The Collapse of Order in the Middle East
A rather sharp critique of US policy in the Middle East, by a ret'd US diplomat (who last served twenty years ago):http://chasfreeman.net/the-collapse-...e-middle-east/
Here is a taster:
Quote:
We are trying to cope with the cumulative consequences of multiple failures. Just about every American project in the Middle East has now come a cropper.
(Later) We have a military campaign plan but lack a political program. We are bombing Da`ish to contain it. There is little reason to believe this will prove effective. Based on past experience, there is no reason to believe it will evolve into a strategy....Da`ish displays unity of command, strong discipline, and elevated morale. The coalition we have assemble to oppose it has no agreed objectives. It is divided, disjointed, and demoralized.
Decentralization: The Future of ISIS
Decentralization: The Future of ISIS
Entry Excerpt:
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The Kurds fight With Daesh (ISIS)
Crowbat referred to Kurds fighting with and for ISIS now two weeks ago, which rather puzzled me - even allowing for the impact of radicalisation. A Kurdish contact responded:
Quote:
There are kurds within and supporting ISIS. Although the this is not typical of kurdish political views. The vast majority are secular and vehemently opposed to such organisations.... I understand, the majority of those involved in ISIS are from a particular region, Halabja, in the kurdistan region of Iraq. This is, no doubt, connected to tribal, or religious networks in this are, which probably extend into Iran.
Just spotted a lengthy article on Stripes:http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-e...VTCtf4.twitter
It comments include why Halabja, a town gassed by Saddam Hussein, in 1988:
Quote:
Halabja was known as a secular village and the home of Abdullah Goran, one of the best-known Kurdish poets in the 20th century and a member of the Iraqi Communist Party. But in the past three decades, Muslim preachers have become active and have turned it into one of Iraqi Kurdistan's most religiously conservative areas....(How many?) Some 70 Iraqi Kurds...
Obama to Seek Congressional Backing for Military Campaign Against ISIS
Obama to Seek Congressional Backing for Military Campaign Against ISIS
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Not as strange as fiction
Citing Crowbat (in part):
Quote:
more than 300 Kurds were recruited for the Daesh alone in Evin Prison, in Tehran, in 2013.
I am aware that Iran has a Kurdish community, although not one noted to my knowledge for being a violent insurgency. So there are Kurds in the Iranian prison system, whether for criminal or political reasons. IIRC Evin Prison is for political prisoners, Wiki states only a 'wing' is so used:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evin_Prison
So Kurds were covertly recruited in the prison, that I can follow as few prisons have total control - though a political wing can be different (as Israel has shown). I am wary about such a prison allowing 'radical' Islamists to flourish. Those recruited presumably hate the Iranian regime and have cause to wage war upon release - making their way to Iraq / Syria to join Daesh.