7:34 PM PT:
Re: Dis-arming the rebels
If I ask you for a job, you have every right not to hire me.
But when you use your clout to make sure no one else will hire me, that is another matter entirely. That's called blacklisting and is totally wrong in my book.
If a black man in the south, back in the day when the KKK was burning and lynching, was murdered by the Klan, and you had used your clout to make sure he couldn't buy a gun anywhere [because black people commit crimes or whatever reason you thought "reasonable"] I would consider you as something like an accessory to that murder. I would also consider you as objectively a friend of the Klan and an enemy of black people.
Now, if you want to understand why I am so hard on President Obama on this matter, it is because he represents the United States, and US policy now is to deny people being bombed, weapons with which they could defend themselves.
I have shown in my other diaries that the people being bombed would most likely have effective surface-to-air missiles by now, except for the interference of the United States.
Kossacks objected to the picture of a young girl that had her head blown off in Syria over the weekend so I took it down. Well you should know that 3 more little girls were killed in Aleppo today by a Syrian jet that could afford to make slow, low passes over the apartment building that was his target because he knew the people on the ground had no way to get at him.
That would not be the case except for CIA agents in Turkey, on President Obama's orders, that are making sure that Syrian jet won't meet an effective defense from the ground.
Don't worry, I won't post pictures of those little girls here, so unlike their friends and family, you won't have to look at their mutilated bodies. But you should, you really should, because in stopping those that could have defended those little girls from being able to do so, the United States is intervening in the Syrian Civil War, and all of us now have the blood of those little girls on our hands.
3:29 PM PT: I apologize for the photo and the outrage it has caused. I only wish that there was more outrage that this little girl was murdered (along with hundreds of other innocent Syrians) over this past weekend.
I also wish that I couldn't say that I have done more to publicize the slaughter of the Syrian people in the Daily Kos, than all the other Kossacks combined, but I'm afraid that is the case.
It seems that most people don't just don't want to see or hear what is being done to our fellow human beings by the Assad government.
I see very few other Kossacks bringing the horror of the state organized slaughter to the readers here, either with or without graphics, they just want it to go away.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing
I may not always do the do the right thing, but I refuse to do nothing.
I guess I thought I could shock people out of their apathy. I see now that I was mistaken. People are clearly far more angry about what I have done in publicizing what was done to this little girl than they are about what was done to this little girl, and I think that is a shame.
The LA Times published this on a slow news day:
Syria massacres seem to show slow, steady killing strategy
Bashar Assad's forces may be moving incrementally to avoid shocking the international community. But towns are watching the toll of quiet executions mount.
September 15, 2012
DARIYA, Syria â As he hid from soldiers in a field next to his neighborhood, a young man watched as a cat wandered down a street. Suddenly, it was shot dead. That's when Zuhair noticed the sniper on a nearby roof.
But a father and son walking along the street didn't see the gunman, Zuhair said. The sniper lowered his head and peered through his scope.
He shot the boy first. As the man tried to grab his son, who looked to be about 10, he was shot as well.
The two are among a reported 700 victims of snipers, shelling and summary executions, most of them men, since forces loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the Damascus suburb of Dariya in late August, one in a growing list of Syrian towns and villages that briefly enter the world's spotlight, only to be replaced by another one when a new mass killing is committed.
Unlike a massacre by government forces three decades earlier in the city of Hama, which left more than 20,000 dead in just three weeks and still haunts the country, the reported atrocities have been spread over months of bloodshed in Syria. That has led some to call the government campaign a kind of slow-motion Hama.
Late last year, as the government siege of the city of Homs was underway, activists began tweeting: "Homs 2011 = Hama 1982, but slowly, slowly." As the conflict becomes more bloody on both sides, the same can be said for the entire country.
"They killed them in one sweep [in Hama]; with us, it's in stages," said Um Hussam, a mother of five who runs a small convenience shop in an old neighborhood of Dariya. "We expected they would kill and terrorize people, but not to this ⦠level of barbarity."
After videos of children's bodies emerged after a massacre of 108 people in the town of Houla in May, there was brief international outcry, and several Western countries expelled their Syrian ambassadors and diplomats. Less than two weeks later in the town of Qubair, 78 were killed and United Nation monitors were fired upon when they first tried to visit the village. More...
Cartoon from Obama donne le feu vert à Assad:
Pham Binh of The North Star published this based upon my research in Barack Obama's Courtship with Bashar al-Assad:
The Revolution Betrayed: Obama and the Syrian Uprising
The first peaceful protest in Syria in January 2011 was directed not at the regime of Bashar al-Assad but against that of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Protestors gathered in front of the Egyptian embassy, heavily armed with candles (provided by the Central Intelligence Agency, no doubt) and placards that said “yes for freedom” (in the background) and “no for killing the Egyptian youth” (in the foreground).
This innocuous solidarity demonstration was squashed by the Assad regime.
Evidently the thirst for political freedom is highly contagious, and the Syrian people had to be protected from it at all costs, including their lives.
Stamping out peaceful protests by force — the tried and true method of the Assad regime ever since Hama in 1982 — succeeded at first but failed in the long run. In March of 2011, children who wrote anti-government slogans on walls in Dara’a were detained, beaten, and tortured. This barbaric act, the first of many to come, sparked what is rightly considered the beginning of the Syrian uprising.
Not long after, in April 2011, the regime handed the broken body of 13-year-old Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb to his parents sans genitals, dignity, and life. His crime?
Attending a peaceful protest in Jiza.
A year and a half later after that first protest in Damascus over 21,000 have been killed. Unknown numbers have been tortured, raped, killed, and mutilated by the regime. Over 250,000 Syrian refugees now live in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq.
What began as Gandian-style peaceful protests (modeled on those that shook Tahrir Square) became militarized and bloody only after the regime unleashed wave after wave of executions and sadistic reprisals the likes of which would have made Hitler’s stomach churn. After months of murderous repression, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) formed in summer of 2011 when soldiers ordered to shoot innocent and defenseless protestors decided to turn their guns around.
People who bemoan the FSA’s human rights violations from the safety of their couches while remaining mum about the regime’s criminal acts that drove them to arms in the first place cannot comprehend what Malcolm X meant when he said: “sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the gun down.”
While Syrian children like Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb were being tortured, killed, and mutilated by the Syrian government, what was U.S. President Barack Obama doing? Playing footsie with that very same government, trying to salvage dirty deals two years in the making aimed at throttling the Palestinians and Hezbollah in Lebanon once and for all in a grand bargain for Middle East “peace.”
Of course Obama is not prescient nor is he a psychic. He could not have known about Al-Khateeb’s suffering as it was actually happening. But as the pile of bodies grew too high to hide and the atrocities too gruesome, heinous, and well-documented to ignore, on May 19, 2011 Obama called on Assad, who he said had “chosen the path of murder,” to “lead” Syria’s transition to democracy .
So while the Syrian people paid in blood for saying the regime must go, Washington said that the regime must stay. Three months later, Obama reluctantly concede that his negotiation partner Assad must step down, but his administration steadfastly insisted that the security, police, and military killing machine that is slaughtering civilians stay in place without the old boss Bashar. Obama’s Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta put it this way: âThe best way to preserve … stability is to maintain as much of the military and police as you can, along with security forces, and hope that they will transition to a democratic form of government.”
Hope! The administration whose governing philosophy might best described as “the audacity of nope” hopes that the rapists, murderers, and torturers of the Syrian people will some day lead their victims out of the bloody, hellish nightmare they created to the land of democracy, human rights, and rule of law. Of course the Obama administration is neither stupid nor naïve enough to seriously think that the Syrian state machine will develop a conscience, but Assad-ism without Assad is without a doubt their preferred outcome at this point.
Obama Says No to Intervention
The Obama administration is trying to mend, not end, the murderous Assad regime. Once you understand that, you can see why:
- The U.S. responded so differently to similarly murderous rampages by dictators in Libya and Syria.
- The U.S. provides minimal non-lethal aid to the FSA ($25 million).
- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is blocking the FSA from getting heavy weapons that would destroy Assad’s tanks, helicopters, and artillery.
- NATO declined to invoke the “self-defense” clause of its charter after Syria shot down two Turkish planes a few months ago.
These actions have produced a one-sided slaughter in Syria, not a civil war where both sides are equally aided by rival powers. Obama does not want the FSA to win and destroy Assad’s precious state machine, so he gave a green light to Assad’s murderous campaign against his own people:
I have, at this point not ordered military engagement in the situation, but, the point that you made about chemical and biological weapons is critical. It is an issue that doesnât just concern Syria, it concerns our close allies in the region, including Israel. It concerns us, we cannot have a situation where chemical and biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people… a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus, that would change my equation.
Here, Obama raised the bar for U.S. intervention so high to make it impossible for Assad to cross the “red line” and change U.S. imperialism’s calculus. Assad now has Obama’s go-ahead to use chemical weapons on Syrians, just not “a whole bunch” of them. Zyklon-B is a-ok by Washington, just not “a whole bunch of” it.
So Western progressives who have been warning of U.S. military action against Syria ever since the Assad regime first blamed Syria’s protests on “foreign plots” and been dead wrong for 18 months straight can heave a sigh of relief. The U.S. will not be attacking Assad’s military any time soon. The slaughter of the Syrian people will continue unabated without meaningful outside interference. Once again, the Allies have refused to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz — but this time, with the support of Western progressives.
Here are my related diaries on Syria:
Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad
LIVE VIDEO: “World Silence is Killing #Syria” Rally in #DC
Free #Syria responds to Robert Fisk
UPDATED: #Assad: "#Syria doesn't need a green light!"
#Obama opposes French support for #Assad's opposition in #Syria
BREAKING: Amnesty site hacked, Assad propaganda posted
BREAKING: 630 Slaughtered in new massacre in Syria
Special message from Syrian children to Obama
Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight!
General Meade at Gettysburg
Tell US gov't to stop endangering Syrian activists
UPDATED: #Obama "green lights" #Assad's slaughter in #Syria
Syria: Turning Battlegrounds into Playgrounds
BREAKING: Bashar al-Assad is alive as deaths in Syria reach 25,000
The Left and the Arab Spring
Iran increasing its intervention in Syria
Syria: Images from the Battle of Aleppo
Fears grow of WMD attack in Syria
UPDATED: FSA says it killed Russian General in Syria
BREAKING: Syria releases new images of Bashar al- Assad | Are they fakes?
NOT BREAKING NEWS: Just another massacre in Syria
UPDATED: Syrian prime minister defects
Syria: FSA says Iranian pilgrims really Republican Guard
Syria: Aleppo under Siege!
BREAKING: UN votes to condemn Assad Regime as Reuters posts false story on Syria
BREAKING: Kofi Annan resigns as envoy to Syria
Syria: Bashar al-Assad not heard from on Armed Forces Day!
BREAKING: Senior Syrian diplomat to Armenia defects
BREAKING: Big Explosion hits #Damascus #Syria
UPDATED: Syria's Charge D'Affaires Quits London Post
BREAKING: Ground assault on Aleppo begins!
BREAKING: Protests across Syria in spite of Assad regime violence
ALEPPO: Step outside the Matrix and witness the Horror
UPDATED: US fears massacre in #Aleppo, #Syria
BREAKING: Reports of clashes between Jordan Army & Assad's Syrian army
BRAKING: Obama stops Putin from re-arming Assad in Syria
Syria: Foreign meddling increases as crisis builds
BREAKING: Aleppo, Syria bombed with fighter jets
BREAKING: Syria issues a correction, it has no WMD to use
BREAKING: Arab League asks Assad to step down!
Bashar al-Assad: New images released as slaughter continues in Syria
no blood for oil
BREAKING: Activists report toxic gas attack in Deir ez-Zor, Syria
Glenn Greenwald sees Islamist Terrorism as main issue in Syria
Will Syria's Assad make a chemical attack in Damascus on Saturday?
BREAKING: I know where Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is!
BREAKING: Massive Fire near #Assad's Presidential Palace in #Damascus, #Syria
BREAKING: Is Syria's Bashar al-Assad dead or dying?
BREAKING: Damascus explosion kills Defense Minister, other key figures
The battle for Damascus is coming
BREAKING: General Strike in Damascus
BREAKING: Intense fighting reported in Damascus now!
BREAKING: Syrian defector spills beans as important new defection reported.
Does Syria's Assad have something on Kofi Annan?
Tremseh Massacre in Syria: What we know
BREAKING: ~227 reported massacred by Assad's forces in Tremseh, Syria today!
Syria: Is Assad regime on the verge of collapse?
BREAKING: Russian Warships reported in Syria
BREAKING: #Russia changing on #Assad but not as fast as conditions in #Syria
UN Observers say violence in Syria is ‘Unprecedented’
BREAKING: Defection of major Assad insider reported in Syria
BREAKING: WikiLeaks releases 2.4 million #Syria emails
When did "Never Again" become "Whenever?" | #Douma
BREAKING: Incredible mass rally in Aleppo, Syria today!
BREAKING: HRW releases torture report on Syria
BREAKING: Syrian General defects with 293 to Turkey
BREAKING: Items not in the MSM on Syria
My response to Phyllis Bennis: Where is the non-violent opposition in Syria?
BREAKING: Syrian Air Force attacks Douma, 10m from Damascus, thousands flee
BREAKING: As Syria Burns, UN Blows More Smoke
BREAKING: Kofi Annan to propose Syrian unity gov't sans Assad!
BREAKING: Douma, Syria under massive attack, another massacre feared
BREAKING: Another mass defection from Syrian army
BREAKING: #NATO says No War in #Syria shoot down of #Turkey jet
NATO meetup tomorrow as more defect from Syria
BREAKING: Turkey calls for NATO consult on downing of jet by Syria
BREAKING: Senior Syrian Officers Defect
UPDATED: Russia reported to be preparing to evacuate from Syria
BREAKING: Syria fighter pilot defects
BREAKING: Britain stops Russian ship carrying attack helicopters for Syria
BREAKING: Russian troops headed to Syria
Qaddafi forces Strike Back in Libya
BREAKING: UN suspends mission in Syria
Libya & Syria - two videos - no comment
BREAKING: Russia denies supplying Syria with NEW attack helicopters
Syrian people rise up against the massacre
Another "Houla style" massacre in Syria
Fake Houla Massacre Photo: Was the BBC set up?
Idlib, Syria protest today on anniversary of Kent State killings
BREAKING: Massive protests in Syria following Friday pray
Syria is bleeding
Syria: Ceasefire faltering as mass protests breakout