Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin have issued a call on Obama to condemn the attacks in Tahrir Square. (Thx to Paul Mutter) Excerpt:
As we watch the Egyptian police and military viciously attack democracy activists on the streets of Cairo, using U.S. weapons, it is outrageous that the Obama Administration has failed to issue a strong condemnation of this latest attempt to crush a revolution that has inspired people around the world, including millions of Americans...
A principled U.S. position would be to immediately issue a strong condemnation of the violence unleashed by the Egyptian military on its people. The U.S. government should suspend all military aid to the Egyptian government until it stops attacking peaceful protesters, and until it releases the 12,000-plus citizens jailed since Mubarak’s ouster and commits to handing over power to a transitional civilian government as soon as parliamentary elections are completed. President Obama should coordinate with other Western allies and supporters of the Egyptian government to develop a clear and strong policy in support of a rapid transition to democracy and apply the full weight of international diplomatic, economic and legal pressure on the military junta towards that end.
Anything less will be a stain on the United States that will haunt this administration, and the United States more broadly, for years to come.
Join us in signing this letter urging President Obama to condemn the military crackdown and stand with Egypt’s brave citizens struggling for democracy.
One of the newest video. More than 33 people are killed, many more wounded.
link to youtube.com
Why condemn now when he can wait to see what happens, issue an apology/ congratulation then and just rewrite history after the fact by saying he is the one that started the uprising.
You know, just like the last time.
exactly.
Well ,he aint said a word about the crackdown on our occupiers,so don’t expect much from this miseducated puppet.
The military has just transferred power to the constitutional council, whatever that is. Looks like it would do anything but allow the Brotherhood taking control and this is what elections would do.
The US has both the military and the Brothers on its side and we all know that at the end of the day, the Brothers are going to be 100% anti-Israel while the military, contrary to the will of the people, will always be 100% pro-Israel.
The US hasn’t realized it yet that in Libya and Tunisia too, in time the Brothers there will be anti-Israel. Anyone thinking the US will reprimand the miltary in Egypt is into wishful thinking.
Egypt: Tahrir Square protesters bury their dead
link to youtube.com
Soon,, that kind of protests will be all over the Europe and the US.
We let globalists take the total control of our destiny and fate.
We see the results and I’ m quite pessimistic about our victory.
The best we can do is to put up a good fight.
Or join the Evil.
But that’s not an option.
They bring up so many great points. Up at Huff Po too. Would be so easy for Obama to do this. What or who is holding him back
Jodie and Medea have done amazing work for peace and justice around the world. Bringing critical attention to issues that many Americans and our Reps would very much like not to think about.
They are remarkable individuals devoted to peace, justice and accountability!
Campaign donations, obviously. See also: agenda item #3 on the last DNC conference.
link to youtube.com
Grown-up, roam the halls with me
So many characters
Some sweet some shifty
Some loud some quiet
Some trusting, some don’t buy it – don’t try it
Some’ll try to squash beef and some start riots
Some are motivated some are lazy
Some are geniuses some are crazy
The line between is hazy
Some’ll love you some’ll hate you
Some’ll need you some’ll spite you
Some are thankful, some are ungrateful
Yo, some are there and really care
About what’s being learned and taught
They fought through it when they got stuck
Some are there ’till the bell rings
Run through the day without thinking
‘Cause they really don’t give a fuck
Some’ll run some’ll fight
Some’ll tell, some might change the world
Some are early to the grave or jail
Some are so complicated, some are so simple
Some are students, some are teachers
Some are principals
“What or who is holding him back”
The same thing that held him back during Cast Lead. Or when the Audacity of Hope was prevented from sailing. Corporate money. Hopey changey- same old crap .
He probably doesn’t need to be held back anyway.
Obama needs $1bn to get reelected. How much of that is going to come from Egypt, realistically? And how much from the 1%?
i agree kathleen, absolutely
We should demand that the US company Combined Systems Inc stop sending the toxic gas to Egypt (and Israel). Email and particulars about the company at link to tv.thestruggle.org And demonstrate at its New York office. Details coming.
While you’re at it, also demand that they don’t sell equipment to the USA.
Did CODEPINK have a petition for ISRAELI OPPRESSION in OPTs?
probably pabelmont. they’ve gone there and protested in israel and the WB as well.
And while Medea has just jumped on the Israeli Palestinian human rights issue when that activist jumps she jumps big and strong. I also think Medea who is Jewish has examined the issue about what has taken her so long? She has been involved with so many human rights and justice issues for such a long time..such a long time and like so many Jews has asked herself in the last few years why and how she has avoided this issue for so long. (at least that is my sense)
But again when that woman jumps she jumps big. Remarkable person..big heart
Asking Obama to condemn violence by the Egyptian government? Why not demand that the Pope stands up for women’s rights?
At one time, spreading illusions in one of the major capitalist parties was a serious problem in the left in many countries. Today, it’s just pathetic.
“Why not demand that the Pope stands up for women’s rights? ”
A religious man actually did that, jaynot, but it was a Muslim Shia one, the Grand-Ayatolah Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allah. He campaigned continuously against violence against women, preached to women to fight back if they were beaten and to sue their husbands in the courts for it and issued a religious fatwa condemning all forms of violence against women. He spoke up against drugs, smoking, gambling and playing the stock market and instituted several charities and orphanages and was alleged to have been Hizbullah’s spiritual leader although he and Hizbullah always maintained it wasn’t true. In 2006, the first Israeli bomb dropped over Beirut was on his house. When he died last year, Octavia Nasr was fired from CNN when she expressed her condolences on her facebook because he was a great humanitarian. How about that for women’s rights in the US?
And meanwhile in Israel, there are buses and neighborhoods patrolled by “morality police” who are at least as oppressive as their counterparts in Iran.
I will add as an aside, the gender hierarchy in the Catholic Church is shameful. I do believe the Catholic Church only still exists today because of nuns, who by and large are among the gentlest, most compassionate and noblest human beings on the face of the earth. They don’t get nearly enough credit for spreading morality and justice through action instead of mere word.
Heh, I went to catholic school and can attest to the fact that those nuns were anything but gentle or compassionate. Sister Mary Pascal (I still remember her name) took particular pleasure in laying me across her lap and reddening my backside with the flat of a wooden ruler! My theory as a child was that forced chastity had something to do with her sadistic streak. Of course, I was one mischievous little brat, so it wasn’t altogether undeserved!
“Of course, I was one mischievous little brat, so it wasn’t altogether undeserved!”:))
So….why do you complain??:)
Do you think that a parent, who is all lovey -dovey and prefers
non-stress /everthing-is-allowed type of upbringing does a child a favour??
I’m not defending “reddening” the behinds with a wooden ruler by older nuns, but some kind of discipline has to be enforced on those cute, yet “mischievous, little brats”. Simple “no”, don’t do it” its not enough.
I have two , not so little anymore, and not so “bratty” (luckily) as well, so I know what I am talking about.
I think children should discipline nuns when nuns are naughty. Well who else is gonna do it – the devil with a pitchfork? LOL sorry but there’s just something about that pitchfork – like who came up with the design in the first place? It’s such a weirdly arcane symbol. Hmmm, probably pagan.
And another thing about nuns: I used to see them everywhere when I was a kid: here in the states, plenty in europe and also in the Lebanon where I lived for a few years when my dad was on a writing assignment. Where’d they all go?
Strange.
If anyone knows where they are, do please tell.
You do not see them too often because , for example , they are on the top of pretty high mountains.
link to youtube.com
I met quite a few nuns, when I lived in Poland.
Most of the time they were very nice, kind people.
I would not be afraid to leave my child with them.
My brother, who lives in Poland ,sent all of his kids to a private kindergarten run by nuns. The kids loved being there.
There was a long waiting line to get a child there. The nuns took great care of those kids, including making cookies and pies from the scratch. Yummy.
here is another pretty cool video.
link to youtube.com
For everyone but especially for dumvitaestspesest and Kathleen:
Soeur Marie Keyrouz, is a Lebanese singing nun:
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
I am spending a great deal of time helping take care of aging parents (a great pleasure and treasure in many many ways) One parent is now in a nursing home that was for 80 years a convent. Many aging nuns in the nursing home who had done their training, teaching, etc in the building. Now dying there.
Anyway spending a bit of time talking with these aging nuns about the politics that went on with the priest, bishops etc and the nuns. Lots of power plays. And the nuns clearly did not have much power..yet so much of the work of the Catholic church was on their backs. As a Catholic kid I lived across the street from the priest and across the alley from the nuns. So I watched at times. Saw and heard a lot. The nuns did the bulk of the hard and meaningful work, and never got much credit or even gratitude. The powerful male hierarchy did a great disservice to the church, the sheep etc by not shifting or sharing that power base.
The Pope should talk about womens rights woven through their alleged commitment to human rights
Some people do not understand the most basic rules of morality.
Bad things are what bad people do.
Killing of the protesters in Syria (or in Iran) is bad BECAUSE it is done by bad people.
If good people kill protesters we have a moral choice: quickly determine that bad people were killed, and the second basic rule of morality is
Ugly things done to bad people are good.
Recall the untimely demise of Osama bin-Laden and Muammar Khaddafi. At least, they were not photographed in their underwear.
Alternatively, we can recognize that the situation is complicated.
The Left is not supporting democrats. Its supporting totalitarian Islamists. Given this reality, an army takeover is the least worst of all the bad options.
If elections are democratic and the brotherhood wins then it’s none of anybody’s business except for Egyptian voters – and it’s incumbent on the rest of the democratic world to accept it whether they like the results or not. I mean the majority of Egyptians are moslem so it’s an organic choice. And by the next election, if Egyptian voters aren’t satisfied with the islamic brotherhood’s rule then they can vote them out. No problemo. Except for israel that is. But then again, who the eff cares about what isreal wants anymore.
The west and israel will just have to stop with their ‘democratic’ hypocrisy and accept the results.
Arabs have seen what usa and israel did to the legitimate electoral victory of Hamas and they already disrespect what the usa and israel think anyway.
The irony is that this century will see more arab countries practicing a better form of democracy than the corrupt electoral systems of the west – I bet.
@Taxi
Oh, but if only it were true! Our country has been taken over by zionists and our government is overwhelmed by Israel-partisans. This recent article sums it up well:
link to veteranstoday.com
Cloaky,
Why should the world care about what the American administration want when we as Americans have no respect for our congressmen and we don’t give an eff about what they think – I believe congressional popularity at present is at heh heh heh 13%.
By the way, the link you posted has an outstanding headline and an informative article: one you’d never have even imagined reading (except here on mondo) even only like a coupla years ago.
You know, I always thank the day Natanyahu received his 29 standing ovations in congress – the day some one hundred and fifty million Americans woke up and smelled the stinking aipac coffee.
And aipac thought it was a victory for their political muscle power heh heh heh. It wasn’t a victory at all actually, it was a peak. And what comes after the peak, folks? Uhuh you got it, the bottomless sewer.
Let it be said that Taxi said that that day was the beginning of the end of aipac.
Ooooooh! Chilling chillies!
@Taxi
I believe that the latest figures are 9%. We don’t respect them, yet we re-elect them, and will probably continue to do so.
From your mouth to the ears of the mythical deity in the sky.
I can´t stand this constant warning about islamists.
Don´t we, and all the west, live in a so called “christians” state, where the president takes his oath on the Bible? Don´t we have 30-50 millions radical christians in the USA who are ready to commit murder to reach their goals, including supporting the apartheid in Israel, yet we never hear a word about the danger of christianism.
If you check history you will find the christian religion is much much more bloody than the islam is.
The islamist in Iran did not attack any nation, the jews in Israel and the christians from the NATO wage war after war in islamic lands, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Was the war in Vietnam a christian deed with over three million deads?
I have met many moslems and had a few friends in my life and I must say I like them better than many of so called christians. The jews lived in Africa for a thousand years in peace with the moslems together, we cannot say the same for the christian nations, we kill for nearly 1,500 years in name of Jesus, the legendary superman.
If the moslems decide in a free democratic vote to have a moslem political system, then they have the rights to do it and do not need a permissions from anybody.
NormanF
Since you like the repression by the egyptian military I suggest you move there to get a taste of the benefits it provides.
There are a few more lands where you may enjoy the same, although the number of them decreases every year.
A few of you attacked Aljazeera a few weeks ago for not being dependable anymore.
Who else is providing constant unadultered coverage directly from the scene?
I think there are fair criticisms that al-Jazeera has not adequately covered what’s been going on in Bahrain and I believe they haven’t been that attentive in Yemen either. But their coverage in Egypt has been great, and shouldn’t be discounted even in light of shortcomings in coverage elsewhere.
Phil is so right “Obama must condemn Egyptian military’s crackdown” specifically the killings and huge amount of injuries. He could have repeated what he said during the early protest people have a right to demand their human rights, civilian rule over their country etc. He could have come out and said peaceful peaceful protest