Image is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ recent article on Kashmir.
It looks like the spat between India and Pakistan could be dying down, due to a new ceasefire. As of the time of me writing this paragraph, it seems both sides want to maintain it (despite some reports of violations here and there).
Both sides have declared victory, which is completely expected given their mutual political parties and nationalist histories. It’s a little harder to say which side has actually won, as both sides seem to have managed to shoot down aircraft and hit military bases. India has, in my opinion, had the more embarrassing moments, but international conflicts aren’t cringe compilations. I feel no good-will towards Pakistan’s comprador government, but it is at least nice to see Modi knocked down a few pegs. Regardless of the final technical victor, it’s obvious that - if the ceasefire is maintained - who won are the hundreds of millions of people who won’t have to live in fear of dying in nuclear hellfire.
This conflict is a good example of what multipolarity will truly entail. Countries that have been previously limited in their nationalist ambitions by American pressure will now take opportunities to revolt, sometimes against America itself, and sometimes against other countries in their regional neighbourhood. It’s also why, as communists, our goals do not stop at multipolarity; it is merely the establishing act of a new era of agitation against peripheral and semi-peripheral capitalist countries that are forming powerful national bourgeoisie classes as the international American capitalists are forced away.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
What will Hamas be receiving in return for listenening to its Qatari comprador allies and releasing Edam Alexander without any actual concrete concessions up front? Per DropSite News, a one way trip to America’s premier slave market:
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1923479173903024601
https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews/status/1923479173903024601
Also, with regards to:
Who do I need to speak to about getting a modified version of
but with MBS’ head photoshopped on?
All this talk about Trump and Israel not agreeing, Palestinian state recognition, etc, was just fluff to secure Trump’s visit to the Middle East. A circus sideshow performance not worth paying attention to. Trump would only ever recognise a Palestinian state that’s an American protectorate. As for the ceasefire between Yemen and the USA, that could also be a temporary thing, and be vanquished when the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier arrives in the Red Sea, and operations could restart against Yemen. The USS Harry Truman is leaving the Red Sea now, rotating out, the Ford will take it’s place. The Iran situation is also on a knife edge, it seems as if talks did not go well last weekend. Yemen better have large stocks of Qassem Basir ASBMs if they want to defend themselves against any potential US aggression.
Trump is a showman and the Americans cant be trusted. Nothing under the sun is new. The only thing that is perplexing is the continued existence of any goodwill concession by the other states towards the us government.
It’s not as if they have much of a choice. As Mao said, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and the USA has the most powerful gun.
If no concessions can happen since the empire can never be trusted, is the only logical action to fight to the death at all times?
Yes
Simple as
It would be, yes. But its a double bind anyway. The House only wins so long its roof and walls stand.
“They win every time until they lose”?
They win until their foundation is irrevocably destroyed.
It is Yahya al Sinwar’s strategy of “burning stages”. The resistance in Gaza must pass through all stages to achieve its goals. For example, the martyr was heavily criticized for promoting non-violent actions during the Great Return Marches in 2018 & 2019. (At the same time he was obviously preparing for Saif al Quds and Tufan al Aqsa.)
Provided that the Khaled Meshaal faction has not taken over the control of Hamas in Gaza (very doubtful) then we should not be so quick to assume ignorance or foolishness of the Palestinian resistance.
This was the first time Hamas negotiated a deal directly with the head of the snake. And I pray that this moment, the complete US betrayal, the gaudiness of the munafiq Gulf cows, the treason of Sunni identitarian al Jolani, and the heinous zionist violations of Gaza, in contrast with the loyal and honorable Resistance, will be burned into the minds of the Palestinian and Arab masses for generations.
I’ll be honest, this sounds like the bullshit the empire had been spouting for years, so why is this one THE one? If this were an option they would’ve taken it before.
You should have a listen to Norman Finkelstein as IMO he is by far the only correct(western) authority on this. His latest take is Palestinians will leave eventualy(the last 10 minutes here) because there is realy nothing left except rubble and a pile of corpses. Pragmatically speaking they’ve been through a lot but as he says its dangerous to portray them as if they have some sort of superhuman strength to resist pain and suffering.
By all metrics and the historical record of Israeli offensives so far, this is an order of magnitude worst than ever before given e.g the amount of rubble that needs to be cleared for reconstruction to even begin.
So why is this the one? Maybe not this plan specifically, but all the indication is that they’ll succeed one way or the other. I don’t want to say it as it sounds like heresy, but relocation is still far better than the real alternative i.e refusing to leave and even more deaths as a result.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Do you think the man who is sending US citizens to an El Savadorian prison gives a shit about the reasons why this hasn’t been attempted in the past?
I don’t really give a fuck what Trump thinks, this is about the resistance on the ground. Why is this the time they will get on their backs and let themselves die?
At what point in the past has Gaza ever looked like what it does right now? How many Palestinians do you think are going to look at what’s left of their loved ones and are going to chose to stay instead of fleeing to somewhere where they might be safe from bombs given the chance? How many Syrians and Iraqis made that same decision over the past two decades? You better start giving a fuck about what Trump thinks, because there is more working in favor of this plan now than there has been in 50 years.
Libya sure isnt the place to look for when not wanting to be blown up.
Easy for you to say when there aren’t bombs falling all around you.
And there isnt conflict in Libya? And there isnt desolation in Libya? And there isnt war in Libya? I am sure they can adequately feed, house, care and protect a million extra people in whatever short timeframe trump would dump them there.
What if the soviets gave up and let the nazi colonize them? After all death was everywhere and the nazis had a nice spot as future house slaves, what if the viet cong gave up after the americans gassed their forests, after all they could just convert to Catholicism? What if North Korea gave up and became a province of the south, after all the americans killed millions of them, destroyed almost every building and kept them under international blockade until this day. Surrender is always the easiest path.
Do you know why women pick the bear over the man in that viral question about which they would rather run into in the woods?
The threat of the man is something real and present that most women have actually faced. They know what men are capable of, have experienced it, and may experience it again. The bear is an unknown. It’s not present in their lives, and they have never experienced it. Yes, maybe they could get mauled to death and eaten by the bear, but maybe they can run away. Maybe the bear runs away. Maybe the bear isn’t interested in them. All sorts of possibilities float around in their head because they are not now and have not previously had to experience the violence of the bear.
Gazans are experiencing the bombing and the death right now. They experience it every day. What will happen to them in Libya? Maybe they will face the same sort of violence there, although that’s unlikely given they are under the sort of bombing campaign that hasn’t been seen in decades. But maybe they won’t. Maybe there life will be better than living in literal fucking hell on earth. And if you don’t think that a lot of Gazans won’t take that chance to be free from hell on earth, even if it means leaving everything they have ever know and maybe even the people they love, then you are fundamentally disconnected from the human experience, because that is a choice millions of war refugees have made since time immemorial.
I’m still not at all clear on why america is hellbent on taking over such a tiny piece of land with such a cost to it
Because killing Palestinians is a necessary first step to Greater Israel and colonizing the old world for Lebensraum
I am crudely paraphrasing from this awesome article from November 2023.
“War” (in this case, genocide) guarantees accumulation at two ends:
First, and more obviously, Western capitalists stand to gain billions of dollars via the production, sale, and consumption of military and surveillance technology which are being unleashed across West Asia.
Second, “war” is designed to devalue land and people. Reducing the price of land, labour, and other resources increases profits and accelerates accumulation. Taking over Gaza means that Western capital can freely exploit the productive capacity of the land (including the billions of dollars worth of oil that israel blocks Gazans from accessing) and people (including the >1 million Gazans confined to unemployment by israel’s blockade).
And of course, the genocide of Gaza sends a priceless signal to the rest of the world: Resist US imperialism and cease to exist. Conversely, a Palestinian victory over zionism and the US-israeli genocide proves that America can lose, and therefore, that the Global South can win.
Because they cant lose Israhell.