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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'><br> <BR><div><hr id="stopSpelling">From: office@theshalomcenter.org<br>Subject: Drop gas masks, not bombs.<br>To: annxpress@live.com<br>Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 11:17:40 -0400<br><br>
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<h3>The Shalom Report</h3>
<span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100); font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: xx-large;"><strong><em>Drop gas masks, not bombs.</em></strong></span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Dear friends,</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">If moving to the right is violently destructive and moving to the left is disgustingly immoral, then something is wrong with the box we are in.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Think out of the box, act out of the box.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">That’s where the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> is in regard to Syria: All the “official” choices – from Do Nothing to One Strike to Overthrow the Regime – are destructive to us, to the Syrian people, to the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> Constitution, and/or to international law.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">So – think fresh.</span><BR><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100); font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: x-large;"><strong><em>Drop gas masks, not bombs.</em></strong></span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">That’s a metaphor.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Translate: use the power of the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> in nonviolent, non-military, nonlethal ways to counter Assad’s (or the rebels’) possible use of chemical weapons.</span><BR><ul><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">If gas masks would not meet the need, drop antidotes to the nerve gas Sarin, sending instructions in Arabic by radio and social media.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Test out what would happen if the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> invited physicians to be parachuted into Syria, as brave as
the soldiers that some <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> politicians want to send.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Drop leaflets and broadcast radio and social-media messages denouncing the use of chemical weaponry and offering amnesty and monetary rewards to anyone in the military who comes forward with information on their use.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Bollix the Syrian military’s computer system just as the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> bollixed the Iranian nuclear-research
system without killing anyone.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Ask the government of Iran to intervene with its ally Syria to demand a total end to any use of chem-war, and offer Iran relaxation of <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> sanctions against it if it does so. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">(In Iran there is fierce opposition to chem-war because Saddam used it in Iraq’s war against Iran, killing tens of thousands. The <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span>, by the way, uttered not a peep of criticism of Sadaam’s use of chem-war,
because the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> government saw Iran as an enemy. Indeed, the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> may have assisted Saddam in using chem-war.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Go to the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">UN</span></span></span> Security Council as well as Congress for approval of such nonlethal, nonviolent interventions.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">And so on. Get it?</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">What is wrong with
the box we are in?</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">What Obama was publicly proposing, “One Strike” to “punish” and “deter” chem-war, had a very risky flaw: It was essentially assuming “one-man chess.” Either the OneStrike would accomplish nothing real – a useless act – or if it did hurt, it might well push Assad into retaliating. If there were a response, a retaliatory attack on <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> forces or assets or on Israel, etc., would the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> then shrug and do nothing – or would the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> then re-retaliate? And then?</span><BR><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100);"><strong><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">BBC</span></span></span> is reporting that in fact, under pressure from hawkish Senators, Obama is now actually planning much more than One Strike – rather, an attack to “degrade,’ not only “deter,” Assad’s military, with the intention of regime change.</span></strong></span><BR><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100);"><strong><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">And there are other reports that the actual text of the
resolution that Obama is asking Congress to approve is considerably broader than the One Strike he has said he wants.</span></strong></span><BR><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100);"><strong><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">So we may after all be standing on our tiptoes at the very edge of the precipice of still another immoral, illegal, unwinnable, self-destructive war.</span></strong></span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">If o</span>ur own government pushes us over the edge of that precipice, the real losers will be the American and Syrian peoples. There, even greater devastation. Here, another wave of failure to meet the real and
increasingly urgent civilian needs for schools, bridges, solar and wind energy, firefghters, and much more. More deaths and disasters from forest fires, floods, droughts. Another wave of justifying, in the name of anti-terrorism, intrusive unconstitutional surveillance of practically everyone; police infiltration of peaceful mosques and political activists; and vigilante attacks on Muslims.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">What to do? Call 202/224-3121 (the <span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps"><span class="ecxcaps">US</span></span></span> Capitol) and ask for your Senators and House member, one at a time. When you get each office, leave a message vigorously opposing any resolution
authorizing military force against Syria, and pointing to nonviolent, nonlethal alternatuve ways of intervening.</span><BR><span style="font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">Write a similar letter to your local newspaper.</span><BR><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100); font-family: times new roman,times;">Forward this letter to your friends and to listserves you are on.</span></strong></span><BR><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100); font-family: times new roman,times;">Try to start a viral message:</span></strong></span><BR><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="font-family: times new roman,times;"><em><span style="color: rgb(203, 52, 100);">Drop gas-masks, not bombs.</span> </em></span></strong></span><BR><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">One of the metaphors of Rosh Hashanah is that we plead with God – which means also with ourselves – to move from the throne of Punitive Justice to the throne of Compassionate Repair.</span></strong><BR><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;">If not now, when?</span></strong><BR><span style="color: rgb(207, 47, 82); font-family: times new roman,times; font-size: large;"><strong><em>– Arthur</em></strong></span><BR>
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