A View From The Left-WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

Generally speaking, the concept of “the war at home” has been used metaphorically.  Perhaps not for long.  Increasingly, the violent methods of repression employed by the US and its allies abroad are being deployed at home. At Occupy, Ferguson, Oakland – and now especially at Standing Rock -- US citizens are now getting a taste of what is faced regularly by democracy campaigners in US-allied Arab states and by Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories. See this video showing explosive tear gas grenades used against Standing Rock protesters, made by Defense Technology Corp or Casper, Wyoming, which – along with other firms like Combined Tactical Systems of Jamestown. PA, supplies both US police and the instruments of oppression abroad.  Scary.

VIDEO: Standing Rock, N.Dakota

Cairo, Egypt

Oakland, California

Another Made in USA “less-lethal” weapon kills in Palestine

The recent killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah in Bil’in – and the death or injury of many others — by Israeli tear gas munitions imported from the US has spotlighted the collaboration of American companies in the lethal suppression of unarmed protests in the West Bank.  However, another US-made “less lethal” weapon has also caused many deaths and injuries, but has received less attention.  Live fire “crowd control” rounds attributed to .22 caliber sniper rifles, made by Sturm, Ruger Co. in Newport, NH, have been responsible for at least six – and possibly more — deaths and scores of injuries during the past couple of years.  More

(see also here for my personal experience with tear gas in Palestine!)

THE IRON HEEL AT HOME

The nation’s ever more militarized police departments are loaded up with an array of so-called “nonlethal crowd-control technologies” designed to abolish the right of public assembly.  The terrible tools include things like the “Long Range Acoustic Device” (LRAD) – a sonic cannon that can cause total hearing loss for protesters who refuse to disperse at authorities’ command. Drones are now routinely deployed against protestors inside the U.S…  The current leading hot-spot for militarized police-state repression is southeastern North Dakota, where militarized local, county, and state police and National Guard units have attacked Native American water- and climate-protectors and others resisting the eco-cidal Dakota Access Pipeline…  Advanced military technologies have been on display and deployed throughout the ongoing repression: automatic rifles, MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles), Humvees, armored police trucks, tear gas, mace, pepper spray, flash-bang (concussion) grenades, smoke grenades, Tasers, bean bag rounds, rubber bullets, and more.   More

‘The Washington Post’ Promotes a McCarthyite Blacklist

On November 24, The Washington Post published what at first glance looked to be a deeply troubling report on the far-reaching, insidious influence of the Kremlin on the American media. The Post’s national technology reporter Craig Timberg writes that “a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of…helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy.”  According to Timberg, a group which goes by the moniker PropOrNot, a “nonpartisan collection of researchers with foreign policy, military and technology backgrounds” has identified “more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans.” … The group’s intentions are clear. They are “calling for formal investigations by the US government” of these Web sites because they think “the American people have the right to know when foreign governments are trying to mess with them.” What is more, they “strongly suspect that some of the individuals involved have violated the Espionage Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, and other related laws, but determining that is up to the FBI and the DOJ.”

That the Post would rely on the “findings” of a shoddy, anonymous blacklist that seeks to stifle dissent on Russia policy is deeply troubling.  More

Growing Far-Right Nationalistic Movements Are Dangerously Anti-Muslim — and Pro-Israel

The specter of a growing far-right nationalism anywhere, but particularly in Central Europe, immediately — and for good and obvious reasons — raises fears of an anti-Semitism revival. But at least thus far, the leaders of most of these nationalistic parties — increasingly inspired and fueled by one another’s success — have showcased dangerous animosity toward Muslims, accompanied by strong policy support for Israel and a rhetorical repudiation of anti-Semitism.  Whether from cynical tactical considerations or actual conviction, the most successful leaders of this emerging movement — while unrestrained with their reckless anti-Muslim fearmongering — not only repudiate anti-Semitism in words but are incorporating steadfast support for Israel as part of their policy agenda. And in many cases, the Israeli government — which itself exhibits many of the same far-right attributes as these movements — is expressing support in return… In the wake of the Bannon controversy, The Forward’s Naomi Zeveloff examined this increasingly common dynamic, arguing that “Breitbart News isn’t the only place where anti-Semitism and Zionism go hand in hand. Anti-Semitic attitudes abound in Poland, for example, even as Poland has a strong diplomatic relationship with Israel.” Some Israel defenders are willing to make common cause with potential or even clear-cut anti-Semites if they are also — for geopolitical, religious, or political reasons — pro-Israel.  More

Anti-Muslim Activist Katharine Gorka Named to Homeland Security Transition Team

Katharine Gorka, a controversial national security analyst who specializes in discussing the threat posed by Muslims to the United States, has complained bitterly that the Department of Homeland Security trains its agents — falsely, in her opinion — that Islam is a “religion of peace.” Now, Gorka will have a chance to help Donald Trump remake the department. On Tuesday, she was selected by Trump to be part of the DHS “landing team” that will meet with Obama’s DHS officials to manage the handoff to new leadership.  Gorka, the president of a think tank called the Council on Global Security and the president of Threat Knowledge Group, a consulting firm, is a well-known figure among anti-Muslim campaigners.   More

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NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Rep. TULSI GABBARD:

Telling Trump to End US Wars of Intervention

I recently met with President-elect Donald Trump to give voice to the millions of Americans, including my fellow veterans, who desperately want to end our country’s illegal, counterproductive war to overthrow the Syrian government. We had an hour-long, meaningful, back-and-forth discussion about the problems with current US policy in Syria and where to go from here… I conveyed to the president-elect how the post-9/11 neocon agenda of interventionism and regime change has left US foreign policy absurdly disconnected from our actual security interests. Our actions to overthrow secular dictators in Iraq and Libya, and attempts now to do the same in Syria, have resulted in tremendous loss of life, failed nations, and even worse humanitarian crises while strengthening the very terrorist organizations that have declared war on America…  Additionally, escalating this regime-change war by implementing a “no-fly/safe zone” in Syria would not only be ineffective, it would put the United States in direct military confrontation with nuclear-power Russia, require tens of thousands of ground troops and a massive US air presence, and commit us to yet another endless war in the Middle East that does not serve American or Syrian interests.   More

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees. She is a combat veteran of two Middle East deployments and currently serves as a Major in the Hawaiʻi Army National Guard. She has been a leading progressive advocate for ending US-led regime change wars of intervention, and has introduced legislation to end the counterproductive regime change war in Syria. She was recently re-elected to serve a third term in the US House of Representatives, where she represents Hawaiʻi’s 2nd Congressional District. She quit the Democratic National Committee to support Bernie Sanders.

A MESSAGE FROM AN ALEPPO SYRIAN

A Syrian friend of mine who lives in Boston wrote this recently:

“I have friends & family in Aleppo, many of them are originally from the western side of Aleppo and some are from the eastern side who preferred to leave their homes and resettled in areas in the west of Aleppo since they did not want to be part of the militerized opposition. Many people from both sides wanted reform in 2011, but once the opposition got militarized, majority of them stepped back as we are peaceful people who wanted change but not through weapons and fighting like what happened.

“Everyday people from both sides of Aleppo are getting killed. People in the western side of Aleppo did not carry weapons, they asked their army & government to protect them. People in the east side of Aleppo(of course not all of them)  chose to carry weapons and they are not bombing only military or government area, they are bombing civilians in Aleppo, schools were their target last week. Please don’t look at the peaceful videos when they call on the whole world to help, they have weapons!! they are shelling civillians in Western Aleppo and they are also forbidding civillians in eastern Aleppo from fleeing because they want them to stay and use them as humanitarian shield and cry over them. Unfortunately, there are innocent civilians in eastern side of Aleppo too. But the United nations have called on the armed people in eastern Aleppo to accept the agreement of going out from Aleppo safely under the UN supervision! Why they don’t accept that?! its a great offer by the Syrian government and UN? If they are worried about their lives, other’s lives and innocent civilians, why don’t they accept the UN offer to move out of Aleppo. After all, they carried weapons and attacked people, would you accept that to happen in your own country?!  … It’s an ugly war and I think all what we can do is to call to stop other countries from sending weapons until this war ends regardless of which side wins. There is no such thing called “moderate rebels” any one who carries a weapon or a knife and kills or slaughter other people is not a “moderate” rebel?”

ANDREW BACEVICH: The Swamp of War

In the immediate wake of 9/11, George W. Bush concocted a fantasy of American soldiers liberating oppressed Afghans and Iraqis and thereby “draining the swamp” that served to incubate anti-Western terrorism.  The results achieved proved beyond disappointing, while the costs exacted in terms of lives and dollars squandered were painful indeed.  Incrementally, with the passage of time, many Americans concluded that perhaps the swamp most in need of attention was not on the far side of the planet but much closer at hand -- right in the imperial city nestled alongside the Potomac River.  To a very considerable extent, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, preferred candidate of the establishment, because he advertised himself as just the guy disgruntled Americans could count on to drain that swamp.  Yet here’s what too few of those Americans appreciate, even today: war created that swamp in the first place.  More

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ISRAEL, PALESTINE . . . and the U.S.

New anti-Semitism legislation may stifle campus activism for Palestinian rights

Increasingly, students on American campuses perceive advocating for justice in Palestine as a moral imperative. The steady growth of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian freedom has been met by a wave legislation aimed at punishing or suppressing our 1st amendment rights to free speech and silencing student activism. The latest of these bills is the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, introduced yesterday by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Tim Scott (R-SC), which redefines anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel.   More

According to this report, the bill already passed the Senate, a day after it was introduced – perhaps a record speed for Congressional action.  Of the bullet points explaining the resolution by its  Democrat author Bob Casey (PA), three out of four item concern criticism of  Israel, not anti-Semitism as normally understood.

Insufficiently “Pro-Israel”. . .

Resistance Grows to Ellison’s Bid to Lead the D.N.C.

After initially mixing praise and criticism for Mr. Ellison, the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday effectively came out in opposition to his candidacy, citing remarks he made about Israel in a 2010 speech that the anti-discrimination group termed “disqualifying.”  In an audiotape released Thursday of a fund-raiser for his re-election to Congress that year, Mr. Ellison asserted that “United States foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of seven million people,” an allusion to Israel. Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, excoriated Mr. Ellison for his speech. “His words imply that U.S. foreign policy is based on religiously or national origin-based special interests rather than simply on America’s best interests,” said Mr. Greenblatt, adding that Mr. Ellison’s “words raise the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government, a poisonous myth that may persist in parts of the world where intolerance thrives, but that has no place in open societies like the U.S.”   More

House of Representatives Opposes UN Action on Palestine

The World Jewish Congress, United States (WJC, US), on Wednesday praised the US House of Representatives for passing H. Con. Res. 165, a bipartisan resolution that reaffirms support for direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations to ensure a genuine and lasting Middle East peace. 

  Introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), the resolution reaffirms long-standing US government opposition to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) attempts to impose a solution which would circumvent United Nations-mandated face to face peace talks.  More

H.Con.Res.165 - Expressing the sense of Congress and reaffirming longstanding United States policy in support of a direct bilaterally negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and opposition to United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing a solution to the conflict. Passed by voice vote, no roll call. Seth Moulton was the only Mass co-sponsor