Does Tariq Ali, the great leader of the international so-called left, have nothing to say about the carpet bombing of civilians in Eastern Ghouta? Does he support Syria & Russia? Does he believe the victims are all terrorists or Hollywood actors? Did he support US coalition bombing in Raqqa & Mosul? Does he have even an ounce of political credibility left?

Rania Khalek groveling for Assad

Rania Khalek on Eastern Ghouta Feb 27 2018

Apparently there is a rift among Assadists between those who claim bombing victims & rescuers in Eastern Ghouta are all Hollywood actors & those who claim they are all terrorists. Rania Khalek is a social-climbing hack who in 2016 traveled for a few days in Syria embedded up the ass of the Syrian army. She got on the bad side of fascists Bartlett & Beeley, who she traveled with, by accusing the Syrian army of trying to poison her. The two fascist guppies to Assad truck with no imputations against their paymaster. Here we have the execrable Khalek weighing in on the carpet bombing of civilians in Eastern Ghouta where she approves not just of Syrian & Russian bombing but also of US coalition bombing of civilians. May she finish her decay in hell.

Yet another Assad regime politician weighs in on the carpet bombing of civilians calling it first “all fabrication” & then claiming they are only bombing terrorists. Makes you weep that the weak & corrupted antiwar movement led by “retired” CIA, FBI, & military officers has joined the so-called “war on terror” & are claiming the exact same thing with Islamophobia as their battle cry.

The historic mission of our era is to rebuild the international antiwar movement. There is no political need or precedent that this be led by US, European, or Australian antiwar forces, even though their militaries are carrying out the slaughter.

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10155722288926939/?hc_ref=ARSBqHAHBIOMQpmiO-

Why do Assadists vituperate against White Helmets & ignore U.S. regime change activities? Because those activities don’t exist?

Damascus (Hurnah) Syria Pierre Le Corf Feb 26 2018

Using the switch & bait technique so characteristic of them, Assad’s stable of professional propagandists are denouncing the terrorist siege of Damascus where they claim ‘dozens are dying every day from terrorist bombs’ & a convoy of trucks was taken out by one terrorist rocket. We are unable however to find any reports about significant rocket attacks on Damascus or on Hurnah where this photo was taken nor credible photographic & video documentation such as is pouring out of Eastern Ghouta. Without such documentation, this photo may just as well be a flatulence explosion coming from the royal palace of Assad. Such a fabrication does however resonate with Israeli claims that carpet bombing of Gaza is in response to rocket attacks from Hamas in Gaza.

What’s so telling about Assadist war reporting is that they have made vilification of the White Helmets the centerpiece of their vituperations. If the problem, as they claim, is US regime change operations, why do they spend no time at all exposing what the US is doing in Syria to implement that change & all of their time on denouncing the White Helmets? Since they are paid propagandists, it must be that rescue workers expose regime lies about the bombing of civilians & incite Assad & his officials to a high degree of dudgeon & fury.

Stand with the Syrian people & demand the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing of civilians & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.

(Photo from Assadist Pierre Le Corf)

Palestinian struggle inextricably tied to Syrian revolution

Whilst Israel is part of the US coalition in Syria, this is what its army is doing in the occupied West Bank. The struggle for Palestinian self-determination against colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing is inextricably tied to the struggle against the Assad dictatorship. Many Palestinians who were refugees in Syria have died in his gulags as part of political resistance against him. The Palestinian struggle will be weakened significantly by a victory for Assad & his counterrevolutionary alliance but strengthened by their defeat. It is not coincidence that Syrian revolutionists & Palestinians are both vilified as terrorists.

Standing with the Palestinian people means standing with the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime.

https://www.facebook.com/MiddleEastEye/videos/1635142506551131/?

Saudi Arabia, U.S., U.K., France, & Germany shake the naughty finger at Russian & Syrian bombing of civilians in Eastern Ghouta

Eastern Ghouta child in rubble (White Helmets) Feb 26 2018

Saudi Arabia, which has been carpet bombing Yemen since March 2015 with US & UK support, calls upon Syria to “stop the violence” against civilians in Eastern Ghouta. The US, UK, & France have also shaken the naughty finger at Assad despite their role in Yemen & in the carpet bombing of Mosul & Raqqa which prior to the bombing sieges in 2017-2018 had a combined population of between 1,089,000 to 1,500,000 million civilians. Angela Merkel of Germany used stronger words even though she negotiated the unsavory agreement to prevent refugees from entering or leaving Turkey for asylum in Europe or elsewhere.

The response to this slaughter is not to wait on the UN ceasefire resolution which is unenforceable but to organize protest rallies around the world demanding the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing in Syria & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces–troops, bombers, covert, special forces, mercenaries, paramilitary death squads–from Syria.

Photo of child being rescued by White Helmets taken about a month ago. There is no report on whether the child lived or died.

(Photo from White Helmets)

Slaughter in Eastern Ghouta: all out in defense of the Syrian people

Chlorine gas victim in E. Ghouta (Mahmood Adam on Twitter) Feb 26 2018

This is a gruesome photo. There’s no question about that & within a short while Facebook will cover it with one of its warning stickers. It’s the photo of a small child killed in a chlorine gas attack by Syrian or Russian bombs. This is the hellish reality 400,000 civilians in Eastern Ghouta are living through. This is the reality Assad & Russian propagandists & their deranged fellow travelers deny by claiming those being bombed are only terrorists & images like this are only Hollywood actors.

Using a bastardized version of socialist principles but Stalin’s politics & practices, former antiwar activists now aligned with fascists, Islamophobes, & anti-Semites posit the war in Syria as an anti-colonial struggle against US imperialism & claim Assad has a right to defend his national sovereignty by any means necessary including Russian bombers & paramilitary death squads. To defend Assad, they deny the Syrian uprising against Assad’s dictatorship ever happened. Jeff Mackler, a leader of this political cult, claims “peaceful protesters” & “drought-stricken farmers” (rather than a revolutionary movement) “inadvertently provided the US with a pretext for the now seven-year US-orchestrated regime-change imperialist war.” In his bag of quotations from whence he derives his rationalizations, did he find some one-liners that “any means necessary” includes carpet bombing civilians with missiles, barrel bombs, sarin & chlorine gas, & incendiary bombs? Or is he extemporizing his support for dictatorship & war by drawing from the cesspool of practices by Stalin or even Hitler?

Opposition to Assad is weakened considerably by those like Robin Yassin-Kassab who co-authored a masterful book on the Syrian Revolution titled “Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution & War” but who calls for “credible military deterrence” against Syria & Russia. Who would provide such deterrence? Which countries that could provide such deterrence aren’t already involved in the counterrevolution in one form or another, including by maintaining trade with Syria? Calling on the US or Saudi Arabia to become freedom fighters in Syria when they are fundamental to the counterrevolution in Syria & in Yemen amounts to political naiveté almost of a criminal nature. Not to mention that it hands Assad supporters a weapon to use against those opposing Assad. Sending in bombers against bombers is a prescription for Armageddon, not credible deterrence. You don’t need to be a military strategist to recognize that.

There are no short cuts to ending the slaughter in Syria but to stand steadfast, publicly, & massively against all foreign military intervention, including bombers, troops, special forces, paramilitary groups, mercenaries. That is the reality not just in Syria but in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya. It will be much easier to build a movement in defense of the Syrian people if we make no compromises on US militarism or make the colossal blunder of seeing the US Pentagon as a force for humanitarian interventions.

(Photo from White Helmets)

UN resolutions & military interventions are not what is needed to stop the slaughter in Eastern Ghouta

Missile in Douma ( Bassam Khabieh:Reuters) Feb 25 2018

There isn’t much point in reporting that the UN Security Council voted yesterday for a ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta because it was already declared a safe zone in July 2017 & that has not stopped carpet bombing by Syria or Russia. It’s just pointless to think the UN will or even can do anything other than grandstand & blow hot air about impotent resolutions. It is however reckless & extremely dangerous to raise the call for military intervention into Syria to stop the slaughter of counterrevolution. Which military would be called on to intervene to defend a revolution against dictatorship? Are there any not already involved militarily on the side of the counterrevolution?

The only effective resistance to war, occupation, genocide are broad-based, massive & international movements that are not episodic but engaged in sustained actions–using the anti-Vietnam War movement as a model. Those who believe there is a modicum of humanitarian principle in US or European military interventions need to study colonial history before they start shooting their mouthes off demanding military intervention on behalf of revolutions.

Photo is missile that fell in Douma, Eastern Ghouta last week.

(Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)