What I’m about to write is grisly but it’s based on reality and on war. And the word needs to get out. It’s about how wars distort the truth and how gender becomes a fancy topic to throw in when convenient.
Imagine. You are in Gardez, Afghanistan. You are celebrating the joyous arrival of a newborn - a little baby - in your house. You all speak Dari, one of the most beautiful languages spoken in Asia. There is music, there is dancing; All to welcome the birth of a child. You are happy. At midnight, a raid is carried out by US forces in your house because their (flawed) intelligence agencies claim there’s a meeting going on to prepare a suicide bomber. They don’t double check, they don’t verify but they carry weapons that can put holes in your bones so they go on anyway. They carry out a massacre in your house. Five people are killed. Three are women. One of them is pregnant. One of them is a senior Afghan police officer. One of the men is zip-cuffed up and watches in horror how US soldiers dig bullets out of his dead wife. They cover the entire incident up. It never reaches the news. When it does, it’s a quick flash. Most of us don’t even remember.
After the US soldiers - the Joints Special Operations Command members - raided that house, they take the remaining men into custody and interrogate them through barbaric means trying to get them to indicate that the family had a connection with the Taliban. Men who had nothing to do with the Taliban. In international press, the report is presented as: “US Forces stumble upon the aftermath of what looks like a Taliban honor killing.”
Honor killing. Feminists in the world roar. Liberal feminists want justice for these dead women. “Religion is oppressive! Those men killed these women for dancing, didn’t they? Those monsters!” Little do they know, the same saviors that were in the region to “rescue” women were the killers. But we see no link between dogma and gender when we look at the US Military; We are taught to see them as saviors, as warriors of justice. And so the leader of the JSOC, Vice Admiral William McRaven enters that village post-raid with scores of Afghan soldiers and American soldiers and offers a sheep to sacrifice - a tradition in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is done to gain one’s forgiveness after misconduct - in front of the family. A photographer snaps a photo of the reconciliation that is offered to the grieving family. All is well, all is good. At least according to selective media reports.
But it is never found out whether those soldiers were disciplined for killing innocent people. Whether they were held accountable for murder. Yes, murder. Call it what it is. And it goes on. A journalist who tries to present this brutal incident in public is instantly demonized and hushed. Similar to the case of the Yemeni journalist who was jailed - at Obama’s order - for exposing a US missile strike in Yemen that killed civilians.
The truth is obscured and distorted during war. It is presented in bits and pieces understated and overstated at will. But what is horrifying is how easily it is fed into a consumer’s mind. Imagine how many massacres have been hidden from us to keep a war going on and on and on.
some coporate twitter for the event said they are ‘dissapointed’ in him for being political
i’m disgusted beyond words
our government is killing civilians, killing children, and they’re mad at him for ruining their PR
| — | This man helped save six children, is now getting harassed for it - Salon.com (via furiousfurious)
There have been phony Google+ and YouTube accounts created in his name, messages on white supremacist message boards ridiculing the “emotional Jewish guy,” and dozens of blog posts and videos “exposing” him as a fraud. One email purporting to be a business inquiry taunted: “How are all those little students doing? You know, the ones that showed up at your house after the ‘shooting’. What is the going rate for getting involved in a gov’t sponsored hoax anyway?” (via svetlana-del-rey) This story is still really upsetting me, just wow what kind of bottomless hateful sociopathy, how do you even live with yourself And people are really quick to talk about how this is all the fault of the GOP and “right-wing trolls” but lbr we on the left are not exactly immune from using a national tragedy as a chance to spread lies about shadowy Jewish conspiracies idk, this is a wonderful sweet man and I hope all the support he gets drowns out these sick lies (via dignified-and-old) i seriously hope these people are deeply mentally ill because they have absolutely no excuse otherwise |
This is so important especially after the incident involving Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai. I cannot stress upon on how dangerous the rhetoric around this event is considering how many have instantly resorted to support drone attacks. Journalist Urooj Zia states this simply: “Please, stop using the attack on Malala to justify drones. We’ve been ‘droned’ for years now, & freely. Are militants dead? No.”
Incidents like these need to be treated with caution and consideration by media given how the framing of a tragedy (especially a gendered tragedy) leads to the justification of foreign policies that, in the long run, prove to be highly detrimental.
This is a slap in the face of every single irresponsible media mouthpiece, “liberal”, celebrity that carelessly publicized these girls’ lives. Malala is in the United Kingdom but these two girls are still in Pakistan. Like Arsalan said: This rendering of brown children into symbols is disgusting, dangerous and ultimately destructive. Here’s proof that they, themselves, don’t want this publicity.
| — | Shahriar Khateri and Narges Bajoghli in the Middle East Research and Information Report.
The global media must cover this issue without any kind of bias. Holly Dagres informs us of her desperate friend in Iran: “There’s a medicine shortage. Try to see if you can get someone’s attention, lots of people are dying!” I personally know of someone in Iran who reported that a father of five suffers chronic lung and eye problems but he can no longer get the prescriptions to ease his pain due to the US and EU embargo on Iran. People are dying. This is what sanctions do. (via mehreenkasana) |
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
May I invite everyone to donate to the Uganda LGBTIQ Resource Center, stat?
Oh jeez.
im so fucking mad
| — | The End of Human Rights: The rhetoric surrounding the protection of human rights has been appropriated by Western nations that are only too complicit in the derogation of values once cherished around the world, writes Rohit Chopra.
One of the most comprehensive articles I’ve read. (via mehreenkasana) |
god i hate when people say “but you should ignore his position on gay/womens rights because this other policy of his is decent”
yeah well shitstain i’m not supporting someone who basically doesn’t see me as a human being just because i sort of agree with something else they’ve said
also if your candidate can’t deal with women’s rights properly (it directly affects half the fucking population, of fucking course it should be a huge deal) then he has no place being in office
The Supreme Court will soon hear a case that will affect whether you can sell your iPad — or almost anything else — without needing to get permission from a dozen “copyright holders.”
Here are some things you might have recently done that will be rendered illegal if the Supreme Court upholds the lower court decision:
- 1. Sold your first-generation iPad on Craigslist to a willing buyer, even if you bought the iPad lawfully at the Apple Store.
- 2. Sold your dad’s used Omega watch on eBay to buy him a fancier (used or new) Rolex at a local jewelry store.
- 3. Sold an “import CD” of your favorite band that was only released abroad but legally purchased there. Ditto for a copy of a French or Spanish novel not released in the U.S.
- 4. Sold your house to a willing buyer, so long as you sell your house along with the fixtures manufactured in China, a chandelier made in Thailand or Paris, support beams produced in Canada that carry the imprint of a copyrighted logo, or a bricks or a marble countertop made in Italy with any copyrighted features or insignia.
Jesus fucking christ.
To the gallows with the plaintiffs because copyright law is getting more and more rip roaring refuckingtarded
oh fuck me with a rake
how is this actually happening
[16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki] was a boy who was still searching for his father when his father was killed, and who, on the night he himself was killed, was saying goodbye to the second cousin with whom he’d lived while on his search, and the friends he’d made. He was a boy among boys, then; a boy among boys eating dinner by an open fire along the side of a road when an American drone came out of the sky and fired the missiles that killed them all.
- Tom Junod
Here’s how the Nobel Peace Prize winning US President’s team justifies the murder of a teenager who had nothing to do with any extremist organization.
this is why i’m not voting for him, and why you should seriously read and think about this if you are
