#//local veteran remembers atrocities

[burdenedreverance]

"Have you stood in your homeland with it soaked in the blood of your countrymen? Ten thousand men, died or wounded. Bleeding out in mud, choking on soiled water. I was a boy. I was boy killing other boys. Killing men."

"I do not regret it. However, my soul is tainted. I shall never know peace."

[ultra-creepy-fucker-things]

Can we talk about the implied effort to erase all traces of the Serpentine's cultural remnant and existence? Because I'm DYING to talk about the implied effort to erase all traces of the Serpentine's cultural remnant and existence.

Doylistically speaking, it's clear the writers originally intended for the Serpentine War to have occurred at least centuries ago, but when the show was renewed, they wanted Kai and Nya's parents to be part of that war... And instead of just making a select group of characters ageless, the writers simply opted to change the timeline so that the Serpentine War and entombment period happened within a single human lifetime.

Which is INSANE because like. How do you explain everyone forgetting, or at least being convinced that the Serpentine are just folklore, local mythology, even though the curator for Ninjago's biggest museum is a veteran of the Serpentine War??? The only explanation at this point (aside from the ninja having hilariously poor education) is that humanity went out of its way to erase all records of the Serpentine's existence. And even though there are still plenty of people alive from that time, their accounts are presumably ignored.

Ninjago lore is admittedly an inconsistent, constantly-retconned mess, and that's the real reason for it. But with how the show brushes past the entombment of the Serpentine and outright genocide of the Anacondrai (because unless Anacondrai asexually reproduce, the species is doomed to die when Pythor inevitably does), it really feels in line for the Elemental Alliance to actively try to hide the Serpentine's existence from future generations. Because it's easier to justify war crimes if the Serpentine didn't actually exist, meaning they're a fictional race that you can assign all sorts of atrocities towards in order to justify everything done to them, because in the end they're JUST a story!!!

It does seem like Kai was the only one who believed they were fictional, but yes, a lot of information about the serpentine seems to be incorrect, remember the museum they robbed at some point in the first two seasons- Skales comments on the inaccuracy of the painting, and then, if I remember correctly, the sarcophagus they steal appears to be a hypnobrai artifact, a fact that has its own unsettling implications. And, another thing to note, of the fangblades who's locations we saw, two of them were located in some sort of sacred location, one being in the fire temple, the other in a pyramid, and the third... Is buried under a human built amusement park, as though a sacred location was bulldozed with the religious artifacts still inside...

Although, I have to say, although only the anacondrai were reduced to a single person, all five tribes are victims of genocide.

[blanket-hugger]

as the iof is continuing its campaign of extermination, i have trouble understanding how life can go on here, in the belly of the beast. but i keep thinking about the attitudes of adults around me about world war 2 and geopolitics when i was growing up in the 2000s in sort of nowhere on the continent.

that teacher that took upon herself to educate us about the shoah among other things. she very much leaned into the center-left mainstream takes of the time (rosy view of the resistance, little talk of collaborators, communism, the eastern front, no talk whatsoever of colonialism, etc (i may one day recover my memories related to the genre of shoah movies and have a rant)) - a mixed bag overall but she tried. even with that i feel we should have a deep seething hatred of nazis, their enablers and anyone enacting the same policies instilled in the popular culture, but here we are.

i remember my father, who has been voting center-right and has tried to play (unsuccessfully) stocks, yet he would (often?) ramble to me about resource extraction in neocolonies and how they're kept down by debt.

he told me he did not know what he would have done during the war. "i may not have joined any resistance you know. hell i might have caved under the pressure and collaborated". i am grateful for the honesty i suppose. it worrying, also for him. (that's certainly not the only fucked-up thing he might say; guess he only sees himself working as part of the nuclear family in a big bad world and that fucked him up)

a couple holidays i was dragged to in maghreb thanks. without even a keen awareness of the horrible colonial history, you can guess something is fucked up when we see what us middle-class fucks can afford and general interactions with the locals. it made me deeply hate tourism (i have let go enough of that not to be an asshole when my friends want to visit the local church) (ngl, i also resented being dragged around when i did not want to, it was not solely disgust at colonialism.)

"we won't go to algeria there is too much terrorism". I remember hearing for the first time "algeria war" being said by someone irl when i was 16 by an airforce veteran - he defo was ashamed of that part of his past. beforehand i would only hear of "the algeria events"

many years later, hearing my PhD advisor tell a colleague that you can always stir up the most reactionary shit from someone by just suggesting something of theirs is going to be taken away. No matter how minuscule, no matter justice. (ww2 and palestine were also things he thought about a lot back then. seeing bus drivers bragging about their guns in tel-aviv)

it probably tracks that the 50 shades of "fuck you got mine", a measure of in-group identification and our material interests leads to the asinine stances of those who claim to be progressive but follow the "apolitical" or the "liberal" line on settler-colonialism (or immigration, or ....).

EVEN THEN. anyone can see the current level of atrocities. committed by humans. the flimsy propaganda and lies, for so many years. i dont see how these ppl can't feel the hurt of directly participating in structures that support this

[praetor-canis]

@tragicfantasy-girl 😂 LOL, my friend. Don’t you know that Anti-Semitism has a new “official” definition nowadays? Anyone who doesn’t support Israel’s Zionist campaign is now either anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew. If the Jedi are really Jews, they would be Zionists who believes that the children of light must win with any means possible. I guess, the parallels are apt in some way.

Putin’s not so bad compared to the assassination of Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin, whose death was openly called for in public by the Likud Party. Last I checked, Putin never called for the death of his predecessors in this way. Remember, it’s “democratic” Canada that welcomed a 96-year-old Nazi Veteran into its parliament and gave him two standing ovations. It’s the United States coming up all these excuses for Stephon Bandera and his cohorts who committed atrocities across Poland and Ukraine in WW2. It’s the US constantly voting against the UN resolution to ban the glorification of Nazism since 2014 (check voting record: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/820132?ln=en). Not us autocrats in Asia.

This is why I’ve always said bringing the Cold War fantasies of Star Wars into real life is a mistake. This is why I questioned the ‘good intentions’ of characters like Bail Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi. It seems to only make people more gullible to the lies of neocon schemers. By the way, you do know that most ministers taking care of everyday governance are in fact appointed to those positions and not elected officials, right? Case in point, Secretary of State and all our favorite foreign ministers in the West. Another example would be the people who blew up Nordstream 2. People who seem to have no idea what negotiations and peace talks are.

As to issue of Gaza. A boy watches his uncle get killed by a group of soldiers and decides to join a military group to fight the local government. Is that Luke Skywalker or the founder of Hamas? Unlike in Star Wars, there is no convenient battleground on that patch of land where you could blow up military bases without incurring civilian casualties. Both sides have military infrastructure and civilian residences packed together.

Have you listened or read the works of Jewish psychiatrist Gabor Mate? Perhaps the Israeli general’s son Miko Peled? Look them up on YouTube and take a look at their lectures. Here’s a video of Gabor and his sons on trauma and the Gaza/Palestine issue.

Wow, I have seen pro Jedi people say that the Jedi had no choice, but allow Chancellor Palpatine have unrestricted access to Anakin, but now these pro Jedi people are saying that they have a right to restrict access to certain areas of the temple especially since children live there. If they have enough power to restrict access to certain areas of the temple to people who are not Jedi, they can make sure that Anakin didn’t have to spend time around Palpatine, but I am guessing the people in the picture don’t care about the safety of Anakin, especially the one who calls themself antianakin. It is contradictions like this that make interacting with pro Jedi people like these two unbearable.

[horrorslashergirl]

Chromeskull x Ghostface!Reader- “Playing with the bad boys“

I re-watched Scream 4, because of nostalgia and it really reminded me about who Ghostface is. It can be anyone, male or female, which gave me an idea for a story. Let me know what you people think about this.

CHAPTER 1: Looks can be deceiving (You are here)

CHAPTER 2: One cut of information

It was another day at the local police station in Jacksonville and tiered eyes were looking over potential choices of a strong cup of caffeine to wake you up, finally choosing a strong one, with just a little hint of sugar. You haven't got much sleep thanks to your superior giving you supplementary work on another case of murder, but you expected that a dry chuckle coming out from your mouth as you thought about putting this work on yourself because of your own doing.

Murderers, they were all across the globe and who would suspect that the rocky sergeant from Jacksonville was the culprit of these gruesome murders? It always was a perk to be a woman, because none suspected them. Most would feel repulsed and offended, but not you; it was a bonus on your behalf.

"[Name]? We have another case of murder." one of your colleagues from the primary office called, making you turn your head, taking the cup of coffee and walking towards the room where the main team was, looking over files.

"Another Ghostface murder?" you asked, taking a sip of your coffee.

"I wish. This is so much more than the simplest killings of that masked wannabe dude." Josh, your partner said, making you feel a little angry at calling your other persona such names, but you masked it perfectly.

"Then?" you asked, feeling now more curious than ever.

"It's a murderer that we tried to track for some years. He's been sending us videotapes of his killings all across Florida. He's almost like a ghost. We simply cannot find him or try to track him down." your superior said, looking at everyone with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose, his forehead pulled into an annoyed frown, showing wrinkles of old aging and sleepless nights.

"How come I never heard of it." you stated, more than asked.

"It's a much more complicated case. It's not for a rocky like you, especially a woman. Plus, I don't think you would want to get involved with this case. He kills women." another guy said, laughing a little with the other guys, making you glare at him.

"Enough! Either way, these two killers need to be found and arrested. Do I make myself clear?" your boss said, looking at everyone who nodded and continued with work.

You have been a sergeant for almost six months and you cursed yourself for not hearing of this so-called famous killer of Florida. You felt a little showed out of the headlights by him, because all day this was the subject that runs across the police station and on the tv at the news. It was a perk working at the police, always getting the juicy news and levels of how the investigations were going. So far, your Ghostface persona killer was known to be male and white, so that put you clearly out of potential suspects.

After a long day of work and trying to maintain your normal life; doing the grocery shopping, participating in the book club you were taking part off, you were finally home, putting your bag on a hook in the hallway, you dressed into something more comfortable, a tank top and a pair of black sweatpants. You put some leftover lunch into the microwave to heat up and turned on the news, a smile on your face as the lady talked about the Ghostface murders.

At last, all your hard work appeared on the news, pride swelling up into your chest. If anyone would find out they most likely would question how someone who was supposed to represent good and fighting against crimes, could commit such an atrocity.

Like you would ever be caught.

Walking to your bedroom, you opened your walk-in closet and took a box from the back of the closet, opening it, the black material giving you the rush of the chase, remembering your last victims; the girl was easy to take care of, slitting her throat and breaking her neck was a piece of cake, but her boyfriend was a tough one. Your back still hurt from where he hit you with the chair, but you managed to push him out the window. The fucker survived the fall, but not the knife that had cut his torso, letting his insides run out in a bloody mess.

Your hands were grasping the white screaming mask, a sadistic smile that just your victims have ever seen plastered on your face. It was kind of funny to you; all the chasing the police made and the culprit was right under their nose. Just proved more that mostly everyone wasn't thinking outside the box.

Putting the mask and black material back inside the box and leaving your closet, you went to eat, you will need that and some good rest because you were ready to start another sequel.

If only you knew what you got yourself into.

Somewhere in Jacksonville....

The knife was thrown and impaled straight into the photo on the wall, perfect centering, making Spann and Preston look skeptical at their boss. They knew they should say anything, especially when Jesse was in such a carnage mood. They knew if there was a piggy here, she would most likely end up skinned alive and thrown to the dogs.

The photo on the wall that turned into a target for Jesse was a photo of the most talked news on the tv; Ghostface. The audacity of that punk, trying to get on Chromeskulls territory, it was a mistake that will cost the smaller murderer his life.

"We tried to track down information about him from all the news and police, but the only information is that he is a white male, around the age of 20-25.

'That's all?' Jesse signed, then hit the black luscious desk with a fist, making the furniture shake, and his two assistants to gulp down.

If something annoyed Jesse, it was to be put in the shadow of a rocky killer, someone who just started up and didn't have the veteran skills of someone who walked this way for years. How hard could it be to track down someone? Someone who worked solo, didn't have hundreds of people to work for him and was probably poor as fuck.

Jesse Cromeans felt insulted and anyone who dared to pull such a stunt ended up in a coffin, either skinned alive or dismembered or both.

"We will try to keep tabs of his activity and catch him on his next murder. He will be dead." Spann said, all professionally, never letting her boss down. Jesse raised a hand, in a stopping motion.

'No. I want him alive. I will take personal care of him' he signed, dismissing his seconds in command, leaving him all alone in his gigantic office, a huff of annoyance leaving his scarred lips, one single brown eye glaring at the photo on the wall.

'You don't know what awaits you, Ghostface.'

To be continued....

[scotianostra]

April 16th 1746 saw the Battle of Culloden.

Today I wont so much be covering the battle itself as I have in previous years, I will post a bit about how Culloden became the site of the battle and the aftermath. By the aftermath, again I wont be treading over ground covered and the treatment of Highlanders, but will instead follow what was left of the Jacobite army and what they did in the days, weeks and indeed months after the battle.

Much has been said about the site of the battle and the Prince has been criticised for "choosing" the moor.

Three sites were scouted in the 48 hours leading up to the battle, they knew Cumberland's army was coming, their had been skirmishes in the week or so before this day, things were coming to a head.

The first site as at Dalcross Castle, which John Sullivan, the Irish adjutant and quartermaster general, rejected, because the distance across the ravine would have been too small to protect the Jacobite army from British musket fire from the other side.

The second was on the south side of the Nairn, chosen by Lord George Murray. This was poor ground, did not protect the road to Inverness and was vulnerable to British mortar fire from the other side of the river. It is clear that this site was a prelude to retreat and the dissolution of the army, because it was not an effective battle site.

The third site was about 1km east of where the battle was eventually fought, and John Sullivan drew up the army there on 15 April. It was on higher and less boggy ground than the final battlefield, and both wings of the army could see each other, which they could not in the next day’s sleet and rain. No one ‘chose’ the site of the battle on Drummossie Moor as a preference: it was the line closest to headquarters at Culloden House which could defend the road to Inverness.

Many of those soldiers who were asleep after the failed night attack on the 15th had retreated to the grounds of Culloden House, and there was little time to form them up as the British Army approached on the morning of the battle.

Some had urged the Prince to fall back into the hills and glens, split into units and launch a guerrilla campaign,  historians can't agree who ruled this out, some say Lord Murray, others Prince Charles, some a mixture of the two, no matter what it never happened, as we all know.

The battle began around mid-day, the 9,000 well-rested Government troops advanced downwind across the Moor towards their exhausted opponents who faced directly into the north-east wind and its accompanying sleet. The Prince’s forces numbered about 6,000 and were in two lines. The left flank of the front line was held by the three regiments of MacDonalds, highly resentful that they were not in their traditional place of honour on the right, held by the Atholl Brigade.

In the centre were some of the best of the Jacobite infantry, veterans of the victories at Prestonpans and Falkirk: Lord Lovat’s Frasers, the MacLeans, Mackintoshes, McLachlans and Chisholms.  Weak in artillery, the Jacobite frontline could see Cumberland’s gunners unlimbering and loading their batteries of cannon. Receiving no order to unleash the fearsome Highland charge, by far their best weapon, they must have known what was coming.

And come it did; Cumberland opened fire with roundshot across the unobstructed moorland. Behind his artillery, the Duke’s own front line consisted of six regular infantry battalions; the Royal Regiment on the right, opposite the MacDonalds, with Barrell’s Regiment on the left, facing the Athollmen. The second line contained six more infantry battalions, with yet three more in a third line alongside two squadrons of light cavalry. Out on his flanks were the feared heavy Dragoons: Cobham’s on the right, Kerr’s on the left. All was ready for the Jacobite charge.

Cumberland’s infantry had been given intensive training on how to deal with the onrushing Highlander, claymore in right hand, targe on his left. Having fired his Brown Bess musket, each man was to use his socketed bayonet to attack the opponent on his right front, trusting that his own comrade to his immediate left would do the same.

This was designed to avoid the parrying effect of the targe and inflict a disabling wound in the first shock of contact.

For a full half-hour the Government artillery thundered on unchallenged, roundshot and then grapeshot hammering into the Prince’s waiting battalions. Still no order to charge came as scores of men went down, thinning the ranks and producing frantic calls from officers and men to be released to the charge. Eventually they went off anyway.

The MacDonalds crashed in to Barrell’s Regiment, overrunning the front line before losing momentum and being shot and bayoneted by the upcoming second rank. Elsewhere the charge was even less successful; depleted by cannon fire and decimated by the rolling volleys of the infantry, Highland courage and dash proved no match for regular infantry discipline. The charge reeled backwards leaving up to a thousand dead in front of and among the Government positions.

Cumberland ordered a general advance and unleashed his cavalry. What had been a battle was now a rout. It had lasted an hour.

Jacobite casualties are estimated at 1,500 dead, with an unknown number of wounded and fugitives bayoneted and shot in the merciless pursuit that followed.Cumberland lost only 59 dead and 250 wounded, the only senior officer to die being Lord Robert Kerr, commander of grenadiers in Barrell’s Regiment and a son of the Marquess of Lothian.

It was over; the military neutralisation of the Highlands was about to begin. The ease in which the Government troops surprised Cumberland, and he surprised further when the Jacobites did not regroup and force another battle, he certainly expected another, but none came, around 1000 gathered the following day at Ruthven ­Barracks, where a written order from Prince Charles told them to “seek their own safety” and disband.  But, for many, surrendering was too dangerous an option.

As time went on, the risks of Jacobites handing themselves in became clear. The mood of the Ruthven meetings was downcast. Many fought on to avoid capture or because the risk of surrendering was high. In June, a number of Jacobites went into Fort William after the British government ­promised six weeks’ immunity. Captain Scott drowned them in a salmon net.

Jacobites engaged in low-level disruption, raiding and ­protection of vulnerable tenantry as well as recruitment to the Irish Brigade and probably Scottish regiments in French service, including Ecossais Royales.

Assassinations of unpopular ­government officers or sympathisers were also recorded. The British government still considered the Jacobite threat to be “major” at this time with around 12,000 to 13,000 soldiers deployed across the entire country – from Berwick and Stranraer to Elgin, Forres, Stonehaven, Inverbervie and Montrose – by the end of August 1746.

As government forces mobilised, significant units of armed Jacobites continued to appear in the field. At the end of April, 120 armed MacGregor men were recorded in Balqhuidder after marching home ‘colours flying and pipes playing’ with the Army unwilling to tackle or pursue Jacobite units that maintained discipline. 

One battalion of Lochiel’s ­regiment was still operational in May – as were 500 men under ­Clanranald. Orkney remained under Jacobite control until late that month and, despite British attacks, four local Jacobite lairds remained successfully hidden

Clans made concerted attempts to resist Cumberland and his men with around a dozen chiefs meeting at Mortlaig in early May. At the meeting... they entered into a bond for their mutual defence and agreed never to lay down their arms, or make a general peace without the consent of the whole,” according to an 1832 account by James Browne.

“By the bond of association, the chiefs agreed...to raise on behalf of the prince and in defence of their country, as many able-bodied armed men as they could on their respective properties.”

Around 600 men gathered later that month across the north and west but the clans “ultimately did not have the time or morale to raise or retain enough men in the field.

Although a unified response failed to materialise, Jacobites remained active across Scotland. Jacobite expresses – the non-stop delivery of letters by horse – continued until August. A British regiment was deployed across Banffshire in the summer of 1746 with insurgents reported in Argyll that September.

Arms were surrendered in the Mearns right into the summer of 1748. British atrocities were carried out against innocent ­victims, but there were plenty of continuing Jacobite threats and remained so for some time, this led to the building of roads and bridges, to make it easier for troops to be deployed into the heart of the country, many still used to this day, these projects and the act of proscription meant the end of the old Highland way of life. 

Many of us have made our pilgrimages to Culloden to pay our respects to those that died that day, and to the commemorations, both on the day, and at the one at midnight the night before, I hope you all take a moment and remember the brave men who fell that day and afterwards............

[almorto]

A ramble about Global Conflicts, my observations, and my experiences.

So. Global conflict. Let's put it in perspective. The first World War, or The Great War, the War to end all Wars, involved nearly all of Europe and a few players in Asia and over just six years, the global casualties were around 15-20 million, nearly half of them civilian. The second global war included essentially the same players as the last one, with a few adjustments, and the casualties were even worse in that one, and that's with the tools of the last war banned. Following that trend, any possible third Global War will likely include all of the same players, again, with a few minor adjustments and likely quite a few more players. It will more closely fit the descriptor of 'global' warfare, and, likely, the casualties will be even more telling, even without the use of Nuclear Warfare or Biological warfare. Even with most of the big players moving toward drone and unmanned devices, asymmetric warfare and others moving to, (I think) 4th generation warfare (soldiers fighting a battle in one moment able to mix into the local populace in the next moment). Instead of "just" twenty's or fourty's of millions of dead, we're likely still looking at hundreds of millions of dead, if not outright pushing right up to the billion mark. Not because of any real atrocity like attacks by one or more players, but by the sheer simple fact that as the population grows with each successive global war, so does the amount of potential bodies in a target rich environment. There is only so much that can be done to reduce the amount of secondaries, or 'collateral' in any one attack.

To put it simply, the ratio will remain the same of dead vs alive. The only thing that changes is the total amount involved.The thing that's most worrisome though is the fact that most of this knowledge is almost purely academic. Until the first Great War, nearly every nation had any number of veterans alive before and during that war to help prepare those closest to them with the realities of warfare. After the Great War, there were still wars in Europe, and by the time of the second Great War, there were still many veterans of the first World War, and likely other wars by this point, to relay to the younger generations the realities of warfare, even if the technologies used then vs later were so vastly different. In this case, we're looking at only a handful of players with any number of actual veterans of any major wars. To put it simply, every nation has veterans, of minor wars or conflicts, and there are no survivors of the previous major wars to pass down how truly horrifying warfare of that scale is, let alone why it is important to fight the fights that must be fought.That's the truly scary aspect to it all. We have no real guidance other than history books and documentaries from generations ago to go by, and no matter the amount of preparation for good or ill, no one player in the next global war will be prepared for it, and we're going to see the mistakes of inexperience the likes we haven't seen since the first Great War or before.It's going to get ugly, and the only solace I'll be able to look to in those trying times is the barely reported on movement of good Samaritans, of charitable movements and people packing up to move across borders to help each other. Even right now, with the media constantly reporting on all these deaths, picking and choosing which things to report on, all the good shit your average person is doing is being ignored.Like the company that has increased production of N97 face masks, and the various large companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and many more donating millions to that company.Or the Evangelicals that loaded up a semi truck with over 400,000 N97 masks and travelled across country to deliver those masks to healthcare workers and other first responders or hostpitols that desperately need them.I've seen almost no reportage of the various numberous charitable organizations moving mountains to get help to people that need it. I've seen absolutely no reportage on the various stores or people that leave signs up that tell the elderly and sickly that if they need help, to ask because the store/people have saved those supplies in the back specifically for them. No, I've only ever seen memes and facebook pages that take pictures of those and post them everywhere so people can see.I suppose my point here, besides just getting these thoughts out of my head, is that whenever shit gets real ugly, I almost always look for, and invariably find, the people being beautiful and showing that, outside of government and media ratings, humanity is absolutely worth having faith in. Just look for the person doing shit for other people and take heart - no matter how ugly things can get, there's someone out there helping bring a bit of life back into the world that's worth going on for. Those are the people worth fighting for.I suppose that's probably why I can not only tolerate most political or religious topics, but actually enjoy them, because I know that no matter how messed up either can get, there's always the other side of them that gets ignored and hidden in shadows because people naturally see the worst first, and are only helped along by bad actors pointing to the bad, or in some cases, the good actors that are trying to show both sides, but don't know how to present the good in an actually good light and just bungle it.This might also play into my usage of "I'm prejudiced, not racist." Because yes, I'm prejudiced. I've had shit experienced with other ethnic groups. Far more shit experience than good. But that's the thing, I've also had good experiences too. When I lived in Alabama, one of my best friends spoke maybe three whole words of English when I first met him and we didn't get along at first (mostly because his sister told me it was okay to do a thing that absolutely wasn't, namely taking a toy he had without asking). After that one issue though, we became quick friends and I remember that nearly everyday he would excitedly run up to me to share the new English word he learned. That was cool shit. The thing that really makes it difficult, is, in Alabama and most other Southern states, I was in the minority ethnic group, and the blatant racism, the being stopped by cops while my parents were lost and then escorted out of bad neighborhoods before the majority ethnic groups came out to kill us (the neighborhoods had reputations for doing that because they did do that) really colored my view of those ethnic groups for a time, mostly because of other experiences I'd rather not relive.So when I meet someone that's Hispanic or of African Ethnicity, yes, I'm on guard, but I don't immediately hate them because I've managed to look past all of the negativity that is almost constantly drilled in by both sides of the political spectrum. Because fuck people using the race card to get their way, or to make it seem like the other person is racist. Fuck that and fuck them. I make it a point to dismiss that and I look to the positives, and because of that, despite my experience born expectations, I'm always pleased when just me being civil gets a smile or civility returned.

[tripably]

“Learned from the best” my ass. Europe wrote the handbook on keeping quiet about the past and present atrocities. Remember the time when there was an entire European country mass murdering Jews and gypsies on an industrial level? A certain British prime minister literally knew it was happening, and decided not to share the information because “we’re already doing our best to end it and telling the public doesn’t do any help”. I wonder what he was afraid of. 

There are so many examples of that shit in every so called Western country. My beloved Finland, the country of some of the happiest people and the best education in the world, refuses to really talk about the fact that we actually sided with the Nazis, willingly?? We even literally sent them some of our own Jews. It’s at least mentioned, but immediately sugarcoated as a “necessity” so that we could “avoid becoming part of the Soviet Union”, and that we “only sent a few”. I’m not saying I’m not happy that we remained independent, I’m saying there was a cost to it that deserves to be acknowledged. Talking about it is not disrespectful to our veterans - rather, not talking about it is so disrespectful to the victims of that whole fucking war that it makes me infinitely angry. It is said that the winning side writes history, but we lost, and still choose to market is as a win????? And yet, when you think about it, it’s not surprising at all. 

Never forget that we live on a continent that founded the US. Not found, not discovered, not inhabited the continent, but founded the system. What’s different here is that we silently export some of our human rights violations abroad, to profit on them here and then act as if we have nothing to do with it, and keep quiet about the local problems. As we’ve always done. Slavery happened here as it happened in the US, just in a smaller scale, and the result is that we have less people to be vocal about how it affected them and their ancestors personally. Our European asses get to act superior, because our own ancestors knew it was wrong and instead of not doing it at all, only did it a little here and sent the people who were conditioned to feel less shitty about it overseas, all the while profiting on it right here. 

The effectiveness of our silent hypocrisy is so deep-rooted it makes me desperate to think about it. And when it becomes too much, I get to do what we’ve always done. My privileged white European ass gets to, with no effort whatsoever, silently choose to put my focus on other people’s problems, and feel good because it appears I don’t have those. Of fucking course it appears that way. 

Because a couple of centuries later we’re still doing that same exportation of human rights violations, and barely talk about our implementing part in it (e.g. the whole clothing industry). And locally? We import foreign people to exploit, shut our mouths about it and look the other way. And when it’s "discovered” (as in, the media miraculously chooses to write about it), our bureaucratic welfare states and unions “have no tools to fix it”. We barely have laws against it, and even if there are some, it happening is “so unexpected” our officials have no idea how to go forth. Nobody knows whose job it is. And the public’s “outrage” lasts until the next news story. And the will to interfere goes away. And a couple of weeks later we go out to eat in a Nepalese restaurant, buy some forest berries and choose our canned tomatoes without checking if they’re using slavery. And even if we wanted to, we probably have no way of checking it anyway. We don’t care enough to establish a system where the exploitation of other human beings would be noticed. 

So the next time you get on your heightened European horse to feel superior in hearing about the immigration problems, police brutality and the systematic racism in the US, just remember that we have outrageous civil rights problems here as well and nothing is being done about those either. And that our systematic racism is most likely an exact match to the American version, it’s just not talked about. 

And the next time you’re reminded of and feel repulsed about the German people who knew about the concentration camps and did nothing, remember that you’re essentially doing the same. It’s the European way. Ignoring our problems is probably the most privileged, the most whitest thing in the whole damn world. It’s our fucking heritage. 

Real talk, as a teacher in England I can confirm that the British government does everything and anything to avoid teaching the true extent of colonial history to English kids. 

You ask a modern English teenager about Northern Ireland and they probably can’t tell you about fucking anything currently going on there bar ‘I think we weren’t nice to them’, and that’s the country next fucking door so you know they don’t know shit about India or the Middle East.

The English government PURPOSEFULLY does not teach English children the real in’s and out’s of the British Empire despite a recent call to ‘widen the breadth of our curriculum’ because then where would our football hooligans who defend statues come from? 

Have a good conversation with any bald headed English bloke wearing an England football shirt with an EDL tattoo and test his knowledge of the Empire he loves so much. 100 quid he knows fuck all beyond ‘we civilized those people!’

And this is why no one fucking likes us, because there’s no active effort to teach our younger generations why we were wrong or how to make things better, but there’s a clear educational agenda to shield young English children from any extensive criticism of England.

[witnesstorture]

2021 Fast for Justice: Join us from home

2021 Week of Action: January 11 – 15 19 Years of Guantanamo. Shut it down! See the week’s schedule below. RSVP for these virtual events, gatherings, and actions from wherever you are! Let’s renew our commitment to the 40 Muslim men still imprisoned in Guantanamo and the hundreds of others who suffered years of torture and abuse behind the prison’s walls.

January 11 anniversary events

1:00 pm ET: Virtual vigil 19 Years of Guantanamo: Remembering the Men Detained.  RSVP  and bring a candle or sign.  View the recording here.

5-6:30 pm ET: Panel Presentation  Rights or Rightlessness? The Lives of Men Imprisoned at Guantanamo. View the recording here. (Program starts at the 4:30 mark.)

8:00 pm ET: WAT Fast for Justice Circle  First of 5 evenings of Virtual Meetings RSVP to receive the Zoom link for all the evening meetings.

Fast for Justice Circles: Monday – Friday

January 11-15: Zoom Circles at 8 pm ET each night to support us in our fasting and/or action. Fasting is a personal choice. RSVP to receive the Zoom link.

Circles will be like our gatherings in DC: opening with centering music, a reflection, a topic or theme, checking in with each other and sharing around the circle. Monday, J11: WAT history – Discussion with Frida Berrigan and Matt Daloisio Tuesday, J12: The US “War on Terror” – Discussion and video with Maha Hilal Wednesday, J13: Executions and State/Police Violence – Discussion with Art Laffin Thursday, J14: Witnessing Against Atrocities – Discussion with Mark Colville, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Friday, J15: Celebrating Our Community Resilience – Celebration with Peace Poets (Lumi and LuAya)

Daily Solidarity Action Menu

Fast for the men detained in Guantanamo, especially in solidarity with the hunger strikers. Choose your fast: Liquid only? Ramadan? Lenten? Other? 

Write letters to the detainees.   During the pandemic attorneys have reduced visits and the Red Cross has stopped visiting.

Attend local vigils. (many are listed below)

Lobby Congress. Biden will act more quickly with Congressional and public support. This link provides background, talking points and phone numbers.

Oppose Senate approval of torture apologist Avril Haines. Call script and phone numbers.

Respond to blogs and articles you read with online comments.

Write letters to the editor of your local paper.

Sign a global petition to President-elect Biden

Share photos of DC activists demonstrating at US Capitol on January 11. 

Read up on Guantanamo. Andy Worthington summarizes and critiques a recent NYT article documenting decaying prison infrastructure.  

Newsweek published an op-ed by Mohamedou Salahi on Jan. 11.  

Major report on Guantanamo has been released by Amnesty International on Jan. 11. USA: Right or Wrong, Decision Time on Guantanamo.

Report from Bridge Initiative Team at Georgetown University : Guantanamo Bay Military Prison: Narratives and Numbers

Local Vigils Nationwide In addition to these vigils, check your local happenings (let us know about others to add: witnesstorture@gmail.com):  

January 11: Upper NY Veterans for Peace/ Western Massachusetts Peace Action. 

January 11 at 10 AM PT: Interfaith Community for Justice and Peace webinar in Los Angeles: http://www.icujp.org/close_guantanamo_2021.

January 11 at noon to 1 PM ET: No More Guantanamos vigil, Commons, Greenfield MA.

January 11 at 1:30-2:30 PM: No More Guantanamos vigil, Downtown Northampton, MA.

January 11 at 4:00 PM: Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace vigil, corner of Delaware and Kenwood Avenues (the five corners) in Delmar.

January 15 at noon: Schenectady Neighbors for Peace vigil, corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard in Schenectady.

Last but not least, here are some Fasting Tips 2020! Please join us! In peace and solidarity,  Helen, Josie, Maha, Jeremy and Richard for the WAT Organizing Team  

  2021 Fast for Justice: Join us from home was originally published on Witness Against Torture

[the-record-columns]

Dec. 25, 2019: Columns

Junior Johnson holding court among friends at one of his famous breakfasts - just the way we like to remember him

I didn't know Junior Johnson, but I liked him...

BY KEN WELBORN

Record Editor

Some folks are what you would call die-hard racing fans.

Others, like me, would have been called a casual racing fan who, when NASCAR pulled our race from the North Wilkesboro Speedway, felt as though we had been abandoned, and pretty much abandoned them back.

Did that make any sense?

Okay. 

Now enter Junior Johnson.

I, like about everyone who can walk and chew gum, had heard about Johnson all my life.  I had watched him race—of course pulling for the local guy—but really had no real means of getting to know him—and I never did. 

In fact, I really had only one conversation with Junior Johnson in my life during a chance encounter at Smithey's Goodwill Department Store on Tenth Street in North Wilkesboro.  It was in the 1980’s; for me, the old Thursday Magazine days, for him, a retired driver and now car owner.  I was at the back of the line at the lunch counter in the Goodwill waiting to take lunch back to work for me and Joyce Newman—an amazing worker who also liked those special Smithey burgers every much as me.  I happened to look out the corner of my eye to the guy who walked up behind me and, lo and behold, it was Junior Johnson, dressed, as he so often was, in bib overalls

We nodded and spoke, and instantly began talking about the hamburger like no other, the Smithey Burger.  I made my favorite comment about them which is "…not since the Lord blessed the loaves and fishes has anyone taken five pounds of hamburger and stretched it this far," to which Johnson replied, "If eating these burgers would kill you, I would have been dead a long time ago."  (With a quick nod to the late Max Ferree, I confess that I stole that line from Junior and have used it ever since.)

In no time, more folks came in and they all wanted to talk with Junior—and he accommodated them to a man, clearly glad to see them and even signed several scraps of paper held up to him.

Fast forward to the days of The Record.  We would have occasion call on him now and again for a quote or something, and he would always take our call or call hack promptly.  One time that sticks in my mind is a postal carrier who was retiring with about a million and a half miles without an accident. The carrier didn't want a cake or a party—he just wanted his picture taken with his hero—Junior Johnson.  The postmaster called us, and our Editor Jerry Lankford called Junior, and he gladly came to town for the retirement ceremony. 

I tell those two little vignettes to illustrate what I liked best about Junior Johnson.

In fact, when interviewed by a NASCAR program about the 50th Anniversary of Thomas Wolfe's "Last American Hero" story about Junior from 1965, I was asked what I liked best about Junior Johnson. 

"That’s easy," I said, "Unlike NASCAR, Junior Johnson hasn't forgotten his fans, the folks who made him famous."

  As ever, I value loyalty above all else, and, while I didn't really know Junior Johnson, I liked him.

                                Robert Glenn "Junior" Johnson

                                              Rest in Peace

  Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas guilty of child abuse

By AMBASSADOR EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Undoubtedly the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will meet (multiple times) in 2020 to again go through their regular routine of condemning Israel for one trumped up violation or another yet they will ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. 

For more than two decades, Palestinian children have been taught that terrorist murderers are heroes; that Jews are evil pigs deserving of death; that Israel has no right to exist and is, in fact, the enemy of all Muslims and the enemy of the entire world. 

Messages such as these are taught in Palestinian schools and are themes woven into children’s cartoons broadcast on PA television. In Palestinian culture, there is no escaping these negative, brainwashing messages which are used by Hamas and the PA to mobilize and recruit Palestinian youth to become actively involved in acts of terror against Israel.

If the stakes were not so high and the consequences not a matter of life and death, the circumstances would be almost comical.  When Hamas uses these messages to target and recruit children to participate in their weekly confrontations against Israel at the Gaza border, the PA is publicly critical yet the PA uses the same tactics making it just as guilty.  A clear example of the pot calling the kettle black.

The UNHRC finds it perfectly acceptable to blame Israel for the deaths of those killed during the weekly border confrontations yet finds nothing wrong with the PA and Hamas brainwashing and poisoning young Palestinian hearts and minds thus enabling them to use their children for fodder during these border confrontations. While the UNHRC claims to be a protector of human rights, it’s simply not true otherwise it would condemn Hamas and the PA for indoctrinating generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and the Jews.  By creating little killing machines, the PA and Hamas are guilty of the worst kind of child abuse. Palestinian youth have been robbed of their innocence.  They are being raised in a culture that promotes violence and martyrdom as ideals for which they should strive. The PA and Hamas are grooming and using their children as combatants which is a violation of international law. 

As the New Year dawns, we must commit anew to standing, without fear or intimidation, for that which is right. Israel must not suffer condemnation for acting in self defense no matter the age of the perpetrator(s).  The use of children in committing acts of terror is illegal and morally unacceptable. Hamas and the PA must be held accountable.

  “YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS”

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps

THE EDITORIAL

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON. 115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

 VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

A Christmas Morning Story

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

It was a long time ago on Christmas morning that little Timmy and his sister Sara woke up early and ran downstairs to see what Santa had brought. They did not expect much, but there was always something special under the tree.

The year had been long and difficult for the Watson family and so many others. Ken and his wife, Mary, both worked for a company that had been in business for almost 100 years.

There had been concerns for years that the factory was losing so much to competition that it might not be able to survive.

With all the good efforts of everyone the dreadful day arrived. It seemed as if it was the worst of all days.  

The family-owned factory employed more than anyone in town. The company supported the schools, the healthcare system, the arts and almost everything else in town. For almost 10 decades it was a family company that cared for everyone in the community.

The Watson family was now in its third generation. Ken’s father and grandfather worked of the factory and little Timmy looked forward to going to work with his father. That would make four generations of Watsons. This however it was not to be.

As soon as it was announced that the factory would close Ken and Mary both started to look for other employment. The problem was that almost 2,000 other people were doing the same thing and in a small town that did not have another large factory that was hiring a lot of people this presented a significant problem for just about everyone.

Most of the people who had lost their jobs were highly skilled people with solid work history. The type of people that any company would love to have. The few openings that were available in the area were quickly filled with the first applicants. And that’s when things got complicated.

Ken and Mary were not in the group of people who quickly got new jobs. They were putting in applications everywhere and getting the same response. “We would love to hire you, but we don’t have an opening”

The Watson family always attended Wednesday night church service. The local minister was aware of the stress in the community over the factory closing, so his messages were focused on giving hope and inspirations.

On one of the weekly midweek services Pastor Simpson delivered a message that sparked and idea for both Ken and Mary. He said, it’s true that we have lost one big company but what would happen if there were a lot of new smaller companies started.

That night when the Watson family returned home. While having tea at the kitchen table Ken and Mary looked at each other and at the same time said. “Let’s start our own business”.

For years Ken had been a furniture designer and Mary had worked in the business office. So, she knew all the administrative basics and Ken knew how to design and make furniture.

Timmy and Sara overheard the conversation and smiled big for the first time in months. They could just tell something good was going to happen.

Ken and Mary stayed up all night long talking over the idea and planning. Before they knew it, it was time for breakfast and the plan was set.

Ken would do what he always wanted to do. He would design and make high quality wooden toys. It would be a balance for Christmas gifting. The idea was not to replace all the high-tech toys and gifts but add to the options. A gift that would not have a short life but would last a lifetime if taken car of.

Ken and Mary’s Forever Gifts would become a household name for those who love the look and feel of real wood. Gifts there stir the imagination and nostalgia that you didn’t even know existed.

In case you are wondering Little Timmy got the first prototype of an airplane that Ken made. That’s the one that launched the company. Sara received the prototype of the first carved wooden ornament that her mother Mary designed.

Other gifts were under the tree as well, however those are the ones that the brother and sister would cherish and share with there children.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its eleventh year of syndication.   For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com and join the free weekly email list. It’s a great way to keep up with the show and things going on in the Carolinas. You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.  

[militant-holy-knight]

The Algerian Civil War’s Shadow Still Lingers

As the Arab Spring finally arrives in Algeria, we must remember they experienced a horror of their own not unlike what Syria experienced 

Until 2019, Algeria was by noted by several scholars as the exception in the MENA region for not having experienced a Arab Spring uprising despite having all the ingredients for a popular uprising like a dictator-for-life that has been in power for decades, poverty, under-employement, inequality and several other problems, which is really impressive they didn’t descend into civil war like in Libya or Syria. The key reason is because they had already experienced their own two decades ago - whose tragedies seem very familiar with what we experience today.

Prelude to the War

Since Algeria won its independence from France, they were ruled by a corrupt military junta based on socialism and anti-imperialism known as the National Liberation Front or FLN. Algeria was marred by too many issues like overpopulation that outstripped the stagnant economy's ability to supply jobs, housing, food and urban infrastructure. In October 1988, as thousands of youths rioted across the country in a scream of protest against difficult living conditions, scarcity of many primary food items, permanent austerity policies, lack of educational and employment opportunities, and absence of recreational facilities. The army cracked down hard which lead to pressure on the government to amend the Constitution and open free elections and end the FLN monopoly on politics. This quickly gave rise to the Islamic Salvation Front or FIS, an Islamist political party whose aim was to implement sharia law and turn Algerian into an Islamic government akin to Iran or Afghanistan.

FIS enjoyed huge popularity among the public as they were viewed as the better alternative to the FLN via their own charismatic leaders such as Ali Benhadj and Abbassi Madani. The former appealed to the angry and less educated urban youth while the latter appealed to the pious upper class. Hypocritically, despite the Islamists approach to winning power via the ballot, they had nothing but contempt for democracy and they have been quoted as saying that: 

“There is no democracy because the only source of power is Allah through the Koran, and not the people. If the people vote against the law of God, this is nothing other than blasphemy. In this case, it is necessary to kill the non-believers for the good reason that they wish to substitute their authority for that of God.” 

Their rhetoric alarmed non-Islamists, feminists and secularists, but there was nothing that could have been done since they made spectacular progress in the first year of its existence because of their charitable work described as ”just, equitable, orderly and virtuous, in contrast to its corrupt, wasteful, arbitrary and inefficient FLN predecessors”.

In June 1990 local elections, FIS won with 54% in urban areas and almost twice what the FLN had won. Once into power, they imposed the veil on  female municipal employees, pressured liquor stores, video shops and other “un-Islamic” establishments to close, segregated bathing areas by gender, removed the satellite dishes of households receiving European satellite broadcast in favor of Arab satellite dishes receiving Saudi broadcasts. Educationally, the party was committed to continue the Arabization of the educational system by shifting the language of instruction in more institutions, such as medical and technological schools, from French to Arabic. These changes were welcomed by the public since the continued use of French in higher education and public life jarring and disadvantageous.

As the first multiparty parliamentary elections approached in June 1991, Western television screens filled with great masses of bearded men in white dress and women in veil, praying on the streets of Algiers and demonstrating for an Islamic republic. Algeria looked like it would become a second Iran. But just days before the elections were to take place, the army intervened, disbanded the Islamist gatherings, and imposed a martial law regime. The military arrested thousands of Islamists, including two top FIS leaders Madani and Belhadj. So many FIS members were arrested that the jails had insufficient space to hold them all - even bearded men suspected of being Islamists were imprisoned.

The Rise of GIA

The few FIS activists that remained free took this as a declaration of war and quickly paved the way for the Armed Islamic Group or GIA, an extremist Islamist organization considered even too radical by the FIS themselves. Their aim was to establish an Islamic state via “total war” by completely collapsing the Algerian government and civilized society via terrorist attacks. While they had the same endgoal as the FIS, the GIA considered themselves the one true “Muslim” faction in the region and the FIS as apostates for being too “moderate”. It was affirmed that “political pluralism is akin to sedition” and considered anyone a target. Its slogan inscribed on all communiques was: "no agreement, no truce, no dialogue".  Among their most heinous crimes committed during the period of civil strife include:

Attacks on women ranging from assassinations of feminists and women’s rights activists since the GIA associated the emancipation of women with the evils of modernism, secularism, and Western ways, killing them for refusing to wear the hijab.

Abductions of young, nubile girls to be forced into temporary marriages of pleasure. Girls as young as 16 were dragged by the hair from their classrooms because the GIA believed they shouldn’t be at school.

Assassinations of journalists with the GIA declaring "The journalists who fight against Islamism through the pen will perish by the sword.

Assassinations of secularists such as Lounès Matoub for comitting apostasy.

Assassinations of the Christian monks of the Tibhirine monastery.

Assassinations of artists such as singer Cheb Hasni.

An attempted plane hijacking to crash it in the Eifel Tower that resulted in three civilians dying.

Bombings across Paris in 1995 that resulted in 8 people killed and many others injured.

For much of it’s existence, GIA would fight on two fronts against the Algerian security forces and the FIS loyalists, and infighting was all too common among it’s ranks. FIS deserters joined GIA either because they sensed the wind was blowing towards it’s direction or to alter change from within. There was a brief moment where GIA actually declared itself an caliphate with Cherif Gousmi as its “Commander of the Faithful”... For about a day, until many top-ranking members withdrew their support from them stating they deviated from Islam. But regardless of differences, they shared one thing in common: escalate the terror.

The Darkest Hour

We have the whole night to rape your women and children, drink your blood. Even if you escape today, we'll come back tomorrow to finish you off! We're here to send you to your God!

1997 saw the apogee of terrorist attacks peaking under GIA emir Antar Zouabri when in the holy month of Ramadan (no less), he began a campaign of massacres against several villages in Rais, Bentalha, Beni Messous. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated, they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves. They justified these atrocities by claiming their victims were “infidels” for not joining their ranks.

The Islamic world has a word for these kind of people - Khawarij (which means something close to “exchangers”) - they were fundamentalists from the early times of Islam. They believed that no rulers could stand between men and God, and were responsible for murdering caliph Ali for the crime of negotiating with an enemy warlord. The Khawarij also adopted the practice of declaring any self-described Muslim an “non-Muslim” and as such they should killed. Several individuals through out the history of Islam were considered Khawarij: the Almohad Berbers whose spiritual leader Ibn Tumart was declared an Khawarij agitator by everyone he met, and the Wahhabi movement in what would later become Saudi Arabia. This says something really depressing about the Islamic world as whole that fundamentalism has been a self-diagnosed problem that they always had contend with it and the hadiths mention the Khawarij will continue to cause strife in the Muslim community until the end times.

In any case, back to the war: there was an very real fear that the Algerian government could collapse under the sheer horror perpetrated by the GIA. The escalation of the civil strife in 1994 and early 1995 reinforced the assumption of many American policy makers that militant Islam in Algeria was a rising and unstoppable tide. Some academics would suggested that the U.S. government should resign itself to the Islamic political movement and learn to do business with it, which is a folly to seek out "moderate" Islamists to work for there are no moderates in revolutionary Islamism. They may differ on tactics but they all share the final goal of an Islamic state in which democracy will be extinguished and civil liberties curtailed, women becoming second-class citizens, LGBT stoned or thrown off buildings, atheists executed for apostasy, Christians reduced to dhimmis and would militantly spread Islamist revolution elsewhere. "Moderates" turn out to be those Islamists who may draw the line at blowing up a car bomb but otherwise subscribe to the same principles as the "extremists", and the FIS may tried to distance itself from GIA’s actions, but never denounced their violence against their targets in principle.

There is also the fact the FIS was already arming paramilitary groups since before they even took power. All of these massacres. The FIS was already arming paramilitary groups after it’s foundation from battle-hardened veterans from Afghanistan which might explain their unfettered bloodlust and they were drawing up lists of people that needed to be removed after they came into power.

Endgame

In 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president and he implemented a policy of pardoning Islamists not guilty of rape and murder in order to weaken the more radical elements within the GIA. This move was widely criticized by everyone such as Algerian civilians who suffered under the Islamists’ actions, the West condemning him for pardoning the terrorists and the FIS themselves, for having fought so hard without achieving nothing at the end and essentially being back at square one. 

It did prove fruitful since the GIA by this point were being denounced by all sides, had virtually no allies to legitimize them and were being deserted in droves by members that wanted to resume a normal life. The ones who couldn’t or wouldn’t agree to take the pardon or negotiate where quickly neutralized by secret army operations. Some splinter groups were formed from the fall of GIA like the GSPC which was backed by al-Qaeda and focused more on government and army targets, but they were short lived even though the War on Terror had began at earnest in 2001 after 9/11, the war is thought to have ended in 2002.

Consequences

The official estimate by the Algerian government is that 150,000 died during the civil war, though it could have been as high as 200,000 by certain individuals. The horrors and atrocities committed by the terrorists made the public feel a lasting fear of political instability and chose to side with the government which they once criticized for its ineffectiveness and corruption. History teaches us that regimes collapse only when the middle classes and the army join the revolution and when those at the top lose confidence in their ability to survive. Neither of these conditions happened in Algeria.

The secular middle-class feared the Islamist take over more than they hated the FLN; the army and security forces also stayed on the side of the government since their privileges were tied directly to it; the Islamists alienated their own supporters even among the lower, less-educated class which was exploited by the jihadi rabble demanding zakat - a Islamic tax levied on Muslims to be distributed on “charity” or so they say. As a result, this war did a great harm to political Islam as an ideology; the GIA were never capable of establishing a functioning society, they only had blood and more blood to be offered. “Moderates” like FIS spent years trying to distance themselves from extremism as a result of the GIA’s actions.

There are some allegations that the Algerian government could have been behind some of the GIA’s actions. An anonymous deserter claimed that the 1997 massacres were committed by security forces to smear the GIA. Though these accusations were made primarily by Islamists trying to shift the blame, certain human rights groups have accused the Algerian army of at least inaction in preventing those massacres. Others dismiss this as libel since an report made by a woman’s rights groups collected testimonies from the survivors who had seen the attackers unmasked and recognized some of them as FIS members. Even so, some people assassinated were believed to have been targeted by the FLN regime who used the GIA as an convenient excuse.

Algeria also benefited from having not being caught in a proxy war between several countries wanting to play their influence in the region like Turkey, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States with any of these powers backing different sides in the conflict. So it didn’t suffer an near collapse, a bigger death toll and a massive refugee crisis like Syria had.

Bouteflika remained in power for 20 years until his resignation announcement. I write this blogpost with fear because I have no idea what will happen next, and what sort of government people will want to vote in. We certainly do not want another conflict specially now that the Syrian conflict is slowly dying down and Iraq is trying to rebuild itself. The best we can hope for is an peaceful transition like the one in Tunisia, but that is too good to be true.

[powerfultears-blog]

Trauma...

We live in a world where everyone is clawing, scratching and victimizing others without fully understanding what is going on... To make sense of it mainly begins in a honest pursuit of self discovery. Talking about that discovery is both a privilege and a serious responsibility. It is also a bold move. To live free, we must learn how to strengthen, maintain, and even rebuild our life if necessary. Personal resiliency or living free requires humility, Transparency, purpose and relationships who you are is not a Label !!!

Trauma affects everyone is society. Research by the centers for disease control and Prevention has shown that one in five Americans was sexually molested as a child; One in four was beaten by a parent to the point of a mark being left on their body; and one in three couples engages in physical violence. A quarter of us grew up with alcoholic relatives, and one out of eight witnessed their mother being beaten or hot (American Journal Of Preventive Medicine 14, No.4 (1998) pg 245-58)

I personally identify with four of those five categories. New York Psychologists Chaim Shatan and Robert J. Lifton, and a group of Vietnam veterans in 1980 Successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to create a new diagnosis: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which described a cluster of symptoms that was common, to a greater or lesser extent, to all of our veterans. Systematically identifying the symptoms and grouping them to gather into a disorder finally gave a name to the suffering of people who were overwhelmed by horror and helplessness.

But what about people like me, born during a time where it was unheard of to discuss such things? As we now know, was is not the only calamity that leaves human lives in ruins. While about a quarter of the soldiers who serve in war zones are expected to develop serious posttraumatic problems, the majority of Americans experiences a violent crime at some time during their lives, and more accurate reporting has revealed that twelve million women in the United States has been victims of rape. More than half of all rapes occurs in girls below age fifteen. For many people the war begins at home. Each year about three millions children in the United States are reported as victims of child abuse and neglect. One million of these cases are serious and credible enough to force local child protective services or the Courts to take actions. In other words, for every Soldier who serves in a War zone abroad, there are ten (10) children who are endangered in their own homes !!!

Without honestly confronting these destructive behavior patterns, the victims often becomes the victimizers. As human beings we belong to an extremely resilient species. Throughout human existence we have rebounded from out relentless wars, countless disasters (both natural and man-made). and the violence and betrayal in our own lines. But traumatic experiences do leave traces, whether on a larger scale (on our histories and cultures) or close to home, on our families, with dark secrets being imperceptibly passed down through generations. They also leave traces on our minds and emotions, On our capacity for hot and intimacy, and even on our biology and immune systems. Ten years ago when I first decided to honestly do the hard work of self-discovery I didn't know I would recover the hidden jewels of inner peace and tranquility. All I knew was sitting across from me, with a fine inch Plexiglas divider separating us, was the very woman I had spent my adult life failing time and time again. There she was holding our baby girl of only two weeks old, and here I was again, victimizing them and others mainly because I didn't know how to handle trauma. When that woman (MY BABYDOLL) said to me, "James you have never chosen us, you have always chosen them ------ in the streets". T.E.A.R.S. was born !!!

Trauma, whether it is the result of something done to you or something you yourself have done, almost always makes it difficult to engage in intimate relationships. After you have experienced something so unspeakable, how do you learn to trust yourself or anyone else again? Or, conversely, how can you surrender to an intimate relationship after you have been brutally violated?

It takes enormous trust and courage to allow yourself to remember. One of the hardest things for traumatized people is to confront their shame about the way they behaved during a traumatic episode, whether it is objectively warranted (as in the commission of atrocities) or not (as in the case of a child who tries to placate her abuser).

Deep down many traumatized people are even more haunted by the shame they feel about what they themselves did or did not do under the circumstances. They despise themselves for how terrified, dependent, excited, or enraged they felt.

Most child abuse victims suffer from agonizing shame about the actions they took to survive and maintain a connections with the person who abused them. This is particularly trust if the abuser was someone close to the child, someone the child depended on, as is so often the case, The result can be confusion about whether one was a victims or a willing participant, which in turn leads to bewilderment about the difference between love and terror; pain and pleasure...

"I think this man is suffering from memories". Sigmund Freud on Trauma 1895

Traumatized people have a tendency to super impose their trauma on everything around them and have trouble deciphering whatever is going on around them. Trauma also affects the imaginations...Imaginations is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives. Our imaginations enables us to leave our routine everyday existence by fantasizing about travel, food, sex, falling in love, or having the last word-all the things that make life interesting. Imagination gives us the opportunity to envision new possibilities-it is an essential launch pad for making our boredom, alleviates our pain, enhances our pleasure, and enriches our most intimate relationships. When people are compulsively and constantly pulled back into the past, to the last time they felt intense involvement and deep emotions, they suffer from a failure of imagination, a loss of the mental flexibility. Without imagination there is No hope, co chance to envision a better future No place to go, No personal reach...

T.E.A.R.S. is much more than ac acronym, it is the honest result of a life that have overcome the terrible effects of a traumatized life without dependency or mind altering drugs. In 2012 the public spent $1,526,228,000 on Abilify, more than on any other medication, Number three was Cymbalta, an antidepressant that sold well over a billion dollars worth of pills. (Wikipedia list of largest selling Pharmaceutical products). There are ways to truly heal from trauma and restore your autonomy. Being a patient rather than a participant in one's healing process, separates suffering people from their community and alienates them from an inner sense of self. There really is a natural way to deal with trauma. Looking through the fog to see your identity and value is worth the journey. I share with people all the time that there is a big difference between examples and excuses. Examples liberate you, While excuses Imprison you!!!

Thank you, J.P.

[courtneytincher]

The Day Mountbatten Died, review: a powerful look at one of the darkest days of the Troubles

The recent YouGov poll which asked Conservative members what they would be prepared to sacrifice in order to achieve Brexit did not propose the ultimate option. Would they rather have Brexit than peace? The question loitered discreetly in the background for most of The Day Mountbatten Died (BBC Two), Sam Collyns’s powerful commemoration of one of the blackest days of the Troubles, when the IRA murdered British royalty and blew up 18 members of the Parachute regiment, while an innocent civilian was shot in error. “He would have been astonished,” said Lord Mountbatten’s biographer Philip Ziegler, exuding plummy English detachment, “that there were IRA members interested in his existence.” Their target styled himself Mountbatten of Burma; his granddaughter was named India, after the country whose partition he oversaw. But these grand imperial associations were no defence when the IRA’s South Armagh brigade snuck onto his unguarded fishing boat, moored in the village of Mullaghmore just south of the border, and planted the bomb that would kill him, his daughter’s mother-in-law, his grandson and a local teenage boy. The story of both atrocities was carefully stitched together from every perspective: witnesses, rescuers, those who survived and the relatives of those who didn’t, all in different ways were still scarred and bereaved. To observe a cultural neutrality, the voice-over was spoken by the Scottish actor Bill Paterson.  Lord Mountbatten with his granddaughter Credit: BBC Remembering terror does funny things to people; India Hicks wore a brave smile and apologised for her tears as she recalled being packed off to Gordonstoun days after the state funeral, where that night in her dorm someone cracked the most appalling joke about her grandfather’s murder. “The mindset would have been operational,” explained Kieran Conway, who had been the IRA’s director of intelligence. “Kill them, without too much reflection.” He emitted a stab of laughter that mingled cold callousness with baffled regret. Conway confirmed that it was Martin McGuinness who signed off on all this carnage. Put in this clarifying context, the handshake in 2012 that the Queen offered to McGuinness became an ever more profound symbol of reconciliation. The 40th anniversary falls with the troubled border once more at the heart of geopolitics. “The problem with peace,” concluded the veteran Irish journalist Olivia O’Leary, “is you have to keep working at it.” Essential viewing for our leaders.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

The recent YouGov poll which asked Conservative members what they would be prepared to sacrifice in order to achieve Brexit did not propose the ultimate option. Would they rather have Brexit than peace? The question loitered discreetly in the background for most of The Day Mountbatten Died (BBC Two), Sam Collyns’s powerful commemoration of one of the blackest days of the Troubles, when the IRA murdered British royalty and blew up 18 members of the Parachute regiment, while an innocent civilian was shot in error. “He would have been astonished,” said Lord Mountbatten’s biographer Philip Ziegler, exuding plummy English detachment, “that there were IRA members interested in his existence.” Their target styled himself Mountbatten of Burma; his granddaughter was named India, after the country whose partition he oversaw. But these grand imperial associations were no defence when the IRA’s South Armagh brigade snuck onto his unguarded fishing boat, moored in the village of Mullaghmore just south of the border, and planted the bomb that would kill him, his daughter’s mother-in-law, his grandson and a local teenage boy. The story of both atrocities was carefully stitched together from every perspective: witnesses, rescuers, those who survived and the relatives of those who didn’t, all in different ways were still scarred and bereaved. To observe a cultural neutrality, the voice-over was spoken by the Scottish actor Bill Paterson.  Lord Mountbatten with his granddaughter Credit: BBC Remembering terror does funny things to people; India Hicks wore a brave smile and apologised for her tears as she recalled being packed off to Gordonstoun days after the state funeral, where that night in her dorm someone cracked the most appalling joke about her grandfather’s murder. “The mindset would have been operational,” explained Kieran Conway, who had been the IRA’s director of intelligence. “Kill them, without too much reflection.” He emitted a stab of laughter that mingled cold callousness with baffled regret. Conway confirmed that it was Martin McGuinness who signed off on all this carnage. Put in this clarifying context, the handshake in 2012 that the Queen offered to McGuinness became an ever more profound symbol of reconciliation. The 40th anniversary falls with the troubled border once more at the heart of geopolitics. “The problem with peace,” concluded the veteran Irish journalist Olivia O’Leary, “is you have to keep working at it.” Essential viewing for our leaders.

August 19, 2019 at 10:00PM via IFTTT

[blockheadbrands]

Medicating in Wartime: The Cannabis Legacy of Vietnam Veterans

Bruce Kennedy of Leafly Reports:

April 30th marks the 43rd anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the War in Vietnam. About three million Vietnamese, and more than 58,000 Americans, were killed during the war.

Studies have found that about one-third of American soldiers in Vietnam consumed cannabis.

Close to three million American men and women served in Vietnam. And around one-third of those military personnel, according to recent studies, smoked marijuana.

Cannabis grew wild in Vietnam and access to “reefer” was never an issue for U.S. military personnel. “Over there we were getting the premium stuff—no stems and seeds,” said John Adams, a retired computer engineer living in Riverside, California. Adams served two tours in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine in the late 1960s, with the 1st FSR Logistics Group in Da Nang.

“You’d get in a jeep, run down to Four Corners,” he remembered, “and get 20 pre-rolled joints for 10 bucks. It was pretty; I wish I had a picture of it.” It was pretty heady stuff, too: “You’d take two hits and you’d have to sit down.”

Many Soldiers, But Not All

While soldiers might have smoked marijuana while in combat, it was more common for military personnel to enjoy cannabis once they were off the front lines.

'The Army didn't really police it until it became a PR issue.'

Jeremy Kuzmarov, author of 'The Myth of the Addicted Army'

One 70-year old veteran Leafly spoke with, a Long Island, New York resident who was part of an Army long range reconnaissance patrol unit (LLRP, pronounced “lurp”) from 1967 to 1969, said he saw very little marijuana smoked while on patrol near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam.

“Not in my unit,” said the veteran, who asked that his name not be used—and who we’ll call Alan.

“It was mostly in the rear, off-duty or back where there was no action. It was not really done front line. I’m sure there were [front line cannabis smokers], but I was in a different arena than most. It had to do with being ready and alert and keeping your focus.”

An Open Secret

It appears that cannabis use was an open secret in Vietnam during the war’s early years.

Cannabis was 'the only way to deal with the craziness over there.'

John Adams, US Marine, Vietnam veteran

“For a while the Army didn’t really police it that strenuously, until at a certain point when it started to appear on the public’s radar screen and became a PR issue,” said Jeremy Kuzmarov, assistant professor of history at Tulsa University and author of The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs.

Media reports of soldiers and marines smoking marijuana while in the field grabbed headlines, as well as the attention of the military brass. That led to a crackdown on cannabis in Vietnam. Kuzmarov also points to rumors and reports at the time about marijuana contributing to rampant drug abuse among soldiers, as well as weakening combat efficiency, a collapse in military discipline and even rumors of cannabis as a factor in war atrocities.

Medicating Before it Was a Term

But many Vietnam veterans will tell you otherwise—that cannabis was actually their way of coping with war’s nightmares.

“When you watch men women and children get blown apart and you have to come back and deal with that, sometimes you have to have some means of closing down,” John Adams told Leafly. “So realistically, where we weren’t on duty we were either drunk or high.”

“I can tell you this, that those of us that were ‘in the rear with the gear,’ whenever we had the opportunity we did it,” he added. “That was the only way to deal with that craziness over there.”

Relaxing on the Fantail

Sacramento native Bill Crain, now 62, was a boatswain’s mate on the USS Molala, a Navy ocean-going tug, when he first tried cannabis in the waters off Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay.

“When I got on the ship, growing up in that generation I grew up in, you watched the news and there were things going on in Vietnam,” he told Leafly. “I was 17, a little nervous. The guys would smoke weed on the fantail at night. So I would go up there and smoke and relax.” Crain said about a third of the Molala’s crew were pot smokers at the time.

RELATED STORY For Veterans With PTSD, Medical Marijuana Can Mean a Good Night’s Sleep

Drug Testing, Kinda

Dale Schafer, 64, a California-based attorney specializing in cannabis law, was a Navy hospital corpsman from 1974 to 1976.  He spent much of that time in an Oakland hospital dealing with trauma patients, mostly wounded and otherwise injured servicemen and women brought back from Vietnam.

'The people I partied with were the ones doing the drug testing.'

Dale Schafer, former Navy hospital corpsman

He laughed when asked whether he used cannabis while in the Navy.

“It was very interesting,” he told Leafly. “When I first went in and went to boot camp I thought people didn’t do it. But once I cleared boot camp the next place I landed was corps school and people were using it there. There was random drug testing, basically for-cause drug testing if they found suspicious activity. They’d make you piss-test, and I never got piss-tested so I never had to face it.”

When Schafer was transferred to Oakland for his duty station, he discovered that cannabis “was all over the place there. And interestingly enough, the people that I partied with were the ones doing the drug testing.”

RELATED STORY PTSD, Insomnia, and Cannabis: What’s the Evidence Say?

Coping After Coming Home

After their military experiences, many Vietnam-era vets returned home to a country that didn’t want to be reminded about the war.

“When we got back we were looked on as pariahs,” said Alan. “Times have changed, and in a way I’m glad. Soldiers when they come back to The World they have a hard time adjusting. At least now they are accepted.”

For Bill Crain, coming home was hard. An attempt to smuggle cannabis back to the States ended up with him going to a Navy drug rehabilitation center.

“I was raised upper middle class,” he said. “I come back after being discharged from the Naval Drug Rehabilitation Center, was told by family I was a bad influence on my brothers and sisters, so they don’t want me around. I really didn’t know anybody other than family to go to, and I ended up homeless. I worked my way up from that.”

RELATED STORY How the American Legion Became a Medical Cannabis Advocate

PTSD and Depression

Crain and other veterans continued to use cannabis while they coped with the physical and mental scars left from the war.

According to a 2015 study by JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Psychiatry, more than 270,000 of surviving Vietnam veterans are still living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Of those veterans suffering from PTSD, about one-third also cope with a “current major depressive disorder” all these decades later.

But a growing number of veterans from the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are using cannabis to treat PTSD as well as chronic pain and other ailments.

The American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans organization, has been calling on the federal government to legitimize cannabis and invest in medical marijuana research.

“Our National Executive Committee, most of whom are Vietnam-era veterans, approved a resolution in 2016 that called for the removal of cannabis from Schedule I and called upon the federal government to enable greater research into the safety and efficacy of the drug,” Joe Plenzler, the Legion’s director of media relations, told Leafy via email.

Veterans groups like the Weed for Warriors Project, HeroGrown and other cannabis advocacy organizations have also sprung up, advocating for veterans to access medical marijuana as a viable treatment option, especially as an alternative to the opioids and other prescription drugs. The overprescription and overreliance on those drugs, say some advocates, contributes to the estimated 20 veteran suicides a day in the U.S.

“The Veterans Administration needs to understand whether overmedication of drugs, such as opioid pain-killers, is a contributing factor in suicide-related deaths,” Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Vietnam veteran, said last year.

Weed for Warriors

John Adams became president of a Weed for Warriors chapter last year. Along with their work with veterans, the group also does community-based projects like feeding and clothing the homeless, beach cleanups, and working with local food banks.

Bill Crain credits Weed for Warriors with showing him how to properly medicate with cannabis, how to deal with his PTSD, and how to give back to the community.

“Before I started going to Weed for Warriors, my PTSD got so bad I just stayed in my house,” he said. “I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t have a lot of friends. But I just got back today from going downtown, feeding the homeless. I like hanging out with this group of vets. We’ve all got the same kind of issues.”

‘The Energy Is Back Again’

Dale Schafer, who served five years in federal prison for growing medical marijuana in a home garden, now serves as legal counsel for Weed for Warriors. He believes the political activism that Vietnam-era veterans grew up with, especially when it came to cannabis and cannabis legalization, is being revived in the current political landscape.

“What we’re seeing is the energy that was generated, as my generation tried to bring the war to an end, is back again,” he told Leafly. “We’ve gone through how many years of watching the pendulum go back and forth and nothing actually getting done. Right now a lot of people in this country are awake to the possibility that they can do something.”

Archive photos: courtesy of subjects portrayed. All others: Bruce Kennedy for Leafly.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/medicating-in-wartime-the-cannabis-legacy-of-vietnam-veterans

[renka-aardvarknews-blog]

Very embarrassing: mass media now think there was no gas attack at all

After speaking with eyewitnesses on the ground in Syria, even mainstream media are beginning to cast doubt on the West’s narrative of an alleged gas attack in Douma, as medics tell French, German and UK media it never happened. Agence France-Presse (AFP), the world’s third largest news agency, and the Independent, a British online newspaper, have each published stories that question whether chlorine or any other chemical was used against Syrians in Eastern Ghouta on April 7. In a French language video report, AFP spoke with Marwan Jaber, a medical student who witnessed the aftermath of the alleged attack. “Some of suffered from asthma and pulmonary inflammation. They received routine treatment and some were even sent home,” Jaber told AFP. “They showed no symptoms of a chemical attack. But some foreigners entered while we were in a state of chaos and sprinkled people with water, and some of them were even filming it.” Jaber’s testimony is consistent with claims made by a Douma doctor who spoke with veteran UK journalist Robert Fisk. Although Dr. Assim Rahaibani did not personally witness what happened in the medical clinic, he said that “all the doctors” he works with “know what happened.” According to Rahaibani, intense shelling had created dust clouds that seeped into the basements and cellars where people lived. “People began to arrive here suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss. Then someone at the door, a ‘White Helmet’, shouted ‘Gas!’, and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning.” Writing in the Independent, Fisk noted that locals he spoke with “never believed in” the gas attack stories – and that tales of President Bashar Assad’s chemical atrocities had been spread by armed Islamist groups who had imprisoned and enslaved thousands of people in Ghouta before the town was liberated by Syrian forces in April.

Meanwhile, a report aired by the German RTL Group-owned channel n-tv says it’s unclear whether the attack took place at all, given that most of the locals told them on camera they didn’t smell any chemicals at all, one local told them he remembers a “weird smell” and was fine after a glass of water, and one man, who didn’t want to show his face, insisted there was a “smell of chlorine.” However, a local doctor told the channel: “Saturday, a week ago, we treated people with breathing problems, but chlorine or gas poisoning – no, those are different symptoms.” All of these stories published by different outlets corroborate testimony from two men who appeared in the “gas attack” footage spread far and wide by western media and governments. Interviewed by the Russian military, the two men said they were unknowing accomplices in the gas attack ruse. “We were working and did not pay attention to who was filming us,” the first eyewitness said. “They were filming us, and then a man came in and started screaming that this was a chemical attack…People got scared and started spraying each other with water and using inhalers. Doctors told us that there was no chemical poisoning.” Doctors and medical workers questioned by the Russian Center for Reconciliation confirmed that there had been no reports of patients suffering from chemical poisoning in Douma during the timeframe of the alleged gas attack. The French and British media reports seem to contradict statements made by Paris and London, which have both stated unequivocally that the chemical attack did take place – and that Assad was responsible. French President Emmanuel Macron said before Saturday’s missile strike against Syria that he had proof that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chlorine to attack civilians in a militant-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta. For her part, British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that a “significant body of information including intelligence indicates the Syrian Regime is responsible for this latest attack.” Read the full article

[citizentruth-blog]

Allegations of a Chemical Attack in Syria Push World to Brink of WW3 - MIDDLE EAST

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/allegations-chemical-attack-syria-push-world-brink-ww3/

Allegations of a Chemical Attack in Syria Push World to Brink of WW3

This past Sunday, April 8, 2018, there was an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-controlled city of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus. The alleged use of chemical weapons by Syria is pushing the world closer to a major war as Western nations threaten to strike Syria, while Syria and its allies, mainly Russia but also possibly China, are threatening to retaliate. What are the facts and what do we know is true, if anything?

Douma: the Last Rebel-Held Position in Eastern Ghouta

The city of Douma was one of the last rebel-held zones in Eastern Ghouta kept out of the Syrian government’s hands by Jaysh al-Islam, a rebel Islamic faction. The faction had entered into talks with Russia to try and reach a peaceful agreement, with little military action in the area for almost 10 days. The talks came to halt when both parties could not come to a solution.

Air strikes began once more on Friday, April 8, 2018. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 70 civilians were killed in the bombings that took place on Friday and Saturday.

Chemical Attack in Ghouta

The culmination of the renewed fight was an alleged chemical attack that took Douma by surprise on Sunday. The Violations Documentation Center (VDC), a Syrian opposition group, reported that at around 4 pm local time, a bomb filled with toxic substances was dropped from Syrian Air Force planes onto Douma. Other activists reported the smell of chlorine in the air. The same activists report that a second bomb of the same nature had been launched into one of Douma’s busiest squares at approximately 7:30 pm.

Shortly after this strike, a report from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) which is based in Ohio, claims that 500 people were rushed to medical center facilities with symptoms indicative of exposure to chemical agents. These symptoms included difficulty breathing, blue lips and skin, excessive foaming from the mouth, burnt corneas, and smelling of chlorine. According to medical and rescue groups, a majority of the patients were women and children.

A suspected chemical attack in Syria yesterday killed at least 70 people,  rescue workers say. This is the aftermath. pic.twitter.com/SK6g8SCQqL

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 8, 2018

Response from the West

After these incidents made headlines in the West, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his anger about the chemical attack. In a series of tweets from his personal account, Trump condemned the attack and put the blame on Russia and Iran for “backing Animal Assad.”

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

On Wednesday, President Trump threatened to send missiles to Syria in retaliation, as well as to serve as a response to Russian warnings that they would shoot down missiles aimed at the war-torn country. Trump wrote on his twitter numerous times that he would promise to stand against Russian forces in Syria, remarking that tensions between Russia and the U.S. had never been worse — not even during the Cold War.

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia,  because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

On the other side of the Atlantic, Theresa May spoke to reporters in Birmingham saying, “The chemical weapons attack that took place on Saturday in Douma in Syria was a shocking and barbaric act.” The Prime Minister also stated that evidence points to the fact that Russia was behind these attacks, and that the U.K. would work together with its allies to punish those who ordered the dropping of the chemical-laced bombs on Sunday.

A poll conducted on Thursday by YouGov showed that 20 percent of British citizens support an air strike in Syria, with 43 percent of those polled opposing such a strike, leaving an undecided percentage of 34. Despite this result, May summoned ministers to discuss how to address this issue—with or without the use of force and military action.

So Theresa May admits she’s not sure who’s behind the awful chemical attack, but she’s going to bomb Syria anyway, without the backing of Parliament. This is about to be the start of a very tragic chapter in our history. Complete and utter madness. #NotInMyNameTheresaMay

— Rachael (@Rachael_Swindon) April 11, 2018

British people: We don’t know who was behind the chemical attack. We don’t want this war. Remember Iraq? #NotInMyNameTheresaMay

Theresa May: pic.twitter.com/mjuyBU3Lvk

— JOE Politics (@PoliticsJOE_UK) April 12, 2018

Standing with Britain and the U.S., nine other countries, including France, have requested an emergency United Nations Security Council Meeting. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says that the country will assume its responsibilities if it is proven that the Bashar Al-Assad regime was behind this chemical attack.

Response from Moscow

In response to the inflammatory tweets sent out by Trump since the day of the attacks, Russia warned President Trump not to take military action against Syria. During a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting that failed to initiate an inquiry into the suspected chemical attack of April 8, U.S. and Russian ambassadors clashed, the former attributing blame to Russia and the latter refusing it altogether.

“We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy. We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.

Moscow went on record claiming that the chemical attack had not happened at all, and was being fabricated in order to create civil support for military action in the region. The Kremlin puts the burden of the blame on the civil support group known as the White Helmets. In the same statement, the Ministry of Foreign Issues writes that this organization has “been proved more than once to be working hand in glove with the terrorists, as well as to other pseudo-humanitarian organizations headquartered in the U.K. and the U.S.”

Is there any undeniable evidence?

In our world of fake news, social media bots, fake social media accounts, and the relative ease it takes to create a video and distribute it online it’s hard to know what is real anymore. There is a war in Syria and that means in all likeliness both sides have the blood of innocent civilians on them.

We know for sure that the White Helmets are at least a highly questionable organization. There is ample evidence, on our own site, and elsewhere, of videos and photos of White Helmet workers celebrating with known terrorist organizations, of the White Helmets lying on Twitter, of White Helmet workers waving Al-Qaeda flags, carrying weapons and so on. Does that mean all White Helmet accounts of attacks are lies or that all White Helmet workers are terrorists, no. But it does mean any evidence coming from the White Helmets needs to be very carefully analyzed.

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) also needs to be looked at with a critical eye. Veterans Today has a great article on SAMS. According to the article, “despite being based in the rustbelt of the US Midwest, SAMS get around –they held their 15th International Conference in Gaziantep, Turkey earlier this year. SAMS travel to Gaziantep under the protection of ISIS to hand out awards in the middle of the largest ISIS training and support facility”.

Doubt has also been cast on other organizations involved in the Syrian conflict including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In reality, all sides in a war are motivated to lie if it helps their side. If Syrian President Assad did gas his own people and was “Animal Assad” as Trump named him and the West portrays him, he would lie about it. At the same time, if rebels were losing the war and western nations had repeatedly threatened foreign involvement if Assad used chemical weapons, faking a chemical weapons attack makes perfect sense.

If Assad, was not an evil dictator, but rather the leader of a nation caught up in a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia while also preoccupied with fighting off terrorist organizations, gassing his own people makes no sense. Less than a week before the alleged chemical weapons attack, Trump instructed his military to begin planning to withdraw troops from Syria. The last alleged chemical weapons attack occurred in early April of 2017, again only a matter of days after the U.S. announced a major shift in foreign policy. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley made headlines around the world when she said: “You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told a small group of reporters.”

The only thing that is known is that nothing has been proven and more war means more innocent civilian lives lost.

  Now what?

Right now, the climate around the suspected chemical attack is tense and details are sparse. It seems that the Western allied forces, in particular, the United States, France, and Britain are sticking together in their version of “Animal Assad”. These countries attribute blame to the Russian-backed Bashar Al-Assad regime, and are in talks to come up with a response to the event.

Until there is an investigation lead by a reputable non-governmental institution, tensions are unlikely to dissipate. With Russia, Iran and Syria denying responsibility, and even the existence of an attack; France, the U.S. and the U.K. pointing fingers at the Assad regime; and civilians online torn between the existence or non-existence of an attack, there seems to be no clear picture of what is to happen next.

  In 2005 Interview CNN Told Assad the U.S. “Rhetoric of Regime Change Was Coming”, it’s 2018 & War Hawks Are Salivating