Syrian politics may be difficult to unravel but there are discordancies in the writings & postings of Assad & Russian supporters that stand out like a sore thumb & reek of political derangement:

–defending Syrian & Russian use of barrel bombs by saying they aren’t a worse way to die than regular munitions.

–being outraged by the killing of Syrian Army soldiers but indifferent to Syrian & Russian bombing of cities & civilians & referring to them all as “jihadists.”

–claiming baby Omran, rescued from a building bombed by Russia, was a fraud.

–writing elaborate exposes of rescue workers but refusing to denounce Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.

–referring to all Assad opponents as “jihadists” in the language of Muslim-hating propaganda.

–admiration for Duterte, despite his vigilante violence against the poor, because he “stands up” (i.e., talks trash) to the US.

–ignoring the human rights & war crimes of Putin & having some weird kind of hero worship of him.

–sending florid birthday wishes to Assad & expressing love for Asma Assad.

In my political experience, the only other place I’ve seen this kind of crap is in the adulations of Stalin & Mao or in the servility of nationalists.

Getting damn tired of those friend requests from retired generals. They come two or three a day. Do they think their lavish pension plans could induce me to go all rah-rah for their rotten wars?

Never underestimate the pride of older women. Or the fury, after 50 years of marching.

Day 111 of the military siege in Kashmir: arbitrary arrests of youth continue, pellet injuries continue. This is the 16th week Friday prayers have not been held because the Indian occupying army has locked down the Jamia Mosque in Srinagar.

Massive protests continue against the occupation. Where Kashmiris get the reserves of energy to continue resistance is probably only understood by Palestinians, Rohingya, Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, & others under occupation. They are all a beacon to suffering humanity–& a call to arms.

Long live Kashmiri Intifada. End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo from Kashmir Freedom on Twitter)

Henry Kissinger is now 93-years-old. Most of us who’ve lived through his legacy of ‘realpolitik’–of murderous wars, coups, genocides–had hoped he’d be dead by now or on life-support. Until working people in several countries settle their accounts with justice, we have no hopes he will be prosecuted for the most unspeakable crimes of the 20th & early 21st centuries.

When he finally does croak, he will be lauded as a statesman but he’s nothing more than a vain, ruthless, amoral two-bit thug backed by bombers & special forces. Unfortunately his tenure as advisor to the US has not ended. He consulted with John Kerry on US negotiations with Russia about Syria in 2013 & as late as October 2015 gave his assessment of the value to the US of Russian intervention in Syria.

Here he is leaving No. 10 Downing Street in London after meeting earlier this week with Prime Minister Theresa May & Chancellor Philip Hammond who refused to say what they discussed. You’d be a fool to think he was just sharing biscuits & tea with the two of them. Where he goes mayhem follows.

We await the day we can write a celebratory obituary.

(Photo by Alastair Grant/AP)

This little Rohingya girl is sitting in an unauthorized refugee camp at Kutupalong, Bangladesh. The photo was taken in 2012 during the violent siege of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar when fleeing refugees were pouring into Bangladesh & being turned back by border patrols. The images from that event are horrific & impossible to forget.

An unauthorized camp is where unregistered refugees live. The Bangladeshi government prevents most Rohingya from registering with the UNHCR which means they are not eligible for humanitarian aid &, of course, they have no rights in Bangladesh, including especially the right to work.

After reading about so much human suffering in the world, one can become inured or numbed as a psychological device against discouragement. But social transformation requires that we never take emotional distance from those sustaining genocide, war, plunder. If we understand that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” we will see them as our own. We must see them as our own because solidarity is the iron law of social transformation.

End the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. Open the borders to refugees.

(Photo by Saurabh Das/AP)

The Myanmar government–which is really the military junta hiding behind the human rights facade of Aung San Suu Kyi–claims legions of Taliban-trained Rohingya “jihadists” are behind the fatal killings of border guards on October 9th.

It is absolutely certain the government did not determine that in the investigation that Suu Kyi promised at a press conference. Because within hours of the attacks on the border guards, the military declared Arakan State an “operation zone” & put it under martial law lockdown.

The Myanmar army & border guard troops began moving into villages on foot & by air searching for “terrorists” & rounding up all men & boys as suspects in the raid & shooting them. The military has blocked access to foreign human rights groups & most journalists so the UN claims allegations by Rohingya human rights groups are hard to verify. Yeah right! Is there any reason they would lie?

According to Rohingya activists in Arakan State, troops are shooting down unarmed civilians in the streets in extrajudicial executions; raping women; torching homes, mosques, entire villages; arbitrarily arresting hundreds; forcibly evicting people from their homes. An estimated 15,000 Rohingya have been displaced & are fleeing the assaults. Entire villages are deserted. The military has also stopped aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands of people.

The army claims that in defending themselves from attacks, soldiers killed 33 Rohingya. Residents & rights activists claim scores more of unarmed civilians have been executed.

A spokesperson for the president of Myanmar claimed Rohingya were simply fabricating the allegations as part of a propaganda campaign led by the “jihadist” insurgents who he compared to ISIS & al-Qaeda. The police chief of Arakan State dismissed the allegations as “propaganda for Muslim groups.”

Reuters reporters who were allowed to enter the martial law zone claimed they passed villages where homes were torched. They also interviewed women who described their rape by soldiers. It’s not certain why the photographers saw this rubble of a torched marketplace outside the village of Maugndaw more compelling documentation of genocide than the torched villages. Perhaps they were under army surveillance.

Almost all media accounts of the genocide against Rohingya call it “communal violence” between Rakhine Buddhists & Rohingya Muslims or they refer to it as “unrest.” If it’s religious or cultural conflict, why is the Myanmar military conducting the violent campaigns against Rohingya & inciting rightwing Buddhists to join in? Why are Rohingya forced into concentration camps but not Buddhists? Why have 120,000 Rohingya attempted to flee on boats in the past three years while there is no report of Buddhist flight?

One thing is certain: the use of Islamic fundamentalism or “jihadist” insurgency as an excuse for military intervention–whether in Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, or elsewhere–is a political device to justify war, genocide, occupation. It must be rejected & opposed.

End the genocide against Rohingya. Open the borders for Rohingya refugees.

Our fullest solidarity with Rohingya Muslims.

(Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

The US-NATO military emancipation of Libya in 2011 went really well. It began with a No Fly Zone & ended with the public desecration of Qaddafi’s corpse.

Now it has two competing governments, a civil war, ISIS groups, & US special forces. That’s how it rolls when you look to militarism as a substitute for revolution against tyranny.

Often enough I get faulted for not having a nuanced approach to things. You mean a sledgehammer is too heavy-handed? I don’t do nuance. I tried it once & got fired. That was that.

I’m of the school that thinks equivocations & ambiguities lurk in those nuances. I think you ought to say what you think & mean what you say & leave the nuances to diplomats.