Kashmiri child’s art therapy: no more powerful condemnation of the occupation.

(Assad, Merkel, & Trump caricatures)

Abdalla Al Omari, a Syrian refugee artist living in Brussels, has created “The Vulnerability Series” of paintings showing world leaders like Trump, Putin, Merkel, Obama & others as homeless, powerless, & as refugees. He said: “My aim somehow shifted from an expression of anger to a more vivid desire of disarming these figures, to picture them outside their positions of power.”

Since Assad has created millions of refugees, Merkel negotiated the European Union’s anti-refugee policy with Turkey, & Trump is attempting to ban Muslims as refugees, their caricatures are posted as a wall of shame.

There is another preferable way to portray them: in prison uniforms after they’ve been prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

(Putin caricature)

Yesterday, tens of thousands of protesters marched across Russia against corruption. Hundreds were arrested. News reports say only that protesters are coming out against corruption. That’s a vague term signifying nothing & likely does not sum up the litany of grievances drawing thousands into the streets.

It could mean they protest oligarchic grand larceny–the very nature of capitalism–or it could mean the utter corruption of politicians. Lord knows, Russians have plenty to protest about, including massive restrictions on democratic & human rights & the billions spent sustaining Russian bombing & ground troops in Syria.

Media isn’t really reporting the political content of these protests but nobody comes out to confront Russian riot police just for the hell of it. It’s likely the leadership of these actions have ulterior motives & are intentionally vague in the demands raised but are tapping in to a deep reserve of opposition to the Putin regime.

There are those who will say it’s another regime-change operation. Write them off as a broken record.

This photo is “anti-corruption” protesters in St. Petersburg.

(Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

It didn’t take Nostradamus to predict the Suu Kyi regime & Myanmar generals would reject the UN investigative commission into the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. That’s what they call a foregone conclusion.

The generals made Suu Kyi the human rights facade of ethnic cleansing thinking she could carry it off. But anyone who’s ever watched her interviews or speeches denying human rights crimes against Rohingya are embarrassed for her & can’t tell the difference between her & any other two-bit huckster. All that glittered becomes tawdry. There ain’t no there-there with Suu Kyi.

What’s worth noting is that Suu Kyi referred to the Kofi Annan commission report, saying Myanmar would only accept recommendations from that advisory body authorized by the Myanmar government. Anyone who followed the work of that commission knows they spent almost no time in Arakan state, that it had no independence, specifically said it was not investigating human rights crimes against Rohingya, and ended with a hard-hitting report denouncing bad people & advocating ‘senseless acts of human kindness.’ In other words, a wimpy whitewash. It did recommend closing the concentration camps but so far Myanmar has only closed three out of 36 & has no intentions of releasing the 121,000 to 146,000 Rohingya internees.

Over 77,000 refugees fled Arakan state since last October. That’s nearly 1,000 people a month. There’s no reason the UN has to call off the investigative commission when there are 77,000 people who witnessed the crimes & can be interviewed in Bangladesh. And while they’re at it, they can interview them about the squalid conditions & denial of refugee rights Rohingya refugees endure in Bangladesh.

Our fullest solidarity with Rohingya Muslims in their demand for full democratic, human, citizenship, & refugee rights.

(Photo by TT News Agency/Henrik Montgomery)

Refugee on Hungarian border: “I was trying to cross to #Hungary but we got caught by border police. They released dogs that attacked us & I was bitten on my wrist.”

(Photo of refugee’s arm tweeted by MSF Sea)

There are protests across Idlib, Syria against Al-Qaeda/Nusra terrorists by supporters of the revolution against the Assad dictatorship. This child is at a protest in Maarat Al-Nooman about 33 km (21 mi) south of Idlib.

The placard says: “O Jabhat Al-Nusra. From Maarat Al-Nooman your end has come. You cannot humiliate what Bashar Al-Assad couldn’t.”
She’s not thinking about national sovereignty like the Hands Off Syria crowd; she’s thinking the end of bombing & terrorism–the two sides of the counter-revolution. She’s thinking democracy & justice & peace & the end of Assad’s gulag.

Long live the Syrian revolution.

(Tweeted by Lina Shamy from Syria)

Counter-revolution in Daraa, Syria:

Syrian forces are conducting a murderous ground & air bombardment of Daraa. This airstrike a few days ago is on a city of nearly 100,000 civilians. The city is 90 km (56 mi) south of Damascus & 13 km (8 mi) north of the border with Jordan.

Daraa is known as the “cradle of the Syrian revolution” because it sparked the revolution against the Assad regime in March 2011 when the regime arrested & severely tortured 15 young boys for spray painting anti-Assad graffiti calling for the downfall of the regime. Thousands of protesters demanding the release of the kids & political freedom were attacked by Assad troops using water cannons & teargas before they opened fire on the unarmed protesters. The protests spread across Syria & ignited the revolution which is battered & weak but not yet defeated.

The only principled antiwar response is to demand Assad stop the bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces including the US, Russia, Iran, Hizbollah.

Our unconditional support for the Syrian revolution. One of the greatest tragedies of our era is the lack of international solidarity with the revolution against a monstrous dictator & the greatest crime is the support by so many for the counter-revolution involving Assad, Putin, Trump.

(Photo tweeted by Lina Shamy from Syria)

Just finished the article for Pakistan Today on Trump’s farcical visit to Saudi Arabia. Who knows if anything got done there since he’s not up to diplomacy or negotiations. Though he does a mean curtsey. Mostly it was about cementing the US relationship with the Saudis.

One thing I always learn from my studies is the absolute impoverishment of scholarship, at least available in English. I can’t think of an international issue I’ve studied where that hasn’t been the case. There’s just mountains of rubbish written by know-nothings & much of it is outright lies or by State-department types–at least on subjects I’m interested in. When you find scholars who are really cogent, it’s good to learn they are often recognized for their work. Though the dopes get higher honoraria. It pays to talk stupid.

Without missing a beat, Reuters news agency transitioned from relatively honest coverage of Duterte’s death squad war against the poor in Manila to inflammatory, Islamophobic reporting about the imposition of martial law & the war against ‘ISIS jihadis’ in Marawi City on Mindanao Island.

There’s no need for Reuters to send reporters to Marawi City. They only need repeat the canned description we know so well from Assadist reporting on Syria: Islamist rebels armed to the teeth with mortars & automatic rifles are engaged in kidnapping, sexual slavery, using civilians as human shields, even head-chopping. And, of course, Wahhabism is their creed.

One disturbing aspect in the reporting is the role of Catholic Church officials in the region who claim ISIS fighters are using Christians, even a priest, as human shields. Bishops & cardinals “urged Islamic leaders to persuade militants to free innocent hostages.” Now why would Catholic prelates give credence to the Islamophobic claim that ISIS fighters have connections to Muslims? Perhaps we need to inquire exactly what Trump discussed with Pope Francis on his recent visit to the Vatican.

It’s also being reported that US soldiers are operating in the area. How many are there? What are they doing? Why are they there? And while we’re at it, where are the ISIS fighters getting their weapons? How are they being transported to Mindanao Island?
What makes the reporting on Duterte’s war against ISIS so grotesque is that Marawi City, the heart of this conflict, is only 178 km (111 mi) from Davao City where Duterte was mayor for 23 years & in that time executed thousands of people with death squads, used forcible disappearance & buried the victims in mass graves.

This photo is a Filipino soldier on a house invasion in Marawi City. Looking for what? Jihadis hiding in the closets, like the Indian army claims in Kashmir? Weapons that the Philippine navy couldn’t intercept on the sea or the air force prevent from being airdropped? Are they bringing in mortars & high-powered rifles hidden in produce?

Shame on those who claim Duterte is being demonized to set the stage for an imaginary regime change operation. They’re the same people who support Assad & the Maduro regime in Venezuela. If anyone gets confused about what to believe, stand with the civilians being executed & forced to flee their homes in terror. You’ll be starring down the barrel of a gun wielded by the oppressor.

(Photo from Reuters)

Every day we wake up there are reports of more deaths in Kashmir & Palestine.Then there are the killing fields of Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Myanmar.

Yesterday, the politically deranged gathered in 28 US cities to march against sharia law. They were reportedly outnumbered by human rights supporters defending Muslims, immigrants & refugees. Maybe there weren’t a lot of haters this time but the fact that they coordinated actions in 28 cities is alarming because that takes money & a network.

The only way this can end well is to rebuild the international antiwar movement on a principled basis opposing militarism, war, occupation in all forms everywhere & by out-organizing those who call bombing of civilians a form of emancipation & dictators champions against the spread of sharia law.
No war. No Islamophobia.