Tag: conflict


  • “Kurds Call to Arms as Islamic State Closes in on Syrian Town” -Reuters

     

    Kurds call to arms as Islamic State closes in on Syrian town.
    There is going to be a massacre in the large city of Kobani in Syria, and ISIS is closing in with tanks. Tanks! Hard to spot those with stealth fighters??? Someone please explain.

    Kurds Call to Arms as Islamic State Closes in on Syrian Town, Reuters

    A statement issued by the YPG, the main Kurdish armed group, vowed “never ending” resistance to Islamic State in its advance on Kobani. “Every street and house will be a grave for them.”

    “Our call to all the young men and women of Kurdistan … is to come to be part of this resistance.”

    YPG Syria

    (Photo: Basnews)

  • “Iran and the ‘Coalition of Repenters'”- from The New Yorker

     

    Read every word. This is the dark truth about why the United States is on the wrong side of the Gulf. Why its allies have destroyed the democrats of the Arab Spring, deliberately, turned it into an Islamist and jihadi nightmare, and why we must completely rethink our allies and adversaries. Someday the story will be told of the decline of America at the hands of its despotic and repressive allies who made this country die on the altar of military and oil sales. And I include right-wing led Israel and Pakistan in this disaster of allies. yes, Iran must give up or neutralize Assad, but that is impossible as long it faces an American armed coalition surrounding it on all sides. We have solutions here, and the greatest victims, are Sunni peoples, held hostage by desperately insane Wahhabi regimes.

    The New Yorker, Iran and the ‘Coalition of Repenters’

  • “Escaping Death in Northern Iraq” -International New York Times

    This is very important in the ISIS issue.

    International New York Time, Escaping Death in Northern Iraq

    Ali Hussein Kadhim, an Iraqi soldier and a Shiite, was captured with hundreds of other soldiers by Sunni militants in June and taken to the grounds of a palace complex in Tikrit where Saddam Hussein once lived.

    “I saw my daughter in my mind, saying, ‘Father, father,’ ” he said.
    He felt a bullet pass by his head, and fell forward into the freshly dug trench.
    “I just pretended to be shot,” he said.
    A few moments later, Mr. Kadhim said, one of the killers walked among the bodies and saw that one man who had been shot was still breathing.

    …The story of the massacre tells as much about the woeful state of the Iraqi military, a force created and trained by the United States at a cost of billions of dollars,

  • Counterterrorism

    The purpose of terrorism is to provoke a response. The purpose of the provocation of response is to create martyrs. The purpose of the creation of martyrs is an army of enthusiastic especially young men in search of glory and sex. The purpose of the creation of an army is the replacement of old political order with a new order.

    The purpose of counterterrorism should be the defense of one’s population, even better, the defense of all life. The actual function of counterterrorism is the strengthening of the police state and weapons sales. The actual function of political counterterrorism by politicians is to create votes. The purpose of the creation of votes is the maintenance of the power structure and strengthening of the state.
    Thus the cycle is complete. For when the counterterrorists respond with appropriate excessive violence to the bait of the terrorists both achieve their purpose. And then …

  • Reflections in August 2014 vol.1

     

    Galilee

    In war in an age of war the act of ultimate defiance is to make another human being feel wonderful.

    Testosterone, gestures of kindness are semen seeds. Men get busy, it will make you inherently happy and bear you many children.

    Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). A doctrine that was supposed to be about deterrence, not prophecy. #Israel#Hamas#Palestine

    Mimicry, the compulsion of humans to mirror their postures, facial expressions, and enemy war cries. Most posts on FB and Twitter. 

    Better to deny the past in fear and embrace the present with courage than to embrace the past with courage and deny the present in fear.

  • “Baghdadi Denial Syndrome” -Now Media

     

    Very important essay. The only people hurt by conspiracy theories are those that hide behind them. There is much more to reveal about IS over time, but like Bin Laden and those sad conspiracy theories, the truth will be even harder for the Arab world to bear. Honest self examination is the only path forward. It is amazing to me how many people expect the Jews to self examine about Israel yet when it comes to this horrific stage of the Arab Muslim history these folks need to invent Hitler like insanity to avoid hard realities. But change is coming to this region and it will be horrific until the blaming of others becomes less important than the reconciliation of warring Muslims.

    NOW, Baghdadi Denial Syndrome by Hussein Ibish

    One of the most alarming features of Arab responses to the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and

  • Reflection on Yazidis

     

     

    I am starting to understand the human sacrifice of this people to the so-called Islamic State. They are loved by no one because they are not Muslim, falsely accused of being devil worshippers for having a different theology related to but different than the Islamic narrative, neither Sunni nor Shia. The Kurds have protected them, as they bravely do other minorities, and the Americans protected them, all from Sunni extremists funded by the Arab Gulf. Kurdistan is one of the last hopes of this region.

  • Ideology and Tyranny / Mourning the Past

     

    candles

    IDEOLOGY AND TYRANNY 

    Ideology is always in the service of a power that becomes tyranny. Followers do not see it coming, as they are too busy defeating the first tyranny.

    Political Islam and Military Islam are dying a rapid death on the streets of Mosul that is reverberating everywhere, but they will revive in each and every place where tyranny and oppression reign. That includes the West Bank and Gaza.

    MOURNING THE PAST

    It is better to deny the past in fear and embrace the present with courage than it is to embrace the past with courage and deny the present in fear. Better than both is embracing the past and the present with courage and generosity.

     

    (Photo source: Wallcoo.net)…

  • FB Friending Analysis

     

    facebook-friends-icon

    Interesting, in the hotness of the Gaza war attention (while thousands suffer and die anonymously nearby in Syria and Iraq, for example), it is interesting to watch the evolution of thinking day to day under a microscope. I find myself to be a magnet for positive rational thinking these days in terms of FB friending patterns, not that I necessarily deserve that. I am impressed at the number of people seeking to friend me in recent days who trust neither Hamas nor Israel to protect the people of Palestine or build a better future, and putting lots of thought on which parties could do this. This is a good direction of thought. One theme emerging is that very few people are buying the idea that Israel has at this point a decent plan for the future, but also, one man, one vote one time of political Islam and military …

  • Reflections in My Middle Eastern Mirror

     

    Compassion fatigue.
    Strange expression.
    What is the fatigue?
    Too much suffering, 
    Too many people crying,
    Too many dead bodies, 
    Too many people 
    Demanding that I love them,
    But only them,
    That I see only their tears,
    As they fall upon the bloodied bodies
    That once laughed
    and danced
    and cheered.
    Ask me for compassion
    And I will refuse.
    Ask me who are you?
    Ask a peacemaker,
    Who
    the
    fuck
    are
    you?
    Look at that goddam mirror,
    Do you know any more?
    Or does everything bleed red,
    In the cracked mirror,
    Which you broke,
    In a fit of rage?

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