While We Were Watching March Madness

The Madness that is War was going on in many parts of the world...with the danger of more US involvement growing.

 

In one of the worse cases, a “coalition” air strike on Mosul, Iraq’s 2nd largest city, reportedly killed as many as 100 civilians, not involved in taking the town back from ISIS. At first the US said this was a “coalition” event, but later confirmed it was made by US planes...and opened a probe into the civilian deaths and what happened. (Fortunately the original report did not call this a “surgical strike.”)

 

So, once again, as in Afghanistan, Iraq, (not to mention the ancient history in Vietnam), for all our best intentions to avoid “collateral damage” (read  “we killed innocents,”) these tragedies repeat.

 

They will likely repeat again as the Trump administration has indicated it will send more US troops to Iraq—and even Syria. Obama started this but said they would be support troops and not engage in combat. But one US serviceman has been killed already, because his support position apparently wasn’t far enough from the fighting. And military officials said that if our support people were fired on, they of course would, and should, fire back.

 

Meanwhile, the NY TImes reminded us that we are THREE YEARS into fighting ISIS and Congress has not followed the Constitution by “ passing legislation authorizing the anti-ISIS fight.”  Which, as a believer that only Congress may declare war—as the Constitution clearly indicates—makes our effort in Iraq & Syria illegal, as well as immoral.

 

And, by the way, Pres. Trump has indicated he will take such a hard line on North Korea that our new Sec. of State said “all options are on the table,” including a first strike by the US against them!

 

Please keep your eyes on these unfolding  events, and let our senators and representatives know your feelings.

 

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And oh yes, during March Madness, that shyster lawyer Eric Conn pled guilty to fraud...but his hundreds of Kentucky clients still face financial ruin and personal tragedy until their disability benefits, which he screwed up, get straightened out. Our federal and state representatives and agencies have done all too little to help these unfortunate people.  You might let them know your views here, as well.

 

I'm just sayin'...