"Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin."

I do assess with varying degrees of horror (some of the varying degrees rather high even) that a lot of people are going to die. And how dare they die from chemical weapons when they should be dying from hellfire missiles and cluster bombs and napalm and depleted uranium and white phosphorous. We have a responsibility to protect these people from dying of the wrong type of weapon and in too small numbers.

I'm in Dallas protesting the rehabilitation of our last criminal president because of the precedents he set for our current criminal president. So, precedents are on my mind. One precedent for an illegal humanitarian NATO war on Syria is, of course, the illegal humanitarian war on Libya two years ago. And the pair of precedents (Libya and Syria) will put the target of the neocon/neoliberal cooperative war project squarely on Iran.

As a perpetual emotion machine -- producing and guzzling its own political fuel -- the "war on terror" continues to normalize itself as a thoroughly American way of life and death. Ongoing warfare has become a matter of default routine, pushed along by mainline media and the leadership of both parties in Washington. Without a clear and effective upsurge of opposition from the grassroots, Americans can expect to remain citizens of a war-driven country for the rest of their lives.

Across the United States, many thousands of peeling bumper stickers on the road say: "End this Endless War." They got mass distribution from MoveOn.org back in 2007, when a Republican was in the White House. Now, a thorough search of the MoveOn website might leave the impression that endless war ended with the end of the George W. Bush presidency.

As this is written, everyone wounded in the terror bombings at the Boston Marathon has survived his or her wounds. This remarkable testament to effective medical response stems largely from Boston’s exceptional health-care capacity.

But as demonstrated by the fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, the chaos wreaked by Superstorm Sandy, the shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., and the horrible gun violence that savages Chicago, every community must ask if it has the capacity to answer emergencies. And in South Chicago and other neglected poor communities, the answer is surely no.

The remarkable response in Boston was exemplary, but unique. The bombs exploded at a site — the finish line of the Boston Marathon — staffed by emergency medical services personnel and other first responders. Six trauma centers were within a few minutes of the finish line. Those hospitals were prepared to treat dehydrated runners. Several had surgeons and other clinicians familiar with blast injuries from their service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'm honored to have accepted the position of Secretary of Peace in the newly formed Green Shadow Cabinet. Of course, I cannot contrast my positions with those of the actual Secretary of Peace, as the United States has no such position.

There is a Secretary of War, although that title was changed to Secretary of Defense 66 years ago. It was changed the same year George Orwell wrote his masterpiece, 1984, in which he suggested that language is sometimes used as a disguise. In fact, ever since the War Department became the Defense Department, its business has had less than ever to do with defense and more than ever to do with promoting the use of war-making as an instrument of national policy. President Dwight Eisenhower observed and warned of this worsening situation 52 years ago in one of the most prescient but least heeded (even by Eisenhower) warnings since Cassandra told the Trojans to be wary of giant horses.

This weekend I chaired a conference entitled "Re-examining the Lucasville Uprising." The following is the unanimous resolution passed on the 20th anniversary of the Lucasville Uprising, the largest prison uprising in the history of the United States.
RE-EXAMINING LUCASVILLE RESOLUTION
Having met in Columbus on April 19-21, 2013, to re-examine the history of the uprising in April 1993 and the judicial proceedings that followed, we conclude:
1. No one should be executed for alleged conduct during the rebellion! The State relied on the unreliable testimony of prisoner informants, obtained in exchange for substantial benefits. The State also concedes that it does not know who were the hands-on killers of Officer Vallandingham and the other victims. Investigators and prosecutors pursued a strategy of targeting prisoners who served as spokespersons and negotiators, in violation of the settlement agreement. There was no physical evidence except for the testimony of medical examiners, which repeatedly contradicted prosecution theories. For these and other facts, see below.