Military Madness > Ukraine - The Masks of the Revolution; Myanmar Military Torturing Children, Raping Women; Nuclear War Could Starve 5 bn People to Death

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Documentary: Ukraine - The Masks of the revolution

by Paul Moreira, 

English Subs

Ukraine’s authorities have urged a French broadcaster to take a documentary titled 'Masks of Revolution' off the air. They claim the movie misrepresents Maidan events, and have a list of their own suggestions for what needs to be shown. 

Ukrainian authorities say that Moreira’s Masks of Revolution is “deception” and not an example of “media pluralism,” as it provides a “misrepresented view on the situation in Ukraine.”

"The version of events in the Ukraine offered in the film is pleasing to the ears of conspiracy theories’ supporters and of pro-Russian propagandists. This pamphlet is a documentary made in the worst tradition of misinformation,” the statement adds.

The diplomats went on to urge Canal+ “to reconsider the possibility of airing the film on TV.”

Also, the embassy gave a list of suggestions about what the French broadcaster should show about 2014 Maidan events, “hoping that one day these movies will be presented on Canal +”

The filmmaker, Paul Moreira, has responded to the accusations, saying his film was “contrary to the commonly accepted narrative” but the reaction still shocked him.

It seems obvious from the very beginning of this documentary that Moreira is no friend of Russia, but a friend of the truth.

This video published for the viewers opinion ONLY! No propaganda here!

U.N. report: Myanmar military targeting women and children

in 'gravest' crimes

By Thomas Maresca

   

Myanmar's military junta has committed systematic crimes against humanity including the abuse and torture of women and children, a new report by U.N. experts said. File Photo by EPA-EFE

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military is torturing children and sexually assaulting women, United Nations investigators said in a new report that outlines evidence of what it calls "systematic crimes against humanity."

The report, released Tuesday by the U.N.'s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, documents accounts of children being tortured, conscripted and arbitrarily detained, sometimes as proxies for their parents.

Attacks on civilians by the military junta, which seized power in a coup in February 2021, have also targeted women with sexual violence including rape, the report said.

"Crimes against women and children are amongst the gravest international crimes, but they are also historically underreported and under-investigated," Nicholas Koumjian, head of the IIMM, said in a statement.

"Our team has dedicated expertise to ensure targeted outreach and investigations so that these crimes can ultimately be prosecuted," he said.

The IIMM, which began operations three years ago, has collected more than 3 million pieces of information from almost 200 sources including interviews, videos, photographs, geospatial imagery and social media content.

Myanmar's military overthrew the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi on widely debunked charges of voter fraud.

Civil disobedience and nationwide protests sprung up immediately after the coup, which the junta brutally suppressed and have since hardened into an internal conflict that some describe as a full-fledged civil war.

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community have also been severely impacted by the ongoing conflict, which has "exacerbated their already vulnerable situation," the IIMM report said.

"Since the military takeover in February 2021, crimes have been committed in Myanmar on a scale and in a manner that constitutes a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population," the report said.

The U.N. investigators noted that the scope of the junta's crimes have also expanded with the execution last month of four anti-coup activists, including a former lawmaker.

"Perpetrators of these crimes need to know that they cannot continue to act with impunity," Koumjian said. "We are collecting and preserving the evidence so that they will one day be held to account."

The IIMM is sharing its evidence to support proceedings at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, it said.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the junta has arrested more than 15,000 civilians and killed 2,171.

Earlier this month, the military announced that it would extend a state of emergency in the country for another six months, claiming that it must stabilize the country before holding elections next year.

The country was stable before the coup. Now, it's not! The military is too stupid to see that they are the cause of the unrest. Either that or they don't care.

Nuclear war between the US and Russia would cause a global famine

and kill more than 5 BILLION people, study finds

By SAM TONKIN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:07 EDT, 15 August 2022 

A nuclear war between Russia and the US would trigger a global famine that would wipe out almost two-thirds of the world's population, a new study suggests.

More than five billion people would die of hunger during the fallout from a full-scale conflict, researchers say, with computer simulations showing that firestorms would release soot into the upper atmosphere and block out the sun.

This would in turn spark crop failure across the world. 

Lead author Professor Lili Xia, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: 'The data tell us one thing. We must prevent a nuclear war from ever happening.'

Of course, America and NATO know this already, but they still push Russia to the brink because there is money to be made.

Catastrophic: A nuclear war between Russia and the US would trigger a global famine that would wipe out almost two-thirds of the world's population, a new study suggests

Dreadful: More than five billion people would die of hunger during the fallout from a full-scale conflict, researchers say, with computer simulations showing that firestorms would release soot into the upper atmosphere and block out the sun. These graphs show how air and sea surface temperatures would change in the immediate aftermath of nuclear war

Russia warns Europe will 'disappear' in a nuclear apocalypse

if the West gives Ukraine missiles

Last month, Russia warned that Europe would 'disappear' in a nuclear apocalypse in the Kremlin's latest doomsday threat for supplying Ukraine with missiles.

Viacheslav Volodin, the head of the State Duma, lashed out after Poland's former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Western allies could send more weaponry to besieged Kyiv.

Sikorski claimed Vladimir Putin had violated the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances of 1994, which justifies the Western delivery of nuclear weapons.  

He told Ukrainian channel Espreso TV the supplies would 'give Ukraine the opportunity to defend its independence'.

Ukraine agreed to give up all its nuclear weapons left over from the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.  

Volodin slammed the remarks, writing on Telegram: 'With such deputies, the Europeans will have much more serious problems than those they have already faced today (refugees, record inflation, energy crisis).

'Sikorski is provoking a nuclear conflict in the centre of Europe.'

The modelling sheds fresh light on what would happen under six war scenarios — five smaller India-Pakistan conflicts and a large US-Russia war. 

Such threat has been brought to the fore following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Researchers based their calculations on the size of each country's nuclear arsenal. Nine nations, including the UK, currently control more than 13,000 nuclear weapons.

Even a clash between new nuclear states would decimate food production and result in widespread starvation, the experts found. 

A climate forecasting tool called the Community Earth System Model enabled effects to be estimated on maize, rice, spring wheat and soybean country-by-country.

The researchers also examined projected changes to livestock pasture and marine fisheries.

In the event of a localised war between India and Pakistan, the global average caloric production decreased seven per cent within five years under the modelling.

In the worst case scenario – involving the US and Russia – this would rise to 90 per cent three to four years after the fighting ended.

The experts said crop declines would be the most severe in the mid-high latitude nations, including major exporters such as Russia and the US.

It could also trigger restrictions and cause severe disruptions in import-dependent countries in Africa and the Middle East, which would induce a catastrophic disruption of global food markets. 

Even a seven per cent decline would exceed the largest since records began in 1961.

Under the largest war scenario, more than 75 per cent of the planet would be starving within two years and more than five billion people would die. 

The world's current population stands at around eight billion. 

Using crops fed to livestock as human food or reducing waste would have minimal benefits, the researchers wrote.

Prof Xia said: 'Future work will bring even more granularity to the crop models.

'For instance, the ozone layer would be destroyed by the heating of the stratosphere, producing more ultraviolet radiation at the surface, and we need to understand that impact on food supplies.'

Climate scientists at Colorado University are creating detailed soot models for specific cities — such as Washington DC. Inventories of every building will provide a more accurate picture of how much smoke would be produced.

There is more to this story at Mail Online.

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Iran Closes 1000 Restaurants, Arrests 11 People for Violating Ramadan as Islam Clamps Down

‘Illegal music & debauchery’: Iran shuts over 1,000 eateries

for not observing ‘Islamic principles’

Islam tends to become more and more fundamentalist with time and with increasing proportions of populations. Iran was suddenly and dramatically changed from a free nation to a legalistic theocracy when the Ayatollah Khomeini threw out the American puppet in the 1979 revolution. Iran has been slowly becoming more legalistic since.

It is legalism that denies all credibility to Islam as having come from the God of Abraham. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the 'legal' requirements of God and instill the principal of 'grace' - the forgiveness of sins who's punishment was served by Christ Himself on the Cross. Mohammed came along 600 years later and re-installed legalism, nullifying grace in those who choose to follow him instead of Jesus Christ.

Mixed-sex couple in one of the discreet smoking lounges at the back of a Tehran cafe.

Such establishments were targeted in the past month. ©  Getty/Kaveh Kazemi

Police have closed hundreds of restaurants in major Iranian cities during a more-severe-than-usual Ramadan crackdown, while authorities have urged citizens to report “immoral behavior” by texting a dedicated hotline.

“The owners of restaurants and cafes in which Islamic principles were not observed were confronted, and during this operation 547 businesses were closed in Tehran and 11 offenders arrested,” Tehran police chief Hossein Rahimi said on the official department website.

The establishments were shut down in the past fortnight over “unconventional advertising in cyberspace, playing illegal music and debauchery.”

Similar mass police interventions were reported throughout the country, including the sealing-up of over 300 restaurants in the third-largest city, Ishafan.

The holy month of Ramadan, which ended on June 4, during which devout Muslims are forbidden from eating between dawn and dusk, is usually accompanied by intensive behavior policing, including frequent arrests of those caught eating in the daytime, though such behavior is not legally banned.

Denunciation hotline & all-female hijab police

But activities this year are suggestive of wider social tensions between the urbanized population and hardline officials.

On Saturday, Tehran’s guidance court, which ensures compliance with social edicts, issued a phone number through which citizens could report unsavory acts, such as “hosting mixed gender dance parties” or posting “immoral content on Instagram.”

“People would like to report those breaking the norms but they don't know how ... We decided to accelerate dealing with instances of public immoral acts,” its head Mohammad Mehdi Hajmohammadi told Mizan Online.

Prayers marking the end of Ramadan in Tehran. ©  REUTERS/HANDOUT

Police are reportedly launching a pilot project in which 2,000 morality police units, consisting of six women each, will be sent to the streets in the province of Gilan to observe that women are wearing headscarves, in accordance with rules adopted after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

A demonstrative refusal to wear the hijab has become a common form of female rights protest in the country in the past two years. Officials have dismissed it as a Western plot, and say that keeping the hijab in place is a “matter of national security.”

It's really a matter of 'national insanity'!

Iranian Crackdown on Un-Islamic Behaviour Will Backfire

30+ Iranian students lashed 99 times because of coed party

By Allen Cone

Iranian hard-line university students shout "death to America " as they gather in front of the Greek Embassy in Tehran, Iran on April 8, 2014. Students demonstrated over the recent human rights resolution passed by the European Parliament. Recently, some students were punished for hosting a coed graduatiuon party. FIle photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI | License Photo

TEHRAN, May 28 (UPI) -- More than 30 Iranian college students were arrested and given 99 lashes after they attended a co-ed graduation party, Iran's judiciary announced.

Prosecutor Esmail Sadeghi Niaraki said the women were described as "half naked," meaning they were not wearing Islamic coverings, scarves and long coats, and "dancing and jubilating."

Jubilating will get you every time! 'Half naked' actually means 'visible'; Islam likes to keep its women invisible, because its men seem to be completely devoid of self-control.

The prosecutor said authorities don't tolerate "law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies," the Mizan News Agency reported.

The authorities received a report that a party attended was being held in a villa on the outskirts of Qazvin, about 90 miles northwest of the capital.

"We hope this will be a lesson for those who break Islamic norms in private places," Niaraki said.

The report by Iran's Mizan News Agency didn't say when the party occurred or give the students' names, ages or schools.

Lashings had been punishment since the Islamic revolution of 1979, but lately it's been more of a threat.

Iranian people are not generally intensely Islamic. They are probably more secular at heart, and I can't imagine such heavy-handedness by the theocratic state is going to win them many friends in this year's graduating class of students. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the spark that eventually lights a revolution of the revolution.

One day earlier, the state news media reported raids on parties in Kerman and at a "singles home" in Semnan, both provincial capitals.

Iran's judiciary earlier arrested eight people involved in online modeling without heads coverings and questioned a former model on state television.

God forbid, we wouldn't want men to find out that women have hair on their heads.

It's Back into the Kitchen for Relatively Free Women of Iran

Women are discriminated against by new Iranian laws, says Amnesty International

Draft laws aimed at boosting the birth rate in Iran reduce women to "baby-making machines", the rights group Amnesty International warns.

One proposal outlaws voluntary sterilisation and promoting birth control, while another makes it harder for women without babies to get jobs.

Amnesty says the two laws would set women's rights in Iran back by decades.

Until recently, Iran had been trying to restrict the country's population, with contraception subsidised by the state.

Complete reversal

Amnesty warns that banning voluntary sterilisation and blocking access to information about contraception risks greater numbers of unwanted pregnancies, forcing women into unsafe abortions.

A bit off topic, but, an unwanted pregnancy does not 'force' a woman into abortion. Abortion is almost always a choice, not a necessity.

Iranian Shiite women gather at the shrine of the Shiite Saint Imam Abdulazim
in Shahr-e-Ray, south of Tehran, Iran, 3 April 2014

The other bill cited by the organisation would make it more difficult for women to seek divorce, and instructs employers to prioritise married women with children.

"The authorities are promoting a dangerous culture in which women are stripped of key rights and viewed as baby-making machines," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa deputy director at Amnesty International.

"Instead of adding to the catalogue of discrimination Iranian women face, the authorities must recognise that women are human beings with fundamental rights, and rescind such discriminatory laws."

Another complete reversal

Speaking in April 2014 at the National Forum on Women Shaping Economy and Culture in Tehran, Mr Rouhani said: "We will not accept the culture of sexual discrimination."

Iranian President Rouhani on Women's Day, April 2014
with nearly invisible woman on his right

Mr Rouhani said women had an 'impressive presence' in all sectors of society

"Women must enjoy equal opportunity, equal protection and equal social rights," he said in comments that were broadcast live on television. As North American First Nation's people used to say - he is speaking with forked tongue.

"According to the Islamic rules, man is not the stronger sex and woman is not the weaker one," he said.

A handful of fashionable girls admire their own reflections in the window.
They wear tight leggings under their brightly coloured robes
pushing back headscarves and boundaries.

With the 1979 revolution, a confluence of access, education and a bad economy created a society where women now have independence, careers and husbands happy to help around the house with chores and children.

"The revolution was very good for women", says Farah, a 'Women's Studies' major.

Iran's genies were let out of the bottle. The same genies have gone on to become active members of theological schools and hold positions as judges and engineers. 

Women, Farah says, now outnumber men in their pursuit of graduate degrees, something that has created a societal problem. Most Iranian women won't dream of dating men who aren't their intellectual equal.

Could this be the reason for the reversal in policy against women? Could Iranian men be revolting against women who are smarter than they? Is Iran trying to stuff that genie back into the bottle? 

I would be very careful Mr Rouhani, you've betrayed Iranian women, and taking them back a few decades may be seen as a first step to taking them back a millennium as IS has done. Neither will be an easy task.

Ukraine Crisis: New Ceasefire Bid with 'Day of Silence'

Thank you, Mr Putin, it's nice to have a war that Islam isn't fighting on one or both sides.

A "Day of Silence" called by President Petro Poroshenko is being held in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to kick-start a much-violated ceasefire deal.

Day of Silence, Tuesday

However, new talks between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government appear uncertain. The talks had been due to take place in Minsk, Belarus, on Tuesday.

Both sides signed a truce in Minsk in September, but almost 1,000 people have been killed in fighting since then, the UN says.

Mr Poroshenko said last week that troops would observe the Day of Silence on Tuesday to try to boost the peace deal.

The Ukrainian army would stop shelling and would possibly withdraw heavy weapons if it was clear that militants did the same, Mr Poroshenko said.

Some pro-Russian rebels reportedly welcomed the pledge, but it is not known if all groups had agreed to the proposal.

Since the conflict began in April, more than 4,300 people have died with almost one million displaced, the UN says.

Mr Poroshenko has travelled to Singapore, where he is set
 to make a speech, so will not be in Minsk on Tuesday.

Talks in doubt
Authorities in Minsk said they had not received any confirmation that either the Ukrainian government or rebel representatives would attend new peace talks, which were planned to begin on Tuesday.

Russian media reports say that the talks may now begin on Friday instead, but this has not been confirmed.

The previous Minsk agreement, brokered in September, projected a 30km (18 mile) military buffer zone in the east and limited self-rule for the separatists.

However, the rebel-held Luhansk and Donetsk regions then held leadership elections on 2 November that Ukraine and the West refused to recognise.

Wreckage from flight MH17 has been transferred to the Netherlands via land
There have been near-daily clashes and exchanges of heavy weapons fire, leaving hundreds dead.

Trucks carrying the wreckage of the passenger airplane MH17 that crashed in
Ukraine are parked at a rest stop along the A2 motorway
near Hanover, Germany, 08 December 2014

Meanwhile, the last pieces of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine, are due to arrive in the Netherlands for investigation.

Ukraine and its allies have accused Russia of supplying the missile used to bring down the plane, while Russia has denied involvement.

A total of 298 people died when the plane came down in July.

The Ukraine crisis began a year ago, when then-President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an agreement on closer trade ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia.

This decision sparked pro-EU protests in the capital Kiev, eventually toppling Mr Yanukovych in February.

In the weeks that followed, Russia annexed Crimea, in Ukraine's south, and pro-Russian separatists took control of Donetsk and Luhansk, declaring independence.

The crisis has caused a serious rift between Russia and Ukraine's Western supporters.

Merkel Condemns Russia 'Interfering' in Eastern Europe

Russian President Vladimir Putin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel:
ties between the two countries have been strained by the Ukraine crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused Russia of interfering in the affairs of Eastern European countries seeking closer ties with the EU.

In an interview in Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper (in German), Mrs Merkel said Russia was "creating problems" for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.

Russia's violation of "the territorial integrity... of Ukraine must not be allowed to stand", she added.

Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine have signed trade deals with the EU.

Russia is suspicious of these association agreements - it is trying to draw republics which were once part of the Soviet Union into its own customs union. Is it suspicion - the old KGB paranoia, or are they afraid these countries might open up to NATO bases putting Russia at risk? Or, is the ambitious Putin trying to rebuild the old empire? Who knows?

Map - EU/ex-USSR - notice Crimea was still part of Ukraine

"Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are three countries in our eastern neighbourhood that have taken sovereign decisions to sign an association agreement with the EU," Mrs Merkel told Germany's Die Welt am Sonntag.

"Russia is creating problems for all three of these countries," she said, pointing to frozen conflicts in breakaway regions like Trans-Dniester, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Russian actions in eastern Ukraine.

Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a "strategic partnership" agreement with Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, drawing strong criticism from Nato and the EU.

Correct response
In the interview, Mrs Merkel also accused Moscow of trying to make countries in the western Balkans economically and politically dependent on Russia in order to gain influence there.

She said she was "convinced" that the "common European response to Russia's actions is correct".

The Ukraine crisis began a year ago, when then-President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an agreement on strengthening trade ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia.

This decision sparked pro-EU protests in the capital Kiev, eventually toppling Mr Yanukovych in February.

In the weeks that followed, Russia annexed Crimea, in Ukraine's south, and pro-Russian separatists took control of Donetsk and Luhansk, declaring independence.

More than 4,300 people have died and almost one million have been displaced since conflict began in April, the UN says.

The crisis has caused a serious rift between Russia and Ukraine's Western supporters.

Dostoyevsky - The Writer Who Foresaw the Rise of the Totalitarian State

A brilliant column by John Gray about a brilliant writer still so very relevant today.

The 19th Century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote about characters who justified murder in the name of their ideological beliefs. For this reason, John Gray argues, he's remained relevant ever since, through the rise of the totalitarian states of the 20th Century, to the "war against terror".

When Fyodor Dostoyevsky described in his novels how ideas have the power to change human lives, he knew something of what he was writing about.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Born in 1821, the Russian writer was in his 20s when he joined a circle of radical intellectuals in St Petersburg who were entranced by French utopian socialist theories. A police agent who had infiltrated the group reported its discussions to the authorities. On 22 April 1849, Dostoyevsky was arrested and imprisoned along with the other members, and after some months of investigation they were found guilty of planning to distribute subversive propaganda and condemned to death by firing squad.

The punishment was commuted to a sentence of exile and hard labour, but the tsar's authority to decree life or death was confirmed by forcing the prisoners to undergo the ordeal of a mock execution.

In a carefully stage-managed charade Dostoyevsky and the rest of the group were taken on the morning of 22 December 1849 to a regimental parade ground, where scaffolding had been erected and decorated with black crepe. Their crimes and sentence were read out and an Orthodox priest asked them to repent.

Three of the group were tied to stakes in readiness for execution. At the last moment there was a roll of drums, and the firing squad lowered its rifles. Reprieved, the prisoners were put in shackles and sent into Siberian exile - in Dostoyevsky's case for four years of hard labour, followed by compulsory service in the Russian army. In 1859 a new tsar allowed Dostoyevsky to end his Siberian exile. A year later he was back in the literary world of St Petersburg.

The execution of two nihilists in St Petersburg, 1880

Dostoyevsky's experience had altered him profoundly. He did not abandon his view that Russian society needed to be radically changed. He continued to believe that the institution of serfdom was profoundly immoral, and to the end of his life he detested the landed aristocracy. But his experience of being on what he'd believed was the brink of death had given him a new perspective on time and history. Many years later he remarked: "I cannot recall when I was ever as happy as on that day."

From then onwards he realised that human life was not a movement from a backward past to a better future, as he had believed or half-believed when he shared the ideas of the radical intelligentsia. Instead, every human being stood at each moment on the edge of eternity. As a result of this revelation, Dostoyevsky became increasingly mistrustful of the progressive ideology to which he had been drawn as a young man.

He was particularly scornful of the ideas he found in St Petersburg when he returned from his decade of Siberian exile. The new generation of Russian intellectuals was gripped by European theories and philosophies. French materialism, German humanism and English utilitarianism were melded together into a peculiarly Russian combination that came to be called "nihilism".

We tend to think of a nihilist as someone who believes in nothing, but the Russian nihilists of the 1860s were very different. They were fervent believers in science, who wanted to destroy the religious and moral traditions that had guided humankind in the past in order that a new and better world could come into being. There are plenty of people who believe something similar today.

Dostoyevsky's indictment of nihilism is presented in his great novel Demons. Published in 1872, the book has been criticised for being didactic in tone, and there can be no doubt that he wanted to show that the dominant ideas of his generation were harmful. But the story Dostoyevsky tells is also a dark comedy, cruelly funny in its depiction of high-minded intellectuals toying with revolutionary notions without understanding anything of what revolution means in practice.

Eve Belton as Marya in a 1969 BBC adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel Demons

The plot is a version of actual events that unfolded as Dostoyevsky was writing the book. A former teacher of divinity turned terrorist, Sergei Nechaev, was arrested and convicted of complicity in the killing of a student. Nechaev had authored a pamphlet, The Catechism of a Revolutionary, which argued that any means (including blackmail and murder) could be used to advance the cause of revolution. The student had questioned Nechaev's policies, and so had to be eliminated.

Dostoyevsky suggests that the result of abandoning morality for the sake of an idea of freedom will be a type of tyranny more extreme than any in the past. As one of the characters in Demons confesses: "I got entangled in my own data, and my conclusion directly contradicts the original idea from which I start. From unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism."

As a description of what would occur in Russia as a result of the Bolshevik revolution nearly 50 years later, this can hardly be improved upon. Though he criticised him for relying too much on individual acts of terror, Lenin admired Nechaev for his readiness to commit any crime if it served the revolution. But as Dostoyevsky foresaw, the use of inhuman methods to achieve a new kind of freedom produced a type of repression that was much more far-reaching than the theatrical cruelties of tsarism.

Dostoyevsky's novel contains a lesson that        What Dostoyevsky diagnosed
reaches far beyond Russia. Early English          was the tendency to think of
translations bore the title The Possessed            ideas as being somehow more 
- a misreading of a Russian word more              real than actual human beings
accurately rendered as Demons. But the
earlier title may have been closer to Dostoyevsky's intentions. Though at times he is merciless in his portrayal of them, it isn't the revolutionaries who are demons. It's the ideas to which the revolutionaries are enslaved.

Dostoyevsky thought the flaw at the heart of Russian nihilism was atheism, but you needn't share his view on this point to see that when he writes of the demonic power of ideas he has fastened on a genuine human disorder. Nor do you need to approve of Dostoyevsky's political outlook, which was a mystical version of nationalism deeply stained with xenophobia.

What Dostoyevsky diagnosed - and at times suffered from himself - was the tendency to think of ideas as being somehow more real than actual human beings. It would be a mistake to imagine that we haven't also fallen into this sort of delusional thinking. The wars the West has fought in the Middle East over the past decade and more are often attacked as being little more than attempts to seize natural resources, but I'm sure this isn't the whole story. A type of moral fantasy has been just as important in explaining the West's repeated interventions and their recurring failure.

Dostoyevsky's other major novels

John Simm as Raskolnikov in BBC version of Crime And Punishment

Crime and Punishment (1866): The story of Raskolnikov, a young student in 19th Century St Petersburg, who is consumed with guilt after he kills a moneylender

The Idiot (1868): The tale of Prince Myshkin - the "idiot" of the title - whose naive and trusting nature precipitates disaster for the people around him

The Brothers Karamazov (1880) - Philosophical novel about four brothers and their dissolute landowner father, whose murder raises questions about God, free will and morality


We've come to imagine that ideas like "democracy", "human rights and "freedom" have a power of their own, which can transform the lives of anyone who is exposed to them. We've launched projects of regime change, which aim to realise these ideas by toppling tyrants. But exporting revolution in this fashion can have the effect of fracturing the state, as has happened in Libya, Syria and Iraq, leading to civil war, anarchy and new types of tyranny.

The result is the position we find ourselves in at the present time. Western policy is now driven by fear of forces and ideas that have sprung from the chaos that earlier Western intervention created. Sadly, this fear isn't groundless. The risk of these conflicts rebounding on us as Western citizens who have fought in them return home is all too real.

We like to think that liberal societies are immune to the dangerous power of ideas. But it's an illusion to think we don't have demons of our own. Possessed by grandiose conceptions of freedom, we've tried to change the systems of government of countries we don't begin to understand. Like the deluded revolutionaries of Dostoyevsky's novel, we've turned abstract notions into idols and sacrificed others and ourselves in the attempt to serve them.

Is Islam Opening a New Front in the Middle East?

Deadly clashes continue in north Lebanon

BEIRUT, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Clashes between the Lebanese army and fundamentalist gunmen continued Saturday, while an army patrol tank was targeted with a rocket-propelled grenade in the region of Minnieh in North Lebanon, the Lebanese army said.

The fighting has resulted in the death of two citizens and wounding of six civilians and 13 soldiers including an officer, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

Referring to a communique issued by the Guidance Directorate, the army said it has completed the deployment in the old souks (marketplace) and the al-Zahriyeh neighborhood after arresting several gunmen and wounding many others.

Old souks, Tripoli

The communique writes "quantities of arms, ammunition and explosives were seized in their possession, while a number of militants fled from the area and army units are pursuing them in order to arrest them."

Meanwhile, cautious calm had engulfed the old souks in Tripoli after the mediation by the Muslim Scholars Committee, which led to the withdrawal of the militants from the streets, NNA said.

Muslim Scholars Committee - better keep them away from Boko Haram.

But military sources stressed to LBCI TV that the army will press on with the battle against the gunmen, regardless of "what some parties are trying to do."

The military said later in a statement that it will push forward its military operation "until the gunmen are eradicated and all armed appearances are prevented in Tripoli."

It also called on citizens to "fully comply with the measures implemented by army units and to report any suspicious behavior to the military posts."

In another communique, the army claims that "terrorists are seeking to destabilize the situation in Tripoli and create incitement and sectarian strife," and points out that the army "is carrying out raids in suspicious areas to apprehend gunmen and refer them to the competent judiciary."

The gun battle initially erupted Friday in the old souks and extended to other areas. And after easing off for several hours during the night, the clashes renewed on Saturday morning.

The NNA said, reinforcements and a surveillance plane have been deployed to the areas of clashes and all roads there have been blocked.

Heavy shelling and gunfire was reportedly heard as the army launched its assault on the gunmen's positions.

Meanwhile, a group of armed men kidnapped a soldier identified as Tannous Nehmeh in the Bab el-Tebbaneh Sunni neighborhood in Tripoli, demanding the siege be lifted off in return for his release, the NNA reported.

The Army units also clashed with an armed group affiliated to Sheikh Khalid Hoblos near "Haroun Mosque" in the town of Bhanin, Minnieh on Saturday evening, using automatic weapons and rocket- propelled grenades, according to the NNA.

The NNA added that army helicopters also fired at Hoblos gunmen in response to the shooting.

I like the military response here, hit them hard and fast and eliminate the threat quickly. Good for you, Lebanon!

Ukraine Crisis: Nato Top General says Truce 'in Name Only'

The answer to my question raised on Tuesday, Is the War in Ukraine Over?, is apparently NO! But there is reason to hope.

General Philip Breedlove: "The situation in Ukraine is not good right now...
We have a ceasefire in name only"

Nato's most senior military commander has said the ceasefire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists currently exists 'in name only'.

Gen Philip Breedlove said the numbers of artillery rounds fired recently was comparable to periods before the truce came into effect two weeks ago.

He added, however, that he was "hopeful" about a new agreement signed in the early hours of Saturday.

Ukraine accuses Russia of arming separatists, but Russia denies this. Russia denies everything!

More than 3,000 people have died in fighting in two eastern regions since April.

A truce was agreed on 5 September but there have been repeated violations since then.

Russian return
Gen Breedlove, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, was speaking after a meeting with Nato military chiefs in Vilnius, Lithuania.

"The situation in Ukraine is not good right now," he told reporters.

"The number of events, and the number of rounds fired and the artillery used across the past few days match some of the pre-ceasefire levels. The ceasefire is still there in name, but what is happening on the ground is quite a different story," he added.

He said that since last week, some Russian forces inside Ukraine had returned to Russia but remained available to "bring their military force to bear on Ukraine".

Nato has plans to bolster its military presence in countries bordering Russia, including the Baltic states, which used to be part of the Soviet bloc.

Ukrainian soldiers drive an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC)
in Kramatorsk town, Donetsk region

The new agreement seeks to stop the repeated violations of a ceasefire agreed on 5 September.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (c) presented the ceasefire plan after late-night talks.

Gen Breedlove praised a new nine-point ceasefire memorandum which was signed in Minsk on Saturday morning.

The deal was reached after late-night talks between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, eastern separatists and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The agreement includes setting up a 30km (19-mile) buffer zone, a ban on overflights of part of eastern Ukraine by military aircraft and the withdrawal of "foreign mercenaries" on both sides.

From left, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, former Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) envoy Heidi Tagliavini, meet with the media
 after peace talks in Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus, early Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014

Moscow has repeatedly denied sending Russian troops to Ukraine or arming Ukrainian separatists.

The Russian government says that any Russians fighting inside Ukraine are doing so in a private capacity. 

Minsk memorandum: Key points

To pull heavy weaponry 15km back each side of the line of contact, creating a 30km security zone
To ban offensive operations
To ban flights by combat aircraft over the security zone
To set up an OSCE monitoring mission
To withdraw all foreign mercenaries from the conflict zone

Is the War in Ukraine Over?

Ukraine crisis: Rebels granted self-rule and amnesty

Ukrainian MPs have granted self-rule to parts of two eastern regions, and an amnesty to pro-Russian rebels there.

The law affecting Donetsk and Luhansk regions - which is in line with the 5 September ceasefire - was condemned by some MPs as "capitulation".

Meanwhile, Russia said it needed to boost troops in Crimea - Ukraine's peninsula annexed by Moscow in March.

The rebels in the east have been battling Ukrainian troops since their seizure of a number of towns in April.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of backing the separatists with soldiers and heavy weapons. The Kremlin denies doing so.

At least 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict and more than 310,000 internally displaced in Ukraine, the UN says.

A shaky ceasefire has been in place in eastern Ukraine since 5 September

Ukraine is free to adopt any law it wants. But we are not planning any federalism with Ukraine”

Andrei Purgin
Donetsk rebel leader

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian and European parliaments also voted to ratify a major EU-Ukraine association agreement that aims to bring the ex-Soviet republic closer to the EU.

'Ashamed'
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stressed that the legislation giving the special status to parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three-years would guarantee the "sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence" of Ukraine, while paving the way for decentralisation.

President Poroshenko said the ratification of the EU deal was a "historic day"

The amnesty affects the rebels, but does not cover the shooting down of the MH17 passenger plane in July.

Western leaders believe rebels shot down the Malaysia Airlines jet with a Russian missile - a charge the rebels and the Kremlin deny.

The legislation means that pro-Russian separatists taken prisoner in the fighting should now be released.

Separatists holding government buildings are now supposed to leave them, hand over captured Ukrainian soldiers and other prisoners and surrender their weapons.

Rebels accused of other "grave" crimes will not be covered by the new amnesty either.

But some Ukrainian lawmakers described the self-rule law as a sell-off of Ukraine in what they see as a war against Russia. Well, it's not like you could actually win a war with Russia. This may be the best possible outcome?

"A capitulation was announced today in this war," Oleh Tiagnybok, the leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, was quoted as saying by the Ukrainska Pravda website.

Andriy Shevchenko, an MP in the Batkivshchyna party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said he was "ashamed of this parliament".

He said the law was voted in "a secret regime", violating normal parliamentary procedures.

Meanwhile, Andrei Purgin, a rebel leader in Donetsk, told AFP news agency that the eastern region "no longer has anything to do with Ukraine".

"Ukraine is free to adopt any law it wants. But we are not planning any federalism with Ukraine." I'm not sure everyone is on the same page. It will be interesting to see if anything really changes.

Many rebels are demanding full independence and speak of creating a new state called "Novorossiya", something Russian President Vladimir Putin has also mentioned in speeches.

Mr Purgin nonetheless said the legislation was a "positive signal because it marks Kiev's return to reality".

Historic day
The EU-Ukraine agreement ratified on Tuesday lies at the root of Ukraine's crisis.

A woman shows the damage caused to a hospital
in the village of Novosvitlivka, eastern Ukraine.
The fighting has devastated Ukraine's industrial region in the east near Russia

It was former President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign the deal last November that triggered mass protests and his eventual fall from power.

The votes ratifying the agreement took place simultaneously, with a live video link-up between the parliaments in Strasbourg and Kiev.

Both President Poroshenko and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, called it a historic day.

The agreement would make Ukraine compliant with EU standards in the areas of human rights, security and arms control, and would remove trade barriers.

But negotiations with Russia last week led to the free-trade part of the agreement being postponed until 2016.

Russia says its market could be flooded with cheap EU goods shipped via Ukraine.

Still, until 2016 Ukraine will maintain its existing restrictions on EU imports, while enjoying tariff-free access to the EU market for its own exports.

In return, Russia has pledged to maintain favourable trade rules in place for Ukraine.


The crisis has already severely hit Russia-Ukraine trade ties, with the two neighbours imposing economic sanctions on each other. Will this agreement help stop the fall of the Ruble, now at a record low against the American dollar - currently at 38.80 rubles per dollar?

The Complex, Crazy World of Middle-East Politics and Warfare

ISIS, and Obama's dilemma: Would he be helping Assad in Syria airstrikes?

Around this time last year, U.S. President Barack Obama's secretary of state, John Kerry, was calling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a "thug and murderer" after evidence indicated chemical weapons were used against his own people.

Secretary of State, John Kerry

The way the White House was talking, it seemed airstrikes to punish Assad were inevitable, but then Obama diverted the final decision to Congress, saying he wouldn't act without approval. In the end, a Russian proposal to get rid of Syria's chemical weapons resolved the debate about whether the U.S. should drop bombs on the war-torn country.

Sometimes I think Putin is 3 times smarter than anyone else. It was he who warned the world quite some time ago that something far worse than Bashar al-Assad could come out of the Syrian war.

Now the airstrike debate is back, and the summer is once again wrapping up with Obama weighing his options on Syria. But this time, the target of the bombs wouldn't be Assad — it would be the Islamic State, the militant extremist group known as ISIS.

The administration won't officially confirm it, but senior officials have told reporters that Obama authorized surveillance flights over Syria to gather intelligence, which can be viewed as a precursor to airstrikes.

The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq for weeks now, and pressure has been mounting on Obama to expand the action into neighbouring Syria. If you really want to destroy ISIS, the argument goes, you can't stop at the Iraq border; you have to hit them where they are based — in Assad's territory.

Demands for a larger ISIS strategy grew louder last week after the group released a video of American journalist James Foley's beheading. He was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.

U.S. President Barack Obama, at an event with veterans in North Carolina on Tuesday

"Justice will be done," Obama vowed Tuesday during a speech in North Carolina. The U.S. will "do what's necessary" to go after those who harm Americans, he said, and will "take direct action where needed" to protect Americans at home and abroad.

If that means going into Syria, Obama is put in a somewhat awkward position. If he uses the U.S. military to root out ISIS in Syria, he could actually be doing Assad, the "thug and murderer" whom the U.S. wants out of power, a favour. Although a recent report said that Assad warned the US not to bomb ISIS in Syria. Of course, to do so would be an act of war against the country and regime that it would benefit. Weird, huh?

Experts in the area say Assad has allowed ISIS to flourish in his country because initially it was fighting the rebel groups that were trying to displace him. But more recently, ISIS has been turning its weapons on the regime, and now Assad is looking to contain the group that could threaten his power. His foreign minister said on Monday that Syria is ready for "co-operation and co-ordination" with the U.S. to fight the militants.

Obama's administration, however, is dismissing any notion that the U.S. and Syria are united in the same fight against ISIS.

James Foley parents John and Diane

Diane and John Foley devastated following word their son, American journalist James Foley, was killed recently by ISIS militants after he was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. Demands for a larger ISIS strategy by the U.S. grew louder last week after the group released a video of Foley's beheading. (Jim Cole/Associated Press)

"It is not the case that the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Benjamin Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said in the New York Times on Tuesday.

While not confirming any intention to go into Syria, the White House has signalled it won't work with Assad or seek his permission if it does proceed with airstrikes.

It's not a surprise that Assad is seeking co-operation with the U.S. to fight ISIS, said Paul Salem, vice-president of policy and research at the Middle East Institute.

"The Assad regime wants to use this as an opportunity to rebuild its relations and legitimacy with the West which it lost three years ago," he said in an interview. "They would like that because it would legitimize them — and the U.S. is not going to go there politically."

The U.S. might give a heads-up to Syria about where and when airstrikes would be carried out so that its planes aren't shot down by Assad's forces, but that would likely be the extent of any co-ordination, Salem said.

Assad will try to portray the U.S. and Syria as being on the same side of a fight against ISIS, but it's simply not the case, Salem and others say.

A man holds a roll of pictures of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad during a rally in Damascus in 2011.

"To say that the U.S. and the Assad regime are on the same page with ISIS — only on the surface. In effect, they are not," Salem said.

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, holds the same view.

"Some days [Assad] fights them and other days he gives them a free pass because he would like them to take on the Syrian rebels. To view him as an ally in the fight against ISIS is, I think, wrong. He's been playing both sides," Abrams said.

Obama was calling a year ago for Assad to go, and that hasn't changed.

 "What has changed is ISIS," said Abrams.

Some of the arguments for not bombing Syria last year included concerns over the capabilities of its Russian-supplied air defence system and over the skills of the opposition rebels.

"All of this has been swept away by the growing power of ISIS," said Abrams. The calculations have changed and you now have senior officials calling ISIS a serious threat to U.S. interests.

But there is a key difference for the U.S. when it comes to targeting ISIS in Iraq and targeting them in Syria.

The U.S. says it is conducting the airstrikes in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, and on top of that, there is an Iraqi army and a Kurdish force in the North for the U.S. to arm and assist.

In Syria, Assad is an enemy who won't give the U.S. free reign in conducting military operations there, and the U.S. of course doesn't want to provide assistance to his forces to ward off ISIS.

Obama has long resisted getting drawn into the Syrian conflict and didn't want to get involved in Iraq again either, but ISIS has forced the U.S. to revisit its policies in the region.

"If there are any airstrikes in Syria, that would be another very significant change in American policy," said Abrams.

It's a change that Obama will have to handle delicately given his past resistance and the fact that Assad, whom he has called a ruthless leader that needs to step aside, isn't going anywhere and could stand to benefit from the U.S. action.