The Final Insult? US Abstains in UN Cease-Fire Vote

I know that the "real" final insult of George W. Bush will be the pardon list we'll get on his way out the door, but I couldn't help but lump this into the same category because really, everything he's doing these last few weeks is all just one big slap in the face.

At the United Nations, fourteen nations approved the Security Council resolution urging a[n Israeli/Palestinian] cease-fire, with the United States abstaining. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States abstained, which left it unclear how a cease-fire would be enforced, because it wanted to see whether mediation efforts undertaken by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt would succeed. The United States did not veto the resolution because Washington supports its overall goals, she said.

They fucking abstained in voting on a cease-fire?! They wanted to wait on Egypt's mediation efforts? I don't EVER want to hear another conservative dickwad like Rush Limbaugh or crack whore like Ann Coulter EVER malign Obama again for voting "present" while in the Illinois State Senate.

This abstention, this non-vote, this "present" vote was a tacit admission by the Bush administration that whatever Israel does is fine by us. I hope that the incoming Obama team would be decent enough, human enough to vote in the affirmative should a situation like this come up again. But that's hard for me to imagine because to this point, the only voice in all of Congress that has been outwardly critical of Israel's disproportionate attack in Gaza has been Dennis Kucinich.

...Kucinich likened the Israeli attacks on Gaza to its war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. In both cases, he said, civilian populations were attacked and “countless innocents” were killed or injured.

“All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable.”

...Kucinich said the perpetrators of attacks against Israel should be brought to justice, but that Israel “cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible.”

...Kucinich said in his statement that he had sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requesting an independent inquiry. He said the attacks on civilians represented collective punishment, which he said was a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It's really a shame that Dennis Kucinich isn't taken more seriously throughout the country. Instead of asking policy questions of the Congressman, the talking heads would rather find out if he's seen UFOs.

Also read:
Kucinich, January 8: Bush Administration Ignores Humanitarian Crisis - Israeli Military Prevents Emergency Ambulance Care for Four Days