Genocide – Chaldean Christians – Iraq

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Political Psychology, Regions, Religion

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“Tal Kayf is now in the hands of the Islamic State. They faced no resistance and rolled in just after midnight,” said Boutros Sargon, a resident who fled the town and was reached by phone in Arbil.

“I heard some gunshots last night and when I looked outside, I saw a military convoy from the Islamic State. They were shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is greatest],” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/isis-offensive-iraq-christian-exodus – 8/7/2014.

BackChannels Comment

Unfortunately, when it comes to political absolutism (why I call them the dictator “Putin-Assad-Khamenei”), despotism, and fascism (Hungary’s Jobbik now relates to Iranian heritage), there seems no end to variants.

ISIS has been proving vulnerable to the Kurdish Peshmerga, who know what will happen to them if they lose, and some ad hoc assembly of very small ambush parties that are targeting its leaders. Nonetheless, they’re using Erdogan’s embassy in Mosul as a headquarters (and they have gotten Erdogan to purchase $800 million in oil from them — and Erdogan has blacked out mention of the story in Turkey . . . all of which is bad news for NATO and the Turkish people).

The story with dictators who “take off” always ends in surreal depravity and sadism, and that much BadDaddy Baghdaddi’s lunatics have clearly accomplished.

More From the News

Jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq today have forced 100,000 Christians to flee as they occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts.

They have fled with nothing but their clothes, some on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region, according to Louis Sako, the leader of Iraq’s largest Christian denomination.

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2014/08/07/21/51/thousands-of-christians-flee-jihadists-in-iraq#5PB1tIbs4sBUCXi0.99 – 8/7/2014.

CNN interview with Mark Arabo, Los Angeles –

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/08/06/idesk-iraq-christians-persecuted-mark-arabo-intv.cnn.html

Related:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/07/the-islamic-states-bloody-campaign-to-exterminate-minorities-even-genghis-khan-didnt-do-this/ – 8/7/2014.

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07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Now everything has changed. The glass is empty, the world sees that it is empty, but the Russian media proclaims: “The glass is completely full.” And no sooner does the glass become full again than we hear: “It is empty. There is nothing there.” I worked for Soviet newspapers during the terms of four Soviet leaders, from Leonid Brezhnev to Mikhail Gorbachev, and this is the first time the authorities have lied so brazenly and shamelessly. They have truly reached a new low.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putins-media-lives-in-an-alternate-reality/504339.html – 7/30/2014.

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Aside

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology

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Our “malignant narcissists” — self-aggrandizing, grandiose, messianic personalities who prize for themselves the absolute control of others (like that dictator “Putin-Assad-Khamenei”) — work hard to script and limit the intellectual experience of their marks. They do that by producing with force (intimidation) and wealth a pervasive information environment around themselves and in foreign states an alternative press, which is really their press.

When next we see a “Gaza Flotilla” or an “Apartheid Week” demonstration, it’s worth giving some thought to the character in personality involved in the mounting of the same.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve seen coordination lists for the kind of “actions” that “make the news”.  There’s nothing spontaneous about them or actually mysterious as regards the motivations for involvement.  The argument is only about power, not actually doing anything for anyone, and just back of that argument are despots and fascists who through their rhetoric convey perhaps love and family (of a sort) to those who would and do follow them.

However, the history of the same follows a familiar program, and none should be surprised by either the accumulation of wealth or ruin brought to others attending the life of, say, a Mugabe, the junta in Burma, a Putin with a “mafia state”, a Khamenei, a Khaled Mashaal (worth billions of dollars today), and so on.

The despotic tend also to be demonic.

Assault videos posted by ISIS online become their own reflection: in essence, they put on display exactly what they look like.

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06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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This time around, small, clandestine groups calling themselves “white shrouds” have adopted a low-profile tactic of assassinating ISIS militants and attacking their positions, in contrast to the earlier tactic of well-known Islamist and Free Syrian Army militias leading the fight.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Aug-04/265968-white-shrouds-mobilize-against-isis-in-syria.ashx#ixzz39fGjNjxy – 8/4/2014.

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If Hamas Breaks the Ceasefire, Israel Shoots Back (As If Any Gazan Needs Reminding)

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology

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A senior Cairo-based Hamas official said late on Wednesday there was no agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians over the extension of a 72-hour Gaza ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday.

“There is no agreement on the extension of the truce,” Moussa Abu Marzouk wrote on his Twitter feed.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4555803,00.html – 8/6/2014.

What I have seen of “malignant narcissists”, secular as well as religious, engaged in conflict is that they are all-in with their chips (as long as other people are the chips they play — and their backers, bankers, and handlers are every bit as evil as themselves).  In essence, they do not reason (why should they?), they have no off button (what would be the point if they had to modify their own aggrandizement?), and they draw destruction all around themselves (is that not glorious, grand, and romantic?).

In more constrained arenas, there’s only so much damage a nutcase of a narcissist can do — e.g., build and sink a business; make and break a Hollywood career — but in politics and in control of a fief or state, the breed is just cold bad news.

Cloaked in religion, seducing their marks with sweet words, pirating the wealth of a community, bathed in perfume and smiling kindly while blood wells up around their ankles, such seems to me the world of men who confuse themselves with God and get others to go along with them.

How bad does it get with one of these vampires and its minions inhabiting the body of your community?

(8/6/2014)

Addendum

A senior Israeli official told the BBC Israel had expressed its readiness to extend the truce under its current terms beyond its expiry on Friday.

However, a member of the Palestinian delegation at the Cairo talks, Moussa Abu Marzouk, wrote on Twitter: “There is no agreement to extend the ceasefire.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28683800 – 8/6/2014.

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06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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I now have confirmation that The Lancet resisted publishing rebuttal letters. Only after a tedious and protracted back-and-forth did they publish a letter online, written by two Americans, Jeremy M. Levin and Ron Cohen, which critiqued the pseudo-scientific piece which attacked Israel and amounted to a series of Blood Libels against the Jewish state.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/05/Medical-Journal-Resisted-Publishing-Rebuttal-Letters-to-Inflammatory-Anti-Israel-Piece – 8/5/2014

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06 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Where are the human rights and “solidarity” crowds on this?

“Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqi-yazidis-stranded-on-isolated-mountaintop-begin-to-die-of-thirst/2014/08/05/57cca985-3396-41bd-8163-7a52e5e72064_story.html – 8/5/2014.

And what kind of leader lays this kind of siege to innocents?

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