For the umpteenth time someone has suggested I stop writing about international politics & the war on Muslims to focus solely on injustice in the US. For the umpteenth time I will respond. My psychology & my political tradition are in accord that humanity is indissolubly one regardless of religion, culture, ethnicity, national borders. Our fate on this planet is indissolubly yoked by war & climate change, if by nothing else–if those 700 US military bases on foreign soil aren’t persuasive enough. The American political tradition expresses that imperative in “An injury to one is an injury to all.” The Islamic tradition expresses it in “To kill one human is as if one has killed the entire humanity” (which has become the slogan of the White Helmets). So my commitment stands on fairly solid ground & is shared by millions of people around the world who actively oppose war, occupation, genocide–most recently in Palestine & Burma.

In fact, I write plenty about US politics since I have been actively involved in them for going on 52 years. But in case my accusers haven’t noticed, women’s rights, civil rights, racism, poverty, class inequities are also inextricably related to what the US is doing overseas with its wars, occupations, sweatshop economics, & neoliberal plunder. I’m not going to stop writing in solidarity with freedom struggles around the world because you don’t understand those connections or don’t agree with my analyses. Let me speak frankly: if you don’t like what I write about, you can lump it. I’m not going to stick to reporting the local weather report just because you don’t get solidarity. I would never turn my back on the oppressed who are my brothers & sisters.

There needs to be a political analysis of why so many progressives have become ardent supporters of the Assad dictatorship. It represents a tsunamic shift in politics devastating the international antiwar movement at a time when it is more critical than ever. Partly it is the influence of people like Tariq Ali & John Pilger & as this article points out with Russian & Syrian trolling with their stable of paid propagandists like Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley. But there is also the syphilitic influence of Islamophobia & anti-Semitism that must be accounted for.

This article is an excellent introduction to that necessary analysis. One would hope it is not too late for most who were confused to come to a real understanding of the Syrian revolution & counter-revolution. Surely the fact that Bartlett, Beeley, & other prominent Assadists have open associations with European fascists & that they endorse or deny the Rohingya genocide will lead those of good will to reassess their understanding of what is going on in Syria.

This article is so important because Bartlett & Beeley Ltd have made the White Helmet rescue workers the primary target of their propagandistic lies as part of denying Russian & Syrian bombing of civilians, including with gas & barrel bombs. They never address US military intervention because it would show that Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US-coalition & all the other military players are partners to the Syrian counter-revolution led by Bashar Al-Assad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories

This is a photo of 22-year-old Asif Iqbal, the young taxi driver shot down in front of his family home as he prepared to drive someone to the hospital. He was fatally shot by Indian troops on one of their late night prowl to kill operations. In Pentagon parlance, he would be called “collateral damage” but we know well that unarmed defenseless civilians are not accidentally killed in military operations but are always the primary intended victims. The purpose is to terrorize, brutalize, demoralize resistance to war & occupation.

Let his death not be in vain. Build solidarity with the Kashmiri struggle against occupation & for self-determination. May Asif Rest In Peace.

This is a protest today in Kashmir against the fatal shooting last night of 22-year-old Asif Iqbal. He was a sumo/taxi driver shot within a few feet of his family home as he was leaving to transport someone to the hospital. The occupying army who shot him were engaged in one of their late night hunt to kill operations. Military officials called this young man’s death “very unfortunate & regrettable,” claimed it was a case of “mistaken identity,” & of course portrayed a different version of events from Iqbal’s family & neighbors so that young Iqbal was somehow responsible for his own death. India blocked internet services in the district so that the brutalities of their occupation cannot be exposed.

This protest is in the district where Iqbal was killed. Thousands of mourners also attended his funeral prayers today. May he Rest In Peace.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

https://www.facebook.com/breakingnews0786/videos/1540815912671635/?hc_ref=ARTXiWUWr3qQGLWmety80O2bqFs34Go5-mq2JquyRN68t7dElogh7ruufRNw8vxOGi4&pnref=story

This is a very cogent, impassioned article by Aijaz Zaka Syed on Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. I do take exception to his characterization of the Palestinian struggle as “a political wilderness” & inactive because there are hundreds of protests, thousands arrested & beaten, & many killed. The crisis of leadership is an international problem, hardly unique to the Palestinian struggle. Isn’t that always the problem in politics?
Otherwise, to my mind, Aijaz’s analysis is powerful.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/256176-a-time-for-action-not-words

Yesterday, India’s chief minister in Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti said “there is a need for a healing touch policy” in Kashmir.

This is Farhan Rasheed Gandroo’s response today:

“It was only yesterday that this Lady Chief Minister was talking about that much touted #HealingTouch & today we received that touch in the form of innocent martyr Asif Iqbal’s dead body. I would personally prefer electric touch rather than her duplicitous healing touch.”

“#Kashmir

Before an encounter we are killed as “Mistaken Identity”.
During an encounter we are killed by “Stray Bullets”.
After an encounter we are killed “To mantain Law and Order.”
#KupwaraFakeEncounter”

–Zahid Zubair