At a time when the Aleppo countryside is being bombarded by Syrian & Russian war planes & Kashmiris are forcibly silenced, it is important to repost this moving tribute to the Syrian Arab Spring & message of solidarity from Kashmiri students with the Syrians of East Aleppo being routed by Syrian & Russian bombers in December 2016.

In an unprecedented escalation, Syrian & Russian war planes are carpet bombing the rural areas of Aleppo, including with barrel bombs. Witnesses report nearly 100 airstrikes per day. Children, women, entire families are being buried in the rubble of their homes. Over 67,000 civilians have fled the area in just the past nine days.

At this point, the debate over Assad’s use of chemical weapons is a distraction best left to scientific & forensic experts. Politically, it is as monstrous to drop regular bombs & barrel bombs on unarmed civilians as it is to use sarin gas.

Stand with the people of Aleppo & demand the immediate cessation of bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces & mercenaries from Syria.

(Photo of child victim of bombing in Aleppo from White Helmets, January 22, 2020)

The Burmese government has already rejected the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling which mandates Suu Kyi & the generals to ‘prevent genocidal acts, ensure military & police forces do not commit genocidal acts, preserve all evidence of genocidal acts, & report on compliance with these provisional measures’. The ICJ has no means of enforcing their ruling & Burma will certainly ignore it. But politically, it strengthens the Rohingya & puts them in a more forceful position to advance their struggle against genocide & for full human, civil, & democratic rights in Burma. With the authority of the ICJ behind them, they can demand governments impose strict sanctions on Burma ending the sale of arms to Burma & any kind of military support or training. The boycott of Burma called by Rohingya activists gains traction in demanding international corporations withdraw their billions in investments & end their joint venture projects with the military.

Strengthening the Rohingya movement can also strengthen that of the Uyghur, Kashmiris, Indian Muslims since China & India are up to their eyeballs in investment & joint venture projects in Burma as well as in rendering diplomatic & military support to Suu Kyi & the generals.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51229796?

What does it mean when most socialists have never said a blessed word about Kashmir but their bête noire George Soros made a speech at Davos saying “the Modi government is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, & threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship”?

Let me spell the answer out: most socialists today are apolitical, some are amoral, & the majority are hound dogs for Sanders.

Putin inaugurated a holocaust museum in Jerusalem today under the flag of Israel. Would the international current concerned about Russophobia & defending Putin’s glory explain how that is in accord with Palestinian solidarity? Are we to accept realpolitik as a substitute for solidarity at a time of genocide?

Political characterizations, whether of oneself or others, & from one country to another are a minefield of confusions: liberal, leftist, socialist, libertarian, Stalinist, fascist, feminist, screwball. Fascists march under the banner of anti-US imperialism; feminists argue for decriminalization of human trafficking; socialists support dictatorships & deny genocides. The designations don’t mean much anymore. Chaos reigns. Political theory has been abandoned, debased, or become rationalization for elitism & inhumanity.

The Times of India reports that Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, told a public rally that anyone who raises the chant ‘Azadi’ will be charged with sedition. His words were: “If anyone will raise slogans of Azadi in the name of protest, it will amount to sedition & the government will take strict action. It can’t be accepted. People can’t be allowed to conspire against India from Indian soil.”

The Indian government is making a concerted attempt to divide the Kashmiri struggle against occupation from that of Indian Muslims against persecution. Color me obtuse, but I don’t see a future in capitulation to their threats.

Recently, I have read several posts indicting all military veterans as war criminals. The antiwar movement developed a policy toward veterans which does not glorify soldiers & veterans, nor does it vilify them. They are in their majority working class kids who US government military training indoctrinates in racism & xenophobia & orders to carry out war crimes. They return to civilian life unable to cope with what they did to civilians & on the battlefield. They, their families, & society pay the price in PTSD, addiction, mental illness, suicide, homelessness, incarceration, domestic violence.

Going back to the Vietnam War, there is a considerable body of literature with testimony by veterans against war. One of the most compelling is titled “Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History”. The veterans do not justify but rather express horror & remorse at what they did in war. Many are unable to forgive or trust themselves in civilian life.

This is a talk I gave in Minneapolis to support veterans preparing for the 2008 Winter Soldier tribunal where veterans testified against the Iraq war. What is important to note from the Vietnam War era is how relentlessly the US government & supporters of war worked to keep antiwar soldiers & veterans away from the antiwar movement.
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VETERANS & THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT:

Of the many important participants in the antiwar movement—students, churches, women, civil rights groups, unions—there is one constituency with a towering moral authority no one disputes, and that is the veterans & active duty GIs. Their opposition to war cuts, like nothing else can, through the patriotic jingoism, racism and lies that justify war. That’s why the proponents of war are so relentless in trying to create antipathy between veterans and the antiwar movement. Everyone’s heard the story about Vietnam vets being met at airports by taunting and spitting protestors? This ugliest of slanders is intended to alienate people from the antiwar movement, in particular to isolate and demoralize veterans with misgivings or opposition to the war. It gives them no place to go for support.

In the early antiwar movement there was some confusion and discussion about the value of reaching out to veterans and GIs but no one ever saw them as the enemies of peace; some doubted they could overcome the military brainwashing or stand up to the harassment they would certainly receive. That confusion decisively ended when hundreds and eventually thousands of vets and GIs began organizing against the war and made their opposition public with newspapers, petitions, and demonstrations and they approached the antiwar movement for collaboration and support.

Without the support of a mass civilian antiwar movement they were subject to intimidation, court martial, prison time, and often charges of mutiny or desertion in time of war, which carry a maximum penalty of death. You may not know that all of this was true in the first Iraq war in the early 90s. Black and Latino soldiers played a major part in this resistance because they were so outraged at the racism of the war against the Arab peoples.

As a result of our collaboration, defense campaigns were waged and demonstrations held to keep GIs from being prosecuted and jailed. We marched with veterans reaching out to soldiers and to support those victimized for exercising their legal right to oppose the war.

The respect we have for these brothers and sisters in the antiwar movement is signified by the fact that even today all marches are led off by contingents of veteran’s and GIs because they are a direct rebuke to the demagogues calling racist wars a fight for freedom and democracy. Thousands have been inspired and persuaded to oppose the war by their public speeches and protests

Many of the veterans who have been involved in this work for now more than 40 years are here tonight. They’re probably too modest to stand up and identify themselves but I think we should tip our hats to them and express our respect and gratitude for the remarkable contributions they have made to advancing civil liberties, the causes of peace and antiracism, and to making this a suitable world for human beings to live and love in.