By Refuse Fascism

From Refuse Fascism | Original Article

“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families,” Donald Trump, December 2015

The Trump regime is sticking true to their promise and going beyond “their families” to include whole regions, escalating death tolls in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. What we are beginning to see is the manifestation of his commitment to “bomb the shit out of” the Middle East.  He is doing precisely what he said he would do in his pledge that US “military dominance must be unquestioned, and I mean unquestioned, by anybody and everybody.” His plan for predominately Muslim nations is nothing short of extermination. It is a genocidal program and can only be stopped through independent mass resistance.

Iona Craig at the Intercept shares eyewitness accounts from villagers that five civilians were killed (including a 15 year old) and another five were injured (including a 12 year old) in the latest U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Yemen:

“College student Murad al Adhal, 22, the elder brother of 15-year-old Abudullah who was shot and killed, described how he woke to the sound of gunfire around 1:30 a.m. as the SEALs took control of buildings on the mountainside overlooking the village.

I walked out of my house and I saw the nearby hills were filled with the American soldiers,” he said. When Apache helicopter gunships began firing into buildings, women and children started running out of their homes. “My little brother Abdullah ran for his life with the other women and children. They killed him as he was running.” Murad was shot in the leg.” Read on

Deadliest Month In Syria

U.S. led airstrikes continue to kill those who are fleeing, including children. Just this weekend reports have come out that the U.S. led coalition attacked a convoy of civilians killing at least 20 people trying to escape Raqqa (ISIS capital).

On Tuesday, the Observatory reported that 235 civilians, including 44 children and 36 women, were killed in U.S. airstrikes from April 23 to May 23, making it the deadliest month on record.

Since that report the civilian death toll continues to mount, as Lauren McCauley from Common Dream recounts:

• An early morning airstrike in the town of Mayadeen on Friday killed more than “80 relatives of Islamic State (ISIS) group fighters,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. According to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the monitoring group, this toll “includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town’s municipal building.
• Friday’s strike followed a coalition raid Thursday night during which 37 additional civilians were killed, including 13 children, according to the U.K.-based group. Coalition airstrikes on Wednesday killed another 15.

Read more

There is nothing humanitarian about bombing Syria and fanning the flames of a widening war. Trump’s actions here are not about protecting people but protecting empire. The Trump agenda in Syria is continued bombings of a nation at civil war where none of the warring partiers offer a future for the 23 million Syrians. This can and will only kill more innocent people, polarize the situation further and invite more intervention and weapons into the country.

Largest Single Incident of Civilian Deaths in Iraq (since 2014)

Joshua Keating in his piece More Bad News on Civilian Casualties in Iraq and Syria reports “On Thursday, the Pentagon released the results of an investigation, finding that more than 100 civilians were killed when the U.S. dropped a bomb on a building in Mosul, Iraq, in March, the largest single incident of civilian deaths since the campaign began in 2014…The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights today warned that civilians are increasingly victimized by both the intensified airstrikes, and the retaliatory attacks by ISIS.”

War Is Afghanistan Is Killing Children in Record Numbers in 2017 by Ruchi Kamar

“The little girls squabbled over who would get to play with it first, and Alisina won the rights to the deadly weapon, which minutes later exploded in her hands as she attempted to lift it….According to the latest report, the first four months of 2017 have already been the worst ones yet documented for Afghan children. “[UNAMA] witnessed the highest recorded number of child civilian casualties resulting from conflict-related incidents in Afghanistan, including the highest number of children killed, for the same comparable period since the Mission began documenting cases [in 2009],” a statement by the UN agency read. Between January and April 2017, UNAMA preliminarily recorded 987 child casualties (283 deaths and 704 injured), a 21 percent increase in child deaths compared to the same period in 2016…” Read on

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The Trump/Pence Regime must be driven out before this program is further consolidated. We must do this not just for ourselves but for the people of the world, especially our Muslim sisters and brothers who sit squarely in this regime’s crosshairs. Now is the time to manifest the NO! and stand with the people of the world.