Recently, I spent 20 days with a NATO military unit. It seems that the Americans are all tall, muscular, and full of the joy of life. Certainly, it was a healthy lifestyle, we got up early (depending on the schedule, we normally arose at 07.00, and turned in at 22.30), ate a hearty breakfast, exercised in the gym, and swam in the pool. Today, there’s nothing planned, just rest in an air conditioned room with my laptop, Facebook and skype, saying hello to everybody back home.
15 June: NATO aircraft struck Tripoli with powerful air strikes. Reports from the Libyan press agency Jana reported that the bombing started fires in houses and several people were injured.
I wasn’t on the US military base anymore; I was in a nice hotel on the island of Crete recommended to me by a travel agency, near the village of Stavros, which, in translation, means a post or a cross. The chapel in the hotel had icons on the walls… there were US Air Force backpacks piled up in the lobby.
16 June: According to Libyan television, NATO aircraft attacked a bus in Kikla, south of Tripoli, killing 12 people.
The flights start in the morning, and end, as a rule, at 21.00. Every night there was bombing. The Americans came in at about 04.00, after landing at the base. They were tired, but in good spirits. Two black nimble airplanes, faster than the speed of sound, dashed from the shore of St Andrew’s Crete in the Aegean Sea to Libya, to bring them democracy.
16 June: NATO aircraft mistakenly strafed a column of rebel vehicles in Libya, injuring 16 people according to Reuters.
Almost all of them have tattoos. The most popular image drawn on their body is the cross. Some, the senior men, come with typical wives and young children. Others, they’re young and free, they have a drink or two, they’re on holiday, they wrap themselves up in a sheet, it’s a tunic, and they wear replica Roman legionary helmets (did they bring them, I wonder?), and they arrogantly walk about the hotel like that.
19 June: NATO air strikes in Tripoli killed seven civilians, including one child, according to Reuters.
“Yes, it’s a good job”, the young black woman explains to the local Greeks, “I’m writing a letter to my husband; we don’t get to see each other that often. I’ve been doing this for three years; I like it. It doesn’t scare me. I like to travel a lot, I’m usually in London, but, now, I’m here in Greece”.
20 June: AP reported that heavy air strikes on Tripoli in the early morning on Sunday killed nine civilians and injured another 18. Libya said that NATO bombed other civilian targets as well.
In Crete, there was no noticeable disturbances, no strikes (except in Chania, in the evening, a couple of dozen people lazily demonstrating in front of City Hall with placards). Business seemed to occupy everyone on Crete; they were moving, entertaining, feeding, and supplying the NATO troops.
25 June: An air raid on Brega destroyed a bakery and a restaurant, killing 15 civilians and wounding 20 more, Libyan television reported.
Overhead, there’s another rumble, two aircraft, flying in formation, hung with bombs, going off to democratise Libya… Gaddafi give up!
28 June: NATO aircraft struck the market in Tavrage, killing at least eight civilians and wounding seven.
What should I do? Do I stage a mini-demonstration? Should I write “Stop bombing Libya!” on the poster advertising Barbeque at the pool bar… 19.00? Should I have a consciousness-raising session and pass out leaflets with pictures of Libyan children?
Is it all true?
14 July: Tripoli blamed NATO forces for 1,108 civilian deaths and wounding 4,537 others in their bombing of Tripoli and other cities, according to Agence France Presse.
The Greeks allowed 21st century Crusaders to operate from their territory. The eyes of American soldiers are calm, their consciences are at peace, for they believe that their task’s a noble one, they’re preventing the Libyan dictator to pursue his “dark plans”.
Archpriest Zakariya Kerstyuk, UOC/MP, in 2010-11, pastor of St Andrew the Apostle Church at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tripoli (Libya):
I sensed freedom in Libya. It has free health care and education, no rent, free electricity, and free natural gas; it distributes the fruits of the sales of its natural resources equally to every citizen of the state (about 400 USD (11,100 Roubles. 278 Euros. 245 UK Pounds) per month), it has a fantastic social benefits package. I think if there weren’t foreign interference, Gaddafi would restore order.
Metropolitan Theophylact of Tripoli and Libya (Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa) stayed with his parishioners as NATO aircraft bombed the Libyan capital of Tripoli. He said:
My heart grieves for all that’s happened. Libyans are a wonderful people. In the evening, we hear bomb explosions, but silence reigns during the day. Our position’s bleak, and uncertainty about what’ll happen next, torments our souls.
Catholic Bishop Giovanni Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar in Tripoli:
The bombs have become our Golgotha. In order to destroy al-Gaddafi, NATO has already destroyed dozens of innocent people. NATO remains committed to its bombing. It seems that no one wants a peaceful solution to the conflict.
18 July 2011
Anna Danilova
Православие и мир (Orthodoxy and the World)
http://www.pravmir.ru/legion/
Editor’s Note:
I noticed two things, both of which you should know. Firstly, there are TWO Pravmir sites… Pravmir.com and Pravmir.ru… the first is in English, and the second is in Russian. On the Russian site, there’s an easily-accessible link to go to the English-language site. Look for yourself. Here are the URLs:
http://www.pravmir.com/
http://www.pravmir.ru/
Did you see that on the English-language site, there’s NO link to go to the Russian site? Russian sources tell me that Dickie Wood runs Pravmir.com, and he uses it as an autocephalist propaganda mouthpiece. This happened because Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov doesn’t have English-language facility, and anything in English sucks hind tit at the Centre (it’s not a language used overly much in the CIS, which is the focus there). Pravmir.com is NOT a “mirror image” of the Russian site as one finds at Interfax, RIA-Novosti, ITAR-TASS, or VOR. Rather, it’s a quasi-independent site with material from the Russian site deleted and with additional English-language material not found on the main site. For instance, it has pieces by, of all people, the Episkie ninny Stephen Freeman… some of Pravmir.com is nothing but reposts from the worst autocephalist websites, including oca.org. Sources tell me that one Nectaria Rees, a HOOMie fanatic in Platina CA, does much of what’s translated into English. As a result, it’s often bowdlerised and truncated out of all recognition to the original.
However, that’s NOT the most important point that I wish to make today. Two anti-NATO articles don’t even show up on the English side at all. NOT AT ALL. Concurrently, the konvertsy and Vlasovtsy rightwingers are claiming that the MP is supporting the bombing of Libya. Trust me, I check the main Russian sources daily… there’s been no such statement… NONE… NADA… NICHEVO… NO WAY… NO HOW. I’d like you to take the URL posted above and this one:
http://www.pravmir.ru/liberalnyj-fashizm/
You’ll find yourselves in front of two substantial articles. Now, go to Pravmir.com… type in “Sotnichenko” into the search box… you’ll get nothing. Type in “Liberal Fascism”… you’ll get nothing. If you type “liberal” or “fascism”, you get nothing relevant. Type in “Legion”, you get nothing relevant. Finally, type in “Anna Danilova”, you’ll get nothing relevant.
I’ll be blunt… Dickie is blatantly censoring the website, and only allowing rightwing voices on it. He kicked out two anti-NATO articles from the main site because he, Fathausen, and Potapov are trying to get over on you. They’re lying… knowing full well what the Centre’s position is on the matter. The Church’s position is that military intervention in Libya is wrong and that all foreign adventurers should withdraw from the conflict. Reread Legion and here’s a link to my translation of Liberal Fascism:
https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/liberal-fascism/
THIS is what the Church actually teaches. The Church says NO to the NATO aggression against sovereign Libya. It does NOT support the attack by transnational interests against the socialist Libyan state. Don’t forget… Potapov was/is a fairly-high middle level federal bureaucrat at VOA/RL/BBG; he holds/held a “red” US official passport. He’s known to have deep ties with the Moonie nutters at the Washington Times. That means that he’s trying to say that an extremist rightwing view is the Church’s teaching, even though he knows full well that it goes against the Church’s actual position. Fathausen is equally besotted with the rightwing… don’t forget, he kissed up to the First Profit of the Mormons in preference to greeting a bishop of the UOC/MP in New York. If nothing else, it shows that Dickie’s in JP’s corner… for now. What we can draw from this is that the rightwing scummers raising a rumpus on the Orthodox blogosphere don’t know what they’re talking about… they’re people who advocate shredding the social safety net everywhere (not just in the USA) to make the world safe for greed and acquisitiveness. The fact that Libyans shared their wealth somewhat equally inflamed them… it angered and goaded them to no end. You see, if there’s even one state where people cooperate, it shows the Neoliberal Free Marketers up for the godless and grasping filth that they are. That’s the real reason for the aggression against sovereign Libya, and it’s why the Church does NOT support it in any way shape or form!
What’s most clear is that these paladins are lying to you, laughing at you, and pissing on you… they’re sure that you’ll never find out the truth… well, kids, the truth WILL set you free… but only if you let it! Ponder that…
I wonder what His Holiness would think if he knew that these American slimers were pursuing an openly anti-Russian policy? Surely, he must know…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Religious Buildings Caught In Aleppo Crossfire
Tags: Agence France Presse, Al-Midan, Aleppo, Bashar al-Assad, Christian, Christianity, Christians in Middle East, Islam, Islamism, Islamist, Midan, Oriental Orthodoxy, Orthodox, Orthodox world, Orthodoxy, Orthosphere, political commentary, politics, poster, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian people
******
St Mary Armenian Apostolic Church in Aleppo (Aleppo Governorate) SYRIA. Both American Republicans and Democrats want to pursue a policy that would lead to the destruction of this building by Islamist fanatics and the killing or expulsion of its believers. Russia and China prevent this evil from occurring. “Axis of Evil”… its address has been 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since 1991…
______________________________
Syrian churches and mosques, symbols of the diverse fabric of the country’s religious communities, are no longer sacred in a struggle that has ravaged the northern city of Aleppo. On Thursday, rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades through a wall encircling an Armenian Orthodox church in Aleppo in an attempt to push further into the key Midan district, whilst gun battles erupted Friday during an army seizure of the nearby Ansar mosque. The St Gregory church courtyard became a battlefield as rebels, coming from their stronghold at Suleiman al-Halabi Street, met resistance from army units on the other side. The soldiers forced the rebels back into a back street through the damaged wall, whilst in the courtyard flames from a diesel fuel tank… hit during the fighting… burned unattended. With municipal services paralysed by the fighting, local residents have given up on the fire department, instead ferrying buckets of water to douse the flames themselves.
Clashes continue to rage in Midan, where fighting first broke out last Saturday, and in the nearby rebel bastions of Bustan al-Basha and Arkoub, where a unit of the élite Republican Guard Division seized a mosque. On Friday, the Republican Guards came under fire from inside the Ansar mosque, located at a strategic point in front of the Hanano military base and rebel-controlled Arkoub. According to a military source, the army recaptured the mosque after fierce clashes that killed a number of rebels and saw the arrest of several others.
A local congregant confirmed the operation and said that the rebels had been using the mosque as a shelter since its imam, the nephew of the Syrian chief mufti, or spiritual leader, fled Aleppo 20 days before. A 44-year-old government employee remorsefully told AFP on condition of anonymity, “When the rebels first took the area, they asked the people leave their homes so they could stay and fight from there. However, Arkoub is a poor place, so nobody had the money to take their family and leave, so the rebels began to stay at the mosque. I’ve been going to this mosque for more than ten years, and it means so much to me. Every time I visit this place, I feel near to God. Today, I heard the mosque is damaged, that there are bullet holes and windows are broken, but I couldn’t go to check”.
Unfortunate Casualties
Battles and shelling in and around religious structures aren’t new, and sacred buildings have become mere strategic military locations in a conflict whose daily death tolls easily reach over 100 victims per day. The spokesman of the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo told AFP by phone that he didn’t believe either the rebels or army would attack the church on purpose, emphasising, “Syrian people don’t do that. Whatever side they’re on, Syrians always have respect for religious centres, mosques or churches”. The spokesman noted that fighting had been raging in the area for the past week, and the building was most likely an unfortunate casualty of the conflict.
A military source said that government troops backed by armoured vehicles deployed across Midan on Friday and in nearby Suleiman al-Halabi, Bustan al-Basha, and Arkoub. one Christian woman in Midan said, “The arrival of the army to the district calmed people down and helped stem the tide of displacement that we had on Wednesday and Thursday”. However, another resident wasn’t about to take his chances amid the clashes. As he fled the area with his wife and four children, Mohamed said, “The gunmen said they’d target security headquarters and that civilians should leave so they wouldn’t be wounded by the mortar fire”.
Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital, for the past two months was the focal point of fighting in the uprising against the Assad régime. Artisans and mechanics alike had closed down their shops in Midan on Friday, with the local economy paralysed by the fighting. Régime forces used helicopter gunships to attack two police stations in Midan, which the rebels had taken over on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In the rebel-controlled Hanano district in northeast Aleppo, air strikes pummelled another police station on Friday and Saturday, the régime preferring its own brand of destruction to the rebels gaining a new base.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that over 27,000 people, the majority civilians, died in clashes in Syria since the start of the revolt in March 2011. Houses of worship are merely the latest casualties.
16 September 2012
Agence France Presse
As quoted in Asia One News
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20120916-371785.html
Editor’s Note:
Do mark it down that the West (both government and media sources) are taking oppositionist propaganda at face value. That’s dangerous. There’ve probably NOT been 27,000 deaths… but there’ve been at least 10,000, I’d warrant. All too many of those are Alawis and Christians murdered by the oppositionist Islamists… something glossed over by Western sources. The American neocons and interventionists were creaming their jeans in the thought of yet another military intervention (even though such an intervention would be unaffordable, and would break the American economy and push it back to late 2007 conditions)… but Russia and China stood tall and said NO. That’s allowed patriotic elements in Syria to push the fanatic Islamists back. Reflect on this… the West wants a repeat of the wars and miseries they inflicted in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. That’s evil, full stop. Of course, the poor bloody soldiers sent to these hellholes were just following their godless orders; they’re free of any taint… the leaders have this blood upon their hands (if you want to show disrespect to a fallen soldier’s funeral, you’ll have to get through me first… I guarantee that my Zaporozhets dander will be up). However, a decent and moral person can have only one reaction to the West’s drumbeats for war:
NO!
BMD