Trump is under criminal investigation by Mueller just after he threatened to fire the guy. The world’s dumbest president. Makes my heart sing to imagine the orange president in an orange prison jump suit. When it comes to revenge, God should not have all the fun.

The shootings in DC are deeply regrettable but I do wish media gave even one-tenth the coverage to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia. Mostly I wish they would say outright that the vituperations of Trump have incited such violence.

On the rubbish about the Israeli army being moral

Palestinian Intifada 2017 (Youssef M. Al-Attar)

Lately there have been comparisons made between the Israeli military in Palestine & the Indian military in Kashmir suggesting that the Indian army is more brutal because the Israeli army is guided by a principled code of conduct. Where the hell does that rubbish come from?

This June 2nd article in Indian Express titled “Lesson from Israel: Those who invoke Israeli army example in J&K must educate themselves about its code of ethics” by D. S. Hooda, a general in the Indian army, should clear up any delusions about the character of the Israeli army. He lays out their monstrous crimes against Palestinians quite clearly going back decades. And he only scratched the surface. The Israeli army portrays itself as the “most moral army in the world” based on the hyperbole & lies of retired British Colonel Richard Kemp (quoted in the article). Kemp has been deployed in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, commanded British forces in Afghanistan, & boasts of collaboration with the Israeli military & with Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

He testified before the UN Human Rights Council that Israel committed no war crimes or crimes against humanity in its 22-day 2008-2009 carpet bombing siege of Gaza when 1,387 to 1,419 civilians were killed; nearly 6,000 were injured (some permanently disabled); 22,000 buildings, including schools, homes, public buildings, were destroyed; 20,000 people were made homeless; the electrical, water, & sewage infrastructures were bombed to smithereens. Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli military of “wanton destruction” but our man Kemp told the UNHCR that the Israeli military “did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare.” Kemp is so filled with hate that he wouldn’t know a human rights crime if it shot him in the ass & almost certainly has more than his own share for which he should be prosecuted.

The cynicism & the intent of this Hooda article is summed up quite clearly in his final paragraph: quoting Plato, he says “it is the reputation, not the reality of goodness that is desired, for nobody ever does right simply because it is right.” This may be a cynical view but it is realistic. It is squarely on the military leadership to ensure a reputation of ethical behaviour.” In other words, the Indian army has to get its propaganda game on to silence & counter the voices of Kashmiris on social media who have done more than enough damage already exposing military impunity for pellet guns, mass incarceration, mass rape, forcible disappearances, mass graves, torture, extrajudicial executions. Too late General Hooda. Suck it up. The lies haven’t worked for Israel & they aren’t working for India. You’re approaching the end game of the occupation.

Article from Indian Express:

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/israeli-palestinians-rift-kashmir-situation-lesson-from-israel-4684913/

(Photo of Palestinian blocking Israeli armored vehicles from Youssef M. Al-Attar)

Latino-Mexican solidarity in Los Angeles

Taco caravan at mosque (Brian van der Brug:LA Times) June 14 2017

There’s a lovely story out of Los Angeles where Latino & Muslim activists decided to build bonds of solidarity & respect since they are both groups targeted by the Trump regime & crescendoing campaigns of hate. Latino activists pull up taco trucks to mosques at sunset for the iftar meal breaking fast during Ramadan. Such a simple but powerful expression of solidarity.

This is the article about the inaugural  event:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tacos-ramadan-20170604-story.html

 

(Photo by Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Asra Nomani are testifying right now to a Senate Committee on Homeland Security hearing on “Ideology & Terror: Understanding the Tools, Tactics, & Techniques of Violent Extremism.” Hirsi calls Islam a “destructive, nihilistic cult of death” & her ranting goes downhill from there. Nomani is a detestable groveler & honoraria hound who campaigns against the veil & supports the Muslim ban.

Just wondering why the committee didn’t invite Rania Khalek, Max Blumenthal, & Ben Norton so they get some insights into Wahhabism. The roster of haters would have been complete.

The erstwhile socialists who defend Russian bombing of civilians in Syria by rooting through quotes from Lenin like he wrote scripture are advised to leave aside what they don’t understand & ask “what would Jesus do?” or “what would the prophet say?”

Somewhere along the way they took a wrong turn & began to identify socialism with realpolitik, sniffing contemptuously at principled antiwar activists as moralists in order to justify Russia & Syria carpet bombing civilians. Maybe if they go back to their catechisms they will learn that the basic rules of morality like “thou shalt not kill” are an advance in human civilization, not a bourgeois construct applicable only to fools.

Maybe one of the savants in the Hands Off Syria crowd or one of the libertarian think tanks could explain to us why Syria & Russia bombing civilians in Aleppo, Daraa, Idlib, Damascus is liberation but US-European bombing in Mosul & Raqqa are imperialist aggression?

Because from where sanity reigns it all looks like barbarism. It all looks like apocalypse & a living hell. And it should all be opposed without a single compromise to militarism, to the demented notion that bombers & special forces are agencies of liberation.

The US use of white phosphorous in Mosul & Raqqa

Mosul Apocalypse June 14 2017

A child caught in the Mosul Apocalypse where the US is “liberating” with white phosphorous.

In reporting about the US use of white phosphorous in Raqqa, Syria, the NY Times suggested the accusations came from ISIS in at attempt to discredit “its enemies.” In fact, the accusations of white phosphorous use in Mosul came from Human Rights Watch & Amnesty International as well as ISIS, & in Raqqa from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights & the citizen-journalist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently which provided video documentation.

Human Rights Watch is still investigating what the distinctive signs of white phosphorous over Raqqa are–although, according to the NY Times, the US military acknowledges it is using white phosphorous “in accordance with the law of armed conflict.” The NY Times, scratching its ass in perplexity, said it’s not been determined whether the white phosphorous shells are landing in “populated areas.” Could they tell us what part of a metropolitan area with 340,000 civilians is not populated?

As for ISIS making such accusations to discredit “its enemies”, we’d like to ask why ISIS would bite the hand that feeds it? Why would ISIS be so ungrateful to the US when, according to a US Department of Defense report, the US has let over $1 billion of military equipment–mortars, assault rifles, humvees & armored vehicles–slip through its fingers to ISIS fighters?

The only principled demand is the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all US & foreign militaries from Iraq & Syria. The US has no business being there. There is no such thing as “US interests” in the region; only the interests of Syrian & Iraqi working people matter where peace & justice are concerned.

Out now. No War. No Islamophobia.

(Photographer not identified; from Gazeta Monitor via Haseeb Rahman)