The Syria Campaign
Haven't heard of barrel bombs? Watch this.
Then join Syria's rescue workers in calling on the United Nations to enforce its own ban on these indiscriminate weapons. Support the White Helmets
Sadly, the response of the "Left" to the human carnage caused by Assad's barrel bombs is to ignore it. Fortunately, not everyone is in on the cover-up and others are taking the lead in demanding that the world put a stop to this wanton slaughter.
BBC News reported this week:
Bashar al-Assad's claim that he's not the one dropping barrel bombs on neighborhoods is rendered incredible because his army is the only force flying helicopters in Syria. Will the "Left" support Assad's murderous lies about the barrel bomb attacks the way they did with the sarin murders?Syria conflict: Aleppo civilians suffer 'unthinkable atrocities'
5 May 2015
Civilians in Syria's second city of Aleppo are suffering unthinkable atrocities, Amnesty International says.
A new report alleges that government forces and many rebel groups are committing war crimes on a daily basis.
The government has reportedly stepped up its bombardment of Aleppo in recent weeks in response to a rebel offensive.
President Bashar al-Assad categorically denied that barrel bombs had ever been used by his forces in an interview with the BBC in February.
At least 10 people, including four children and teacher, were killed on Sunday when a barrel bomb hit a nursery school in the Saif al-Dawla district. More...
Also this week, the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "found traces of precursors for the deadly VX and sarin nerve agents at an undeclared site in Syria." So it seems that Assad still retains the chemical weapons he was suppose to have given up.
The Independence reported this week:
Unlike the representatives of the Left that are meeting this weekend in Secaucus, NJ under the banner of the United National AntiWar Coalition, some people care about humanity more than they care about upholding an obsolete political line. Their Statement on Syria doesn't even mention Assad, let alone condemn his actions. The naive reader is led to believe that all the deaths in Syria have been caused by Israel and the US. The UNAC opposes the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria, which means that in practical terms, as opposed to rhetorical terms, they support Bashar al-Assad's barrel-bombing campaign. They also came out in force to deny Assad's responsibility for the sarin attacks of 2013, and they have remained silent about his use of poison gas and barrel bombs since then.Syrian government forces killing hundreds of civilians in air strikes as world watches Isis
4 November 2015
Lizzie Dearden
As the eyes of the world remain fixed on Isis, Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed an estimated 330 civilians in Syria since the start of this year alone, observers claim.
Bombings and chemical attacks like the ones that almost led Britain to war in 2013 have been carried out largely unnoticed as the so-called Islamic State continues its bloody campaign.
Isis has provoked global horror with its filmed beheadings, amputations, crucifixions, massacres and murders, most recently with the burning to death of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh.
The group’s horrific cruelty to civilians is well-documented, particularly the persecution of religious minorities and anyone who does not conform to their violent interpretation of Sharia law.
But whereas Isis gleefully spreads its gory propaganda videos around the world, the regime’s atrocities including the use of banned barrel bombs and chemical weapons, goes undocumented and unnoticed.
President Assad’s forces are fighting a civil war on several fronts – against Isis, other Islamist militias, secular rebel groups and to quash the anti-government sentiment that started in the 2011 Arab Spring.
The London-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights chronicled 127 air raids in just 24 hours earlier this week by regime helicopters and planes.
A spokesperson said Britain, the US and other international leaders that “claim to defend human rights” must work harder to stop crimes against humanity being committed daily in Syria.
“It is a shame on those who pretend to respect the Human Rights to just write and publish statements,” he added. More...
This goes a long way to explaining why the Left has failed to grow and remains in the hands of old farts that only oppose the slaughter of Palestinians when Israel is doing it. Young people that care about humanity, and include Syrians in their definition of humanity, will be absolutely repelled by the Left and the role it has played in supporting the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian backers, in there devastating campaign against the Syrian people just because they claim to oppose US imperialism.
This has left a big opening for ISIS and other extreme right-wing groups to recruit many of the same young people the Left should be winning because they at least fledge concern for the Syrian people and claim to be fighting the Assad regime. And make no mistake about it, the main reason these young people travel to Syria is to do something about the horror their elders, including the "Left," are all too willing to ignore, and not to build a mythological caliphate as the mainstream media would have you believe.
Meanwhile, the rulers are now manoeuvring to use the ISIS scare to institute new controls on the Internet and social media because they know the vital role they played in enabling the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall St., and they want it locked down to avoid such uses in the future. And where is the "Left" on this question?
I have focused on the Syrian Revolution since the end of Occupy Los Angeles, over three years ago, because I saw that it had the capacity evolve into the defining struggle of this period. The "Left" has all but ignored it, and in ignoring it, they have lost much credibility in their claim that they could be the force that leads humanity away from the catastrophes it presently faces.
Not only is another Left possible, another Left is entirely necessary if humanity is to survive this century.
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