[Marxism] US launches 32 strikes on ISIS May 17, kills dozens of civilians

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(I know that isn't the news that most of us are reading, which is 
telling)


The International Coalition Carried Out A Massacre In Al-Bukamal Today, 
Killing Dozens Of Civilians

Date: 15 / 5 / 2017

The USA-led International Coalition carried out a horrific massacre in 
Al-Bukamal city during the dawn, after executing multiple strikes 
against the city, which targeted an area near Al-Rahman Mosque and the 
vicinity of Al-Russafa as well as Al-Iman Mosque and the Hajanah 
Barrack.


The civilian death toll from the airstrikes has risen to 25 civilians, 
including locals and displaced families. The death toll might increase 
since rescue operations to pull trapped civilians out of the rubble area 
still ongoing.


More than 15 civilian-owned homes were destroyed, and many other 
civilian properties were badly damaged.


http://en.deirezzor24.net/the-international-coalition-carried-out-a-massacre-in-al-bukamal-today-killing-dozens-of-civilians/



Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve

May 18, 2017

Release # 20170518-01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

http://www.inherentresolve.mil/Portals/14/Documents/Strike%20Releases/2017/05May/20170518%20Strike%20Release%20-%20Final.pdf?ver=2017-05-18-083823-800Military
Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria and Iraq

SOUTHWEST ASIA – On May 17, Coalition military forces conducted 32
strikes consisting of 101 engagements against ISIS terrorists in Syria
and Iraq.

In Syria, Coalition military forces conducted 22 strikes consisting of
32 engagements against ISIS targets.

• Near Abu Kamal, seven strikes destroyed seven ISIS well heads, four
fighting positions, a front-end loader and a mortar system.

• Near Al Hawl, one strike destroyed a mortar system and a fighting 
position.


• Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed four ISIS fuel trucks and a 
vehicle.


• Near Raqqah, 11 strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units; destroyed
five fighting positions, three mortar systems, three vehicles, two
ISIS fuel trucks, and an ISIS headquarters; and damaged an ISIS supply
route.

• Near Tabqah, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed
a fighting position.

In Iraq, Coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes consisting of
69 engagements against ISIS targets.

• Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed
eight fighting positions, four medium machine guns, four mortar
systems, four VBIEDs, four rocket systems, three vehicles, three
rocket-propelled grenade systems, two ISIS-held buildings, two heavy
machine guns, two ISIS staging areas, a supply cache, an anti-air
artillery system, an ISIS fuel truck, a VBIED facility, and a fighting
position; damaged 16 supply routes and four rocket systems; and
suppressed two mortar teams and an ISIS tactical unit.

• Near Sinjar, one strike destroyed a tank.

• Near Tal Afar, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and
destroyed a UAS factory, an IED factory, and an ISIS staging area.

Additionally, two strikes were conducted in Syria on May 16th that
closed within the last 24 hours.

• Near Abu Kamal, one strike destroyed four oil processing equipment 
items.


• Near Raqqah, one strike damaged an ISIS supply route 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] US must occupy Syria now?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I changed the subject for discussion of this part of David's post.

David, much as I hate the pretend 'anti-imperialist' stance that an 
imaginary US intervention against Assad (in some parallel universe) 
would create ... "more killing" than now, I can't understand why you 
have taken the complete opposite tack here.  It seems to be "the 
situation is so catastrophic, that even a US occupation would be better, 
to end the killing."


Seems to me that this is falling into precisely the same trap as the 
pro-Assad and "no good guys in Syria" (!!) crowds fall into: no faith in 
the Syrian people to look after their own house. It can only be 
disaster, "like in Libya" (where the killing rate over the last 5 years 
is about 1/100th that of Syria, but never mind logic). If Assad falls, 
ISIS will take power etc etc. Jihadists etc. Fratricide. Everyone is bad 
in those God-forsaken places, only a progressive/secular enlightened 
tyrant with western values like Assad, or ... a US/western occupation, 
can save the Syrians from themselves. I'm not saying you think this, but 
somehow it is the same logic.


Have you asked Syrians about this? Because one thing seems to me for 
sure - even those anti-Assad Syrians who do favour certain forms of 
western intervention - usually some kind of no-fly zone to protect 
civilians, or targeted strikes on genocide-airfields - normally oppose 
any idea of western/US ground troops. They don't need troops, they've 
got 150,000 in arms - just that those arms are not the kind you need to 
fight an airforce (as anti-aircraft weapons have been blocked from 
reaching the rebels for 5 years by CIA border guards, ie, by the spooks 
of the power you think should occupy Syria).


-Original Message- 
From: David McMullen via Marxism


Anyone who is anti-war must support massive US intervention in Syria to
end the bloodshed and help the country in the painful process of getting
back on track politically and economically. In other words we need a US
lead occupation. The Russians should not be a major obstacle. They know
the Assad regime's days are numbered and they share the same concern
about defeating Al Qaeda and ISIS.

I really hope the US military is starting the trickle of troops and
equipment that will need to become a torrent in the next month or so.
Their job will be to the end the civil war by destroying Al Qaeda and
Daesh (ISIS) and any other troublemakers, and then facilitate the
postwar political process.  I am talking about something similar to the
NATO occupation of Bosnia which ended the slaughter and genocide in that
country 20 years ago.

Continuing massacres in Syria only add to the urgency of massive
intervention. We must demand that Trump acts immediately.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] PYD: US bombing of airbase good, but it should bomb rebels too

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Chris Slee


Readers can look at Amnesty International's report on the siege of 
Sheikh Maqsoud (a predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Aleppo) by some 
rebel groups and decide for themselves if the accusation is "spurious":


https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/syria-armed-opposition-groups-committing-war-crimes-in-aleppo-city/
...

Yes, we already had that discussion, so I'll just post it here again, 
and then you tell me if this spurious accusation is in the same league 
as Assad's sarin massacre and whether it justifies the PYD leader 
calling for US air strikes on the rebels:


Amnesty:

"There are also **allegations** that members of armed groups attacking 
Sheikh Maqsoud **may have** used chemical weapons. A local doctor told 
Amnesty International that on 7 and 8 April he treated six civilians and 
two YPG fighters for symptoms including shortness of breath, numbness, 
red eyes and severe coughing fits. Several of the victims, he said, 
reported seeing yellow smoke as missiles impacted. A toxicologist 
consulted by Amnesty International, who viewed video-clips of the 
apparent attack and reviewed the doctor’s testimony, said the patients’ 
symptoms **could be** the effects of a chlorine attack. A subsequent 
statement purportedly issued by the leader of the Army of Islam armed 
group said that a field commander had deployed an **“unauthorised 
weapon”** on Sheikh Maqsoud and that he would be held to account".

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/syria-armed-opposition-groups-committing-war-crimes-in-aleppo-city/

Not sure that the only cause of “shortness of breath, numbness, red eyes 
and severe coughing fits” is the use of chemical weapons. Lots of “may”, 
“could” etc in this report for very good reason.


But the trouble with the bit about a Jaysh Islam leader disciplining a 
northern field commander (JI is almost entirely a Damascus-based group) 
for use of “weapons not authorized for use in these types of 
confrontations” is that JI specified it was referring to “modified Grad 
rockets, not chlorine: 
https://twitter.com/islamalloush0/status/718121743949414403. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] PYD: US bombing of airbase good, but it should bomb rebels too

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yes Andy, well that's the test isn't it. If the radical people's 
revolution as it claims to be - and is no doubt partly true - can't seem 
to inspire anyone outside the regions they control, then that needs 
analysis. For one thing, we are aware of the real life restrictions on 
the Rojova revolution (as on the rest of the revolution). The PYD runs a 
one-party state, it arrests and jails oppositionists, it bans newspapers 
(eg Rudaw) etc. It does not engage in ethnic cleansing in the systematic 
sense but the allegations about less-systematic uprooting villagers and 
destroying property are widespread enough.


But much as we could debate all that (how much are restrictions imposed 
by the situation etc, again, as with the rest of the revolution), the 
alliance with US and Russian imperialism is more fundamental. Of course 
I agree that we shouldn't attack them, or invalidate their own 
revolution, simply because they get massive military aid from the US 
(and I have never done that; and never mind that many Rojava-Firsters do 
precisely that to the FSA/rebels due to the comparatively insignificant 
US aid they sometimes get). But there is aid and aid. There is defence 
and there is offence. US aid for the defence of Kobani was existential. 
The ongoing war however is another thing. Sure, despite the US alliance, 
of course we still prefer victories of SDF over ISIS tyranny, that is a 
given. But at what point does systematic alliance become a political 
problem? Clearly, anyone can see there are dangers.


Here's the thing: their supporters talk about "extending the 
revolution." Yet every extension of the borders of Rojava has been a 
military extension with the direct aid of US imperialism, air strikes, 
special forces etc. Can a radical democratic revolution really be 
extended that way? Even of we leave aside the widespread allegations of 
abuses, what of the fact that these US bombings kill lots of civilians? 
The US bombs killed 200 civilians on the way into Manbij. I'm sure the 
people are happy to see the back of Daesh. But how do these bombings and 
killings affect the reception of the YPG/SDF? I don't know for sure, but 
it seems to me a problem. Certainly the underground anti-ISIS group 
'Raqqa is being Slaughtered Silently' continually reports both on the 
terror unleashed by US bombing, and on widespread distrust of the YPG. 
They are anything but ISIS tools. And all that is before we even come to 
last year's alliance with Russian imperialism in the conquest not of 
ISIS territory, but of rebel territory, north of Aleppo city, which cut 
the city off from Azaz, Mare and the Turkish border: ie, prepared the 
way for Assad's victory in Aleppo. I don't think we can underestimate 
the effects of such actions on the mutual solidarity Andy is talking 
about.


And Salih Muslim's statements like this one - US should bomb the rebels 
too, based on some spurious assertion about an alleged use of chlorine 
(Assad has used chlorine dozens if not hundreds of times) - is an 
example of the political impact of long-term alliance.


-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism

Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2017 12:17 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] PYD: US bombing of airbase good, but it should 
bomb rebels too


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Meanwhile ROAR has another puff piece about the Ocalanists:
https://roarmag.org/magazine/dilar-dirik-kurdish-anti-fascism/

Much of what they say about the essential linkages of revolution, war,
class, gender etc. is true. And don't miss their mostly valid 
denunciation

of purist Western leftists who attack them for getting aid from
imperialism. (Sound familiar?)

But...

If they're so ideologically advanced, democratic, self-less blah blah 
blah,

how come they have made virtually no impact on the anti-Assad movement?
Yes, Syrian Arab elites are still mostly racist toward Kurds. But 
where's

the mutual solidarity between LCCs and Kurdish equivalents?
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 

Re: [Marxism] PYD: US bombing of airbase good, but it should bomb rebels too

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Reported elsewhere, eg 
http://komnews.org/all-groups-in-syria-with-chemical-weapons-should-be-targeted-pyd-co-leader/, 
http://waarmedia.com/english/salih-muslim-groups-syria-chemical-weapons-targeted/


I think he is just trying to be consistent. As the main beneficiary, and 
active ally, of 2.5 years of 8000 US air strikes in Syria against ISIS, 
a mere mouse compared to the Assad hyena, and Nusra, a mere flea, 
resulting in over a thousand civilian deaths, Salih Muslim's PYD would 
sure look funny only complaining when the US finally made a strike 
against an Assad air base, killing no civilians. Clearly he doesn't want 
to look as silly as so many western leftists and "anti"-war folk, who 
apparently think US bombing of Syria began a few days ago.


But adding that the US should bomb the rebels too (as if the US hasn't 
already bombed plenty of rebels plenty of times long before the one 
strike on Assad) really is a new low for this guy. Probably better for 
SA to just say in this case you disagree with him (gulp!), much as you 
like his movement overall. Try it. You'll find it not as hard as you 
expect.


-Original Message- 
From: Chris Slee


I looked at the Voice of America website to try to find the interview 
from which extracts are quoted in this article.  However I was unable to 
find the interview.


Rudaw has a history of misrepresenting the views of Salih Muslim.  For 
example, see the comments following this article: 
links.org.au/node/4679


Chris Slee

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] PYD: US bombing of airbase good, but it should bomb rebels too

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

PYD leader: US strikes should target all who use chemical weapons in 
Syria

By Rudaw 7/4/2017
http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/070420174

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The co-leader of the main Kurdish party in 
Syrian Kurdistan, Salih Muslim, has called on the US to extend strikes 
against every Syrian party that has chemical weapons.


“We hope that the United States will not confine itself to punishing the 
Syrian regime alone, because there are a lot of chemical weapons in 
Syria and others parties have also used it, in Sheikh Maqsoud, in Rojava 
[Syrian Kurdistan], and Raqqa,” Muslim said as he was speaking to 
US-funded Voice of America from Brussels, naming alleged chemical 
attacks by ISIS and Syrian opposition forces.


Muslim said that he cannot assess whether or not the US strikes against 
a Syrian airbase overnight will have a positive or negative results on 
the ground. “We will look at the results,” he said.


He however said that this may force parties on the ground to realize 
that there is not a military solution to the six-year civil in Syria 
that has claimed half a million lives, by some estimates. From this 
perspective, the strikes may turn out to be good, he noted.


“We believe that this attack must yield positive results since the 
parties who did not believe in a political solution may reconsider and 
see that there is no military solution,” Muslim argued, explaining that 
the US was “forced” to take actions in an atmosphere where they were 
left with no other options.


Muslim is the co-leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the 
political party in northern Syria aligned with the armed YPG who are 
receiving military backing from the US-led coalition as part of the 
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). He has helped to carve out a mainly 
Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.


Muslim hoped that the US strikes will not be a “one-off” option and 
called on the US to also target other Syrian armed groups, whom he said 
have their hands on the banned weapons.


Asked about US involvement, the PYD leader said that regional and 
international powers have now entered the Syrian civil war with their 
own forces following a period of waging a “proxy war.” The US is already 
involved to such an extent that it cannot “turn its back” on Syria, he 
argued, especially in its war against ISIS where it is helping the 
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their campaign to defeat the extremist 
group in Raqqa, the ISIS de-facto capital in Syria 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Socialist Action slides even further into tankiedom

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thing is, most tankies don't even follow through, based on their own 
premises. So, what does "the defeat of US imperialism" in Syria mean? Is 
US imperialism occupying Syria? No, but it has been carrying out a 
bombing campaign for 2.5 years in Syria, aimed mostly at ISIS, partly at 
Nusra/JFS, and sometimes at other non-jihadist rebels, overwhelmingly in 
support of the YPG/SDF.


Therefore, based on Socialist Action's premises, the prerequisite for 
the Syrian masses to organise their own "class struggle forces" etc is 
the defeat of the YPG/SDF by ISIS, which has been the main force in 
conflict with US imperialism in Syria; and since Nusra/JFS has been the 
overwhelming US target among the non-ISIS forces, it probably ought to 
smash all the other rebels who have either not been hit by US strikes, 
or have even received a few drips and drops of conditional US aid.


Does SA say this? Do they advocate ISIS thrashing the heavily US-backed 
SDF? How else to "defeat US imperialism"? Yet, like most tankies and ... 
"anti-imperialists," they don't. Only the Spartacists are consistent 
tankies in that respect.


What is the use of berating others for supposedly "not understanding" 
how centrally important is the defeat of US imperialism which supposedly 
orchestrates everything, when almost none of them believe in it 
themselves?


-Original Message- 
From: David McDonald via Marxism


"The defeat of imperialist intervention is the prerequisite for the 
Syrian

masses to organize their own independent class-struggle forces aimed at
fully meeting the needs and aspirations of Syria’s workers and farmers 
as

they strive in the future to build a socialist society."

And the key word is "prerequisite". BEFORE the Syrians bother to try to
meet their own needs as aspirations, they must rid their country of US
imperialism. Russian imperialism, now, that's OK. Russia and Iran, which
are vastly more responsible for the continued survival of the Assad 
regime

than the US, are not even mentioned in the statement.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Alliance of Syrian and Iranian Socialists' Statement on Assad's Chemical Bombing and Trump's Latest Airstrikes

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

One of the better statements around.
Alliance of Syrian and Iranian Socialists' Statement on Assad's Chemical 
Bombing and Trump's Latest Airstrikes
http://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/statement-assads-chemical-bombing-trumps-latest-airstrikes/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] US bombing of Syria didn't begin today

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

US bombing of Syria did not begin today, it began in September 2014, 2.5 
years ago. Some 8000 air strikes. Thousands of civilians have been 
killed, including hundreds just in recent weeks in some horrific 
strikes, like the Idlib mosque and the Raqqa school. No-one has ever 
protested. No "anti"-war movement protested. No "anti"-imperialists 
protested. Just this week three prominent US leaders made the policy 
clear that Assad should stay (already unofficial policy for years). Then 
Assad goes and blows it by throwing sarin in their faces! What an idiot. 
I guess he was testing the waters. The US had no choice but to respond 
in some way for the sake of its alleged ... "credibility."


But can I ask, from our point of view, what is the big deal? Why are 
8000 strikes on opponents of Assad (and not only ISIS), killing 
thousands of civilians, not "intervention," yet just when you get one 
strike against the biggest terrorist in Syria, after it slaughters 100 
children with chemical weapons, only that is intervention, that is 
supposedly something more significant, that is something we should 
protest. Can I ask in all honesty what is the difference? Frankly, 
whoever has not been protesting the US bombing of Syria all along the 
last two and a half years, and who now suddenly protests this US 
"intervention" today, cannot in any sense be considered anti-war, or 
anti-imperialist, but simply an apologist for the Assad genocide-regime 
(and that's before even getting to the more fundamental fact that we are 
here talking about people that also never protested the most horrific 
bombing of Syria to pieces for 6 years by the regime and Russian 
imperialism). If that is not logical, then I’d like to have it explained 
to me why.


The interesting issue is why Assad was stupid enough to do this, just a 
few days after Nikki Haley, Sec of State Tillerson, and White House 
spokesman Sean Spicer, all said we're good with Assad staying, and after 
weeks of fairly open US collaboration with Russia and Assad in the 
bombing of Idlib and Deir Ezzor, the reconquest of Palmyra, and even the 
defence of Manbij. I assume Assad was testing the waters, but that just 
shows the arrogance of power. The US was giving him everything; the 
withdrawal of the red line in 2013 was supposed to mean you can do 
everything else except chemical weapons (and thus Assad used everything 
else in the four years since, in unbelievable quantities, with complete 
US indifference, if not support), as part of the US-Russia-Israel deal 
that saw Assad's chemical weapons removed. To then go and use these 
weapons and show off that he still has them was simply impossible for 
the US to ignore in terms of its "credibility." Assad was reading the 
messages correctly from this last week, that US leaders were encouraging 
him; he just read it wrong that this could include sarin. Look at Nikki 
Haley, fuming in the UN; she had to fume, because three days earlier the 
same Nikki Haley made the official announcement (along with Tillerson 
and the White House) that removing Assad was "no longer" (sic) the US 
aim. Assad should have been more gracious about being kissed like that.


Meanwhile, State Dept Tillerson explains this punishment strike should 
not be confused with a US change of line on Syria: "US Secretary of 
State Rex Tillerson said the attack showed the President "is willing to 
take decisive action when called for. I would not in any way attempt to 
extrapolate that to a change in our policy or posture relative to our 
military activities in Syria today," he said. "There has been no change 
in that status. "I think it does demonstrate that President Trump is 
willing to act when governments and actors cross the line and cross the 
line on violating commitments they've made and cross the line in the 
most heinous of ways." 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: "The Assad Regime is a Moral Disgrace": Noam Chomsky on Ongoing Syrian War | Democracy Now!

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I mostly agree with David here. Nick says Chomsky is saying pretty much 
the same as he always said. I agree, but for opposite reasons to Nick. 
Nick is right that Chomsky has often called the regime "monstrous" and 
so on. In fact, early on, back around 2012 or so, I'd say Chomsky had a 
pretty good position on Syria. But once he began relying on Cockburn's 
atrocious and ill-informed stuff, Chomsky showed that, far from a 
brilliant thinker on Syria, he was just a regurgitator of someone's 
views that fitted a tired old narrative that he was used to from decades 
ago that was irrelevant to current reality. Nothing wrong with Chomsky 
having no expertise whatsoever on Syria; one cannot be an expert on 
everything. The problem is that some feel they have to pretend to me, 
due to their stature among the left.


So once I began reading the article, I came across the nonsense of 
Russia offering to remove Assad in 2012 but the US, UK and France 
resisting. While I agree with David's reasoning as to why they would 
resist (they've never wanted Assad gone, I agree), the simple fact of 
the matter is that no such even ever occurred. Russia never offered such 
a thing for the US to reject. Chomsky still repeats it, despite it being 
shown to be fantasy when first raised by Churkin in 2015. Chomsky must 
be aware of this, maybe we can cut him a little slack given his age, 
maybe he doesn't have time and energy to read everything, but if you 
make yourself a spokesperson you have a certain responsibility to check 
facts. The reason Chomsky likes to repeat this non-fact is because it 
fits the simplistic, non-Marxist narrative he likes: that the US is 
always the most responsible for everything that happens anywhere. The 
war continues not because Assad's genocide-regime and Russian 
imperialism continue it, but because the US wants it to continue and so 
rejects any reasonable offer. Now matter how at odds all that is with 
the *actual* US intervention of the last 2.5 years.


Here is Brian Slocock taking the assertion apart when it was first 
raised in 2015: 
https://pulsemedia.org/2015/09/20/did-the-west-ignore-a-russian-offer-for-assad-to-step-down-as-president/


-Original Message- 
From: David McDonald via Marxism

Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 11:36 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: "The Assad Regime is a Moral Disgrace": Noam 
Chomsky on Ongoing Syrian War | Democracy Now!



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Wanted: summary articles on the Syrian revolution

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Omar, I'll have a think later. Meanwhile, scrawl through this terrific 
resource: https://syriasources.org/


On 4/5/17 6:59 PM, Omar Hassan via Marxism wrote:


Hi all,

Just running a reading group with some newer members about the history 
of
the revolution and was struggling to think of an obvious choice or 
choices
for overall summary-type pieces.  Easy to find stuff about the debates 
on
the western left (https://redflag.org.au/node/5559), and the 
inter-imperial

dynamics (
http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no8-winter-2015/118-us-imperialism-and-the-war-for-the-middle-east),
I've got Anand Gopal's excellent piece from Harpers Magazine early on
giving a flavour for the councils and self-rule in rebel areas (
http://harpers.org/archive/2012/08/welcome-to-free-syria/), but is 
there

anything more general?




_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] [UCE] "Hysterical Russophobia"

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Had a look at the article Louis sent 'The Kids are Alright' about the 
terrific youth-led uprising against the Putin kleptocracy, and the 
site - run by anti-Putin Russian leftists it seems - had this article 
that seems very relevant to some of the sillier debate going on in parts 
of the West:


“Hysterical Russophobia”

If “hysterical Russophobia” were a real thing, instead of a talking 
point for crypto-Putinists and just plain Russians who don’t know how to 
explain to their non-Russian neighbors why their homeland has become so 
“odd” in the past several years, you would have heard about Russian 
immigrants to the EU and US suffering the same main violence and putrid 
discrimination that Muslim, Asian, and African immigrants and asylum 
seekers suffer there, not to mention the relentless violence and 
staggering discrimination suffered by such absolutely 100% native 
Americans as Aboriginal Americans (i.e., Native Americans), African 
Americans, and Hispanic Americans in a land their peoples have been 
inhabiting from several centuries to several thousands of years.


But no, you never hear of such violence and discrimination against 
Russian immigrants, and the fact there is no such violence and 
discrimination against Russians (at least, not enough to show up on 
anyone’s radars) is a good thing, of course.


It does, however make you wonder what exactly this “hysterical 
Russophobia” is that has so many tongues wagging, but has absolutely no 
negative effect on the ability of actual, individual Russians to lead 
happy, productive, and violence- and discrimination-free lives in the 
countries where they have chosen to settle.


That’s an easy riddle to solve, however. “Hysterical Russophobia” is a 
non-phenomenon invented by a motley coalition of people with various 
political axes to grind, including sections of the mostly hilarious 
current western left, who for some reason have not heard the news about 
what has been happening in the Socialist Motherland the last twenty-five 
years or so or feign not to have heard it. They’re still defending 
Russia long after it became the world center of the blackest social and 
political reaction. That is, they’re defending a corrupt, oligarchic 
capitalist tyranny.


(Quotes our moderator further down)

Full: https://therussianreader.com/2017/03/25/hysterical-russophobia/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Assad/Russia killed only 62% of victims last month - because they got big help from US

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

When we see a figure of only 62% of civilians being killed by Assadist 
or Russian forces in Syria, we probably immediately assume that the 
rebels have had an unusually bloody month. Not so: other than ISIS, the 
other big killer was none other than the US-led International Coalition, 
in an unusually bloody month of their stepped up bombing of Assad's 
enemies, of various kinds. Not only the extremely bloody results in 
civilian slaughter of US bombing of ISIS-held territory (eg, the 
school/refugee shelter bombing killing over 40 civilians), but some even 
more terrible numbers of civilians as the US bombs JFS (former Nusra) in 
rebel-held territory (eg the mosque bombing, killing some 57 
worshippers), in direct alliance with Assad and Russia.


Between Assad, Russia, ISIS and the US-led Coalition, 920 of the 948 
civilian victims were killed. the remaining 28 were fairly even,y 
divided between the rebels, the SDF and JFS. In other words, the 
proportions are actually quite typical if we omit the US killings.

MK

948 Civilians Killed between the Two Rounds of Geneva Talks, including 
62% at the hands of the Syrian-Iranian-Russian Alliance
The Syrian-Iranian-Russian Alliance Came First in Killings, followed by 
ISIS, and the International Coalition


http://sn4hr.org/blog/2017/03/24/36453/

Facts and evidences, through the daily cumulative documentation 
conducted by SNHR team, are telling us that we are definitely still far 
away from the stage of shrinking and reducing the crisis. The 
international community, the states that sponsor the negotiations in 
particular, haven’t taken any steps to limit the crisis’s deadly 
manifestations, in order to transition to the negotiation stage. The 
Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance is responsible for the most part, as it 
perpetrated vastly more violations than the rest of the parties to the 
conflict. The warplanes haven’t ceased the bombardment of civilian 
neighborhoods for one day, and tens of vital civilian facilities have 
been also bombed. We will be including only, however, hospitals, 
schools, and markets. Talking about releasing detainees and ending the 
siege have become a distant luxury. There won’t be a settlement or a 
negotiation path as long as the U.N. won’t work with local partners to 
monitor the ceasefire, and hold those who violate it accountable.


We are going to shed light on the killings, arrests, and incidents of 
attack on some of the vital civilian facilities. SNHR team documented 
between Geneva Talks’ 4th and 5th round, between Monday, February 20, 
2017, and Thursday, March 23, 2017 the following:


A. Extrajudicial killing
948 civilians were killed, including 192 children and 91 women (Adult 
female) at the hands of the main parties as follows:
– Syrian regime force (Army, security, local militias, Shiite foreign 
militias): 383 civilians, including 62 children and 39 women.

– Russian forces: 203 civilians, including 64 children and 23 women.
– Self-management forces (Consisting primarily of the Democratic Union 
Party – a branch for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party): 10 civilians, 
including 4 children and 2 women.

– Extremist Islamic groups:
• ISIS (Self-proclaimed the Islamic State): 251 civilians, including 25 
children and 8 women.

• Fateh al Sham Front (Formerly al Nussra Front): 5 civilians.
– Armed opposition factions: 13 civilians, including 4 children and 4 
women.
– International coalition forces: 83 civilians, including 33 children 
and 15 women. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] FSA and rebel statements on rules of war in current Damascus offensive

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

In the current rebel offensive in Damascus, which has linked two 
rebel-held working class districts across and industrial zone and taken 
them close to Assadist HQ, the Free Syrian Army released the following 
statement:


During this operation, the Free Syrian Army remains fully committed to 
all international laws of war, most importantly:
1.Avoiding civilians of all religions and sects outside of the area 
of conflict
2.Avoiding diplomatic missions and buildings from the aim of direct 
and indirect fire
3.Avoiding all buildings of worship and symbols from the aim of 
direct and indirect fire
4.Commitment to fair treatment of prisoners and bodies of the dead 
without insulting or abusing them
5.Securing and protecting medical personnel, Civil Defence crews, 
humanitarian aid and media groups

https://twitter.com/FSAPlatform/status/844141770694889472/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The main rebel formation leading this offensive, Faylaq al-Rahman 
('Rahman Brigades'), an FSA-soft Islamist coalition, released an almost 
identical statement: http://en.eldorar.com/node/5186


According to EAWorldview:

"The rebel offensive is now being led by the factions Faylaq al-Rahman 
and Ahrar al-Sham, with involvement of other Free Syrian Army units and 
support from Jaish al-Islam in strengthening frontlines. Despite some 
mainstream media reports — accepting pro-Assad propaganda — there are 
few fighters from Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the group formerly linked to Al 
Qa’eda" 
(http://eaworldview.com/2017/03/rebels-renew-offensive-in-syrias-capital-damascus/).


At the same time as this offensive in Damascus, rebels have also 
launched a new offensive in northern Hama, taking areas very close to 
Hama city 
(http://eaworldview.com/2017/03/rebels-renew-offensive-in-syrias-capital-damascus/). 
The Hama-based FSA brigade, Jaish al-Nasr, is playing a prominent role 
in this offensive.


And all this just after the recent renewal of the offensive in the south 
by the FSA Southern Front, which had been dormant for a while under 
US-Jordanian pressure to fight ISIS and Nusra only. It seems once the 
rebels understood that the deliberate US-Jordanian aim was to hand the 
Jordanian border over to Assad's brigades, the SF finally broke ranks, 
seeing, somewhat late, the existential threat posed.


With new offensives in Damascus, Daraa and Hama, with a prominent FSA 
role in all three, so soon after the crushing of Free Aleppo, once 
again, predictions both that the revolution has ended and/or that the 
FSA is finished and there are only "jihadists" still fighting, have, 
once again, proven to be premature.


I'm reminded, in fact, of the countless times over countless years that 
it was announced that the Arafat PLO/Fatah was either finished, wiped 
out, eclipsed by others or irreversibly sold out, from about 1982 
onwards. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of ethniccleansing charges

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Chris Slee, commenting on my claim that "Of course there was no use of 
"chlorine or cluster bombs" by any rebels in this report (and the 
entirely false accusation in a previous Amnesty
report that chlorine was sued against Sheikh Maqsud was based on one 
photo with some yellow dye smudged on it)", quotes the Amnesty report:
"There are also **allegations** that members of armed groups attacking 
Sheikh Maqsoud **may have** used chemical weapons. A local doctor told 
Amnesty International that on 7 and 8 April he treated six civilians and 
two YPG fighters for symptoms including shortness of breath, numbness, 
red eyes and severe coughing fits. Several of the victims, he said, 
reported seeing yellow smoke as missiles impacted. A toxicologist 
consulted by Amnesty International, who viewed video-clips of the 
apparent attack and reviewed the doctor’s testimony, said the patients’ 
symptoms **could be** the effects of a chlorine attack. A subsequent 
statement purportedly issued by the leader of the Army of Islam armed 
group said that a field commander had deployed an **“unauthorised 
weapon”** on Sheikh Maqsoud and that he would be held to account".

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/syria-armed-opposition-groups-committing-war-crimes-in-aleppo-city/

Not sure that the only cause of “shortness of breath, numbness, red eyes 
and severe coughing fits” is the use of chemical weapons. Lots of “may”, 
“could” etc in this report for very good reason. Ask the residents of 
Ghouta about effects of chemicals.


The trouble with the bit about a Jaysh Islam leader disciplining a 
northern field commander (JI is almost entirely a Damascus-based group) 
for use of “weapons not authorized for use in these types of 
confrontations” is that JI specified it was referring to “modified Grad 
rockets, not chlorine: 
https://twitter.com/islamalloush0/status/718121743949414403. The PYD 
folk who continue to use this unclear statement to assume he meant 
chemical weapons know very well about this clarification, but just use 
it anyway. Well, everyone lies in war, I suppose.
I will be referring to Chris’ important points about JI sectarianism in 
a longer post about the nature of revolution.


Nick Fredman chose not to respond to my post about how laughable it was 
for him to put regime crimes and rebel crimes on a par, instead simply 
repeating points I had shown were wrong. Rather he writes:


“The idea that the abuses documented in this report by the PYD-led 
movement and the rebels are comparable is laughable. The former is 
accused by not looking after everyone properly it moves for military 
reasons, of conscription — without mentioning the YPG/J are volunteer 
forces and conscripts are strictly adults who only serve in the civil 
defence HXP —

and the abuse of one young man who refused conscription.”

The report that I read, just for this most recent period, included the 
continued prevention of return of substantial numbers after the Minbij 
offensive last year, but even more seriously, from Suluk, which the YPG 
took over, and violently expelled the inhabitant, in May 2015; the 
expellees living under “dire humanitarian conditions” who did not 
receive the necessary assistance (the part Nick will admit); the 
demolition of houses of expellees, pillaging of their property and 
cutting down their olive trees (rings a bell); further confiscation of 
computers and telephones from residences, “in addition to burning down 
some individuals’ properties” during the sacking of Aleppo; expulsion of 
residents of Heisha where they were “ordered to leave the area by SDF 
troops, some of whom went house to house demanding that civilians leave 
on threat of punishment” and who “continue to live in dire conditions, 
lacking even basic necessities;” the forcible conscription of child 
soldiers (despite Nick’s assurances that the YPG/SDF doesn’t do this – 
we should believe only what we want of the report presumably); the 
torture of one 17-year old who refused this non-existent conscription 
(Nick says “abuse” while the report says the minor was “both physically 
and psychologically tortured during interrogation, while blindfolded”); 
and the imprisonment of other “boys aged 13 to 17 years.”


Dress it up how you like Nick. It sounds qualitatively similar to rebel 
crimes. Yet Nick writes:
“Rebels — with the worst being Jabhat Fatah al-Sham but others 
implicated as well — are

accused of widespread indiscriminate attacks on civilians”

Yes, I made the point that this is widely condemned by revolutionary 
circles, but this is “shooting back” from the bombed, besieged, starved 
ghettos under daily aerial 

Re: [Marxism] Didn't Patrick Cockburn say the war in Syria was over?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Louis' and Tristan's thoughts on the nature of rebel groups and 
alliances are right on target, the fact that membership reflects much 
more who has better access to arms to money in such a desperate 
situation against such a massively armed state-terrorist enemy. This has 
been widely reported and analysed for years, and among those following 
the situation, is not even remotely controversial. The idiocy of shallow 
interpretation of events in actual revolutions, by those with a barrow 
to push, was highlighted when I was once analysing precisely this fact 
about the contradiction between much of the ranks and file troops of 
Nusra and its reactionary sectarian leadership, and Assad bootlicker Tim 
Anderson pulled a quote of mine out of context, which was explicitly 
referring to "many of the ranks" of Nusra, made up up one of his 
amoeba-brained 'memes' with my FB photo and a hacked off a half "quote" 
which tried to say I saw "Nusra" itself as "decent revolutionaries."


While that might be expected of the likes of Anderson, it is sadder to 
see such shallow analysis (without the slander of course) from some SA 
comrades writing here in recent discussion. But I'll leave that for 
another post.


Regarding this current rebel offensive in Damascus, which has linked two 
long-time rebel-held working class bastions in the Damascus suburbs, 
Jobar and Qaboun, there are three main components: Faylaq al-Rahman, 
Ahrar al-Sham and HTS (ie, the JFS-led new coalition) 
(http://en.eldorar.com/node/5159). Not involved in Jaysh al-Islam, which 
dominates certain parts of Ghouta (west Damascus working-class suburbs). 
Neither HTS nor Ahrar are very strong in this region, given the 
traditional strength of Jaysh Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, but appear to 
be part of this same offensive. The Rahman legion is the known local 
force in Jobar and Qaboun.


Faylaq al-Rahman is a kind of FSA-soft Islamist fusion project, which is 
the main opposition force to the often overbearing Jaysh Islam in the 
region, with which it has regularly clashed 
(http://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/63376?lang=en). It is led by SAA defector 
Cpt. Abd al-Nasr Shmeir from Homs, who claims to be fighting for a 
non-sectarian future Syria (http://civilwaralsham.com/midsized). It was 
formed a a fusion of several groups, including the FSA 1st Brigade 
(https://beyondthelevant.com/2016/04/26/english-statement-first-brigade-in-damascus-has-fully-merged-with-al-rahman-corps/) 
and the soft-Islamist Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, which was itself 
formed on the basis of a more moderate interpretation of Islam than that 
offered by Jaysh Islam, and more in line with traditional Damascene 
Islam. It neds to be remembered that the "Damascus suburbs" where the 
revolution dominates are new working class and poor shanties surrounding 
Damascus, composed of hundreds of thousands of recent rural immigrants 
from the neo-liberally-devastated countryside, and soft-Islamist 
politics tends to reflect the traditionalism of these suburbs.


-Original Message- 
From: Tristan Sloughter via Marxism

Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 5:18 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Didn't Patrick Cockburn say the war in Syria was 
over?


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Right, that is the case with nationalist jihadist militias that have
access to weapons. They still have to be fighting the same enemy.

It is also why FSA militias would fight along side Nusra. If an armed
group is making progress in fighting the regime and you sit it out, how
does that look to potential recruits? And has been a detriment to any
group accepting Western assistance:

"In the formation of strategic alliances, moderate armed groups face
restrictions due to their reliance on Western donors. As they cannot
formally participate in coalitions that include controversial groups
such as JAN, moderate armed groups have limited opportunities to
increase their military effectiveness through coordination with other
armed groups.[32] Yet, with every military success of coalitions in
which the FSA does not have a visible role, such as the takeover of
Idlib city, the image of moderate factions as a weakening force is
reinforced, making them less attractive to potential recruits."

Just trying to understand the makeup of the current offensive. I haven't
read any detailed reporting/surveys since 2016, and 

Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of ethnic cleansing charges

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Again let me paraphrase Chris:

The US has been bombing Syrian and Iraqi cities (and countless others 
around the world for years).


The YPG/SDF are supported systematically by the US (to a far more 
massive and systematic degree than any revels have ever been "supported" 
by Turkey or Saudis (let alone today!), most notably, by the very same 
US air force that does the bombing.


I think it is reasonable to assume that if such groups came to power and 
had control of an air force they would be prepared to bomb cities that 
rebelled against their rule.


-Original Message- 
From: Chris Slee via Marxism


Turkey has been bombing Kurdish cities.

Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemeni cities.

Some Syrian rebel groups are supported by Turkey and/or Saudi Arabia.  I 
think it is reasonable to assume that if such groups came to power and 
had control of an air force they would be prepared to bomb cities that 
rebelled against their rule.



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of ethnic cleansing charges

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 3/17/17 6:57 AM, Chris Slee via Marxism wrote:

I agree with Michael that the Assad regime has killed more people
than the rebels.  A major reason for this is that the regime has a
lot of high-tech weapons that the rebels don't have.  If they had
similar weapons they might be doing similar things.


Chris, are you being serious using an argument like that? I expected 
better. If that is your argument, I just wonder when it doesn't apply. 
Surely the difference in actual killing power you refer to might have 
something to do with the difference in actual power, and thus have some 
bearing on the very nature of the conflict? No? OK, then let's try this:



I agree with Chris that the Turkish regime has killed more people
than the PKK.  A major reason for this is that the regime has a
lot of high-tech weapons that the PKK doesn't have.  If they had
similar weapons they might be doing similar things.



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] US war for Assad nets 57 mosque worshippers today

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

At first everyone assumed it was Assadist or Russian planes, since for 
them, killing 57 people in one hit at a place like a mosque is a more or 
less everyday event, just another yawn. But it was their close ally, the 
US Trump regime. The US claimed to be targeting "al-Qaida" (ie, JFS). I 
assume all the Islamophobic left, all those who can never shut up about 
the great threat of "al-Qaida" in Syria (by which they mean the ex-Qaida 
JFS), will praise this latest US contribution to the Putin-Assad "war on 
terror", war on the revolution, in Syria. Not unusual of course, except 
in the sheer numbers killed in one strike and the fact that it was 
worshippers inside a mosque; and also not really any different to how it 
was under Obama - Trump is more a continuation than a break, just more 
open, proud and deadly about it.


And for some reason, I keep seeing article after article claiming 
Trump's Syria policy is "still unclear," a "mystery" etc. Everyothing 
I've seen Trump and his entire gagle saying for months has been 
abundantly clear to me - not sure where the "unclarity" is. He says the 
US should join Putin and Assad to "fight ISIS" (as if that wasn't 
already Obama policy), which he pretends to think is what they are 
doing. He says the US should cut off all remaining tiny pittances of 
alleged "aid" to anti-Assad rebels (which btw, Mattis strongly agrees 
on), as if the US was actually providing any. Very clear, and very 
consistent with US actions over the last few months under both US 
regimes.


Exclusive: US Says it Carried Out Deadly Strike that Hit an Aleppo 
Mosque

Written by Samuel Oakford on March 16, 2017
https://airwars.org/news/unilateral-strike/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of ethnic cleansing charges

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

---Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


Frankly, human rights abuses are not uppermost on my mind in a 
situation

where violence has become so generalized. There were human rights abuses
by Sandinista soldiers against Miskitos, while the Red Army was
positively barbaric as it swept westward against Hitler in 1945 ...
one can not be exactly sure what happens on the battlefield in the fog 
of war


Exactly. On the basis of what we know about the big picture, however, we 
can distinguish two sides in terms of the sheer level of human rights 
abuse:


1. The Assad regime, responsible for some 95% of all killing in Syria, 
and even higher if we talking specifics such as torturing to death etc; 
and, at the same level in terms of the totalitarian nature of its 
barbarity, the Islamic State, though in terms of quantity only a midget 
in comparison with the regime.


2. All those forces fighting both, in which category I include the FSA, 
the Islamist brigades, the YPG/SDF, and, perhaps controversially for 
some, Nusra/JFS. All commit a certain level of human rights abuse, as 
would be expected in such a barbaric battlefield against such violently 
terroristic regimes, in the same way as does Hamas against a similarly 
all-encompassing violent oppressor in the Zionist regime; and the list 
could go on.


Nick on the other hand is doing great sleight of the hand stuff when, 
responding to my point that the report clears the YPG/SDF of 
*systematic* ethnic cleansing but does not clear it of various crimes, 
he says I am "keen to imply this is of a piece with the abuses by other 
forces", and Nick describes these "other forces" as "both the regime and 
some rebels", ie, making Nick keen to imply the crimes of "some rebels" 
are "of a piece" with the regime! He does this by talking of "the 
numerous instances of torture, summary execution, bombing of civilians 
including with chlorine and cluster bombs etc", by both!


Of course there was no use of "chlorine or cluster bombs" by any rebels 
in this report (and the entirely false accusation in a previous Amnesty 
report that chlorine was sued against Sheikh Maqsud was based on one 
photo with some yellow dye smudged on it), whereas they are used on a 
massive scale by the regime, alongside napalm, white phosphorus, vacuum 
bombs, barrel bobs, bunker busters,  ballistic missiles etc, yet Nick 
seeks to lump the rebels together with this regime. The "numerous 
instances" of torture in this report by "some rebels" included, just as 
with the YPG, *one* instance, allegedly in Aleppo of some one who tried 
to flee west. But Nick lumps this together with the regime which has 
been accused by the UN of torturing people to death in its dungeons at a 
level which amounts to "extermination," and there is copious evidence of 
at least tens of thousands tortured to death. Don't you think the *one* 
case of rebel torture is more "of a piece" with the one case of YPG 
torture?As for Nick's "summary executions", well wow! Here the report 
fucks up royally, and perhaps Nick can be excused for not reading the 
fine print, because the huge case of "summary execution" by "rebels" in 
this report was none other than the horrific slaughter of 128 *FSA 
captives* by the ISIS-aligned bandit group Liwa al-Aqsa, which the 
report mistakenly puts in under rebel crimes rather than ISIS crimes 
even though rebels were the victims.


So yes Nick I do put the crime of various rebel groups, including the 
YPG, on a par. Especially given *context* as you are keen to discuss. 
Nick notes that "The context of a militia in a poor, blockaded statelet 
should be taken into account" without seeing the apparent irony of 
shoving together rebels and regime - as if the Rojava statelet, free of 
regime bombing for the whole war, and under the permanent protection of 
the US airforce, can be compared "context-wise" with the situation of 
all the areas controlled by the rebels, al of which make Gaza look like 
a picnic except at the most intense moments of Zionist genocidal terror 
(the various 5-6 week "operations" which are akin the the last 6 years 
in Syria). Yes the context of various poor blockaded statelets being 
barrel-bombed into oblivion for years on end might be expected to 
produce more human rights abuse than in the relative calm and peaceful 
conditions in Rojava. Yet not much more according to the report.


Actually the worst rebel abuses are the firing of "indirect fire 
artillery systems, including improvised, locally manufactured “Omar” 
rockets" at targets in Assad-controlled cities (eg West Aleppo etc) 
which kill civilians. While virtually all 

[Marxism] Ann Coulter not part of new Cold War McCarthyite witch-hunt

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Let’s Make Russia Our Sister Country!
Ann Coulter  | Wednesday Mar 15, 2017 2:55 PM
http://humanevents.com/2017/03/15/lets-make-russia-our-sister-country/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of ethnic cleansing charges

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The report says there is no evidence of a systematic policy of ethnic 
cleansing. I'm not too sure many people made that claim. The various 
reports, from a variety of sources (eg the anti-ISIS group 'Raqqa is 
Being Slaughtered Silently'), that show the YPG uprooted people, 
destroyed property, prevented return etc, are too many to be false, and 
in any case this report gives plenty of dirt on YPG actions (as it does 
on all players). Nick wants to show that it doesn't show the worst, 
which is true, but it does show that the YPG is not perfect, which 
should be considered by those who have romanticised this current to the 
point that they are the only "true revolutionaries", any allegation 
against them is just Turkish or ISUS slander, whereas every allegation 
against other rebels are undoubtedly true and proof that they are little 
more than a jihadist jungle.


In addition, let's not forget that the report is only for the second 
half of 2016 and early 2017, whereas most of the worst allegations 
against YPG crimes were from 2014 through early 2016.


Nick writes, in relation to Roy Gutman, that "he seems to be a cruise 
missile liberal who's a shill for Erdogan." Not sure that the first and 
second parts of that sentence necessarily connect; I suppose it depends 
on concrete circumstances.  Does he advocate US send its air-force to 
bomb the Kurds on behalf of Erdogan? Not that I am aware of. But, for 
example, do "cruise missile leftists" not advocate things like US 
intervention, use of the US air-force to bomb countries, even killing 
significant numbers of civilians, the sending of hundreds of US special 
forces into countries to back forces they support, the setting up of US 
bases in foreign countries etc etc? Not sure that Gutman advocates all 
that. But is your definition affected by the fact that the US does all 
these things in Syria in support, almost solely, of the YPG/SDF? (and 
when not in support of the YPG/SDF, in support of Assad).


-Original Message- 
From: Nick Fredman via Marxism

Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2017 2:01 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] UN Syria Commission clears YPG/J and SDF of 
ethnic cleansing charges


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Well too bad. I don't much stock at all in instant dismissal of evidence
because of the apparent predilections of the messenger, especially with
regard to Syria, about which it seems to be a particularly widespread
mechanism that allows people to stay in their comfortable bubble and not
even look at anything they know they won't like. It's fair enough that 
some
people's agenda make one suspicious about how objective their evidence 
is,
but it's a pretty weak argument to stop at that. You don't seem to be 
even
starting at that, unless you think of some agenda a particular UN 
official

has in ordering her minions to doctor the evidence about alleged YPG and
SDF war crimes. And that the SNC and SOHR, who've also rebutted the 
"ethnic
cleansing" claims, also have such an agenda. I've criticised Roy Gutman 
and
called his Nation articles rubbish not just because he seems to be a 
cruise
missile liberal who's a shill for Erdogan, but also because at least two 
of

his sources have complained about his distortion of their words, because
this has also happened in his previous work, because he leaves crucial
facts out, because claims made by his anonymous sources are often absurd
and/or completely contradicted by other evidence, etc.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Syria Solidarity Sydney formed

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Some events being planned soon, among other things to counter an 
upcoming Anderson Syria freak show ("conference") in Sydney.


FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SyriaSolidaritySydney/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] US Arab Spring policy? Third party counter-revolution

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

 help Aleppo from 
the north, either by driving the YPG occupation from Tal Rifaat, or by driving 
the ISIS occupation from al-Bab. The first never happened, and the second only 
really began after Aleppo had fallen.

“Since the start of the anti-Assad rebellion in Syria, Turkey has given weapons 
and other aid to some Syrian rebel groups. But this aid came with strings 
attached, including a requirement to support Turkey's anti-Rojava policy.”

How did this “requirement” manifest itself? Leaders can say what they want (and 
some of it was bad, but often their own political limitation; other times it 
was much better). But Afrin, Sheikh Maqsud and Kobani lived in a kind of 
strained at times, friendly at times, co-existence with the rebel-held 
territories all around them for years, until the onset of the Russian invasion 
in September 2015, when the YPG attempted to close the Castello Road out of 
Aleppo, the rebels’ life line, while PYD leaders were welcoming the invasion.  
That is when the current round of hostilities began (and neither side have 
particularly clean hands in this).

“Turkey had different priorities and followed a different policy. It was still 
obsessed with the Kurdish threat, and continued to aid ISIS in its war against 
Rojava. It is only recently that the Turkey-ISIS alliance broke down, leading 
to fighting in al-Bab (though attempts have been made to patch it up).”

Wow, Turkey/FSA have driven ISIS from a great swathe of territory in northern 
Syria but Chris assures us that attempts have been made to “patch up” the 
alleged Turkey/ISIS cooperation. No idea where that comes from. I think it is 
true that Turkey momentarily manoeuvred with ISIS against Kobani in late 2014, 
not by “supporting” ISIS in any material way as such, but by preventing PKK 
fighters from crossing to aid the defence etc. But this conjunctural manoeuvre 
where Turkey tried to hurt a worse enemy (from its viewpoint) did not reflect 
any overall Turkish policy of “supporting ISIS” as we often sloppily hear; on 
the contrary, Turkey has been tightly allied to ISIS’ main enemies for years 
and indeed armed them during the great rebel drive against ISIS in 2014. 

“For the SDF, Turkey and ISIS are the most immediate threats.  Hence the 
cooperation with the US against ISIS, and the recently reported cooperation 
with Assad forces in the west of Manbij district against the Turkish invasion. 
Of course, neither the US nor Assad regime is a reliable ally.” 

The only reliable allies of the Kurds are the Syrian masses, and the divide 
between the Kurdish and Arab masses, between Kurdish-led and Arab-led 
revolutionary forces is indeed a major problem for the revolution, but trying 
to pin the blame for it entirely or even mostly on the rebel side is a laugh. 
Leaderships on both sides have shown a great deal of short-sightedness, and 
while that may be expected from the generally non-leftist traditions of most 
rebel leaderships, it is a major stain on the PYD which many are talking up not 
just as leftist in origin but as the … “true revolutionaries.” “Recently 
reported cooperation with Assad” indeed Chris. Much, much older than that. 

Yes, the foreign interventions, all of them, are a major part of this problem 
of division, including of course Turkey’s anti-Kurdish policy, and the fact 
that, abandoned by the world, the rebels had little choice but to depend on 
Turkey which gave them a life-line for its own reasons (mainly because Turkey 
was overwhelmed with 3 million Syrian refugees and hence saw the need to try to 
remove the source of this massive instability, ie the Assad regime). If the 
rebels had taken Turkish air cover to conquer Kurdish majority Afrin or Kobani 
from the PYD it would have been a major crime, but that never happened. What 
did happen was that the YPG took Russian air cover – air cover from the major 
global imperialist ransacker and destroyer of Syria – to conquer Arab-majority 
territory from the rebels, which later led to Assad’s crushing of Aleppo.




From: Marxism <marxism-boun...@lists.csbs.utah.edu> on behalf of Michael 
Karadjis via Marxism <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>
Sent: Saturday, 4 March 2017 5:33:06 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: [Marxism] US Arab Spring policy? Third party counter-revolution 

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Sean Stone interviews Rania Khalek: A confederacy of dunces

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

SEAN STONE INTERVIEWS RANIA KHALEK: A CONFEDERACY OF ASSADIST DUNCES
http://www.maryscullyreports.com/sean-stone-interviews-rania-khalek-a-confederacy-of-assadist-dunces
MARCH 4, 2017

Rania Khalek is struggling to salvage her career as an “independent” 
journalist after embedding herself with the Syrian army last year & 
traveling to Aleppo with Bartlett & Beeley. That hasn’t hurt their 
careers much but they’re professional propagandists on Assad’s payroll 
while she has no idea what the hell she’s doing.
While on the road back to Damascus accompanied by Syrian soldiers, 
Khalek got sick & wondered aloud on social media if she had been 
poisoned by the Syrian army since they were so controlling. This 
outraged Bartlett & Beeley who roasted her for impugning their beloved 
Syrian army & the Assad regime. A falling out between ardent Assadist 
ideologues & groveling, inept wannabes can get pretty nasty.
RT apparently has not given up on Khalek yet since they often enough 
interview her as an expert on Syrian politics based on her one week 
under close supervision “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” kind of 
tour. The network seems to be testing her out for a full-time gig. Her 
latest is an interview on RT by Sean Stone, the actor & son of Oliver 
Stone who already has a regular gig on RT. Not unlike his father, Sean 
Stone is a full-blown libertarian conspiracy thinker who navigates 
complex political issues by intuition & paranoia & doesn’t appear to 
have cracked a book since high school. He is just as ignorant as Khalek 
on the issue of Syria & just as ardent a supporter of Assad’s 
dictatorship & Russian military intervention.
Stone, who four years ago was dismissive about terrorism & called the 
so-called war on terror “constant fear mongering & aggression,” 
interviewed Khalek about the White Helmets & was now feeding her lines 
about the Syrian army liberating Syrians from “jihadist terrorists.” 
Neither has the investigative integrity considered de rigueur to an 
honest 7th grader. Watching Stone interview Khalek brings to mind the 
phrase “the worst are full of passionate intensity” from The Second 
Coming by W.B. Yeats because what they lack in understanding, they try 
to make up for with feigned ardor.
Some Assadist media (that not run by Bartlett & Beeley) like Mint Press 
News publish Khalek’s endless laments about the hit her career has taken 
since her ill-fated whirlwind tour of Syria intended to give her 
credentials but which has brought her shame. For Khalek, revolution & 
counter-revolution in Syria is all about her; it’s happening 6,000 miles 
from her wounded ego that no one will publish her articles or pay her 
honoraria to speak. She complains that she’s being silenced & smeared, 
“marginalized & ostracized” by opponents of Assad’s dictatorship when 
actually her career is tanking because no one gives a damn what she has 
to say; she doesn’t know anything. Her recent writings on media coverage 
of Syria & the refugee crisis are an embarrassment of groveling 
apologetics, perhaps hoping Assad will take notice & put her on the 
payroll too.
Alas, poor Rania! Thou hast undone thine own career by thinking you can 
wing it & play lightly with the life & death questions of revolution & 
counter-revolution in Syria. Thou hath wrought this upon thyself & will 
have to live with oblivion which many before you have preferred to 
shame.

Full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNL_nYuD3Y
NEWS 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] [UCE] Is Putin Bibi’s new ‘bestie'?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Is Putin Bibi’s new ‘bestie'?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves March 9 for Moscow, 
where he will have a quick meeting with Russian President Vladimir 
Putin. Netanyahu will depart Israel in the morning and return a few 
hours later, immediately after his talk with Putin. Sources close to 
Netanyahu say that he had asked for the meeting, the fifth between the 
two men in little over a year, to discuss developments in Syria, where 
Moscow's military presence has made the Russian Federation Israel's new 
neighbor.


Military sources keeping tabs on security coordination between the 
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Russia stress that so far, relations can 
be characterized by a level of coordination that appears to be perfect 
...


http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ru/originals/2017/03/israel-russia-syria-benjamin-netanyahu-vladimir-putin-moscow.html 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Extreme capitalism of the Muslim Brothers, by Gilbert Achcar (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, June,

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Joseph Green via Marxism

Andrew Pollack wrote:


re Green's latest on Egypt:  I'm sure all the RS comrades who've been
jailed because they fought for DEMOCRATIC demands will be glad to hear 
that

their protests and jailings never happened.


The issue re Egypt isn't whether Trotskyists ever fight for democratic
demands. Of course they have.

The issue is why did the RS briefly back the military coup? What was the
source of this horrendous error? And in fact, the theory of permanent
revolution was one of the sources of this error.

..

Let's try and have this debate calmly. Andy is right about the RS 
comrades fighting for democratic demands and getting brutally repressed 
for it. Joseph is right that they made other serious errors. But he 
should also mention that they fixed them very fast, and that in itself 
raises questions about his interpretation of concrete errors in Egypt.


Here's what I think. On the broad theoretical questions, I've long been 
in agreement with much of what Joseph Green says (on the question of 
Assad an-Nar's article in Khiyana, less so: I agree with some points but 
it seemed to be greatly over-stated). I agree that permanent revolution 
is too narrow a lens through which to understand world politics and 
revolution (and in particular the Arab Spring, as Joseph notes), in as 
much as we mean the particular aspects of Trotsky's theory that were 
different from Lenin's views - though in my opinion they are 
fundamentally similar. The main advantage of Trotsky is that he put it 
all together in a couple of highly readable volumes, whereas Lenin's 
views are written on the rush in various articles, big and small, 
throughout 1905-6 and later (not only Two Tactics). For the record I 
view Lenin's April Thesis as perfectly consistent with his 1905-6 views. 
I agree with many of Joseph's comments about the broader sweep. But we 
can discuss all this calmly.


Where I don't agree with Joseph is in his attempt to somewhat 
mechanically explain the actions and errors of small Trotskyist groups 
as being caused by the Original Sin of PR. As I see it, the problem with 
this is that Joseph in a way is doing what the more caricaturish kinds 
of Trotskyists do: they seek to explain everything on the basis of the 
need for the "correct program" (and everyone messes up because they 
don't have it), and Joseph is kind of saying the same about those who do 
have the PR view. I think in both cases it is an idealist error.


Why do I think the RS initially messed up in 2013 in the face of Sisi's 
coup? Human error. That's it. They are a tiny group of people; 
surrounding them were millions of people demanding the fall of Morsi, 
mostly for good reason. They were completely swamped by it. Inspired by 
this movement for *democratic* demands (note!), they missed the deeply 
anti-democratic elements of the same movement trying to ride it. When 
the military struck and was given backing by this element of the 
movement (and probably by a lot of others among the ordinary folk in 
those demonstrations who were simply politically naive), they were 
unprepared for it. They came out with some terrible formulations. After 
that, I distinctly remember reading about one declaration from RS a week 
for the next month. Each one got progressively better. By the time we 
get to the one a month later, the error has been fully fixed: not only 
is there any doubt that Sisi is not just the enemy, he has also emerged, 
rightly, as the main enemy; the MB demonstrations should be protected 
from repression, its cadres released from prison; and it is even now 
permissible to do joint work with the MB against Sisi's repression, as 
long as a very clear line of political demarcation is maintained. 
Faultless.


Here's my problem with attempting to explain the RS' error by their 
adherence to PR. Leaving aside the question of whether PR influences 
Trotskyist groups to downplay the democratic revolution or see it as 
useless unless it goes fast to socialist revolution: even IF we were to 
accept this for argument's sake (and I think it only applies to the more 
sectarian groups and their sectarian interpretations), that cannot 
explain the RS error at all. Why would they have got themselves too 
carried away with the mass movement in the streets centred around 
democratic demands? Sectarian Trotskyism should have denounced the 
movement from the outset as inevitably leading nowhere, or to reaction, 
since it did not have revolutionary proletarian leadership. They would 

[Marxism] US Arab Spring policy? Third party counter-revolution

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

US Arab Spring policy? Third party counter-revolution
by eternispring

.

The “rebel” factions that the US has directly supported in Syria have 
always been those that do not fight Assad – in other words rebels that 
don’t rebel. The SDF position on Syria is identical to that of the US – 
a “third option” theoretically distinguishable from the regime but which 
ultimately involves indirect support to it. This “regime preservation by 
proxy” has been US policy in the conflict, helping it to avoid the 
criticisms which would otherwise arise from unmediated direct support – 
with other “proxy” US-backed allies of the regime include Iraqi army 
brigades (who currently form the biggest ground forces of the Assad 
regime) and the Egyptian al-Sisi regime.


Another example of what’s talked about here is the famed “US only found 
54 moderate rebels to fight ISIS”. Hundreds of outlets (mainstream and 
alternative) probably recirculated the original context-less source 
piece, in turn reaching millions of people. And in only a tiny minority 
will the crucial detail being missing: that there were only 54 
signatories because the US stipulated that those who signed up sign a 
declaration to use their weapons only to fight ISIS, not Assad. This in 
turn provides the source material for “alternative media” outlets to 
repeat the upside-down narrative of a US conspiracy against the Assad 
regime.The result literally from just one misleading piece failing to 
add a line is millions of people understanding the issue upside down.


This isn’t unique to Syria either; for instance you’ll often find 
Zionists say “the Palestinians rejected the 1947 UN partition plan which 
would’ve given a peaceful solution to the Arabs and Israelis”. And 
whilst this is certainly true, as ever the critical small-print is 
missing: that the Palestinians rejected a plan which a) divided a 
country which shouldn’t have been divided and b) even in this division 
gave away more than half of the territory to a minority largely foreign 
population. For decades such myths were allowed to expand before being 
adequately challenged.


The reality is that every single faction the US has directly supported 
in the Syrian conflict have been brigades that have stopped fighting 
Assad. Whether its the SDF factions, the Mua’atasim Brigade or the New 
Syrian Army, all of these groups only got US support once they made 
clear they wouldn’t be fighting Assad. Some, like the NSA which operate 
on the Syrian-Iraqi border have even collaborated with the pro-Assad 
Iraqi government.


The indirect support has also allowed the US to directly support the 
regime as well. By pursuing a “third path” the regime was eventually 
rehabilitated enough and by 2014 the US was bombing Assad’s enemies – 
“moderate” and extreme – alongside his airforce.


Full: 
https://eternispring.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/us-arab-spring-policy-third-party-counter-revolution/?fb_action_ids=1414757321930172_action_types=news.publishes 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] NO STALINIST VIOLENCE IN OUR MOVEMENTS!

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The definition of the word "violence" has expanded, and rightly so, and 
so we could well call this shameless disruption of of an event 
supporting the amazing work of the WH, by a bunch of arrogant, 
self-aggrandising western tyrant-boot-lickers, "violence". Or perhaps 
not. One thing is for sure though: "violent" or otherwise, if the 
organisers had decided to violently eject these scum, they would have 
been fully justified. The self-restraint was amazing.



-Original Message- 
From: Mark Lause via Marxism

Sent: Saturday, March 4, 2017 2:56 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] NO STALINIST VIOLENCE IN OUR MOVEMENTS!

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Workers World in Houston physically attacked demonstrations back in the
early 1970s, initiating it all by accepting a debate over antiwar 
strategy
and then disrupting it.  I viewed that, at the time and since, as a 
local
aberration--the result of WWP's having recruited a preexisting local 
group

with its own peculiar ideas about how to go about having an impact.

Even then, though, the responsibility falls on the organization to reign 
in

people if they're doing what the organization doesn't want done.

ml



On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 8:56 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 3/3/17 8:29 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:



Fine. So next time you speak from the floor I'll just walk up and 
down in

front of you with a poster blocking your face. No problem, right?


Yeah, I had that done to me in effect by Vivek Chibber. He's an 
asshole

but I wouldn't consider that "violence".


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
ions/marxism/markalause%40gmail.com


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Assad backs Trump ‘Muslim Ban’, says Syrian refugees ‘terrorists’

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Hard to work out whether it is Assad or Netanyahu who is the most in 
love with Trump


Assad backs Trump ‘Muslim Ban’, says Syrian refugees ‘terrorists’
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170216-assad-backs-trump-muslim-ban-says-syrian-refugees-terrorists/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] US used depleted uranium in Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

So it has been exposed that the US airforce dropped depleted uranium in 
Syria in late 2015 against oil trucks in ISIS-controlled territory, the 
first use since 2003. But not to worry, it wasn't used against Assad, 
just his enemies, so it isn't intervention.


US promised it wouldn’t use Depleted Uranium in Syria. But then it did.
Written by Samuel Oakford on February 14, 2017


Officials have confirmed that the US military – despite vowing not to 
use controversial Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons on the battlefield in 
Iraq and Syria – fired thousands of rounds of such munitions during two 
high-profile raids on oil trucks in Islamic State-controlled Syria in 
late 2015. The air assaults mark the first confirmed use of this 
armament since the 2003 Iraq invasion, when hundreds of thousands of 
rounds were fired, leading to outrage among local communities which 
alleged that toxic remnants caused both cancer and birth defects.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Major Josh Jacques told Airwars 
and Foreign Policy that 5,265 armor-piercing 30mm rounds containing 
depleted uranium (DU) were shot from Air Force A-10 fixed-wing aircraft 
on November 16th and 22nd 2015, destroying about 350 vehicles in the 
country’s eastern desert.


https://airwars.org/news/depleteduranium1/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] For first time, (US-led) Coalition now killing more civilians than Russia in Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Fighting on the same side, of course. Airwars has been an essential 
source on these issues. The article notes that the relative downturn of 
Russian terror-bombing since it helped the regime crush Aleppo in rivers 
of blood has coincided with a sharp upturn of the US war against ISIS in 
Mosul and Raqqa, under both the late Obama and early Trump govts, in 
both cases with huge civilian casualties. Oddly though, what Airwars 
doesn't mention (I assume it will in its next report) is that the same 
period has also seen a dramatic rise in US bombing of Jaysh Fatah 
al-Sham (JFS), the rebranded Nusra organisation, in Idlib province, 
where it has killed hundreds of JFS militants (and loads of civilians), 
in open collaboration with continued Assad and Russian bombing in Idlib. 
The US war has also killed a number of non-JFS militants, including 
Ahrar al-Sham fighters and leaders, even though that organisation is 
currently spearheading resistance on the ground against JFS aggression.


For first time, (US-led) Coalition now killing more civilians than 
Russia
https://airwars.org/news/for-the-first-time-the-coalition-is-now-killing-more-civilians-than-russia/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] [UCE] The Astana Conference: a step on the road to peace or another turn of the carousel?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Very useful analysis from the excellent Magpie blog:

The Astana Conference: a step on the road to peace or another turn of 
the carousel?
https://magpie68.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/the-astana-conference-a-step-on-the-road-to-peace-or-another-turn-of-the-carousel/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Have the Syrian Kurds Committed War Crimes?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

This report sounds pretty damning. Not sure how much I trust all the 
allegations of PYD-Iran collaboration, or especially of PYD-ISIS 
collaboration; and the claim that thousands of Kurds take refuge in 
Turkey to evade YPG conscription, rather than to avoid war, seems 
far-fetched (and in any case, not backed up in this article at least); 
but the large-scale abuses seem fairly well-documented.


Have the Syrian Kurds Committed War Crimes?
This special report, which also exposes their collusion with the Assad 
regime, undermines their claim to be leading a democratic, open society.

By Roy Gutman
https://www.thenation.com/article/have-the-syrian-kurds-committed-war-crimes/
Yesterday 3:39 pm

AKCAKALE, TURKEY—The Kurdish militia that supplies the ground troops in 
the US air war against the Islamic State has been a systematic violator 
of human rights in the area it controls in northern Syria, causing the 
displacement of tens of thousands of Arabs and even more massive flight 
by Kurds from the region.
This is the first of a two-part investigation, which was supported by 
the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
A six-month investigation shows that the militia, reportedly under the 
strong influence of Iran and the Assad regime, has evicted Arabs from 
their homes at gunpoint starting in 2013 and subsequently has blown up, 
torched, or bulldozed their homes and villages. The Nation interviewed 
more than 80 Arabs and Syrian Kurdish refugees in the region as well as 
militia officials, former militia members, former Syrian government 
officials, political activists, and officials in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The pace of the expulsions picked up dramatically after the United 
States began joint operations against the Islamic State in Syria in 
mid-2015, as the Kurdish militia threatened Arabs with air strikes if 
they didn’t leave their villages. While they slowed in 2016, expulsions 
continue even as the militia turns on its political rivals and jails, 
tortures, or expels them.



The YPG denies any wrongdoing. “Expulsions never happened in the past 
and they will not happen in the future,” said Sihanouk Dibo, a spokesman 
and senior adviser for the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political 
wing of the YPG. He said the alliance between the YPG and the (US-led) 
international coalition against ISIS “is another reason why such 
violations can’t happen.”


Full: 
https://www.thenation.com/article/have-the-syrian-kurds-committed-war-crimes/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] New interview with Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Syrian Communist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Interview with Yassin al Haj Saleh, long-time Syrian dissident 
Communist, jailed for 16 years under Assad senior, including time in 
Tadmour, which he describes as a concentration camp. Worth reading right 
through, as always, but a few relevant extracts here - particularly 
relevant from someone whose brother was kidnapped by Daesh, and hose 
wife, Samira Khalil, another revolutionary, was kidnapped along with 
three other revolutionaries in Douma in late 2013, most suspect by the 
Islamist group Jaysh al-Islam.


Interview with Yassin al-Haj Saleh, translated from Flemish into English 
by: Jorn Decock.

http://aljumhuriya.net/en/syrian-refugees/interview-with-yassin-al-haj-saleh

...

DS: You know many people there. Do they still long for freedom? Or do 
they mainly hope that the war would finish now?


YHS: Do they have to chose? They long for the end of this war and they 
long for freedom.


DS: You don’t think there are Syrians who would accept Assad again, as 
long as the bombs will stop falling?


YHS: No, a large majority of Syrians wants him out. Even the people who 
ostensibly are loyal to Assad, do not respect him. They, too, want 
political change. And that change is only possible if the Assad dynasty 
disappears. One needs to bear in mind that Syria had a very special form 
of dictatorship: the Assad clan didn’t rule the country, they owned it. 
We, the citizens, were their slaves. Their strategy for Syria is clear: 
Assad, or no-one. If Assad can’t cling to his power, then the whole 
country – which they have been plundering for decades already – should 
disappear from the map.


...

DS: Your wife and brother were abducted by radical Islamists. Did you 
see that danger coming?
YHS: In May 2012 I wrote a long essay in which I warned for the rise of, 
what I called at the time, ‘’militant nihilism’’. At first, the 
revolution in Syria was largely non-violent. But because the regime 
responded so violently and because international help didn’t 
materialise, the model of the jihadists gained ground. The more dead 
bodies appeared in the streets – once in Douma in 2013 I saw 26 bodies 
in the same day – the more attractive an ever more militant Islamism 
became. Especially in a country like Syria, where the Sunni religious 
majority had already been repressed for years.
That’s how we ended up in an escalation of fear and violence. Syrians 
got ever more angry, frustrated, desperate. The salafists provided an 
answer to a desire to destruct. Destruct the regime, and the whole 
world. And the self. Salafi jihadi organizations are self destruction 
manifestations in our contemporary societies. Suicide bombers are the 
embodiment of this tendency.


...

DS: Do you think that the ‘War on Terror’, now defined as the fight 
against Islamic State, has become too much of a priority for the West?


YHS: It’s a post-democratic war. There’s no clear beginning, no clearly 
defined enemy, no clear end game. It’s a war that leads to a perpetual 
state of emergency. Western democracies are already suffering greatly 
from this. And it’s very dangerous.
At the same time, the man who between March 2011 and August 2013 had 
over ten thousand people tortured to death, is allowed to proceed. Why 
is the war against IS so much more important than the fight against 
Bashar al-Assad? In fact, the message the West sends to the people of 
Syria is very clear: we think our lives are far more important than 
yours.


DS: Do you feel like the West sacrifices you?

YHS: No, worse, we have been sacrificed and dismissed as irrelevant. In 
August 2013, Assad committed mass murder against his own population, 
with chemical weapons. Afterwards the United States and Russia concluded 
a cowardly deal. The perpetrator was allowed to go free in exchange for 
the destruction of his chemical weapons. Both sides saved face, but the 
very people who lost 1.466 lives just weeks before, were let down. It 
got worse: the regime got a laissez-passer to continue its massacre with 
other weapons. That’s exactly what Assad did: he dropped massive amounts 
of barrel bombs and bunker busters. He even continued to use chemical 
weapons, because somehow he managed never to hand them over completely.
In my view, the reaction to that poison gas attack is the worst 
international crime of the past decades. It was a gigantic attack on the 
truth. Nobody can say they didn’t know. It happened right before the 
eyes of the international community.


DS: Western critics often argue that the Syrian opposition didn’t get 
the necessary support because Assad’s opponents were hopelessly divided 
amongst themselves. Do you understand that 

[Marxism] Syria: Our starting point must be solidarity: Mark Boothroyd

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Excellent article by long-term supporter of Syrian Revolution, Mark 
Boothroyd, from Syria Solidarity UK, in Links:


Syria: Our starting point must be solidarity
By Mark Boothroyd

http://links.org.au/syrian-revolution-solidarity-anti-war-russia

January 17, 2017 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – 
While I welcome David Bush’s attempt to debate Syria productively, his 
article reproduces many common mistakes made by socialist activists who 
have not consistently engaged with the Syrian revolution, and offers 
little to those on the ground struggling against both the Assad regime, 
and the various imperialist powers intervening in the country.


It fails to show solidarity with the democratic struggle of Syrians, 
that lives on through the protests and the local councils, which despite 
the regime's constant aerial bombardment, continue their attempts to 
construct a new, democratic society in parts of Syria liberated from the 
regime's control. The lack of support from left-wing activists for these 
grassroots democratic initiatives – persisting despite unimaginable 
violence – will be eternally regretted unless altered.


Full: http://links.org.au/syrian-revolution-solidarity-anti-war-russia

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Desperate Assad conscripting 50-year-olds as beleaguered Syrian regime forces halved by deaths, defections and draft-dodging

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Interesting article. The fact that the so-called "Syrian Arab Army" 
(SAA) has been reduced to a skeleton, and that the armed forces that 
seized Aleppo were largely from the global Shiite jihad organised by 
Iran, which detachments from Iran, Iraq (the US-armed Iraqi army, err, 
Shiite militia), Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc, is widely known by 
clear-sighted observers; and even they couldn't have seized Aleppo from 
its Syrian population without the massive terror unleashed by the 
invading Russian imperialist airforce. The SAA is commonly nicknamed the 
"Syrian Afghan Army", after the large numbers of desperate Afghan Hazara 
refugees in Iran forcibly conscripted by the regime.


Far from heading an Arab nationalist regime, as the Baath Party may have 
been about half a century ago (note: living half a century in the past 
is, sadly, a common problem around parts of the left), the regime is a 
pure satrapy of Russia and Iran, while the country is divided up under 
the regime's watch. Russia has indicated it is staying forever, is 
expanding and upgrading its air and naval bases, and in exchange for 
saving the regime (for now) has extracted a fully colonial treaty from 
the regime. It's main interest is the Alawite-dominated coast, where its 
bases stand. Iran and its global jihad has control of Aleppo and the 
Qalamoun region linking Damascus with the Lebanese border, a region from 
which hundreds of thousands of Sunni have been ethnically cleansed by 
the regime and Hezbollah, as Hezbollah now believes the "road to 
liberating "Jerusalem" runs through Qalamoun, Damascus, Daraya, Madaya, 
Homs, Aleppo, and everywhere else Arab kids can be slaughtered. Turkey, 
with Russian support, controls a section of northern rural Aleppo along 
the border, which it is now filling with Turkish nationalists, Grey 
Wolves etc, as the AKP accepts Assad rule and wants the region, with a 
significant Turkmen presence, to empty many of the 3 million Syrian 
refugees into, the AKP's reversal of policy on both Assad and the 
refugees symbolised by its current alliance with the Turanian 
nationalist MHP. Beyond that region, from Kobane to the far north-east 
is run by the PYD party-state; just to remind the Arabic populations 
within this region who rules, giant pics of Ocalan, a Kurdish leader 
from Turkey, not Syria, dominate the region, including the entrance to 
mostly Arabic Tal Abyad. Strongly backed by the US air-force and US 
special forces, this PYD-run region also sports 2-3 US air-bases. In the 
south, the once mighty FSA Southern Front, which controls much of Daraa, 
has been forcibly demobilised by the US and Jordan, turned from a major 
anti-Assad force to a force maintaining a one-sided "ceasefire" with the 
regime whose role is to protect the Jordanian border from ISIS (simple: 
advance against Assad, arms and support cut off; advance against ISIS or 
attack Nusra, get weapons). Israel of course will maintain its theft of 
the Golan, as guaranteed by the Assad regimes the last 43 years; and now 
guaranteed even more by Netanyahu's two best friends, Putin and Trump.


Still, I wonder why the article, and so many like it, write things like 
this:


The opposing powers brokering peace talks later this month in Kazakhstan 
look set to carve Syria up into different zones of influence.
Mr Assad would keep Aleppo, which is important to Iran as it serves as a 
supply route from Tehran to Hizbollah in Lebanon, as well as coastal

regions where the Russians have bases.

Aleppo cannot serve as a supply route from Iran to Hezbollah, any more 
than all the other volumes of fiction about Iran trying to maintain its 
"land connection" to Hezbollah, via an Assad-ruled Syria, make sense. 
Geographically, it is pure nonsense. The Syria-Iraq border is controlled 
by Kurdish forces, on both sides, in the north, and by the Islamic State 
further down. Even if IS were completely destroyed - an unlikely 
short-term scenario - the Syria-Iraq border on both sides is solidly 
Sunni and hostile to the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian sectarian regimes. 
Iranian weapons get to Hezbollah via Damascus airport, via Iraqi 
airports (which the US supervises). Until 2011, they were flown to 
Damascus via Turkish airports.



-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2017 10:04 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Desperate Assad conscripting 50-year-olds as 
beleaguered Syrian regime forces halved by deaths, defections and 
draft-dodging






_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your 

[Marxism] Erdogan joins Global Research editorial team

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Turkey 's investigation reveals the close cooperation and affiliation 
between the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the PKK and ISIS. Also it's 
revealed that the U.S. and the NATO helped ISIS, PKK & FETÖ to create 
instability in Turkey.


According to his (Daesh terrorist Abu Haidar Mohammad) statements 
included in the report, "Daesh had moved explosives into the country 
[Turkey] in accordance with FETÖ's orders" while "senior PKK officials 
Müslüm İke and Fehmi Atalay in northern Iraq said that "The U.S. and the 
NATO has pledged to [the PKK] that the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 
would be toppled during the fall of 2016."


http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2017/01/03/feto-pkk-daesh-cooperation-revealed-in-parliamentary-report 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Telesur interviews filmmaker Carla Ortiz

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Much better from Bolivia:

Aleppo Congress of delegates manufacturing of Bolivia performs a minute 
of silence for the deaths in Syria! Long live international solidarity 
with the Syrian Revolution! ! Out Assad, Russia, Hezbollah, Iran! ! Out 
the Islamic State! ! Outside the US and the EU of Syria!
Video: 
https://www.facebook.com/litci.cuartainternacional/videos/1343604109004220/


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Monday, January 2, 2017 10:15 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Telesur interviews filmmaker Carla Ortiz

On 1/1/17 5:43 PM, Andrew Stewart via Marxism wrote:


After eight months filming a documentary in Syria, a Bolivian actress 
and
filmmaker is contradicting the mainstream media's narrative as she 
argues

that the Syrian government has not, in fact, shot at militants leaving
Aleppo.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivian-Filmmaker-Debunks-Mainstream-Lies-on-Syria-20161231-0002.html




_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Brief comments on the Russia-Turkey colonialist "ceasefire”

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Brief comments on the Russia-Turkey colonialist "ceasefire”

https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/brief-comments-on-the-russia-turkey-colonialist-ceasefire/

The colonialist Russia-Turkey imposed Syria “ceasefire” is a disaster, 
yet at the same time unavoidable at this point. A disaster because of 
the way that it came about (ie, via defeat, a ceasefire where the cards 
are stacked against the revolution side, no prisoner releases, no siege 
endings, expulsion from Aleppo, regime upper hand etc), and because it 
excludes war against Nusra, giving Assad, Russia and the US (and perhaps 
Turkey and the YPG) the excuse to make Idlib a legal Kill Zone without 
“violating the ceasefire.” Even outside of Idlib, does the “ceasefire” 
mean the regime will end its current savagery in Damascus suburbs? And 
indeed, we have already seen constant regime violations. Unavoidable 
because, given the relationship of forces on the ground, Turkey’s 
obvious betrayal, the Gulf’s complete lack of interest, the continued 
US-Jordan-imposed freezing of the southern front etc, we need a 
ceasefire, for the revolutionary forces, both civil and military, to 
regroup, for the people to breathe etc. I guess the civil movement needs 
to try to make the most of it while it lasts, as it did earlier this 
year, bring people into the streets, keep the end of Assad as the 
target, revive popular committees etc. However, if the regime uses it to 
continue to massacre in Idlib, East Ghouta etc, then what is the FSA to 
do? If it doesn’t fight back because the regime is (allegedly) “only 
bombing Nusra” which is outside the ceasefire, while in fact committing 
its usual massacre, then this will greatly boost Nusra vis a vis FSA – 
and, in a sense, rightly so. So the FSA is in a bind.


As for the media pointing out that the US is not part of the ceasefire 
agreement (only Russia, Turkey, Iran), this seems a moot point (apart 
from the fact that Putin has made clear the US will be brought into the 
process when his mate in ultra-right politics, Trump, is inaugurated), 
as the US is not a belligerent in the main part of the Syrian war. The 
US role has been to (1) bomb ISIS, (2) bomb Nusra, (3) bomb in favour of 
the YPG. But the ceasefire doesn’t involve any of these forces or 
conflicts.


Clearly, the “ceasefire” is part of the colonial unofficial soft 
partition “solution” with Russia, Assad and Iran getting what they want 
of “useful” and western Syria, Turkey getting its own northern zone 
(filling it with right-wing Turkish nationalists who believe in Greater 
Turkey, want to expel Syrian refugees into the zone, but have no quarrel 
with Assad, while blocking – not unjustly, but for the wrong reasons – 
the YPG’s irridentist “linking” project; the AKP’s change of policy 
represented by its current alliance with fascistic Grey Wolves and MHP).


But the US has manoevured its way into 3 air bases in YPG-controlled 
territory, so the large Manbij to Hasake region is effectively a 
“US-backed” zone anyway; the zone controlled by the Southern Front in 
Daraa has been converted from a fighting front to a strip protecting the 
Jordanian border from Daesh; and the prizes are Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in 
the east: as the US has bombed on Assad’s side for 2 years against ISIS 
in Deir Ezzor, that will probably go to Assad. Not sure they’ve worked 
out Raqqa just yet, with so many contenders; for a while probably just 
another Kill Zone. I suspect the Saudis will want some kind of Sunni 
entity in the east to expel ISIS in exchange for accepting Assad’s 
“temporary” rule (according to the Russia-Turkey agreement) and being 
left out of the process. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Trump, Assad and the US Left

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Carl G. Estabrook via Marxism


Given the extent of US responsibility for the general situation, we 
should pay for steps taken by the UNSC to pacify the region.


Yes, just what the left needs to be calling for, a "pacification" 
program. Don't worry Carl, seems Trump and Putin will be organising one 
of those to clean up and "pacify" all those uppity Arabs and Muslims in 
the region. Time to restore the pre-2011 Order in the region.


But I’m appalled at the Obama administration’s efforts to support the 
jihadists in the face of Trump’s threat to abandon them.


What is it about leftists who think that when the US bombs "jihadists" 
in Syria for years, but never Assad, this indicates that the US is 
"supporting" jihadists and trying to overthrow Assad? Is bombing them 
just a devious way of bringing about their victory? Is not bombing 
Assad, indeed, bombing alongside, in alliance with, Assad forces, 
against jihadists, just a devious way of making Assad look bad? As for 
any alleged new "attempts" by Obama to support those it has been bombing 
for over 2 years in the face of trump's more open support for 
Putin/Assad, not sure how that idea squares with reality:


Obama Declares Fight is With Terrorists Rather Than Assad
http://eaworldview.com/2016/11/syria-feature-obama-declares-fight-terrorists-rather-than-assad/

November 11 2016
by Scott Lucas
Two days after Donald Trump’s election, officials of the Obama 
Administration have publicly acknowledged the shift in US involvement in 
Syria, focusing on the killing of leaders of the jihadist faction Jabhat 
Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) rather than confrontation with 
the Assad regime or even the Islamic State.
The officials said President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and 
kill the leaders of JFS/Nusra, which formally revoked its allegiance to 
Al Qa’eda in July to focus on “unity” in the fight against the Assad 
regime.
Despite the revocation, the official said Obama ordered the deployment 
of more drones and intelligence assets, overseen by the Joint Special 
¬Operations Command, because of “concern that [JFS/Nusra] is turning 
parts of Syria into a new base of operations for al-Qaeda on Europe’s 
southern doorstep”.
The officials said the White House and State Department led the shift, 
overriding the objections of Pentagon staff who do not want to pull 
resources away from the fight against the Islamic State. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Tough-Talking Philippine President Duterte

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism


A wide array of left, human rights and movement groups have come 
together
to protest Duterte's policies, from the Marcos burial to the mass 
killings.


Yeh but don't forget that Marcos was overthrown in a Colour Revolution 
organised by Shultz and Wolfowitz, an early shot by the Neocons 
(http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/site_packages/econ_hitmen/3150philipp_coup.html). 
So Marcos must have been doing something good. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] An iranian leftist's perspective on Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The article is indeed a complete pack of lies, Andy's outburst was fully 
justified. Just on this:



 He would
argue that being against ISIS and the other fundamentalist groups, 
which

are the main alternative to the Assad dictatorship, is just sensible.


Louis already responded to this adequately. That "ISIS and the other 
fundamentalist groups" is the typical sleight of hand engaged in by 
every apologist for tyranny. There is simply no comparison between ISIS 
and absolutely any other group (including Nusra, which itself accounts 
for not more than 10% of the cadres of the insurgency), quite apart from 
the fact that they fight on *opposite* sides.


But so if we get rid of the loaded "and the other fundamentalist 
groups", we are left with the assertion that ISIS is "the main 
alternative to the Assad dictatorship." Anyone with more than a mere 
passing interest in Syria would know very well that ISIS has never been 
even remotely posed to take Damascus or Aleppo, has never even remotely 
been posed as an "alternative" to Assad. All one needs to do is look at 
a map. And the couple of times some wild strands, some outreach parties, 
of ISIS have ventured closer to Damascus (never even remotely with the 
forces to take Damascus), it has been none other than the Syrian rebels 
that have driven them away.


As for the idea that it is "sensible" that there can be a worse 
alternative than Assad, I'll just quote Michael Neumann, someone who has 
consistently written good stuff on Syria 
http://insufficientrespect.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/yes-do-compare-atrocities.html:


"The very same people who cannot believe that the world just throws up 
its hands over Syria belong to those who enable that reaction.  They cry 
out about human rights and war crimes, legitimating ridiculously broad 
categories that level out all choices into exercises in futility.  Human 
rights discourse sets you up to say, there are no good options.  And 
that indeed is how people react.


"Well, what's wrong with that?  Drop the refusal to compare and the 
problem becomes apparent.  The situation in Syria presents far more than 
a choice between alleged evils.  Comparison would show the crucial fact 
whose neglect affects all the West's reactions and policy decisions 
about Syria:  that Assad represents an evil orders of magnitude greater 
than what is normally encountered in this world.


"Imagine that people did actually examine and compare the record of the 
various parties to the Syrian conflict.  They might find reasons why it 
is not only morally permissible but morally obligatory, at times, to 
give full military support to people who commit war crimes and violate 
human rights.  That realization can occur only when people stop saying 
it's all the same and really look at the details of atrocities.


"The worst atrocities are almost never reported.  Incredibly, the latest 
Amnesty International account of torture in Syrian jails specifies the 
details of only of cases which are mild by Assad's standards.  Perhaps 
here again, to report worse is thought merely prurient by an agency 
known for its 'even-handedness', that is, its refusal to compare.


"But the details say something otherwise impossible to convey:  that the 
Assad régime, even in the face of all the other horrible régimes around 
the world, introduces a level of barbarism scarcely conceivable.  How 
typical for the world to focus on Assad's bombing, as if this was his 
worst, as if some fancy American fighter jets could do some flyovers and 
make all well.  There are two reasons this won't do.


"First, the focus won't overcome the refusal to compare: think how many 
will say, "but doesn't the West bomb civilians too?  Didn't the US and 
Britain do this, deliberately, in the Second World War?  Isn't bombing 
civilians, whether or not it is fully expected 'collateral damage', a 
terrible thing?  What, are we going to compare atrocities now?"  Second, 
the focus on barrel bombs is oblivious to Syria's realities.  For Assad, 
barrel bombs are a mere convenience.  Before the barrel bombs, his 
forces didn't kill children from the sky.  They took knives and slit the 
throats of babies and toddlers.  There are photographs and 
well-confirmed reports of this for anyone who takes the trouble to find 
them.


"The refusal to compare and its consequent avoidance of details conceals 
uncomfortable facts.  ISIS' beheadings that so shock the world take 
moments; they are humane compared to the slow deaths Assad's torturers 
have inflicted on victims as young as 11.  Bombing hospitals is indeed 
terrible:  before the bombings, régime troops invaded the 

Re: [Marxism] Egypt and Turkey Soften Positions on Syria, Benefiting Assad

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


Subject: [Marxism] Egypt and Turkey Soften Positions on Syria,Benefiting 
Assad



(Since when was Egypt a "vocal opponent" of Assad?)


I think the article makes clear they mean under the elected MB 
government. Fro the time of Sisi's bloody coup in mid-2013, Sisi and 
Assad have been in alliance ("tacit", the article says). The main 
difference in the last year or so is that Sisi's verbal support for 
Assad has translated into sending actual military forces. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Pro-Assad President Trump makes anti-Assad retired general Secretary of Defense

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Pro-Assad President Trump makes anti-Assad retired 
general Secretary of Defense

.

Anti-Assad? Anti-Iran perhaps. Either way, that's an article from 2012! 
Even at that time, he made clear he was opposed to intervention against 
Assad, opposed to a no fly zone, he questioned whether having anything 
to do with Syria was in US interests at all, yes, he was anti-Iran, and 
did say Assad's defeat would be a defeat for Iran, but opposed any 
measures hastening it. Even in relation to Iran, he opposed military 
action (as this article says), and though he subsequently opposed the 
details of Obama's Iran deal (as does pro-Putin/Assad Trump), even at 
that time he insisted that Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions can only be 
dealt with via diplomacy. All of this was still his line as outlined 
clearly in this article from 2013 
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/21/former-commander-of-us-central-command-cautions-against-u-s-military-involvement-in-syria-without-an-endgame/. 
The only thing he said back then in 2013 about aiding Syrian rebels was 
nothing other than a cautious semi-endorsement of what became the Obama 
line:


"The retired general also said the administration’s plan to supply arms 
to the rebels is not without risk, as the weapons could get into the 
wrong hands. But that risk can be mitigated by thorough training, 
employing the secret services of surrounding countries and using U.S. 
special ops to monitor the situation. “There's a way to do it, but it’s 
a commitment, not a donation,” Mattis said. “This is significant for a 
country that is once more going to find itself at odds in the midst of a 
very, very confusing situation on the ground in the Middle East.” " 
Hardly a ringing endorsement, let alone a harder line.


But more importantly, he has since dropped that - here is from 2015:

"Mattis raised concerns about strategy in Syria, saying U.S. political 
objectives remains unclear. He also said *the time to support moderate 
rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as well as the 
Islamic State had “passed.”* 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/01/27/retired-generals-u-s-set-for-failure-in-iraq-and-syria-without-clear-strategy/. 
Clear enough? The Obama/Trump line: fight only ISIS (and Nusra). Seems 
perfect for Trump.


On the other hand, he is still called an "Iran hawk", because of his 
opposition to the Iran deal. It is true that this is a contradiction in 
"Trumpism" in general - Putin and Assad are good, Iran is bad (kind of 
the Netanyahu line, in rhetoric). However, also like Trump, he knows the 
difference between oppositionist rhetoric and pragmatism: "But while 
Mattis has in the past attacked the deal, since its signing by the Obama 
administration he’s called the agreement a fait accompli that must be 
accepted.“We are going to have to recognize that we have an imperfect 
arms control agreement,” he said. “What we achieved was a nuclear pause, 
not a nuclear halt. We're going to have to plan for the worst.” 
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220577.


On the plus side, Mattis is less pro-Netanyahu than Trump; compared to 
Trump's ringing endorsement of more Israeli colonisation, Mattis 
actually warned that this could lead to "apartheid" (lead to - these 
guys are slow, but anyway); and unlike Trump he is opposed to torture, 
though only on pragmatic grounds.





_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Questions re Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Original Message- 
From: Ken Hiebert via Marxism


By comparison with the war in Afghanistan, the Syrian air force has 
suffered very few losses of helicopters and planes.  Apparently their 
foreign arms suppliers have not provided them with MANPADS.  Why is 
that?


MK: The reason is very straightforward Ken: the US supported the 
counterrevolutionary forces in Afghanistan (calling them that does not 
imply support for the Soviet invasion, but I still think it is a correct 
description), so supplied them anti-aircraft weapons (and much else), 
whereas the US is opposed to the Syrian revolution, and so moved CIA 
spooks to the Turkish and Jordanian borders in 2012 to try to put a lid 
on the arms flow beginning to get to the Syrian rebels (in the north 
mostly from Qatar, private sources in the Gulf, and post-Gaddafi Libya). 
Above all, this meant imposing a blockade on anti-tank and anti-aircraft 
missiles to the rebels. After the rebels had captured hundreds of 
anti-tank missiles from the battlefield by early 2014, the US ended the 
embargo on anti-tank weapons, and began instead to try to control who 
gets them, how much, be in a position to squeeze them when necessary 
etc. However, the US continues to vigorously enforce the embargo on 
anti-aircraft weaponry, not only blocking delivery from neighbouring 
states, but also blocking attempts by the FSA to procure them on the 
black market. I have dealt with these issues here 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/downing-warplanes-orwell-and-us-backed-rebels/ 
and here 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/yet-again-on-those-hoary-old-allegations-that-the-us-has-armed-the-fsa-since-2012/


Given that it is an air war, one of the most brutal and sustained air 
wars in modern history, I don’t think I need to emphasise how crucial 
this US blockade has been in the success of Assad/Russia in carrying out 
daily mass homicide for years. No, warplanes and helicopters dropping 
barrel bombs, cluster bombs, vacuum bombs, bunker busters, napalm, white 
phosphorus, chemicals etc cannot be fought with small arms and 
ammunition. Given that fact, it is rather amazing that this US blockade, 
and the demand to end it as a concrete aid to the Syrian people, is 
simply not treated with the seriousness it deserves, either by 
“anti”-war peacenik folk, plague on both your houses folk, or even many 
supporters of the revolution (who often claim the need to hold your nose 
and ask for a no fly zone is necessary because there is no other 
concrete demand for protection available). People under daily aerial 
massacre for years do deserve the right to protection; we prefer 
revolutionary self-defence; and it is the US that blocks it: simple 
facts.


Ken:

It is widely agreed that ISIS in Syria is headquartered in Raqqa. 
Has the Syrian air force been bombing Raqqa?  How does that bombing 
compare with the bombing of Aleppo?


MK: After ISIS seized Raqqa from the rebels around Aug 2013, the Syrian 
airforce never bombed the city, for at least a year. However, when the 
US began bombing ISIS in September 2014, Assad’s warplanes began 
occasionally joining in, and US and Assadist airforces began often 
bombing Raqqa in tandem (eg, see 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/as-assad-and-us-play-two-step-bombing-raqqa-assad-demands-us-bomb-more-efficiently/). 
Since Russia began bombing in Sep 2015, we sometimes see US, Russian and 
Assadist planes bombing Raqqa together. In nearby Deir Ezzor, the 
collaboration is even more open: the US openly admits it collaborates 
with Assad against ISIS there, that they bomb together, and at crucial 
points the US airforce has saved Assad’s arse in that city from ISIS. 
The very ironic thing about the recent accidental friendly-fire 
incident, when US warplanes mistakenly bombed Assad troops in Deir Ezzor 
until their Russian allies warned them of the  error, was that in fact 
this incident revealed the ongoing US-Assad alliance in that city.
That said, it must be emphasised that that Assadist planes joining US 
planes bombing Raqqa was more about Assad demonstrating his usefulness 
to the US “war on terror,” rather than any decisive change: 
overwhelmingly, both Assadist and Russian bombing has been directed 
against the FSA and allied rebels; less than 10% of Russian strikes have 
been against ISIS, and considerable less Assadist strikes.
Note that just a few days ago, as Turkish and allied FSA forces were 
attempting to seize the strategic town of al-Bab, in eastern Aleppo 
province, from ISIS, Assadist planes bombed them (even though Erdogan 
has promised to his new mate Putin 100 times 

[Marxism] Tulsi Gabbard Under Serious Consideration for Trump Cabinet

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

And why not? Out and out reactionary, homophobic, Islamophobic, 
anti-refugee and anti-immigrant (except Hindu immigrants), hard Zionist, 
loves Assad and Putin, wants more "war on terror." Secretary of State?


Democratic Rep Tulsi Gabbard Under Serious Consideration for Trump 
Cabinet

By SHUSHANNAH WALSHE

Nov 21, 2016, 3:42 PM ET

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a high-profile Bernie Sanders supporter 
during the Democratic primaries, is “under serious consideration” for 
various Cabinet positions in President-elect Donald Trump's 
administration, according to a senior official on the transition team.
According to the official, the 35-year-old Hawaii congresswoman is being 
looked as a candidate for secretary of state, secretary of defense or 
United Nations ambassador. If selected, Gabbard will be the first woman 
as well as the youngest pick for Trump's Cabinet.
She met with him this morning in his New York City offices at Trump 
Tower. The Trump transition source said that their sit-down was a 
“terrific meeting” and that the Trump team sees her as very impressive.


Full: 
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/democratic-rep-tulsi-gabbard-consideration-trump-cabinet/story?id=43696303 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] [ufpj-activist] "Not Our President"

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Andy's comment is completely appropriate and right on target. If Trump 
were to crush the anti-Trump demonstrators with machine guns, mass 
torture, tanks, barrel bombs and napalm, then to be consistent, 
barrel-bomb-pacifist organisations like UNAC should then raise Trump to 
the status of great progressive icon. It is Joe's comment that is 
inappropriate, comparing the mazing, heroic revolutionary Syrian people 
to "ISIS and the Nusra Front." Most people with even the vaguest 
understanding know by now that ISIS is as much an enemy of the Syrian 
rebels as is the Assad regime, indeed that no-one has done as much to 
drive back ISIS as the rebels have.


-Original Message- 
From: Joe Lombardo via Marxism


I’m not sure what Andrew Pollack is trying to say here but let me make 
it clear that UNAC and the other groups he mentioned have not “denounced 
the terrorists rioting in the streets of New York,….”  Maybe he is 
trying to make a joke or maybe he caught the Trump bug and believes the 
truth is not important.  Or maybe he is trying to equate ISIS and the 
Nusra Front with the people who are resisting the Trump election.  In 
any case his strange comment is not appropriate.


Joe Lombardo

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Andrew Pollack
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 2:49 PM
To: United 4 Peace & Justice; Activists and scholars in Marxist 
tradition

Subject: [ufpj-activist] "Not Our President"

Thousands of youths are in the street calling for regime change in the 
US, challenging the legitimacy of a Donald Trump presidency.


We have just learned that Vladimir Putin has sent word to Trump of his 
approval should the President-elect feel it necessary to order shooting 
of protesters, citing the US's right to self-determination and 
sovereignty over its own internal affairs.


UNAC/IAC/WWP/Socialist Action have all denounced the terrorists rioting 
in the streets of New York, Portland, the Bay Area, and many other 
cities.


Stay tuned for more on this developing story.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Putin to US: Be more like Israel - Global Agenda -News -

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

It appears that Putin isn't kidding about being "more like Israel":

Rami Jarrah (a real Syrian journalist, in Aleppo)
3 hrs ·
--IMPORTANT--
URGENT DISTRESS CALL FOR ALEPPO 02.11.2016 (MUST SHARE)
Moscow just declared that it has notified anti-government rebels in 
besieged Eastern Aleppo to leave via two corridors between 9am and 7pm 
this Friday. And that this would extend the "ceasefire" otherwise they 
would carry out their military targets.
I have checked with sources on the ground and as of yet there is no such 
notice and given the fact that there is no actual ceasefire and this is 
a total and utter lie by the Russians, this can only mean that when the 
deadline comes the bombardment of Aleppo will see an escalation. The 
significance of this now is that it comes just before the US elections 
which is expected to swarm mainstream and social media platforms. And 
could pretty much leave any activity in Aleppo, however horrific yet in 
the shadow of the elections that all will be focused on.
It is important that we take advantage of the the time we have now until 
Friday evening to shed as much light as possible on this strategy by the 
Russians, as when the time comes and if the plan is carried out; our 
voices will be weak in the midst of the world's media focus.
We really need to get this out there whether it's through campaigns, 
messages, posts, reports and all that is possible. If this is a strong 
topic on social media at least it would contrast into the mainstream 
media and would help.

Good luck to you all and to the people of Aleppo...
#WhatCeasefire?
https://www.facebook.com/ramijarah

-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Putin to US: Be more like Israel - Global 
Agenda -News -


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/219689

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Socialist Alliance leader Tony Iltis's toxic propaganda

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


Saleh Muslim: “The humanitarian pause in Aleppo has been extended for 24
hours, as announced by Russia, that is true. Russia wants to separate
civilians from Al Nusra and other terrorist organizations. But like they
do the same with terrorist organizations, they are also using the
civilians as a shield. But it is not easy to get the terrorists out of
Aleppo. In fact, they even don’t let the civilians out”.



(Turkish) Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said due to the meeting's 
'informal nature', no consensus over a new ceasefire deal has been 
reached but all countries agreed on the fact that Syria needed a 
political solution. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, 
Çavuşoğlu said Al-Nusra Front must withdraw from military posts in 
Aleppo immediately for humanitarian aid to reach the city safely, adding 
that the Syrian opposition forces should separate itself from the 
terrorist group 
(http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2016/10/15/syria-peace-talks-end-in-lausanne-without-significant-progress)




Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, 
Vladimir Putin, have agreed to clear the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front 
from the Syrian city of Aleppo, Erdoğan said on Oct. 19. Commenting on a 
phone conversation he had with Putin on Oct. 18, Erdoğan said the two 
sides had talked about a consensus for taking al-Nusra fighters out of 
Syria’s second largest city. “He [Putin] said that as of 10:00 p.m. 
[Oct. 18] the air bombardment was stopped [in Aleppo]. They [Putin] 
appealed to us about taking al-Nusra out of the city. We have given the 
necessary instructions to our friends [officials]. We have talked about 
a consensus [with Putin] to work on taking al-Nusra out of Aleppo and 
maintaining the peace of the people of Aleppo,” Erdoğan said Oct. 19, 
addressing a meeting of neighborhood leaders in Ankara 
(http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-putin-agree-to-clear-aleppo-of-nusra.aspx?pageID=238=105125)


...

So, while the Assad satrapy and the Russian imperialist invader bomb 
Aleppo to smithereens, the "real issue", according to this pair of 
charlatan clowns - Salih Muslim of the PYG and Erdogan of the AKP - is 
not this terror, but the alleged presence of some hundreds of Nusra 
fighters helping to defend the people of Aleppo, among some 10,000 
non-Nusra fighters and 300,000 besieged civilians. And of course this 
also just happens to be the position of the US government. Indeed, even 
during the most  recent Putin-Assad horror siege, the US joined in by 
bombing and killing a key Nusra commander, who just happened to be one 
of the key leaders of the 30,000 strong rebel force that broke the first 
siege several months ago. And the view of the discredited UN hack De 
Mistura. And the view of Corbyn's shadow foreign secretary Emily 
Thornberry when she made an embarrassingly pathetic intervention in the 
Syria debate in the House of Commons; apparently what the left should 
say when confronted with genocidal bombing in Syria is to crap on about 
"al Qaida".


The genocidal Russia-Assadist siege and destruction of Aleppo is 
directly facilitated by Daesh's occupation of the city of al-Bab 
(conquered from rebels in 2014) and the YPG occupation of the city of 
Tal Rifaat (Arab-majority city conquered from the rebels, via direct aid 
of massive Russian bombing, in February 2016). While I have no intention 
of comparing Daesh and YPG, one thing they have in common is their 
neutrality between regime and opposition, hence their occupation of 
these regions blocks the FSA in the north, in Azaz and Mare, and al the 
region they have liberated from Daesh with the aid of Turkey's 
intervention the last couple of months. But the reason Russia can be so 
accommodating of its new friend Erdogan aiding the FSA against Daesh in 
the north is precisely because the YPG occupation of Tal Rifaat blocks 
any confrontation of these forces with the regime. If Erdogan actually 
wanted to aid the northern FSA come to aid of besieged Aleppo by 
attacking the regime in the back, it needs to help the FSA seize 
Daesh-held al-Bab now, yesterday in fact. Yet two months later, we are 
still waiting. Now, encouragingly, the FSA has put an ultimatum to the 
Assad-colluding YPG to get out of illegally-occupied Tal Rifaat. But any 
direct Turkish help against the YPG - even here where the FSA *must* 
drive out the YPG to help save Aleppo - is politically a poisoned 
chalice, further dividing the peoples. Yet, in my opinion, it won't 

Re: [Marxism] Syria and the Left: Time to Break the Silence

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Actually, while there is still a lot of nonsense in Draitser's article 
(eg, he includes "Israeli" weapons on the rebel side, when the only 
Israeli weapons are drones Israel sold to its best friend Putin, who 
uses them in Syria to bomb rebels; he claims there is "mountains of 
evidence" that there is no revolution in Syria, providing a link to his 
own article from a year ago that shows nothing even on that subject; and 
I could go on, and on); nevertheless what this article represents is the 
deep split that has taken place in the Assadist camp over the last year, 
and the extent to which that split has now pushed one wing to a somewhat 
critical position.


The split has Draitser in alliance with a guy called Sukant Chandan who 
some might be aware of. Chandan for a long time now has been lashing out 
at his previous Assadits allies, accusing the “anti-imperialist” (ie, 
pro-Assad) movement of allying with fascists and capitulating to racism, 
in particular against refugees (eg 
https://www.facebook.com/sukant.chandan/posts/10153841189078547), and 
Draitser chimes in as a Sukant ally. I also saw Chandan attacking 
Anderson and allies on Anderson’s FB and calling them racists and 
fascists, till Anderson blocked him; also here’s another where he is 
attacking close Anderson ally Jay Tharappel: 
https://www.facebook.com/sukant.chandan/posts/10153852327948547.


Notably, in his article, Draitser goes so far as to include "Syrian 
Partisan Girl" (Mimi al-Laham), correctly, among his list of those 
espousing "white supremacist, fascist ideology" among the Assad support 
base, putting her name alongside David Duke, David Icke, Alexander 
Dugin, Alex Jones etc. "Syrian Girl" is associated with the Syrian 
fascist organisation known as the "Syrian Social Nationalist Party" 
(SSNP), which uses its version of a swastika, influenced by its German 
almost-namesake when founded in the 1930s. She has taken up a rabid 
anti-Arab stance, declaring that the Syrians "were forced to become 
Arabs" by the invading Muslim barbarians in the 7th century, a battle 
she is still fighting by supporting Assad and Putin in the genocide 
against all those low-class barbarian Arab hordes that make up the 
rebellion:
"East Africa and Syria share something in common, we were both invaded 
by the arabs from the gulf and forced to speak arabic" 
https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/752239263077445632


Initially, the Chandan-Draitser critique seemed only to be a critique of 
the influence of fascists, racists and white supremacists within the 
pro-Assad movement, rather than a critique of the Assad regime, but 
given the fact of the fascistic, racist and white supremacist politics 
of Assad, the SSNP and Putin, it seems it became hard not to start being 
a bit consistent. Initially their target was Putin: Chandan is a 
dedicated "third worldist", which, despite all its contradictions, meant 
he could not honestly hack being allied to a leader like Putin who 
openly declares his mission to be saving "the White race" from genocide 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcD__8qynoQ, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC8BzIEVyA8), let alone the open 
anti-Arab racism of the SSNP. Instead, he was a partisan of the Iranian 
theocratic mass killers, seeing these "revolutionaries" as more 
politically palatable to his third worldism than Putin. Given the huge 
role of tens of thousands of fighters from the global Shiite-sectarian 
jihad mobilised by Iran to back Assad, this did not appear a position 
critical of the regime's "excesses", just one with a different kind of 
Great Leader.


Draitser's piece, however, shows he has no doubt that Putin and Assad 
are committing mass murder (notably he barely even mentions Tehran). "If 
you’re supportive of Assad then it’s a certainty that you’ve chosen to 
ignore or downplay the horrific violence of the bombings, the brutality 
of the torture chambers, and other unspeakable atrocities (I admit that 
I have often strayed too far into the latter)". Wow! That's mea culpa 
for you! Draitser now is "dismayed by the disgusting cooptation of that 
word (anti-imperialism) by fascists, chauvinists, white supremacists, 
and neocolonial degenerates". Wow!


Yet in the end, this is simply the mea culpa of someone who has realised 
he has strayed too far into the territory of fascism and mass-murder 
apologetics, but still has no idea of fundamental ideas of what class 
politics mean, in other words, he has no idea why he strayed that far. 
Anyone who can write an article that compares the Syrian revolutionary 
uprising to the Nicaraguan Contras of the 1980s, is someone totally 
clueless about 

Re: [Marxism] Syrian Suggestion

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Actually when Paddy wrote "US imperialism is a principal cause of the 
instability there" I thought he was referring to Iraq, as his post was 
about Iraq, so the statement was correct; and I thought Louis furious 
response was misplaced, as he assumed Paddy to be talking about Syria. 
But then Paddy reacts by affirming that "the principal source of 
instability in *Syria* lies with US imperialism."


How in the world the principle cause of "instability", whatever that 
means, in Syria can be the US is unknown. If only the S had given some 
proper backing to the "unstable" revolutionary uprising it would have 
been a good thing, but actually the US has been bombing Anyone But Assad 
for 2 years while enforcing its embargo on anti-aircraft missiles from 
getting to the FSA - the US is a major source of Assad's "stable" 
tyranny staying in power.


-Original Message- 
From: Paddy Hackett via Marxism

Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 5:14 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syrian Suggestion

I never claimed that a communist movement was not needed. I merely 
argued
that the principal source of instability in Syria lies with US 
imperialism.




On 10/17/16 11:43 AM, Paddy Hackett via Marxism wrote:

Despite this it is true that US imperialism is a principal cause of 
the

instability there.



This is complete bullshit.



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Assadists strike back with statement

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism


David, the counterpunch link is to a different Larudee-initiated 
statement;

it's from last year and is aimed at Palestinian signers.




Yes, and as Andy reported on another list, the number of Palestinian 
activists signing the anti-Assad "Not in our name" type statement has 
doubled since released a few days ago: 
http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article4735 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Syria maps

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Problems with "pipeline theories".

1. As the article Louis sent from Porter clearly demonstrates, Qatar's 
vague pipeline idea was blocked by Saudi Arabia (most of the 
conspiracist left don't realise that Qatar and Saudis hate each other). 
A little more on this aspect:


"Qatar has *not even been able to export its gas to neighbouring Bahrain 
and Kuwait* owing to Saudi opposition. What are the chances it could 
have constructed such a pipeline across 1,500 kilometres of Saudi 
territory to Jordan and on to Syria?
Qatar has no problem exporting its gas, in liquefied form, to Europe and 
the Far East, to a diversity of customers, with no dependence on risky 
overland pipelines. But if Doha had wanted that much to build its Syrian 
pipeline, it would have been easier to make the Assads an offer they 
could not refuse, rather than sponsoring an uncertain and ruinous 
uprising.
A quick look at a map demolishes the notion of Syria as a key gas nexus. 
Syria is a dead end: any pipeline to Europe would have to go onwards via 
Turkey. Iran has a border with Turkey and already sends gas there; it 
has no need to go via Syria, nor should US officials have had to devote 
much concern to blocking such a pipeline."


2. That bit from above "if Doha had wanted that much to build its Syrian 
pipeline, it would have been easier to make the Assads an offer they 
could not refuse." Oh, but Qatar is a "Gulf state" and therefore an 
"enemy of the resistance front state led by Assad," I hear you say 
right? Wrong. If the Qatari-Assad fall-out was over some pipeline 
floated in 2009, funny how the Assad and al-Thani families were still 
best mates, and Qatar (like all the rest of the Gulf) came out strongly 
n support of Assad in 2011 (until the level of mass killing just got too 
much for their restive populations to stomach), from 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/the-gulf-and-islamism-in-syria-myths-and-misconceptions/:


Indeed, the first response of the three regional powers who later emerge 
as the key backers of the Syrian resistance – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and 
Turkey – was to use Assad against the revolution.


For example, on 3 April 2011, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani 
sent a letter to Assad declaring Qatar’s support for Syria amid 
“attempts at destabilization” 
(https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nownews/qatari_emir_voices_qatars_support_for_syria). 
In late March, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed 
bin Sultan al-Nahayan likewise called Assad to reaffirm that the UAE 
stands by Damascus 
(https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/latestnews/uae_reaffirms_support_for_syria). 
Qatar’s close ally, Erdogan’s AKP regime in Turkey, likewise offered 
Damascus support, only with the mild proviso that Assad carry out some 
of the “reform” that he had promised.


The Saudi Arabian monarchy made similar robust declarations of support 
to the regime; on 28th March 2011, “Al-Assad received a call from Saudi 
King Abdullah, whereby the latter expressed the Kingdom’s support in 
what is targeting us from the conspiracy to hit its security and 
stability” clarifying that “the Saudi Kingdom stands by Syria’s 
leadership and people to put down this conspiracy” 
(http://syria-news.com/readnews.php?sy_seq=130662). Indeed, even as late 
as July, just as Qatar was finally suspending relations with Damascus, 
Saudi Arabia stepped in with a long-term 375 million riyal (US100 
million) loan to Damascus 
(http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MH11Ak02.html), while Kuwait 
threw in another 30 million Dinars 
(http://www.dp-news.com/pages/detail.aspx?articleid=90956); this rivalry 
between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, we will see, played as much a role as 
the later antipathy either felt towards Damascus.


Even when the Gulf Cooperation Council did finally urge an end to 
“bloodshed” in Syria and called for major reforms on August 6, 
expressing their “sorrow” about the situation, they still stressed their 
support for “preserving the security, stability, and unity of Syria” 
(http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/08/06/161072.html).


Notably, this was no different to US policy; responding to questions in 
Congress regarding the different US reaction to events in Libya, where 
NATO was then intervening, and Syria, Hillary Clinton responded: “There 
is a different leader in Syria now [meaning Bashar, as opposed to his 
father]. Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone 
to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer” 
(http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/FTN_032711.pdf).


3. On the question of Saudi Arabia/ISIS. Discussion above clarified that 
Andrew was not 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Political Defamation Campaign Targets Rescue Workers in Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Franklin Lamb certainly came from the so-called pro"Resistance-camp" 
tradition, but I don't remember that he was ever all over Assad, or that 
he engaged in the shallow rank conspiracism of many of that camp. He was 
certainly never a Tim Anderson/Vanessa Beeley type. While we have seen a 
clear change recently, I'm actually less surprised that it is him than I 
would be of may others. There was a certain decency in his writing, 
where did try to report what he saw. If his discourse tended towards one 
side, he was not averse to reporting on the suffering of the other.


An example is this from Lamb, talking to Libyan revolutionaries in 
Misrata shortly after the fall of Gaddafi: 
http://almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1=41=41=35396. 
Certainly Lamb's sympathies are clear enough, and there is perhaps some 
"editing" of the voices of the thuwar, but there is also a certain 
honesty in the way he deals with their reasons for fighting the Gaddafi 
regime and in particular his "henchmen." I saw many similar articles 
from Syria around 2012-13, then I didn't see him write much.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2016 2:21 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Political Defamation Campaign Targets Rescue 
Workers in Syria


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 10/14/16 11:07 PM, A.R. G wrote:
I am glad he has changed his tone but frankly the flip-flopping makes 
me

think none of these people are really principled. I also don't think
reality has ever stopped anyone from being full of crap.


There's been some hue and cry about Jill Stein changing her statement on
Syria that used to refer to the need for Assad to "regain control" of
the country. By all accounts, her latest version is a retreat from such
obvious Ajamu Baraka-talk. Some say she was responding to pressure from
people like us. I know for a fact that my Muftah article on the Green
Party and Syria was circulated among GP old-timers. Honestly, I am
satisfied by changes of position as long as they turn out to be on the
plus side. It would be great if Jill Stein or Franklin Lamb could
account for the change but that is probably expecting too much.
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] RAF given green light to shoot down hostile Russian jets in Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Of course, Louis is being rightly sarcastic here, because 99% of the 
time, the Russians are not bombing ISIS, just bombing FSA, anti-ISIS 
Islamists, hospitals, apartment blocks, marketplaces etc. So since the 
RAF is only bombing ISIS, there is even less reason for them to come 
into conflict, since they would be rarely even near each other.


Contact between US and Russian warplanes would be more likely, since 
both the US and Russia bomb ex-Nusra and other Islamists. But that is 
why they share intelligence, to avoid mistakes.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


On 10/13/16 5:12 PM, A.R. G via Marxism wrote:
I'd like to hear from other comrades on the significance of this. Is 
this a

serious threat? Is it being exaggerated?


If they are bombing ISIS, why should they have a conflict with Russian
jets that are doing the same thing?


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Riad Alarian responds to Max Blumenthal on FB

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

David, I recommend you launch the idea on your special Syria facebook 
page, tag as many people as you can think of, then I'll do the same, and 
others the same, till we reach most of the activists around the world 
concerned with Syria, and have a solid brainstorm about what we can do.


-Original Message- 
From: David McDonald via Marxism

Sent: Friday, October 7, 2016 1:37 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Riad Alarian responds to Max Blumenthal on FB

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yes. I totally support that idea. I think a bunch of the radical Arabs 
we
see on FB would go for this. To give such people a voice is 
revolutionary

work.

If people are willing, we might consider framing this as a "Save Aleppo"
effort or some such and attempt to, in addition to the above, make a
fundraising effort for the White Helmets that would allow us to approach
various artists (Musicians) and immeasurably broaden the appeal of the
event. Think of al all-day political meeting as suggested above followed 
by

a more public, widely advertised effort for a cultural event. Maybe we
could get that fantastic Arab hip-hop group I saw on one of the videos
--Idrees Amaad (?).

Within reason, I am willing to work more or less full-time on this for a
while.

I would really like to hear one or more of the most ferocious Syrians 
who
responded to Max Blumenthal yesterday tell him from a broad podium that 
his

name will not be uttered nor remembered.

I think the ISO will help. Conferences are almost the only thing they 
are

good for, but their politics on this are correct. Weird to me that the
Schachtmanites and the Hoxhaites are the tendencies that get this. We 
have

wings of both in Seattle, but nevermind.

Of course there will be tension between efforts to broaden and the 
desire
of some broader forces for a less pointed approach than our dagger to 
the
throat, so serious political acumen will have to be brought to bear to 
help

us beat back the politics of but keep in those broader forces. In other
words, coalition work. Some compromise is inevitable unless we wish to 
talk

to ourselves but we are seasoned organizers.

We will need money. Go Fund Me leaps to the mind. Sometimes initial
fundraising helps you know where to go next so a Go Fund Me would in 
itself

be an organizing effort.

Time is of the essence.

David
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Riad Alarian responds to Max Blumenthal on FB

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

quoting
Sam Charles Hamad:

I beg everybody - it's time to treat these people as fascists. They are
no better. They are legitimising murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
People need to treat them as they deserve to be treated. No more excuses
- excusing them is to be complicit with them.
...

That may sound extreme, but I agree with Sam. That is what they are 
doing.


What's more, in terms of the era we are in, I not only agree with Sam, 
but also have my own view regarding the centrality of this.  Syria - the 
world's most majestic revolutionary uprising of the 21st century, and 
currently the world's biggest genocide, with some 500,000 people killed, 
as well as a gigantic new Nakbah with half the population uprooted - is 
now the biggest issue in the world. It is centrally important to world 
politics that the Russian-Iranian invasion of Syria, and the genocidal 
family clique it keeps in control of Damascus, is smashed, no less than 
it was for US imperialism to be smashed in Indochina in the 1960s and 
1970s.


I don't expect most people to agree with this, of course. Sometimes the 
full impact of events is more evident later. After all, with the Soviet 
support and arming of Israel in 1948, most of the official left were 
fully Zionist at the time, and viewed support for Israel and the ethnic 
cleansing of the Palestinians as a way of supporting socialist kibbutzes 
against "reactionary Arab states" and "Islamist forces" backed by 
British imperialism. So familiar. It took a while back then, too. 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: MRZine and the White Helmets

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The White Helmets are a rescue/aid organisation, like the Red Cross/Red 
Crescent for example. I think the simplest answer to Mike's question is 
that nearly all funds for such organisations around the world come from 
imperialist countries, including the US, because that's who had the 
money. Socialists have traditionally complained that the amount supplied 
by these imperialist states was relatively small, compared to human 
need, not that the source of the aid made the aid suspect. Not saying 
that Mike is saying that, but of course that is what certain others do 
say. It would be interesting to find a list of which other humanitarian 
organisations the US funds around the world to see the degree of 
cross-over with what any human would want.


Of course, such aid often/usually comes either with strings attached 
and/or is used as some other kind of political pressure and/or is 
inadequate etc. That's the real world. For example, there was a great 
deal to criticise about the US relief effort after the Haiti earthquake; 
and the amount was inadequate (although the amount raised for Haiti 
within four days of the earthquake was double the total provided to the 
White Helmets altogether). But the source of the aid was not in itself a 
reason to consider the concrete aid that did reach people a bad thing. 
Want a real dilemma? We advocate boycott of Israel; yet  "A rescue team 
sent by the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command established a 
field hospital near the United Nations building in Port-au-Prince with 
specialised facilities to treat children, the elderly, and women in 
labor. It was set up in eight hours and began operations on the evening 
of 16 January.[124]." When Bush cut off US funds to reproductive 
services around the world that had any connection to abortion, we 
condemned the cuts, not the fact of US funding.


I don't see the WH as different to any of these obvious examples. The 
real problem is the rise of the politics of "x funds y" so therefore y 
is bad, as a substitute for political analysis (again, I'm not talking 
about Mike - but that politics is the reason that question is out and 
about).



-Original Message- 
From: Mike Sola via Marxism

Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 1:36 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: MRZine and the White Helmets

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Louis,

Thanks for your answer.

I was not--by any stretch--"making a stink."

Mike

-- "And you are right. I have no idea who you are and what your politics 
are. But when you make a
stink about people rescuing people from bombed out buildings at the very 
moment hospitals are being

targeted in East Aleppo, I can put two and two together."


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Sydney and Canberra pickets of Russian consul/embassy over burning of Aleppo

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

PRESS RELEASE...FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
#STOP THE BOMBING IN SYRIA..
#ALL FOREIGN ARMIES AND WEAPONS MUST LEAVE!
#ALLOW INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN RELIEF CONVOYS TO THE PEOPLE OF 
SYRIA!.
WHEREPICKET RUSSIAN CONSULATE, 7-9 FULLERTON STREET WOOLLAHRA, 
SYDNEY

WHEN. WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016...FROM 12 NOON TO 2PM
All Australian peace activists are disgusted by the Russian-backed 
bombing of Aleppo night after night on their evening news over the last 
week. We cannot stand by any longer.
An emergency picket of the Russian Consulate to protest this inhumanity 
has been called for lunch time tomorrow (12 noon to 2pm) in

Sydney. David Shoebridge NSW Upper House MLC for The Greens Party has
agreed to speak at 12 Noon.
Organiser Mr Jefferson Lee from the Sydney Anti-Conscription Centenary
Campaign for Peace said "While the Russian and the Syrian regime are
not the only guilty party in the Syrian conflict they should be
reminded that international war crimes are being committed in the
current bombing of Aleppo!"
Mr Lee reminded the media that Australia and its American ally are not
blameless either. Protests by the Independent and Peaceful Australia
Network (IPAN) this week-end at the US-controlled Pine Gap war base
will remind Australians of our responsibilities in the struggle for
global peace.
A spokeswoman for the Medical Association for the Prevention of War
(MAPW) Dr Anne Noonan also deplored the air war over Syria. She said
"The bombing of hospitals, medical supplies and health personnel, local
and international, only heighten the plight of civilians who medical
staff and volunteers are intending to save from war wounds."
The Sydney office of Doctors Without Borders are expecting a major
statement on the humanitarian crisis from their international
conference meeting in Dubai this week.
Mr Lee urged all Australians to step up the pressure on all
governments and the United Nations for a negotiated settlement of the
Syrian crisis. We cannot just use the "War on Terror" as an excuse to
allow thousands more innocent civilians to perish.
end...
===
Jefferson Lee, Anti-Conscription Centenary Campaign for Peace
(Marrickville, October 28th events) jeffersonlee.a...@gmail.com
.

Also in Canberra:
Protest: Stop the genocide in Syria by Russia, Assad & Iran
Friday, October 7 at 12 PM - 2 PM
Embassy of the Russia & Parliament House, Canberra Australia
https://www.facebook.com/events/1778715165749407/?active_tab=posts 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Washington Babylon

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


On 9/23/16 9:42 PM, Andrew Stewart via Marxism wrote:

http://washingtonbabylon.com/six-questions-for-jim-jatras-on-aleppo-boy-atrocity-porn-and-our-godawful-war-loving-media/


"Jim Jatras, a former US diplomat, foreign policy adviser to the Senate
GOP leadership, and lobbyist comments on financial and foreign policy
topics and on U.S. politics in his publication TheJIM!gram."

.

Imagine Jatras being quoted favorably on a Marxist site. Why not David 
Duke? More on Jatras:


'The Muslim Advance and American Collaboration' by James George Jatras, 
in The Christian Activist, "A Journal of Orthodox Opinion," 
http://web.archive.org/web/19990508131324/http://www.tca1.org/vol13/Muslim.html:


"In short, Islam is a self-evident outgrowth not of the Old and New 
Covenants but of the darkness of heathen Araby. Beside ludicrous 
historical suggestions to the contrary (such as the idea that the Ka'bah 
was built by Abraham, which would have been big news to him), Muslim 
apologists have strained to find in the Bible evidence that a new 
prophet would arise after Jesus, seeing Muhammad in obvious prophecies 
of the Holy Spirit (that were fulfilled on Pentecost) or of the Second 
Coming of Christ. One could find no better refutation of Islam's efforts 
to appropriate Christian Scriptures (here, Matthew 24:27) than that of 
the 14th-century Byzantine saint, Gregory Palamas, to his Turkish 
captors:


"It is true that Muhammad started from the east and came to the west, as 
the sun travels from east to west. Nevertheless he came with war, 
knives, pillaging, forced enslavement, murders, and acts that are not 
from the good God but instigated by the chief manslayer, the devil."


"St. Gregory's answer is no less devastating to Islam's fraudulent 
self-depiction as a pacific creed. Islam was born in violence, from 
Muhammad's sanction of raids of pillage and plunder (starting with 
attacks against his own Quraysh tribe, which initially rejected his 
revelation) to his savage execution of hundreds of men of the Qurayzah 
clan (which professed Judaism) and the enslavement and forced 
concubinage of their women and children. "


More:
http://listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307=JUSTWATCH-L=R78600=1=0=D=0
James George Jatras, apparently an Orthodox extremist, once called 
Michael Dukakis a "pagan" for not following the Orthodox church on 
abortion and attacked him for marrying a non-Christian, although he 
insisted he was not being anti-Semitic. (His open letter is on file at 
Northeastern University.) This former GOP Senate aide is also the author 
of an anti-Muslim screed in Chronicles magazine and The Christian 
Activist that calls Islam a "gigantic Christian-killing machine" and 
says the religion grew from "the darkness of heathen Araby."


Moreover, while Louis and I have disagreed about Kosovo in the past, no 
doubt his perspective was different to that expressed by Jatras and his 
similarly Orthodox-fascist colleague Trifkovic (also  Republican foreign 
policy elite guy):


"Strong American support for the independence of Kosovo is detrimental 
to Israeli interests. The US position is based on the view that a 
solution to long-standing conflict can and should be imposed on the 
parties by outside powers. In addition, the new state's creation seeks 
to award part of a nation’s territory to a violent ethno-religious 
minority; futilely hopes to curry favor with the Islamic world through 
appeasement; effectively gives a fresh impetus to the ongoing growth of 
Islamic influence in Europe; and denies the fact that the putative 
state’s leaders are tainted by terrorism, criminality, and 
well-documented links with global jihad. Most importantly, it betrays a 
cynically postmodern contempt for all claims based on the historical 
rights and spiritual significance of a land to a nation"
- This Perspectives Paper is based on presentations delivered at a 
conference at the **Begin-Sadat Center** for Strategic Studies on “The 
Kosovo Problem" on September 11, 2007 
http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/u-s-kosovo-policy-is-bad-for-israel/




In other words, not in the slightest bit contradictory that Jatras is 
quoted by counterrevolutionary "leftists" who openly shill in favour of 
today's new and gigantic Nakbah - Bashar Assad is a leader who knows how 
to take care of these Arab and Islamic hordes.



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria Solidarity Campaign Statement: The fall of Daraya and its ethnic cleansing was ordained by the US, Britain and Jordan | Syria Solidarity

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Along with the tremendous statement condemning the allied US/Russian 
intervention in their country issued by 150 Syrian revolutionaries, that 
Andy sent to the list yesterday, I think this extraordinary statement by 
the Syrian Solidarity Campaign on the fall of the revolutionary centre 
Daraya a month ago is required reading, focusing in particular on the 
direct role played by US imperialism in engineering Assad's victory 
there, and also on the underhanded kind of sectarian cleansing taking 
place in Daraya and elsewhere as part of the ongoing new and gigantic 
Nakbah.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria Solidarity Campaign Statement: The fall of 
Daraya and its ethnic cleansing was ordained by the US, Britain and 
Jordan | Syria Solidarity


http://syriasolidarity.org.uk/2016/09/21/syria-solidarity-campaign-statement-the-fall-of-daraya-and-its-ethnic-cleansing-was-ordained-by-the-us-britain-and-jordan/

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The War Against the Assad Regime Is Not a "PipelineWar"

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Funny that Porter's name just came now because I also just saw this 
dreadful interview with Porter conducted by Rania Khalek: 
https://raniakhalek.com/2016/09/19/ceasefire-deal-us-reluctant-to-force-syrian-rebel-groups-to-cut-ties-with-al-qaeda/


It is a breathtakingly ignorant piece, on the part of both of them - for 
example, Khalek "asks" and Porter "confirms" that the structure of the 
rebellion in Aleppo is such that all rebel groups are not only attached 
to Jabhat al-Nusra, but are led by it. Of course, for those who know 
stuff, Nusra's weakness in Aleppo, indeed its withdrawal from much of 
central and northern Aleppo last year, is too well-known; indeed, the 
large coalition of some 35 rebel militias that rules free Aleppo - Fatah 
Halab - explicitly excludes Nusra. But it doesn't matter: even though 
Porter clearly has no expertise on anything Middle eastern, let alone 
Syria, and presents no facts to back up this bizarre assertion, he is a 
*famous person*, and therefore, if he "confirms" something, then it has 
become a "fact."


More to the point though, over and above the demonstrated ignorance of 
basic facts that both show in this scrawny little piece, is the issue: 
the US and Russia have been negotiating a wide-ranging agreement to 
share intelligence to jointly bomb not only ISIS, but also Nusra, the 
issue with Nusra being (apart from the fact that it is a little lamb 
compared to ISIS) that its fighters are spread around many of the same 
areas as other rebels, with few specific areas. The US has ordered the 
rebels to separate themselves from Nusra on the ground, if they know 
what's good, ie, otherwise they will be bombed also. Thus it is demanded 
that the rebels break with any cooperation on the ground with Nusra, 
which, with all its shit that noone doubts, actually aids the fight 
against the fascist regime, for example, played an important role in the 
recent breaking of Assad's siege of 300,000 people in free Aleppo, yet 
this demand is made by the US, which has never provided more than 
irrelevant aid (when not actually bombing them itself), in alliance with 
Russia, the main imperialist invasion force in Syria slaughtering the 
population.


What would good anti-imperialists Khalek and Porter have to say about 
such a plan for joint imperialist bombing by the world's two superpowers 
of a small militia in Syria (and of any other militia that does not do 
what it is told) on behalf of a genocidal regime? Condemn imperialist 
intervention and war? Well, no. In fact Porter explicitly says that 
launching this joint war is a GOOD THING compared to the last ceasefire! 
The whole point of the interview is the concern of these two Good 
Citizens that the US government may not have a good enough mechanism, or 
may not really even by committed enough, to forcing the rebels (who this 
shit-face Porter calls "US proxies" with the implication that the US can 
force them to do what it wants) to separate from Nusra.


That's what it comes down to to be anti-imperialist - after the US has 
been bombing Nusra in Syria now for 24 months straight (along with lots 
of other rebels), the problem is that the US might still let Nusra get 
away with continuing to exist, may not really be dedicated to bombing 
the life out of them.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: The War Against the Assad Regime Is Not a 
"PipelineWar"


(Gareth Porter dismisses the vulgar Marxist theory that the war in Syria
had something to do with a gas pipeline but he has his own idiocy to
contend with, namely that the USA needed to protect its military bases
in Sunni-controlled states. Porter is a rather stupid individual with a
stain on his career that will never go away--being a spin doctor for Pol
Pot. This obviously prepared him for the shit he writes on Syria.)


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] US coalition finally strikes Assad forces -- by mistake of course!

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Jeff via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] US coalition finally strikes Assad forces -- by 
mistake of course!



Syria Solidarity Campaign on this US Friendly Fire incident:

September 18 at 2:24pm ·
https://www.facebook.com/SyriaSolidarityCampaign/posts/343217749354749
On the 19th of July 2016, between 100-200 civilians were estimated to 
have been "accidentally" massacred by the US airforce in Manbij, North 
Syria [1].
Then there was no apology, no explanation, no compensation. Just 
*silence*
Since 2014, up to 200 anti-Assad, anti-ISIS rebels have been estimated 
to have been killed in airstrikes by the US airforce [2].
Then there were no apologies, no explanations, no compensations. Just 
*silence*
And now, for the first time in 5 years, the US airforce have 
accidentally struck the forces of the Assad regime in Deir al-Zor whilst 
it was trying to help them (as has been taking place since 2014 [3]). 
Yet this time the US issues an apology and offers compensation.
Media reports do not focus on the horrific revelation that the US was 
trying to help the forces of a genocidal regime - which is on record 
having killed approximately 100 times more people than ISIS - but 
instead promotes sympathetic narratives to the regime's "victims". 
Indeed, an American airstrike against rebels in Aleppo on the same day 
does not make media mention [4]. Syrians on Facebook see 46,000 people 
talking about this airstrike "trending", whilst the dozens of daily 
airstrikes by the Assad regime, Russia and the US that have displaced 
them in the name of "fighting terror" rarely "trend" on Facebook.
The only Syrians the United States cares about are the soldiers of the 
genocidal, fascist Assad regime. Unfortunately, much of Western media, 
spanning both mainstream and alternative platforms, seems to think so as 
well.


#AssadLivesMatter

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/…/us-airstrike-allegedly-kills-…
[2] http://www.aljazeera.com/…/hundreds-killed-russian-air-stri…
For a full list of US targeting of rebels, see: 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/…/who-has-the-us-bombed-fo…/

[3] Full list on US support for the Assad regime in Deir al-Zor, see:
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/…/who-has-the-us-bombed-fo…/
[4] 
https://www.facebook.com/SyriaSolidarityCampaign/posts/343013486041842 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Trump Campaign Sides With Netanyahu: Palestinians Seek 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Jews

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Trump Campaign Sides With Netanyahu: Palestinians Seek 'Ethnic 
Cleansing' of Jews

http://world.einnews.com/article/344250121/jFH6WNcRw7euJTWG

Also from article, Trump's "anti-interventionism" explained:

“Our candidate, Donald Trump, has stated on more than one occasion that 
when it comes to building in the Land of Israel - whether it is homes, 
businesses or schools - that is a decision for the Israeli people alone 
and it is not something the U.S. government needs to interfere in”


And Trump's previous comments on "neutrality" explained:

Zell told Haaretz. “Trump believes it is for the Israelis and 
Palestinians to work out among themselves, and that it’s not appropriate 
for the United States to weigh in on the dispute in a manner that 
clearly favors one side - the Palestinian side.” 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Turkey, Rebels, Kurds & Assad in northern Syria: Contradictions in moves towards regional counterrevolutionary alliance

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Turkey, Rebels, Kurds & Assad in northern Syria: Contradictions in moves 
towards regional counterrevolutionary alliance

By Michael Karadjis

https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/turkey-rebels-kurds-assad-in-northern-syria-contradictions-in-moves-towards-regional-counterrevolutionary-alliance/

One week the United States rushed to the defence of its Kurdish allies, 
People’s Protection Units (YPG), when the Assad regime bombed them in 
Hasake; the following week many pro-YPG voices were accusing the same US 
of betrayal, for supporting Turkey’s intervention into Syria, with 5000 
Free Syrian Army (FSA) troops, to expel ISIS from the border town of 
Jarablus.


However, fickleness would not be a useful explanation of US behaviour. 
Rather, both events suggest that the outlines of a regional 
understanding on a reactionary solution to the Syrian crisis may be in 
the making. ..


. Like the US, both Russia and Iran appear to have greenlighted the 
Jarablus operation. While Russia has merely expressed “concern,” Iran 
initially remained “conspicuously silent,” while later suggesting that 
Turkey needs to move more quickly to complete its “anti-terrorist” 
actions in order to withdraw. Iranian sources have claimed that Turkey 
and Assad are coordinating through Iran.


While the Assad regime formally denounced a violation of its 
“sovereignty,” Turkey claims to have informed it beforehand, with the 
deputy prime minister noting that “we believe Damascus is also bothered 
by what was happening in and around Manbij. They recently hit PYD 
targets.” Yildarim also suggested that Damascus understands that the PYD 
“has started to become a threat.” In the midst of the Jarablus 
operation, Yildarim declared on September 2  “We have normalised our 
relations with Russia and Israel. Now, God willing, Turkey has taken a 
serious initiative to normalise relations with Egypt and Syria.”


However, the implication here that Assad may be secretly approving the 
Turkish operation, due to joint hostility to a Kurdish entity, has some 
holes in it. Most obviously, the fact that Turkey is working with his 
FSA, who are the very forces trying to overthrow his regime, regardless 
of his opposition to Kurdish autonomy. Furthermore, the US support for 
this operation also comes with a question mark (and not only because 
Turkey apparently acted unilaterally at the last moment and upstaged US 
plans to exercise more control over the operation). The entire basis of 
US support to any rebels to fight ISIS is the demand that they drop the 
fight against Assad – the ill-fated Division 30 in the north, the New 
Syrian Army in the southeast - while of course the SDF, the US’ favoured 
anti-ISIS force, mostly doesn't fight Assad by definition.


Thus Erdogan’s push for a “safe zone” in northern Syria last year met 
out-of-hand US rejection, because the Syrian rebel groups who Erdogan 
wanted to let control it would have used it as a base to fight the 
regime. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner stressed “we've been 
pretty clear from the podium and elsewhere saying there's no zone, no 
safe haven, we're not talking about that here,” insisting it could only 
support an “ISIS-free zone” but not any kind of safe zone and certainly 
not one patrolled by the rebels.


But something important changed in February this year. By bombing the 
YPG/SDF into Tal Rifaat and other Arab-populated northern Aleppo 
regions, Russia cut the rebels in the Azaz-Mare pocket off from Aleppo 
city and thus effectively cut them off from the front against Assad. So 
now even though they want to fight Assad, and none have made the pledge 
to drop that fight, effectively they can't. So backing them to take over 
the Jarablus-Azaz border strip became "safe" from the American point of 
view – and safer than previously from Assad’s view as well. How ironic 
that it was the YPG's own eviction of the rebels in Tal Rifaat that has 
enabled US support for the Turkish operation that has blocked the YPG’s 
“linking” scheme!


Then there is a final reason why Assad may be grudgingly approving of 
Turkey launching an FSA-led operation against ISIS in the north: it 
means fighters from Azaz-Mare and from Idlib moving to a more distant 
theatre rather than the key battleground of Aleppo. By early September, 
in the midst of the northern operation, the regime began a new 
determined attempt to re-impose the total siege that was broken several 
weeks ago in the truly magnificent operation by some 30 rebel groups 
working together. This again raises the theory popular among some 
pro-revolution circles: Assad allows Turkey to 

Re: [Marxism] A "Nazi" party as an Assad ally

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

-Original Message- 
From: Tristan Sloughter via Marxism



And neo-Nazis of the West also support Assad.



Andrew Auernheimer (weev) for example: http://i.imgur.com/xNeNcfk.jpg

..

All Nazi, far-right, ultra-nationalist organisations in Europe and US 
support Assad.


On the (appropriately named) Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the party 
whose symbol is a swastika:


This political party was founded by Antun Khalil Saʿada in Lebanon in 
1932 and it reflected his fascist sympathies in many ways, such as his 
cult-of-personality style leadership, the way the party was organized 
and its emphasis on blood lines and mystical nationalism. The party used 
the European fascists and Nazis as a template for its rituals and 
symbolism from the Hitler-like salute, to setting their anthem to 
“Deutschland, Deutschland über alles”, to the use of a Swastika-like 
symbol, the “Red Hurricane”, on its flag.
In the thirties many fascist and Nazi sympathizers flocked to the SSNP 
but these days it can also count on the support of many European extreme 
rightwing groups who express their interest in forums on the web.

--> Is fascism infiltrating our rallies?
http://therawrreport.net/…/17/fascism-infiltrating-our-rall…

- Antun Saadeh was a Lebanese Christian who founded the Syrian Socialist 
Nationalist Party (SSNP) in 1932. He was an unabashed Germanophile and 
made no secret of his admiration for Hitler while teaching German at the 
American University of Beirut. The expansionist polices of Nazi Germany 
touched him the most. The “Syrian” in SSNP refers to the idea of a 
“Greater Syria” on steroids; it would encapsulate the lands of 
Palestine, the Sinai, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and the island of Cyprus 
along with modern-day Syria.
Saadeh’s organization is a literal copy of the German NSAP, including 
doctrines of racist pseudo-science, a personality cult, and a 
Swastika-like flag.

--> Syrian Fascism and the Western Left:
http://therawrreport.net/…/…/syrian-fascism-and-western-left

Syrian Girl/Partisan Girl, who many may know from her voluminous defence 
of Assad for years, is a SSNP supporter. This probably accounts for her 
anti-Arab views (she is Syrian, but that doesn;t stop her being 
anti-Arab):


Syrians are ‘Aramaics’; those barbaric Arabs came and forced them to 
speak Arabic. Similar to the 'Phoenician' identity long proposed by the 
Lebanese Phalange, this position has a logic for those justifying 
support for a gigantic Nakbah aimed at keeping the Assad regime in power 
which has gained much global ultra-right support; yet would contradict 
the "leftist" pro-Arab pretensions of some of those they aim to 
influence.


“East Africa and Syria share something in common, we were both invaded 
by the arabs from the gulf and forced to speak Arabic”

https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/752239263077445632

“When East Africa reject arabism they're applauded for embracing being 
black, but when Syrians reject arabism, no no no. Why is that?”

https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/752240475755515904

Syrian Arab Army anyone? Maybe being honest now about the lack of Syrian 
Arabs doing any of their fighting? 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Aleppo: US F-16s target rebel-held bridge, kill refugees

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

When reporting that "China boosts Syria support",  Louis asked "Who's 
next? The Martians?". Well, of course there is the Americans (although 
that isn't as new as many assume):


(From Omar Sabbour's FB page 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596853007210190/permalink/1862955763933245/):
BREAKING - Al-Jazeera Arabic via Syrian opposition sources: The US 
coalition airforce has committed a massacre of civilians in the city of 
Aleppo, targeting a bridge on which refugees were escaping from ongoing 
bombardment by the Syrian regime and Russian airforces. Dozens of 
refugees have been reported killed. Both the bridge and the tunnel 
underneath it were collapsed, crushing several civilian cars in the 
process.
The targeted bridge was in an area recently taken by rebels from the 
regime during their recent campaign to break the siege of Aleppo, 
between the village of Khan Touman and the neighbourhood of Ramousa in 
South Aleppo. The regime and Russian airplanes had been repeatedly 
trying to destroy the bridge but had failed due to its "well-cemented 
structure" - however the bridge was finally destroyed by "high explosive 
missiles" launched from airplanes belonging to the US-led coalition, 
according to the Al-Jazeera report.
The report continues that this is not the first time the US coalition 
has targeted opposition factions inside Aleppo, having done so already 
in such neighbourhoods as Al-Sha'ar and Al-Sakhour. Rebel targets did 
not only include Jabhat al-Nusra but also moderate factions inside the 
city, the report goes on.
The US is bombing refugees already fleeing Assad's bombing. Syrians 
expected the US would not help them against Assad, but the US has gone 
far further and actively joined in Assad's war against them.

Clear Syria's skies NOW

From Al Jazeera Channel (Arabic) 
https://www.facebook.com/aljazeerachannel/videos/10154650225289893/



The report says "this is not the first time the US coalition has 
targeted opposition factions inside Aleppo." Far from it.
But just recently, during the current truly apocalyptic Assadist/Russian 
imperialist slaughter, just in case they needed extra help, we have the 
above report, and a couple of others:


1. #Syria|Did IC participate to Aleppo blockade ?
Media Activist Majed Abdel Nur revealed on Orient News that 
International Coalition aircrafts have taken part to the battle of the 
siege of the city of Aleppo.
He indicated that they have spotted a heavy bombing, believed to be 
carried out by F-16 warplanes, targeting vehicles, and which resulted in 
direct casualties

https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/syriadid-ic-participate-to-aleppo-blockade/


2. US planes join Putins planes to stop rebels breaking the siege of 
Aleppo.
According to "Halab today" yesterday there were 4 sorties over Aleppo by 
the US-led coalition aircrafts to strike the rebels:
“Counting about 125 aircraft raided the City yesterday, including a 
Russian warplane, 72 Syrian and four Alliance”

https://twitter.com/HalabTodayTV/status/760656520572960768

Also, from Idlib, we had this report:

Idlib blasts near Bab al-Hawa, on the Turkish border , after a Jaysh 
al-Islam rebels ' ammunition warehouses was targeted, probably by a US 
airstrike

(the article says local activists blamed the US airforce):
http://tinyurl.com/gu8buln


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Hamas congratulates Syrian rebels breaking Aleepo siege

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Congratulations statement from the Syrian branch of Hamas on the 
breaking of the siege of Aleppo

.

The sons of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in Syria offer their 
congratulations to the Arab and wider Muslim Ummahs [nations], and 
congratulate the steadfast Syrian people and its fighting and fastening 
factions on the breaking of the siege of the liberated areas in Aleppo 
the Venerable.
Asking the Lord Almighty that the unification of the strugglers in this 
blessed action is a step to more comprehensive unity, in which the 
strugglers are one row in the face of the forces of injustice and 
tyranny, and a bulwark in the face of those with greed and conspiring 
towards the struggling Syrian people and Syria's blessed land.
Know that your blessed victory despite the conspiring of the entire 
world and its betrayals, has resurrected in our hearts hopes of bigger 
victories which will return to the Ummah its place and pride; ...
And what he then said then became [reality]; asking the Lord Almighty 
that he gathers your words and unites your rows, and that our guns meet 
yours in the battle for the liberation of Jerusalem and recovering of 
Palestine.


The Sons of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" in Syria

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596853007210190/1862474333981388/

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Seymour Hersh 2 part interview with Tariq Ali

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

According to the blurb:

"In Part Two they discuss his revelations concerning the chemical attack 
at Ghouta, Syria in August 2013. It is here we can see a foreign policy 
that Obama has enacted that is bringing us closer and closer to a 
military incident with Russia."


Fascinating stuff. It is a bit like saying, in 1972, that China carried 
out a false flag operation by ruthlessly bombing Hanoi, in order to 
blame it on the US, and then invited Nixon to Beijing as part of a 
strategy to bring the world closer and closer to a military 
confrontation between China and the US. Pretty much to the letter.


I assume George Orwell was lurking in the background of this Ali-Hersh 
gabfest. Why not invite Galloway too, someone Tariq Ali loves, and who 
has just been revealed on this list to be an open and ardent supporter 
of US imperialist bombing of various countries under the rubric of ... 
anti-imperialism.


Louis' post just referred to this crowd:

"The demographic that constitute the bulk of hardcore Galloway and StWC
supporters are the over 50 crowd. Notice that that Stalinist and/or
pro-Putin pro-Assad worldview has has its most vociferous advocates in
Galloway, Ali, Ramadani, Fisk, Cockburn, Hersh, that Australian douche
bag ( forgot his name) and to a lesser degree Chomsky. And notice that
they continuously promote each other. In essence, it's the old guard
realising their own redundancy and irrelevance in the era of the Arab
Spring, and trying desperately to cling on to their self-perceived
status of grandeur."

Spot on (though I would exclude Chomsky from this list - the old man has 
said some stupid things, but is significantly different to the others on 
Syria). Of course, one might retort that many of us on the other side of 
the debate are of the same generation (or somewhat younger than many of 
those listed, but still "the over 50 crowd"). But that isn't the 
comparison of course. The contrast of this reactionary "left" has-been 
mob is with the young people of the Arab world, who took to the streets 
to face bullets and tanks in 2011, and still fight on, despite the 
immeasurable  terror launched against them by the near-genocidal 
counterrevolution that has the full support of Ali, Fisk, Cockburn, 
Hersh, Galloway, Anderson (the douche bag's name), alongside their close 
co-thinkers Trump, Cruz, David Duke, Le Pen, Boris Johnston, UKIP, 
Golden Dawn and all the rest of that far-right pro-Putin European party.


It is the youth of the Arab world that inspire the support of many of us 
on the western left. Strangely, it is those who kill them with tanks, 
barrel bombs, cluster bombs, ballistic missiles, starvation sieges and 
medieval tortures that inspire others on the western left. A question of 
taste, I guess.


-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Stewart via Marxism

Subject: [Marxism] Seymour Hersh 2 part interview with Tariq Ali

Discusses the entire slate of work he has been doing in the last few 
years.


https://rimediacoop.org/2016/08/11/world-today-the-world-according-to-seymour-hersh/


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Erdogan

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yes. Which again shows it was never correct to see Erdogan's increasing 
repression over the last couple of years as "Islamist." Actually it was 
more a reconstitution of the Kemalist state (sure, with a bit of Islamic 
colouration, and Erdoganist colouration). In particular once the 
decision was made to abandon the AKP's relatively good (by Turkey's 
historical standards) Kurdish policy and re-launch the 80-year Kemalist 
war against the Kurds. The recent foreign policy reversal (rapproachment 
with Russia, Israel, Assad etc) also fits this same bill.


These two articles give more detail about the AKP's growing 
reintegration of the Kemalist old guard, and its new alliance with the 
Ergenekon group in particular: 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkish-militarys-influence-rises-again-1463346285 
and 
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/12/turkeys-deep-state-has-a-secret-backchannel-to-assad/?utm_content=buffer1a643_medium=social_source=twitter.com_campaign=buffer


The AKP's Daily Sabah openly now says the Ergenekon trials were wrong, a 
frame up  by the "Gulenists", of course: 
http://www.dailysabah.com/investigations/2016/04/21/court-overturns-verdicts-in-coup-case-allegedly-tied-to-gulenists


Hence the blame for everything on "the Gulenists". Ridiculous, of 
course, but no doubt half true. Appears to be an odd alliance not based 
on any political agreement between newer Gulen-connected forces in the 
state and the most recalcitrant Kemalist elements of the old deep state. 
Doesn't make a lot of sense for the latter given the AKP was moving 
their way, but seems the most hard-line element were either going to 
lose out in upcoming dismissals, or were never in the mood to compromise 
with the AKP no matter what.


One point where they and the Gulen crowd may have lined up was 
Kurdistan. Despite the AK's renewed war and alliance with the old deep 
state in this, it was notable that the top military leadership involved 
in the Kurdish war were heavily involved in the coup. Now there are 
suggestions that they struck because they feared the AKP would weaken in 
that war: 
https://www.buzzfeed.com/borzoudaragahi/document-reveals-what-really-drove-turkeys-failed-coup-plott?utm_term=.fkEpvvXOz. 
That may be fantasy, of course, and would contradict the direction of 
the AKP and its reaccommodation with the Kemalist old guard. But then 
again it could be a wing that preferred to go Assad-style against the 
Kurds.


One clue to that is that the government is re-opening investigations on 
the terrible Roboski massacre of Kurds of late 2011. As you may guess, 
Daily Sabah tells us that the massacre was deliberately orchestrated by 
"the Gulenists" in the military in order to sow discord between the 
Turkish and Kurdish peoples ...


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism


My wife just got finished with a Skype call to her mom in Istanbul who
reported that Erdogan has released the Kemalist officers who were in
prison as a result of the Ergenekon trials in order to use them against
the Gulenists. She says that he has begun to adopt Kemalist coloration,
even to the point of condemning schools that have an Islamist agenda--of
course targeting the Gulenist schools. Is there any politician on the
planet today who is more Machiavellian than Erdogan? I can't think of 
any.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Two Turkish views of the anti-coup crowds

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

1. From Sungur Savran: http://redmed.org/article/turkey-war-two-coups:

The third question we wish to take up is the excitement caused by the 
image of people swarming on top of tanks, which to the eye uninitiated 
in the intricacies of Turkish politics may seem as a great democratic 
reaction on the part of the people. To pose the question in the most 
blunt manner, this was not “the people” at large. 
We should also look into the composition of the AKP crowd. A sizeable 
minority of these people were armed. All men, they had come to “assist 
the police” according to their own statements. In many buildings that 
had earlier been taken over by the putschist forces, the fight to drive 
them out was waged by a combination of police officers and these 
civilians. Their activity is in our opinion akin to the activity of the 
paramilitary branch of a political party, such as Mussolini’s or Hitler’s 
armed militia. This has to be situated within the context of a new 
orientation on the part of Erdoğan. Ever since the Gezi uprising Erdoğan 
has systematically been building an array of paramilitary forces, 
ranging from the so-called “Ottoman corps” through reactionary Kurdish 
forces being prepared to fight the Kurdish movement to hardly disguised 
relations with notorious figures of the crime world. The coup pushed 
these paramilitary currents to test themselves unexpectedly early. ...
It is true that there was a larger component of the AKP crowd that did 
not display characteristics of a paramilitary force. But they were 
totally committed to a programme that is ideologically and politically 
reactionary through and through. We are of the opinion that masses 
almost brainwashed by reactionary or fascist movements cannot be 
characterised as “people” or “the masses” without further specification. 
The latter can only be invoked when there is an element of spontaneity 
in the movement one is looking at (irrespective of whether some may 
belong to different organisations). The AKP masses were tightly 
disciplined partisans. ...
It is also important to note that the outpour of people was, at least 
partially, a result of imams calling out from mosques to the people to 
summon them, in the name of religion and fatherland, to the hotspots of 
action. The unusual experience of imams calling Muslims to the fight 
must have acted, in all probability, to increase considerably the 
numbers participating. Again, this shows that the crowds on the squares 
were not “the people” at large, but the militants of a political party.


2. From Senay Ozden 
https://www.facebook.com/senay.ozden.54/posts/10154682419589123

July 20 at 6:16pm · Istanbul, Turkey ·

I was in Taksim square last night- though not for too long. Honestly, 
since Saturday morning I was avoiding going there since many of my 
friends described the scene as “scary” especially for a woman. They were 
talking about how “that crowd” could do anything; they could harass 
women; they could beat us all up; they could pull out their knives at 
us. (My friends who told me these are all anti-coup people) What I saw 
in Taksim last night was obviously not a rally for defending a pluralist 
democracy. It was obviously a religious, conservative crowd; some more 
religious than others; some more conservative than others. Obviously it 
was a crowd who would be against gay pride. Obviously it was a group 
pro- death penalty. Obviously it was a crowd who would think having 
pre-marital sex is a sin, etc. I can go on with this list. However, 
demographically it was not a male dominated crowd for sure. What I saw 
there were families more than anything else. And I saw many many old 
people. Old women sitting on the ground and praying. I was dressed the 
way I usually get dressed in summer: Skirt above knee level. Not a 
single person turned around to make a comment at me. Actually not a 
single person even stared at me. I did not feel threatened. I felt out 
of place, but noone did anything to make me feel out of place. As I left 
Taksim towards the end of the rally, I was on the metro with many of 
them also going back home. Especially once we were on the metro, outside 
of that rally environment, I came to realize that these people are the 
same people that I share the metro with everyday during rush hour. One 
thing I am sure of is these women are the cleaning ladies who clean our 
houses every month; these men are our door keepers, these young people 
are the workers who work at our fathers’ workplaces for minimum wage, 
these are the people who clean our class rooms at our universities. I am 
aware many of my friends will rush to accuse me of being 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The beheading of a Palestinian child by Syrian rebels–none of it is true except the beheading | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thanks for this update on this horrific crime, which is being widely 
condemned by Syrian revolution activists.


Much of the Baathist and western media is reporting the crime was 
carried out by a "CIA-backed" or "US-backed" group, like the Moon of 
Alabama piece shown in Louis' article. Just some clarity. Zinki is 
neither fully FSA, nor 'hard-Islamist'; it is an independent militia 
that is part of the range of vaguely "Islamist-leaning" or 
"soft-Islamist" militias aligned with the FSA. It does not push 
'fundamentalist' repression, and it has never before been accused of a 
crime of this nature, and of course even in this case, Zinki has 
condemned the crime, allegedly arrested the men and is is investigating 
with a view to punishment etc (here is an English translation of their 
statement:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4355260277398=p.4355260277398=3).

Now, Zinki is not a “CIA-backed group;” whatever support it once got was 
cut off from around mid-2015 
(https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566544-major-aleppo-rebel-faction-relinquishing-armed-posts), 
and moreover, Jordan (on US-Russia behest) placed Zinki on the list of 
“terrorist” groups to be excluded from the “peace process” (about half 
the insurgency was placed on that list 
(https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566390-cia-vetted-aleppo-rebels-lash-out-at-jordan). 
Regardless of what turns out to be the truth of this horrific crime 
apparently carried out by some depraved members of the group - and if 
true, Zinki needs to shoot the perpetrators, as demanded by countless 
Syrian revolution activists - it was an absurd idea that this fighting 
group was in any sense "terrorist", and the label merely reflected 
US/Russian political consensus. Even the term “CIA-backed” simply means 
that a group receives some support (however much or little, and whether 
lethal or non-lethal) through the Military Operations Centre (MOC) in 
Turkey, composed of some western and Arab intelligence figures. As is 
widely documented, the main role of the CIA has been to limit the 
quantity, quality and destinations of weapons sent mostly from the Gulf. 
That Zinki used to get support means the CIA didn’t block such aid; that 
support was cut off probably indicates a CIA decision to block them.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2016 7:22 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: The beheading of a Palestinian child by Syrian 
rebels–none of it is true except the beheading | Louis Proyect: The 
Unrepentant Marxist


https://louisproyect.org/2016/07/22/the-beheading-of-a-palestinian-child-by-syrian-rebels-none-of-it-is-true-except-the-beheading/ 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Syria Sol UK statement on US massacre of 200 civilians in Manjib

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Statement on the massacre by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes in Manbij 
19.7.2016 Posted July 19, 2016

http://syriasolidarity.org.uk/2016/07/19/statement-on-the-massacre-by-the-us-led-coalitions-airstrikes-in-manbij-19-7-2016/
The Syria Solidarity Campaign (SSC) absolutely condemns the massacre of 
more than 200 civilians today by US-led coalition airstrikes on Tokhar 
village in the north of Manbij City. Most of those killed were women and 
children.  Many are still buried under the rubble.


The United States has armed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are 
mainly Kurdish forces led by the PYD and who have been coordinating with 
Assad in his deadly war against the population of Syria. They have 
imposed a brutal siege leaving no humanitarian corridors for civilians 
to flee the city. Thus, civilians are trapped between the indiscriminate 
airstrikes of the US-led coalition, the shelling of the SDF, and the 
terror of ISIL. Civilians can’t flee the city due to the battles and 
they are being used as human shields.  The closure of all humanitarian 
corridors has made the situation even more precarious, stopping the 
supply of basic necessities including food, medicine and fuel. All of 
these factors are leading to a humanitarian catastrophe amongst a 
civilian population of 250,000 in Manbij.
The actions taken by the United States have only served to prolong Assad’s 
deadly war on Syrians, which has thus far claimed more than 470,000 
people and led to an unprecedented refugee crisis and global terror 
attacks. Fighting terrorism does not justify the mass killings of 
civilians. Such atrocities serve to support the narrative of ISIL, that 
the West is launching a war against Muslims. These actions will not 
defeat ISIL, but instead will lead to further radicalisation amongst 
civilians in Syria and abroad.
We demand that the US-led coalition immediately ceases their airstrikes 
in Syria in order to spare further civilian lives. We also demand that 
the US and the SDF lift the siege of Manbij immediately and launch an 
urgent investigation into civilian deaths since the launch of their 
campaign to liberate Manbij. Finally, we demand that the US and the SDF 
establish humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians and allow 
humanitarian aid into the city.

About the SSC:
The main purpose of the Syria Solidarity Campaign is to amplify the 
voices of Syrians struggling for peace and freedom. We work with all 
existing campaigns and organisations to help build a campaign that can 
assist the Syrian people in their struggle for a democratic, just, free 
and pluralist Syria.
i...@syriasolidarity.org.uk 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] An Egyptian reflects on the coup attempt in Turkey

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

As always, excellent, right-on-target analysis from Omar Sabbour, always 
one of the best analysts of the Syrian revolution and the role of 
regional and imperialist interests. I'd encourage anyone genuinely 
interested to read right through. I've always found it fascinating that 
so much of the left has insisted on relying on western analysts and 
journalists, who have been writing and copying and pasting the same 
article for the last five years, while ignoring the wealth of good Arab 
and Middle Eastern analysts who have been writing since the Arab Spring, 
if not before.


Try reading it and then calling hi a lackey of US imperialism or of 
Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Just that his criticisms are the correct 
ones. While so much of the western left, lost in its own tragedy of not 
knowing where to stand between revolution and counterrevolution, obsess 
about all the arms allegedly going to the Syrian rebels fro these 3 
regional powers, as if they control the people's revolution, rather than 
the region-wide people's revolution having been a pressure that weakened 
them (all 3 countries were strongly pro-Assad in the first few months of 
the Syrian uprising), analysts like Omar show the complete opposite.


That is, now as the Assad regime and its Russian imperialist backers and 
the global Shiite-jihadist ground forces move in for the kill in Aleppo 
in the north and Daraya in the south, what do these three states do? 
That's right, they STILL continue to be absolutely COWARDLY in their 
submission to the US embargo on the weaponry that rebels need to fight 
the warplanes and helicopters of genocide: no, western 
"revolutionaries", in fact you can't fight warplanes and helicopters 
with whatever little bit of light ammo and small guns the US allows the 
regional states, grudgingly, to slip over the border to try to coopt 
rebel leaders to do an Oslo with Assad; no, you need weapons that hit 
warplanes and helicopters. And as most astute observers know, the MAJOR 
US intervention in Syria (other than its bombing of everyone but Assad) 
has for 5 years been the embargo on anti-aircraft weapons, which the US 
has been so dedicated to that it has even ensured the rebels got none 
from the black market.


So if Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Qatar had either any guts, or any 
*interest* in really supporting the Syrian uprising, they would have 
told the US to stick its embargo and sent hundreds of these weapons, 
which they possess, so that hundreds of Assadist and Russian warplanes 
and helicopters come crashing to the ground, a giant fireworks party 
that would represent a victory for all humanity. Erdogan's current 
coddling of Russia, Israel and Assad (he has maintained excellent 
relations with Iran al along despite being on opposite sides) is the 
logical end-product of a policy which was never intended as more than 
pressure.


As for "reactionary Arab states supporting rebels," anyone might think 
that was only Saudi Arabia and Qatar, yet even taking into account their 
absolutely cowardly policy regarding the US embargo on AA missiles, same 
as Turkey, this formulation manages to omit Jordan (where the US-Russian 
new base of operations from which to jointly strike Nusra and other 
Islamists is to be based), Sisi's Egypt (a fanatical supporter of 
Assad), the UAE (widely seen as part of a regional alliance with Egypt 
and Jordan) and Iraq (run by the regime of US-Iranian joint occupation) 
as reactionary Arab states. The majority, actually.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Omar Sabbour on FB:

A few months ago I was making allowances for Erdogan in a conversation
with a few friends about him following the substantively pro-Assad US
line in Syria, not allowing heavy and anti-aircraft weaponry into the
rebels etc.. I said that he is worried that the US destabliises him and
that I don't think that he has consolidated full control over the deep
state, and that if he goes against the American line they will stir up
trouble. I also said that the US is sending him a signal with its
support for the YPG (later SDF) in North Syria. Ironically, at the time
the guys I was talking to vigorously disputed what I was saying, saying
that Erdogan is very secure and there's no chance in hell that the
military, which he purged, would attempt a coup against him. They also
said that the US will throw away the YPG as soon as its done with ISIS,
and as soon as they can afford to as they would not alienate Turkey
beyond that point. Erdogan had the upper hand, he's a member of NATO and
can banish them from their airbase. I was actually pummeled in that
conversation, and yet 

[Marxism] Fisk now does "embedded journalism" from regime torture chamber

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Fisk, who till a few years ago was on top of my list of great 
journalists, has taken to embedded journalism with a vengeance since the 
Syrian uprising began, when he suddenly chucked away everything he had 
previously written about the regime - I say suddenly, because if you 
look back to the 2005-6 period you'll probably find Fisk to be 
exaggeratedly anti-Assad if anything - and began writing articles 
embedded with Syrian regime tank crews and even warplanes. In the worst 
case, he "reported" on an infamous Assadist massacre of many hundreds of 
civilians in the south Damascus working-class suburb Daraya, a centre of 
the revolution, by "interviewing" terrified residents in front of his 
Assadist military minders. They reported, as you would, that the rebels 
had been responsible for everything.


But now he seems to have outdone even himself. In this piece 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/inside-bashar-al-assads-syrian-jail-an-islamist-prisoner-talks-of-the-regret-for-his-killing-a7113556.html, 
Fisk "interviews" a Nusra prisoner from inside the Assadist gulag 
itself. That is, from inside a prison which is part of a torture 
archipelago about which a UN report, referring to the tens of thousands 
murdered under torture,  claimed "the mass scale of deaths of detainees 
suggests that the Government of Syria is responsible for acts that 
amount to extermination as a crime against humanity" 
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-09/mass-deaths-in-syrian-jails-amount-to-crime-of-extermination/7150842). 
Yet Fisk reports that this Nusra prisoner repents and now accepts the 
Assad/Fisk narrative about the conflict! Like, who wouldn't? 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Brexit article worth reading

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yes of course the opposite was true. Even sillier from this bit of the 
article is the reference to these Libyan weapons getting to ISIS (with 
or without the imaginary US connivance). Because people who know stuff 
know there was no such thing as ISIS in 2012, in Syria, or anywhere. It 
was invented the following year. But of course that's only factual 
information, which presumably doesn't matter to certain forms of 
dialectics.


But anyway. There are a number of stock phrases that have to be learnt 
by Assadists or plague-on-both-housists. One of them is this story about 
the Libyan weapons flow.


OK, so since the bugbear is supposedly opposition to all imperialist 
intervention in all forms always, let's do a little test. We know some 
of the parties involved in the arms pipeline from post-Gaddafi Libya to 
the Syrian rebels in 2012: former Libyan rebels now in control of regime 
stocks, Qatar, MB networks, and Turkey, from where the weapons were 
delivered to some rebel groups. And the US, via the CIA, whose role, 
according to myriad sources, consisted of strangling the quantity of 
weapons getting through to anyone, stringently vetting which groups 
could get any at all, and above all ensuring that no anti-tank or 
anti-aircraft missiles - ie what the rebels needed - got through to 
anyone at all.


So let's be anti-imperialists. Regardless of the motivations of those 
regional forces, regardless of our view on them politically, we oppose 
all intervention by US (and other) imperialism. So let's now remove the 
US/CIA from the equation. Imagine our demands that they get out of the 
Mideast were successful. The operation thus continued with the above 
participants, but without US imperialism. Good. I'm in favour of that.


a. What would this withdrawal have meant in terms of the volume and 
quality of the weaponry delivered to the rebels?


b. Given the answer to  a. is obvious, are you still in favour of this 
US withdrawal? I am, of course.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism



They turned over
Libyan weapons to [Islamic State], al-Qaida and [Nusra Front].


In fact the opposite is true.

Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2012:

In July, the U.S. effectively halted the delivery of at least 18 Manpads
sourced from Libya, even as the rebels pleaded for more effective
antiaircraft missiles to counter regime airstrikes in Aleppo, people
familiar with that delivery said.

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Jo Cox, the White Helmets and the Baathist amen corner | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Excellent take-down of this vile campaign. Louis might have mentioned 
some of the close ideological allies of Sterling, Beely and Bartlett. 
Here's British neo-Nazi Nick Griffin: “Dear God! #JoCox Memorial fund 
raising for the Al Qaida/George Soros #WhiteHelmets in Syria. Apologists 
and facilitators pf murder & terror”  (from 
https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/743879985044258817?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y=email). 
Is there *any* difference between the language of the ultra-right and 
Assadist “left” on this at all?


One other point. Louis points to these scumbags presenting "evidence" of 
the White Helmets collaboration with Jabhat al-Nusra: "Evidence of this 
was a Youtube video showing White Helmet workers taking away the dead 
body of a man executed by al-Nusra combatants. ... Beeley states, “These 
impartial humanitarian workers did NOTHING to prevent this execution."


As Louis points out, being unarmed next to well-armed jihadists may have 
had something to do with it, and after all, their role is precisely to 
rescue people from the rubble and dispose of bodies, not take part in 
the fighting with their bare hands. But more to the point, they are 
obviously incapable of seeing their own contradictions. Because the 
overwhelming majority of their body-disposing work consists of disposing 
the bodies of people slaughtered by the regime, not the 1/100th of them 
killed by Nusra. Yet it is this work that gets them labelled by the 
left-fascists as part of the conspiracy against the Assad regime. But 
the White Helmets also "do NOTHING to prevent the massacre" of these 
thousands of people by Assadi gangs, gangs of the global Shiite-jihadist 
forces, and Assadist and Russian warplanes. So does this indicate that 
they collaborate with Assad? Idiots.


Finally, there is the WH volunteer "standing on top of an “Al Nusra 
tank” with a gun in hand." Louis notes "It is not exactly clear what 
makes the tank part of Al Nusra." Yes, of course. But that is of course 
what these left-fascists have in common with Nick Griffin quoted above 
(and of course the entire ultra-right/neo-Nazi movement in Europe and 
US), who also accused JoCox and WH of being in cahoots with "al-Qaida", 
same as what they have in common with every reactionary Islamophobe 
defending the US, Russian, Assad, Sisi, Netanyahu "war on terror": all 
your opponents are by definition "al-Qaida", or "Islamic terrorists" of 
some similar description. It's worked for Murdoch for decades, why not 
his leftist co-thinkers?


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Jo Cox, the White Helmets and the Baathist amen 
corner | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist


https://louisproyect.org/2016/06/20/jo-cox-the-white-helmets-and-the-baathist-amen-corner/

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] US underestimates civilian death toll of its bombings in Iraq and Syria by 95 percent

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

US underestimates civilian death toll in Iraq and Syria by 95 per cent
Publication Date: 2016-06-18 06:58
http://www.orient-news.net/en/news_show/115320/0/US-underestimates-civilian-death-toll-in-Iraq-and-Syria-by

A new report says a U.S.-led coalition is bombing civilians to death and 
covering it up.


The United States-led coalition that is bombing Iraq and Syria may be 
underreporting the civilian toll of that war by as much as 95 precent, 
according to a new report released Friday by the monitoring group 
Airwars.


The U.S.-led coalition, which includes nations such as Britain, France 
and the Netherlands, has been bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria 
since 2014, carrying out more than 13,121 airstrikes, or just over 19 a 
day. The vast majority of the strikes are carried out by the U.S., 
according to Airwars—68 percent in Iraq and 82.5 percent in Syria—with 
an estimated civilian death toll of at least 1,312 people.


Over the past six months it’s gotten worse, according to Airwars. 
“Between December and May, in both Iraq and Syria, there was a marked 
increase in the number of alleged casualty incidents and civilian death 
attributed to coalition actions,” it says. In Iraq, the group reports 
that between 297 and 518 civilians were killed by coalition airstrikes 
in this time. In Syria, between 197 and 274 civilians were killed, “a 38 
percent increase in likely civilian deaths above the previous six 
months.”


The U.S. has admitted to killing just 20 civilians. Its allies have 
admitted to none. “If correct, Airwars data suggests the coalition may 
be underreporting civilian deaths by more than 95 percent,” the report 
says.


The worst incident for civilians occurred on March 19 in the 
ISIS-occupied city of Mosul, when at least 25 innocents were killed when 
coalition airstrikes hit Mosul University in the middle of the day. As 
teleSUR reported at the time, such a strike on a civilian 
institution—confirmed by the U.S. Department of Defense—may constitute a 
breach of international law.


The U.S. and its coalition allies are not the only foreign governments 
reportedly killing civilians in the region. Of 630 alleged incidents 
where civilians died in Syria as a result of international airpower, 91 
percent have been attributed to Russia, according to Airwars, killing 
between 2,792 and 3,451 civilians between December 2015 and May 2016, 
largely as the result of airstrikes targeting non-ISIS forces and 
civilian areas, “particularly in and around Aleppo.”


The Russian government says its airstrikes have not killed any civilians 
since they began in Sept. 2015, TeleSUR reported


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] [New post] Eritrea and the left

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Anti-imperialists have various litmus tests. Trouble is, they are also 
highly selective about them, to say the least: pretty hard to ignore the 
very special relationship between Eritrea and Israel, I would have 
thought: Both Iran and Israel Have Military Bases in Eritrea, Global 
Intel Reports: 
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/both-iran-and-israel-have-military-bases-in-eritrea-global-intel-reports.premium-1.484326, 
Eritrea relations with Israel and Ethiopia (Brief Article) 
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-74229912.html


Louis Proyect wrote:


If you want to hear the government' defense of its policies, the go-to
guy is Thomas Mountain who lives in Eritrea and pumps out a steady 
stream

of articles with titles like oeThe Cuba of Africa (
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/21/the-cuba-of-africa/ ) .



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Israel to participate in next Resistance Axis war games

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

First ever Israeli-Russian war game is coming
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 10, 2016, 5:38 PM (IDT)
http://www.debka.com/article/25474/First-ever-Israeli-Russian-war-game-is-coming-

Israel's PM seeks role in Russian-US duo in Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 6, 2016, 10:31 AM (IDT)
http://www.debka.com/article/25463/Israel%E2%80%99s-PM-seeks-role-in-Russian-US-duo-in-Syria 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Free Alawite Movement kills Asma's bodyguard

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Bodyguard to Assad’s wife killed by anti-regime Alawites, Syrian media 
and attackers say

Published June 6th, 2016 - 11:10 GMT

http://www.albawaba.com/loop/bodyguard-wife-assad-killed-car-bomb-848826

Multiple Syrian and other media outlets are reporting that Alaa 
Makhlouf-the personal bodyguard to Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad-was 
killed via a car bomb on Saturday, June 4th by members of the Free 
Alawite Movement. Syria Mubasher and Baladi appear to have been the 
first outlets to break the story, citing regime sources and the Free 
Alawite Movement’s Facebook page respectively.
“We’ve killed Alaa Makhlouf, bodyguard to the wife of Bashar the beast,” 
the group declared coldly on Facebook after the attack. The attack took 
place in central Damascus. Rumors of a possible assassination against 
Makhlouf had been circulating for three months, Baladi claims.
The assassination is a blow to members of Syrian president Bashar 
al-Assad’s inner circle. While many in his family remain alive, some of 
those closest to him have been killed over the course of the harrowing 
five-year-long civil war that has left over 400,000 dead.
The fact that the attack was carried out by Assad’s fellow Alawites 
shows the division within that community. Many Alawites remain loyal to 
the president, but some have supported the uprising since it began in 
2011.
Makhlouf was from the village of Qardahah in the Latakia governorate-an 
Assad stronghold. He had served as Asma al-Assad’s bodyguard for an 
unknown number of years 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria Special: How Regime May Have Staged “Rebel Attack” on Aleppo Hospital…and Fooled World’s Media | EA WorldView

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I agree with Andy, of course.

That said, what seems most convincing to me about this critique of the 
story is the sheer distance of this hospital from the regime-rebel 
frontline, given the kinds of weapons the rebels have. It also looks 
convincingly like a car-bomb rather than a rocket that miraculously was 
shot a very log distance. What remains therefore, in my view, is whether 
the regime staged the car-bombing as the article suggests, or Nusra (the 
main users of car-bombs) managed to evade regime security and get that 
far in.


Andy's more general point is right - both in Aleppo and in Damascus. 
some rebel groups have at times launched indiscriminate attacks on the 
regime-controlled parts of the cities and killed civilians. Of course, 
in comparison to regime daily genocidal bombing of civilians and 
everything on the rebel-held sides of town, the rebel attacks are a 
needle in a haystack, and driven by the sheer frustration of not being 
able to resist the ongoing massacre. The exact equivalent of past Hamas 
attacks on Israeli civilians. While our focus is on the systematic 
terroriser in both (and all) cases, I'll just go on record to say that 
*all* attacks on civilians on the "other side", in every conflict, 
should be condemned - as anti-Assad activists have done, as Andy notes.


However, while such attacks on civilians have occurred, I'm not aware of 
any deliberate rebel attacks on medical facilities. As countless reports 
have shown, the regime is responsible for upwards of 95% of attacks on 
medical facilities, medical workers etc (and most of the rest is ISIS).


Rebels' weapons are mostly crude, and not very good for targeting. That 
reflects the fact that, despite the super-Orwellian BS about 
"western-backed" rebels, they hardly ever get useful stuff from anyone 
very much. So what they do get, or capture, or build in back-yards, is 
crude stuff. When they occasionally "shoot back" at the regime when the 
regime bombs daily from the two big cities, they may well not aim to hit 
civilians, but still likely will. That is not an argument for continuing 
the US embargo on "its allies" inn the region providing proper weaponry. 
The best way to fight warplanes and helicopters that bomb you every day 
is with weapons that can bring them down - ie, the weapons that the US 
intervention has gone out of its way for years to ensure never get to 
the rebels.


Proper weaponry, in other words, would not only be better for the 
civilians in rebel areas to live without the daily massacre, but also 
civilians in regime areas. Shooting warplanes out of the sky does 
nothing to help rebels militarily push into regions if the local 
population is still pro-regime, or hesitant/neutral. It merely helps 
those in liberated areas survive, and, importantly, would help their 
political structures, local revolutionary councils etc, survive and pose 
a political alternative. Which, of course, is Assad's main fear, which 
is why he plunged the country back into war after the brief lull in 
fighting brought the  people back out into the streets with same slogans 
p- end the regime - and the same flags -- the FSA/Revolution flags - as 
5 years ago.


And I'll go out on a limb here and say that is precisely why the US does 
not want the rebels to get anti-aircraft guns: because the US does not 
like revolution. people can insist it is only because the US is afraid 
they will "get into the hands of terrorists", but I am finding it 
increasingly unbelievable that anyone believes this.


Rebels have of course captured regime manpads before. In recent weeks, 
there were two victories for humanity when rebels gunned down Russian or 
regime warplanes. It would be good to think there could be many more. 
The only thing for sure is that these weapons had nothing whatsoever to 
do wit the famous "US-backing" of mythology.




-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism

Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2016 11:48 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism]Fwd: Syria Special: How Regime May Have Staged 
“Rebel Attack” on Aleppo Hospital…and Fooled World’s Media | EA 
WorldView


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Some comments on the eaworldview story:
1. The site is recommended by Robin and Leila of "Burning Country" as
reputable and worth following.
2. Immediately after the original story broke on regime and 

Re: [Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Andy mentioned that the tour was organised out of Australia. That 
doesn't surprise me at all, we have an unusually large segment both of 
the left and of the Arabic population that shill for Assad here. With 
the left it probably relates to a bit of isolation, just catching onto 
bits and pieces of shallow "anti-imperialist" BS from abroad and from 
some celebrity leftists; with sections of the Arabic community, of 
course it is by no means overwhelming or even majority, but when we hear 
of Arab and especially Syrian activists in the US, UK etc, we often hear 
of a lot of activism around the Syrian revolution; for some reason, 
Sydney in particular seems a hotbed of Lebanese-Syrian 
Christian/Alawite/Islamophobic Shabia types (they go way back before the 
outbreak of the Syrian uprising), including a significant base of the 
Syrian National Socialist Party (SSNP), you know, the ones that wave the 
swastika.


That said, I have no idea who this mob are. They are the 'Social Justice 
network', who have a website that looks brand new 
(http://socialjustice.net.au/). The usual list of "home" "about", 
"contact" etc at top of webpage, but one additional one, "international 
tours of peace to Syria." A FB page where one in two posts is dedicated 
to attacking the Greens (even posting a vicious red-baiting article from 
Murdoch's idiosyncratically right-wing 'Australian' attacking a leading 
left-wing Green, Lee Rhiannon, as a Stalinist), even for Greens support 
for ... "terrorism," and the other half are posts about their tours to 
"Potemkin villages", not in Communist states, but in Assad's fascist 
state.


It is often noted that Australian fauna and flora are interesting.

-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:36 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

see also Louis's earlier piece:
https://louisproyect.org/2014/01/18/mondoweiss-as-a-baathist-outlet/
and a great guide - ironically at mondo - by Ramah Kudaimi:
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/08/dos-and-donts-for-progressives-discussing-syria/


On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 8:31 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:


On 4/25/16 5:47 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:




http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/say-hello-to-zenobia-a-report-from-palmyra-rising-from-the-ashes/
The delegation was organized by an explicitly pro-Assad group and the
reportback is unabashedly pro-regime, pro-Russia genocide.



I just posted a comment:

Sad to see Jeff Klein writing this kind of garbage. I knew him back in 
the
late 80s when he was involved with Tecnica and when both of us had 
high

hopes that the FSLN could have succeeded in building an alternative to
neoliberalism. But writing this kind of pap for a blood-drenched 
tyranny
whose top capitalist crony of Bashar al-Assad was revealed to be 
hiding

billions in Panama banks really makes me want to throw up.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Well, the shawarma may not favour Sharia law as Hersh believes, but I've 
heard in good authority that Sharia law does favour the shawarma. 
Therefore we need a campaign to boycott this sharia food. In Australia, 
there have been a number of organisations already campaigning against 
the imposition of Sharia law in Australia, and some specifically 
campaign against halal food. Clearly we can see the outlines of a broad 
united front.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 2:18 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not 
favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist


  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*



https://louisproyect.org/2016/04/25/no-seymour-hersh-the-shish-kebab-does-not-favor-sharia-law/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Russia and U.S. Near De Facto Alliance in Syria -Bloomberg

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Russia and the US certainly have been in alliance in Syria for a long 
time already. At least from my observations, I have considered the 
discourse of "US-Russian rivalry" ("inter-imperialist" or otherwise) to 
have been misplaced all along (in Syria: it may be the case elsewhere in 
the world). At very least since September 2013, if not before. Certainly 
since long before the US-approved (with "reservations" of course) 
Russian invasion of Syria. And Kerry admitted months ago that US and 
Russian interests in Syria are "fundamentally similar," the political 
line they both push is largely the same, with shades of grey in between 
of course.


The article itself is useful, but its insistence that the US "has been 
reluctant" to be on the side of the Assad regime even against ISIS is 
essentially a question of presentation rather than substance. Just in 
case anyone was in doubt, the US and Assad, for the umpteenth time, have 
once again launched concurrent (by coincidence?) strikes against Raqqa - 
as usual, a civilain-slaughter fest. According to the well-respected 
'Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently' group:


Another massacre in Raqqa 20 civilians killed by US led Coalition and 
Assad regime airstrikes:
The US & Assad's airforces targeted 1-Stadium 2-Tawled Hospital 3-Shops 
in Fardous area 4-a building in Fardous Neighborhood 5-School of Arts 
#Raqqa

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL/status/719062060366213120
https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL/status/719061657591353345
https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL/status/719161074256191488

And of course, the other main news on that front is that the US and 
Russia are jointly drafting a new Syrian constitution:


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/u-s-russia-said-to-team-up-to-draft-syria-s-new-constitution


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2016 6:16 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Russia and U.S. Near De Facto Alliance in 
Syria -Bloomberg


Think this will make any difference to Cockburn, Whitney, Hersh, Fisk,
Ali, and Bromwich? Probably not. They are hopeless.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/raqqa-siege-in-sight-as-russia-u-s-proxies-plan-pincer-move
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] What Do the Panama Papers Reveal?

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Clearly the Zionist entity got on the wrong side of the CIA conspiracy, 
I guess all that endless cozying up to Putin over Syria put them on the 
wrong side of the Empire:


Panama Papers Hundreds of Israeli Companies Shareholders Listed in 
Leaked Documents Detailing Offshore Holdings 
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.712497


-Original Message- 
From: RKOB via Marxism

Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 3:19 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] What Do the Panama Papers Reveal?

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yes, what a "conspiracy"! It is directed against the British government,
the Russian, the Chinese, the Gulf states, the Syrian, the Argentine
etc. However, one thing is true: Americans seem to be absent. This does
not make the revelations untrue but it might be the case the the US had
some influence to be left out of the investigations. But of course, I am
not in the position to find this out.


Am 04.04.2016 um 18:30 schrieb Louis Proyect:

On 4/4/16 12:10 PM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:

http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/panama-papers/




The Putinite Left has already begun to characterize this as a 
conspiracy against the Kremlin:


http://off-guardian.org/2016/04/03/panama-papers-cause-guardian-to-collapse-into-self-parody/





--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
www.rkob.net
ak...@rkob.net
Tel.: 0650 406 83 14


---
Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: More stupidity from Jacobin | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Not just anti-Muslim, pro-BJP and pro-Assad, but consistently also 
Zionist: here she is at the Christians United for Israel convention: 
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=2015Summit_Speakers


-Original Message- 
From: A.R. G via Marxism


Wow I had no idea Gabbard was anti-Muslim. Apparently she's also a 
convert

to Hinduism and a BJP member! Gross!

I don't know what it is about Indians/Hindus in America backing Modi, 
the
Indian-American pageant winner is apparently going to all of his events 
and

such. Had no idea Gabbard was pandering to those types.


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Russia is Flying Israeli Drones Against Anti-Assad Rebels in Syria

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Russia is Flying Israeli Drones Against Anti-Assad Rebels in Syria
Military hardware from the Jewish State is helping Putin save Assad.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/24/russia-is-flying-israeli-drones-against-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria.html#/articles/2016/03/24/russia-is-flying-israeli-drones-against-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria.html

Russia’s sort-of-but-not-really withdrawal from Syria passed without the 
world noticing that it featured aerial technology from a surprising 
source—Israel, which provided the high-tech surveillance drones that 
apparently help the Russian warplanes find and strike their targets on 
the ground.
The Russian air force acquired a number of 20-foot-long Searcher drones 
from Israel Aerospace Industries, one of the world’s leading 
manufacturers of unmanned aerial vehicles, starting in 2010.
Russia also acquired from IAI, which is wholly owned by the Israeli 
government, a license to make its own copies of the propeller-driven 
Searcher, a rough equivalent of the U.S. military’s own Predator drone.


The Kremlin dubbed its Searcher clone “Forpost,” which means “fortress” 
in Russian. While Russian officials had earlier hinted that their drones 
had deployed to Syria alongside an air wing of around 40 fighters and 
bombers, it wasn’t until mid-February that photographer Ahmad Al Khayer 
actually spotted a Forpost flying over Syria ... and posted to Facebook 
a photo of the distinctive-looking drone.
“While it is impossible to definitely confirm the model from just one 
picture, the similarities to the Searcher/Forpost are striking: the 
placement of the camera and sensor turret, the horizontal connection 
with the fins at the rear,” Ulrike Franke, a drone researcher at the 
European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Beast in an email.
“In the picture, the wings appear slightly more back-swept than those of 
the Searcher/Forpost,” Franke continued, “but given all these elements, 
it appears unlikely that this picture could show anything else than a 
Searcher/Forpost.”
The photo underscores Israel’s role, however indirect, in enabling 
Russia’s military intervention in Syria on behalf of the embattled 
regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Without Jerusalem’s help, Moscow 
would never have been able to pull off its Syrian operation in the way 
that it did. In a surprise announcement on March 14, Russian President 
Vladimir Putin declared the Syria intervention a success and said 
Russian forces would begin withdrawing from the war-torn country.
Since arriving in western Syria in October, Russian warplanes have flown 
thousands of sorties targeting anti-regime rebels and civilians in 
rebel-held areas. During one weeklong period in mid-February, Moscow's 
jets launched 444 combat sorties and struck 1,593 “terrorist objects,” 
the Russian defense ministry claimed in a statement.
Hitting four targets per mission requires extensive intelligence 
preparation—the kind that drones can best provide. Able to loiter over 
the battlefield for 12 hours at a time or longer, unblinkingly scanning 
below with cameras and other sensors, drones—actually, the operators and 
analysts controlling the drones via radio—can pick out coordinates for 
the fast-flying fighters and bombers to target.
Russia needed Israel to provide the unmanned aerial vehicles because its 
rusting weapons industry struggles to design and produce high-end 
robotic aircraft all on its own. “Although Russia has the capability to 
manufacture small reconnaissance drones, it has long depended on 
countries like Israel for larger, more capable unmanned aircraft,” Dan 
Gettinger, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard 
College in New York, told The Daily Beast via email.
Israeli companies—and especially the state-owned Israeli Aerospace 
Industries—are among the world’s top exporters of advanced drones. 
Whereas U.S. firms are barred by law from selling unmanned aerial 
vehicles to countries with histories of human-rights abuses, Israeli 
industry suffers no such constraints. Other customers for the Searcher 
drone include Thailand, which is ruled by an unelected military junta, 
and Azerbaijan, a country with a “poor rights record,” according to 
Human Rights Watch.
Getting its hands on Israeli Searchers helped the Russian military to 
catch up to the world’s leading drone powers. For Russian drone 
operators, switching to Searchers and Forposts from smaller and older 
Russian-made robot models was “like switching from a Zhiguli to a 
Mercedes,” commented Denis Fedutinov, editor of a Russian magazine 
devoted to unmanned aerial vehicles. A Zhiguli is a notoriously 

[Marxism] Red Flag: A revolution that will not die

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

A revolution that will not die
https://redflag.org.au/node/5181

Corey Oakley
14 March 2016
Editor
Over the last four years, the Syrian people have paid a horrendous price 
for having the audacity to rise up against dictatorship and demand their 
freedom. Liberated cities have been reduced to rubble, pulverised by 
relentless waves of barrel bombs, chemical weapons, and most recently 
attacks by the Russian air force. Rebel held areas have been besieged 
and starved. Millions have been forced to flee their homes. Tens of 
thousands have been tortured and killed in the prison cells of the 
regime. The death toll is now estimated to be in excess of half a 
million.
It is hard to recall a revolutionary movement that has been opposed with 
such brutal, industrial scale destruction. But this is not all the 
Syrian revolution has had to endure. From its beginning in March 2011 
the uprising has been vilified, slandered, ignored and betrayed by 
almost all to whom it looked for support and solidarity. Predictable 
enough has been the response of Western governments, who have mouthed 
opposition to the excesses of the Assad regime but done nothing to 
assist the struggle against the regime.
Worse has been the response from much of the international left, which 
has joined in the slanders against the revolution, declaring it a 
Western-backed plot to destroy an “independent” regime, or a movement of 
reactionary Islamists which deserves no support. Even many who initially 
supported the protest movement have since declared its democratic and 
progressive content exhausted, and the revolution finished.
“Death but not humiliation” read a huge banner in Aleppo, the city which 
has borne the brunt of the Russian blitzkrieg over the last two months.
And yet despite the bombs and the torture cells and the mass 
displacement and the starvation and the slander, the revolution lives.
Over the last two weeks, as a ceasefire has granted a partial and 
temporary reprieve from endless bombing, thousands of Syrians have 
flooded onto the streets in protests reminiscent of the beginnings of 
the uprising in 2011. From the rebel controlled south to the suburbs of 
Damascus to Idlib and Aleppo in the north, people vilified as “jihadis” 
and “terrorists” by a cynical Western media have sung and danced as they 
waved the green flag of the revolution, chanting the slogans made iconic 
in 2011 and declaring “Our revolution continues”.
Internally-displaced Syrians in the Bab al-Salameh camp carried the flag 
of the revolution between tents, chanting, “the people want the fall of 
the regime,” and “One, one, one, the Syrian people are one”.
In Saraqeb, Idlib, protesters’ faces were etched with emotion as they 
finally got a chance to come together again and assert the call for 
liberation so long buried by the ravages of war.
“Death but not humiliation” read a huge banner in Aleppo, the city which 
has borne the brunt of the Russian blitzkrieg over the last two months.
In Azaz, the town north of Aleppo which is surrounded on all sides by 
ISIS, Assad and the Kurdish YPG, children join their parents as they 
hold up the flag of the revolution and defy the cruel lie that they are 
terrorists, not people fighting for their freedom.
Kenan Rahmani describes the scene in Douma: “These Syrians live under 
siege, deprived of food and medicine for years. They have been bombed 
hundreds of times by Assad and Russia. Yet when a ceasefire reduces the 
violence enough they come out to the streets to make themselves clear – 
‘He who kills his own people is a traitor’.”
The window of opportunity for peaceful protests is unlikely to last 
long. The Syrian revolution remains besieged on all sides, and the road 
ahead will be incredibly difficult. But the fact that the revolution 
survives at all is an extraordinary feat. It demands our solidarity 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Putin Orders Start of Syria Withdrawal, Saying Goals Are Achieved

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Hold your horses folks:

Russian planes to keep striking 'terrorist' targets: Russian official in 
Syria

https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2016/Mar-15/342304-russia-air-force-will-continue-strikes-against-terrorists-in-syria-ria-quotes-deputy-defense.ashx

Agence France Presse
MOSCOW: Russia will continue striking "terrorist targets," a deputy 
defence minister said at Moscow's airbase in Syria Tuesday, hours after 
the announcement that most of Russia's contingent in the country will be 
pulled back.
"It is still too early to speak of victory over terrorism. The Russian 
air group has a task of continuing to strike terrorist targets," deputy 
defense minister Nikolai Pankov was quoted as saying by Russian news 
agencies at the Hmeimim airbase where Moscow's warplanes are based.


-Original Message- 
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism


this news of course has sent all the liberals on the ufpj-activist list,
into a tizzy, breathlessly expressing their admiration of Putin's bold 
and

generous gesture and urging Obama to do the same.
Why not, what's a few thousand Syrian corpses in the geostrategic game?

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 5:46 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:



(Declining oil prices might get the Nobel Peace Prize.)

NY Times, Mar. 14 2016
Putin Orders Start of Syria Withdrawal, Saying Goals Are Achieved
By ANDREW HIGGINS



_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Statement by anti-Assad activists on the repression of the Kurdish population in Turkey

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Statement on the repression of the Kurdish population in Turkey

http://www.syriauk.org/2016/03/statement-on-repression-of-kurdish.html

We the undersigned are deeply concerned at the deterioration of 
relations between the Turkish government and Turkey’s Kurdish 
communities, and call for the ending of all repressive measures against 
the Kurdish population, and the lifting of all sieges imposed on Kurdish 
areas.


We are motivated to make this statement by the same principles that 
drive our unconditional support for the democratic struggle against the 
Assad regime and its allies, which we identify as first and foremost 
responsible for the grave humanitarian crisis that the Syrian people 
have been plunged into and which has resulted in close to half a million 
deaths. We support the right of all people to a life of dignity, free 
from state repression, and their right to democratically govern their 
societies and communities. This includes the right to celebrate their 
diverse cultures and the rights to national self-determination. We 
uphold these principles and champion their universal extension without 
condition.


Even as we recognise that Turkey has been a far truer friend to Syrians 
than the Western powers have been, opening its borders to two and a half 
million refugees fleeing Assad’s repression, we also recognise that any 
restrictions on democratic rights in Turkey will negatively impact on 
those Syrian refugees who have sought refuge there. Moreover, we fear 
that the EU, in its efforts to persuade Turkey to contain the refugees 
and prevent them from crossing to Europe, will overlook the human rights 
abuses committed by the Turkish state.


On principle, we call for the lifting of all sieges in all ongoing 
conflicts. Using food as a weapon is a war crime.


In the spirit of the non-sectarian, democratic struggles that sparked 
the Arab Spring revolutions and whose supporters continue to resist 
repression in Syria and Egypt, we call on President Erdogan to end the 
indefinite state of curfew in Sirnak, as well as and to reopen the 
political process for reaching a settlement with the Kurdish citizens of 
Turkey.


Moreover, we firmly declare our solidarity with the democratic civil 
society groups seeking a political solution to the struggle for Kurdish 
self-determination in the region. We are alarmed that the Turkish State 
is engaging in repression of these groups, such as the Kurdish-Turkish 
HDP parliamentary party, the students delivering much needed 
humanitarian aid to the Kurdish regions of northern Syria, and the 
Turkish academics who have spoken out against the repression. We fear 
any further escalation of fighting or repression will close down the 
democratic space needed for dialogue, and for non-violent political 
actors to organise, further polarising the situation and rendering it 
intractable.


Syria Solidarity UK

To add your signature to the statement, please email i...@syriauk.org 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Annis' piece of Stalinist drivel and apologia for mass murder is 
embarrassing, but also his entire premise that it is a "defeat" for the 
US by Russian diplomacy is absurd; as if the entire "peace 
process"/ceasefire, with all its limitations, were not precisely the 
joint work of the US and Russia and their essential *alliance* in Syria. 
Of course, our movement - the Syrian masses - are right to take 
advantage of the lull in mass killing due to the partial ceasefire to 
take to the streets in a massive sea of Revolution flags all over the 
country (which Annis, hilariously, tries to make out to be pro-ceasefire 
demonstrations!). However, the fact that Assad and Russia are still 
bombing and killing daily - albeit at a much lower rate - was 
*precisely* built into the US-Russia "ceasefire" guidelines, fully 
supported by both, which allow for certain groups to still get bombed; 
perhaps we don't like those groups, but as is well-known, Assad and 
Russia call everyone names like "terrorists", or "Nusra" or "ISIS" when 
they bomb them; so they basically have license to keep doing what 
they're doing, while the parts of the ceasefire pertaining to 
humanitarian relief from Assad's starvation sieges etc, are not 
honoured. Yet Annis tries to imagine that ceasefie is a "defeat for the 
US". What a joke. The US clearly told the Syrian opposition: if you 
don't sign on, you'll be targets; and if you hang out with the wrong 
crowd (so-called "terrorists"), you'll deserve what you're about to get.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 1:44 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] The PYD’s alliance with Russia against Free Aleppo: Evidence and analysis of a disaster

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The Kurdish PYD’s alliance with Russia against Free Aleppo: Evidence and 
analysis of a disaster


Above: Aleppo Free Syrian Army statement calls on “the honorable Kurds” 
in Efrin “to put pressure on those gangs to withdraw from those violated 
towns.”


https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/the-kurdish-pyds-alliance-with-russia-against-free-aleppo-evidence-and-analysis-of-a-disaster/

by Michael Karadjis

This piece deals with an aspect that many involved in the Syrian issue 
have strong views on, and no doubt will make some very unhappy – the 
issue of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its Peoples 
Protection Units (YPG) and their role in the current Russian-led 
Blitzkrieg against the Syrian rebels in Free Aleppo. As a long-time 
supporter of the Kurdish struggle for justice and self-determination, 
who formerly admired the PYD for the significant achievements it has 
made in Rojava, I had no interest in reaching such conclusions, but 
reality needs to be looked at in the face and analysed, not obscured by 
ideology and myths.


I welcome comments and discussion, and if that includes a reasonable 
amount of hate mail, that will indicate more about the haters than about 
my attempt at honest, if forthright, discussion of this important issue. 
All constructive criticism, even if harsh, will be seriously taken on 
board.


This piece is much too long, as much of it documents what exactly has 
been going on, and in particular which rebel groups are/were in control 
of various parts of Aleppo province that are under attack from the 
Russian-YPG alliance; both issues have been deliberately clouded by 
those defending this catastrophic course. Therefore, I have produced it 
more as a resource than an easy-reading essay.

………

Introduction

Once the Russian Reich began its all-out Blitzkrieg against the Syrian 
revolutionary forces in Aleppo on behalf of the Assad regime – a 
massacre that has involved massive displacement, with tens or hundreds 
of thousands fleeing north towards Turkey, and the large-scale, 
deliberate targeting of hospitals, schools and other basic civilian 
infrastructure – a most unwelcome development occurred, that has led to 
much heated debate among supporters of the Syrian revolution.


Namely, the Kurdish-based People’s Protection Units (YPG), based in the 
Kurdish canton of Efrin on the western side of Aleppo province, launched 
an all-out attack on the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebels in 
Aleppo – ie, the very forces being bombed by the Russian imperialist 
onslaught – attacking and conquering rebel-held, Arab-majority towns 
throughout the region with the direct aid of Russian bombing.


Whatever the ups and downs in the relationship between the Syrian 
revolution as a whole and the ‘Rojava revolution’ before this point (and 
I believe both Syrian opposition and Kurdish leaderships can be faulted 
on many points), the only possible conclusion at this point is that the 
PYD/YPG has joined the counterrevolution on a massive scale, at its most 
murderous moment, the biggest knife that could possibly be put through 
any chances of Arab-Kurdish unity against the regime.


As many of the more progressive aspects of the Rojava revolution became 
apparent during 2014, I was as supportive and impressed as countless 
others were (though always holding back from the over-romanticisation of 
the process); I was also strongly supportive of what appeared to be a 
growing convergence between the YPG and the FSA during the defence of 
Kurdish Kobani against genocidal ISIS siege in late 2014.


Subjectively, therefore, I had no reason to want to reach such 
conclusions. However, for the Syrian revolution, the Russian imperialist 
Armageddon in Aleppo is every bit as decisive as Kobani’s resistance to 
the ISIS siege was for Rojava; yet, in contrast to the solidarity that 
the FSA extended to Kobani, the PYD has become a direct participant in 
the counterrevolutionary siege of Free Aleppo.


Of course, the YPG is a very small player in this act of mass homicide, 
whose major practitioners are Russia, Assad and Iran. Devoting an 
article to the role of the YPG does not suggest it bears the same level 
of responsibility. But these reactionary states do what reactionary 
states do; by contrast, when a supposedly revolutionary organisation 
claiming to be running a quasi-state on a radical-democratic basis joins 
the actions of imperialist invaders and the local fascist state, 
thatdeserves analysis.


One final point: Turkey. For months now, the Turkish regime has been 
waging its own war of terror against the Kurdish population in 

[Marxism] Leila al-Shami: The assault on Aleppo

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Leila Al Shami is co-author, along with Robin Yassin-Kassab, of 'Burning 
Country, the best book available on the Syrian revolution. This is an 
excellent interview with Leila about the mass-murderous Russian-led 
counterrevolutionary assault on the people of Aleppo. She takes a very 
balanced view, in my opinion, on the question of the PYD/YPG/Rojava, 
while clearly situating its current appalling role in the Russian 
genocidal war on the people of Aleppo in its expansionist, irredentist 
plan to "link" Kurdish cantons by conquering Arab territory.


The assault on Aleppo
February 25, 2016 by Leila Al Shami
https://leilashami.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/the-assault-on-aleppo/#more-368
The questions for this interview were written by the authors of Syria: 
The Stolen Revolution.


“We Will Not Leave The Trench Until The Night Is Gone” By the activists 
of Aleppo, photographed by Barry Abdulattif. Source: The Creative Memory 
of the Syrian Revolution


We are currently witnessing what looks like the crushing of anti-Assad 
rebellion forces. The Aleppo battle seems to be a turning point in Syria’s 
civil war before a general confrontation with ISIS occurs. In your 
opinion do rebel forces still shelter components of the revolutionary 
Syrian movement? Or are they nowadays reduced to sunni confessional 
militias, supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia?


Anti Assad rebels in north Aleppo are now facing a relentless assault by 
Russians from the air and an Iranian backed ground force comprised of 
various sectarian militias. This has transformed their struggle against 
a fascist regime into a national liberation struggle. The Russian Air 
Force has decimated civilian infrastructure in the province. The main 
rebel supply route from Turkey has been severed. The rebels are 
surrounded in the Azaz corridor by regime allied militias, Daesh and the 
Kurdish YPG.


If Aleppo is besieged up to 300,000 people will be cut off from the 
outside world. Tens of thousands have fled the city. As well as crushing 
the armed resistance the Assad regime and its imperial backers are 
carrying out a deliberate and systematic policy to depopulate the 
liberated areas of Syria.


When we talk of ‘liberated areas’ it’s more than just rhetoric. Under 
threat in Aleppo are the different local councils which ensure the 
governance of each area and have kept providing services to the local 
population in the absence of the state. We are talking about more than 
100 civil society organizations (the second largest concentration of 
active civil society groups anywhere in the country). These include some 
28 free media groups, women’s organizations and emergency and relief 
organizations such as the Civil Defense Force. It also includes 
educational organizations such as Kesh Malek which provides 
non-ideological education for children, often in people’s basements, to 
ensure school continues under bombardment. Under Assad’s totalitarian 
state, independent civil society was non-existent and no independent 
media sources existed. But in Free Aleppo democracy is being practiced 
as the people themselves self-organize and run their communities. This 
for me represents the original goals of the revolutionary movement.


The armed militias in the north Aleppo area include both the Free Army 
and Islamists. The Islamists represent the conservative culture of rural 
Aleppo. They are comprised primarily of Aleppo’s sons, brothers and 
fathers. They have strong local support and men and women have taken the 
streets in recent days calling for rebel unity to defend Free Aleppo 
from this fascist onslaught.


The rebels receive tepid support from the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. 
Nothing until now has made a real difference on the ground such as 
providing the rebels with the anti-aircraft weapons they desperately 
need. This is changing with Turkey’s military intervention. But Turkey’s 
intervention is primarily designed to prevent the establishment of a 
Kurdish state along its border. It has not intervened solely to protect 
the Azaz corridor, but is shelling civilians and uprooting olive trees 
in Afrin. No state is intervening to defend the popular struggle but 
rather to defend its own interests and those of its elites.


What is the current situation in the eastern Ghouta and in the rebel 
controlled zones in the south?


The eastern Ghouta is also under relentless attack. Assad and Russian 
forces have targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure such as 
schools, hospitals and market places. Over 160,000 people are trapped 
under regime siege in desperate conditions. Some authoritarian rebel 
groups have also been accused of 

[Marxism] The YPG as ground troops for the Russian Blitzkrieg in northern Aleppo

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

As the US-backed and armed YPG continues its murderous attacks and 
conquests of rebel-held, Arab-majority towns in northern Aleppo 
province, in direct alliance and coordination with the Russian 
Blitzkrieg bombings, a number of Rojava-Firsters, unsure how to react, 
have been muttering about the need for "evidence". I admit to being 
confused about this demand, to show that the Russian mad bombers and 
their YPG ground troops, which are attacking the same towns at the same 
times, are actually working together. I was unsure whether this meant 
some simply hadn't been reading the news, or whether it was a demand to 
find secret documents proving coordination; because, for example, maybe 
their attacking the same towns at the same time was just coincidence, 
just a strange accident of history. Since I don't have these documents, 
and consider the idea that it is all purely accidental to be unlikely, I 
have just put together some "evidence" for those who simply haven't been 
watching:


In the article 
http://www.voanews.com/content/moderate-syrian-rebel-factions-face-wipe-out/3180474.html, 
we read:


“YPG and rebel factions have been protecting civilians as they travel 
from Azaz. But at the same time the YPG has launched attacks on Islamist 
and moderate rebel factions around Afrin, seeking to expand the Kurdish 
enclave. Russian airstrikes on Saturday helped Kurdish fighters 
alongside militiamen from Jaysh al-Thwar, a YPG Sunni Arab ally, to 
capture the strategic Tal Zinkah hill north of Aleppo,” and in the same 
article, PYD leader Salih Muslim is quoted as saying that “the Russian 
airstrikes are targeting terrorists, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra” 
(these are the names Muslim always uses to describe all rebels).


Likewise, in the article 
http://syriadirect.org/news/side-campaign-in-north-aleppo-raises-fears-of-sdf-linking-kobani-to-afrin/, 
reporting on the SDF capture of the Minagh airbase, we read that in the 
lead-up to this capture:


“Russian warplanes, which have been essential to the Syrian regime's 
progress in the north, bombed rebel positions around the Minagh airport 
Wednesday as battles raged between the SDF and rebels, reported 
pro-opposition Aleppo News Network Wednesday. A war journalist present 
at the airport front confirmed to Syria Direct that Russian planes had 
carried out 16 airstrikes Wednesday on rebel positions there. On 
Tuesday, the SDF took control of two villages and a military base on the 
outskirts of the Minagh military airport” (and captured the base on 
Wednesday).


The same article, also reports on the eminently just and sensible truce 
negotiated at the end of the December skirmishes between the FSA and the 
YPG/SDF, stipulating that “the FSA would not move towards 
Kurdish-controlled areas and vice-versa.” It is fairly obvious who broke 
that truce, as the article continues:


“This week’s incursion into rebel-held areas in northern Aleppo is the 
fourth truce violation between them and the Marea Operations Room, 
Mohammed Najem a-Din, correspondent with pro-opposition Smart News, told 
Syria Direct Wednesday. “The SDF and Jaish al-Thuwwar have taken 
advantage of rebels being busy fighting the regime on Nubl and Zahraa” 
in order to make gains into their territory, said Najem a-Din.”


Syrian Observer 
(http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30560/Syrian_Democratic_Forces_Advance_Towards_Tel_Rifaat_Under_Russian_Air_Support) 
reported that:


“The Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces achieved a significant 
military victory in the area of Tel Rifaat in the northern Aleppo 
countryside, seizing control of the village of Kafrnaya to its south … 
one day after they captured Ayn Daqnah, in an effort to blockade the 
town from three sides. The sources said that Russian warplanes had been 
providing covering fire for the SDF during its attempt to enter the town 
and attacked opposition positions with dozens of rockets and bombs.”


According to Scott Lucas 
(http://eaworldview.com/2016/02/syria-daily-kurdish-pyd-we-will-not-pull-back-v-turkey-and-rebels/):


“With rebels under pressure from a regime-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah 
offensive north of Aleppo city, Kurdish forces began advancing earlier 
this month into rebel areas, taking a series of villages and the town of 
Deir Jawad on the Turkish border. … Despite the Turkish intervention, 
the Kurdish forces are still advancing. They captured Ayn Daqna, east of 
Azaz, on Sunday. They also are continuing assaults on the important town 
of Tal Rifaat, having been repelled on Friday and Saturday. Russia is 
now openly supporting the Kurdish attacks with airstrikes — at least 15 
were reported 

[Marxism] Bloody Counterrevolution in Aleppo: on Russian Blitzkrieg and US “betrayal”

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Bloody Counterrevolution in Aleppo: on Russian Blitzkrieg and US 
“betrayal”


https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/bloody-counterrevolution-in-aleppo-on-russian-blitzkrieg-and-us-betrayal/

Today we are watching bloody counterrevolution, imperialist barbarism, 
in its most naked form, most visibly in the combined Blitzkrieg against 
the people of Aleppo and its northern countryside being carried out by 
the invading Russian air force, the fascistic regime of Bashar Assad 
with his barrel bombs, the invading Iranian Revolutionary Guards and 
their imports including Iraqi Shiite-sectarian death squads, Hezbollah 
and various manipulated, impoverished Shia troops from Afghanistan and 
Pakistan, with ISIS to some extent, and the US-backed Kurdish YPG on a 
huge scale, opportunistically joining in from either side like vultures.


Meanwhile, much the same continues in the south, with people still 
starving to death, even as world attention has gone away, in the various 
towns surrounding Damascus that are being carpet-bombed  by Assad and 
Russia, besieged and starved by Assad and Hezbollah. This scene from 
some apocalypse 
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153676629524823=gm.495267943990549=3) 
is actually between Moadamiyeh and Daraya; this picture of Hiroshima is 
actually what the regime has done to to the once beautiful city of Homs: 
https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153492613721939/?pnref=story. 
Further south, regime and Russian bombing continues day and night 
against the mighty, and starkly moderate, Southern Front of the FSA, 
which has had its already miserable level of “support” cut off by Jordan 
and the US; 150,000 people have been uprooted in the latest offensives.


Returning to Aleppo, the bombing has reached extraordinary levels 
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/06/aleppo-under-bombardment-fears-siege-and-starvation?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail:
“The bombs are falling so fast in Aleppo now that often rescuers don’t 
have time to reach victims between blasts. If the deadly explosions that 
struck on just one day last week had been evenly spaced, they would have 
struck every other minute around the clock.
“Sometimes there are so many airstrikes, we are just waiting and waiting 
at our headquarters, and the jets don’t leave the skies,” says 
Abdulrahman Alhassan, a 29-year-old former bank engineer from the city 
who coordinates “white helmet” rescue teams in the city.
“When at last we can’t see any more, we have to rush to all the sites to 
rescue people and evacuate them at once,” he said. On Friday, the group 
counted 900 airstrikes by government forces and their Russian backers, 
apparently throwing every weapon they have at the already devastated 
city.”


That is, 900 airstrikes on the city in one day.

As is widely reported, the targets include countless hospitals, schools, 
markets, bakeries, mosques and so on. This video shows the results of 
the deliberate Russian bombing of the children’s and maternity hospital 
in Azaz: 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/not-terrorists-or-fighters-just-babies-syrian-charity-video-shows-devastation-after-azaz-hospital-a6875496.html, 
on the same day in mid-February that three other hospitals and two 
schools were bombed 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/world/middleeast/syria-hospital-airstrike-doctors-without-borders.html).






It is high time, in my opinion, to call a spade a spade. This has 
nothing to do with the fact that there has been no “US intervention,” 
still less a call for it. In fact, those constantly warning against “US 
intervention” wilfully ignore that the US has been bombing Syria for 
some 17 months, just that it bombs Anyone But Assad (see my article on 
who the US bombs: . 
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/who-has-the-us-bombed-for-in-syria/).


At this point, it doesn't even have that much to do with the many years 
of very active US intervention against the revolution, to ensure that no 
Syrian rebels, not even the most "moderate", could get their hands on 
any anti-aircraft weapons, the major defensive need of the rebels since 
mid-2012 when massive airpower became the main form of regime 
aggression; with the fact that sympathetic regional states were blocked 
from sending them, and that the FSA was even blocked when it tried to 
get them from the black market. No, this is all well-established; as one 
tweet put it concisely, “the only consistent, thorough, well-implemented 
US Syrian policy is tracking hunting and stopping MANPADS from reaching 
any opposition group since 2012” 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria: a country in free fall - The Hindu

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Actually, I believe the regime change operation in Russia in 1917 
(orchestrated by German imperialism) had a toll in many millions by 
1921.


-Original Message- 
From: Clay Claiborne via Marxism

Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2016 2:12 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria: a country in free fall - The Hindu

Apparently by referring to any revolution as regime change, which of 
course

it is, counter revolution can be supported by so-called Marxists
On Feb 12, 2016 8:16 AM, "Louis Proyect via Marxism" <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

(Vijay Prashad believes that "Regime change has left 23 million 
Syrians
with no real country." That is what Malcolm X once referred to as 
turning
the criminal into the victim. It was Bashar al-Assad's determination 
to
destroy the country rather than submit to democratic and peaceful 
change
that led to the massive destruction that his article decries. As the 
slogan
of Assad's supporters put it, "Either you obey Al Assad, or we will 
burn

this land.")

Meanwhile, at the edges of Syria, various powers — the IS being the 
most
obvious — are selling off Syrian resources such as oil and antiquities 
to
finance their own agenda. It is this fragmentation that has taken on 
the

appearance of permanence.

While others talk of division of the country on sectarian or ethnic
grounds, the centre suggests that the break-up has been precipitated 
by

socio-economic factors. The unity of Syria — long a proud part of Arab
nationalist thought — is no longer inevitable. That unity is not going 
to
be compromised by a forced partition towards a peace deal. The country 
has

already been fragmented by the war economy. Regime change has left 23
million Syrians with no real country. It is being slowly wiped off the 
map.



http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/syria-a-country-in-free-fall/article8219545.ece
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/clayclai%40gmail.com

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com 


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syrian Kurds backed by Russian airstrikes advance onSyrian airb

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

No longer just "poised" - they've done it! Liberation complete!

Anti-imperialism now consists of being the only force in Syria to be 
fully backed to the hilt by both US and Russian imperialism.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Syrian Kurds backed by Russian airstrikes 
advance onSyrian airb


Anarchist, feminist tree-huggers poised to liberate Baathist air base
from filthy bearded, Sharia-law supporting jihadists.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/10022016

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] As we suspected: Real figure for Syrians killed close to half a million

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(In fact, just a few days ago, Michael Kilo, long-term dissident, and 
Christian, and former Syrian Opposition Coalition leader, claimed the 
real figure was 1 million killed: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OccupySyria/permalink/955638211196658/)


Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/11/report-on-syria-conflict-finds-115-of-population-killed-or-injured?CMP=share_btn_tw

Exclusive Syrian Centre for Policy Research says 470,000 deaths is twice 
UN’s figure with ‘human development ruined’ after 45% of population is 
displaced


Ian Black Middle East editor
Thursday 11 February 2016 11.01 AEDT Last modified on Thursday 11 
February 2016 22.51 AEDT


Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been 
“almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years 
of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly 
and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for 
Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 
used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 
months ago.
In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured 
since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number 
of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 
2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn 
(£175bn).
The stark account of the war’s toll came as warnings multiplied about 
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, which is in danger of being cut off by a 
government advance aided by Russian airstrikes and Iranian militiamen. 
The Syrian opposition is demanding urgent action to relieve the 
suffering of tens of thousands of civilians.
The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that 50,000 people had 
fled the upsurge in fighting in the north, requiring urgent deliveries 
of food and water.
Talks in Munich on Thursday between the US secretary of state, John 
Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will be closely 
watched for any sign of an end to the deadly impasse. UN-brokered peace 
talks in Geneva are scheduled to resume in two weeks but are unlikely to 
do so without a significant shift of policy.
Speaking in London on Wednesday, an opposition spokesman, Salim 
al-Muslet, said President Barack Obama could stop the Russian attacks. 
“If he is willing to save our children it is really the time now to say 
‘no’ to these strikes in Syria,” he said. The Washington Post reported 
that Moscow had sent a letter to Washington proposing to stop bombing on 
1 March.


Of the 470,000 war dead counted by the SCPR, about 400,000 were directly 
due to violence, while the remaining 70,000 fell victim to lack of 
adequate health services, medicine, especially for chronic diseases, 
lack of food, clean water, sanitation and proper housing, especially for 
those displaced within conflict zones.


“We use very rigorous research methods and we are sure of this figure,” 
Rabie Nasser, the report’s author, told the Guardian. “Indirect deaths 
will be greater in the future, though most NGOs [non-governmental 
organisations] and the UN ignore them.
“We think that the UN documentation and informal estimation 
underestimated the casualties due to lack of access to information 
during the crisis,” he said.
In statistical terms, Syria’s mortality rate increase from 4.4 per 
thousand in 2010 to 10.9 per thousand in 2015.
The UN high commissioner for human rights – which manages conflict death 
tolls – stopped counting Syria’s dead in mid-2014, citing lack of access 
and diminishing confidence in data sources.
The SCPR was based until recently in Damascus and research for this and 
previous reports was carried out on the ground across Syria. It is 
careful not to criticise the Syrian government or its allies – Iran, 
Hezbollah, Russia. And with the exception of Islamic State, it refers 
only to “armed groups” seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. 
But despite the neutral tone the findings are shocking.
In an atmosphere of “coercion, fear and fanaticism”, blackmail, theft 
and smuggling have supported the continuation of armed conflict so that 
the Syrian economy has become “a black hole” absorbing “domestic and 
external resources”.Oil production continues to be an “important 
financial resource” for Isis and other armed groups, it says.
Consumer prices rose 53% last year. But suffering is unevenly spread. 
“Prices in conflict zones and besieged areas are much higher than 
elsewhere in the country and this boosts profit margins for war traders 
who monopolise the