Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have been a common German
citizen during World War II. When their Nazi government surrendered,
and the leaders were tried and dealt with, and their nation was
governed by Foreigners, I wonder if they still believed the lies that
had been poured into their brains.
Like our American Oligarchy, the German Hierarchy had a long history
of aggressiveness, having swept through the European continent, and
never being satisfied with remaining within their own borders.
With such a history of violence, I wonder if the modern German citizen
thinks of their history as being violent. Or are they so
propagandized that they, like American citizens, believe that they are
a superior, loving, generous, fair minded, People. Do they think that
other nations so envy them that they must defend their borders from
jealous invaders sneaking in, bent on doing them harm.
But even as I wonder, I know the answer. The only differences among
us, all of us, living on Planet Earth, are superficial, so far as our
skin color, our sex, and our size. The other differences are caused
by the cultures we were raised in.
These cultural differences are the cause of our wars. These
differences are actually artificial creations, born within the minds
of Man. In short, we are victims of our own imagination. We have
created every God that ever looked down upon us. We have declared Man
to be superior to all else within Nature. We have created an
artificial "civilization", that depends upon artificial trinkets such
as gold, silver and jewels, to enable some of us to be "Superior" to
others. But it is all a house of cards. And it will either tumble of
its own accord, or fall apart when Planet Earth can no longer sustain
it. And all because the Masses have chosen to turn our heads and
pretend that things will get better by themselves. We will continue
bending our backs to enable the very few to live a life of abject
luxury, while we scratch for a mean existence. The House of Cards,
like that House of Usher, will crumble, and most of us will have never
come close to living a real life.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/27/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Things are so much worse than this article reports that I wonder why The
Militant even bothered. The US is supporting troops which oppose each other
in Syria. Since Trump's presidency, the rules of engagement have changed in
Iraq and Syria. The US is responsible for an air attack in Mossel in which
more than 200 civilians were killed. Turkey is becoming an autocracy. Trump
is apparently assisting it to do so. We are creating incredible numbers of
refugees, but Europe is closing its doors to them and the US has never taken
its fair share, and now, will take none at all.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 10:55 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Washington sends troops to Syria, moves to,
outflank rivals
http://themilitant.com/2017/8113/811303.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 13 April 3, 2017
(front page)
Washington sends troops to Syria, moves to
outflank rivals
BY PATRICIA MARSHALL
Raqqa, Syria, is increasingly the focus of competing capitalist powers
seeking to defend their economic and political interests in the Middle East
today. The military forces of Washington, allied with the Syrian Democratic
Forces — Arab fighters opposed to the dictatorial Syrian regime of Bashar
al-Assad and their Kurdish People’s Protection Units
(YPG) allies; Damascus, Moscow, and Tehran, with its allied Hezbollah and
Shiite militias; and Ankara are all jockeying for position to take the
city.
Washington and its allies are the closest. The 50,000-strong Kurdish-led
SDF, backed by U.S. troops and air power, is now within six miles of Raqqa,
the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State. Washington’s goal in
reaching Raqqa first — at the same time as U.S. forces and their Iraqi army
allies are moving to retake Mosul — is to push out Islamic State and
establish a strong military and political base of operations across the two
countries.
The propertied rulers in the U.S. are escalating their military firepower.
The Pentagon is sending substantial reinforcements of U.S.
troops to Syria, drawn from the nearly 5,000 Marines and paratroopers now
being deployed to Kuwait. These troops would join Washington’s warplanes,
attack helicopters, artillery and some 1,000 Marines, Rangers and special
operations forces already operating alongside the SDF.
Though President Donald Trump won election by promising to keep the U.S.
out of foreign wars, as well as campaigning in the name of jobs and economic
gains for working people, his administration has put forward a new draft
budget that would sharply increase military spending by $52 billion this
year alone.
Iranian-backed forces and troops from the Assad regime are also converging
on Raqqa. And Ankara and their Free Syrian Army forces are trying to find a
way to elbow in on the fight.
In an interview posted on Syria’s state news agency SANA March 11, Assad
described Washington’s troops in Syria as “invaders.”
On March 17, Israeli warplanes crossed Syrian airspace to bomb a weapons
convoy for Hezbollah forces. The Assad regime fired anti-aircraft missiles
at Israel’s jets. The Israeli military shot down one of the Syrian missiles
and denied Syrian army claims that it had shot down an Israeli jet. Debris
was reported in Jordan, 12 miles from the Israeli and Syrian borders.
Ankara seeks to bolster influence
Ankara, which has dropped its demand that Assad step down, views the Kurds
as its biggest problem. There are some 30 million Kurds divided between
Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran — the largest nationality without its own
homeland in the world.
Ankara’s goal is to prevent the YPG from linking the 20,000 square miles of
Syrian territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border with the fight
by Kurds in Turkey for autonomy.
Ankara invaded Syria last year, seeking to prevent Kurds in cantons they
control in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the country from
uniting. Working with Free Syrian Army troops, Turkish forces were seeking
to take Manbij, some 70 miles from Raqqa.
Moscow brokered a deal between the YPG and their Syrian allies in Manbij for
Assad regime troops to occupy nearby towns. And Washington sent troops to
Manbij as a signal to Ankara to keep out.
Turkey is the third largest country in NATO, with a population of 79 million
and close to half a million military personnel. It shares Incirlik Air Base
with U.S. military forces, who control “a significant number of nuclear
weapons” there.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a referendum April
16 to concentrate more power in his hands. It would make permanent many of
the regime’s emergency powers since an attempted military coup last year.
Since then some 110,000 civil servants have been fired and over
37,000 people arrested.
Erdogan sent government ministers to Europe to try and rally a big vote from
the millions of Turks living there, where support for his regime is greater
than inside Turkey. This is especially true in Turkey’s Kurdish regions,
where opposition to Erdogan is widespread.
The Dutch government took the unprecedented step of blocking two Turkish
ministers from entering the country. Similar meetings were prevented in
Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. Erdogan then called the governments of
Germany and the Netherlands fascist and Nazi-like.
This unprecedented breakdown of normal capitalist diplomatic relations can
actually work in Erdogan’s favor, stoking a higher turnout from nationalist
forces angered by the European regimes’ treatment of Turkish government
representatives.
Workers across Turkey are being battered by the consequences of the world
capitalist economic crisis. Youth unemployment is running at 21 percent. And
in a December report that many agree understates the real extent of the
carnage, the Confederation of Merchants and Craftsmen said over 6,000
workers have been killed on the job in the last five years.
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the underlying issues of Kurdish
oppression and working-class politics will not go away in a region wracked
with war.
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