UI Professor Compares Obama’s Pakistan War Policy to Nixon’s in Cambodia

[Karmadillo]

http://blog.puppetgov.com/2009/07/06/ui-professor-compares-obamas-pakistan-war-policy-to-nixons-in-cambodia/

UI Professor Compares Obama’s Pakistan War Policy to Nixon’s in Cambodia

By Sherwood Ross
Puppetgov

President Obama has no legal authority either from the United Nations or the U.S. Congress under the War Powers Resolution(WPR) to escalate the war in Afghanistan, a distinguished professor of international law says.

“President Obama’s surge of 21,000 troops now engaged in combat in Afghanistan comes on top of the 60,000 we already had there,” says Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law at Champaign.

“The Obama Administration simply ignored Section 4(a)(3) of the WPR when it announced the escalation,” Boyle noted. “U.S. armed forces are in Afghanistan originally pursuant to WPR. Its requirement that the President get Congressional consent on substantial enlargement (of forces) was put there to deal with the kind of gradual escalation we saw in Viet Nam that eventually led to 550,000 troops being there,” Boyle said.

“Clearly,” Boyle added, “President (George W.) Bush never had authority from Security Council in the first place to invade Afghanistan, and the WPR requires that any enlargement of U.S. troops in a foreign nation be authorized by Congress.” Boyle made his comments in a telephone interview with columnist Sherwood Ross of Miami, Fla.

President Obama “has now escalated the conflict into Pakistan and has set off a humanitarian catastrophe for 2-million of its people similar to what President Nixon set off in Cambodia,” Boyle said. “What Obama is doing is destabilizing Pakistan and setting off a civil war there. It’s a very dangerous, illegal, unconstitutional policy,” Boyle said.

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[bertman]

1. I noticed in a "news" article about the Taliban killing seven Americans that it was

attributed to the fact that America did not have enough troops on the ground to control the country.

Has a somewhat familiar ring to it for some of us who went through the Vietnam era, and not so long ago, the Iraq era. Oh yeah, this is STILL the Iraq era, isn't it?

The power of media and the military. Something to behold.

[Oregone]

2. Well, they probably don't have enough troops on the ground

A look at the Soviet campaign there (which was larger) will tell you that. Itll take more troops than the US has to spare. Itll take more will and money that we have to give. Everything in the meantime is probably a futile waste.

[Karmadillo]

4. It will be interesting to see if McChrystal asks for more troops in his midsummer assessment.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/07/a_quagmire_for_obama/

<edit>

At the same time, the Obama administration is awaiting a midsummer assessment from Afghanistan commander Stanley McChrystal. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen said in another Post story that he told McChrystal “there are no preconditions’’ to the assessment. “In this assessment you come back and ask for what you need.’’

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[timeforpeace]

3. Indeed, Cambodia is an apt comparison. What's occurring now will be debated for a long time.

[Karmadillo]

5. Kick

nt

[Karmadillo]

6. Brief Third World Traveler summary of Nixon & Cambodia.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Nixon_Cambodia_LFE.html

The United States, apprehensive about Southeast Asia becoming part of the Soviet sphere of influence, were willing to commit whatever resources were needed to incorporate it into the American Empire. American military leaders believed that Cambodian territory was providing a transportation route from North to South Vietnam and a haven where North Vietnam established its headquarters. Despite the fact that in the 1960s and early 1970s, Cambodia was safely in the American camp, its use by North Vietnam was becoming a problem.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger, unleashed B-52 carpet bombing for over fourteen months against a people who still tilled the soil with water buffalo. The 3,500 bombing sorties resulted in 600,000 deaths. The American bombing of Cambodia was a closely guarded secret primarily because the U.S. was not at war with Cambodia.

Not only did Nixon and Kissinger not seek the necessary approval from Congress to bomb Cambodia, they tried to conceal the bombing not only from the American public but Congress as well. Nixon and Kissinger believed that these hideous lies were imperative to hold on to South Vietnam as part of the American Empire.

Following the bombing, many peasants were so outraged at the United States and their puppet leader in Cambodia that they chose to join the Khmer Rouge, a marginal revolutionary communist group whose ranks swelled to a major force. After taking power, the Khmer Rouge unleashed a reign of terror killing over one million people.

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[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Same tactics, different war, same results.

A lot of dead people for the ambitions of various "leaders". All devoted to "protecting" something. "Our vital national interests", "World Peace", "Democracy", "Religion", "Morality", "Credibility".

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

[Gabi Hayes]

8. Boyle vs. OReilly:

http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle.html