So many people are responding to the apocalypse in east Aleppo by saying the world stood by in silence, humanity has failed. Misanthropy & cynicism are the worst possible response to this horror.
The overwhelming majority of people in the world are confused about Syria because the regimes involved have deliberately lied & obfuscated. Media reporting hasn’t just been dissemblance but half-assed because it’s not certain reporters & editors understand what’s going on either.
Assad propagandists, including Russian-owned media & libertarian bloggers, have played the ignorant, those secretly disposed to Muslim-hating, & political forces in advanced decay like a fiddle so some of them now sincerely believe bombing civilians is a freedom struggle. You can’t argue with that kind of cognition disorder.
As witnesses to the killing fields in east Aleppo, we must use our anger & sorrow to educate those who don’t have time to plow through mountains of information to find the truth. We have to look for ways to rebuild antiwar opposition to all foreign intervention in Syria.
Misanthropy & cynicism are cop-outs that lead to the worthless conclusion that humanity is dead, fascism has triumphed, justice isn’t worth fighting for because human beings are crap anyway.
The international antiwar movement has to be rebuilt. It isn’t all over in Syria. That’s the most important conclusion to be drawn from east Aleppo
The only explanation for the respect given the journalism of Robert Fisk on Middle East politics is a profound cognitive disorder which has not yet been classified in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. That’s a good thing because it cannot come out flattering.
Fisk is an ass–& an ass of a special breed. He profoundly disrespects Arabs & Muslims & to cultivate this detestable quality became a journalist covering the Middle East so he could poison the rest of us about Arabs & Muslims.
As east Aleppo sustains retribution by the Syrian Army, Fisk (who was embedded with the Syrian Army) published an article titled “There is more than one truth to tell in the terrible story of Aleppo.” Fares Shehabi, the Assad official in Aleppo, liked it so much he posted it on social media.
Fisk is trying to play both sides of the street–just like the Hands Off Syria Coalition that is touring Assad propagandist Eva Bartlett. But when it comes to dictatorship, carpet bombing of civilians, retributive violence against civilians, there is only one side for those who stand with the oppressed. There are no tolerable equivocations, no ‘yes buts.’
Our deepest regrets that international antiwar forces have been disoriented & misled & to now have proven unable to organize massive, public support for our brothers & sisters in east Aleppo & elsewhere.
As credible reports pour out of east Aleppo about violent retributions inflicted on civilians by the Syrian Army, the chorus of Assad propagandists are out in force. That’s probably why Assad official Fares Shehabi wined & dined the most venal of them in Aleppo. He expects them to sing for their supper.
Their mantra now crescendos to fever pitch: “Don’t trust mainstream media. It’s all lies” & they post photos of happy little children in east Aleppo giving the victory sign as if they hadn’t just survived several years of carpet bombing & seen people die before their eyes. It’s called war crime propaganda.
For the popular Syrian movement against the Assad dictatorship, the fall of east Aleppo is a defeat which weakens but does not destroy the movement. For international antiwar forces, for the Palestinian solidarity movement, & for socialists, east Aleppo is a watershed moment. Either you choose to stand with the oppressed in east Aleppo or you choose to side with bombers & the Assad dictatorship. There is no middle ground & no zone where ignorance is a worthy plea.
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, & humanity is at last compelled to face with sober senses their real conditions of life & their relations with their kind.”
There will be time to grieve for our brothers & sisters in east Aleppo but our sorrow must be channeled into organizing & rebuilding the international antiwar movement to demand:
–the immediate cessation of Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians; the immediate cessation of US bombing;
–the immediate end of funding, arming, training of militias by Syria, the US, Russia, Iran, & other foreign agents;
–the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces in Syria–overt & covert, by land, sea, & air.
Can’t tell you how often some throwback to another era decides to smart out on my Facebook wall–almost invariably combining a smart-mouth & contempt for women’s intelligence with political ignorance. Mine is the generation that knows full well how it feels to be talked down to like we’re all halfwits; mine is the generation that put on combat boots (in the metaphorical sense) & set out to end that crap.
We did a good job despite the backlash. More women learn early in life not to take any guff & they learn to dish it out. But our mission is not yet accomplished. When you meet these lowbrow minds on social media, sometimes you feel pity for them cause you know if they don’t back off you & other women will make chopped liver out of them. No one wants to reduce a grown man to public weeping. But if you force us to, we must admit to secretly savoring the moment. Senior women can be the most ruthless because we don’t give a damn about your conceits.
You don’t have to agree on everything we say but you do have to disagree like you’re talking to fully-formed adults & not halfwits. I don’t really know women who aren’t kind but most I know are entirely capable of running a smart-mouthed punk around the block. For his own good of course. And for the betterment of humankind.
Reports & images of slaughter & retribution against civilians in east Aleppo by the Syrian Army as it takes over are apocalyptic. In response, Assad supporters on social media are exuberant & celebrating the killing field as a liberation.
Vanessa Beeley, an Assad propagandist, was scheduled to tour the US with Eva Bartlett, another propagandist for the regime, but is instead in Aleppo posing with Syrian soldiers giving the victory sign & dishonestly posting photos of happy children delighted to be freed.
Here she is dining with Fares Shehabi who recently hosted Bartlett in Aleppo. He is an industrialist & chair of the Syrian Federation of Industry, a member of the Syrian parliament representing Aleppo, & a candidate for Syrian Prime Minister.
Toasting & giving the victory sign (as Beeley is again doing here) whilst civilians in east Aleppo are dying gruesome deaths & bodies are piling up in the streets is that point when reactionary politics shades into sociopathology. It is a point of no return. It is a time of separation from old allies & ruptures that cannot be healed.
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, & humanity is at last compelled to face with sober senses their real conditions of life & their relations with their kind.”
Over the past few weeks I spent quite a while researching all the countries where Islamic veils (burqa, niqab, hijab, etc.) are banned. Exploiting feminism (which they anyway oppose) for reactionary purposes, governments, including those headed by Muslims, have politicized the veil & made it the focal point for discrimination & persecution of Muslims, a justification for denying asylum to refugees & for military intervention.
The geographic scope & character of the bans is quite alarming whilst only two countries (Iran & Saudi Arabia) mandate veiling for women. This is obviously an important discussion to understand how systematic & integrated Muslim-hating has become in world politics.
The problem is that the veil incites indignation up the wazoo & addressing it is considered a provocation. That is no reason why those of us who want to understand the issue should be reluctant to address it.
So I will be posting about the legal restrictions & outlawing of the veil & don’t want to take any guff about it. The post will be about what politicizing the veil means for women, Muslims, refugees, & for war. All comments about the theology, comfort, & judgements of its character as imposed would be inappropriate.
After Clinton lost the election, the email furor came to an abrupt halt. Now the CIA claims Russian hackers were behind their release & those who talk the “Russian lives matter” nonsense are rushing to defend Putin from this accusation.
Maybe this is big news to those who didn’t grow up during the McCarthy witch-hunt, never watched the “I Led Three Lives” TV series about an FBI double agent or never read a John le Carré spy novel.
Spying is what the CIA & Putin’s revived KGB do. There’s no honor among spies & Putin would know that since he’s a former KGB agent in the USSR. Radio Free Europe has been blasting into Russia since the 1950s so if Russia hacked & released those emails, that’s the way the spy game operates. It could even be claimed Russia performed a service by exposing the corruption of the Democratic Party.
Spare us another few years going around on those damn emails.
‘Kashmir is Abu Ghraib itself.’
Kashmiri Facebook friend making comparison between occupied Kashmir & notorious torture prison in Iraq.
Supporters of Assad who also defend Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians as a freedom struggle against “jihadist terrorists” are touring Eva Bartlett around the US to convince antiwar activists to support that point of view. They promote her as an “independent journalist” with on the ground experience in Syria.
Perhaps those not already committed to Assad-think that war is peace could ask Bartlett about her political collaboration with Fares Shehabi. Shehabi is an industrialist & chair of the Syrian Federation of Industry, a member of the Syrian parliament representing Aleppo, & a candidate for Syrian Prime Minister.
According to Bartlett, Shehabi organized a trip to Aleppo in November for herself & 13 unidentified western journalists with security provided by the Syrian Army.
Bartlett says she has been to Syria six times in the past four years, has met with Assad, & knows for sure the majority of Syrians support his regime. Is it possible that when she interviews Syrians they are reluctant to express criticisms to an Assad supporter accompanied by Syrian soldiers? There is, after all, a notorious Syrian gulag where thousands have been tortured, murdered, disappeared.
It would be so useful if Bartlett would explain to activists on her speaking tour how traveling several weeks in a country as a guest of the regime & embedded with its military makes one an authority on its complex politics & war. Many have spent much more time in England & still can’t explain the Labour Party, let alone the character of the opposition groups within it.
If one follows Shehabi’s social media posts, they are indistinguishable from the allegations made by Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley & other Assad propagandists. In fact, Shehabi often posts their so-called journalism. It’s all there: the shameless maligning of baby Omran; claims the White Helmets don’t even exist outside of videos; that the militias are all US-backed “head-chopping jihadists”; that “terrorists” are holding civilians hostage & using them as human shields; that there was never a popular uprising against the beloved dictator.
So perhaps Bartlett could explain on her speaking tour how her journalism is “independent” from the Assad regime & clarify how she is not functioning as its propagandist.
Photo is scene after the December 9th bombing of a field hospital in east Aleppo. Reporting is by Waas Al-Kateab, a Channel 4 news journalist reporting from east Aleppo & not protected by Syrian Army soldiers.
(Photo from Reuters)
Jon Snow interview with Fares Shehabi on Channel 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvW7fCmpvc