this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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Tldr: Bangladesh 🇧🇩 not doing so hot right now. Thoughts as a diaspora imperial core desi who lives a very comfortable life.

I feel really immature right about now. For a good while I just kept denying the color revolution hints to the point where even my very lib Dad was able to point them out. Feel like such a complete jackass, it just feels so fucking different when you're in the moment and it's your country down the line. That doesn't mean I don't have the same solidarity for all global south nations but this one just felt so personal. What's happening in Bangladesh right now seems like nothing compared to the horrific struggle that West Asia has endured, but I guess I'm joining the club. doomjak

But yeah, they literally took over my country and there's nothing I, a diaspora bengali, can do about it. Sometimes it feels like I have survivors guilt, that I got out of the country and immigrated to the imperial core (well my parents did) where I could live a far more comfortable life while a lot of my peers even here in the US are living much harder lives. omori-miserable

This is also compounded by the fact that I live in a white picket fence neighborhood where every neighborhood family are Trumpers or respectful Kamala-ists who are just "simple folk" out raising their family. My dad recently hanged up an American flag and a Bangladeshi flag on our lawn and now I'm just sick even thinking about it. disgost I might just tell my dad to take it american flag down if not both (he keeps telling me there's some homeowner association "law" that you have to have the USian flag alongside other flags). The only thing that really cheers me up besides treats is Yahya Sinwar and the axis of resistance taking Israel down screw by screw.

Fuck the USA. I will never forget this moment in my entire fucking life. I just feel very off right now and this was my vent post. Part of me wishes that this wasn't a takeover, but that part of me is slowly going away every passing second.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Took me reading your post three times then reading news on Bangladesh to understand what’s going on here. Can you please clarify why you think this was a US coup? Do you have any evidence to support your conclusion? Sounds like PM Sheikh Hasina turned into an autocrat and a protest movement gained enough momentum to cause her to resign.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago (4 children)

It was a military coup, not a peoples revolution. The protests continued despite the supreme court decision removing the quota and huge fights between police and protestors lasted for weeks.

The intermin president? A fucking neoliberal with deep ties to the CIA and also hates India.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yea i think there were two protests. The first one was legitimate anti-quota protests which quieted down after Supreme Court verdict and the second one which lead to the military coup, captured by the reactionaries and Neoliberals.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

More the reason to suspect how the US used NGOs to funnel reactionary anti government hatred and trojaned it through the student protest. There was very little organization besides trying to overthrow the current government post quota decision.

The June 4th incident seems very poignant to mention here. I still agree with Sheikh Hasina leaving her position, but not in a way that leaves Bangladesh extremely vulnerable to US intervention.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

And just to be clear, I’m not surprised some exploitative banker elitist shit stain managed to weasel his way to the front of the crowd and grab the mic. These are the sociopathic types that are ready to co-opt any moment for their own purposes.

I truly wish for Bangladesh to restructure their society to actually look out for the working class.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Ok multiple things CAN be true at the same time:

  • the protests were organic, not military led (didn’t see any evidence for that) and tied to legitimate grievances with the PM
  • a US-aligned politician positioned themselves to become the interim leader without support
  • the army opportunistically positioned itself to support the students after they saw the groundswell of support the movement was getting

It’s a massive stretch to think this is some sinister US plot. The US has huge bureaucratic hurdles to pulling off shit like this in compressed timelines like the protest movement. The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations. It’s doubtful anyone with authority in DC even knew what was going on much less authorized the CIA to energize a coup that would piss off India, who the US is courting btw. Not even considering what it would take for the US to proactively PLAN and execute something like this.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It’s a massive stretch to think this is some sinister US plot. The US has huge bureaucratic hurdles to pulling off shit like this in compressed timelines like the protest movement. The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations. It’s doubtful anyone with authority in DC even knew what was going on much less authorized the CIA to energize a coup that would piss off India, who the US is courting btw. Not even considering what it would take for the US to proactively PLAN and execute something like this.

This is literally what I thought at first until I realized all the liberal brainworms that being a diaspora Bengali comes with were working overtime here and I was inhaling some copium.

Even if you are right, there is no denying that the military junta leaves Bangladesh to be much more suceptible to US meddling than if Sheikh Hasina resigned and the government still stayed in place with moderate to high labor concessions. Their [CIA color revolt. Industrial complex] guy is president, an old ass capitalist banker who loves America and hates India.

Also the US has kept its eyes on Bangladesh for decades, they didn't plan this in just a week in the same way Euromaiden or Sunflower revolutions weren't adhoc genius schemes. The US takes advantage of these situations as they play out through foreign infiltration either via diaspora communities or NGOs (or more systemically as others have pointed out through the dollar economy). This isn't a "partisan politics" thing this is a Yankee takeover.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I still haven’t seen any compelling evidence that this was US backed. If anything Hasina is an example of generational wealth and power who wasn’t doing anything for the working class in her four terms of office.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations.

Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan

“All will be forgiven,” said a U.S. diplomat, if the no-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds.

. . .

The U.S. State Department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Diplomatic pressure is COMPLETELY different from covert action or covert influence. Every nation exerts diplomatic pressure.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A secret meeting between US State Dept. actors and the Pakistani ambassador to the US, in which the US threatened "tough times ahead" for Pakistan if they didn't remove the PM the US didn't like isn't intervention? It's not covert? Get the fuck outta here lmao

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Newsflash: confidential diplomatic meetings between diplomats (it’s their job) take place every day all over the world. Covert influence campaigns that would authorize, coordinate, and execute a political campaign must be authorized at the highest levels. If you think any bureaucrat working at the NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh, you are delusional and obviously have no clue what you’re talking about.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Famously, the US has never authorized covert actions in foreign states. And in the cases they were caught, they were totally punished

You call me delusional, and yet this is the kind of shit you spew out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If you think any bureaucrat working at the NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh, you are delusional

Risk their hide? The US executive branch tries this all the time. No one is losing their position over backing a failed overthrow of a state in the periphery.

Name one time when this happened.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh

I mean you're talking about a country who funds the Israeli genocide of Palestine in full view of the entire world. What shame do you think Western infiltrators have? You do know that they did the same genocide funding in the Bangladesh liberation war with Pakistan?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe look into the history of US backed coups over the past like 100 years and how they were engineered. Maybe then you'll get what people here are talking about.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I have looked into it and don’t deny they were atrocious and pernicious. I just don’t see the fingerprints of one here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Typical lib. Claim to know all about color revolutions of the past, but refuse to accept the ones happening now. What did you think of the coup in Bolivia while it was happening? No evidence of the US there?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

You are spelling out in your bullet points just how coincidentally favorable to the US it all is. You'd have to lack all pattern recognition to consider that the hegemon has contingency plans for when something like this starts to happen.

Sounds like PM Sheikh Hasina turned into an autocrat and a protest movement gained enough momentum to cause her to resign.

Autocrats are everywhere. The difference is that in some places, the protest movements have a much harder time reaching that critical point, and in some places, they have a much easier time of it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

A fucking neoliberal with deep ties to the CIA and also hates India.

Doesn't seem like something that benefits america, it's be a different thing if he hated china.