In December 2017, Israeli troops fatally shot & killed a wheelchair-bound 29-year-old Palestinian man in Gaza named Ibrahim Abu Thuraya who was protesting Trump’s declaration about Jerusalem. Palestinian medical authorities have estimated that nearly 44,000 people in Gaza, including children, are permanently disabled, most from Israeli bombing. Ibrahim Abu Thuraya lost both his legs in an Israeli airstrike. There are also medical authorities who say the estimate is too low.
Israel, which treats Gaza as a penitentiary, refuses to allow Palestinians to leave for medical care, including the disabled who require specialized treatment. This is a report about protests by disabled activists demanding they be allowed to seek medical care outside Gaza whose medical facilities have been repeatedly bombed & cannot provide even basic care.
Bhopal activists demanding justice for the 1984 Union Carbide toxic gas explosion are surely among the toughest & most determined in the world. You can follow their work on this website, sign up for their newsletter, sign a petition to Dow, & donate to medical care for now a second & third generation of those whose health has been disastrously affected.
An Indian guy, who is one of those lost souls who calls himself a socialist but supports Assad regardless of dictatorship, once berated me by saying “morality has no place in politics.” That was his defense of Assad & Putin’s bombing of civilians. Now Jonathan Cook, a respected journalist now become a hack writer of apologetics for Assad, is dismissive of civilians being bombed to death (which he calls “terrible repercussions for civilians in the firing line”) from Russian & Syrian bombing in Syria because “emotions cannot guide our analysis.” He admits Assad is a ruthless dictator but claims the realpolitik of national sovereignty demands our support. This bankrupt understanding of morality, emotions, dictatorship, & war have led these two guys to support bombing of civilians as necessary. Cook then extends his analytical folly by dismissing the suffering of Syrians compared to the suffering in Gaza–as if it weren’t utterly repugnant to counterpose the suffering of those being bombed to smithereens. Is it more horrific to be terrorized, shattered, dismembered, or buried in rubble by Israeli bombs than by Syrian, Russian, or US coalition bombs?
This is what Assadist politics brings one to: amorality–a belief that revulsion to the bombing of unarmed civilians is lowbrow politics not worthy of big picture analysts who think more in geopolitical terms. Morality & emotional abhorrence for human suffering is for liberals & unworthy of deep thinkers hammering out apologetics. Let me say it straight out: amorality is not a guide to principled politics but the road to hell. Human life is either of value to us or it isn’t. Me, after 52 years as an antiwar activist? I believe in morality in politics; I believe in letting the full range & depth of emotional repugnance to bombing civilians determine our politics & where we stand. Call me old-fashioned but I believe that most of the human race think just like I do about war, occupation, persecution, genocide.
It is not a good thing that US coalition forces took out 100 Assad troops using air & artillery fire. You don’t have to be the least conciliatory to the Assad regime & Syrian Army to point out that the US has no rights whatsoever to be in Syria or to point out that far more Syrian civilians have been bombed to death by US coalition war planes than they have taken out ISIS fighters. Raqqa is a dead zone after US “emancipation” from ISIS.
The US coalition is part of the counterrevolution in Syria–whatever the complexities & conflicts within that alliance including Syria, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, & others. Nothing good can come from US military intervention. The only principled demands are for the immediate cessation of all bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces. Those who think the US coalition are freedom fighters don’t understand one thing about the character of militarism or about the last 170 years of US military history.
Every time I post a sarcasm against Justin Trudeau, some Canadian who thinks the guy is the second coming of Jesus takes great umbrage. He’s what the plainspoken call a sniveling grandstander. He sold weapons to Saudi Arabia while it is bombing Yemen; he sent naval ships to the Aegean to prevent refugees from crossing to Europe from Turkey; he sweet-talked Suu Kyi to protect Canadian mining interests in Burma while she is presiding over genocide. Now, showing his inner weasel, he stopped a woman from speaking to correct her use of mankind, suggesting it more inclusive to say “peoplekind.” Smarmy is the word that comes to mind–after war criminal.
This is 2-month-old Omar Quwaidar who lost his right leg in Syrian/Russian airstrikes over Arbin, Syria near Damascus. His two-year-old sister Batoul was operated on for brain injuries sustained in the same airstrike. It hasn’t been reported if she survived.
In your opinion, does defense of Assad’s national sovereignty justify the carpet bombing of civilians & the massive suffering of children–even if he weren’t a monstrous dictator?
Stand with the children of Syria & demand the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US coalition bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.
Russian bombing in eastern Ghouta caused a building to collapse & bury civilian residents under the rubble. Eight were rescued alive. There is no report on the number who died or are still buried under rubble. It isn’t reported whether this child survived or not.
Those who glorify Russia’s role in Syria & support Syrian, Russian, or US coalition bombing of civilians should hang their heads in shame. Do they really dare argue that protecting Assad’s national sovereignty to arrest, torture, disappear, execute political dissidents, & carpet bomb civilians is a progressive, antiwar position? It is not too late to reclaim political principles & oppose the bombing of civilians by any military force. It is not too late to stand with the Syrian revolution against Assad’s dictatorship.
Demand the immediate cessation of bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.
Kashmiri kids playing ‘frisk’, a game they invented after seeing the Indian army regularly stop civilians & submit them to this humiliating procedure. Frisking is routine practice under war & military occupation. It was done in Northern Ireland under British military occupation, Iraq under US occupation, is done selectively by Israel to those entering the country & to Palestinians under Israeli occupation, & of course elsewhere. It is an intrusive procedure & a violation of human rights. In Northern Ireland & Iraq, it was an issue that male soldiers would frisk the bodies of women civilians.
Stand with Kashmiris in demanding India end the occupation & self-determination for Kashmir.
Did I mention that the Bollywood propaganda film “Padmaavat” is in 3-D? So when the psycho Muslim-ISIS villain is coming at you, he is ten times the size & ferocity of the courtly but stupid Hindutva hero. There was no cinematic device not misused & turned into treachery in this piece of crap. If it weren’t for the violent political climate of Islamophobia, people would have been rolling in the aisles laughing at such an over-the-top catastrophe.
