Robert Parry calls Nicholas Kristof out about Syria

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


Tell Kristof to Stop Lying on Syria
September 8, 2013

Exclusive: Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has cultivated a reputation as a caring humanitarian who abhors violence, but he has now joined the ranks of liberal war hawks eager to bomb Syria, a choice that also has led him to enlist in the propaganda campaign to deceive the American people, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry


In urging the bombing of Syria, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof is the latest liberal opinion leader to join the ranks of warmongers, what his former boss, Bill Keller, dubbed “the I-Can’t-Believe-I‘m-a-Hawk Club” in 2003 when this aristocracy of liberal writers was lining up behind President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Kristof, who did not join the club at that time, has sent in his membership card now in support of the Obama administration’s evidence-challenged indictment of the Syrian government for an apparent chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 outside Damascus.

In doing so, Kristof is following the well-worn path of pundits who preceded him by slanting the facts and misleading his readers. For instance, in swatting away alternative strategies for ending the Syrian bloodshed, he pretends that it is President Bashar al-Assad who won’t go to peace talks when it is really Kristof’s beloved rebels.

On Sunday, Kristof wrote, “Skeptics are right about the drawbacks of getting involved, including the risk of retaliation. Yet let’s acknowledge that the alternative is, in effect, to acquiesce as the slaughter in Syria reaches perhaps the hundreds of thousands or more. But what about the United Nations? How about a multilateral solution involving the Arab League? How about peace talks? What about an International Criminal Court prosecution? ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/08/tell-kristof-to-stop-lying-on-syria/

[geek tragedy]

1. Diplomacy and the ICC are a cop out.

The regime in Syria is not going to give up power, and Putin is not going to sacrifice his vassal there.

ICC? Hardy har har. Who's going to arrest Assad and his henchman?

Doing nothing is the answer, and people opposing action have to be ready to let Assad get away with it. Let some other international do-gooders deal with him.