They Are Raping The Women
“Evil” is an adjective that has been much used and abused down through the years, being subject to hyperbole, partisanshipContinue Reading
Tag: Syria
Citizen Journalism And Bellingcat
If you are interested in what is commonly known as “citizen journalism“, the internet-invigorated tradition of independent news reporting and analyses coming from individualsContinue Reading
It Pays To Be Adam But Rarely Eve
To be a woman in a world where some men have cast aside the necessary bonds of civilization is a dreadful fate indeed.Continue Reading
Supporting The Kurds
Malcolm Harris in the New Republic focuses on the great anomaly of the conflict in Syria and Iraq: the United States’Continue Reading
Substituting Numbers For Results In Iraq And Syria
From a report last week by Reuters, republished throughout the “Western” news media: “More than 10,000 Islamic State militants haveContinue Reading
The Middle East’s Proxy Wars
Two Middle Eastern nation states torn apart by internecine wars, two whirlpools of conflict which suck in others willingly or unwillingly. FirstContinue Reading
La Rebelle De Raqqa
From France 24, the story of Haya El Ali, a young Syrian woman who befriended female members of the Islamic StateContinue Reading
Barack Obama: ISIL… Grew Out Of Our Invasion
Related to my post on the rise of Iran as a regional superpower in the Middle East as a consequenceContinue Reading
Iran Emerges From The US War On Terror As A Regional Superpower
One of the more interesting if unintended outcomes of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has been the elevationContinue Reading
People Are Made Radical, Not Born Radical
Paul Beaver is a veteran British defence journalist and member of the ultra-conservative Henry Jackson Society who has been regularly sought outContinue Reading
The United States’ Perpetual Groundhog Day
The team at Tom’s Dispatch have done another excellent job of highlighting the seemingly perpetual nature of the United States’ military misadventures in theContinue Reading
6000 Islamic State Fighters Killed In US-Led Attacks?
Back in October of 2014 the CIA estimated that the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq had a militaryContinue Reading
Special Forces, Special Operations, Special Rules
In a similar vein to yesterday’s post on James Fallows’ controversial critique of the United States’ military in the Atlantic magazine comes this articleContinue Reading
Inside The Islamic State
Martin Chulov in the Guardian newspaper presents a fascinating insider analysis of the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) throughContinue Reading
The West’s Favoured Chop-Chop Regime
As the world, particularly the so-called Western world, looks on in outrage at the activities of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)Continue Reading
Kurdish Factionalism Gives Turkey And IS The Advantage
Western journalism loves to simplify things for readers and audiences at home which is why so much nonsense gets writtenContinue Reading
Iraq, The Graveyard Of Western Journalism
With all due caution given the source this recent Q&A with Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a former senior correspondent with Reuters, featured on RussiaContinue Reading
The Yazidis And The Origins Of The Desert Religions
There are all sorts of crazy theories surrounding the rise of ISIS, now the Islamic State (IS), and its successesContinue Reading
The Peshmerga Factor
Talking of the conflict in Iraq there is a good piece in Vice magazine by Hetav Rojan on the militaryContinue Reading
The Rise Of The Islamic State
Reading Tom Holland’s stupendous (if controversial) history of the foundations of Islam, In the Shadow of the Sword, I wasContinue Reading
Syria’s Other War
As if the dreadful loss in human life and untold misery inflicted upon tens of thousands wasn’t enough the internecineContinue Reading
The Axis Of British Fundamentalism
Recently the British journalist Colin Freeman while reporting on the crisis in Iraq for the Daily Telegraph, the establishment newspaperContinue Reading
AN SIONNACH FIONN 