Title is a reference to Resistance imagery about how Israeli soldiers will enter Gaza alive but leave it in coffins - the same is true for American soldiers in the Middle East if the regional war expands.
The image is of the Fattah-1 Iranian hypersonic ballistic missile, which its creators boast can overcome any missile defense system on the planet, has a range of 1400 kilometers (and thus Iran can strike Israel), and has a terminal impact velocity of Mach 13.
Dozens of American soldiers have been injured and 3 have been killed on a base in the Middle East. There has been confused reports about whether the attack was on Syrian territory or Jordan's - the Al-Tanf base is in Syria, but Tower-22 in Jordan is another base that helps supply Al-Tanf, and Tower-22 is the one that is alleged to have been hit. These is the first confirmed deaths of American troops since the conflict began, though it's not likely that this is actually the first deaths after hundreds of drone/missile strikes throughout the region on American bases, unless you think American soldiers are having extremely timely heart attacks just after a missile hits.
The attack is certainly impactful, though it does also have considerably symbolism. Courtesy of John Helmer:
The operational success of the strike for the attackers is strategic. Tower-22 is a logistics, supply, and rear guard post for the Al-Tanf base which US troops are operating thirty kilometres north across the border in Syria. The attack demonstrates that both Tower-22 and Al-Tanf, Jordan and Syria, are newly vulnerable to weapons which the US forces have failed to detect and neutralize. Just as significantly, the massive US airbase called Muwaffaq Salti, 230 kilometres west across Jordan, is also vulnerable now.
It indicates that Iran now possesses Russian expertise in countering American equipment:
“This is a significant accomplishment,” one of the sources said. “Was the bypassing of the US air defence system at Tower-22 pulled off with Russian assistance? US bases generally rely on the C-RAM [Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar] system. It was sent to Ukraine last year where the Russians have been learning to defeat it. What now of American EW [electronic warfare]? They’ve been doing a fair job of knocking drones down up to now. It seems a ‘coincidence’ that, not a week after the meetings in Moscow with Arabs and Iranians, we see this success. It’s a success the circumstances of which, we can be sure, Biden and Austin are not keen to advertise.”
I am putting my take on the table right now: I am 99% certain that the US won't attack Iran directly. I think we are still quite a while away from that being a possibility. Much more likely is that Iranian officials in Iraq or Syria will be hit by a retaliatory strike, as Israel has done recently. It is a significant escalation nonetheless. And it comes as Israel seems to be gearing up for a suicidal war with Hezbollah.
The Country of the Week is Iran! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Updates continue to be AWOL - but I am cooking something. Hopefully.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
The work continues. Even if we get some solid wins it's always fights against the lies. It's like they only know one playbook. Thank you for the info and the links. Read them all.
Hopefully wiser leaders can prevail through the tired repeated junk. They know visibility kills lies and they are doing their best to try to put the queers back in the closet. It is going to require some bravery - especially in the trans community to be public.
There's a phrase we used before and I think it needs to make more of a come back.
"We're here. We're queer. Get used to it." So to the haters I'd say
I'm responding here to your reply in the other thread for better visibility for others to read. I wrote most of this before blahs comment.
You don't respect our culture or our right to self-determination. Why should I listen to a chauvinist?
But you are not connecting what I am saying to the wider sociopolitical context of Singapore and Southeast Asia. In my OC I didn't mention anything about queer rights either. My point is that you can't insult the old people when they are more materially more progressive than the so-called "youth" by rejecting Western imperialism and I try explaining why through Singapore's language policy. It is not black and white and I refuse to stoop to the Amerikan analysis of the "liberal-conservative" dichotomy.
Also, why are we utilizing Amnesty International as a source when it has been repeatedly shown to be aligned with US imperialism? This was what I was referring to in the first place. Malaysia is said to be backwards compared to Singapore and yet it's language policy is infinitely more progressive than Singapore. I am trying to explain the complexities that makeup Singapore-Malaysia relations and history, which I think is essential in understanding both nation's modern politics.
Singapore does see itself under threat. Its whole existence is being the West’s glorified military base and tax haven. It is a small island city-state with a Chinese majority surrounded by large Muslim-Majority states that is more anti-West and Pro-China than itself. The anglophile national bourgeoisie is threatened.
The nation betrayed the internationalist cause and decided to build it’s own city state (by negotiating with the Malay comprador feudal class) and ensured it's viability towards that goal by making English the main language. It was a part motivated by practicality, but also part motivated by this reason, which all fits into the comprador class' interests and not the masses.
It denied its own “Asianess” for a Singaporean identity. Singapore as a country is proud that it was colonised.
Because of this selfish nation-building, it has created a rift in Singaporean society in which it superficially upholds it’s Asian heritage while aligning itself with the West throughout the Cold War and afterwards.
It is this rift that the West exploits for its own gain. Now it has to deal with the repercussions of its internationalist betrayal, with the people down below caught in the crossfire.
It is up to the masses to correct this historical wrong.
According to Ipsos, support FOR Section 377A is still a plurality and only 27% believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry (which is not the be end and end all of LGBT liberation in the first place...).
Pink Dot SG has done it’s job for destabilisation. So much for liberal activism that can never reach broad, mass support and consensus.
If Pink Dot SG was truly grassroots, it wouldn’t ever have approached nor accepted sponsors from Western corporates. If they were grassroots someone would have definitely told them that corporate sponsorships would have been perceived negatively.
So even if they were able to rally local sponsors afterwards, this issue showcases a complete disconnect of the NGO from the masses themselves. And they were forced to find local sponsors - the government banned foreign corporate sponsorships of events in the Speaker's Corner after this whole fiasco happened in 2016.
You rightfully point out that Singapore is and continues to be an essential part in the imperialist machine.
And so here’s where I disagree - even if Singapore became a Queer paradise, it won’t have any effect on LGBT “rights” across Southeast Asia at best and if anything, it may actually actively harm LGBT “rights” elsewhere.
Southeast Asians themselves know about the westernised, “cosmopolitan” comprador city-state of Singapore. A championing of “lgbt rights” in Singapore will actively antagonise LGBT rights as a Western plot AGAIN - and they would be right (see my other comment).
You keep mentioning Section 377A, and of course for a postcolonial country that never actually had a war of independence, the laws in the country would be colonial in origin.
To say that this law is the origin of “queer”phobia and by abolishing it will automatically improve the quality of life of queer Singaporeans and those abroad is incredibly naive. They will continue funding anti-LGBT outlets abroad. Just like how the USA funds both anti-LGBT and pro-LGBT organisations depending on circumstance.
You underestimate USA psychological warfare. Regime change agent cells are activated when the time is right. We all know that just because you are an ally of the USA that doesn’t mean you are exempt from their intelligence services. It is precisely before light is cast onto the Empire’s enemies that we should be more vigilant about the information we read about them.
And you yourself admit that Singapore, despite it's history, will drift eastwards - one of the West’s darlings - drifting back to Asia. So I am doubly confused why you’d think that the USA wouldn’t fund anything or conduct psychological warfare as a means of destabilisation and control.
The US especially has an extensive history of operations in Southeast Asia. Lee Kuan Yew himself admitted that the CIA tried bribing him.
As for the hyperlink, it links to a sci-hub.ru page of the journal article. On my end I don’t see any request for a passcode.