Pakistani journalist Usman A Khan Tahir interviews Americans (including myself) on Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel:

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/12/12/us-reacts-trumps-jerusalem-move-leaves-americans-divided-once-more/

Obama has too many wars & deportations under his belt to be admired. But don’t you think that if he had said or done any of the racist & misogynist crap Trump has, he would have been out on his ear in months? White & male supremacy prevails. But also, once the people who really run this country get their tax cut through Trump’s venality, they’re likely to come down on him hammer & tongs for exposing what kind of mafia really runs the US government & how loathsome the politicians & generals deciding our fates.

If we don’t rebuild a massive, international antiwar movement, the entire planet will soon be run by generals & psycho special forces with bombers. Militarism is the ethos of the barbaric phase of capitalism. The Israeli military is now drafting a bill to grant immunity from prosecution to Israeli soldiers deployed in occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza, & the West Bank. They’re already riding roughshod over Palestinians so this would merely eliminate the inconvenience of court martial.

India employs the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) giving immunity from prosecution to soldiers deployed in Kashmir. It’s not irrelevant that the AFSPA was formulated by the British against the movement demanding an end to British rule in India. The US has similar security agreements with Afghanistan & Iraq (& probably other countries) granting immunity to US soldiers who engage in human rights crimes. The question remains: since there are news blackouts on most of these wars & would still be were it not for social media, why are these agreements to legitimize impunity considered so vital to militaries? It would be important to know which other countries have these agreements in countries they are bombing or occupying.

This is an interesting blog entry by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a Thai dissident in exile, on the military junta that rules Thailand. The entry speaks to the brutality of unbridled militarism & military rule.

https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/2017/12/10/the-thugs-that-rule-thailand/

A little Rohingya boy at a refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh:

After 3 & 1/2 months of genocide, our defense of Rohingya refugees has only just begun & cannot be allowed to become just another old news cycle. There are reports of severe malnutrition among children in the camps & no indications that the sanitation problems have been addressed. That’s probably because Burma, Bangladesh, the UN & many governments plan on forcibly repatriating the Rohingya so they can continue denying the genocide & wash their hands of the human rights crisis. Our mission is to demand our governments deliver massive humanitarian aid to the camps & offer asylum with safe transportation & full refugee rights.

There can be no forcible repatriation of the Rohingya refugees without their direct involvement in decisions about their fate & that of their children.

(Photo by Shafiur Rahman)

Kashmir Live News reports that 19 trucks of pellets ordered from India arrived at a distribution center in Kashmir & will be dispensed to police & CRPF (counterinsurgency troops) next week.

Reposting this collage for the umpteenth time because it shows the facial injuries & disfigurements caused by pellets. Pellet guns were also used against protesters in the Bahrain Arab Spring uprising of 2011. Even though they are called non-lethal, they are clearly intended to inflict maximum harm, including blindness, disfigurement, injury to internal organs, demoralization, & death. If we do not stand with Kashmiris & Bahrainis against the use of pellets, we will soon find them used against protesters in other countries–including our own.

(Photo collage of 2016 pellet victims from Freedom For Kashmir)

So far, just in four days Israel has killed four Palestinians & injured 1,632, including with live ammunition & tear gas. Judging from photos & videos circulated on social media, children are being subjected to extreme barbarity by being beaten & arrested–in accord with how Israel has always treated Palestinian children. It’s not certain if those injured in Israeli bombing of Gaza are included in these figures.

Stand with Palestinians by protesting the occupation & by building BDS.

This is the infant child of 25-year-old Mysara Banu, a Kashmiri woman killed in an Indian army hunt to kill operation. The occupying army was conducting the operation at 12:30 in the morning based on a tip from an informant/snitch that three militants were hiding in the area where she lived. What could go wrong with that?
Some reports claim Mysara was killed in crossfire as she tried to flee the area with other civilians. Other reports say she was in the home where the militants were hiding. None of the reports agree on anything that happened which might suggest Indian army officials are lying. But it’s also entirely possible they have no idea what happened when they started shooting off bullets into a home in the dark just after midnight based on what some lowlife told them.

This infant is now left motherless. That’s the consequence of criminally reckless behavior under military occupation where soldiers are not held responsible & are in fact rewarded for every dead body they produce. This little girl will have hell to pay. Kashmiri residents of the district are protesting in response to the criminal misconduct of the occupying army, most of whom were special forces trained by Israel.

Sincere condolences to the family & friends of Mysara Banu. May she Rest In Peace.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

On moving the US embassy to Jerusalem:

“Your embassy is as illegitimate as the occupation it seeks to legitimize.”

(Omer Suleiman)