71 notes
14 / 5 / 2012 @ 06:59
(source: tw3news)

tw3news: US Kills 5 Afghan Kids…! The way in which the U.S. media ignores such events speaks volumes about how we perceive them May 08, 2012 “Salon“ — Yesterday, I noted severalreports from Afghanistan that as many as 20 civilians were killed by two NATO airstrikes, including a mother and her five children. Today, the U.S. confirmed at least some of those claims, acknowledging and apologizing for its responsibility for the death of that family: The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday. The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack… . The victims were the family’s mother and five of her children, three girls and two boys, according to Afghan officials. This happens over and over and over again, and there are several points worth making here beyond the obvious horror: (1) To the extent these type of incidents are discussed at all — and in American establishment media venues, they are most typically ignored — there are certain unbending rules that must be observed in order to retain Seriousness credentials. No matter how many times the U.S. kills innocent people in the world, it never reflects on our national character or that of our leaders. Indeed, none of these incidents convey any meaning at all. They are mere accidents, quasi-acts of nature which contain no moral information (in fact, the NYTarticle on these civilian deaths, out of nowhere, weirdly mentioned that “in northern Afghanistan, 23 members of a wedding celebration drowned in severe flash flooding” — as though that’s comparable to the U.S.’s dropping bombs on innocent people). We’ve all been trained, like good little soldiers, that the phrase “collateral damage” cleanses and justifies this and washes it all way: yes, it’s quite terrible, but innocent people die in wars; that’s just how it is. It’s all grounded in America’s central religious belief that the country has the right to commit violence anywhere in the world, at any time, for any cause. At some point — and more than a decade would certainly qualify — the act of continuously killing innocent people, countless children, in the Muslim world most certainly does reflect upon, and even alters, the moral character of a country, especially its leaders. You can’t just spend year after year piling up the corpses of children and credibly insist that it has no bearing on who you are. That’s particularly true when, as is the case in Afghanistan, the cause of the war is so vague as to be virtually unknowable. It’s woefully inadequate to reflexively dismiss every one of these incidents as the regrettable but meaningless by-product of our national prerogative. But to maintain mainstream credibility, that is exactly how one must speak of our national actions even in these most egregious cases. To suggest any moral culpability, or to argue that continuously killing children in a country we’re occupying is morally indefensible, is a self-marginalizing act, whereby one reveals oneself to be a shrill and unSerious critic, probably even a pacifist. Serious commentators, by definition, recognize and accept that this is merely the inevitable outcome of America’s supreme imperial right, note (at most) some passing regret, and then move on. (2) Yesterday — a week after it leaked that it was escalating its drone strikes in Yemen — the Obama administration claimed that the CIA last month disrupted a scary plot originating in Yemen to explode an American civilian jet “using a more sophisticated version of the underwear bomb deployed unsuccessfully in 2009.” American media outlets — especially its cable news networks — erupted with their predictable mix of obsessive hysteria, excitement and moral outrage. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last night devoted the bulk of his showto this plot, parading the standard cast of characters — former Bush Homeland Security adviser (and terrorist advocate) Fran Townsend and its “national security analyst” Peter Bergen — to put on their Serious and Concerned faces, recite from the U.S. Government script, and analyze all the profound implications. CNN even hauled out Rep. Peter King to warn that this shows a “new level” of Terror threats from Yemen. CNN’s fixation on this plot continued into this morning. Needless to say, the fact that the U.S. has spent years and years killing innocent adults and children in that part of the world — including repeatedly in Yemen — was never once mentioned, even though it obviously is a major factor for why at least some people in that country support these kinds of plots. Those facts are not permitted to be heard. Discussions of causation — why would someone want to attack a U.S. airliner? – is an absolute taboo, beyond noting that the people responsible are primitive and hateful religious fanatics. Instead, it is a simple morality play reinforced over and over: Americans are innocently minding their own business — trying to enjoy our Freedoms — and are being disgustingly targeted with horrific violence by these heinous Muslim Terrorists whom we must crush (naturally, the solution to the problem that there is significant anti-American animosity in Yemen is to drop even more bombs on them, which will certainly fix this problem). Indeed, on the very same day that CNN and the other cable news networks devoted so much coverage to a failed, un-serious attempt to bring violence to the U.S. — one that never movedbeyond the early planning stages and “never posed a threat to public safety” — it was revealed that the U.S. just killed multiple civilians, including a family of 5 children, in Afghanistan. But that got no mention. That event simply does not exist in the world of CNN and its viewers (I’d be shocked if it has been mentioned on MSNBC or Fox either). Nascent, failed non-threats directed at the U.S. merit all-hands-on-deck, five-alarm media coverage, but the actual extinguishing of the lives of children by the U.S. is steadfastly ignored (even though the latter is so causally related to the former). This is the message sent over and over by the U.S. media: we are the victims of heinous, frightening violence; our government must do more, must bomb more, must surveil more, to Keep Us Safe; we do nothing similar to this kind of violence because we are Good and Civilized. This is how our Objective, Viewpoint-Free journalistic outlets continuously propagandize: by fixating on the violence done by others while justifying — or, more often, ignoring — the more far-reaching and substantial violence perpetrated by the U.S. (3) If one of the relatives of the children just killed in Afghanistan decided to attack the U.S. — or if one of the people involved in this Yemen-originating plot were a relative of one of the dozens of civilians killed by Obama’s 2009 cluster bomb strike — what would they be called by the U.S. media? Terrorists. Primitive, irrational, religious fanatics beyond human decency.

2,796 notes
7 / 5 / 2012 @ 23:46
(source: forever90s)


57,905 notes
7 / 5 / 2012 @ 23:43
(source: wiigz)


8,469 notes
6 / 5 / 2012 @ 17:04
(source: onlylolgifs)

the-absolute-funniest-posts: Follow this blog, you will love it on your dashboard

10,813 notes
6 / 5 / 2012 @ 17:04
(source: damnrelatable)

the-absolute-funniest-posts: Follow this blog, you will love it on your dashboard

7,776 notes
6 / 5 / 2012 @ 17:04
(source: theamericankid)

the-absolute-funniest-posts: Follow this blog, you will love it on your dashboard

14,146 notes
6 / 5 / 2012 @ 17:03
(source: noiselessworld)


872 notes
4 / 5 / 2012 @ 08:45
(source: annieofitall)

naturallybornkiller: I love soppy Community moments.

35,784 notes
23 / 4 / 2012 @ 01:10
(source: mythirdtry)

richwhitelesbian: wizcoylifa: ashborne: icantbelieveitsnotsanity: dancingpurge: thefuchsiaruler: felopez: ladydeadpool: flibbertigibbe: gloomyteens: do you see this image? this is the computer generated image of what the world is going to look like in december of 2012. it’s a horribel sight isn’t it? stop this madness, lets prevent the ending of the world. stop kony 2012 stop kony from smashing some planets together he has the power  Actually it’s a replicated image of when Thea crashed into Earth to form the moon, but okay. No, this is an MRI of someone dying.  The brain releases a endorphins at the moment of death, making them feel a range of emotions.  Tragically beautiful. Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. This is a picture of my friend Becky. She used to be a happy, popular girl until one night she snorted marijuana at a party. She died instantly. Please, don’t do marijuana. It’s the most dangerous drug out there. Please don’t wind up like Becky. No you guys this is what an abortion looks like at nine months. Reblog if you’re against the baby-killing liberal media. Oh my god you’re all stupid. This is Marilyn Monroe. Does she look stick skinny to you? No she had curves. Like every woman should. This is true beauty.  this post is a god damn train wreck this is me busting a huge nut

38,782 notes
11 / 4 / 2012 @ 16:58
(source: so-relatable)


5,324 notes
11 / 4 / 2012 @ 16:58
(source: dinamarku)


0 notes
8 / 4 / 2012 @ 20:26
Aafia replied, “I see the Messenger of Allaah (saws) in my dream EVERY night.

Aafia replied, “I see the Messenger of Allaah (salAllaahu ‘alaihi wa sallaam) in my dreams EVERY night

Aafia Siddiqui’s mother spoke to Aafia on the phone last Ramadhaan, saying, “I find the oppressive situtation you are in unbearable.”

Aafia replied, “I see the Messenger of Allaah (salAllaahu ‘alaihi wa sallaam) in my dreams EVERY night. On one instant, he said to me, “tell your mother not to grieve, as that which Allaah has in store for her in the Hereafter, is better..”

In another dream the Messenger of Allah (salAllaahu ‘alaihi wa sallaam) took Aafia to meet his blessed wife ‘Aisha (RadiAllaahu anha) and said, “meet our daughter, Aafia”

SubhanAllaah!! :’(!!! The daughter of the prophet salAllaahu ‘alaihi wa sallaam!!! How many of us have seen the blessed prophet once in our dreams, let alone EVERY night?????

“The power you gave them to torture me, rape me and every time allow them to search me naked. I’m dead. I was dead since the very first time I was raped, searched naked, each and every time you need to present me in court – I’m searched naked… Leave me alone or send me back to my country Pakistan.” [- Aafia Siddiqui]

How can you sit back and do nothing, when the prophet SalAllaahu ‘alaihi wa sallaam steps forth to console her? How can you sit back and do NOTHING?

http://www.facebook.com/Free.Aafia.Siddiqui

http://www.freeaafia.org/



915 notes
4 / 4 / 2012 @ 09:03
(source: kpopaddict24)

islamic-quotes: Smile to be happy

1,319 notes
4 / 4 / 2012 @ 08:59
(source: assom707)


495 notes
4 / 4 / 2012 @ 08:59
(source: politics-war)

politics-war: Ashfaq, 10, carries his 2-year-old brother, Farhaan, through a flooded street in their slum.

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