The president, in a hastily announced statement Saturday in the White House Rose Garden, argued that he did in fact have the power to act on his own. But faced with the prospect of taking action opposed by many Americans, the commander in chief tried to shift the burden and instead round up partners on Capitol Hill to share in that responsibility.

woo no war

daddyholes posted:

Pope to lead Vatican prayer vigil for peace in Syria

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- On the evening of Sept. 7, days before U.S. lawmakers vote on President Barack Obama's proposal for a military attack on Syria, Pope Francis will lead thousands in St. Peter's Square in a prayer vigil for peace.

"We will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God's great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world," the pope said Sept. 1, before praying the noon Angelus with a crowd in the square. "Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace."

The vigil will include a recital of the rosary, eucharistic adoration, Scripture readings, a papal blessing and remarks by Pope Francis, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi. During the event, which will last 7 p.m.-11 p.m., priests will be available to hear confessions.

For all Catholics, the pope has proclaimed Sept. 7 a "day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East and throughout the world." On fast days, adult Catholics in good health are expected to eat only one full meal.

The pope said he was inviting everyone, "including our non-Catholic Christian brothers, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative."

According to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, leader of the country's Sunni Muslims, has approached the papal nuncio in Damascus, Syria, with a request to attend the Rome vigil.

Even if that trip proves impossible to arrange, Fides reported, the mufti has called on his followers to pray for peace Sept. 7, "in communion and simultaneously with the pope."

Obama has called for military strikes to punish the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which the U.S. blames for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that reportedly killed more than 1,400 people, including children.

Over the last two-and-a-half years, according to the United Nations, a civil war between Assad's government and rebel forces has killed more than 100,000 people, driven 2 million refugees out of Syria and displaced another 4.5 million inside the country.

Pope Francis said he condemned the use of chemical weapons "with utmost firmness," adding that "those terrible images from recent days are burned into my mind and heart."

"A judgment of God and also a judgment of history upon our actions are inescapable," he said.

But the pope insisted that "never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence."

Instead, Pope Francis called on all parties to "follow the path of encounter and negotiation and so overcome blind conflict."

Bishop Mario Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told Vatican Radio Sept. 2 that a "solution to Syria's problems cannot be that of armed intervention. The situation of violence would not be diminished. On the contrary, there is the risk that it will explode and extend to other countries."

The Secretariat of State has invited foreign ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to attend a Vatican briefing on Syria Sept. 5.

Protestantism fails again

HenryKrinkle posted:

some more stuff:

How Intelligence Was Twisted to Support an Attack on Syria

U.S. figure for casualties in Syria attack much higher than others'

New York Times Deletes This Paragraph In Which White House Says AIPAC Is Key To War

reading mainstream articles on syria lately has been kind of funny for the reason that oftentimes they just slip in a comment casually that it's like "oh ok, so we're doing that huh?" for example, the LA Times article youve got here is about the US's casualty figures, but then in the last sentence(s):

The latter group said it had documented at least 1,302 deaths, about two-thirds of which were women and children. That figure was cited by the U.S.-based Syrian Support Group, which has a federal license to funnel aid to Syrian rebels.

And the other day I saw this article in the NYT called "President Gains McCain's Backing on Syria Attacks": http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/world/middleeast/syria.html?_r=1&
First off theres the totally bizarre picture of a rebel riding a bike with a little girl (is this blatant propaganda... or a HUMAN SHIELD) but also here:

In an hourlong meeting at the White House, said Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, Mr. Obama gave general support to doing more for the Syrian rebels, although no specifics were agreed upon. Officials said that in the same conversation, which included Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, Mr. Obama indicated that a covert effort by the United States to arm and train Syrian rebels was beginning to yield results: the first 50-man cell of fighters, who have been trained by the C.I.A., was beginning to sneak into Syria.

and then there's another line at the end about a CIA program to arm the rebels
so like this is not stuff we'd be surprised to find out, but just interesting how the fact that we're arming rebels, have aid groups funding rebels, and the CIA is training rebel cells is just kind of peppered in at random into these news articles about different things and are just apparently not a big deal at all and kind of quietly acknowledged.

Superabound posted:

might as well go ahead and

peepaw posted:

except for the hijackers who spent a year or so living in america getting flight training

and the cia operatives who planted the explosives/ordered the missile strike on the pentagon

nice invisipost

ilmdge posted:

nice invisipost

that was my fault actually. unintended but unavoidable consequence of a certain forums oppression-subverting workaround

conec posted:

Superabound posted:

might as well go ahead and

i saw mark dice post this on fb did you take it from mark dice by any chance just wondering lol

no. did mark dice steal my shit?? does mark dice lurk the 'zzone???

hello mark dice