Military Resistance 12F10 Symmetrical War Whining

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Military Resistance 12F10



Symmetrical War Whining


AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS


AFGHANISTAN THEATER:
“ US Foreign Fighters Suffered Eight
Combat Casualties During The Week
Ending June 11 As The Total Rose To
40,588”

J une 04, 2014 www.michaelmunk.com [Excerpts]

AFGHANISTAN THEATER: US foreign fighters suffered eight combat casualties during
the week ending J une 11 as the total rose to 40,588. The total includes 21,621 dead
(one pending) and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and
18,967 dead or medically evacuated (as of Dec.3, 2012, when it stopped making the
count public) from what it called "non-hostile" causes.

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by reporting
regularly only the total killed (6,818: 4,489 in Iraq, 2,329 in Afghanistan) but rarely
mentioning those wounded in action (52,034: 32,238 in Iraq; 19,796 in Afghanistan).

They ignore the 59,908 (44,607 in Iraq, 18,463 in AfPak (as of Dec 3, 2012) military
casualties injured and ill seriously enough to be medevac'd out of theater, even though
the 6,818 total dead include 1,464 (961 in Iraq, 503 in Afghanistan) who died from those
same "non hostile" causes of whom almost 25% (332) were suicides (as of J an 9, 2013).

WIAs are usually updated on Wednesday at http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf


Soldier From Hillsboro Killed In
Afghanistan

Pfc. Matthew H. Walker of Hillsboro died of wounds he suffered when his unit was hit by
enemy fire in Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of clarksvillenow.com.

J une 06, 2014 By Tim O’Neil, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

HILLSBORO: Army Pfc. Matthew H. Walker, who was fatally wounded in combat in
Afghanistan, was a “great kid who worked his tail off,” his high school football coach
said.

Walker, 20, an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division, died Thursday of wounds he
suffered when his unit was hit by enemy fire, according to the Department of Defense.
The action took place in Paktika Province, which is in southeast Afghanistan along the
border with Pakistan.

Walker lived in the Hillsboro area and graduated in 2012 from Grandview High School,
which has about 330 students. As a senior, Walker was a captain on the football team,
starting as an offensive lineman and linebacker, said head coach Mike Genge.

Genge said Walker visited the school this spring.

“He was proud to be a serviceman,” Genge said. “He was enjoying it. He was finding
success, and it seemed he found his path. He was hoping it would get him to college.”

Genge said Walker worked hard on the team. “He wasn’t one of those fiery guys. He just
worked hard and did what we asked him to,” he said.

He said the faculty planned to meet Monday to honor a request by Walker’s family that a
memorial be held on campus.

The 101st Airborne Division is based in Fort Campbell, Ky. Walker was in its 1st
Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade combat team.


POLITICIANS REFUSE TO HALT THE
BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE
WAR


Resistance Action

J un 15 2014 By Ghanizada, Khaama Press

The militants siege in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan ended on Sunday
after security forces shot dead the assailant militants.

A group of bombers on Saturday attacked a police check post in 3rd police district of
Kandahar city and took positions inside the residential houses.

Provincial security chief, Ge. Rahmatullah Atrafi, confirmed that the clashes on Sunday
afternoon all militants were gunned down.

Gen. Atrafi further added that three policemen were also martyred and two others were
injured following the clashes.

Another local security official earlier had said that the militants attacked the police check
post with hand grenades and took positions inside the houses.

The operation to eliminate the militants was reportedly delayed to prevent disruption of
runoff election in Kandahar city



MILITARY NEWS



[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes: “Vets don't make corporations
profitable.”]


The Iraqi Army: “ Poor
Leadership, Declining Troop
Morale, Broken Equipment And
A Sharp Decline In Training”
“ Some Of The Iraqi Soldiers Who
Guarded The Green Zone In The
Capital Had Come To Work
Wearing Civilian Clothes Under
Their Military Uniform”
“ The Troops Were Prepared To Strip
To Civilian Attire And Flee If They
Came Under Heavy Attack”
“ They’re Losing Confidence In
Themselves And In The Government’s
Ability To Win. And The Government Is
Losing Confidence In Them”

J UNE 12, 2014 By ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL R. GORDONJ UNE, The New York
Times Company [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON — The stunning collapse of Iraq’s army in a string of cities across the
north reflects poor leadership, declining troop morale, broken equipment and a sharp
decline in training since the last American advisers left the country in 2011, American
military and intelligence officials said Thursday.

Four of Iraq’s 14 army divisions virtually abandoned their posts, stripped off their
uniforms and fled when confronted in cities such as Mosul and Tikrit by militant groups,
the officials said.

The divisions that collapsed were said to be made up of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish
troops.

Lieut. Gen. J ohn N. Bednarek, who heads the office of security cooperation at the United
States Embassy in Baghdad, told a closed hearing of the Senate Armed Services
Committee that some of the Iraqi soldiers who guarded the Green Zone in the capital
had come to work wearing civilian clothes under their military uniform, according to one
senator.

The implication was that the troops were prepared to strip to civilian attire and flee if they
came under heavy attack.

Even before the fall of Mosul, the Iraqi forces had had logistical difficulties and
been battered in their clash with Islamic extremists.

From January through May, six helicopters were shot down and 60 were damaged
in battle, an administration official said.

In the same period, 28 M-1 tanks were damaged and five tanks sustained full
armor penetration by antitank guided missiles.

ISIS, the administration official added, appears to have acquired Russian antitank
weapons in Syria.

A significant number of M-1 tanks have been hobbled by maintenance issues, the
official said.

“They are crumbling,” said J ames M. Dubik, a retired American lieutenant general who
oversaw the training of Iraqi forces during the so-called surge of thousands of United
States troops into Iraq in 2007.

“ There are pockets of proficiency, but in general, they have been made fragile
over the past three to four years, mostly because of the government of Iraq’s
policies,” General Dubik said.

“ They’re losing confidence in themselves and in the government’s ability to win.
And the government is losing confidence in them.”

The failure of Iraq’s army and security services to stand up to the Islamist threat also
underscores a politicization of the army leadership under Mr. Maliki that has corroded
the Iraqi military’s effectiveness at all levels, American officials said.

In one instance a few years ago, a leading Sunni general in northern Iraq whom
American officers lauded for his operational skills was ousted and replaced by a
Shiite officer.

And since the last American forces left Iraq, United States officials said the government
in Baghdad had failed to finance and maintain the same training missions.

“This is not about ISIS strength, but the Iraqi security forces’ weakness,” said a former
senior American officer who served in Iraq.

“Since the U.S. left in 2011, the training and readiness of the Iraqi security forces has
plummeted precipitously.”

The retired officer said that the militants’ fast-moving advance south was more a
reflection of the lack of resistance by Iraqi forces than the effectiveness of ISIS and its
confederates.

Senators emerging from the two-hour closed briefing with Pentagon officials and
intelligence analysts expressed grave doubts that Mr. Maliki and Iraqi commanders
could quickly reverse the lightning gains across the north and west that ISIS and its
Islamist allies had achieved in the past few days.

Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, singled out the reports of soldiers’
wearing civilian clothes under their uniforms as a particularly foreboding
development.

“ That’s a bad sign,” he said.


Iraqi Sunni Scholars Say Iraqi
Rebels, Not ISIS,Defeated The Iraqi
Army:
“ The ISIS Label Is A Clear Distortion
Which Does Not Change The Reality
That Iraqi Rebels Are The Main
Component Of This Uprising”
“ Several Iraqi Sources Have Pointed Out
That Tribal Rebels As Well As Other Iraqi
Fighters Constitute The Main Force
Currently Fighting The Iraqi Army”

J une 14, 2014 By MEM, Information Clearning House

[Translation from the J ordanian web site *Assabeel”]

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) said on Friday that describing the
rebels who drove the Iraqi army from several cities as operatives of the Islamic State in
Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is incorrect.

They decried the designations as an attempt to abort the uprising in the country.

In the statement reported by the Jordanian Assabeel newspaper, AMSI said that
the ISIS label is a clear distortion which does not change the reality that Iraqi
rebels are the main component of this uprising.

Meanwhile, the AMSI also denounced the call by an ISIS spokesman for fighters to
head towards Karbala and Al-Najaf. They described they call as " irresponsible
and objectionable."

About the routing of the Iraqi army, the statement said: "This is an achievement that will
infuriate many parties inside and outside Iraq, including those with external agendas that
harmed the country for years."

Despite claims that it was the ISIS which took over the cities and towns, several
Iraqi sources have pointed out that tribal rebels as well as other Iraqi fighters
constitute the main force currently fighting the Iraqi army, in addition to some
affiliated to ISIS.

About the routing of the Iraqi army, the statement said: "This is an
achievement that will infuriate many parties inside and outside Iraq,
including those with external agendas that harmed the country for years."

MORE:

“ Rebelling Groups Of Former Military
Personnel And Tribes Are The Majority”

J une 14, 2014 by Abdulrahman al-Rashed, Al Arabiya [Excerpts]. Abdulrahman al-
Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel.

Rebelling groups of former military personnel and tribes are the majority.

The presence of ISIS will not alter the major facts of the struggle in Iraq. One third of the
population is being punished by the regime for sectarian and opportunistic political
reasons. It's normal that they'd revolt against the regime and they will continue to be
against it.

MORE:

Fighting Reaches Tal Afar:
‘Widespread Resentment Toward The
Iraqi Government In Baghdad”
“ They All Share The Same Hatred For
The Ruling Regime”

[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes: “He should have stuck to his feet
in the bathtub and stayed out of iraq.”]

J une 14 By J oby Warrick, Washington Post & J une 15, 2014 By Ahmed Rasheed and
Raheem Salman, Reuters & BBC [Excerpts]

Fighting erupted in the town of Tal Afar 40 miles west of Mosul near the Syrian border,
security sources and a local official said.

fighting in Tal Afar, a majority Turkomen town which is home to both Shi'ites and Sunnis,
showed how volatile the deepening sectarian divisions have become.

Residents in Sunni districts accused Shi'ite police and army forces of launching mortar
fire at their neighbourhoods, prompting ISIL forces stationed outside the town to move
in.

Government forces are using helicopter gunships against ISIL on the outskirts of Tal
Afar, a member of Maliki's security committee told Reuters.

Government officials, quoted by AP news agency, said the rebels were using
rockets captured from troops, and the local garrison had suffered heavy
casualties.

A senior Middle Eastern intelligence official who has closely tracked the fast-moving
developments in Iraq said ISIS’s astonishing recent gains were mostly due to skillfully
forged alliances with Sunni tribal leaders, with the group exploiting widespread
resentment toward the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

“They all share the same hatred for the ruling regime,” said the official,

Zaydan Aljabri, an Iraqi tribal sheik from Anbar province, said he thinks ISIS has
learned from the mistakes of the Zarqawi era and is now truly committed to
defending Sunnis against a Baghdad government he sees as corrupt and
repressive.

“ If al-Baghdadi asked for my allegiance, I would give it to him, because what he is
doing is what I want,” Aljabri said in an interview.

“ Right now, my priority is liberating the Sunnis, and that’s why he has been
fighting for these last six months.”

MORE:

United States Government
Evacuating Some Staff From
Baghdad Embassy;
Crowds Cheer Insurgents In Mosul

Crowds in Mosul welcome militants parading down a main road in Mosul, Iraq. Days
after Iraq's second-largest city fell, some Iraqis are already returning to Mosul, lured
back by insurgents offering cheap gas and food, restoring power and water and
removing traffic barricades. (Photo: AP via Twitter)

J une 15, 2014 Ammar Al Shamary and J abeen Bhatti, Special for USA TODAY
[Excerpts]

BAGHDAD – The United States said Sunday it was evacuating some staff from its
embassy and beefing up security as deadly explosions rocked the Iraqi capital and
advancing militant Islamic insurgents released graphic images appearing to show its
fighters massacring captured Iraqi soldiers.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that an undisclosed number of staffers
will be moved to Amman, J ordan, or U.S. consulates elsewhere in Iraq not immediately
threatened by the insurgent group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

It said the embassy would remain fully operational with "some additional U.S.
government security personnel.'' The embassy, inside the Green Zone near the Tigris
River, employs thousands of people, some local hires and others from the United States.

Meanwhile, a string of explosions in Baghdad killed at least 15 and wounded more than
30 on Sunday.

A car bomb early Sunday killed 10 and wounded 21 in the city center. After nightfall,
another explosion went off in the area, killing two and wounding five. A third blast hit
near a falafel shop in the Sadr City district, killing three and wounding seven.

MORE:

U.S. Companies Flee Iraqi Bases As
Security Crumbles;
“ Individuals Are Being ‘Temporarily
Relocated By Their Companies Due To
Security Concerns In The Area’”

J une 12 By Dan Lamothe, Washington Post [Excerpts]

The crisis in Iraq has prompted U.S. contractors with personnel there to evacuate them
from areas near Baghdad that are increasingly in the line of fire as insurgent fighters
capture more territory with the apparent end goal of seizing the Iraqi capital.

The individuals are being “temporarily relocated by their companies due to security
concerns in the area,” State Department spokeswoman J en Psaki said in a statement
Thursday evening. The individuals involved include U.S. citizens who are currently
working under contract with Iraq’s central government in support of the Pentagon’s
foreign weapons sales program.

Psaki did not mention the number of personnel affected, but it could be hundreds, if not
thousands, of people.

Contractor evacuations began Wednesday, if not earlier, said Ginger Cruz, CEO of
Mantid International LLC, a consulting firm that works with numerous companies in Iraq.

In one example, health-care provider CHS Middle East initiated evacuations from Balad
Air Base, some 40 miles north of Baghdad.

CHS was awarded a multi-year contract in April to provide medical services on the base
under the Pentagon’s foreign military sales program as Iraq prepares for the arrival of its
first F-16 fighter jet later this year from the United States, according to a CHS news
release published in April.

The company was expected to provide emergency care, dental work, surgery and other
medical services to as many as 2,500 personnel living on the base, the news release
said.

On Thursday, the electronics giant Siemens was working to get about 50 employees out
of Baiji, Cruz said.

It was not clear exactly what their operation there entails, but the company announced in
February that it had signed a deal to provide service and maintenance to a large gas
power plant there. The oil refinery city is some 130 miles north of Baghdad.

Cruz said that her firm has recommended using teams of U.S. and Kurdish private
security firms to evacuate the contractors because the semi-autonomous Kurdish
government in Iraq’s north had sent its security forces known as pesh merga to take
control of the city of Kirkuk after Iraqi security forces abandoned their bases and
equipment and fled.

Negotiations were ongoing to secure the safety of foreign personnel in Baiji and to get
them out of harm’s way. U.S. security contractors involved reported that they engaged in
gunfire to get through the region, Cruz said.



FORWARD OBSERVATIONS




“ At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“ For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“ We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

“ The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppose.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852

Marxists know that democracy does not abolish class oppression.

It only makes the class struggle more direct, wider, more open and pronounced,
and that is what we need.

The fuller the freedom of divorce, the clearer will women see that the source of
their “ domestic slavery” is capitalism, not lack of rights.

The more democratic the system of government, the clearer will the workers see
that the root evil is capitalism, not lack of rights.

The fuller national equality (and it is not complete without freedom of secession),
the clearer will the workers of the oppressed nations see that the cause of their
oppression is capitalism, not lack of rights, etc.
-- V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition; Vol. 23


Political Incest--The Unspeakable

Iraq Veteran Domingo Rosas, Winter Soldier Investigation, Silver Spring, Maryland
March 13-16, 2008
Photograph by Mike Hastie

From: Mike Hastie
To: Military Resistance Newsletter
Sent: J une 14, 2014
Subject: Political Incest--The Unspeakable

Political Incest--The Unspeakable

Like all of us, we are now seeing it all fall apart in Iraq, just like
it happened in Vietnam in April 1975. I was living in Eugene, Oregon at
the time, going to school. Across the street from my apartment, someone
had spray painted on the side of a building: " Vietnam Has Won!"

It was a gut wrenching experience to go through, as you came to realize that
everything had been a L I E. It would take several more years before the
full impact of this truth was released from every cell of my body.
Around 1990, I came up with a term that helped me have a much greater
understanding of what I had been through.

That term, or phrase, was called: POLITICAL INCEST. In so many ways, I believe it
carries the same unimaginable pain that family incest does when it is finally
revealed to the entire family. I define Political Incest as the Fatherland using its
own people as sacrificial pawns in a time of war for the sole purpose of
economic profit, cloaked in the deceitful frenzy of patriotism and moral
high ground. It is the ultimate form of betrayal by one's own government
for the cause of war profiteering at every level.

This wound is so deep and destructive to the human psyche, that I believe it is the
number one cause of suicide among soldiers and veterans in this country. The
belief system is dismantled, and the word " Trust" dies. As we all know, more
Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than soldiers killed in Vietnam.

There are 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington,
D.C. And now, we are going to see a lot of Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans, and active duty military, being forced to deal with the impact
of what is going to be revealed over the next couple of months. Lying is
the most powerful weapon in war, and that truth is about to explode in
the minds of so many people. I hope what I have written, though perhaps
brief in its description, will add to some kind of open dialogue.

Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
June 14, 2014

Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam
1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at:
([email protected]) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.
The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a
so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen
of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004


Obama Nation

From: Dennis Serdel
To: Military Resistance Newsletter
Subject: Obama Nation
Date: J un 18, 2013

Written by Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div.
11th Brigade; United Auto Workers GM Retiree

**********************************************************************************************************************************

We are the National Security
AObamaNation checking
your asshole
to see what you have up there
It could be a bomb that the FBI
put up there
then arrested you in Time Square
then shouted to the AObama Nation,
that we just stopped another terrorist
& Yes, you can tell us what a fine job
we’re doing, protecting the Obama
Nation from any harm, he could
have killed so many people
with the fireworks & black powder
that the FBI gave him.
Then the whole ObamaNation
voted on TV that the NSA
could secretly download
your brains
because you have nothing
to worry about,
because you know nothing,
about anything at all.
Not even your wife’s second baby
who was not your own,
or how many times you watch
with Yahoo internet,
pornographic pictures
on your computer at work.
That sometimes you worry
that the government would release
this info to your totalitarian boss
& he would fire you &
driving home through a red light,
it was orange you tell the policeman,
No, it was red & I see you
haven’t had a ticket since 1984
& what would you do
tell your wife who’s third child
was not yours either.
But they would never do this
because you watch Fox News
or CNN
who tells you about this guy
who never finished 3rd grade &
got a job at the NSA,
then as an American traitor
he released this information
that your government knows
you pick your nose
& that they know when you’re in
church that you tightwad
up a dollar
so it looks like you put more
money in the basket.
But you & your wife are God fearing
American citizens who also
cheat on taxes about the money
you give to the church
when it’s tax paying time.
But you are Not a terrorist
because you are an upstanding
American citizen
protected by the Constitution
that in school you flunked on it
that they keep changing.
All you know about it
is what the NRA tells you who
to vote for
because of the second amendment
& how they want to take
away your rights or something.
In the morning when you wake &
have breakfast with your kids
who don’t look like you,
you find out they still have
Not caught
that Commie bastard who leaked
out your credit card information,
so the government now knows
how much you are in debt.
He also leaked out your wife’s phone
conversations, chatting with other men
& leaked out your emails, about
having affairs with cheating wives.
But then you drive home that night,
shaken running through a red light
eat dinner
with your strange looking children
then turn on the TV
& they still have Not caught
this guy who leaked out
all this spying information
on American citizens
by the National Security
AObamaNation.

something by Dennis Serdel for Military Resistance



CLASS WAR REPORTS


“ The Anti-Maidan Movement In
The East Is Taking A Stand
Against All Those In Power”
“ People Have Lost All Faith In The
Authorities, In The Social Order, In
All Available Public Institutions”
“ Eastern Ukraine Is Becoming An
Open Conflict Between The
Protesters And The Local Elite”
“ The Motives For The Protests In
Southeast Ukraine Are Identical To
Those Of The Protests In Kyiv (And, To A
Large Extent, Of Those In Moscow In
2011-2012)”

May 27, 2014 n+1 [Excerpts]

The Russian website OpenLeft.ru has been a source of sober and vital analysis of
the Ukrainian crisis from the very start.

Below we present translations from texts that recently appeared on OpenLeft, providing
a range of views from the left on the situation in Ukraine: an interview with Ukrainian
sociologist and Left Opposition activist Nina Potarskaya, and responses from activists
and analysts in Moscow and Kyiv.

*************************************************************

Open Left: Could unpopular actions on the part of the government, as they are informed
by their obligations to the IMF, help create a unified protest movement?

Left Opposition activist Nina Potarskaya:

Yes, in that sense the government has been helpful. (Prime Minister Arseny) Yatsenyuk
says that they’re going to take unpopular measures.

These will, as usual, affect ordinary people and not big business.

They’re going to raise prices, including utilities, and meanwhile there’s a big problem
with salaries—inflation is rising, but salaries are not.

This meets the main demands of the IMF, but not the demands of those who came
to Maidan. So that situation getting worse could serve to unite a new opposition.

Still, there’s some hope that inflation and worsening conditions for workers will push the
workers of large manufacturing concerns to come out and become an organizational
force that can resist the growth of the chauvinistic and xenophobic ones.

The workers of Krivhi Roh, who came out into the streets for the first time in twenty
years, and the workers of the Kharkiv Ball-Bearing Plant have moved in this direction—
these may well be the first canaries of a new wave of protests and general strikes, of the
sort that never took place despite the calls for it throughout the winter from the so-called
“leaders” of Maidan.

At this moment, the primary objective of activists from the Russian and Ukrainian left
should be to refrain from taking sides in this war.

*************************************************************

Elena Galkina, historian and activist, Moscow:

It seems that the real social upheaval is yet to come to Ukraine, but its tide will be large-
scale, because the system that governs the country is in deep crisis.

*************************************************************


“ Eastern Ukraine Is Becoming An Open Conflict Between The Protesters
And The Local Elite.

Alexei Sakhnin, journalist, left activist, émigré:

Essentially, the motives for the protests in southeast Ukraine are identical to those of the
protests in Kyiv (and, to a large extent, of those in Moscow in 2011-2012).

The post-Soviet governmental system is in a state of deep crisis; people have lost all
faith in the authorities, in the social order, in all available public institutions.

The social composition of the southeastern uprising also resembles that of Kyiv.

We are witnessing a large movement that includes all social sectors: from marginal
social rejects to businessmen, from intellectuals to retirees (although in the East the
lower-class element is more prevalent, since the more privileged social groups that
congregate in Kyiv are thinner on the ground here).

But the main difference between the participants of Maidan and the
southeasterern anti-Maidan lies in the structure and organization of their protests.

Maidan, despite its democratic rhetoric, was much more authoritarian. A coalition
of three parties had control over the protest’s mise-en-scene. All attempts to bring
in new banners led to severe reprisals.

The situation in the East is currently much freer and more chaotic, because no one
group is in charge.

It’s a real collage with all sorts of ideas on one canvas: Russian nationalists stand
with the radical left, moderate supporters of federalization with criminal gangs
lacking any ideological purpose.

But whereas Maidan received enormous support and help from the press and
even parts of the government (i.e. the parliamentary opposition – n+1), the anti-
Maidan movement in the East is taking a stand against all those in power,
globally.

At the pinnacle of Maidan, each citizen of Kyiv received an invitation in the mail, and the
TV channels incessantly called for action and mobilization in unison — but no
information penetrates the vacuum in which Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Odessa currently
reside.

And if Kyiv’s city administration – as well as some western governors – openly
took the side of the protesters at Maidan, eastern Ukraine is becoming an open
conflict between the protesters and the local elite.

As for Russian influence, it’s not as simple as most observers seem to think. In Kharkiv
the “pro-Russian” organizations don’t have a unified headquarters. That doesn’t seem to
indicate intense external influence.

Nor are the miners’ strikes in Kramatorsk and other cities in Donbass the work of
the Russian secret services—trust me.

Nearly all the proof of the “ Russian hand” promised by the government in Kyiv
turned out to be false.
Among the hundreds of people arrested, not one has turned out to have a Russian
passport—not to mention ID cards from the GRU (the Russian foreign intelligence
service. They’re all locals.

On the other hand, there are quasi-criminal paramilitary groups, various Cossacks, and
former Berkut forces operating in Donbass, real battles are being fought, and there are
likely emissaries there from Moscow.

Overall, the Muscovites don’t seem to be playing a vital role there. It appears the Kremlin
planted them there to help it pick a side to play for, while keeping the fighting groups
from going too far.

In conclusion, I would suggest that it’s precisely the less organized, less prepared, and
less orchestrated nature of the movement in the Southeast that enables it to be more
independent from the establishment.

It is therefore the Southeast that has more liberatory potential, that it is more likely
than Maidan to make demands uninfluenced and un-manipulated by the elites
(and foreign powers).

At the same time, the logic of national, linguistic, and cultural resistance is
pushing the movement in the direction of nationalist-patriotic mobilization.

This is exactly the political formula that’s been promoted by the Eastern elites for
the past twenty years. The task of the left is to resist this logic at all costs.

*************************************************************

Ilya Budraytskis, Historian, researcher, publicist, Moscow

There is a certain kind of symmetry and familiarity to what the events of the
southeastern protests in Ukraine have so far offered in response to Maidan.

Like Maidan, it is a mass movement oriented toward replacing those in power
while strategically occupying governmental buildings. In other words, as with
Maidan, the underlying objective of this movement is one of political revolution.

And yet, after weeks and weeks of political crisis featuring elements of civil war, it’s still
unclear which party is, in fact, issuing this “symmetrical response.”

Mass grass-roots participation was decisive to the movement in Kyiv, even though those
events also provided a platform for the converging interests of the oligarchy.

Looking at the movement in the Southeast, it becomes clear that the interests of
the people working “ from below” have been subordinated from the start.

Yes, thousands of people demanding a referendum and appealing for
federalization have come out on the streets, and continue to do so. And yes, the
majority of the population in these regions supports those demands and shares
the enthusiasm of the protesters. What’s more, it is precisely this strong support
that has led to the failure Kyiv’s so-called “ antiterrorist operation.”

At the same time, it’s impossible to overlook the fact that the movement’s future
would be extremely hazy and unstable were it not for specially trained and armed
military groups that have demonstrated co-ordination and expertise in capturing
and occupying administrative buildings and police departments in a number of
cities in the Donetsk region.

The key to this movement is therefore the militarized advance-guard, while the political
leadership in Donetsk and the surrounding republics remains undefined, weak, and
unstructured, if not simply nonexistent.

The movement lacks a political strategy (as evidenced by the fluctuating nature of its
demands – first federalization and a referendum, then independence and annexation to
the Russian Federation – and then back again).

What is has instead is a military strategy. The paramilitaries have remained one step
ahead of Kyiv’s armed forces; they possess good knowledge of the area and carefully
follow their commanders’ orders.

The political weakness of the movement is a direct result of the region’s lack of
knowledge of the culture of protest. The opposition movement here has little experience
in self-organization and lacks strong opposition groups that would know how to act
outside the realm of parliamentary politics. (This again distinguishes it from Maidan.)

A glance at the movement’s eclectic, not to say random, leaders is telling: third-rate
provincial political consultants, activists with a background in marginalized and isolated
pro-Russian nationalist groups, ex-employees of various con artists, and petty criminals.

Not one journalist or parliamentarian, and, what is more telling still, not a single
working class leader.

This is why the current movement is so much more vulnerable and susceptible to
manipulation than was Maidan.

You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that someone is behind all this,
someone with a strong hand that keeps shaking things up in the Southeast. The
movement is aided not only by the armed so-called “insurgents,” but also by a police
force that does nothing to prevent their occupation of government buildings.

The “ paralysis” of the authorities in Donetsk and Lugansk may not signify fear of
the uprising, but, instead, a split in the higher sectors of the Ukrainian elite.

Such a split certainly has precedents – as far back as the “Orange Revolution” of 2004,
not to mention the mayors in the West of the country who openly took the side of Maidan
during the winter.

But what’s distinctive here is precisely the fact that in each of these precedents a
political subject was visible on whose behalf these elites claimed to speak.

The case of the current situation in southeast Ukraine leaves us clueless about
who is giving support – as well as orders. The Kremlin, you might say — but that
is not necessarily obvious, nor, for that matter, true.

The worst-case scenario right now is that the Eastern oligarchs, led by or in
collusion with Akhmetov or the Yanukovych “ family,” or both, will succeed in
fomenting civil conflict to the point where the Kremlin feels like it must send in
troops.

And this is something that the Kremlin clearly does not want to do.



DANGER: CAPITALISTS AT WORK






OCCUPATION PALESTINE


“ In The Late Hours Of Monday
Evening, Israeli Forces
Executed 30-Year-Old, Father Of
Two, Alaa’ Mohammed ‘Awadh”
“ A Relative Of The Victim Said
That Alaa’ Arrived At The
Checkpoint To Collect Material For
His Shop”
“ Alaa Was Standing Next To The
Taxi, Unarmed, When Israeli Soldiers
Opened Fire”
“ The Israeli Military Prohibited Red
Crescent Paramedics From Reaching
Alaa’”

J une 4, 2014 International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team

Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

In the late hours of Monday evening, Israeli forces executed 30-year-old, father of two,
Alaa’ Mohammed ‘Awadh, at Za’tara checkpoint, in southern Nablus.

The Israeli army claimed that a Palestinian gunman was shot dead after he injured
an Israeli police officer in the leg.

The villagers of Huwwara stated their amazement at the version released by the
border police; Alaa’ was the owner of a phone shop in Huwarra and not politically
affiliated.

The taxi driver stated that Alaa was standing next to the taxi, unarmed, when Israeli
soldiers opened fire. A relative of the victim said that Alaa’ arrived at the checkpoint to
collect material for his shop.


The funeral march from Nablus to Huwwara (photo by ISM).

According to multiple sources, the Israeli military prohibited Red Crescent paramedics
from reaching Alaa’.

The Israeli army seized his body for “security reasons”, loaded him on into a military
vehicle for ‘investigation’.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) sent a call for a neutral and
impartial investigation into the death of Alaa’.

At dawn, Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Huwwara, ransacking the victim’s
home, those of his relatives, and his shop, interrogating his parents, his brother
and the taxi driver.

After the arrival of the military, youth of Huwwara village tried to drive out Israeli forces
by throwing stones while Israeli soldiers fired their weapons. One youth was arrested,
though his identity is currently unknown. The shops around the village have closed their
doors in protest.

At approximately 19:30 yesterday evening, the body was finally handed back to the
family, after a short time, the Alaa’s body was transferred to Rafidiah hospital in Nablus.

According to one of the doctors who conducted the autopsy, the majority of Alaa’s
wounds were to his chest, abdomen, and both thighs.

Alaa’s body held approximately 14 bullet wounds, including a serious wound to the heart
and both lungs.

His left arm had multiple fractures and a 10×7 cm wound in his left leg. Two fingers
were missing on his right hand, and two toes missing from his right foot. Therer was also
a large wound on the back of his neck.


Villagers Force Zionist Occupation
Troops to Get Out Of Palestinian Home

06/07/2014 Submitted by Ali Abunimah, Ali Abunimah's blog via ElectronicIntifada.net

This video shows villagers in Silwad, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank,
expelling a group of Israeli soldiers from a home they occupied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y0EA1YjMso8

In the video, a group of community members – women and men – knock on the door. A
distressed woman answers and says the soldiers had come into the house and
confiscated the family’s telephones and keys.

The villagers then search the house and find the heavily armed occupation soldiers in a
bedroom. They confront the soldiers, who try to give orders to the villagers, but instead
the villagers order the soldiers out of the house. At one point, when a women pushes a
soldier to get him out of the house, the soldier turns around and appears to threaten her
with his weapon.

Wattan TV reports that the video was shot by journalist Muath Mishal, who gave
this account of the incident: relatives of the elderly couple living in the house had
attempted to reach the family by telephone.

When they were unable to do so, they became worried and suspicious that
soldiers had entered the house. That is when they went over and liberated the
house from Israeli occupation, as the video shows. According to Mishal, the
soldiers had entered the house on Thursday night.

The video has been widely circulated on social media and Palestinian websites,
including Quds News Network and Donia Alwatan.


To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation commanded
by foreign terrorists, go to:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx and
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/list.php?id=ej898ra7yff0ukmf16
The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “ Israeli.”


DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK





Stupid Shitheads At Work:
First Grader Suspended And Facing
Expulsion After Finding Toy Gun In
Backpack And Turning Himself In

J une 6, 2014 By Charlene Sakoda, Odd News

A Pennsylvania 7-year-old was suspended and faces possible expulsion after
accidentally bringing a toy gun to school, despite turning himself in.

New Kensington first grader Darin Simak realized on Wednesday that he had something
in his backpack that was not allowed at Martin Elementary School. It was a toy gun that
was in the outside pocket of the bag.

Darin was unaware of the toy because, as his mom, Jennifer Mathabel, told WTAE
Action News 4, she packed her son’s bag which was a backup because he left his
normal school bag in a friend’s car the night before, and she missed the toy gun.

Darin said, “I just found it.”



The child knew the right thing to do, and took the toy to his teacher telling her, “I’m not
supposed to have this.”

As reported by the Valley News Dispatch, the teacher followed the school’s
protocol and notified the principal, who then suspended Darin pending an
informal hearing. The hearing has since been scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. with
the superintendent.

Mathabel says the administration had her pick her son up early on Wednesday and told
her not to bring him back to school the next day.

However, she disagreed and sent Darin back to Martin Elementary on Thursday. “I got a
phone call from the principal at about 9 a.m., and she said, ‘Darin is not to be in school,’
said Mathabel.

“I said, ‘Well, I'm sending him to school because he is entitled to be in school and be
educated.’”

That day, the boy was placed in the office and given in-school suspension.

Darin’s father, Chris Simak, disagrees with the suspension and told the paper,
“ What was he supposed to do?...Just hide it and keep it in his bag so he doesn't
get in trouble?”

John Pallone, New Kensington-Arnold School District superintendent, would not
comment on the incident citing student privacy. [Lying bullshit. Any parent may
give consent to waive “ student privacy” anytime, for any reason, and the
bureaucrats may not defy that consent. T]

The Valley News Dispatch examined the school’s policies and found that students are
prohibited from bringing weapons and replicas of weapons onto school property. It states
that if a student is found in violation, “the school district shall expel for a period of not
less than one (1) year any student who violates this weapons policy. Such expulsion
shall be given in conformance with formal due process proceedings required by law. The
Superintendent may recommend modifications of such expulsion requirement on a case-
by-case basis.”

The self-reporting aspect, as in Darin’s case, is something that is not specifically
addressed in the school’s policies.

Mr. Simak told the Valley News Dispatch that his son was suspended twice before this
incident but is not violent. One suspension was for pushing his friend during an
argument, and another was for teasing on the school bus.

In this case, the father feels a suspension is the wrong response to a child who
was simply telling the truth, saying, “ He did the right thing, and we're trying to
teach him the right way…and now they're teaching him the wrong way.”


YOUR INVITATION:
Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men
and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box
126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or email
[email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless you
request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.


New Charter School Lottery System
Gives Each Applicant White Pill,
Enrolls Whoever Left Standing;
“ Charters Provide Amazing
Opportunities For Students Who Don’t
Enter A Convulsive State, Fall Into A
Coma, Stop Breathing, And Cease All
Bodily Functions During The Admissions
Process”


J un 9, 2014 The Onion

NEW YORK — Introducing key changes to the lottery system that governs the
admissions process, the New York City Charter School Center notified potential students
this week that openings will now be filled by randomly distributing white pills to
applicants and enrolling those left standing.

In place of the existing electronic lottery system conducted in the spring, education
officials explained that applicants would receive identical white pills, among them a small
number of innocuous placebos corresponding to the amount of open spots, and then
wait approximately 30 minutes to determine the survivors and new charter school
enrollees.

“With so many deserving students competing for so few spots in the city’s network of
high-performing, tuition-free charter schools, our new lottery system ensures that each
student is provided with an equal opportunity,” said Eva Moskowitz, the head of the
Success Academy chain of 22 charter schools, while mixing up a tub of 118 sugar pills
and 2,376 pentobarbital capsules to be blindly administered in an upcoming lottery.

“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior
college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t
enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions
during the admissions process.”

“Of course it’s heartbreaking for the families of children who aren’t accepted,” Moskowitz
continued, “But seeing the look on parents’ faces when their child is still standing in a
room littered with rejected applicants is priceless. They know their child is going to get
the best possible education.”

Administrators told reporters that the new quick and relatively painless lottery system is
a welcome alternative to the notoriously long and emotional computerized drawings of
past years, where all applicants received a random number and were subjected to
waiting for many hours before learning whether they would attend a charter school or
return to an inferior public school.

Officials confirmed that the innovative selection process has already proved a success,
though not without its minor setbacks, in areas of the country where it has already been
implemented.

“This year we’re making the pills a little stronger because not all the candidates were
weeded out right away,” said Tim Bernard of Thrive Academy in Washington, D.C., a
public charter that had 200 elementary school students apply for eight open spots last
year.

“Some kids would seem fine, we’d extend them an official offer of admission, and then a
few days later they’d start hallucinating or slurring their speech. Meanwhile parents are
scared sick we’re going to rescind their kids’ offers because too many applicants
survived.”

“Luckily, we worked out all the kinks for this year,” Bernard added. “The body removal
crews are already assembled outside the auditoriums and ready to go.”

Though charter school officials maintained that the new admissions process is designed
fairly, critics claimed many affluent parents have already found ways to exploit the
system. For example, after a lottery in Los Angeles ended with a high number of living
students, officials discovered that parents had been building up their children’s immunity
to the pills by giving them small doses of poison each day, or had hired tutors to help
them train their bodies to overcome the effects of the pills.

Despite these flaws, many parents said they have no doubts about trying to get their
child into a charter.

“I went through charter school admissions with my oldest son last year, but after he died
I wondered whether it was even worth it to try again with my other kids,” Hoboken, NJ
mother J ane Schaal told reporters.

“But then my younger daughter got into Achievement First and I knew we made the right
decision. There was no way she was going to succeed in public school.”

“Next year we’ll try to get my youngest son into a good elementary school,” Schaal
added. “He’s not in kindergarten yet, but even if he’s not accepted to a top-notch charter,
it’s a relief knowing that his future will be set.”


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