What’s Wrong with Having an Atrocities Czar?
That’s an especially good question given this administration’s approach to date to atrocities (as I’d define them) on its watch. In Libya, the U.S. led from behind to remove Gaddafi — who was a vile tyrant, but not in recent years a prime threat to the U.S. But in the case of Iran, where the regime runs global terrorist networks, is pursuing nuclear weapons, and has been threatening for years to obliterate the U.S. ally and democratic state of Israel, the Obama administration confined itself to bearing “witness” and looked to the long “arc of history,” while Iranian protesters were beaten and shot in the streets. In Syria, where the regime is in bed with Iran, the death toll now tops 10,000, after more than a year of rebellion against Assad’s brutal rule — and the U.S. looks on. And in North Korea, where the entire system of government qualifies as an atrocity, the same old Pyongyang shakedown routine has carried on, with North Korea’s 2009 nuclear test and 2012 ballistic missile test (excuse me, “satellite launch”) punctuated by U.S. offers of talks, and food aid for North Koreans whose chief obstacle to feeding themselves is that they are hostage to their country’s murderous government.
The biggest problem with the unveiling of the Atrocities Prevention Board is that it is not actually the core responsibility of the United States government to prevent atrocities elsewhere in the world. It is the core responsibility of the U.S. government to defend the United States and uphold its constitution. That may well entail taking action to prevent atrocities abroad; there can be enormous justification for doing exactly that, and America has often done so. But it is alarming when the same players who protest the idea of America leading from in front, and who revile America for behaving as a superpower in the defense of its own interests, are eager to mold America as a philanthropic emergency squad on call for the planet. That’s a setup in which America has all the responsibility for others, but no rights to look out for itself. In deciding what constitutes an atrocity, and if, when, and how America in the service of its own interests and values should do something about it, what’s badly needed is not another committee. What’s needed is good judgment at the top.
How about the fact that this is not an office created by Congress? This is yet another usurpation of Congressional authority by the President.
BINGO!
First post, right out the chute and nailed it!
An “atrocities czar” is on the horn of moral relativism just the way that “hate crimes” and “protected classes” of people are.
When one reads, understands and follows the Constitution, such new things would be deemed redundant and unnecessary. They instead conflate the meaning of already-existing law and serve to undermine it with some morally relativistic junk that’s neither relevant nor appropriate. IOW’s starting fires where there was none before, nor no need for it.
Manufactured crises, encouraged hatred for things that aren’t real, the great imaginings of the left. Only time will tell if such mental masturbation wins the day.
An Atrocities Czar.
I hadn’t yet had any coffee and have pre-op cataracts, a bad combination for reading, and saw the headline as An Atrocity of Czars. I thought you’d coined one, there. A collective noun, that is. And I do love collective nouns (see here, for example: http://www.rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml).
Let’s try to make “an atrocity of czars” a proper collective noun.
Who’s with me?
I don’t usually like Wikipedia as a resource, but their page on collective nouns is, possibly, better than the above! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns
Truth is stranger than fiction: Samantha Powers, Atrocity Czar. Some people get to have all the fun, get a paycheck for it, or a title that can be cashed in later (hefty speaking fees) compliments of tax paying citizens and/or our anointed elite.
“What’s needed is good judgment at the top.”
Your lips to God’s ear Claudia. The level of stupid with this administration is truly breath-taking.
I don’t want any Czar’s ever none. There is not a speck of room for them in the Constitution and those “jobs” should not exist.
Sad that we have come to that.
Keep in mind that during the early Clinton years, an assistant SecDef said that the Clinton administration’s plans for the U.s. military were to move it toward doing only “humanitarian missions”, rather than being able to fight wars. (“The Horror! The Horror! We are CIVILIIZED PEOPLE! Only barbarians use force-on anybody but their own countrymen who disagree with them….”)
Not long after that, of course, came Kosovo, which was touted as a “humanitarian mission”. Tell that to USAF, USN, USMC, and RAF tactical fighter pilots and backseaters who were busy dodging flak and SAMs over Serb-held areas.
What I see here is yet another effort by “progressives” to tell themselves how intellectually and morally superior to all us peons’ they are. (“We’re against atrocities! See? See?”)
I expect the the weekly meetings of the agencies mentioned (State, Defense, etc.) to be yet another mutual-admiration society with all the participants breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for how wonderfully enlightened they are.
But when it comes to actual atrocities, expect them to try desperately to ignore them. Remember, most of the likely perpetrators of same, like leftover Communists, Islamic regimes’, wannabee Napoleons (Hugo Chavez’), & etc., are on the progressives “Protected” list precisely because they, like the progressives, hate the West in general and us in particular.
And they certainly aren’t going after the single biggest atrocity factory in the world today- that being the People’s Republic of China. (They owe them too much money.) As for more localized snakepits, like Zimbabwe or South Africa- surely you jest.
I expect this granfalloon (to borrow a term from Kurt Vonnegut) to turn into a ritual d**k-beating society (to borrow a term from John Ringo). The only way they wil be anything different, under this administration, is if they can figure out some way to accuse the people of the United States of atrocities, especially against Holy Mother Gaia. Or else some U.S. ally, assuming we actually have any left, which after the last three years I have my doubts about.
If I were Israel, George Zimmerman, or any U.S. oil company, I’d be worrying about this bunch. By comparison, the Muslim Brotherhood is probably celebrating.
clear ether
eon
Samantha Powers has been itching to invade Israel for years now. I’m sure some excuse will be made to do so. Good luck getting our troops to play along. When the obama admin was saying they’d deny airspace over Iraq if Israel decided to take on Iran our pilots made it clear they’d refuse to fire on Israeli pilots.
On another level, I am sick to death of playing world cop. Enough already.
You had better bet that the primary focus of this board will Israel. This allows Powers to recruit all the various agencies to her cause, which is eradication of the hated Zionist entity.
I would like to report the first atrocity. I am reporting the Obama administration for creating an atrocity by creating an “Atrocities Prevention Board” with another “czar” to head it up.
Here’s an atrocity – continuing to let that sack of you-know-what Sharpton act as a mouthpiece for the Black community.
By all means let’s be George Zimmerman for the entire planet. What could possibly go wrong?
Soooooo, basically you are saying that if another country pounds our (America’s) head into the pavement we should just take it laying down?
You mean other than czars are neither elected nor confirmed by the senate? Well for one thing, Obama’s czars are each in place to forward their narrative. In this instance, the mere existance of an atrocities* czar must mean there are atrocities that need addressing. However, I have a feeling that our definition of an atrocity might differ greatly from that of the Compassionate.
*Of course, as in all things, first the terms must be defined.
This is not even do-goodism, it’s feel-goodism: create a committee that will say “atrocities are bad” and hey, you’re worthy of a Nobel Prize.
Unless job one is a proposal to get rid of the North Korean government, and a plan to reunite the Korean peninsula, this is an unserious proposal that is simply painting a band-aid on an open artery.
Agreed. It’s a way to ignore a real problem (however difficult the term “atrocity” may be to define) while pretending to deal with it, and to expand the power of people who think like Samantha Power. It’s a twofer.
How did this thing get funded?
This sounds like the result of a bribe or an exchange of favors to me. Is it some make-work pretend-job for Samantha Power after she got busted out of a meaningful position when she was caught calling Hillary a “monster”? Did Cass Sunstein lobby for something like Michelle had at the University of Chicago to get his wife out of the house?
Yes, how did this get funded? I’d like to know how all of his “Czars” get funded — and how he gets control of funds to send to the PA when Congress said “No.”
How the O gets funding for whatever he wants to do — this seems to be something that the American public does not have a “need to know.”
And — of course, the only reason this “Atrocity” is being set up is to use it against Israel. What happened to the “Responsibility to Protect?” Wasn’t Ms. Powers in charge of that one too?
An atrocity is distinguished from collateral damage, female circumcision,
and inadequate preparation for a worst-case tsunami by the following factors:
It is an end in itself, those affected consider themselves victims, and
it is deliberate.
What the US needs is a Federal Bureau of Assassination.
Dictatorships are the easiest form of government to control;
Just hold a gun to the head of the dictator.
For you nit-picking quibblers:
A ‘Dictatorship’ is rule by force by the few, or the one.
This has bothered me more and more recently. We hear Progressives demanding to know why we have not taken action in Darfur, Zimbabwe, or – pick the African disaster of your choice, where there is no clear violation of U.S. interests, and – perhaps more importantly – no legal reason under international law for us to do so. We cannot claim self-defense, we cannot even claim preemptive action in advance of an anticipated strike. Sending in Special Forces secretly to support an ally (even a vile one) is one thing; openly invading to take sides in a conflict is another.
This is especially disturbing in the light of the dismantling of the U.S. defense structure by the current administration. Cannot the President and his ilk see that if we feel free to impose our morality upon some African thugs, that someday the Chinese or Russians may attempt to impose their morality upon us? The police can only do their job when 1) they have the social/moral high ground (they are acknowledged as legitimate authority by the majority of the society) and 2) when they are better armed than the bad-guys. Reference the current situation in England.
The same Samantha Powers who thinks we should send US troops to occupy Israel and provide the Palestinian Hamas government with heavy weapons?
James Gibney asked, “Just where does one draw the line?”
That’s precisely Obama’s point, isn’t it?
Good article. This proposal for an ‘atrocities board’ is typical of the games O’s administration has been playing to distract people from seeing that it does not have a normal agenda and wants only to socialize the country out of existence. In line with much of what this administration has done so far this board will serve the same function as special effects in most Hollywood movies: all SF and no plot—excepting the one that just stole some of your money.
What’s the UN for?
Rhetorical question.
They are only following the religion they want to rule with to the letter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_world_order_%28Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD%29
Some of the principles outlined in the New World Order include
universal peace;
the unity of religion;
the setting up a world government which could enact laws required to satisfy the needs of all people;
an elected world parliament;
a binding world tribunal;
a world police force;
a universal bill of human rights;
the universal right to education;
the setting up of an auxiliary universal language;
the continued diversity of culture;
a system of world commerce through the establishment of an equitable economic system where the economic security of the individual is assured;[2][3]
elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty.
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I shit you not.. Samantha Power even had a nice chat with the Baha’i that plot here in America..
http://www.portsmouthpeacetreaty.com/powerforum2.cfm
SAMANTHA POWER, “Chasing the Flame”
Thank you.
Yes, my husband Cass Sunstein has driven up with me from Boston to make sure I answer no questions on the transition team. He ‘s also equipped me with all sorts of platitudes to use in the event that I ever get asked questions about President Obama. I am supposed to say “He will consider all the variables. One of the variables is that he will consider is how many of the variables to consider in considering all the variables.” I’m not sure how well these lines fit with being a fiery Irish redhead but I am hoping to begin to absorb that way of speaking. It will make your time less fun, certainly.
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And guess what.. the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect is a Baha’i concept..
http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/Clarifying%20the%20Third%20Pillar%20of%20the%20Responsibility%20to%20Protect_Timely%20and%20Decisive%20Response%281%29.pdf
“The third pillar defines the responsibility of the international community to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner, on a case-by-case basis, and in accordance with the UN Charter”
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/FWU/fwu-7.html.utf8?query=rise%20up&action=highlight#pg33
“For example, the question of Universal Peace, about which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh says that the Supreme Tribunal must be established; although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfill this sacred task with the utmost might and power. And his plan is this: that the national assemblies of each country and nation—that is to say, their parliaments—should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well informed concerning international laws and the relations between governments and aware of the essential needs of the world of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives should be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national assembly—that is, the parliament—must be confirmed by the upper house, the congress and the cabinet and also by the president or monarch so that these persons may be the elected 33 ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected, and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for every one of these delegates is fully representative of his nation. When the Supreme Tribunal gives a ruling on any international question, either unanimously or by majority rule, there will no longer be any pretext for the plaintiff or ground of objection for the defendant. In case any of the governments or nations, in the execution of the irrefutable decision of the Supreme Tribunal, be negligent or dilatory, the rest of the nations will rise up against it, because all the governments and nations of the world are the supporters of this Supreme Tribunal. Consider what a firm foundation this is! But by a limited and restricted League the purpose will not be realized as it ought and should. This is the truth about the situation which has been stated…. “
Does anyone doubt that Obama is a Communist now? ABO2012
Enlighten this benighted naif. What is a Tsar/Csar of any kind doing in the USA.
A bizarre name for personal advisors of the President of the USA. A contemptuous play in America? Or is it a message of his means and ends?
It’s a bit like their “equality, fairness and social justice” which were VERY selective. Yet we fall in with their designs in accepting their words without considering their meanings. Remember what the words they use actually mean. OR Did mean before they got their hands on them.
Words like liberal for these statist totalitarians. Words like racism and all their other isms as a whip to bring Americans into line with controls designed by the progenitors of these Tsars/Csars. Forcing laws directly contrary thus abrogating the Constitutional protections of Rights for example that in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, that “Congress SHALL make NO Law … abridging the freedom of speech…”.
To determine that an entire population, man woman and child, even to its honoured dead is guilty of thie crime concocted by these “liberals”.
An entire population unto the fourth generation Pre-judged guilty for crimes that didn’t even have a name until these “liberals”, finally outed as “progressives”, saw their chance for their cold civil war and took it. To fracture the nation by pitting citizens against citizens. Redefiining words to their ends. Race/ethnic against race/ethnic, sex/gender against male/female, non- Christian against Christian, young against old, everybody against the military and police, and a love-in for the “liberals” who “feel your pain”.
How could they lose. And they didn’t.
Now we accept their language, and thus their world view with all the ramifications. Is that success or is that success?
And the President of the USA, of whom we know nothing trustworthy smirks and calls his intimate advisors Tsars/Csars.
Well yes, the government is here to defend us, subject to political process.
You might note that Israel has opted to sacrifice its own people in the name of keeping foreigners and the local elites sweet. Neither of which are running any risks.
Further, once you have such a board it becomes a political tool very useful in hectoring and suppressing actions unappealing to the elites.
The fact that she’s the wife of Cass Sunstein has nothing to do with this?
Yeah, sure. She’s been pushing this for years (I watch Charlie Rose, she’s on quite often). This is a position created especially for her as a favor to Cass.
This is an all-encompassing sentence from Ms Rosett….
“It is the core responsibility of the U.S. government to defend the United States and uphold its constitution.”
Let all of the “United Nations” take note of that, separately and/or united. Another one of those sentences which ought to deeply carved on a massive archway near the entrance to that U.N. skyscraper and United States Treasury scraper.
It’s mainly because creating an “X” board and appointing an “X” czar usually amounts to “doing nothing substantive to address X, hindering things that are not related to X, and hoovering money that won’t improve X.” It’s a fully funded method of kicking the can down the road.
“At least once per month, and more often in times of emergency, the Atrocities Prevention Board, or APB, will convene representatives of State, Defense, Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, USAID, the Joint Staff, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, and the Office of the Vice President to hammer out “the development and implementation of atrocity prevention and response policy.”
And yet nobody is there from Congress. You know Congress, that branch of government that was given the power under the Constitution to pay for things and declare war? To Obama and his minions, it’s a quaint little document that belongs under glass somewhere but it really doesn’t mean much. This is just another attempt to get around Congress so that the president can go off on his many tangents all over the world, led by the United Nations, NOT Congress.
When it comes to getting involved in other people’s atrocities, Obama seems to have a fetish for not listening to or informing Congress until AFTER he’s attacked a country. Libya is the best example of this. We had absolutely no reason to go to war in Libya, none at all. Yet the White House, which called our intervention in that civil war a “Kinetic Military Action” (no, I’m not kidding, that’s what they called it, you can look it up if you want to), seems to only want to listen to the United Nations when it comes to going to war. This goes under Obama’s desire for a “one world government,” something that should make everybody in this nation nervous. This would make the United States the de facto military policeman on this planet, kneeling at the beck and call of the United Nations.
And how did that intervention in Libya turn out? Oh just swell. There are various militias now all over the country trying to grab power and oil on a daily basis and killing all sorts of people. In short, you now have a Somalia-like country only a few miles off the coast of Europe. Yup, western intervention in Libya sure did work, didn’t it? And some of these militias also have al Qaeda members in them, bringing them even closer to Europe. I’m sure the Europeans love that. Potential terrorists only a few miles away. What’s not to love?
If Obama is so anxious to get involved into other people’s civil wars, why doesn’t he let the Europeans do it? After all, they did such a “fabulous” job in Libya, a war they never, ever, could have won without massive support from the United States (and they know it). So that leaves us, folks, to clean up the mess that other countries make, even though it has no bearing on us.
So now Syria has major atrocities taking place. Does that mean the United States has to get involved there, too? How about we sit this one out and let the Syrians decide who is going to win this one? Notice you don’t hear much from the Europeans about getting involved, right? Perhaps they know something that we don’t, like Syria isn’t worth getting involved in?
Me, I’m still waiting for him to appoint a “Czar of all the Russias”…
How much do you want to bet that Ms. Powers is pro-abortion? If the illegality of this office were not enough reason to oppose the existence of an Atrocities Czar, the fact that the Atrocities Czar will ignore atrocities in our own country is.
More to the point, the Atrocities Czar will soon be deciding how many children you will be allowed to have!
Whose “Atrocities? Decided by whom?
The real ruler of America at the moment is Valerie Jarret
she is baha’i
all you see happening conforms to baha’i prophecies..
disprove me
Ms Rosett again demonstrates her selective attention: Syria bad, Bahrain (presumably ..) good. President Assad may be a dictator, but he is a thoroughly *secular* one. Why the Western intelligence services are backing the so.called “Free Syria Army,” I cannot pretend to guess. This band of thugs is aligned ideologically with al-Qaeda and has made a program of targeting religious minorities, including Christians. These are the people Senators McCain and Lieberman want to arm?? I suppose it’s all about tweaking Iran (wasn’t shooting down one of their civilain airliners enough?).
This strikes me as something primarily set up as a gotcha for the coming election. If Conservatives are at all resistant to what is clearly both unconstitutional and just plain wrong, when it is named “Atrocities Prevention Board” the Obama campaign/leftists/MSM (Yeah, I am being reduntant) can pull the usual “Republicans R Evile, they like atrocities!!!”
Beats having actual facts on your side, I guess
Thank you for printing this. Power hates Israel because she was brainwashed in Ireland that multiculti is good and colonialism is bad.
This Irish Catholic thinks that Western Civilization is good and barbarism is bad, but fortunately for me I never went to college.