War mongering is bad enough. But thanking Trump for bombing Syria is unseemly groveling evincing the political development of a garden slug. It is bereft of any sense of decency to thank a man for bombing & who imposes bans on Muslims, hunts down & deports undocumented immigrants & refugees, speaks of Mexicans & Blacks in the most degrading & racist terms, & considers all women as blowup sex toys. At least have some dignity while you make a display of your reactionary politics.

Not sure how war mongers for US-coalition intervention in Syria can approve of bombing chemical weapons storage depots when that will release unknown poisonous chemicals into the environment, likely killing hundreds. Not sure they’ve thought their militarism out to its conclusions.

Early this morning, the US, UK, & France launched airstrikes on three sites in Syria in retaliation for the chemical attacks on Douma last week. War mongers have been pressuring Trump to lay bombs on Syrian airfields but instead the military triumvirate bombed a chemical weapons research center & two chemical weapons storage facilities. US Secretary of Defense Mattis says the bombing, which came after a week of threats, was a one-time shot like the bombing of the empty airfield last year. Apparently the US has a gentlemen’s agreement with Russia to control Assad’s use of chemical weapons–as if Russia is averse or the least bit squeamish about war crimes–but they were careful not to get close to any Russian bases or facilities in Syria.

Hopefully, this dog & pony show will satisfy the war mongers who look to the US Pentagon under the deranged Commander In Chief Donald Trump to save the Syrian revolution–just like the US is saving the Yemeni, Egyptian, & Bahraini Arab Spring uprisings through massive repression & carpet bombing. They haven’t been able to explain what cognitive disorder leads them to think the US is changing its entire military history of overthrowing governments & installing dictators to morph into freedom fighters on the side of revolution in Syria. Their war mongering is reactionary & dangerous because it helps legitimize US military intervention in other countries. This dog & pony show will certainly feed the umbrage of Assad propagandists & their fellow travelers who are put in the regrettable position of denying that Syria was researching or storing chemical weapons while at the same time denouncing the US for bombing the chemical weapon labs & storage depots. Such are the conundrums of militarism.

Lets cut the crap & face the harsh realities of life. The only principled demands are for the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing in Syria & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.

Photo is the leader of the free world morphing into a revolutionist in Syria. Yeah right!

So far this year, the US has admitted eleven Syrian refugees. How many refugees do you think the US has created since it began openly intervening in Syria in 2014?

All that is sacred is profaned by gender, ethnic, religious, caste, & class oppression:

“We searched for Asifa everywhere but did not search inside the temple. We knew that it is a very sacred place.”

–Asifa’s father

This beautiful anthemic piece by Mir Laieeq seems suitable to share again to keep our bearings under the weight of the murder of Asifa; the wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen; the genocide of the Rohingya; the occupations in Palestine & Kashmir; & even the debate over the death penalty. When the world feels too much with me, it reminds me of the highest ideals for which the best of humanity has always strived:

“indian state despite its grave, unspeakable crimes against us, has not been able to kill our humanity, it has failed to make hatred the defining virtue of our struggle, despite its beastly behaviour we have not turned into beasts, instead we have retained our dignity and ethical fabric, despite being victims of an atrocious war imposed upon us we have maintained our moral compass, the humanitarian gestures like rescuing occupying soldiers even when most of them have been acting like savages is a reflection of who we are and what we aspire to be! In all this lies the biggest defeat of this oppressive state and our greatest victory, it also gives us hope that a free kashmir will not be built upon pathological hatred of the other, but upon the ideals of human fraternity, dignity and brotherhood. Kashmir today even in one of her most painful times has a lot of lessons to offer to Indians and world at large: we are willing to sacrifice our lives to achieve freedom but we won’t lose our morality in the process, we refuse to slip into savagery and hatred despite the cruelest provocations like killing and blinding of our children. As for us, Azaadi is not a mere destination but a means towards a more humane, just and ethical society.”

Food for thought on the death penalty from South African Rehana Khan Parker:

“I can never approve the death penalty, we came out of apartheid where people were put to death wholly unfounded and for defending human rights. South Africa had a repressive government and that was part of the apartheid machinery, to eradicate people, detain without trial, detain for indefinite periods, torture, pushing people off the ledge to their death and torture whilst in custody till they killed you and masked it as suicide! Death sentencing of innocent lives. We will NEVER ever allow governments to use death sentences as a mean to shut those who have a voice.”

Justice for Asifa rally in Srinagar this coming Monday goes global: the savagery of the crime against this little girl leaves all of us feeling broken & distraught & can weaken our trust in other human beings. Coming together in a vigil protest focuses our psychic energies on the causes of such horror–gender, ethnic, religious, caste, & class oppression–& bonds us with others fighting to create a humane society free of such cruelty & inhumanity. The purpose of such rallies is to fight against oppression but in unity our bereavement becomes bearable & does not turn to cynicism. There is no other way. So we can all light a candle next Monday in sync with this rally & to honor the life of this small child.

You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know whether this stone pelter was Palestinian or Kashmiri. In fact, this young woman, with her olympian stance, is at the Great Return March in Gaza teaching the young how to “throw like a girl.”

End the occupation. Self-determination for Palestinians. Honor & build the economic boycott of Israel (BDS).

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.