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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRussia Bombs Hospitals. Lefties Shrug.
Last edited Tue Oct 27, 2015, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)
Earlier this month in the Afghan city of Kunduz, the U.S. committed an apparent war crime. At some point in the early hours of October 3, a U.S. gunship fired on a hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontieres, destroying the facility, killing 22 people and injuring over 30. There is no doubt of the criminality of this acteven if, as the U.S. and Afghani governments have suggested, the attack occurred due to Taliban militants having some presence within the hospital compound (a claim vigorously denied by eyewitnesses and victims), it was still a crime.
In the hours following the attack, many people of all political persuasions from around the world rightfully condemned it, but perhaps most vocal were those on the political left. Public outrage over war crimes is of course not just to be welcomed passively, but it can be actively useful in terms of demanding accountability from those who committed the crimes, while giving a voice to its victims. All too often, when it comes to activity against these acts of criminality, it is organizations, political parties, and individuals who identify with the left that lead the charge on these mattersthe consequences of this can be impressive.
And the left are no longer marginal. The so-called alternative media is catching up with the mainstream media in terms of its reach, while political forces that identify as left-wing are now once again in the mainstream of politics, whether its forces like SYRIZA in Greece or Jeremy Corbyns new role as the leader of Her Majestys Opposition in the UK. What these people do and say now matters on a global scale. Millions of politically-aware people from around the world hang on every word that prominent leftists write and say, whether its a figure such as Glenn Greenwald, whose news site The Intercept has become the go-to place for so-called anti-imperialists, or a leading politician such as Corbyn.
For a self-identified leftist like me, you might think Id be over the moon at the way things were steadilyor exponentially, if you consider the rise of the left in this era relative to its fate in the past two decadesdeveloping for the global left, but youd be wrong. For theres a bitter catch to all this. While todays left is more than willing to speak about perceived Western crimes, it is all too often caught up in a type of politics that not only makes a virtue out of not condemning crimes committed by powerful non-western actors, namely Russia, China and Iran, but that often explicitly or implicitly supports such crimes.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/27/russia-bombs-hospitals-lefties-shrug.html
You all make it too easy for me... I love the smell of hypocrisy in the afternoon -- It smells like new car smell...
And for the record, if "war crimes" outrage you and you want to see justice, start an investigation of Assad, who has probably committed thousands of them by now...
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)The Russian government? Not so much.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Anti-lefty propaganda is pathetic. Funny to watch it go on year after year on a progressive website. Well funny and sad.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Not being able to "influence the actions of a foreign government" didn't stop me and a lot of people I know from protesting apartheid, for example...
Nevermind the fact that typing on an online message board isn't going to influence any policy in Washington or Moscow or anywhere else, so that's a moot point.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Blue, you sure do have a way of finding anti-left articles.
Here's the thing..... The US is ours. Russia and China are not. The US is, Obama claims, the only superpower, and we all know is Empire. So, yeah, we complain when our government, representing us, murders innocents.
It is the morally correct thing to do. You should join us?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and I don't forgive or forget...
Wish it didn't have to be this way, but it is....
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)They really put a hurting on you?
If you beg to be forgiven and decide to do something worthwhile, maybe they will forgive you?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,149 posts)Unless, that is, you're here to call us names like 'dudebros' and 'hypocrites' ...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I simply decided to start returning fire...
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)For better or worse a lot of people don't believe what comes out of the MSM.
peace13
(11,076 posts)Half of the 'lefties' support someone who voted us into an illegal war, someone who smiles on camera after a man is killed without a trial. We have our own hospital bombings and school bombings and wedding bombings to speak for. Pretty hard to judge another group who does the same. The * regime taught us that there are no laws. The people of this earth have learned the lesson well.
Rex
(65,616 posts)http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/22/three-syrian-hospitals-bombed-since-russian-airstrikes-began-doctors-say
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-airstrikes-syria-targeting-hospitals-doctors-grow-disgruntled-worlds-silence-2150649
https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/russia-air-strike-field-hospital-kills-13-155319070.html
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/syria-russian-warplanes-hit-field-194148204.html#wGbAsda
http://www.thestatesman.com/news/world/after-assad-s-surprise-visit-russia-takes-syria-lead/98576.html
http://newstodaynet.com/world/assad-visits-russia-thanks-putin-airstrikes
That link is great! It has a pic of Putin that says KILLER on it and right below that are the words "PUTINS LITTLE APOLOGISTS."
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)If we all just complain about other people misbehaving, then there will be a lot of misbehaving. We are responsible for ourselves. That is who we have control over.
The right-wing are hypocrites, since they are very good about complaining about the other guy, including starting wars over the alleged misdeeds of the other guy, but the right wing couldn't care much less about their own bad deeds.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)How about we wait before deciding who is to blame? And yes, I know, we shouldn't have any faith in an investigation but reflexively deciding guilt isn't good, either.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]
surrealAmerican
(11,339 posts)... how can we expect to stop other countries governments from doing the same?
Codeine
(25,586 posts)funded by my taxes. I can't control that autocratic piece of Russian shit, but theoretically I still have a responsibility and an influence on the actions of my own government.
demmiblue
(36,744 posts)why do you have a sigline calling out another DUer? While I don't believe name-calling is acceptable, I also believe that the admins would not appreciate the use of a META sigline.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)which tries to make anyone not protesting Russia's bombing of right wing jihadists and right winger. Its clever but I don't think anyone is buying it.
Response to Blue_Tires (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)Here I was thinking it was just anti Russian posting. War is dirty, when a nation helping another nation fight of evils such as ISIS, Al Nusra and FSA, I am not going to complain when 1 or 2 hospitals is alleged to have being hit.
Reasons like this is why the US should refrain from starting and sponsoring wars in the first place. We have made a mess of Syria and Russia is there trying to correct our bone head mistake.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)Gee, if we didn't have lefties, we could all be CONSERVATIVES and have one big party and there wouldn't be any fighting in Washington and the country would be perfect with all females in starched pinafores and aprons and all males the kings of wherever they happen to be and perpetual sunshine and obedient dogs with hair in their eyes who never need baths. We could call that shiny party, wait for it, the Republican Party and Utopia would be achieved at last.
For the slow, this is .
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)No doubt, his paycheck depends on pretending the left shrugs, so he writes unsupported sentences strung together suggesting as much, regardless of the irrelevancy of olfactory stimulation.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)KG
(28,749 posts)tkmorris
(11,138 posts)Why did you post it here?
G_j
(40,366 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)CanonRay
(14,036 posts)so fucking what.
edhopper
(33,188 posts)why did the "lefties" bomb a hospital?