Where U.S. goes Violence goes

Where U.S goes so goes Violence

 Asia West/East to Africa North/Horn

By Carolyn Bennett
[compiled, edited]

After more than ten years of bloody repression in Afghanistan — extended by the current administration into neighboring Pakistan — U.S. imperialism’s only response to the [self-inflicted] debacle it confronts is more violence, James Cogan writes today at World Socialist Web Site. Facing withdrawal deadlines, U. S. officials will escalate the killing, putting pressure on the Taliban to accept talks on U.S. terms, in order to realize the neo-colonial objectives of war. I guess we will have to see how this pans out as impunity is met with resistance.

Where U.S. goes...

Impunity and resistance 

So goes VIOLENCE

Asia East/West, Africa East 

Today

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES (U.S. allied with Occupier)

“Israeli military personnel face no prosecution over engagement in violent actions against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank,” says report. Since the 2000-2005 Second Intifada against the Israeli occupation, “hundreds of cases of violence exercised by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the West Bank have been closed without trial of engaged troops.”

  

Today thousands of people held demonstrations in towns and cities across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with 1,600 Palestinians in Israeli jails across the occupied territories who today have begun an open-ended hunger strike in protest of imprisonment without charge and solitary confinement exercised by the regime in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian prisoner protest

A report published the first of this month by a non-governmental Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association (Addameer) finds that “at least 4,610 prisoners held in Israeli jails are ‘political’ prisoners (322 are administrative detainees).” Israeli forces’ response to demonstrators in solidarity with prisoners was to fire rubber bullets against them.

Captured on video is a scene of “Danish peace activist Andreas Ias being severely struck in the head with an M-16 rifle wielded by senior Israeli army Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisne during a cycle rally near Jericho in the West Bank on Saturday. The Danish protester falls to the ground and other activists carry him away.

Denmark is demanding information and clarifications from Tel Aviv concerning this assault by the military officer.

Bahraini protest

BAHRAIN (U.S. occupying home of U.S. Fifth Fleet)

Bahrain’s anti-regime demonstrators hold U.S.-backed King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the death of protesters during the popular uprising that began in February 2011.

Now Amnesty International has released a report criticizing the Bahraini regime for continuing the violation of human rights and the use of excessive force against anti-regime protesters; for failing to provide justice for the victims of human rights violations and inadequately responding to findings of an international commission of inquiry. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry on November 23, 2011, issued a report saying that the Manama regime had used ‘excessive force, including the extraction of forced confessions against detainees.’

Bahraini protesters have said they will continue demonstrations until their demands are met —“for freedom, constitutional monarchy and a proportional voice in the government.”

Yemeni protest

Today, Press TV is reporting, protesters held an anti-regime demonstration in the village of Dair, which is located on the northern coast of the Muharraq Island. Sunday, the ‘Revolution of February 14’ youth group called for ‘three days of rage’ (April 20-22) to protest against the decision to hold  the Formula One Grand Prix auto race scheduled for Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on April 22.  The main Bahraini opposition group, al-Wefaq, also announced a week of daily demonstrations for democratic reform.

SAUDI ARABIA (U.S allied with Saud who allies with Yemeni/Bahraini regimes)

As in Yemen and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia has been the scene of anti-regime demonstrations since March 2011 and many people have reportedly lost their lives, suffered injuries or detention at the hand of regime forces.

Yemeni protest

One incident has again caught the ire of Amnesty International. The country’s handing down of a four-year-prison term against a prominent human rights activist, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Bajadi, to be followed by a five-year travel ban, Amnesty International says, “‘demonstrates a blatant disregard [for the activist’s] fundamental rights’ [AFP].”

YEMEN (U.S allied with autocratic regime)

A deal brokered by the Arab council or Persian Gulf  Cooperation Council  gave former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh  immunity from prosecution in return for the  Yemeni leader’s transfer of power to his own  deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The people of this country are still under an oppressive regime and foreign attack, insecure and in conflict.

On Sunday, at least three children died when a roadside bomb reportedly targeting a Yemeni security petrol exploded. The children were on their way to school. On Monday another six people died in Yemeni’s southern Shabwa province. “Militants” said these deaths resulted from a U.S. assassination drone attack.

“Over the past seven days,” Press TV reports, “more than 200 people have died in southern Yemen” as the result of “U.S. assassination drone raids, Yemeni air strikes and army troops.” Among the dead were more than 180 “militants”

Impunity and resistance farther into Asia

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. in Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of U.S.-led forces occupy and terrorize the Afghan people and quite naturally Afghanistan insecurity continues to rise across this Asian country. Since the burning of the Holy Quran and the massacre of Afghan civilians by United States soldiers, anti-American sentiment has hit unprecedented levels.

February 20

U.S soldiers burned copies of the Quran and other Islamic texts at the  U.S.-run Bagram Airbase, southeast of the city  of Charikar in the Afghan province of  Parwan.

March 11

A group of U.S. soldiers went from house to house in Kandahar’s  Panjwaii district gunning down Afghan  civilians inside their homes, leaving at  least 16 people dead — most of them women and children — and several others wounded.

Though it seems not to matter what Afghans feel or think, a recent poll conducted March 17-20, 2012, by the Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, Forsa found that the majority of Afghan people [60 percent of the 2,000 respondents] want U.S.-.led forces to leave  their country soon.

Sunday in Kabul and three eastern cities, the Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks on U.S., British, and German embassies, NATO headquarters, and the Afghan parliament.

Monday “attacks and counter-operations” nationwide left “36 Taliban militants” dead and 65 (including 40 soldiers) wounded.

Today in the southwestern province of Nimruz, two members of the Afghan army died and four other people suffered injuries when a roadside bomb exploded.

Today in southern Afghanistan, a U.S.-led soldier working with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces died, according to NATO’s account to Press TV, “of non-combat related injuries.

Sunday encounters, in the city of Jalalabad, involving “Taliban militants, foreign and Afghan forces,” left one U.S.-led foreign fighter dead.

Sourcing the website icasualties.org, Press TV reports, “a total of 113 foreign soldiers have lost their lives this year alone in Afghanistan” and overall from 2011, 3,021 civilians have died in this aggression and occupation; 4,507 have suffered injuries.

Correspondingly, as casualties on all sides have risen, as security has plummeted; so anger has risen among Afghans, among U.S. citizens, and among citizens of other NATO member states.

School destroyed in Pakistan

PAKISTAN

Yesterday in neighboring Pakistan, on a school in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, a hand grenade detonated, leaving two people wounded and a 4-year-old child dead.

Farther east Asia Pacific

PHILIPPINES (U.S. “about chaos, conflict”)  

United States and Philippine military exercises involving some 7,000 personnel come in heat of Philippine-Chinese tensions over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. Beijing has expressed opposition to these military drills near the South China Sea and some Philippine citizens are also resisting.

Philippine anti-U.S. war games

On Monday student protesters in demonstrations against the U.S. occupying troops and condemnation of what they called “U.S. interventionism” burned a flag of the United States.

Westward crossing Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

SOMALIA (U.S. allied against, strikes by remote)

Though the United Nations has repeatedly criticized U.S. terror drone attacks “as targeted killing” and “a challenge to international law,” these attacks have not only not stopped, they have escalated against some of the most impoverished and helpless people in the world, Somalia being also among countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced persons in the world.

Yemen is Somalia’s nearest neighbor across the Gulf of Aden and the two countries together with in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Libya and Iraq have been maliciously attacked (killing mostly civilians) by the United States’ remote-controlled bombs (drones).

U.S. assassination drone

Today close to Somalia’s southern town of Afmadow, two United States assassination drones killed 31 people.

Sunday, “two coordinated bomb explosions ripped through a region in southwestern Somalia,” leaving least 17 people injured and six people dead.

Monday, a U.S. assassination drone left dozens of Somalis dead.

Egyptian protest

 Africa north

EGYPT (post-Mubarak, unclear U.S. alliance)

Protests, crackdowns continue in post-Mubarak, post-Al-Taḥrir Square Egypt.

After the ouster of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) acceded to power. The military rulers then reneged on previous promises to relinquish power and instead said they will hand over the rule after results of a presidential election slated for June has been announced.

On November 19, 2011, in Cairo and several other cities, protests began against the ruling SCAF and during heavy crackdowns, the self-appointed body killed dozens of demonstrators.

Now several hundreds of Egyptian protesters are facing trial for taking part in the November anti-junta demonstrations; 379 protesters will face trial for allegedly injuring police officers during clashes with the security forces or setting fire to public buildings. A police officer will also face trial for deliberately targeting the eyes of unarmed protesters during confrontation with the police.

Sadly, Where the United States goes 

so goes violence. 

Sources and notes

“Insurgents attack heart of U.S.-led occupation in Afghanistan” (James Cogan), April 17, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/afgh-a17.shtml

“Israeli forces use rubber bullets against Palestinian demonstrators,” April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236715.html

“Report: Israel ignores troops’ violence against Palestinians in West Bank,” April 17, 2012,http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236705.html

“Denmark urges Israel to probe police beating of Danish activist,” April 17, 2012,  

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236646.html

“Amnesty International slams violation of human rights by Bahraini regime,” April 17, 2012, 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236643.html

Also: “Bahrainis urge world support for revolution:  Activist, April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236684.html

“Bahraini protesters hold anti-regime demonstration in Dair village, April 17, 2012, 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236744.html

“Amnesty International flays Saudi Arabia for sentencing rights activist,” April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236624.html

“Over 200 people killed in Yemen fighting, air raids in past week,” April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236619.html

“A Majority of Afghans wants early withdrawal of U.S.-led forces: Poll,” April 17, 2012

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236683.html

“Roadside bomb kills 2 Afghan soldiers in Nimruz province,” April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236651.html

“U.S.-led soldier died in southern Afghanistan, April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236750.html

“Taliban attacks show NATO intelligence failure: Afghan President,” April 16, 2012,   http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236535.html

“Man in Afghan army uniform shoots U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan,” April 16, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236498.html

“Four-year-old child killed, two injured in Pakistan school attack,” April 17, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236623.html

“Filipinos wage rally against U.S. presence in the Philippines,” April 16, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236497.html

“U.S. terror drones kills 31 in southern Somalia,” April 17, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236629.html

“U.S. drone strike kills dozens of Somalis,” April 16, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236553.html

“Bomb attacks leave six dead in south Somalia,” April 15, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236432.html

“Hundreds of Egyptian protesters to face trial” (Egypt’s official Middle East News 

Agency, MENA, reporting Sunday April 15), April 16, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir

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