Bookends

 Bomb Aftermath in Homs

Over the weekend, there were bombings in Damascus and Homs in Syria:

BBC
Syria conflict: Homs and Damascus bomb blasts kill 140
21 February 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35624654

Bomb blasts in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus have left at least 140 people dead, monitors and state media say.

At least four blasts struck the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least 83 people, state media said.

Earlier in Homs, 57 people, mainly civilians, were killed in a double car bombing, a monitoring group reported.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said it carried out the attacks in both cities.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said a "provisional agreement" has been reached with Russia on a partial truce in the conflict...

The Damascus bombing was in the Sayyida Zainab district, home of the shrine to Sayyida (Lady) Zainab, daughter of 'Ali       زينب بنت علي
and it is this 'Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, whom the Shi'a consider to be the correct successor to the caliphate and not Mu'awiyah and then Mu'awiyah's son, Yazid, whose troops killed Hussein - the son of 'Ali - at Karbala.


{ http://www.ezsoftech.com/stories/sayyida.zainab.asp
Birthday of Sayyida Zainab (sa) is observed as Nurse's Day in Iran...

A nurse's occupation is not an ordinary one. Nursing is a sacred and valuable profession. A nurse does not work for money or material benefits, for the wages she receives do not compensate of her untainted labors. When a nurse sees that her patient's life is in danger, she forgets everything and becomes selfless. Birthday of Sayyida Zainab (sa) is observed as Nurse's Day in Iran.

At the height of the Islamic month of Muharram, in the year 61, after Hijrah, on the night of Ashura, when the devilish enemy set the Ahlul Bayt's (as) tent on fire and drove the children to the desert in the night, Sayyida Zainab (sa) tended women and children in a half-burnt tent, shared in their sorrow with patience and endurance, and nursed the feverish patient of Karbala, Imam Sajjad (as)...

She is a model of resistance and sacrifice..
...with special characteristics gathered within her, it is as if she were the protector of moral values, law abidance, the protector and executor of our higher duties, sympathetic, kind, conscientious, independent, shouldering responsibility, hard-working and untiring.

Sayyida Zainab (sa) was not only a nurse for women and children. She nursed those who had suffered in body and soul, those whose clothing and skin had burned in the frightening tent fire at dusk on Ashura, those who had suffered mentally, those who had heard rejoicing in their miseries. This nursing began at dusk on the day of Ashura and continued to Kufah, Karbala and Medina...}


At the end of January, 2016, Damascus witnessed a similar bombing:

The Guardian
Dozens killed after suicide bombing at Shia shrine in Damascus
Reuters in Beirut
Sunday 31 January 2016 07.26 EST
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/31/damascus-syrian-double-suicide-bombing-sayeda-zeinab

Islamic State bombers have killed more than 60 people near Syria’s holiest Shia shrine in Damascus as the country’s main opposition group met the UN mediator, Staffan de Mistura, for the first time.

Representatives of the Saudi-backed Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC) – which includes political and militant opponents of President Bashar al-Assad – warned they may yet walk away from the Geneva talks unless the suffering of civilians in the five-year conflict was eased.

The head of the Syrian government delegation said that the blasts in Damascus, which the interior ministry blamed on a car bomb and two suicide bombers, merely confirmed the opposition’s terrorist links – even though Isis has been excluded from the talks...

The birth date of Lady Zainab, a day when Shi'a may come to the shrine in Damascus to pay their respects, fell on February 14, 2016, a date almost directly between the two attacks. It was as if ISIS - or some ISIS surrogate - sought to maximize the damage and had some deadly glitches, jumping the gun in January and being a week late in February, thus bookending the birth date of Lady Zainab with a bloody rain of mortal remains... invoking a memory of Karbala.

Shrine of Sayyida (Lady) Zainab in Southern Damascus

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ISIS Gas And Fuel, LLC

Friendly Neighborhood ISIS Gas Station

After the attack in Paris, I wrote a post about the exceedingly strange nature of the war against ISIS.

What Kind Of War Is This?
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2015/11/what-kind-of-war-is-this.html

New York Times:
U.S. Warplanes Strike ISIS Oil Trucks in Syria
By MICHAEL R. GORDON NOV. 16, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/middleeast/us-strikes-syria-oil.html?_r=0

ISTANBUL — Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said...

And I asked, ".... the first time ?!?!"
The USA has had airplanes there and this is the first time it has used them to disrupt the flow of funds to ISIS? The USA never did this before? It took a hundred people in France to be killed before we could bomb and oil convoy of our ostensible enemy?

Was this war on terror against ISIS another one of our phony wars, like the war on drugs?
The war on drugs during which NATO occupied Afghanistan, after which Afghanistan jumped into first place in the world production of opium?

Now Mr. Putin of Russia says that oil from ISIS has been flowing into Turkey now for a long time. Therefore, a NATO country, Turkey, has been a major component in the flow of funds to ISIS through the sale of oil.

RT
‘Commercial scale’ oil smuggling into Turkey becomes priority target of anti-ISIS strikes
Published time: 27 Nov, 2015 00:42
Edited time: 27 Nov, 2015 03:09
https://www.rt.com/news/323603-isis-oil-smuggling-turkey/

... “We assume that the top political leadership of Turkey might not know anything about this [illegal oil trade]. Hard to believe, but it is theoretically possible,” Putin said, adding that this however does not excuse Ankara from not stopping the illegal smuggling of oil.

Putin pointed out the lack of smoke from any fires or the existence of any commercial enterprises created to deal with the destruction of oil, which would be possible to find if the Turkish leadership is aware and is seizing and destroying smuggled products, as it claims.

“But if the top political leadership [in Turkey] doesn’t know anything about this, let them find out. I can admit that there may be some elements of corruption, secret dealing, they should sort it out,” said Putin.

Putin stated that sales of oil from ISIS are in direct violation of international law, and that the proceeds from ‘black gold’ cost innocent people their lives.

“In this respect there is a special UN Security Council resolution banning the direct purchase of oil from terrorists, because these barrels, that they supply, it is not just oil, there is the blood of our citizens, because from the money [received], terrorists buy weapons, ammunition, and then conduct bloody actions,” Putin said...

Suddenly it may become clear why NATO has not bombed the oil convoys from ISIS: they may have been headed to a NATO ally, Turkey.
And there may be an answer for why ISIS stays close to the Turkish border, where the Russian fighters were shot down a few days ago, following terrorists and straying too close for Turkish comfort.

ISIS is just another means to the end...
as I said yesterday.

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The Uses Of Barbarity

Zombie Apocalypse Bloodletting?

Why does ISIS conduct so many grisly executions of people, whether they be combatants or villagers? Is it merely for the shock effect that the accompanying videos will have on the West?

That is hardly to be believed. The shock-effect of the ISIS iconography of violence is a side effect, a neat trick that makes it ever so much more appealing to the people behind the executions, but it is doubtful that it is the main purpose of such barbarism, for the shock-effect may increase the push for military intervention, not decrease it.

No.
The main purpose of ISIS' cruel violence to human beings - not to historical artifacts - is to produce soldiers who suffer from PTSD.

The men and women who have committed the atrocities will return home to their own countries; some will be witting agents of destruction, but by far the greater portion of returnees will be unwitting "Manchurian Candidates" who will be haunted by their crimes - not "brainwashed", but rendered compliant to anyone who is able to give them relief - and who will be driven to desperation to find some way to stop the constant revisiting of the horrors they committed.

They will find surcease of pain through talking with ISIS agents, who will counsel them in the therapeutic ways of violence against their neighbors...

One of the goals of the great satanic ISIS to to create an army of the damned stretching across the face of the earth, never resting from their pain, never finding escape from their damnation, ever prey to the unscrupulous manipulation of someone who promises some form of salvation.

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How Do We Exist Without Compulsion?

photo: (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)



National Journal
How to Defeat ISIS With Millennial Spirit and Service
Terrorism and other 21st-century challenges require sacrifice shared by all Americans.
By Ron Fournier
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-to-defeat-isis-with-millennial-spirit-and-service-20150616

June 16, 2015 I know a better way to fight ISIS. It starts with an idea that should appeal the better angels of both hawks and doves: National service for all 18- to 28-year-olds.

Require virtually every young American—the civic-minded millennial generation—to complete a year of service through programs such as Teach for America, AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or the U.S. military, and two things will happen:

1. Virtually every American family will become intimately invested in the nation's biggest challenges, including poverty, education, income inequality, and America's place in a world afire.

2. Military recruiting will rise to meet threats posed by ISIS and other terrorist networks, giving more people skin in a very dangerous game.

This may seem like a radical plan until you compare it with two alternatives: the status quo, which clearly isn't working, or a military draft, which might be the boldest and fairest way to wage the long war against Islamic extremists.

[...]

I spoke about the concept with retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and now chairs the Franklin Project, part of the Aspen Institute that is trying to position a year of full-time national service—a service year—as a "cultural expectation, a common opportunity, and a civic rite of passage for every young American." His logic tracks with mine.

First, he's not sure Obama is fully committed to the goal of destroying ISIS.  Note A

Second, if this president or his successor gets serious about ISIS, McChrystal said the effort would require an international coalition and more U.S. troops. "Even if we didn't need a draft" to drum up the required troops, McChrystal said, "I would argue we need a draft, because it forces national commitment."  Note B

He knows a draft isn't in the cards. A national commitment to "service years" would prime the pump of an all-voluntary military, McChrystal said, while uniting the country in sacrifice.

It's not a draft, but it's not nothing.

"A problem in America is we've let the concept of citizenship diminish into a series of gripes," McChrystal told me. "One of the ways we can rebuild that sense of ownership, sense of shared ownership, is through experience, and so I believe that every young person deserves—I don't think this is an onerous thing—deserves the experience of being part of something bigger than themselves."  Note C

Bowing to political realities in risk-averse Washington, the Franklin Project aims to make a service year a social expectation rather than a legal requirement. I would mandate it. So would McChrystal—if he had his way.  Note D

While ISIS and other terrorist groups are having no trouble recruiting suicide bombers, McChrystal said, Americans are struggling to redefine their national identity for the 21st century. "A year of service for young Americans would be a step," he said. "Not a panacea, a step."

I think we should take it.

This is one of the worst thought out articles I have ever read.

That judgement may surprise you, since it appears that the writer agrees with my view of the situation: that the success of IS may have a  psychological side that adds greatly to its success. Mr. Fournier - and his amigo, General McChrystal -  want to inspire a similar psychological fire in the hearts of US citizens to fight against the fire of IS.

The big difference is this: IS relies on supporters who freely flock to their banner;  Fournier, McChrystal et al. want to compel support.
This whole idea of forcing  (Note B)  people to become psychologically inspired is not even worth spit.

Since when is IS the event which defines our lives? IS is the ghastly effluent of the river of lies and treachery of the Iraq War. IS is the karma we are burdened with for an unjust war. We are already spiritually burdened by our guilt, so does it make sense to double, triple, or quadruple down with more and more military effort --- let's be clear" MISGUIDED military effort! because nothing we have since 2001 when we drove the Taliban from Afghanistan has been guided by any strategy other than "Let's get them boots on tha ground!"

Note A  is nothing more than implicit criticism of President Obama, and has no place in this post.

Note C  is absolute crap.  I do not believe in being part of something "bigger" than myself, especially when "bigger" than is defined as a bunch of schlubs drafted into ill-defined organizations.

Note D  is interesting, in that it shows the role of force and compulsion in the minds of those who believe that persuasion is a dish best served like a force-fed meal in Guantanamo.

What does Mr. Fournier make of the history of the USA before the introduction of the compulsory draft temporarily in the Civil War, World War I, and the third incarnation from 1940 to 1973 during World War II and the Cold War?

How did the USA function without compulsion?

It had a dream.

It had a psychological and a spiritual reality that it now lacks, and this lack is very much in evidence in the insipid imaginations of Mr. Fournier and General McChrystal.

 Unconscripted Citizen Soldiers Fighting for Ideals

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Phony Culture

Russian citizens are joining IS. So are the citizens of other countries.

Russia Beyond The Headlines
Why are ordinary Russians joining the ranks of Islamic State?
June 11, 2015 Oleg Yegorov, special to RBTH 
http://rbth.com/society/2015/06/11/why_are_ordinary_russians_joining_the_ranks_of_islamic_state_46863.html

Like many European countries, Russia is encountering a new threat: Its citizens are being recruited by terrorists and are traveling to the Middle East to join radical Islamist groups such as Islamic State (ISIS). Russian experts believe that various factors are involved, including a misguided approach by law-enforcement agencies and a lack of opportunities for the young.

[...]

The majority of Russian citizens that join the ranks of the extremists are people from the country’s Muslim republics but sometimes they are ethnic Russians. This is not a new phenomenon: There have been cases in which Russians fought on the side of Wahhabists even before the appearance of ISIS.

For example, Said Buryatsky, one of the ideological leaders of the Caucasian terrorist underground at the end of the 2000s, was a Russian whose real name was Alexander Tikhomirov. Buryatsky was eliminated in 2010.

And even as far back as the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan during the early 1980s there were documented cases of ethnic Russians converting to Islam and going over to the side of the Mujahideen to fight against their former comrades-in-arms.


The lure of extremism

As Georgy Mirsky, an expert on the Arab world and Doctor of Historical Sciences, pointed out to RBTH, Russia is far from the only country whose young citizens are traveling to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.

"In the last month 1,733 people alone left France to join ISIS, and statistically, one fifth of them did not come from Muslim families but were recruited,” said Mirsky, who pointed out that 30 percent of the women joining ISIS were “still not Muslim until recently.”

[...]

The world is dominated by Phony Culture, which is addictions and obsessions spread out like unconnected beads fallen from a rosary, yet still thinly held together by an overlay of scraps and pieces of meaningful life-bits.

There is no Story holding things together.

I use the symbol  σ   the small Greek letter sigma to denote "story".

People need a   σ   to hold things together.
When the time comes that the pressure and suffering on families and individuals is intense, things begin to break down. This is seen clearly in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
It was noticed that the soldiers in World War I most susceptible to PTSD were those who felt they had no control over the situations they found themselves in. For example, balloon observers were subject to PTSD - essentially being sitting ducks - whereas pilots were not; pilots had "control" of their airplanes and the action of flying, no matter how dangerous the territory in which they found themselves.

 σ is how people maintain control over their lives. They have a story in which they are characters and thus have meaning.

Upon receiving sensations, the brain works at predicting what will come next.
The brain does not merely process sensation, but it tries to fit it into a structure that is meaningful enough that it may predict what is going to happen next, thus providing us with  appropriate route of action to follow.

There is a Bayesian Probability here, as the brain predicts based on existing probabilities, then modifies those probabilities based on the most recent outcomes of our actions.

This Bayesian process forms the basis for  σ , the story of our lives.

When things fall apart, and the center cannot hold, that is the time when our story falls apart and we find ourselves totally naked in the universe.
We find ourselves facing that which is totally The Other, so much "Other" that there is no way we can attempt to interact based upon prior experience.

Then we lose control.
Then we fall apart, too.

Unless,... unless we have a great  σ in place that we may invoke to hold things together.
This story may be faith, honor, loyalty, love, but its function is to maintain the Self.

In the midst of phony and trivial culture, people seek war.
They seek war to face the greatest threat, and thereby to destroy the meaningless story of culture which they despise.

They have a new story.

When faced with killing others and being killed oneself in war, they will find that the old self goes mute and begins to fall away, leaving them open to PTSD-like states.
However, they short-circuit the suffering of the loss of control over their environment by substituting their new story, the new  σ which will guide their new lives.

Thus, we see that ideology seeks war in order that the old ideology be killed off, thus providing a clean space to construct the new ideology.

Natural Selection and survival of the fittest... the ideas which face death in order to survive death.


Therefore, we have a glimpse how difficult it will be in the struggle against IS.
The nations opposed to IS will be forced to become meaningful and relevant and fulfilling, and that is a tall order.

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