accusation against the > Vietnamese in the 1960s that they fight so hard because they don't place > the same value in human life as Westerners. It is always the East that > is fanatical. Please excuse me while I puke. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected]
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