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Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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New Day, Same Deadly Game
ell, it hasn't taken
long for the new rene- gade-in-chief to solidify his reputation as a war hawk. With less than one hundred days in office under his belt, Donald Trump is beginning to make a habit of executing his favorite executive power by ordering military strikes on foreign nations he despises,
his latest target being Syria. The timing couldn't have been better for President Trump. With the heat being turned up on the investigation into the possible collusion be- tween his campaign staff and the Russian officials who par- ticipated in the undermining of the 2016 presidential elec- tion, a well placed missile at- tack on a Syrian airbase was just the distraction needed to keep the blood hounds off his
trail.
Now, instead of every na-
tional news broadcast opening up with the latest develop- ments from the F.B.I. probe, the media will center its focus on whether or not President Trump's questionable ag- gression toward the middle eastern country will lead to a larger conflict? I don't know if it was President Trump's brain or someone else's who pulled this classic diversionary tactic out of the hat, but who- ever it was deserves credit for quick thinking.
The eerie thing about it all is that it feels like we saw this same movie 16 years ago. Back then it was President George W. Bush bombing Baghdad immediately follow- ing his inauguration.
A year following that con- troversial maneuver the U. S. began, what turned out to be, a decade-long occupation of Iraq. Could that ill sequence of events actually be reoccurring?
I mean the cover stories are nearly identical: A brutal dic- tator, with alleged ties to ter- rorist organizations, uses nerve gas on his people and is targeted for removal. If this isn't a set up for an "Opera- tion Iraqi Freedom" se- quel, I'm not sure what else would qualify?
A potential war in Syria, backed by the right propa- ganda, could, once again, place Uncle Sam in the role of the caped super hero who swoops in to beat up the bad guys while finding a way to profit during the process... Different names different setting, but definitely the same playbook.
The last time around it was Dick Cheney and his part- ners at the Halliburton Corpo- ration who made out like bandits after the destruction and reconstruction of the Iraqi capital. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine President Trump, with his shrewd busi- ness acumen, having similar visions of hotels, and other structures bearing his name, sprinkled across the Down- town Damascus landscape once the smoke settles on this campaign.
The thing that bothers me about what's happening in Syria, though, is how Presi- dent Trump and his team are playing up their roles as so- called "humanitarians on a mission" to justify escalating
the situation even further.
To me it seems hypocritical for them to claim that their ac- tions are motivated purely by a desire to help people who are in dire need when they have yet to address the hunger crisis currently occurring on the
African continent.
Right now over 20 million
people in Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria are pro- jected to starve to death over the next 5 months, if food isn't delivered to those regions. But not once has President Trump called on the world to assist in helping those people as he's done to help the Syri- ans.
Other than the color of their skin and the methods used to kill them, what makes the lives of the women and children who are dying in each of these scenarios any more or less im- portant than the other? I sup- pose, for those in a position to make a difference, this is a question that's easier to ignore than to answer.
Unfortunately for all of us, what we're witnessing is noth- ing new. It is a despicable strategy that has been initiated by the global power structure for centuries.
When the bank accounts of the rich get low, bullets conve- niently begin to take flight. They don't really care about whose blood is spilled, it just has to flow long enough for them to make a profit.
They want us to believe that it's all for the greater good. But, the truth is, that's just something they tell us to make the unavoidable death tolls easier to handle.
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A Picture That Changed A President: Or Did It?
ictures of Syria shown around the world were far
worse than any Hollywood movie could depict. They were the real-life images of gagging, vomiting, dying men, women, and children (but mainly, children), who were attacked by their own countrymen with the gas.
Germany originated sarin gas, now being used by Syria’s Assad regime against so-called Syrian rebels, dur- ing World War II. Anyone who doesn’t believe our 45th President watches television did not hear what he said or see how he looked when he saw a Syrian child splayed on a hospital cot as its shivering body was doused with water in hopes of washing away the sarin effects.
He was in agreement with people globally who con- demned Assad’s actions as “heinous.”
Then he did what few fellow human beings worldwide could do . . . he sent 60 Tomahawk missiles to one of the Syrian military airstrips that launched the planes that dropped the sarin bombs. But there was only one prob- lem: Hitting back hard was what we civilians would have done. But was it what the President of the United States (“Shoot first and ask questions later!”) should have done?
A news correspondent said it best. He asked, “Are we doing a military action or are we starting a war?” For those of us who have loved ones of military age, the hor- ror of their being swallowed by an upcoming war is more than disquieting.
But, another unsettling possibility is that once again the Trump regime has switched the pea from under the cup, wherein the issue is now no longer Russian hacking, but the shadow of Armageddon, and what’s worse; Amer- icans have yet to see Trump’s tax returns.
Yes, the death of Syrian children is unnerving, but so is the possibility that Trump (“The Great Magician”) has changed the card game once again, and with crocodile tears may be leading us down an irreversible rat hole.
P
process of being formalized (Baltimore, Chicago etc.). In addition, Civil Rights groups have expressed concern about such reviews and the cancellation of the decrees...
Thanks to the Obama Administration, local police departments were held accountable for unconstitutional practices and were required to review their training on the use of deadly force, practices of bias and excessive force and the mistreatment of Blacks and Hispanics.
However, President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ pro-law enforcement and law-and-order preference indicate that they believe “it’s not the responsibility of the federal government to “manage” non-federal law enforcement agencies” and, therefore, could very well leave Black Americans and other minorities without any protection from unethical, racist, and inhumane treatment by police departments that fail to hold their officers accountable for biased and unethical behaviors.
So, we urge our elected officials to oppose the justice Department’s attempt to change its mission and to shirk its responsibility to “seek just punishment for those guilty of un- lawful behavior and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Ameri- cans.” Attorney General Sessions needs to re-read his department’s mission statement.
The Justice Dept., No Longer A Black Safe-Haven
I n case you missed the recent news, the United States’ Justice Department is in process of reviewing all con- sent decrees (agreements with police departments that were placed on review due to excessive incidents of racial bias and excessive force against Blacks and Hispanics)
throughout America.
This reverses the Obama administration’s investiga-
tion of at least 24 police departments, 14 which ended with consent decrees, several of which are still in the
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2017