[QUOTE=ewmayer;408733][URL="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/aumf-isis/402017/"]The Constitution and the War on ISIS[/URL] - The Atlantic

I'd be interested in other readers' takes on this.[/QUOTE]
I can mostly agree with the author, except for his wrap up:

[QUOTE]There are institutional reasons why the two branches are content to make war-and-peace decisions in silence. But we the people don’t have to accept that. [U][B]We can insist that Congress take this matter up[/B][/U], and we can also insist that they treat this life-and-death issue as if they were grown-ups.[/QUOTE]

While I agree with the presentation of the problem, and the Constitutional failure of the two branches; it is laughable to suppose that "We can insist" that Congress do anything. It has long been clear that Congress is acting from partisan and political motivations, with no concern for minor details such as Constitutional requirements. None of the Congressional parties involved want to [U]officially[/U] get any figurative blood on their hands, so they evade their responsibilities. Too many of the American electorate are too ignorant to know that there is a problem, and those would most likely not care if they were made aware of it. :cmd:

"With friends like these" update [no, not Israel, nor Pakistan, nor Iraqnistan - Turkey]:

[url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article32206167.html]Turkey tipped al Qaida group to U.S.-trained fighters[/url]
[quote]The kidnapping of a group of U.S.-trained moderate Syrians moments after they entered Syria last month to confront the Islamic State was orchestrated by Turkish intelligence, multiple rebel sources have told McClatchy.

The rebels say that the tipoff to al Qaida’s Nusra Front enabled Nusra to snatch many of the 54 graduates of the $500 million program on July 29 as soon as they entered Syria, dealing a humiliating blow to the Obama administration’s plans for confronting the Islamic State.[/quote]
Ah yes, again those noble "moderate rebels" so beloved by U.s. strategerists.

The Turks have also been using the "glorious joint campaign to defeat ISIS" as a pretext to bomb the Kurds - who have been doing the yeoman's work to actually combat ISIS there - in N. Iraq.

We got it from the first time, you don't need to post twice. :razz:
We don't like turks hehe, (for historical reasons, we always were fighting against each other), but please use your supermod powers and delete one of your posts (this post of mine will have to go too, in this case)

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/[/url]

[CENTER][LEFT]More cheerful history and analysis from Robert Parry. Note that while the title only mentions neocons, the article generally pairs them with "liberal interventionists," such as a Presidential candidate and former Secretary of State, among others.
[/LEFT]
[URL="https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/07/how-neocons-destabilized-europe/"]How Neocons Destabilized Europe[/URL] -Robert Parry
[LEFT][QUOTE]The refugee chaos that is now pushing deep into Europe – dramatized by gut-wrenching photos of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi whose body washed up on a beach in Turkey – started with the cavalier ambitions of American neocons and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks who planned to remake the Middle East and other parts of the world through “regime change.”
Instead of the promised wonders of “democracy promotion” and “human rights,” what these “anti-realists” have accomplished is to spread death, destruction and destabilization across the Middle East and parts of Africa and now into Ukraine and the heart of Europe. Yet, since these neocon forces still control the Official Narrative, their explanations get top billing – such as that there hasn’t been enough “regime change.”
[/QUOTE][/LEFT]
[/CENTER]

[url]http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/palestinians-win-approval-to-fly-flag-at-un-1.2348456[/url]

[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/03/us-mideast-crisis-syria-airstrikes-idUSKCN0RW0W220151003[/url]

[QUOTE]A U.S. air strike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Afghan city of Kunduz on Saturday, killing at least nine people in what the U.S. military called possible "collateral damage" in the battle to oust Taliban insurgents.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;411896][URL]http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/03/us-mideast-crisis-syria-airstrikes-idUSKCN0RW0W220151003[/URL][/QUOTE]

".....Medecins Sans Frontieres.....'

The latter, above, does not appear in the former (linked). Do I need to RMA my irony detector? :confused:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;411896][url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/03/us-mideast-crisis-syria-airstrikes-idUSKCN0RW0W220151003[/url][/QUOTE]

Re. the '0bama says Russia risks quagmire' in the actual linked article - shorter 0bama: 'Hey, that's *our* quagmire!'

And how dare the evil Russkies bomb the US-backed 'moderate rebels' ... those guys aren't ISIS, they're Al Qaeda! You know, our palsy-walsies...

[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/03/us-afghanistan-attack-idUSKCN0RW0HC20151003[/url]

Dunno how we messed up the link.

:confused:

In the wake of the recent Kafkaesque naming by the UN of none other than Saudi Arabia to head its Human Rights Panel, it didn't take long for a 'whodathunk what kinds of agenda that might lead to?' moment to arrive:

[url=http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/world/middleeast/western-nations-drop-push-for-un-inquiry-into-yemen-conflict.html]Saudi Arabia Forces The UN To Drop Humanitarian Inquiry Into Yemen Atrocities[/url] | NYT

Now, just imagine the hue and cry in the MSM had it been the Russians killing 130 people at a wedding party in Syria (as the Saudis did in Yemen), or deliberately bombing an MSF-run charity hospital, as the US did this weekend in Afghanistan. I expect even Kafka, were he still alive, would be speechless at the sheer brazenness of the US hypocrisy re. the ME.