IMO this impacted analysis of Iran and Venezuela, particularly arguments that a reflexive anti-Americanism would convince a populace that had been starved and brutalized for years (in Iran's case subject to a brutal crackdown less than two months ago) to come out for a shaky-looking regime.
There's a trend you sometimes see in predictions of massive, coordinated resistance to occupation that takes the governing regime's rhetoric and the attitudes it works to publicly promote as a stand-in for attitudes among the wider population, or presumes an automatic rally-round-the-flag effect.
There’s also this fascinating case of a Naqshbandi-Ba’athist insurgent group in Iraq, the only one I can recall which still actively professed Ba’athism and continuity with Saddam all the way into 2020(? they might have fallen apart in 2016).
Chechen Islam at the time of its fierce resistance to Russian conquest and the first war of independence in the 1990s was Naqshbandi Sufism, and that hardly made them a pack of navel-gazing hippies.
“We cannot control what the premier says or does. My job is to make sure that we are ready for a referendum, because it sure as hell looks like the premier is hell-bent to have one, so we will be ready to fight one,”.
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People defend Bullshit Jobs with a fervor that's almost religious but more ... have you ever seen someone moved by like really shitty art but they were 12 and going through a rough patch and they get mad about people criticizing the art but can't defend it?
It's like that, but for nonfiction.
Khorramabad percs got me contemplating commercial off the shelf ballistic missile components, my regional proxies WILL have exoatmospheric strike capabilities
I got so high I had to fight an ajdar for the last of the xans. This the type of shit that got you seeing zardosht doing battle with ahriman and his army of lion-men. This shit ain't nothin to me man
There is also this piece where the author responds to being invited to dinner by spending a fair whack of the article railing against the cooking of his host’s wife and Chechens in general, intercut with anecdotes that build to literally nothing.
As an aside I need a moment to bitch about a travel outlet named Roads And Kingdoms which put out some of the most bizarre and patronizing articles I’ve ever read, such as this response to the Boston bombings trying to defend Chechens where point 1 is literally “they always wear fresh kicks.”
I remember a lot of articles which fell into a predictable trap of basically declaring all Sufism to be peaceful and quietist vs. puritanical mainline Sunnism, without any consideration of Sufi orders’ actual history beyond the ritual aspect and focus on inwardly journeying with God.
This produced some truly spectacular takes, ranging from ”Shi’ites are inherently more radical because of their focus on martyrdom, sainthood etc. over worldly Sunnis” to “Shi’ism, as a frequently persecuted minority faith in many places is incapable of discriminating against Sunnis anywhere.“
This also helps produce really sane and normal opinions when crudely mapping Christian sectarian preferences onto an often bitter and complicated sectarian relationship driven by entirely different disputes and grievances which your audience has no understanding of.
(Worth noting I am far from an expert on the ins and outs of the Revolution- most of this comes from learning how political developments in post-Revolution Iran influenced the Iran-Iraq War.)
The College emerged as an essential part of administering a massive organization, with many centuries of evolution in its structure, role and power vs. the Pope. The Guardian Council was set up in no small part to make sure Khomeinism couldn’t lose control of Iran’s courts and legislature.
In that regard it’s not exactly like the Vatican (though Shi’ism or even Sufism are sometimes lazily compared to Catholicism especially in 2000s-era baby’s-first-Islam-lesson commentary on Iraq and such) in that it’s much less institutionalized.
I will look for some of my university readings on Khomeinism. I think it’s worth noting that a lot of this system was also deeply personalist and emerged during a chaotic post-Revolutionary period where Khomeini and his faction had to work hard to suborn parliament and competing factions.
It’s pretty remarkable seeing how a precept that (to the best of my understanding) originated with traditional clerical guardianship of widows and orphans expanded into a philosophy of government and a clerical right to exercise authority over law and politics.
Please I need Chromehounds 2, I will crawl over broken glass for Fromsoft to sell the ip to a bunch of turbonerds who make milsim Chromehounds 2
Iraq's first lady, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, a political/humanitarian figure from a prominent (& very political) Sulimaniyah-rooted Kurdish family closely tied to the PUK, coming in hot with a free history lesson for people who think Iraqi Kurds might be unquestioningly game for more US bait-and-switch.
It would in fact be the most surefire way I can think of to ENSURE Turkey becomes intractably hostile to the Western countries.
Turkey, of course, is a population of 86 million people, the second largest military in NATO, and the world's 11th largest economy by GDP.
*The war between the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and Pakistan continues in many areas, sparking a significant refugee crisis, so far contained and supported by the UN agencies. Those however, are at maximum capacity, overwhelmed preparing in the whole region.
Oh?
I like how the fact that Turkey is in NATO is basically just irrelevant to the op-ed class
What the fuck
It’s been 20 years since then of course, and lots has happened in law enforcement, organized crime or organized labour, but if ever there was a DOJ that would let this kind of neglected but vital work collapse completely, it’s absolutely these guys.
(Many trustees were attorneys or judges who lacked prior experience with union organizing and democracy and had to learn as they went along, with highly variable approaches and rates of success and no regular system for handing off to new trustees or passing down lessons learned.
Even into the 2000s the mob was attempting to preserve and re-establish its power over these unions and erode union democracy, with many unions languishing in a trusteeship system that was not exactly smooth sailing and took a lot of conscious effort.
This has weirdly reminded me of a specific problem highlighted in James B Jacobs’ Mobsters, Unions And Feds, namely that as of 2006 many of the mafia-dominated unions in New York (particularly “small trades” unions in sectors like construction, etc.) were still under active RICO consent decrees.
