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Rocky Anderson on War & Peace
Justice Party challenger for President; former mayor of Salt Lake City
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We're a bully in the Mideast; no wonder they don't like us
OBAMA: In Libya, we were able to liberate a country that had been under the yoke of dictatorship for 40 years. And as a consequence, despite this tragedy, you had tens of thousands of Libyans after the events in Benghazi marching and saying, "America's
our friend." STEIN: It's very clear that there is blowback going on now across the Middle East, not only the unrest directed at the Libyan embassy. 75% of Pakistanis actually identify the US now as their enemy, not as their supporter or their ally.
Q: Did the Embassy killings reflect a policy failure?
ANDERSON: The policy failure has been in the way the US has treated so many nations in the Middle East. We're like the bully that never got counseling, and we keep wondering, why don't they like us?
We invaded Iraq and occupied that country. It was completely illegal. Two United Nations secretaries-general declared that it was illegal. It was a war of aggression, and it was all done on a pack of lies. That is the policy failure: our belligerence.
Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Third Obama-Romney 2012 debate
, Oct 22, 2012
Work with Russia on peaceful resolution in Syria
OBAMA: [In Syria] we are going to do everything we can to make sure that we are helping the opposition. But what we can't do is, as Governor Romney has suggested, giving heavy weapons to the Syrian opposition.ROMNEY: The right course is to identify
responsible parties within Syria, organize them, bring them together, and then make sure they have the arms necessary to defend themselves.
ANDERSON: The premises under which both of these candidates are operating--the constricted debate does such a
disservice to the people of this country. What do we hear? We hear President Obama say we've got to do everything we can to help the opposition, and Mitt Romney is saying we ought to be shipping them heavy arms. This is a call for a bloodbath in Syria.
Many in the internal opposition in Syria are associated with al-Qaeda. Is this really what we want as a country? We have no business doing anything other than working with Russia and helping to bring about a peaceful resolution. And it can be done.
Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Third Obama-Romney 2012 debate
, Oct 22, 2012
Crippling sanctions hurt the people of Iran who sympathize
ROMNEY: [On Iran], crippling sanctions are something I'd called for five years ago. I'd make sure that Ahmadinejad is indicted under the Genocide Convention. His words amount to genocide incitation.OBAMA: As long as I'm president, Iran will not get
a nuclear weapon. A nuclear Iran is a threat to our national security, and it's a threat to Israel's national security.
ANDERSON: This repeats the lie that President Ahmadinejad in Iran stated that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map.
He never said it. He referred to the regime in Israel one day being in the dustbin of history. It was a misinterpretation, and it is so warmongering of both of these candidates to talk about how they will basically blow Iran away. Romney wants to impose
crippling sanctions. Who would he be crippling? He'd be crippling, among others, some of the hundreds of thousands of people who stood in Tehran in a candlelight vigil in sympathy for the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Third Obama-Romney 2012 debate
, Oct 22, 2012
We went into Libya without authorization from Congress
Q: What about the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya?ANDERSON: I think the important issue here is that we went into Libya, joined with our allies, without any authorization from Congress.
This is the real long-term question that ought to be addressed, is: do we allow one person to act as a dictator and determine whether our country goes to war, or do we, in compliance with the War Powers Clause of the
United States Constitution, seek a determination from Congress that there is reason for our country to engage in acts of war? And this is an ongoing problem with the drone attacks, creating more hatred, more hostility toward the
United States in sovereign nations. We need to get back to the fundamentals. This is the important question that we should all be addressing, and Congress needs to live up to its constitutional responsibility.
Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Second Obama-Romney 2012 debate
, Oct 16, 2012
US out of Iraq & Afghanistan
Q: Do you support or oppose the statement, "US out of Iraq & Afghanistan"?
A: Strongly Support
Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org
, Feb 10, 2012
Invasion and occupation of Iraq is unjustified
Things have been moving backward for most people in our nation.
Add to that the unjustified invasion and occupation of Iraq that has had mind-numbing costs in lives, tragedy, and national treasure.
Source: 2007 State of the City Address
, Jan 16, 2007
Iraq is a tragic unnecessary war
Our nation has engaged in a tragic unnecessary war, based upon categorically false justifications. More than 100,000 people have been killed.
And many more have been seriously maimed, brain-damaged or rendered mentally ill. Our nation's reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed.
We have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq.
And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our unjustified illegal invasion and occupation of a Muslim nation.
Source: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, "We Were Lied To"
, Sep 26, 2006
Congress should have stopped Bush's pre-emptive war
What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our president to talk about a crusade, while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.
Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the cruelty, the incompetence and the inhumanity of the
Bush administration and the lackey congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority under our checks and balances system of government. We are here to say, "We will not stand for it anymore! No more lies!
No more preemptive illegal war based on false information! No more 'God is on our side' religious nonsense to justify this immoral illegal war!"
Source: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, "We Were Lied To"
, Sep 26, 2006
Page last updated: Oct 27, 2012