CounterCurrents: Mosul Offensive Stirs A Cauldron Of Conflicts, The Debates Are Over, And No One Asked About Climate Change

Dear Friend,

The Mosul offensive is progressing on familiar lines. Embedded reporters gushing over the coalition advances, obliterating more than a million people in Mosul except as human shields. Haven't we seen all this before? In Afghanistan, in Iraq, Libya? Isn't it a build up to a genocide and humanitarian disaster? Yes it is, but the wold will not know about it. We'll only see the smiling faces of coalition forces as they score points after point. No death, no destruction. The cameras will not see them. 

However some information will filter out even from MSM    as happened in BBC the other day. It reported "University of Mosul, once one of the best equipped in the Middle East, is in ruin.  “The university is completely inoperative and air strikes have made it a difficult place to go. Most of the buildings have been brought down, it’s virtually gone.” 

In the mean time, ISIS terrorists have struck in nearby Kirkuk, killing at least 19 people.

Turkey is fuming. It is miffed that Turkey couldn't get its pound of flesh in Mosul. Turkey responded yesterday with its most intense air attacks on the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria. With different sectarian and nationalist interests tugging Mosul in all directions, James Cogan reports that it could open up a cauldron of conflicts. 

Thousands are fleeing from Mosul. What about the millions who fled Iraq after the imperialist intervention in the country? Cathy Breen tells the story of Mohammed and Ahmed from Iraq who fled to Europe and sought shelter in Finland. It is a heart-wrenching story. Mohammed and Ahmed are representatives of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Europe. They all will have similar stories to tell. The world should hear their stories. Countercurrents is willing to tell these stories, if only more people like Cathy Breen would come forward to record them. 

Finally the absurd drama of US presidential debate is over. The most important, burning issue in the mind all the CC readers was not discussed, not even a single time. Climate Change! With leaders like these, we are on the road to perditon, unless, we the people step up, and speak out. 

And also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org



Mosul Offensive Stirs A Cauldron Of Conflicts
by James Cogan 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/mosul-offensive-stirs-a-cauldron-of-conflicts/

The assault is unfolding amid uncritical media coverage, with embedded journalists filing reports that in general laud the success of Kurdish and Iraqi forces in the face of supposed fanatical resistance and suicide attacks by ISIS defenders. Vast columns of black smoke rising over the battle zones are universally attributed to ISIS igniting oil wells and mounds of tyres to obscure their movements from aerial detection and attack.




“Today Is One Of The Heaviest Days Of My Life”
by Cathy Breen 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/today-is-one-of-the-heaviest-days-of-my-life/

I’ve written often about our Iraqi refugee friend and his oldest son from Baghdad. I will call them Mohammed and Ahmed. They made the torturous flight last year from Baghdad to Kurdistan and then across Turkey. They were on three Greek islands before permission was granted them to continue their trip. They passed through several countries at the time the borders were being closed. They arrived finally at their destination in late September 2015. Finland.




The Debates Are Over, And No One Asked About Climate Change
by Adam Johnson 

Despite the fact that the world has endured 16 consecutive months ofrecord-breaking heat, not one of the debate moderators saw fit to ask about it in any of 2016’s general election debates.




Brazil: The Days In Waiting
by Farooque Chowdhury 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/brazil-the-days-in-waiting/

With a soft coup, intervention by world masters, a huge mass of corruption, attempts to re-take people’s sphere by anti-people’s forces, and a people with experience of all these and of struggle, coming days in Brazil will be stormy, tumultuous. Interventionists and their local collaborators – the rich classes in Brazil – will not have an easy, enjoyable ride as they continue following their old ravening method. Already the following is in the air:




When Wasn’t It Rigged?  Donald Trump And US Presidential Races
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/when-wasnt-it-rigged-donald-trump-and-us-presidential-races/

Hideousness is only one word that covers the third and last presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But prior to that, as a warm up of mischief, Trump was insisting that he would find accepting a public vote for Clinton hard to stomach at the electoral level.  The only way he would accept any electoral result would be, in fact, if he won.





Clinton Promises To Increase Social Security Tax
by Eric Zuesse 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/clinton-promises-to-increase-social-security-tax/

During the final Presidential candidates’ debate, on October 19th, Hillary Clinton said that workers’ “social security payroll contribution will go up” if she becomes President, and she went on to add, “as will Donald’s — assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it.” Trump ignored what she had just said there, and responded simply with “Such a nasty woman”






Anti-Coal Power Plant Activist Threatened With Death In Banlgadesh: Ensure Safety Of Anu Muhammad
by William Nicholas Gomes

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/anti-coal-power-plant-activist-threatened-with-death-in-banlgadesh-ensure-safety-of-anu-muhammad/

On 13 October 2016, Anu Muhammad received two messages on his phone from the same number. The first one was sent at approximately 1 am and stated “Death keeps no calendar, and Ansatullah knows no time!”. The second one was sent at 8.43 pm, when he was on his way to Rampura police station to file a complaint about the first threat. It said “Say ‘yes’ to Rampal, otherwise, you must will be hacked to death incredibly by us!”. The term Ansatullah in the first message appears to refer to Ansarullah, which is an Islamic extremist group in Bangladesh that was responsible for the murder of secular activists, bloggers and publishers. 




Need For Zero Discrimination In Education
Co-Written By: Ashish Singh & Aleksei Opacic

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/21/need-for-zero-discrimination-in-education/

There still exists a lack of effective monitoring mechanisms: ill-treatment, neglect (despite RTE banning discrimination); disabilities not ensured – ‘remains a distant priority among school authorities’ – not enough done to bring and keep girls in classrooms.