Re: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
Miriam, the reason you see it that way is because you do not think
dialectically. If you keep in mind who has control of the main sources
of information
propagation you will understand why Karl Marx said that in any time in
history the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class. If you keep
in mind
the long view of history and observe the circumstances that rebellions
have happened in the past despite the control of information by the
ruling classes
you will understand the cycles of history and the punctuated equilibrium
of history. I borrowed that last phrase from Stephen J. Gould. The
forces that
lead to revolutionary mass action build up over long periods of
quiescence and then break loose. To see one of those punctuations you
have to be lucky
enough to be living right at the time it is happening. To look at only
the present situation and to assume that it is the way things are and
have always
been and always will be is historical myopia. But you don't have to just
look at history. You can look at the entire world in your lifetime. You
can see
the laws of history playing out around the world You cannot expect that
the United States is immune to the laws of history while the rest of the
world
is not. And if it seems to be for some long amount of time you can look
for reasons for that like the effects of imperialist plunder on the home
population.
Yes, the home population can be bought off at least for a while by
letting it benefit from the exploitation of the people in other
countries. Let me suggest
reading The Long View of History by Ernest Mandel. And then try to
combat myopia by observing the dynamics of history from a broader
perspective, broader
both chronilogically and spacially.
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
????? Albert Einstein
On 10/9/2019 12:46 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
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I'm having a difficult time, having sympathy with the people whom you're
defining as the working class. Whatever we call them, they are 40% or
more of
the population. They support empire. They watch reality TV. They are
committed to conspicuous consumption. They did not spontaneously protest
in the streets
when Muslims were banned from entering the US or when Immigrant children
were separated from their parents or when Immigrants were told that they
could
no longer enter our country for asylum or when our president suggested
in rallies and in tweets, that certain of our people be attacked. They
don't care
that he's financially benefiting from the presidency or that he's
undoing every social advance that this country has made since the
1930's. They don't
even know that their parents did as well as they did and that they
benefited from that, as a result of the social welfare state that was
created during
the Roosevelt administration. They believe that they're all self made
men and that what they've made is being taken away from them by people
of color,
immigrants, Muslims, uppity women, and probably, Jews.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From:
blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
??On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 12:03 PM
To:
blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria
Withdrawal
The real heading should read, "The Domino Effect of Trump's 2016 Election"
While American History relates many low points in our struggle to
maintain a "People's Government", I believe we are looking at the lowest
one to date.
With our attention distracted by the tweets and foolish remarks tossed
out daily by Donald Trump, any input by the Working Class Americans is
being dismantled
by the "Trumpeteers".
Our founding fathers were concerned that there be separation of Church
and State, and that there be safeguards protecting the Landholders and
wealthy citizens.
But they had no idea that times would change, and the serious threat
would come from the Corporate/Military takeover.
It will be interesting to see just how long it takes Working Class
Americans to realize that their freedom has been taken from them, and
that it was not
the doing of Marxists, Illegals, the Media, or the Colored and the Jews
and Muslims.?? Sadly, by the time any suggestion of a Working Class Slave
System
becomes apparent, this Internet will be totally controlled, and any
protest will be met with force.
Our great grandchildren will know the outcome of the current efforts to
control "the people", merely by reading their history books.
Remember, history is written by the winners.
Carl Jarvis: still looking for the ghost of Howard Zinn.
On 10/8/19, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
??wrote:
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The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan?? (Brookings Institution / Flickr)
U.S. President Donald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Sunday, October 6, that the United States troops inside
Syria would not defend the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have built
an enclave inside Syria along a section of the Turkish border. The
Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) are made up largely of Kurdish factions, who set up this armed
force to defend the mainly Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. When the
U.S. began its attack on the Islamic State (ISIS), the SDF became the
ground forces beneath the U.S. bombers. Now, the U.S. has decided to
betray the sacrifice of the SDF.
Turkey has previously threatened to attack the SDF and other Kurdish
groups inside Syria east of the River Euphrates. In 2014 and 2015,
Turkey signaled that it would invade Syria. In August 2016, the
Turkish military crossed the border with U.S. air cover. Erdogan
said???at that time???that Turkey was going to attack both ISIS and the
Kurdish militia group, People???s Protection Units (YPG). This
operation, which was largely around the Syrian town of Jarabulus along
the Syria-Turkey border, was known as Operation Euphrates Shield. The
2016 intervention opened the door to two further interventions in
northern Idlib (2017) and in Afrin (2018), the last operation with an
Orwellian name???Operation Olive Branch. These were targeted attacks and
not an all-out war on the SDF and other Syrian forces.
Now, Erdogan???s government is preparing to enter Syria for a major
military operation against the SDF. The U.S. forces have already left
the observation posts at Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain???both key places
where the U.S. monitored Turkish troops and shielded the SDF from
Turkish attacks. That shield has now been removed. U.S. forces remain
in the region, but there is every indication that they will remove
themselves from the main hubs of the SDF.
The SDF is now vulnerable to the full might of the Turkish army. The
political leaders of the SDF say that they would defend their
enclave???known as Rojava??????at all costs.??? Over the past year, Ilham
Ehmed, the co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, has warned that
Turkey is determined to enter this ???safe zone??? (or what the U.S. calls
a ???security mechanism???). Ehmed said???before this recent
announcement???that Turkey will invade Rojava, harshly attack the SDF,
and re-settle the three million Syrian refugees who are now in Turkey.
These refugees are not from the area east of the River Euphrates.
Not only will the Turkish government wreck Rojava, but it will
ethnically cleanse the area by bringing in large numbers of
non-Kurdish Syrians. It is important to recall that the population of
Syrian Kurds is around two million. Ehmed has expressed her worry
about this attempt to render the Syrian Kurds of Rojava extinct.
What will a Turkish invasion mean for the area?
1.It will destroy the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Rojava. For all its
great limitations, the government of Rojava has experimented with
various forms of democracy, including economic and cultural democracy.
2.It will destroy the social integrity of the cultural world east of
the River Euphrates. The transport of three million Syrians???largely
from the western part of Syria???will change the character of this
region, which is the homeland of the Syrian Kurds. In the long run,
this population transfer could annihilate Syrian Kurdish society.
Besides, if Turkey does this, it would have violated Article 49 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).
3.It might force the Syrian armed forces to march on the region, to
defend its borders. In the Iranian parliament, Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Turkey should respect Syria???s borders,
and that Turkey must allow the Syrian armed forces to establish their
presence at the border. If the Syrian army moves on the border, it
will open up the possibility of a clash between Syria and Turkey,
which might lead to tensions between the armed forces of Iran, Russia,
and the United States.
4.Since 2017, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey have been part of the
Astana Group, whose purpose was to find a way to dial-down the bloody
war in Syria.
Turkish intervention into Syria will raise the possibility of the
revival of war inside Syria. Turkey???s proxy groups that were part of
the attack on the Syrian government will be emboldened to try once
more to overthrow the government in Damascus.
5.If Iranian and U.S. forces clash in Syria, will this give the U.S.
another
reason to open up a fuller war against Iran, including the bombardment
of Iran itself?
6.It will strengthen a greatly weakened Erdogan government.
It is worthwhile to be alarmed by these developments. The United
Nations has taken the correct assessment of the situation. The UN???s
Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria???Panos Moumtzis???said, ???We don???t know
what is going to happen. ??? We are preparing for the worst.??? So should
the rest of us.
This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the
Independent Media Institute.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of
the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord
Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social
Research. He has written more than twenty books, including The Darker
Nations: A People???s History of the Third World (The New Press, 2007),
The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso,
2013), The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution
(University of California Press, 2016) and Red Star Over the Third
World (LeftWord, 2017). He writes regularly for Frontline, the Hindu,
Newsclick, AlterNet and BirG??n.
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--
---
Albert Einstein
???Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.???
??? Albert Einstein
