Center for a Stateless Society » Syria

There is No Hope/The Anarchist as Lover on Feed 44

James Tuttle — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:00:16 +0000

C4SS Feed 44 presents Ryan Calhoun‘s “There is No Hope/The Anarchist as Lover” read by Trevor Hultner and edited by Nick Ford.
Music: Despair and Triumph, Danse Morialta, and Reawakening, by Kevin MacLeod. incompetech.com

“The war culture is all-enveloping and there is no end. The American resolve against war does not exist beyond an Internet fad, entirely obliterated with effective propaganda and fear-mongering. We are a nation of dunces, suckers, cads, cowards and killers. The world will bear most of the consequences for our idiocy. The people of the Middle East are not so easily led on. They know that war is all there is. They live with drones dotting their skies and murderers posing as peacekeepers occupying their streets. They know there is no hope, no expectation that America will ever do the right thing. Their children will die. Their parents will die. Their homes will be turned to ash and they will only grieve for a moment, because to wish any of it hadn’t happened is to embrace cartoon fantasy.”

“We hate too often. There is no shortage of things to hate for an anarchist, but we must never allow our hate to become a defining feature of our individual insurrections and revolutionary rhetoric. Hate can help us identify the enemy, but it can never destroy them. Hate will not empty the prisons, it will not burn down the corporate office space, it will not melt down the machinery of the military-industrial complex. If we are filled with hate, we will only accomplish the destruction of our current system for another system of walls. Because what is oppression but hatred for freedom? It is raw fear, terror and misery which ensnare us all in some way. It is the true fuel of military conquest, racism, xenophobia, sexism. Without hate, systems have no way of imposing themselves on us.”

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Barack Obama Terrorista

Grant A. Mincy — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 11:00:54 +0000

National Public Radio (Npr) ha condotto il suo programma “La Settimana Politica” del dodici settembre con un’analisi del messaggio alla nazione in cui Obama ha parlato dello Stato Islamico. Giornalisti e mezzibusti hanno discusso i fondamenti del messaggio: È stato abbastanza duro? Riuscirà nel suo compito? Chi c’è dietro Isis? Ripensandoci, mi sono accorto che gli Stati Uniti bombardano l’Iraq, in un modo o nell’altro, da quando avevo sei anni. Oggi ne ho trenta. Questa tragica tradizione, lunga ormai un quarto di secolo, è portata avanti dall’attuale comandante in capo e premio nobel per la pace.

Durante tutto questo tempo, il governo degli Stati Uniti hanno portato avanti macchinazioni statuali e massacri nel mondo arabo. Nel suo messaggio, Obama ha detto: “Il nostro obiettivo è chiaro: Schiacciare e poi distruggere Isi[s] con una strategia antiterroristica totale e prolungata.” La prossima guerra con i droni è alle porte, e così anche la morte certa per altri innocenti. Già ora il governo americano in quella regione è responsabile della morte di centinaia di migliaia di persone, di un numero ancora più alto di profughi, e infine della distruzione totale su grande scala. I nuovi attacchi non si limitano all’Iraq. Nonostante l’opposizione della nazione dell’anno scorso, quando fu preso di mira il regime di Bashar al Assad, le bombe cadranno anche in Siria. Alla fine sono riusciti ad avere la loro maledetta guerra.

Isis rappresenta un regime terribile. Assoggetta e stupra le donne, uccide i bambini e decapita i prigionieri. Ma più interventismo non è la risposta. Questa nuova campagna militare non farà altro che inasprire, non placare, la loro ferocia.

Un video drammatico pubblicato su Huffington Post mostra un bambino siriano seppellito vivo sotto un edificio bombardato. La telecamera inquadra un gruppo di soccorritori che scavano freneticamente tra le macerie, tra il ferro contorto, per salvare il bambino. Le grida del bambino superano il chiasso della folla. Alla fine i soccorritori hanno successo e il bambino, terrorizzato, viene estratto vivo da sotto le rovine. Le urla di giubilo della folla significano ad un tempo gioia e dolore.

Gli attacchi con i droni ordinati da Barack Obama ricreeranno questa scena ogni giorno, senza sosta, fino alla fine degli attacchi.

Gli attacchi dei droni sono atti di terrorismo. La campagna contro il terrorismo è essa stessa una campagna di terrore senza fine. Gli Stati Uniti sono in uno stato di guerra permanente: la più grande forza repressiva al mondo. Ogni bomba significa un mondo meno sicuro, meno tranquillo. Per gli Stati Uniti, e ovviamente per chi vive entro i suoi confini, ogni bomba significa più solitudine, più isolamento dal resto del mondo.

Gli attacchi militari producono obiettivi politici nel breve termine, utili solo ai falchi di guerra. Le speranze di pace richiedono una strategia di lungo termine. Dove esiste il mercato esiste pace. Dove esiste pace esiste libertà. Va da sé che più libertà esiste nel mondo e meno oppressivi sono i regimi. Io non voglio l’Isis, non più di quanto non lo vogliano gli altri, ma la risposta non è il massacro di decine di migliaia di persone. Questa è la stessa mentalità imperialista che ha creato un tale regime brutale in primo luogo. Lo stato nazione, con questi massacri, è esso stesso un regime oppressivo, e non merita altro che di essere sconfitto con la libertà.

Traduzione di Enrico Sanna.

Barack Obama: Terrorist

Grant A. Mincy — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:00:50 +0000

National Public Radio (NPR) led its “Week in Politics” program of September 12 off with analysis of US president Barack Obama’s address to the nation on the Islamic State. Various journalists and talking heads discussed the fundamentals of Obama’s speech — was it strong enough, will it get the job done, just who is ISIS anyway? Afterward, I realized the United States has bombed Iraq, in some form or fashion, since I was six years old — I am a 30-year-old man. This tragic tradition, now a quarter of a century long, continues with the current commander-in-chief who holds a Nobel Peace Prize.

For all this time the United States government has carried on national engineering and acts of mass murder in the Arab territory. In his speech, Obama stated: “Our objective is clear: We will degrade and ultimately destroy ISI[S] through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.” The next great drone war is upon us — sure to kill even more innocents. The United States government is already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the region, with even more displaced and property destruction on a grand scale to boot. The new strikes are not limited to Iraq either. Bombs will fall on Syria despite a national outcry against the administration this time last year when it targeted the Bashar al-Assad regime. They got their damn war after all.

ISIS is a terrifying regime. The group subjugates and rapes women, kills children and beheads prisoners. But more interventionism is not the answer. This new military campaign will only exacerbate their power, not curtail it.

A heart wrenching video on Huffington Post shows a Syrian baby entombed in a bombed building. The camera is focused on a group of rescue workers frantically digging through debris, laden with twisted metal, to rescue the child. The scream of the infant is distinguishable over the noise of the crowd. At the video’s end the rescue workers are successful and the terrified child is pulled from the rubble alive. The sound of jubilation in the crowd is as joyful as it is agonizing.

The up and coming drone strikes ordered by Barack Obama will recreate this situation every day, day in and day out, for as long as it is sustained.

Drone strikes are acts of terror. The campaign against terrorism is itself a never-ending campaign of terror. The United States is a permanent wartime state — the world’s greatest agent of repression. With each bomb, the world becomes less secure and less safe. With each bomb, the United States, and by default those of us living within its borders, become more alone and isolated in the world.

Military strikes meet short-term political goals for the war hawks, but the enhancement of liberty is a long-term strategy. Where there are markets there is peace. Where there is peace there is liberty. The more liberty in the world, by very definition, the less oppressive regimes. I don’t want ISIS around anymore than anyone else, but the slaughter of tens of thousands is not the answer — it is the very imperialist mentality that created such a violent regime in the first place. The nation-state, for engaging in such slaughter, is itself an oppressive regime — it deserves nothing less than to be vanquished in liberty.

Translations for this article:

Italian, Barack Obama Terrorista.

The Weekly Libertarian Leftist And Chess Review 47

Natasha Petrova — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 23:00:03 +0000

David S. D’ Amato discusses the political economy of Benjamin Tucker.

Tom Engelhardt discusses how America made ISIS.

Peter Harling discusses how ISIS is back in business.

Jacob Sullum discusses pot related prisoners of the War on Drugs.

Ronald Bailey discusses whether immigrants are more likely to commit crime or not.

Kevin Carson discusses Reason Magazine red baiting.

Ralph Nader discusses the ex-im bank.

Mike Marion discusses four questions that should be asked about renewed U.S. intervention in Iraq.

Sheldon Richman discusses how Obama is following Bush’s playbook.

James Bovard discusses how trade was shaped in early America.

Jan Oberg discusses the immorality of Obama’s speech.

Norman Solomon discusses the New York Time’s stance on war.

Barry Lando discusses the U.S., ISIS, and Al Qaeda.

Dan Sanchez discusses why the state is our enemy.

Lucy Steigerwald discusses September 11th.

The 7th part of George H. Smith’s series on social law.

Mike Whitney discusses war with Syria.

Matthew Hoh discusses perpetual war as U.S. policy.

Robert Parry discusses the revival of neocon bombing plans in Syria.

Johnny Barber discusses the lost lessons of 9-11.

Sheldon Richman discusses IP.

Nick Gillespie discusses alleged crime inducing youth icons.

Damon Root discusses Ken Burn’s new documentary on the Roosevelts.

Andrew J. Bacevich discusses Obama’s new war.

Lawrence Davidson discusses international law.

Justin Raimondo discusses the new Iraq War.

Abigail Hall discusses the arming of Syrian rebels

Jack Goldsmith discusses the expansion of war powers under Obama.

Alexander Alekhine plays Ruzena Sucha and wins.

Alexey Shirov defeats Jeroen Piket.

There is No Hope

Ryan Calhoun — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 23:00:58 +0000

The war in Syria is here. It got held up in social media traffic. We thought the angry hashtags had permanently ceased death from above for the Syrian people. For a moment, the Internet rejoiced in its seemingly overwhelming power to harness the American people’s voice. We were sick of war, sick of decent people being turned into killing machines and amputees. There was no need to go into Syria, no impending doom. Apparently Americans had wised up in the past decade and weren’t going to accept another bloody quagmire.

Well, so much for that. The war in Iraq, supported by a majority of Americans at its dawn, was not enough to teach Americans. And why would we expect it to be? 50,000 American soldiers and countless millions slaughtered in Vietnam wasn’t enough. The near extermination of the Japanese, the destruction of most of Germany’s cities, the piles and piles of bodies and all the wasted potential of a so-called greatest generation wasn’t enough.

It will never be enough. There is no hope. There is no progress the American government or any state can make away from the inevitability of mass slaughter. The lines at military recruiting booths will continue. Your protesting them will not eliminate them. Your pleas will not stop your friends from making the decision to kill for what they see as the greatest good. And when your friend comes back a husk of a human being, when the memories of Syrian, Iraqi, Somalian, Yemeni, Pakistani victims haunt him, when he reaches for his legs and finds only air, he will imagine it was all worth it and there will be nurses and psychologists to assure him it was.

The war culture is all-enveloping and there is no end. The American resolve against war does not exist beyond an Internet fad, entirely obliterated with effective propaganda and fear-mongering. We are a nation of dunces, suckers, cads, cowards and killers. The world will bear most of the consequences for our idiocy. The people of the Middle East are not so easily led on. They know that war is all there is. They live with drones dotting their skies and murderers posing as peacekeepers occupying their streets. They know there is no hope, no expectation that America will ever do the right thing. Their children will die. Their parents will die. Their homes will be turned to ash and they will only grieve for a moment, because to wish any of it hadn’t happened is to embrace cartoon fantasy.

There will always be a threat or the threat of a threat which will sell the American dupocracy into sycophantic worship of the capability of our military to make all right in the world. Americans crave protection, or the illusion of it. In truth there is no protection. 9/11 was not a fluke carried out by mad men. Nothing will save us from those who have every reason for blood thirst. They have nothing but their vengeance to guide them against the monstrous robotic nation which slaughters their countrymen and keeps them bound to a life of poverty and desperation. You will not swat them all away. We are not safe. In fact with the announcement of this newest edition of the War on Brown People, we are less safe than ever. But who needs true protection when all are assured that the state will continue to cradle them and make it all better?

The Americans are coming, stupider and more sure of themselves than ever. Will we beat our former high score of a million deaths? There is always hope for war. War is easy and resistance is futile. None of it will end until borders end, and good luck with that. Good luck dismantling the military industrial complex. If it crumbles, it will merely be reassembled to guarantee another century of death for the weak. There are no consequences for these campaigns of murder, no voice to condemn the soldiers or protect them from the scavenger recruiters. We’ll be duped again, and again, and again. The next time a president declares his steadfastness against perpetual war, the next time you hear media outlets praising the anti-war resolve of the American people, do what I do and laugh. Don’t weep. Your tears accomplish nothing. Enjoy the ride, because there is no exit in sight.