If anti-Assad political forces want to understand why they’ve been unable to build a strong movement to defend the Syrian uprising, they can stop shouting down the non-existent left & start examining their own voluble war mongering to get the US military more involved than it already is with over 100,000 bomb strikes. Their political analyses read like battlefield reports & that from people who have never been to war but because their politics, rooted in militarism, are bereft. Dare I suggest that class is very much involved in this cockeyed political perspective? It’s working class American kids who’ll get their asses shot off in Syria without advancing the working class in Syria one iota. This “Syrians are praying for US intervention” stuff is just horse manure & nothing more.

There’s a clamor among many opponents of the Assad regime calling for US military intervention in Syria. With Jesuitical finesse, they parse Syria from Iraq, being careful to leave out any mention of Yemen, Afghanistan, or Libya & willfully unaware of countless US wars, occupations, invasions since WWII. The more lowbrowed among them appeal to shame by claiming ‘Syrians are praying for US intervention.’ Which Syrians are praying for US bombers & special forces? The millions displaced & made refugees by over 100,000 US bombs & missiles? The tens of thousands who were bombed to smithereens in Raqqa, including by white phosphorous? If you want to war monger, don’t hide behind the Syrian people. Don’t justify it by idiotic comparisons between Assad & Saddam Hussein. Just put your hand on your heart & say outright that you believe in bombers as a force for human liberation, that you think the US Pentagon has emancipatory visions for its nearly 1,000 military bases all over this planet. But don’t play us for stupid.

No US-coalition, Russian, or Syrian bombing in Syria. All foreign military forces out now!

Photo is apocalyptic Raqqa after US “humanitarian intervention” against ISIS.

(Photo from AFP news agency)

As I learned yesterday, many of my friends support the death penalty. Me? I think it’s barbaric. I oppose it not so much to protect convicted criminals as to protect society from becoming what they are. We can only live with our differences on that issue if you don’t insist on dumping pro-death penalty memes & endorsements on my wall.

(PS: this is not an invite to reopen the discussion nor is it a statement of intent to stay mum about my opposition to the death penalty.)

You wanna know what Assad propagandists & their fellow travelers are reduced to? They’re all circulating a video of Tucker Carlson on Fox News denouncing US military intervention into Syria. Some preface it by saying “I can’t believe I’m doing this” but others don’t bother with the disclaimer since Carlson speaks so well to their derangement. Carlson is one of the most rabid & racist rightwing voices on US media who spends most of his time vilifying & ridiculing immigrants, refugees, & the Black community. He’s a class-a dirtball.

The US is militarily involved in Syria. To date, it has dropped over 100,000 bombs & missiles & has killed tens of thousands of civilians. Carlson has never uttered one peep of protest. If he now opposes US intervention, it is only because he dreads that it might weaken the Assad dictatorship & strengthen the popular uprising against Assad. Is Carlson the best Assad supporters can do? Yes it is & it goes along with them citing other rightwing politicians like Dick Black or “retired” CIA, FBI, & Pentagon officials leading the US antiwar movement. Fox News is indeed the natural habitat of those who support the Assad dictatorship & Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.

If you take a principled antiwar stand, you do not march alongside the likes of Tucker Carlson. Crypto-fascists are not our allies. You demand the immediate cessation of bombing by Syria, Russia, & the US coalition & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military operations from Syria.

(Photo is Carlson screenshot)

Kashmiri protester wearing bandanna with image of former Pakistani cricketeer Shahid Afridi who tweeted in support of the Kashmiri struggle against occupation & for self-determination.

(Photo from Twitter)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced today that the Kremlin has “irrefutable evidence” the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Douma was a false flag staged event & “that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event.” So are 9/11 truthers, Assad propagandists, & deranged elements of the antiwar movement writing script for Russian propaganda now? In the old days when Stalinism was rotten but not such an integral part of fascism, it was the other way around. The Kremlin spoke & Stalinists repeated like ventriloquist dummies. Ah Russiagate: thou hast handed scoundrels a million new ways to alibi & justify war crimes.

(Photo of Lavrov with his pit bull face from Yuri Kadobnov/AFP)

Kashmiri & Indian media report the resignation of two cabinet ministers from India’s ruling party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), who attended & spoke at a nationalist rally last month in Jammu to defend the rapists & murderers of little Asifa Bano. One was the Industries Minister & the other the Forest Minister. Indian media claims they resigned because Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti “put her foot down, telling the BJP leadership that their continuation in the government had become untenable.” She should have mentioned that what made their presence untenable was protests in Kashmir & the international furor evoked by the monstrous character of this crime against a little girl because of her gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, & class.

This is a candlelight protest demanding justice for Asifa which was held in Srinagar in March. There will be another rally this coming Monday.

Great Return March in Gaza, April 13, 2018: marching peacefully & unarmed toward the apartheid barrier with Israel to demand the right of return for refugees & the end of occupation.

(Photo from Palestine Information Center)

Great Return March in Gaza, April 13, 2018: just so we’re clear who Israeli snipers are directing live ammo & tear gas canisters at & how heavily armed Palestinians are. They have come to protest for the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees still living in refugee camps while Zionist settlers from all over kingdom come are recruited to take their lands.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Great Return March in Gaza, April 13, 2018: collecting tires to burn as a shield from Israeli snipers.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)