Something Everyone Needs To See

~ beetleypete

I saw this on Twitter yesterday.

It is nothing at all like the sort of thing I usually post on this blog.
But I wanted it to reach the biggest possible audience.

The harsh reality of abandoning the Kurds to their fate in Syria.
Once brave allies against ISIS, now discarded like so much rubbish.

***Content warning. This short clip includes a dead child***

But I make no apologies for showing it.

95 thoughts on “Something Everyone Needs To See”

    1. Such a long conflict is sadly fated to continue. Even if they eventually get their own country, there is every likelihood that they will fight a civil war to decide who controls it.
      But we should not have left them to seek help from Assad.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. There are words and there are actions – there are those who talk, write, and share about human rights, values and freedom, but who live to far removed from dealing with things such as these – and cry the blues when some disaster/life event touches their world – I don’t know – I didn’t find it disturbing, because this, right here, is the daily reality for way to many, still – and yet, those who have time to sit and talk about, make policy about it or tell everyone how they ought to be doing, are so often too far removed from such daily life possibilities what they have to say about it doesn’t really, in the end, help or even matter – to those up to their eyebrows in such daily woes – sigh – I guess, in the end, even things like this shared in social media that is later found to be false, I believe, hopefully, will, sooner or later, touch more folks where they live comfortably – but in the end? Disturbing? Life and the world we have collectively created or stood by and ignored while such things occur? Hell yes, (scuse my language) but perhaps, in the end, it’s what wakes up to our humanity, strengths and follies as a species – in whole or parts –

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    1. Thanks for your considered and thoughtful comment, TamrahJo.
      In our modern world, it is hard to trust any media content from either side, I agree.
      But it made a point in a way that many people can relate to, and delivered a powerful message in the process.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. Why the Republican Party can’t choose courage over comfort astounds me. Many many people have to answer for this atrocity. We have squandered what little positive influence we had in the region. Trump himself would be unmoved if this was his own grandchild in the photo. He genuinely lacks empathy.

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  7. He’s pulled his troops out of there because he doesn’t want to be in any more endless middle east wars, and anyway the Kurds really didn’t help us in WW2 you know. So instead he’s sending 3000 troops to Saudi Arabia to help them keep their oil fields safe, because of course we all saw the Saudi’s storming the Normandy beaches on Omaha!

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  8. More refugees to a region that needs not….this went viral and is kinda like the small boy that drown a couple years ago…..people get outraged when they see such a thing but it is only a small part of what these people must endure. chuq

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    1. Yes, one small incident in a larger conflict. But people can identify with such images, and relate more to them than to TV news footage of tanks moving, and artillery firing. As well as the refugees, we also have the prospect of thousands of ISIS prisoners escaping, and mingling in among them.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    2. That is the power of the media to highlight what it wishes and to consign to the dustbin of obscurity the unseen suffering. Twenty million Indians defecate outside , they have no toilets and no hygiene , meanwhile we are busy preparing to go to Mars.

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  9. In ‘Animal Farm’ one of the great books of the twentieth century Orwell pointed out that the seat of power is often filled by another power just as corrupt.
    We have already two virtual dictators involved in this situation ; namely Assad and Putin along with a third virtual dictator Erdogan. I could add we deal benignly with China and Saudi Arabia. When power is confronted by greater power it generally bows , keeps its head down to preserve its own position. Power is nearly always cruel at times to put in their place any challenge to its reign.

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    1. The Russians backed Assad, and would be unlikely to bother about the Kurds. The situation is a long way from China, so not their problem. But the US and other western nations supplied the Kurds, encouraged them to fight ISIS, and in the case of the US, used them to support their troops in battle.
      To then abandon them once they defeated the main ISIS army is just a cynical betrayal that has little to do with international power, and more to do with retaining air bases and financial influence in Turkey.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. I don’t think I can add anything meaningful to anything that has been said here. A lot of people seem to forget that we are (or should be) in this together, but it will eventually come back to bite us. Unfortunately, that is no consolation to that mother and all the rest… Thanks, Pete, for not allowing us to look away.

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  12. This is alarming and ashaming. It means that human beings have no value over power. šŸ˜” ruining a thousand lives for greed is not something I would like to see. Thank you, Pete. Thank you so much for showing us a glimpse of that reality that nobody could say, hear, talk or do something to make it better. šŸ˜”šŸ˜ž

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      1. But that doesn’t mean they take people’s lives. Power is not power until we back out and give them a right to destroy our lives. Power can be taken down if we wanted to. This is 2019, my friend, we can bend and mend the power-hungry people who take lives to just to rule a certain place. George Orwell always wanted to show that power can change. 1984 showed us a clear future and we have to fight that future because we all know it’s coming, just look at that video. No loser can come and kill that innocent child in front of our eyes if we take the power in our hands. This is cruelty, not power. šŸ˜”šŸ˜¤

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      2. That should have got better with modern society and better education, but I accept that it sadly did not. But we could have not allowed Turkey to invade the Kurds. It would have been easy to stop them. We should not stand by and allow former allies who fought ISIS to be abandoned, then destroyed.
        But we did.
        Best wishes, Pete.

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        1. It hurts thinking about how many innocent civilians lost their lives. How their futures shall be and how will they survive. Orphans, widows, injured, hurt, broken and dead. You know what they don’t just deserve our tears, they deserve our prayers and a big fight that we all should put together but what are we doing?? Pete, that deer ran away to save its life how can we expect these people to run away from their home and their country? It’s time to stop. The governments have a blindfold on their eyes. 2nd October was world non- violence day, Mahatma Gandhi’s, the man who brought independence without violence and look at us. We can’t even bring peace to those people. Today humanity died. šŸ˜žšŸ˜“

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          1. Humanity has not changed in essence for thousands of years , after Gandhi there was slaughter on a grand scale as the Muslims and Hindus separated to form Pakistan
            Gandhi was eliminated as all great men of peace always are because they stand in the way of selfish ambition.

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            1. That’s so true even though we wish it wasn’t. Btw how do you know so much about Indian history?? The slaughter by one of his own men was the biggest betrayal in Indian history. India and Pakistan should have never separated. We are brothers and sisters and will always be, no matter how many indifferences we have. šŸ˜ŠāœŒ

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                1. We see a lot of fighting today too, Pete. A lot of widowed and orphaned children because of enmity. I wish it could stop. I am happy to know that. We were one until religion separated us and governments brainwashed us. Nothing can change this. Not even God because it’s too late.

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                  1. Good Lord… just breaking a few minutes ago.. Trump is considering sanctions on Turkey.. and sending some troops BACK into this mess to “control escaping elements of ISIS”. WTF? Now we have to worry about loosing our people in this affair in such a messed up situation HE created.
                    This guy has got to go.

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                    2. Here as well.. but this is now a shooting war with no battle lines and a mess of shifting loyalties, allies, inside a continuing civil war.
                      A NATO member (Turkey) invading another country. In the meantime American nukes are in place in Turkey (likely at Incirlik) guarded by Americans.. do we have to worry about that now? So many issues can pop in all this.

                      Liked by 1 person

  18. I have been horribly sick about this since the withdrawal of troops. As I posted on Torittoā€™s blog, America has blood on our hands. I am still in disbelief that this man is in office and that people still support him ā€” especially senior politicians who know what he is doing and have the power to exert some control.

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    1. The recent interview with Trump when he made those ridiculous statements about the Kurds just tipped me over the edge of neutrality, Maggie. I have NEVER seen such ignorant comments from a ‘world leader’. And they were delivered with such smugness too.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. I’ve just been watching the news, Pete, and came upstrairs to switch off my computer and saw your post. And I’ve seen Trump justifying it because the Kurds didn’t fight in WW2. I think the man is not only a fool he must surely be deranged. How did we let all this come to pass?

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    1. I fear it’s called American democracy, Mary. As Sir Winston once said.. it’s not always right but it’s the best we have. The same Constitution that put him in office will be the reason he leaves office, one way or the other.

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    2. For over three years, Trump has just been unpleasant, arrogant, and yet often funny to listen to too. He does find it very difficult to speak in public, and his outpourings reminded me of a spoilt child in the playground.
      But the complete lack of historical and geographical knowledge displayed over the Kurds/Turkey issues was just unacceptable, in a man claiming to be the leader of a civilised country that heads the ‘free world’. His educational ignorance seems to know no bounds, and makes me embarrassed for my blogging friends in America. Boris Johnson is bad enough, but he is like Einstein, compared to Trump.

      Not that long ago, the Kurdish militias were being lauded as the conquerors of ISIS, and for much of the time, they fought them alone, with weapons supplied by the west. Many young British people were inspired to join them in combat, and some lost their lives fighting ISIS.
      But now the Turks click their fingers, and the West looks the other way, as they try to massacre the Kurdish fighters, and their families.

      I am beside myself with shame and anger at how we have betrayed them, and sure that this decision will come back to haunt us in some form.

      Sorry, Mary. Too long!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      2. Someone just commented on my reblog of your post Pete, that the childā€™s eyes are moving so she must be slipping. This is a blogger who I like and weā€™ve managed for the most part not to let politics get in the way of our blogging friendship despite us being on opposite sides. I answered as politely and informatively as I could, but honestly, I think my head just about exploded.šŸ¤Æ

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        1. I had similar comments by email. Also that the woman was talking about a different daughter who was not in the clip, and that the whole thing could well have been staged.
          In the world of modern technology, anything is possible. But I think people will believe what they want to believe whatever they see, and that doesn’t detract from the impact of the clip, or the message it conveys.
          Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. I lost it completely when he started spouting about the Kurds ‘not helping in Normandy in 1944’. That was the straw that finally broke this old camel’s back. I cannot stay neutral about him after that complete nonsense.
      The man is a fool. Worse than that, a dangerous fool.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Took you long enough, old buddy. šŸ™‚ But then, you aren’t living in this mess over here each day. Besides, you have your own blonde ticking timebomb over there… and we aren’t living there.

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        1. I tried to stay neutral for two reasons Doug.
          1) I’m not an American.
          2) I cannot stand the Democrats either.
          I still can’t stand the Dems, but Trump tipped me over my tolerance limit this week.
          Best wishes, Pete.

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          1. Hey, Pete.. recently rented a flick from Netflix you might like.. although I have a suspicion you’ve seen it. “They Will Never Grow Old” Made in 2018 to celebrate 100 years since WW1.. amazing use of computer work not only to clean up archival film but even as far as reading the lips of guys talking. All about the Brits, with archival first hand accounts. Very cool.
            A little off topic but forgot to mention it earlier.

            Liked by 1 person

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