CARTOON: 'Genocide' Joe Wins South Carolina, YAWN!
Never mind blocking candidates and debates, a completely avoidable bloody war, largest act of eco-terrorism ever and funding, arming and defending a genocide in Gaza ... He's the Democrats' Ghoul!
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
As Biden Bombs Syria & Iraq, 80 Groups Push Gaza Cease-Fire to Avert Suffering & Wider War
"We urge you to prioritize diplomatic pathways to de-escalation, which must include urgently pressing for and securing a permanent cease-fire in Gaza," the groups said in a letter to the president.
By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams (2/2/24)
As U.S. forces on Friday launched intense airstrikes against Syria and Iraq in retaliation for this week's deadly drone strike on an American outpost in Jordan, scores of advocacy groups urged President Joe Biden to avoid a wider Mideast war by pressing Israel for a cease-fire in Gaza.
According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), American warplanes struck Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and "affiliated militia groups" in Syria and Iraq—countries that have suffered various degrees of U.S. bombardment since 2014 and 1991, respectively.
This, after U.S. and U.K.-led airstrikes last month targeted Houthi fighters in Yemen amid attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
"We fear that, as tensions continue in this escalatory spiral, the U.S. could become engaged in a protracted new war that spans across the entire region."
"U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States," CENTCOM said Friday. "The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and coalition forces."
Anti-war voices condemned the latest bombings in the 22-year, open-ended U.S. War on Terror, during which millions of lives have been lost and trillions of dollars spent. A coalition of 80 advocacy groups sent a letter to Biden imploring his administration to eschew war by "leading with diplomacy."
"We fear that, as tensions continue in this escalatory spiral, the U.S. could become engaged in a protracted new war that spans across the entire region," the groups wrote. "To avoid such an unacceptable outcome, we urge you to prioritize diplomatic pathways to de-escalation, which must include urgently pressing for and securing a permanent cease-fire in Gaza."
Stephen Miles, president of Win Without War—one of the signatories to the letter—said that "while these strikes come in response to the recent tragic loss of three U.S. service members, there is little reason to believe that they will be any more successful at halting the growing spread of violence across the Middle East than multiple previous rounds of similar U.S. bombing."
"Instead, the president should do everything in his power to immediately secure a cease-fire in Gaza, the fire at the core of this regional inferno, while leading robust, regional diplomacy aimed at a genuine de-escalation of violence," he continued. "More war will only put U.S. forces and people in the region at greater risk than they already are."
"Finally, we remain concerned about the clear lack of appropriate legal authorization for this prolonged military engagement," Miles added. "While the president always retains the constitutional right to engage in self-defense, planned retaliation and prolonged bombing campaigns are not self-defense."
Congressional ghouls of war
Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been demanding that Biden attack Iran in retaliation for Sunday's drone strike on the Tower 22 outpost in northeastern Jordan that killed three soldiers serving in the Army Reserve's 718th Engineer Company and wounded dozens more.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI)—a coalition of Shia Islamist militant groups backed by Tehran—said it carried out the attack on the U.S. base. Iran denies any involvement in the strike, and the Biden administration admitted Monday that it has no proof that Tehran ordered the attack.
U.S. support for Israel's genocidal war on Gaza—which has left more than 100,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing—has stoked intense outrage throughout the Muslim world. IRI warned following Sunday's strike that "if the U.S. keeps supporting Israel, there will be escalations."
"Nothing in the region is likely to de-escalate unless there is de-escalation in Gaza."
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the letter signer Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Friday that "Biden's strategy appears more focused on reducing the militias' capability to strike the U.S. than reducing their interest in targeting Americans."
"This is ultimately a suboptimal strategy. It would be more effective to reduce their interest in striking against the U.S. since that would render their capacity a lesser problem," Parsi warned. "What would reduce their interest? A cease-fire in Gaza."
"But Biden is doing everything he can to avoid putting any real pressure on Israel. He is accepting significant risk to U.S. soldiers—even willing to risk a regional war—just to make sure he doesn't cross the Netanyahu government on the issue of a cease-fire," Parsi continued, referring to far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Regardless of how Biden's campaign is choreographed and calibrated not to elicit lethal retaliations from the militias or Iran itself, there is no escaping this reality: Nothing in the region is likely to de-escalate unless there is de-escalation in Gaza," he added.
(Common Dreams work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.)
EVIL REVEAL: Never Before Has Our Criminal Empire Been So Exposed
Only liars and manipulators try to reframe criticisms of Israel as criticism of Jews instead of criticisms of the specific actions of a specific state power. Revealingly, both Zionists and neo-Nazis do this constantly.
By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlan’s Newsletter (2/3/24)
The Iraqi government says 16 people were killed in the latest round of US airstrikes in Iraq, including civilians. You might think 16 deaths as payback for three Americans killed by Iraqi militants would be more than enough, but you would be wrong. There will be many more.
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I’ve been railing against the US war machine for around seven years now, and never during that time have I had more westerners on my side than right now. Never has the depravity of the western empire been more starkly exposed in the cold light of day.
Usually perceiving the monstrousness of US foreign policy requires some knowledge and understanding, some background and context, and I’ve had to spend my time providing that so readers could see what I’m seeing. Now it’s just a deluge of massacred children appearing right on people’s social media feeds, with the US president proudly acknowledging that he’s backing it and bombing countries throughout the middle east to help it continue.
There’s not really any way for the imperial propagandists to spin that as anything other than what it is. They try (my god do they try), but not enough people are buying it. Too many people are looking right at the emperor’s shriveled nutsack in the cold morning air and saying “Hey wait a second, this bitch is ass dick naked!”
Everyone who opposes the US war machine has that one moment that snapped their eyes open, where they realized the media are lying to them and they’ve been cheering for the imperial stormtroopers this entire time. Syria. Libya. Iraq. Vietnam. There’s always something. And in terms of freshly opened eyes, this moment in history may wind up leaving the rest far behind.
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Top ten reasons people support Israel:
1. Their favorite political party supports Israel
2. They were taught to support Israel and revising your worldview is hard
3. They believe the media would never lie to them
4. They hate Muslims
5. They want Jesus to come back and send nonbelievers to hell
6. Their employment depends on it
7. They have a personality that always sides with power
8. They want to fit in socially with other people who support Israel
9. They hope to retire in an Israeli settlement someday
10. They want a career in politics or media
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Step 1: See the most horrific thing you can possibly imagine on your social media feed.
Step 2: Israel supporters show up to explain why the thing you just saw is actually fine and normal and should probably happen more.
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 through 3, every day, for months.
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If Israel was the moral and responsible force it purports to be it wouldn’t need a huge army of paid and unpaid apologists running around all day every day explaining why its latest documented atrocity is fine/is being misunderstood/didn’t happen/is someone else’s fault.
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Israel has been the sole perpetrator of atrocities since October 7, so they keep “discovering” new atrocities Hamas perpetrated on October 7 to make it look less one-sided. Oh look they beheaded babies on October 7! Oh look there were mass rapes on October 7! Oh look UNRWA was involved in October 7! Etc.
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“Am Yisrael Chai” is a popular Hebrew political slogan which loosely translates to “Palestinians should not have hospitals”.
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Only liars and manipulators try to reframe criticisms of Israel as criticism of Jews instead of criticisms of the specific actions of a specific state power. Revealingly, both Zionists and neo-Nazis do this constantly.
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Get out of the middle east. Just get the fuck out. Stop backing a genocide in Gaza, stop murdering people to shore up domination of world resources, and leave. Leave before you unleash something far worse than the nightmare you’ve already inflicted upon our species.
This cartoon is spot on! The only real Biden groupies out there are those who worship bombs and warfare and baby-killing. (Sort of like the underground mutant people in the original Planet of the Apes movie.) That crazy look in their eyes is real!