Remembering 50 years after US Holocaust in Vietnam

Although United States opposition to the Vietnamese struggle for independence goes back to its support of the French in the 1940's, as shown in the documentary film Vietnam: American Holocaust, it was only after the untimely death of President John F Kennedy that America's holocaust in Vietnam really began. The year was 1964. That year, with Lyndon Baines Johnson as the new Commander and Chief, General Westmoreland was made commander of the now rapidly growing US command in Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin attack was faked by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as a false pretext to pass a war resolution against Vietnam, the action figure G.I. Joe was born, and the US began its massive bombing campaign against Vietnam, a campaign that would eventually drop more bombs on that small country than were dropped by all parties to WWII. Before 1964, relatively few Vietnamese or Americans had been killed in the military conflict between the two countries. In 1964 it began a sharp escalation that would eventual deliver some 58,000 Americans and more than 3,000,000 Vietnamese to their graves.

It is now 50 years since those events and 2014 will see many 50th anniversaries of things related to the Vietnam War. Those of us who fought for peace during that war hoped that its conclusion would lead to an America that had "learned its lesson" about the morality and even usefulness of aggressive military power, but we have seen that those lessons were never learned. They waited for a generation to pass and American's aversion to wars against little countries that the warmongers derisively called "the Vietnam Syndrome" to ease, and then it was off to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Drone Wars.

In a further effort to expand popular acceptance of their addiction to war, they already have a 13 year long plan in place that will cost tens of millions of dollars, The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration. The bill creating it was signed by President Barack Obama. They plan to use the 50th anniversary of Vietnam War events to remake its image in the public mind as another one of America's "good wars."

We need to do everything we can to oppose this makeover and assure that the true picture of the Vietnam War, an inherently anti-war picture, is preserved and passed down to future generations. With that view in mind, I produced and directed Vietnam: American Holocaust in 2008, and I think it is now more important than ever. I offer it as a powerful tool to subvert this planned makeover. Therefore I am asking you to buy this DVD and show it around in the coming year. You should also consider giving a copy to a local library or school. That will help to assure that a true picture of the Vietnam War will be preserved.

Comments on Vietnam: American Holocaust

It was a holocaust. Every American should see this film!
- Ron Kovic,Vietnam veteran & author Born on the 4th of July

I do a lot of public speaking on the subject of Vietnam. As I was watching the documentary, I kept thinking, ‘Wow, I can't wait to get this into the high schools.’ Clay has done an excellent job of piecing together the historical record. He uses footage, some of which I've never seen before, and it is so good. In my talks, I will say Eisenhower said this or McNamara said that. This documentary shows them actually saying it.
-Scott Camil, 1st Marines (1965-1967), Winter Soldier (1971)

Good job with the film. Very powerful. I think [Clay] did a good job of connecting Vietnam and Iraq without beating it into the ground. White phosphorous moment is particularly strong.
-David Zeiger, Director Sir! No Sir!

I love it .It's the best thing I've seen. I've seen Winter Solider, Hearts & Minds, you name it, I've seen it. This is the best thing I've seen.
-David Slaky, Veterans for Peace, St. Louis

This is the best political video on Vietnam and its historic relevance to our times I have ever seen. You really got to it, from the Garvey connection in Harlem of Ho Chi Min to our support of the French and the British release of the Japanese in Vietnam. It cuts deep enough to enrage me.
-Stuart M. Chandler, Rotten Tomatoes

The best documentary ever made on the Vietnam War.
- Blase Bonpane, Director of the Office of the Americas

Thank you so very much. Thank you.
- Vy Xuan Hong, Member, NA, Vietnam

Buy the DVD from the Vietnam: American Holocaust website or Amazon.com

Also visit the Veterans for Peace Full Disclosure: Towards an Honest Commeration of the American War in Vietnam website and sign the Open letter to the American people.

Syrian American Council Revolution Anniversary in Los Angeles

Pictures by SAC

Well, not in Los Angeles actually but in Fullerton, Orange County, but still in Los Angeles area and organized by the Syrian American Council, Los Angeles, this commemoration of the 3rd anniversary of the begin of the Syrian Revolution on 15 March 2011 took place on Saturday, three years after that "Day of Rage." Before the program got underway Congressman Ed Royce came to talk about HR 520 on Syria Attacks on Civilians and Humanitarian Access submitted to congress by chairman Royce and ranking member Engel on Friday. The event drew over two hundred people and involved children's activities, traditional delicacies, revolutionary exhibits and a Damascus Cultural display. The highlight was a symposium that included a diverse group of Syrian and non-Syrian speakers providing different perspectives on the revolution. A Q&A followed the talks.

I was honored to be one of the speakers. I spoke about the history of this revolutionary struggle and the need for the demand for a no-fly zone to come from the people.

Other speakers included Deric Mendes, an investigative journalist based in Los Angeles; last spring he traveled to Camp Zaatari in Jordan to capture the human story behind the Syrian revolution, and Dr. Mazen Hashem, a Fellow at ISPU and a Lecturer at the University of Southern California.



These are my prepared remarks for the event. This is not what I actually said, for one thing, I ran out of time but they are included here for reference:

On this 3rd Anniversary of the "Day of Rage" protest of March 15th 2011, which marked the official beginning of the Syrian Revolution, we should celebrate the children, because it was the children of Syria that really started the revolution 9 days earlier on March 6th when the Assad regime arrested a group of young boys in Daraa for writing on official walls "The People Demand the Downfall of the Regime." It has been a long and bloody three years because the dictator, Bashar al-Assad has not been willing to heed the will of his people and cede power to them. Instead, he turned even more viscous and violent than he was before the revolution, and he has adopted the strategy of maintaining his power through shear terror. After three years he still thinks that if he kills enough innocents, the people will give up. His strategy involves targeting civilians even more than he targets the fighters. Therefore he is happy to use indiscriminate weapons like tank fire, barrel bombs and poison gas because he is targeting whole communities. Because he is targeting the whole people., And because his goal is to create as much pain and horror as possible, he targets the children first and foremost. It is the children that have suffered the most in this revolution. The children of Syria have been bombed, shot, tortured and starved, but nothing shows Assad's desire to target children first like his use of sarin gas in East Ghouta last August. You know, poison gas really isn't that good of a weapon to use against soldiers. They will most likely be young people in good health. Plus they are likely to be trained and prepared. Likely to have gas masks and protective gear. Likely to have the right medicine available, know better than to try to hide in the basement like untrained civilians and their children. They learned that even in World War 1, that is why it has been used so rarely against armies since then. It is a much better weapons for targeting civilians as Assad has done. It kills the very old and very young first, and those in poor health. It kills precisely those who pose the least threat to his sacred "state security." It kills first those closest to the ground, those with the smallest body mass and the littlest lungs.,, Parents have to watch their children die before they themselves succumb. Poison gas is the perfect weapon for targeting children, and Assad knows it! While shamefully few countries have come to the aid of the Syrian people, Assad has had the full support of an imperialist superpower on a come-back mission, Russia, and a regional mini-imperialist, Iran, that have gone out of their way to make sure the Assad Death Machine never lacks for bombs to drop or shells to shoot. And when many of his soldiers have defected and joined the revolution; just when it looked that he might be running out of Syrian's willing to kill other Syrians, he brought in foreign fighters from Iraq, Iran and Hezbullah to do his dirty work and started with the barrel bombs none stop. Putin, I mean Russia, as one of five members of the United Nations with the power to give any country or dictator a license to kill, has elected to give one to Bashar al-Assad, and used his veto power to assure that no effective UN action could be taken against him. By the way, I believe that if the international community had taken action to reign in his boy, Assad, last year or even the year before, Ukraine wouldn't be facing the problems it is today, with Russian troops occupying part of that country, Appeasement of dictators never works. Hasn't history taught us that already? It only makes them more aggressive. Now the war clouds are growing again in Europe, for Putin has carried out actual acts of war in Ukraine, so no matter what happens going forward, I want it recorded for history that the appeasement of Putin began with Syria. From the beginning, Assad claimed he was fighting "terrorists" not the people. And to make his dream come true, he let more than a thousand terrorists and criminals out of jail as the democracy movement was gaining momentum. He may claim that he just let them out to make room for the protesters, but I think his motives were more sinister than that. He helped to create the jihadist threats of ISIS and al Nusra so that these jihadists could gnaw at the revolution from within, while at the same time giving substance to his cries of "terrorists on the lose." All the while he is buying stolen oil from them. But even that trick is playing out. People are wising up and the jihadists are being exposed and thrown out. Assad also controls the news where ever he can. Fabricates the news even. Claims fake massacres while creating real ones. Tortures reporters who tell the truth. Shoots doctors who heal the wounded. Assad has used rape as a weapon of war. Assad has an estimated 185,000 detainees, most are tortured, all are starved. It is very fortunate for the world that Assad doesn't have any nukes, because he has used every weapon he has against his own people and even invented a few. But perhaps his most cynical weapon is food, or rather the withholding of it. In Guantanamo, prisoners go on hunger strikes to demand justice; in Assad's prisons, they don't have the option. They are given no food to refuse. In the neighbourhoods too, it is his new favorite weapon. Barricade a resistive community, put it under siege and don't let any food in. See how they like that! To the people's cry of "Liberty or Death" Assad responses "Kneel or Starve". Here again it is the children who suffer the most, because adults who were starved near down-to-the-bone may still regain their normal body weight and health, whereas children will have their growth stunted and forever suffer the consequence. Beyond the incredible human statistics, hundreds of thousands dead or disappeared and 9 million displaced, there is another aspect to Assad's destructive rampage that bears mentioning. You know there was an exhibit about the history of Syria and the many world-historic buildings and structures as you might expect to find in some of the oldest cities on Earth, at the Pico House in Los Angeles last month. It was named "A Country Called Syria." I went to his exhibition on opening day and it was completely apolitical but it did a fine presentation of more than a dozen world heritage sites like the oldest mosul in the world, the oldest church in the world, the oldest fort, etc., and as I was signing the guest book, I asked the women behind it, if any of these sites had been damaged by the recent fighting. She said "Sadly, they all have." This is a great lost that Assad has cost all of humanity, because the Levant has been the birth place of three great religions and so much of early human history that this lost of heritage is a lost to us all. And yet, this struggle, as painful as it is, as devastating as it is, is necessary. Because tyrants can no longer be allowed to rule. Because it is no longer acceptable to live in terror in a police state. Because liberty must rule the day and because life on Earth will soon no longer even be possible unless it belongs to the meek. It is the future of Syrian that is at stake in this revolution, in important ways, it is the future of the whole world that is at stake in its outcome because if Assad succeeds there, tyrants everywhere, and make no mistake about it, tyrants will emerge everywhere as the struggle between rich and poor intensifies, they will follow Assad's example and try to slaughter their way to victory. If Assad fails, tyrants will look for "negotiated solutions." So the fight in Syria is not for Syria alone, it is for all of us. And so I see that the tremendous burden of this revolutionary struggle, much more terrible than any others of the Arab Revolts, being bravely born by the Syrian people because this revolution is not so much about today as it is about tomorrow. This revolution is for the children. And for the children we must demand international protection. Veto or no veto, we must demand a no-fly zone now! Syrian's should have had a "no-fly zone" years ago, on top of which the people have been denied modern anti-aircraft weapons, so that for three years now, Assad's campaign of "Death from Above" has not been effectively throttled. It's been kinda like "shooting fish in a barrel", except Assad has another way of using barrels to kill. So we must put it to the world's people and the so-called "world leaders", Is this to be a world where a government can murder its children by dropping bombs on hospitals, schools and playgrounds? Is the United Nations to be respected when a permanent member can give a dictator a license to kill children? I know stopping the fighting on the ground is another thing entirely, and nobody wants more foreign boots on the ground, but stopping military aircraft from bombing civilians targets is entirely doable and will save the lives of many children, clear that cloud of terror from the liberated areas, and greatly slow creation of new refugees. The Libyan people were lucky. They got air support from NATO that stopped Qaddafi from carrying out the extended campaign of "Death from Above" that has allowed Assad to so grossly over stay his welcome. The Libyan people were lucky because they are sitting on the world's biggest supply of light-sweet crude that is irreplaceable for some European refineries and Europe was in a financial crisis. They couldn't afford to have that Libyan oil off the market any longer than necessary. They couldn't afford to let the civil war drag on for years so they made a "humanitarian intervention" to save their own butts. Unfortunately for the Syrian people, Assad had a lot less oil and a lot better air defense system than Qaddafi, so their has been no fake "humanitarian intervention" for Syria. That is why it is going to take a grass roots campaign, from the ground up, from the people, to demand that those that have the means work together to establish a no-fly zone over Syria now. We have waited three years for the responsible world bodies and responsible world leaders to do this one thing that would have saved so many lives.. Do you know how they solved the problem of Syria's rising death toll? They stopped counting! Many people around the world are just now waking up to the tragedy that is Syria. They have been asleep for three years. And they want to know what they can do to help? They can demand a no-fly zone! Many see "humanitarian aid" as the non-violent answer. Humanitarian aid is important but it alone can never be enough. We can never make prosthetics as fast as Assad can blow off libs. Never feed all the people who've had their lives destroyed. Never find substitutes for all the parents who have lost children or children who have lost parents. We can't even put up tents as fast as Assad can knock down houses. Delivering "humanitarian aid" while doing nothing to stay Assad's murderous hand is madness, and the one thing that is clearly can be done is the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria We must demand a no-fly zone over Syria now!

  Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

I apologize as Ukraine takes "Left" over the edge

first the Apology
The dominate trend in the US "Left" seems to see US manipulation behind every popular mass uprising that is directed against a government favored by Moscow. If you are familiar with my blog, you know that I have strongly criticized this "thief of agency" when it has been used to rob the Libyan and Syrian peoples of the primary role in making revolutionary "regime change" against their beloved dictators. Now, seeing so much of this "Left" coming to the same conclusions with regards to the popular revolution in Ukraine, I realize that I credited more of their attitude to white chauvinism than I should have. For this I apologize. I can see now that they are equal opportunity deniers when it comes to either the power or the concerns of the working class in these movements.

and now Ukraine

Russia bandits wearing masks

Everyone knows that the thousands of well armed and well supplied troops in the same Russian army uniforms minus insignia, but delivered by army trucks with Russian markings, are not some cobbled together Crimea self-defense force as Putin claims they are, but are, in fact, Russian troops. By posting them outside their bases without consultation, they are in violation of their basing agreement with Ukraine. By crossing the border into Crimea, setting up check points, barricading Ukrainian bases, violating Ukrainian air space, and firing "warning shots" on Ukrainian soil, Russia has already committed numerous acts of war against Ukraine.

Russia's stated reason for this invasion, to protect Russian bases and Russian nationals, is clearly bogus because neither have been harmed or threatened. These acts of war have taken place without even the threat of an attack by Ukraine on Russia and without even asking the UN for a mandate, so they are clearly illegal under international law.

Russian forces in Crimea have taken over all independent TV stations and other media in Crimea and replaced them with their own signals. They plan to annex this part of Ukraine via a hastily called and rigged referendum and they have made it clear that they reserve the right invade anywhere else in Ukraine if they hear the calling.

This Russian military invasion and annexation also violates the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and that could have very damaging and lasting effects on the prospects for world peace in the future. That is because the Budapest Memorandum is the agreement by the US, UK, France and Russia to guarantee Ukraine's territorial integrity in return for them giving up nuclear weapons. If this violation is allowed to stand, many more nations will see a need to keep or get their own nukes.

So, how does the non-interventionist "Left" respond to these gross violations of world peace?

The United National Antiwar* Coalition (UNAC) says in a statement, 6 March 2014:

It is clear that Russia will not passively sit by while the Western-backed coup, led by violent fascist forces and local billionaires, overthrows a democratically elected government and installs a puppet regime on its border.

Strange words from a voice that use to oppose foreign military intervention. Not only does UNAC not demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, they try to justify the invasion by repeating Russian propaganda about what has been happening in Ukraine. This is a narrative that leaves the millions of Ukrainians, that took to the streets to demand change, out of it, or sees them as dupes of "Western-backed" "violent fascist forces and local billionaires." This narrative robs them of their proper role in making this history. This narrative robs them of their agency.

The recent revelations about Qaddafi's funding of Sarkozy's presidential campaign in France shows how widespread foreign attempts to affect various countries' internal politics are, but nobody claimed the French government was a Qaddafi puppet regime. There probably isn't a country on the globe that the US doesn't attempt to exercise it's influence on, but that doesn't put them in the driver's seat as these western chauvinists would have you believe.

Then they repeat Putin's justification for the invasion:

To protect its military base there and to protect the people in the Eastern and Southern parts of the country, where the coup is not supported, Russia has moved some troops to the Ukrainian border and into the Crimean peninsula.

Nevermind how easily these words could be adapted to justify the initially peaceful landing of US Marines in Vietnam to protect Da Nang Air Force Base, do they mean to imply that what they are calling a 'coup' 'led by violent fascist forces and local billionaires' was supported in the rest of the country? And BTW "into the Crimean peninsula" is already past "the Ukrainian border" unless you have already "gifted" Crimea to Russia.

You can describe a murder without ever calling it murder. You can describe a rape without ever naming it. This how a "peace" group describes the military invasion of a sovereign state without calling it an act of war. The only aggression they see is US aggression:

As long as the United States is committed to aggression, the whole world is endangered, just as Ukraine and Venezuela are. Libya fell, Syria is under attack, there is a "pivot to Asia", and Africom controls the military in almost every African nation.

Africom doesn't control the military in Libya, as UNAC predicted it would at the beginning of their revolution, which raises the question of exactly who Libya "fell" to. The answer is that it was lost by the Russian-backed Qaddafi dictatorship and it fell to the Libyan people, the people who made the revolution. It certainly didn't fall to the US; there can be no doubt about that after the Benghazi attack. Libya may be a mess now, but it is their mess. And who is Syria, by which UNAC means, the Assad regime, under attack by? It is being sustained big time by Russia and Iran, but those attacking it are overwhelmingly Syrian even if they are invisible to UNAC.

On Democracy Now*, Amy Goodman gives us Ray McGovern of Veterans for Peace, 3 March 2014, who sees a NATO plot against the Soviet Union that he thinks will fail:

The Soviet Union has all the cards. And so, somebody [inaudible] should say to the president, "Look, Mr. President, you know, however much we would like to have regime change according to our own wishes, there are strategic realities that we have to remind you of, Mr. President. And one of them is that Putin and no Soviet leader is going to abide NATO infringing on the Ukraine."

Clearly he is living in an alternate universe, one in which the USSR hasn't broken up yet, and he supports the Russian [in his universe, Soviet] invasion. He also denies any agency on the part of the Ukrainian masses:

If you look at Bahrain, you know, if you look at Syria—even Egypt, to an extent—these were initially popular uprisings. The question is: Who took them over? Who spurred them? Who provoked them even more for their own particular strategic interests? And it’s very clear what’s happened to the Ukraine. It used to be the CIA doing these things. I know that for a fact. OK, now it’s the National Endowment for Democracy, a hundred million bucks, 62 projects in the Ukraine

He thinks that is how millions were 'tricked' into protesting their corrupt government, and he replaces "America first" with "Russia first":

And people should realize that it is murky, but Russian interests are paramount here

On 7 March 2014, Amy gave us Jonathan Steele, formerly of the Guardian. I could call him a Putin apologist, instead I'll let his words speak for me:

I see no sense that this crisis has been created by Putin. He’s reacting to events, and one has to look at those events and not assume he’s on some forward march.

Bruce Gagnon, who I respect for his work with Space for Peace, also thinks:

The Russians are not going to idly sit by and watch US-NATO set up a right-wing fascist state right on their border.

He even goes so far as to repeat Russian chauvinist Pepe Escobar's racist attack on Crimea Tatars, in his piece on the San Diego Veterans for Peace website, 5 March 2014:

"[Russian intelligence] had already identified the wider mechanics of the CIA-style coup – including Turkish intelligence financing Tatars in Crimea… And what will the Tatars in Crimea do? Stage a jihad? Wait: the ‘West’ will surely try to FINANCE THIS JIHAD.”

The Crimea Tatars were once a majority on the peninsula. They were ethnically cleansed from their homeland in 1944 when Stalin killed a hundred thousand Tatars in their forced deportation to Siberia. Only since Ukraine became independent have they been free to return. They are understandably very concerned about Russia's annexation of Crimea and will not find jokes about jihad helpful.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation* also thinks what Putin is doing is right, 4 March 2014:

It is completely understandable that Russia would project a show of force in Crimea

And they want you to believe his lies:

Russia denies that the forces deployed in the Crimea are Russian special forces, suggesting that they are Russian-trained local defense forces.

The PSL also thinks the people in the streets have been duped by imperialist powers into carrying out their plan:

The U.S. government has engineered, financed and fully supported a classic coup d'état that overthrew a corrupt but democratically elected government in Ukraine. Joining in the destabilization of the Ukrainian government were Germany, France, Britain and other NATO powers.

Everybody, it would seem, but the Ukrainian people.

It just tickles me to hear so-called Marxists complain that it is wrong to overthrow "a corrupt but democratically elected government." This is exactly how the bourgeoisie thinks. They expect that all governments are corrupt and they expect that once they have talked, bribed or bullied their way into office through whatever passes for an "election" in their country, they are free to go back on all their promises, and do whatever they want, even establish a dictatorship, without the people "interfering" until and if there are new "elections." They call themselves "Marxists" but they show by talk like this that they don't really believe in revolution, which often necessitates the overthrowing of corrupt governments whether they have been "democratically elected" or not. Yes, he was democratically elected but he was sacked by popular demand.

This is just a small sampling of the blatantly pro-Russian, pro-war trash that is coming out of certain sections of the US "Left" that use to identify itself as "anti-imperilialist" and "non-interventionist", but not any more, their misguided support for the former Soviet Union has taken them over the edge. As I said before, when it comes to their opposition to war, * Some Exceptions Apply.

This is the third part of a trilogy on Ukraine. The other parts are:
The truth about the leaked Maidan sniper story
What is Russian Crimea's stand on the Right of Return?

Also an example for "Leftists" like these: Meltdown at RT over Ukraine/Russia coverage?

UN: Assad sarin used in attacks | The Left's response?

Flying under the headlines this week, while all eyes are focused on the clouds gathering over Ukraine, the United Nations published the 7th report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. This report was published on 5 March 2014 although it is dated 12 February 2014. This report goes further than the UN has ever gone before in placing the blame for the use of poison gas in Syria squarely on the Assad Regime. Specifically, on page 19, it says:

128. In Al-Ghouta, significant quantities of sarin were used in a well-planned indiscriminate attack targeting civilian-inhabited areas, causing mass casualties. The evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used on 21 August indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents. Concerning the incident in Khan Al-Assal on 19 March, the chemical agents used in that attack bore the same unique hallmarks as those used in Al-Ghouta.

And while they do later add an obligatory "In no incident was the commission’s evidentiary threshold met with regard to the perpetrator," that shouldn't stop ordinary people from drawing logical conclusions from the evidence presented.

Its been the Assad Regime all along. It was the Assad Regime that has had Al-Ghouta under siege for well over a year now, and still they remain unconquered! It was the Assad Regime that bombed and shelled the people of Al-Ghouta for months before the chemical attack. It was the Assad Regime that started shelling again within hours of the chemical attack and continues even till today, it is the Assad Regime that is refusing to allow food into the besieged sections of Al-Ghouta in an attempt to starve the residents into submission, and there should be no doubt that it was the Assad Regime that killed over a thousand Syrians with sarin gas in Al-Ghouta on 21 August 2014.

Bashar al-Assad committed mass murder with banned chemical weapons that had not been used on such a massive scale in decades and he has essentially gotten away with it. By all laws of social justice, this man should be in prison or dead, and yet he is still negotiating for a future role in governing Syria and still killing big time. He is even stalling on his promise to give up chemical weapons. He keeps missing deadlines and has so far given up less than 10% of his chemical agents. Given that about a dozen sarin attacks of various sizes have been documented in Syria over a period of more than eight months, and the evidence in all of these cases points to the government as the perpetrator (in one case the sarin was dropped from a helicopter), there can be little doubt that Bashar al-Assad did not personally approve of its use. And there is something else that now must be taken on board in light of the recent Russian invasion on the Ukraine, It is very likely that Putin also knew of, and approved of, the use of sarin in Syria. If you want to know what Putin is capable of, just look at what Assad has done.

I find the response of the Left to Assad's use of sarin to be absolutely shameful. Consider that poison gas may be the perfect capitalist weapon because it kills people without destroying property. Consider that the people of the world had waged a largely successful struggle to see it banned after the first world war, and now it is reintroduced as a weapon of indiscriminate mass murder in the suppression of a popular rebellion against a brutal dictator, and the Left does nothing?

I have not heard of one action organize by the Left to protest the gassing of civilians in Syria, so I don't think there have been very many. What I have heard from the Left, when it was not silent on the sarin question, has been a fantastic defense of Assad in which they present one crack-pot theory after another about how the rebels gassed their own people, just as many of these same "leftists" are now asking us to believe it was snipers from the protest movement that were shooting protesters in Ukraine.

The evidence of the Assad Regime's culpability for the use of chemical weapons was overwhelming even before this most recent UN report. I've certainly written much on it:  

• Whose Seymour Hersh?
• How Obama has supported Assad's gas murder always
• Why the return of chemical weapons is a big deal
• The Courage of Ghouta in a Craven World
• Where Robert Fisk's defense of Assad falls down
• More on ex-journalist Robert Fisk's defense of Assad
• Mint Press exposed as Assad apologist, AntiWar.com apologizes
• UN hints Assad used Russian rockets in sarin gas attack
• BREAKING: New Chemical Attack reported in Syria
• Secret Intel Source of Ray McGovern & VIPS Revealed!
• Why did Assad Regime first Deny CW Attack if Blameless?
• Witness to CW Attack: When Paradise turned to Hell.
• Media Body Count Games: Less than 500 or 110,000?
• Dr. Zaher Sahloul on the CW Attacks in Syria
• Why would Assad use CW with UN Inspectors in Syria?
• My dare to Ray McGovern & VIPS on Syria CW attack
• Who Used Sarin in Syria?
• Assad Knows: Chemical Attacks Kill Children First! 
• 1300+ Dead after Obama "Green-lights" new CW attack in Syria 

  Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

What is Russian Crimea's stand on the Right of Return?

“Ukrainians are also vulnerable, but at least they have Ukraine to go to. Where will we go? Crimea is our only home.”
                    - Eskandar Baiibov, a deputy in the Crimean Tatar Mejlis

Since Putin has seized Crimea from Ukraine with naked military aggression, now plans to use the device of a referendum on self-determination to complete its annexation to Russia, and it appears nobody is going to stop him, it is fair to ask: What does all this mean for Crimean Tatars and how does this Russian "right of self-determination" square with their rights?

The Palestinians weren't the only people forced off of their land in the last century. Crimea was once very different, for hundred of years the majority of the population was Crimea Tatar, in fact the word "Crimea" is the Crimean Tatar name for the capital of the peninsular during the time of the Golden Horde [1240-1502].

When Crimea was liberated from the Nazis in 1944, Joseph Stalin accused all Crimea Tatars of collaborating with the Nazis and ordered them removed. 200,000 Tatars were given 30 minutes to collect their belongings before they were put in cattle cars for the long trip to Siberia. Half of them never got there; they died along the way. They were not free to return to Crimea until after the fall of the Soviet Union.

After this indigenous Muslim population was subjected to mass deportation, Russians from other parts of the USSR were brought to Crimea to be settled in the newly emptied Tatar homes. That's how Crimea got its clear Russian majority. Stalin's policy of moving the Tatars out and Russians into Crimea wasn't an invention of communism; it had been Russian policy ever since it conquered Crimea in 1783.

Before Gorbachev's "perestroika", Crimean Tatars were banned from even crossing the border into Crimea. As soon as they could, many Tatar started repatriating back to Crimea. The Ukraine census of 2001 had them at 12% of the population, now they are estimated to be about 14% of the population of Crimea and the trend of Crimea Tatars returning to the only homeland they have ever had is continuing.

Needless to say, there are those among the now dominate Russian population that are not entirely happy with these changing demographics, especially when they come with disputes over property rights. Now, taking advantage of the turmoil created by the Ukrainian revolution, Russia has sent in its army to the cheers of this Russian population. Like the bandits they are, they don't identify themselves, but they are carrying out an armed occupation of the peninsular. And under these conditions they propose to hold a vote as to whether Crimea will stay in the Ukraine or become part of Russia. Its interesting to note that a third choice, complete independence, isn't even on the ballot.

Rim Gilfanov of Radio Free Europe's Tatar-Bashkir Service writes in Al Jazeera:

Moscow has long been working with local Russian organisations to ensure they remain pro-Moscow. It came as no big surprise that local authorities started to play the secession game immediately after the central government in Kiev was destabilised. There is a strong sense that the aspiration came from Moscow itself.

Needless to say, most Crimean Tatars are not happy with these recent developments. The head of the Ankara-based Crimean Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, Tuncer Kalkay told Today's Zaman, that annexation by Russia would be “the end of Crimean Tatars.” He continued:

“If the violence in Ukraine were to spread to Crimea, 300,000 Crimean Tatars would come face to face with approximately 2 million Russians living there. Soldiers in Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol are ready to invade Crimea. The parliament of the Autonomous Region of Crimea is under the control of Russia, is predominantly of Russian ethnicity and is against the Crimean Tatar National Assembly and Crimean Tatars,”

In May of 1944, when Joseph Stalin began his ethnic cleansing of the Crimea Tatars, he ordered the police to first tag each Tatar house with an "X", lately those marks have started showing up on Tatar houses in Crimea again.

There are many reasons why Russia's military occupation of Ukrainian territory is a violation of international law, and this planned referendum on the status of Crimea is both illegal and wrong.

Beyond that fact that even the reported choices are bogus. Katya Gorchinskaya, who has gotten a look at the ballots to be used in the Crimean referendum writes:

Voters in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea who vote in the March 16 referendum have two choices – join Russia immediately or declare independence and then join Russia.

So the choices are “yes, now” or “yes, later.”

Voting “no” is not an option.

It violates the Ukraine constitution to leave the rest of the nation out of the process. There is the fact that this "referendum" is to take place under conditions of military occupation. With Russia in control of all TV and media. With Ukrainian authorities and international observer denied entry.

Add this to all these other reasons: I believe all people who love justice must oppose this bogus referendum or any attempt by Russia to annex Crimea based on its current Russian majority because it will boost the interests of Russian chauvinism and harm those that have suffered far too long because of it.

END THE OCCUPATION - NO REFERENDUM - RETURN CRIMEA TO UKRAINE NOW!

This is also overlooked and very important:
The Russian occupation also violates the 1994 Budapest Memorandum agreement by US, UK, France & Russia to guarantee the territorial integrity of Ukraine in return for giving up the bomb. This may yet yield the darkest result of the world allowing Crimea to be taken from Ukraine by Russia without a fight. If all the countries of the world draw the appropriate conclusions about the value of international guarantees of territorial integrity, and decide, they too need a bomb to defend themselves, then there will be hell to pay for our tolerance now.

UPDATE 10 March 2014: a case in point -

Ukraine may have to go nuclear, says Kiev lawmaker http://t.co/cNEgxF5yHG via @usatoday
— Clay Claiborne (@clayclai) March 11, 2014

UPDATE 11 March 2014: Reuters is reporting:

Russia 'will fix' Crimea referendum, says Tatar leader
10 Mar 2014
By Yvonne Bell
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - The Crimean Tatar leader promoting a boycott of Sunday's referendum on transferring the Ukrainian region to Russian rule is sure the Kremlin will rig the vote and appealed to the outside world to protect his once persecuted community.

"The result has already been decided by Moscow," Refat Chubarov told Reuters in an interview on Monday in the Crimean capital Simferopol, where he heads the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, a Ukrainian public body that represents some 12 percent of the Black Sea peninsula's two million people.

"There are troops in the streets. There are 30,000 armed men, armored vehicles, planes landing with foreign troops, and the administrative buildings have all been seized," he said of last week's takeover of Crimea by Russian forces following the overthrow of the pro-Moscow Ukrainian president in Kiev.

"It's a fake referendum, an attempt to provide cover for this aggression," Chubarov said, arguing that voting would mean betraying a Ukrainian state whose interim government says local leaders had no right to call the referendum. "The whole of Crimea is being asked to become collective collaborators."
More...

For more reading on the Crimea Tatars I recommend:

7 Mar 2014	Crimea Tatars: 'Homeland' at stake	Rim Gilfanov
6 Mar 2014	Who Will Protect the Crimean Tatars?	Natalia Antelava
7 Mar 2014	Don’t let Russia abuse Crimean history	Victor Ostapchuk
23 Feb 2014	Crimean Tatars deeply concerned over developments in Ukraine	Sinem Cengiz
1 Mar 2014	Who are the Crimean Tatars, and why are they important?	Oxana Shevel