Air strikes carried out by the US and its coalition partners in Syria have killed the highest number of civilians on record since the bombing campaign began, a war monitor has said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group mostly advocating anti-government forces in the war in Syria, said on Tuesday that the US-led coalition killed a total of 225 civilians between April 23 and May 23, the highest 30-day toll since the campaign began in 2014.
“The past month of operations is the highest civilian toll since the coalition began bombing Syria,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency. “There has been a very big escalation.”
A U.S. military spokesman was quick to characterize those casualties as being accidents, otherwise, the result of U.S.-allied bombings but deferring all blame from the U.S.-led alliance.
Stephen Townsend, a U.S. general and commander of Baghdad’s forces, said that the Islamic State group had “probably played a role in those casualties,” by using civilians as human shields. He provided no proof to validate his claims.
International human rights organizations argue that the official number of civilians killed in coalition operations is far greater than that reported by the Pentagon because Washington rejects figures provided by monitors on the ground and always tries to cut back on the number of the casualties.
In March, the US was accused of killing around 300 civilians alone after one strike which hit a mosque in Aleppo province and two incidents in the fight for ISIS-controlled neighborhoods of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Earlier this month, the US military said that coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had ”unintentionally“ killed 352 civilians since the campaign began, but rights groups have blasted the estimate as too low, saying the US is guilty of not taking “sufficient precautions” to avoid civilian deaths.
The US and allies formed the coalition earlier in 2014 to fight Daesh in neighboring Iraq, but they later expanded it to include territories in east and north of Syria. Damascus, which itself is busy fighting terrorists on multiple fronts, condemned the decision at the time, saying it violated Syria’s territorial integrity.
The Syrian government has never sought assistance from the West as it insists that Washington and allies in Europe have helped the surge in militancy in the Arab country by providing direct finance and weaponry to certain militant groups.
SOHR’s own estimate is that 1,481 people, among them 319 children, have been killed by US-led air operations since 2014.
The International Coalition consists of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Denmark among others.
Alice Donovan is an independent writer, blogger, meme maker and activist. She has been published in different alternative media outlets including WeAreChange, VeteransToday, CounterPunch, MintPressNews, GlobalResearch and OpEdNews.
They’re Love Bombs.
War is hell and should be fought as such. Until all people see it as too horrible to participate in it will never cease to exist.
Therefore, we should increase the bombing and killing of all living things in the Middle East until they beg for peace from all avenues.
Why?
They have no bases on our continent, nor do they have the weapons we have. We invaded their nation in the name of banks, corporations, at times at the behest of already known but not prosecuted traitors to our nation etc. They never attacked us here, every *terrorist attack has had the FBI (quite possibly the CIA involved intimately with the planning, procuring or creation of the weapons used against Americans, etc. How could anyone who serves within the US Government do those things against their own people?
Actually, we are forbidden to go attack other nations, our military is for DEFENSE which is why they say we must go attack and invade those nations to stop them from coming here BS.
Eradication is our only option.
You are going to be eradicated soon enough. I think that is the plan.
LOL!
http://minnesota.cbslocal.c…
Can we get Greg to speak out about our law enforcement interfering with peaceful Muslims in Sanctuary Cities? These two young men had an opportunity to show fellow Minnesotans the love of the Religion of Peace. Now we may not get to have our own Manchester in Minneapolis.
Come on liberals protest the arrest of these two loving Muslims.
You should travel to Minneapolis to demand their release.
Your sarcasm is misconstrued.
Try a more direct and honest approach.
Until those who serve within our Congress declares war, there should not be one US soldier over seas, not one drone, etc.
Consider that we went over there and attacked their country, hurt, kill their citizens, etc with no reason. They have the right to choose whatever type of government they want – and if they do not want it, like our forefathers did, the people of that nation will change it.
But then, with no ongoing UNLAWFUL wars going on? Why the Pentagon full of military “brass”? Why the LIES it took to take our people into war wanted and created by those who do not want to lose power, money, prestige – even if it means committing treason against our nation; by corporations and banking who make billions of of selling military arms to all sides; CIA overthrowing regimes, etc; etc.
James Madison: “The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature … the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.”
George Washington: “The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and
authorized such a measure.”
James Madison: “In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.
The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”
James Madison: “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
The authority of those who serve within our government is in writing. Our military is used to commit terrorism abroad, while law enforcement is used to commit terrorism here on US soil. WE are not supposed to have “alliances” so that our nation would not be in everlasting wars of aggression. We are NOT a “Democracy”, and we are NOT spreading “Democracy” all over the world, we are the ones spreading hate, discontent, the murder of civilians and invasions of their country because the government that they had refused to recognize our nation as the “ruler” to whom they must obey and bow. This is done in OUR name, and endangers us all. Propaganda, drugs, and continuous spying is used AGAINST the American people by those supposedly serving within the high ranks of our military and the CIA not to “keep us safe” – which we never asked for or agreed to, it came in with the other all the other ‘already prepared’ stuff with 9/11 – it is used to control us.
28 C.F.R. Section 0.85 Terrorism is defined as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”.
George Washington: “It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world. The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
John Quincy Adams: “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled there will America’s hearts, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher of the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.“
John Quincy Adams: “America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume
the colors and usurp the standards of freedom.”
Color of law: The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of legal right. Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because wrongdoer is clothed with authority of state, is action taken under “color of law.” Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, page 241.
President Andrew Johnson: “Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private
citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.”
Bertrand Russell,1953: “… Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible…” (“The Impact of Science on Society”, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1953)
So what is the answer to our dilemma? It is to remove every single person who serves within our governments and replace them, Stop and disband all political parties because they allow foreign influence into our government if not outright place it there. Our governments and military are full of traitors and domestic enemies at the top – so how does one know the truth, when an action is LAWFUL? Read the US Constitution, if it goes against it, then it is NOT LAWFUL, and the person giving the orders is working against our nation from within – either through willing treason or through ignorance, the end result is the same.
It has to do with everyone i Government getting to retire and collect their Fat Pensions.
I challenge everyone to starve the beast. Try deducting the cost of war based on the Pentagons inability to account for 6 TRILLION of your dollars from your federal income tax. Go ahead, I dare you to DO SOMETHING…if you aren’t a slave.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a46766f5dadc4bdcc6589be079138d4a00632e78f4b0f9554823e79b5ebee535.jpg
Let’s just do away with these three agencies, there Billions saved.? Liberals feed the beast to grow the bureaucracy yet expect more.
Excellent comment and right to the heart of the matter that most quickly overlook !!!
Exactly the same with the official story of nine eleven.
If eleven men with box cutters can thwart ALL of our defense agencies, doesn’t that prove them totally incompetent ?
Especially when one clouds their minds with political correctness
“MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There are growing concerns about the arrest of two brothers with ties to the Middle East who authorities say had an arsenal with bomb-making materials, guns and ammunition in their car.
Twenty-seven-year-old Abdullah Alrifahe and 26-year-old Majid Alrifahe were arrested on May 11 in north Minneapolis.
Abdullah is being held in the Hennepin County Jail. His brother, Majid, has been released and is facing minor charges.”
Too bad these guys were caught, Minneapolis had a tremendous opportunity to enjoy the love and peace associated with Islam. It would have been fun to watch these two shoot up a school or blow up a music venue filled with peace loving liberals.
Who else would the U.S. military bomb?