Republican presidential campaign rhetoric is red-hot regarding Islamic terrorism, with Sen. Cruz suggesting the use of nuclear weapons to see "if sand can glow in the dark," a threat even more troubling than Donald Trump's call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the U.S., writes Robert Parry.
Oh, no! Not another American war against evil! This time, it's the Islamic State (IS). After the attacks in Paris, Barack Obama, spokesman-in-chief for the United States of America, called that crew "the face of evil." Shades of George W. Bush. The "evildoers" are back. And from every mountaintop, it seems, America now rings with calls to ramp up its war machine.
Obama presumes he will get the authorization he seeks. And he may be right. But no matter what the decision by the House and Senate, Congress must take up this issue. The US Constitution is clear: The power to declare wars rests with Congress, not the president. Yet this president, like his predecessors, has waged war without adequate congressional authorization.
Kerry's first recent offense came in October, when he linked extremist violence to Israeli settlement building. In this appearance at Harvard on October 13, you will see that he went directly from the greatest challenge of our generation being international terrorism, to the need for Palestinian statehood.
With his back against the wall in Syria, Erdogan -- what else -- changed the subject and made a play in Iraq, via the now famous "incursion" of alleged 150 Turkish troops along with 20-25 tanks. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu swears Ankara had been "invited" in by the Nineveh provincial government, with Baghdad's approval (a bald-faced lie).