The Antiwar Movement Must Not Go Back To Sleep During The Biden Presidency

 On Saturday, members of the administrative committee of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), on which I serve, spoke on a webinar about the importance of building and strengthening the antiwar, anti-imperialist movement during Biden’s presidency. UNAC was founded during the summer of 2010 as it became clear that the antiwar movement in the US was faltering under the nation’s first black president. Peace groups allied with the Democrats were reluctant to criticize the president and donations declined as people wrongly assumed the new Nobel Peace Prize winner was pro-peace.

an alarming update here.

‘US green lights sale of 3,000 bombs worth $290 million to Saudi Arabia & flurry of other Middle East arms deals’, 29 Dec, 2020, RT.com (the accompanying photo: ‘Fire and smoke billow from an army weapons depot after it was hit by a Saudi air strike in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa’

“The US State Department has approved the possible sale of 3,000 precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, alongside more than $4 billion in arms transfers to other regional states, arguing the deals support “national security.”

The munition sale to Saudi Arabia was authorized by the State Department on Tuesday, according to a Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notice, giving the go-ahead for a transfer of 3,000 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs to the Gulf monarchy, worth some $290 million.

(all art by Anthony Freda)

‘Killing for optics’? Obama claims he ‘took no joy’ in drone strikes, but ordered them to avoid looking ‘soft on terrorism’, RT.com, 19 Nov, 2020

“The ex-president’s new book ‘A Promised Land’ sheds some light on the Obama administration’s controversial expansion of the US drone program, which was launched under his predecessor George W. Bush.

One of Obama’s original campaign promises was for US withdrawal from middle-eastern conflicts. However, that promise was not fulfilled during his eight years in office, and the Democrat is now often accused of having further escalated violence in the region through his policies in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere.” […]

This is monstrous. Beyond inhuman.

US occupation forces drop incendiary weapons on agricultural lands in #Syria, deliberately setting fire to wheat crops that Syrian farmers had spent months cultivating.

This is a war crime.

With permission from the editor to use all content, I’ll reblog all of it, as it’s a key moment in history; all bolds are mine.

Via Bill Van Auken at wsws.org, March 6, 2020

ICC Appeals Panel

“An appellate panel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled Thursday that an investigation leading to the potential prosecution of US officials for war crimes during Washington’s nearly two-decade-old war in Afghanistan can move forward.

...with explosive, if highly dubious 2-missile strikes on the Ukrainian passenger liner videos, courtesy of RantingRooster.

Via almasdaarnews.com, Jan. 14, 2020:

“Arrests have been made in connection with the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, Iran’s judiciary has announced, following President Hassan Rouhani’s call for a special probe into the deadly accident.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told Iranian state media on Tuesday that individuals had been detained as part of “extensive investigations” into the incident. He did not disclose how many people had been arrested.

Please feel free to add what you know, what you suspect is so, and what you’ve read that’s  rubbish but dangerous. I’ll include the following sources.  Add your own sources at will, as well.

Smoke billows from fires on targets in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by bombardment by Turkish forces [AP Photo]‘

Syrian army, Iran threaten counterattack against Turkish invasion of Syria’, Alex Lantier, 14 October 2019, wsws.org

“The war unleashed by Turkey’s invasion of Syria, targeting formerly US-backed Kurdish forces, escalated out of control this weekend as the Syrian army and Iran moved to counterattack. With Turkish troops and allied Al Qaeda militias advancing deep into Kurdish-held territory in Syria, the Middle East is only days away from an all-out war between the major regional powers that could trigger a global conflict between nuclear-armed world powers.” [snip]

Will it reach a CKrescendo soon? Yes, we’re lookin’ at you, Bibi. Also: your wife wears combat boots (on her face), so there!

Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail—deliver us Iran’s oil and receive several million dollars or be sanctioned yourself.

Sounds very similar to the Oval Office invitation I received a few weeks back.

It is becoming a pattern.#BTeamGangsters pic.twitter.com/B1oQTLghWZ

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 4, 2019

‘Food Shipment Destined for Venezuela Seized Due to US Blockade’, August 7, 2019, telesurenglish.com

“Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounced Wednesday that a ship containing 25 thousand tons of soy-made products has been seized in the Panama Canal due to the U.S. blockade while calling on the United Nations to take action against the “serious aggression” that impede Venezuela “right to food”.

(My guess is that Mr. Vltchek (below) hadn’t chosen the above photo, but as it was on the page, I’ll use it, although I’ve added all the other images. I wouldn’t mind having one of those rugs, smile.).

From Andre Vltchek’s ‘Why are Anti-Migrant Arguments Pure Hypocrisy?’, July 12, 2019, journal-neo.org  (Creative Commons with attribution)

“In this essay, let us be as concrete as possible. Let us be brief.