A COMMENT ON THE SYRIAN SITUATION + NY TIMES DISCUSSION

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/middleeast/john-kerry-syria.html?hp



  I notice a furious all around debate yet feel entirely frustrated for lack of immediate details and historical context, e.g, 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/164272259/U-S-Government-Assessment-of-the-Syrian-Government’s-Use-of-Chemical-Weapons-on-August-21-2013?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=a610d7e3a5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-a610d7e3a5-398411721
and
David Rief's piece in the New Republic that references a lot of them
http://click.newrepublic.com/email/v1/click?v=3&e=f18dQhb0S65M1PNfs.VLZBZ683KP7VW2pJbqy6BL9F2W87hR1Q3QJ5HJW1mCkMb8JZdFnW4NY.tv8NQrh3W7vJmpp6p8SJVW59yJW_8mPD0bW3Q79T_3n_bzCW40N27T7SQlRBVnfRSP32D9ygW1mkrTt1yYyWBW6CFgD83nqtmzW8vqdSR1k4k7rW65dsG_1W6nDrN5W3VFmZl5NCW4Q9cWT2p5Y5TW6fJDQw5v0dtLW8_Vjjt7JNz3cW3g_GKW4tbQBvW5gj9JR8FSczXW6MwlLy4d0.7nW4P.5SG15sTs8102It It appears that the U.S, has been trying to destabilize the Syrian government since the days of G.W. Bush's Iraq adventure.
 So this then is what you get!
Syria had a Ba'ath type socialist government although it appears not as perverted as Saddam Hussein's became. Bashar al-Assad, a trained ophamologist, suceeded his father Hafez upon that man's death in 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
Whatever I read, pro or con intervention, of whatever degree, however agrees, in the highest moral dudgeon, that the Assads are the equivalent of "old badass Saddam" - as compared to the somewhat differentiating reportage of the ongoing ground conflict (s) of the insurgency - its various foreign backers and components, Islamist and Alawite, Shiite and Sunni factions.

Does a government have the right to defend itself against an insurgency? Especially insurgencies sponsored by various foreign interests that wish the country  to disintegrate?

Now specifics. It is said that the Obama government has electronic evidence of an Assad defense minister who is upset at the carnage wrought by the poison gas attack. Who recorded or overheard this conversation, where when, quite aside the interpretation of the evidence. According to Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic Dexter Filkins of the New York Times has evidence of 35 different poison gas attacks on the part of the Assad regime.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114488/leon-wieseltier-chemical-weapons-syria?utm_campaign=topic-email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=10139816
What if any reason does the Assad regime have to target a neighbourhood, that neighborhood
in Damascus? Was / is this an opposition hotbed? And if not, was this event an accident
as the overheard conversation might lead one to believe?
Another point: is Assad's Ba'ath regime so entirely evil that in fact there needs to be regime change with all the consequences of regional spread of warfare that such a decision entails?


  

malte-herwig-flakhelfer + struck/ keuschnig rezenzion

 



http://www.glanzundelend.de/Artikel/abc/h/malte-herwig-flakhelfer.htm

http://www.begleitschreiben.net/stoerung-der-gemuetlichkeit/

Jemand der folgendes schreibt "Die Interpretationen Herwigs sind stimmig und mit Virtuosität vorgebracht; die Methode kennt man aus seiner Handke-Biographie »Meister der Dämmerung«, in der er auch wie ein Philip Marlowe das Werk nach biographischen Verwundungen und versteckten Bekenntnissen absucht. " dem, dessen Urteil ist leider nicht zu trauen. Denn in dieser und vielen anderen Hinsichten, strotzt Herwig's Handke Buch nur so von Fehlleistungen - Sammeln, aufstoebern kann er, guter "Gumshoe" ist er; Verstaendis von Literatur und ihrem Zusammenhang mit dem Leben des Autor, eigentlich nicht vorhanden. Und dass er Nachrichten.at mit einem 60 K Klage droht damit sie die Colbin Rezension zurueckziehen - damit hat Herwig sich selbst zerstoert! Und dass Struck/ Keuschnig der doch viel sich mit Handke beschaeftig das nicht bemerkt... Struck/ Keuschnig laesst ja auch keine wirkliche Kritik an seinen eignem Zeug zu!

http://handke-discussion.blogspot.com/2010/12/full-length-review-of-herwigs-handke.html


http://handke-discussion.blogspot.com/2010/12/marie-colbin-review-of-herwigs-meister.html

 Was die Flakhelfer betrifft, wenn man sich wirklich nur patriotisch gegen die Luft Annihilierung aufgerafft hat, ihre sonstige Unwissenheit ueber das Crimen Regime ist leicht zu entschuldigen. Ich haette es auch als 8-jaehriger! Wurde aber nicht vor die Wahl gestellt, und ich hasste den einzigen SS Mann den ich kannte, den Volkschul Lehrer, und die Eltern haben nur durch groesstes Glueck ihre Gestapo Inhaftierung wegen ihrer Teilnahme am 20ten Juli ueberlebt. Und da sie seit 1934 im Widerstand waren ganz schnell zur Partei um gut getarnt zu sein.

http://www.lukasverlag.com/neuerscheinungen/titel/317-gestapo-im-op.html

Es hat wohl in vielen Faellen, wie Grass, mit Scham und sich schaemen zu tun, und Dummheit. Erstmal als 17 Jaeriger sich zu der Waffen SS zu schleusen zu lassen , und dann so dumm zu sein es nur ganz spaet im Leben zu gestehen und damit viel zu verspielen - Scham scheint ein grosser Grund dafuer, hoffentlich auch Scham fuer die Dummheit, und dann so pathoshafte und ueberhebliche Gedichte wie das Netanjahu / Lieberman Israel Gedicht!.
http://goaliesanxiety.blogspot.com/2012/04/gunter-grass-what-must-be-said.html
Was sollte denn leichter sein  Netanyoo-Liebermann als Fascisten zu bezeichnen, die zufaellig Juedisch sind? Die Spitze des Amerikanischen Neo-Con Faschismus die es ohne Amerikanische Unterstuetzung es kaum geben wuerde?

Ihr Michael Roloff
 


 http://www.glanzundelend.de/Artikel/abc/h/malte-herwig-flakhelfer.htm

THE IRAQ WAR ANNIVERSARY

THE IRAQ WAR ANNIVERSARY

Allessandra Stanley’s NY Times review of the Dick Cheney documentary

http://tv.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/arts/television/the-world-according-to-dick-cheney-on-showtime.html?ref=arts

has it that that truly miserable man “snookered” Dick Armery the then, 1993, leader of the House Republicans, into supporting the “war resolution” by telling him that old Bad Ass Saddam  Hussein, the U.S. Government’s once favored s.o.b., had the capacity to put a nuclear bomb into a suitcase – and if Cheney actually did this, but also if not - for cause at any of the many events - elicits in me the idea to pack this stupid monster into an old suitcase and dump him in the Sea of Araby for the there sharks, whom the body of Ossama Bin Laden has helped develop a taste for flesh of evil, who ought of course have been put on trial as ought Cheney and his “mission accomplished” accomplice, who certainly accomplished the ruination not just of Iraq but of the U.S. economy. – These men are as evilly stupid as Hitler and Co. who invaded Poland under false pretenses in 1939, whereupon the head of German counter-intelligence, which had provided the Polish uniforms into which Hitler & Co stuffed some disposable German criminals prior to murdering them as alleged Polish soldiers, Admiral Canaris is said to “have blanched” and said “this is the end.” Is there or was there anyone as foresighted in the so-called U.S. intelligence services?
Whom do we have to blame for having had Bush II as president? Anthony Scalia - who signalled how he would vote even prior to the Florida case ending up in the Supreme Court. Let us not forget our forever Anthony among the cavalcade of shame.

Rumsfeld’s first thought upon 9/11 is reported to have been that “Iraq has the better targets.” Were similar brilliant propositions coursing through  George W. Bush’s noggin as he was reading, to some kids, for five minutes, that children books about goats during the 9/11 attack? Bombs away, Rumsfeld! Bombs away Wolfowitz! Has there ever been as cowardly a terror campaign as Uncle Sam’s “shock and awe?” of a country that had just lost a war, that was quarantined? Has there ever been a greater worldwide terrorist than Uncle Sam and his 1000 + and expanding bases, the marines in the middle of Australia?

There is a New York Times editorial at the anniversary

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/opinion/ten-years-after-the-iraq-war-began.html?hpw

decrying – rather belatedly, no? - the Iraq war and warning of a repeat of this world historical crime by attacking Iran;

and here  a link to all their editorials and opinions including all those CIA/BROOKINGS Michael O’Hanlon updates that Auntie featured for years on end!

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?vertical=opinion/#/iraq+editorial/since1851/allresults/1/allauthors/relevance/opinion/

a better record of this infamy + links can be found at Tom Dispatch

http://www.tomdispatch.com/

and a day or so ago  Auntie reports that those politicians, of both parties, who are still in power in D.C., were largely silent, no comment on the anniversary.
 

also posted at
http://summapolitico.blogspot.com/

OPEN LETTER TO CHRIS HEDGES'S COURAGE TO RESIST

the_courage_to_resist

re 
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_courage_to_resist_20130224/

  Dear Chris Hedges,
The year is 2013 I believe and I must confess
this is a pretty pathetic piece that you have delivered yourself of -a once again warmed up story about von Stauffenberg.

I happen to be the child of two conspirators who survived the siege of
Berlin in their respective Gestapo prisons in spring 1945

http://www.lukasverlag.com/neuerscheinungen/titel/317-gestapo-im-op.html

and later in life was sufficiently intrigued to look at the entirety
of the resistance to Hitler, and also how he came to power, and then
seized the dictatorship.

The initial and forever consistent resistance was on the part of the Communist party, who also held together best when imprisoned.

Here is the list, all you had to do was use Google!

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_aller_Attentate_auf_Adolf_Hitler

Their attempt at Hitler's life in the FAMOUS Munich Buergerbraue Beer Cellar attempt only failed because it was foggy and Hitler took to train back to Berlin, instead of waiting for the fog to lift so as to take the plane. 

In 1938 the Swiss seminary student Maurice Bavaud had infiltrated the anniversary of the 1923 coup attempt during the Munich October marchby, but did not shoot because he was afraid he might also kill Goebbels and Himmler. The year is 1938.

I happened to have translated Rolf Hochhut's Bavaud bio for Little, Brown about
30 years ago. It was torture!

In 1938 CAnaris and the Abwehr, German counter intelligence, were ready to move the resistance within part of the German army goes back to 1934, as does my parents, for among immediate reasons  my grandfather's Werner von Alvensleben having been on the hitlist during the Night of the Long Knives.

In 1942 the Rote Kapelle was discovered, a big wave of executions.

I spent a lot of time the Institute for Zeitgeschichte [contemporary history]
in Munich researching for a biography of Oberst Grosskurt, Canaris's right hand
man, who however was captured at Staligrad and died as a Russian p.o.w.

The 20th of July assassination attempt at the Wolf's Lair occurred on the property
of my Uncle, Heini von Lehndorf, who meanwhile had become the courier for the
conspirators, and was promptly killed. I grew up with his kids, the most famous
of whom became Verouchka.

If your piece is meant to be analogous to the current situation, or perhaps
to the ongoing U.S. imperiliast semi-fascist way of being, I - who tends to regard the world thrugh the eyes of a romantic WW II conspirator ! - would say it misses the spot.
What would be needed would be the kind of general disaffection of the armed forces with the dictator. I see little of that here, rather the opposite, the forever
possibility of the seizure, not in Latin American fashion, but gradually of military
interests of the powers of government. Emergencies, emergency laws. As long as you and I and Tom Englehardt can get on our soap boxes and proclaim the truth we do not pose a threat to the powers that be.
Stay cool, stay dry!
Best Michael Roloff

& lt; /font>

http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
>

THE WINNER OF THE "ziggy"...

: You may recall "now-accepting-nominations-for-ziggy" of Md-December

http://summapolitico.blogspot.com/2012/12/now-accepting-nominations-for-ziggy.html

and the winner is

 

 

THIS STATUE,  MADE EITHER OF

[1 URANIUM-ENRICHED IRAQ-WAR-DERIVED ORDNANCE
[2 STEEL ALLOY, ENCHROMED
[3 PLAIN CAST IRON or
[4 DEGRADED, POCK-MARKED ALUMINUM

in miniaturized lapel-pin-sized form

IN THE ORDER OF VOTES RECEIVED

a) One vote for Kermit the Frog

b) which vote I suspect was meant to be for the
man who in honor of the extra-ordinary long-lasting destabilizing
"Ziggy" effect that his actions in the early 1950s had, and despite
the passage of time, and the inertness of the national memory, went to
KERMIT THE ROOSEVELT who brought you the overthrow of Mossadegh,
the installation of the Shah of Shahs and you remember the rest and the
great love that the "Great Satan" enjoys - 32 votes.

c) then the person for whom the award is named, Zbigniev "Ziggy"
Brzezinski received hundreds of votes, of course, for his and Jimmy Carter's
destabilization of Afghanistan in 1979. Often jointly with CIA Casey who
did his part to create the world wide Mujaheddin to fight in the nicely
destabilized Afghanistan - which is why the award takes the shape of a
dog - a country thrown to the "dogs of war."

d) But by far the overwhelming number of votes went to
"MOTHER" - the mother of invention of destabilization, the
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY - because it has been uniquely able to
create never-ending havoc, and propel "history" from one fiasco
to the other. Its "realistic"  "intelligence" gives stupidity a good name!
As soon as the U.S. Senate confirms  "Torture & Drone" Brennan -
that is, pro-forma - after a bit of the usual song and dance -
he will receive the mold from which the original was cast
so that he can create decal-sized replicas for the boys and girls at Langley. -
Its weight of course varies depending on the metal. The Uranium
enriched pin comes in at 2.3 ounces, the aluminum, pockmarked and degraded,
at less than half an ounce.
The ordinary citizen can obtain these pins from
Myron Toback, Inc.'s subsidiary shop in Truth & Consequences in New Mexico
after  first paying the appropriate deferential visit to the neighboring Rio Grand hamlet, Elephant Butte
where Rudolf Guiliani has a shoveling shop.


Myron Toback, Inc.
25 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 398-8300
(212) 869-0808 Fax
www.myrontoback.com


http://summapolitico.blogspot.com/2012/12/now-accepting-nominations-for-ziggy.html

 

http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name