Focus: Raqqa – July 25, 2017
SDF And Syrian military make secret deal, divide spheres of influence in Deir Ezzor, Raqqah provinces: Media – southfront.org
Kurds ‘collaborating’ with Russia and Syrian regime over Raqqa, SDF reportedly ceded towns in northern Syria to regime forces as part of a Russian-brokered deal – alaraby.co.uk
More details: Raqqa July 20 SDF & SAA & tribal forces signed agreement to hand over some SDF areas to SAA within 3 days – Ivan Sidorenko on Twitter
Secret Russian-Kurdish-Syrian military cooperation is happening in Syria’s eastern desert – The Independent
Kurdish-led forces fling back huge ISIS counterattack in Raqqa – almasdarnews.com
In pictures: ISIS uses hordes of suicide bombers against Kurdish forces in Raqqa city (PHOTOS) – almasdarnews.com
SDF says 45% of Raqqa city liberated, operations ongoing – ARA News
Syrian Democratic Forces deny pause in anti-ISIS operations in Raqqa – ARA News
Tomgram: William Hartung, The Trillion-Dollar National Security Budget
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
In May 2012, TomDispatch featured a piece by Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer, both then analysts at the National Priorities Project, headlined “War Pay: The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget.” The two of them ran through the figures for the cumulative annual budget for what we still mysteriously
Is “Good German” status quo the order of our day? #Aegis9
| Jason Rawn leading a Maine Peace Walk in 2014 |
Today’s guest post by civil disobedient Jason Rawn was rejected by the Times Record. A daily paper local to General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works plant, the Times Record customarily publishes a monthly opinion column written by various Peaceworks members. In July the editor refused the submitted piece saying that drawing connections between the present day and the Holocaust is “a bit much.” But is it? You be the judge.
Are We The “Good Germans” Now?
by Jason Rawn
I’m
Focus: Raqqa – July 21, 2017
US official: IS putting up stiff resistance in Syria’s Raqqa, advances have slowed down – Fox News
Raqqa: IS militants burst from tunnels, hit weak points in a bloody battle of attrition from street to street – ABC News
ISIS using motion detector IEDs in battle for Raqqa – DoD Buzz
In pictures: ISIS fires rockets on pinpoint Kurdish targets in Raqqa city – almasdarnews.com
At least 15 Kurdish YPG fighters killed by ISIS fire in Raqqa: official – ARA News
US sends in mine-proof trucks for battle in Raqqa – theaustralian.com
Armored US combat vehicles have been spotted pouring into Syria (PHOTOS, VIDEO) – taskandpurpose.com
US special operators are moving closer to the fighting in Raqqa – The Drive
At Every Door
At Every Door
by Kathy Kelly
July 21, 2017
“I come and stand at every door
But none shall hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen”
-Nazim Hikmet
On July 18, 2017, at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing focused on “The Four Famines: Root Causes and a Multilateral Action Plan,” Republican Senator Todd Young, a former Marine, asked
Tomgram: Engelhardt, Bombing the Rubble
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Empire of Destruction
Precision Warfare? Don’t Make Me Laugh
By Tom Engelhardt
You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent
Focus: Turkey and Syria – July 19, 2017
Turkey leaks secret locations of U.S. troops in Syria – thedailybeast.com
US increases number of military posts in PKK/PYD-held territories in Syria to ten – anadoluagency.com
MAP: Turkish wire Anadolu published this map showing US bases in Syria. The US-led coalition in response slammed the story as irresponsible – Ragıp Soylu on Twitter
Turkey set to launch military operation against Kurds in northern Syria, says weapons given to the YPG “by various allied countries” have wound up in the hands of the PKK – Xinhua
Arab-Kurdish feud deepens as fears mount over battle for Raqqa, This week Turkish-backed Arab militias clashed with SDF units north of Aleppo – VOA
Turkish-backed rebels fail to capture northern Aleppo town – almasdarnews.com
Ethics of Not Ruining Everything
Today I listened to the audio book of Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationship With Animals by Lori Gruen while reading the hardcopy of From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel Dennett. As a result I have been better able to empathize with Dennett’s obsession with the uniqueness of human consciousness, and I have been better able to marvel at the complex precision of Gruen’s theorizing. But I don’t seem to be any better off than
Tomgram: John Feffer, The Invisible Monster of Climate Change
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
If you’re looking for fairy tales that are on the grim (not Grimm) side, things that once might only have been in dystopian fiction, look no further than our present planet at our present moment. What about, for instance, that trillion-metric-ton iceberg —