In 1967, as a student at the University of Minnesota, I knew nothing about Palestine & Israeli colonialism. When the ’67 war began, the Minneapolis media began a hysterical pro-Israel campaign that disturbed me. I knew we were being played but didn’t know why.

Walking across the campus one day, I saw a lone Palestinian picketing with a placard & asked him why, hoping to clarify what the media frenzy was all about. He was probably scared & gruffly answered me “They stole our land” but refused to elaborate. It wasn’t much but enough for me to understand there was more to the story than the Star Tribune was reporting. So I sought out the full answer to my question & eventually became involved in the Arab-American student group to organize solidarity work.

Keeping in mind the impact of that one young man, I have gone out to protest alone many times if I’m unable to find others to work with. Antiwar work is very weak here although the potential is considerable. To my mind, there has to be a public response to Assad’s gassing of civilians. It is elementary politics. If anyone is interested in joining me or helping to organize a rally, please let me know. Otherwise I’m going out alone but the power is in numbers.

Some people like knock-down drag-out fights about politics. That wouldn’t be me. My mantra is that one of the arts of politics is knowing when to save your breath. So I do not engage with Assadists. The problem is not that they are ill-informed but that they are haters of Muslims, Arabs, Jews, women, & revolution against dictatorship. You can’t reason with that & I don’t want to try.

It’s one thing when Syrian Girl writes that a “Soros-linked group is behind the chemical attack in Syria & that it has all the hallmarks of a false flag” or when retired FBI agent-turned-antiwar-leader Coleen Rowley says there’s zero chance Assad gassed civilians. It’s a pity so many women have become apologists for Assad’s crimes, both as paid propagandists & unpaid flunkies.

It’s quite another thing when longtime antiwar organizers post that kind of crap along with Global Research articles & rubbish from Bartlett & Beeley to prove the gassing attack never happened or was done by evil fairies from outer space. That’s heartbreaking. But we’ll get over it because the antiwar movement must be rebuilt.

Political degeneration is heartbreaking to witness but not close to the horror of what Assad has done in gassing civilians. The international antiwar movement has to be rebuilt on a principled program of no US, Russian, or other foreign military intervention in Syria & Iraq. No Syrian, Russian, or US bombing of civilians.

If you can’t find a rally in your town to protest the gassing of Khan Sheikhoun, consider calling one or make a placard & hit the streets alone. The movement must be rebuilt without those who turn a blind eye to the bombing of civilians.

(Photo by Edlib Media Center, via AP)

In response to Russian support for Syria’s gassing of civilians, Putin supporters are doing their rendition of Nero fiddling while Rome burns: denouncing those who voted for Democrats.

That’s how you know they’ve never gotten off their asses to organize antiwar protests. Because the overwhelming majority of antiwar protesters vote for Democrats.

Russia is providing political cover for Assad’s gassing of civilians. How will Putin supporters “nuance” that?

Emergency protests around the world against Syria’s gassing of civilians & against US horrors in Mosul are in order. 

What do you bet Trump’s visits with Egypt’s General Sisi & Jordan’s Abdullah have everything to do with Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine? The one-point agenda: how to maximize betrayal of democracy & end popular uprisings against dictatorship.

The monstrous chemical gas attack by Syrian bombers on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria has finally got the Assadists denouncing US war crimes in Mosul. Bait & switch is a sleazy legal maneuver but to use it to cover for a gas attack on civilians exposes them for the counter-revolutionary dirt-balls they are.

This is one of the babies who was killed in that gas attack. There is no dirty trick strong enough to cover for this & any attempt to do so marks one as the criminal defense of dictatorship & savagery.

Trump as candidate said a thousand times “Syria is not our problem.” His “our” here refers to the US government. The US Pentagon is in Syria up to its eyeballs with bombers, the CIA, special forces, mercenaries, & ground troops & has been for a long time as part of the counter-revolutionary force to pummel the revolution against Assad. Syria & Iraq are of a piece with US strategic goals in the Middle East & to principled antiwar activists Syria & Iraq are both our problems. We stand steadfast against Syrian, Russian, US bombing of civilians.

Many erstwhile US socialists & antiwar activists have gone over to the dark side to support Russian intervention in Syria & endorse Assad’s bombing of civilians to protect national sovereignty. They claim the US intervenes for regime change. They can only arrive at that deranged view by denying the revolution against Assad’s dictatorship. If they have an ounce of political coherence & integrity left, they should answer if they support Assad’s gassing of civilians. Or will they also change the subject to Mosul when they’ve been silent about Mosul for months?

The historic imperative remains: rebuild the international antiwar movement. Demand no US, Russian, Iranian intervention in Syria & Iraq.

(Photo by Firas Faham/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Many people really like Chris Hedges but I’ve always found him off a twist & kind of long-winded. It’s his misanthropy that bugs me, his elitism. He has an article out now titled “A Nation of the Walking Dead” about addictive habits among Americans. It’s his rendition of the stale claim that American workers are all doped up on consumer goods only he’s talking drugs & gambling.

Addiction is a social problem–a hell of a social problem. But it reeks of contempt to speak of millions of people as the “walking dead.” Who the hell does he think he is that he can talk about working people like that? The chances are that he hasn’t spent time among us ever in his life, that he comes from an upper class that disdains us & thinks we’re all losers. Pardon me if I resent the hell out of that.

It’s a matter of interest why Tim Anderson ransomed his academic prestige to become a creator of pathetic & deranged little memes in defense of Assad’s dictatorship. Just out of curiosity, did he have a come-to-Jesus moment with David Icke like Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley?

Is he hoping like them to be a generalissimo in the apocalyptic showdown with the Illuminati in Syria after all the Muslims are driven out? Is he as nuts as they are? Or are the paychecks from Assad big enough to make an ass of yourself before the entire world & go down in history’s footnotes as another rancid apologist for tyranny?