We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, December 7, 2018

Whitewash - The 'Last Bastion Of Freedom' Is An Al-Qaeda Infested Town

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama

The author blasts the shoddy piece of propaganda about an Syrian town controlled by Al-Qaeda, one of the Empire's terrorist mercenary armies.
In reality "an alternative history" is not what happened to Saraqib, but what is presented in the New Yorker piece. It is a whitewash of a brutal international attack on Syria. A hagiography of one Osama al-Hossein, a Muslim Brotherhood 'activist', who got funding from the United States. It includes every false propaganda cliche about 'barrel bombs' and 'moderate rebels', who never were moderate, that the 'western' agencies inserted into the news stream. It is also full of stupid and nonfactual assertions.
The major question in my mind is: how did the respectable, although ruling class magazine, become a conduit for pure Empire propaganda? This could be asked about a number of ruling class sources of information and opinion. And, what happened to the articles authored by Seymour Hersh? The New Yorker previously published them. Why has he been forced to publish his recent articles abroad? I think these are more indications of the inherent weakness of the Empire and its desperate attempts to cling to power. Don't misunderstand me. The capitalist US-led Empire is most dangerous when it is seriously threatened.