Or as Napoleon Bonaparte put it…
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
Truer words were never spoken.
4 Likes
The question is whether such a model can work over time, with a larger population, and without a crisis to be reacting against. Given imperfect human nature, I reluctantly have my doubts, but if they can make it last it’ll be a truly great thing. And meanwhile, that this is the model of success against something like ISIL (sorry, Isis is an Egyptian goddess and always will be) is spectacular.
2 Likes
More of this TPM and less clickbait, and I’ll be paying that prime subscription. Excellent article. Excellent.
3 Likes
Most of the U.S. airstrikes in Syria are in support of the Kurds in Kobane; also, there was a recent airdrop of food and ammunition to these Kurds in Kobane, in defiance of Turkish opposition, by the U. S. Air Force. So, the Pentagon is very well aware of what these Kurds are accomplishing…with our assistance.
For those of you petitioning Josh for more articles like this, may I point out that this article is part of The Slice, a new offshoot of TPM, and the editor you should be thanking and petitioning is Nona Willis Aronowitz.
4 Likes
Without borders, they aren’t really the Middle East, are they?
They aren’t a Republic but are a Democracy without the grotesque capitalism. That means that they have a lot of natural enemies besides the Islamic State. President Obama is helping them so not a single Republican in any variation will appreciate what they are accomplishing, without even having to take into account the color of their skin or the fact that women are viewed as equals.
For some reason, ISIL attracts young Americans into their ranks. With just a little media coverage, this freedom movement in Syria could recruit entire nations whilst putting a big hurt on the worst terrorists of the world and planting seeds of doubt in the rest of them.
Talk unbelief, and you will have unbelief; but talk faith, and you will have faith. According to the seed sown will be the harvest.
Ellen G. White
1 Like
The Pentagon has been less than forthcoming with support for these enemies of our enemies; their fighters are still on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations
Wasn’t al-qaeda considered “good” terrorist once? Do tell me, “but this time will be different”. Stop giving people weapons… unless you actually want those weapons to be pointed at you later – then have at it.
1 Like
Actually I heard about this and watched it about a month ago on Al Jazeera America. But I guess that would put me in the minority wouldn’t it.
And I couldn’t hardly believe it then. But now we know Kobane has not fallen. And it was these women on the front lines.
1 Like
Now this is a really important story. I first heard about it about a month ago on Al Jazeera America, and couldn’t hardly believe it then. It featured these women fighters, and they were damn tough. But even in the way they conducted themselves it was more like Occupy Wall Street except IS was trying to kill them but they killed them first.
Thanks TPM for a story that needs to be told.
This is the first article I’ve read in a while that makes me happy to support this site. That said, the article is framing the US as being non-supportive of Kobane, while other articles I’m reading on the subject around the web paint Kobane as something of a quiet project of the US support – perhaps not getting a LOT of support and certainly with a fair bit of media whitewashing in the USA, but getting enough that other resistance groups against ISIS are a bit jealous. Perhaps this could have been addressed in the article?
We (the powers that be) don’t really want to talk about nationalistic terrorist organizations like PKK and Hamas. Doing so offends our Allies like Turkey and Israel.
How do you reconcile this article with the 2/2/15 WSJ article that details air strikes as a key reason Syria drove back the militants in Kobani? It is not a leading question… I am not well-read on this conflict.
Now make a story about Kurdish killing Turkish Policemans, Soldiers, kids, kurds, etc…