Scott Paul

Director, Peace & Security @oxfamamerica. Humanitarian policy advocate and compulsive stirrer of onions. Usual caveats.

[Brian Schatz @brianschatz]

I’m not into black listing anyone from future work in their area of expertise but I do think it’s fair to want a whole new crop of foreign policy staffers in the next democratic administration. It’s not like the same 120 people are the only people who know anything.

[Matt Duss @mattduss]

“This is not a defense budget. It is a war budget, designed to enable a pattern of aggressive military action… Under these circumstances, increased military spending is no longer a matter of technical budgetary judgment; it is a driver of human suffering.”

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

This is not a defense budget, this is a war budget. Congress needs to say no.

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[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Until now, @OxfamAmerica has never taken a position on the Pentagon budget. I'm writing in @TheHill @TheHillOpinion today to make the case that this year is different and that Congress should oppose the Trump budget request.

https://t.co/GbQAkl3rL6

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[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Following unlawful attacks against Venezuela and Iran, the commission of murder on the Caribbean Sea, and the issuance of casual threats against Greenland, Mexico, and Panama, among others, we can’t view this budget request as business as usual.

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[TheHillOpinion @TheHillOpinion]

$1.5 trillion for the Pentagon is not a defense budget: It's a war budget https://t.co/vDz7OoV0AC

[Matt Duss @mattduss]

As the Senate votes on measures to block weapons to Israel, watch what @ChrisCoons does. It’s important for the next top SFRC Democrat to stand with the majority of his caucus and a supermajority of Dem voters as Israel is committing atrocities across the region.

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Oxfam will be among the many who demand that anyone who orders these attacks be held accountable.

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[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

President Trump has issued an open call to commit war crimes. Targeting civilian infrastructure and threatening to wipe out a civilization violate international law and the U.S. Constitution.

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https://t.co/IdVf5xKGLb

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

It may seem far away now, but before long, the U.S. public will demand accountability for the wanton killing of children and other civilians and disregard for the laws that protect them.

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[Karen Attiah @KarenAttiah]

I used to write the @washingtonpost @PostOpinions editorials on US-Africa policy, as well on as human rights and politics on the continent.

To describe hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent as “messy” is an absolute abomination.

[Brad Lander @bradlander]

Passover has long been my favorite Jewish holiday. But I’ve always struggled with the Tenth Plague — and now more than ever. So for this year’s Haggadah, we added a midrash from Exodus Rabbah about Israelite parents who welcomed firstborn Egyptian kids into their homes on that fateful night.

Chag Pesach Sameach.
https://t.co/srka4LAY2r

[Ryan Evans @EvansRyan202]

The Likudnik influencers on this site have missed the point entirely. They fixate on the photo, noting correctly that other urban battlefields have seen similar levels of destruction. But the photo is not a forensic comparison. It is one piece of evidence among many, set against the repeated claims of "unprecedented restraint" made by this Israeli government and its defenders.

To sustain that claim, they ask us to look away from the images of dead and dying children; from evidence (from Israeli sources!) of civilians targeted; from relaxed ROEs with entirely predictable results; from senior ministers openly calling for collective punishment and mass displacement; from the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure untethered from immediate military necessity (the presence of so many tunnels wasn't a license to destroy so much); from the scale and duration of civilian displacement; from the obstruction or dismissal of humanitarian access; and from the cumulative effect of thousands of strikes that may be argued as proportionate one by one, but whose aggregate outcome is plainly catastrophic.

You do not get to claim historic restraint while demanding that everyone avert their eyes from historic devastation. No amount of urban warfare whataboutism changes that.

So of course they just fixate on the photo, as if (absurdly) that's the only evidence that can and should be leveraged against the Israeli government and IDF.

They also reach reflexively for Dresden and other devastations like it, as if invoking one of the most infamous excesses of 20th century warfare were exculpatory. It is not. The world's experience in World War II, including strategic bombing and mass civilian harm, was a major driver of stronger postwar civilian protection law. Citing them as cover for Gaza is an admission that the benchmark being invoked is one the world consciously rejected.

They also reach for Raqqa. but that was explicitly condemned by many as a model of unacceptable destruction. No one is using it as a model for a better way of doing things. When it comes to Mosul, it is certainly not a clean precedent, but US forces did a much better job there than defenders of Israel will today admit (note the Likudniks like to tell you how much of *parts* of Mosul were destroyed rather than the whole city compared to cities in Gaza). Of course large parts of Mosul were destroyed, but much less of it than what we see today in Gaza. Iraqi and US forces also operated under guidance not to use artillery in populated areas and a shift to house to house clearing with light weapons when families were present. And when catastrophic failures happened, like the March 2017 Mosul strike that killed more than 100 civilians, it triggered investigations and operational pauses and adjustments, not celebratory spin like we see today from some of the voices on the other side of this debate.

There is also one big thing missing from the preferred historical comps and cases of those who argue with me here: the enemies were defeated in those other cases. ISIS, the Nazis, whatever past photo of an urban battlefield you want to show me. Hamas has not been defeated. It still is in control of much of Gaza. Israeli tactics did not match strategy. The hostages were returned, yes (not because of Israel, IMHO). But Hamas was not defeated.

I say this has someone who hates Hamas and supports Israel's right to exist and wants to see a thriving Israel at peace with its neighbors. But, as I noted back in Dec. 2023, while war is always inherently defined by violence, death, and destruction modern professional militaries are capable of more measured, more careful, yet still effective operations against urban enclaves. Many Israelis feel the same way, which is why @andymilburn8 was able to use so much evidence from Israeli sources in his article -- evidence that the Likudniks and their friends in the reject simply because it doesn't fit with their narrative.

There are reasonable. good-faith ways to engage in debate on this issue. Not seeing much of it here.

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Also hugely responsible for this mess: WH OLC and State L attorneys. It's their spineless reluctance to pronounce that laws have meaning that allows for these issues to enter the "subjective judgment" decision space.

[Matt Duss @mattduss]

A key disagreement is over whether Biden’s Gaza policy was the bad result of a good faith deliberative process or a bad faith one. I think the latter. It’s clear that the process was directed to generate one outcome, regardless of facts, the law, or morality: keep arming Israel.

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

I've often thought that the world would be a better place, and the U.S. a stronger, safer, better country, if everyone read Today's WorldView. Now, no one will. It's unfair to a talented journalist and a genuine public affairs tragedy.

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

I have been laid off today from the @washingtonpost, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally — editors and correspondents who have been my friends and collaborators for almost 12 years. It’s been an honor to work with them.

I launched the WorldView column in January 2017 to help readers better understand the world and America’s place in it and I’m grateful for the half a million loyal subscribers who tuned into the column several times a week over the years.

[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Now we continue to call for full access for humanitarian aid & commercial goods into Gaza, a perm. ceasefire & support for Palestinians to return home. Palestinians must now be allowed take on the daunting challenge of rebuilding their communities and lives.

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[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

Yesterday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced its closure "after succeeding in our mission." A quick word on that.

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[Scott Paul @ScottTPaul]

We want to innovate & collaborate to save lives, but we must learn the lessons of these ill-fated projects. No military-run pier or distribution sites that circumvent humanitarian principles & hard-earned expertise can replace an aid system that is proven to work.

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