Stop the Idiocracy: Syria

Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Daughters of Persia, exiled far from home

Delicate watercolour-style illustration depicting two young women embracing in a barren, dreamlike landscape. One woman wears a patterned headscarf in muted green and blue tones, while the other has long flowing brown hair that trails softly in the wind. Their eyes are closed and their foreheads touch, conveying intimacy, comfort, and mutual support. Both are dressed in flowing cream-coloured robes accented with subtle floral and geometric motifs, the fabric drifting gracefully around them. The background is rendered in pale washes of beige, blue, and grey, suggesting distant cities, bridges, winding roads, and mountains without sharply defined detail. The subdued palette and gentle brushwork create an atmosphere of melancholy, tenderness, displacement, and resilience. The composition centres upon human connection, presenting the two figures as companions drawing strength from one another amid uncertainty and separation from familiar surroundings.

generated via Gemini

Trump regime to deport non-dangerous Iranian, Afghan, and Syrian migrants to the Central African Republic despite court orders. {NYT 11 June; image generated via Gemini}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/world/africa/deportations-central-african-republic-migrants-iran-women.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pVA.KYvI.IK_4ZmFy7KYT&smid=url-share

Add to this regime’s list of crimes the forcing of already vulnerable migrants (mostly women) into a completely unfamiliar place in deepest, darkest Africa: one of the world’s poorest and most fragile states, where humanitarian organisations have spent years documenting violence, displacement, weak institutions, chronic insecurity, and persistent human-rights concerns.

These folks have already fled upheaval, war, persecution, economic collapse, or some combination thereof. They will have crossed borders, navigated bureaucracies, endured uncertainty, and invested what little hope remained in the belief that they had finally reached a place of relative safety.

Imagine believing that the years of instability were finally behind you.

Imagine believing that, after all the turmoil, a measure of permanence had at last been secured.

Then imagine discovering that everything is once again thrown into doubt, to put this particular situation extremely mildly.

From a position of relative comfort and security, it is difficult fully to comprehend the anxiety such circumstances produce. The uncertainty alone must be exhausting. Every conversation, every official notice, every news report becomes a potential source of dread. One’s future ceases to be a plan and instead becomes a question mark.

A civilised society should at least be capable of recognising the profound human consequences attached to such decisions. Policies may be debated. Governments may change course. Laws may be rewritten.

Fear, however, is experienced one person at a time.

Many of these migrants may well die in their new ‘home’. I do not believe it would be outlandish to argue that the government of the former United States of America, under its orange-hued and lawless leader, bears responsibility for the foreseeable human consequences of these actions. Put plainly: committing genocide. Would not be the first time, of course, but we thought ourselves beyond such cruelty in the America I grew up in. No longer the case.

What ‘y’all’ voted for, #Murica.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Global supplies of rice at a twenty-year low

Getty Images

The severe effects of climate change in Asia, the war on Ukraine, and export restrictions enacted by the Indian government lead to higher prices for one of the world’s most consumed staples. {CNBC 4/19}

Thursday, February 3, 2022

The only good Islamist is a dead Islamist: ISIS leader killed by U.S. special operations forces in Syria

AP/Ghaith Alsayed

A hearty congratulations to the U.S. special operations forces involved, and to President Biden for authorizing the attack. America needed ‘a win’ of some sorts at this moment, not that I expect the ingrates that populate this country are going to give any credit where due. Nor is it likely that the vicious MSM – who twisted reality and turned the public against the president following the (successful, and necessary) withdrawal from Afghanistan – are going to give the president and the military any credit for anything. No matter, good prevailed for once in Syria. Via AP -

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — The leader of the violent Islamic State group was killed Thursday, blowing himself up along with members of his family during an overnight raid carried out by U.S. special operations forces in northwestern Syria, President Joe Biden said.
The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the militant group on Oct. 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid in the same area. Biden said al-Qurayshi died as al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached.
The operation came as IS has been trying for a resurgence, with a series of attacks in the region, including an assault late last month to seize a prison in northeast Syria holding at least 3,000 IS detainees, its boldest operation in years.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said. He said al-Qurayshi had been responsible for the prison strike, as well as genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.
About 50 U.S. special operations forces landed in helicopters and attacked a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war.
Biden said he ordered U.S. forces to “take every precaution available to minimize civilian casualties,” the reason they did not conduct an airstrike on the home.
First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said U.S. forces were able to evacuate 10 people from the building: a man, a woman and four children from the first floor and four children from the second floor. He said when al-Qurayshi detonated the bomb, he also killed his wife and two children. Kirby said that U.S. officials were conducting an assessment to determine whether American action resulted in any civilian deaths.
U.S. forces took fingerprints and DNA, which confirmed al-Qurayshi’s death, officials said.
Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and senior national security aides monitored a live-feed of the operation from the White House Situation Room according to an official. The president was kept abreast of the commandos’ long flight out of Syria by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan overnight.
The operation marked a military success for the United States at an important time after setbacks elsewhere — including the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal — had led allies and opponents to conclude U.S. power globally was weakening. (Read more)

Friday, September 3, 2021

U.S. Navy aircraft carriers likely to remain in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to patrol Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern hotspots

Politico -

The American military’s involvement in Afghanistan could soon become largely the Navy’s responsibility, an ironic twist for a counterterrorism mission in a landlocked country.
Although the Navy has long privately bristled at the requirement to deploy one or even two aircraft carriers at a time to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to support the ground fights in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the lack of U.S.-controlled airfields near Afghanistan could mean more planes taking off from decks at sea.
And that could set off a fresh round of requests for more funding — and more hand-wringing among those who want the U.S. military to focus more on China.
“I think a lot of that mission is going to fall on the Navy,” said a Navy official who requested to speak on the condition of anonymity because the Pentagon’s plans have yet to be finalized. “This is a great example of why we need more money to operate forward — things like this are what we’re built to do, but we need the funding and support to keep doing it, and that hasn’t always been there.” (Read more)