International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[Joe Molotov]

Grexit makes me think of Grixis.

Grixis is a world of death, darkness, undead, hatred, envy, and a lot of other bad things.

[Kara]

Shards of Europa

[Rufus]

I should translate some Varoufakis headlines from our press. At one point our main shit-rag tabloid got upset about his bike. They were blowing up the fact that it's a "naked" bike, as if there's a hot babe strapped to it.

Jan Böhnermann saves me all the work and does it hilariously so.


Olivier Blanchard's oopsie-woopsies
http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2015/07/09/greece-past-critiques-and-the-path-forward/

Partly as a result of this delay, an important fraction of the funds in the first program were used to pay short term creditors, and to replace private debt by official debt. The bail-out did not however only benefit foreign banks, but also Greek depositors and households, as one-third of the debt was held by Greek banks and other Greek financial institutions.

[benjipwns]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_parliamentary_election,_2017

 

[Joe Molotov]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_parliamentary_election,_2017

 

Get rekt, Progressives.

[Rufus]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jul/12/greek-debt-crisis-eu-leaders-meeting-cancelled-no-deal-live#block-55a2aca5e4b07fc6a121fc4b

"Fall in line, scum." Ugh. German arrogance in full swing. Schäuble is in divide and conquer mode, it seems.

[Kara]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_parliamentary_election,_2017

 

I weathered the indignity of Berlin's pirate party, I can weather this too. *thinks happy thoughts*

[brob]

in more classical doom & gloom: http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2013/Russia-surveillance

[Kara]

Public purchase of the debt just further incentivizes the fucked situation in banking where more and more capital concentrates and society has to step in when things go awry because the threat of contagion is too great.

I mean it'll likely work, but when economic historians look back at this era they're just going to go at the abusive relationship that's being enabled.

[Kara]

I won't really ask how much wishful thinking latitude I get since your plan isn't exactly possible with the current German government, but:

I prefer strong arming large debt holders into accepting livable terms of repayment (like so long to the point where it's not particularly profitable to have held the debt but there's still remittance) with the threat of an ordered bankruptcy. The Greek government has a headache for a long time that won't punish its citizens like the current debacle has, the debt holders will get a middling sum for letting it fall apart this badly, and Western civilization doesn't implode or w/e.

Why this course of action? Because most of the debt holders are national governments at this point. (Only ~60 billion--lol only 60 billion--of Greece's debt is held privately. Its total debt is like 300 billion euros.)

I'd also like to see a whole lot of politicians, financial types, and others tried and put in jail but I'll settle for a gentle purging of Greece's political class to ensure it's difficult for something like this to ever happen again on their end.

[Rufus]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/13/athens-and-eurozone-agree-bailout-deal-for-greece

Welp, they got bent over a barrel. Fucking hell. So much for regaining trust, huh?

There's no way Tsipras will manage to pass this shit.

[fizzel]

Wondered how long it'd take for them to offer tsipras his 30 pieces of silver.

Europhiliac bellends will continue cheering on this farce of a project of course, the biggest privatisation scam in history.

[Rufus]

Take a look at this wonderful agreement:
http://t.co/4OeNBKtyqv (PDF)
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/07/12-euro-summit-statement-greece/

[Kara]

Why are half of the funds from the sale of public assets going to capitalize banks?

[Rufus]

The German government has a raging hate-boner for inflation, even the measly 1.9% target of the Eurozone.

[benjipwns]

Why are half of the funds from the sale of public assets going to capitalize banks?

[Kara]

http://m.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-1042023.html

The machine gun of democracy.

[chronovore]

Why are half of the funds from the sale of public assets going to capitalize banks?

(Image removed from quote.)

Pls photoshop dealwithit glasses on him. Kthxbye

[Cerveza mas fina]

I said this to Walrus and I'll say it here, being tough of Greece is not about Greece at all.

[Cerveza mas fina]

There is so much hate from poor North Western Europeans directed towards immigrants it makes me sick to my stomach.

These people think that closing the borders will magically solve their economic problems, when an influx of cheap labour is probably one of the few things keeping things moving along in some way in Europe.

The whole post war generation is about to go into retirement soon and someone will have to pay to support them.

[benjipwns]

This is the standard refrain on immigration throughout history.

The social welfare states just make it starker that some people aren't considered part of or allowed into society proper.

It's the same thing in the United States where immigrants are seen as lazy grifters come to steal from the people already here. The common reality that they're often alone, live austere lives and often try desperately to fit in or at least not attract attention just makes them worse somehow.

Really, it often seems that the second generation are the "troublemakers" because they're caught between two societies effectively, the third generation has usually settled into the new one.

Note: This doesn't apply to the Jews or Roma. They loot the populace for personal gain and to benefit their race only from the start and for time immemorial. That's why they're so insidious.

[Rufus]

Note: This doesn't apply to the Jews or Roma. They loot the populace for personal gain and to benefit their race only from the start and for time immemorial. That's why they're so insidious.

Don't forget the muslims. They're all agents of a future caliphate.

[benjipwns]

Obama blinks, caves in completely to Iran just like Valerie Jarrett would want:

According to a 159-page document posted online by Russia’s foreign ministry, which it called the final text of the deal, a U.N. resolution lifting sanctions will also express the Security Council’s “desire to build a new relationship with Iran.”

The text says also that Iran has vowed that “under no circumstances” will it ever “seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.” And it describes a joint commission composed of its seven parties to monitor the deal’s implementation.

One issue that will draw close scrutiny from nuclear experts is Iran’s ability to research advanced nuclear technologies while its program is constrained by a deal. Iran now relies on 1970s-era centrifuges to enrich uranium, which are highly inefficient. The document posted by Russian foreign ministry says that after 8½eight and a half years Iran can begin testing up to 30 modern IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges. Analysts fear that, if Iran masters top-quality centrifuges, it might be capable of producing a bomb in a matter of months or weeks soon after the deal’s main restrictions lift in a decade.

On an issue that snagged the talks in their final days, the deal will free Iran from an arms embargo after five years, Obama said Tuesday.

[benjipwns]

A. Stanton Dallas, TX 3 hours ago
A peace-for-our-time-deal if ever there was one.

A legacy not worth the paper it is written on.

A huge and lasting gift to Russia and China in exchange for help and support rendered to Iran in the course of these negotiations.

The day the U.S. permanently became another Europe.

A lasting stain on America’s reputation for standing by its allies that will sully its good name and reputation for generations.

A tragic end to the dreams of millions of people in the Middle East hoping to escape domination and oppressive rule by Iran.

A catastrophe for the Democratic Party.

Those braying sounds of laughter you are now hearing in the distance. They are coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the State Department, the Ayatollah’s prayer houses, the editorial, op-ed and comment sections of the NY Times, the offices of J-Street and everywhere else that enemies of Israel gather.

Democracy’s only outpost in the Middle East; the only Jewish country in the world; the country looked at by most Jews in the world as their spiritual home and refuge in times of crisis. This hideous deal must not stand.

[Kara]

I live in a city with a large immigrant population and my fellow denizens are more American than I'll ever be yet anti-immigration types would see their community torn up but leave me alone.

[VomKriege]

There is so much hate from poor North Western Europeans directed towards immigrants it makes me sick to my stomach.

These people think that closing the borders will magically solve their economic problems, when an influx of cheap labour is probably one of the few things keeping things moving along in some way in Europe.

The whole post war generation is about to go into retirement soon and someone will have to pay to support them.

The problem now is not to have cheap labour, but seems the existence of enough jobs at all. The problem is that saying it out loud would force to challenge the core of our society.

[Rufus]

There is so much hate from poor North Western Europeans directed towards immigrants it makes me sick to my stomach.

These people think that closing the borders will magically solve their economic problems, when an influx of cheap labour is probably one of the few things keeping things moving along in some way in Europe.

The whole post war generation is about to go into retirement soon and someone will have to pay to support them.

The problem now is not to have cheap labour, but seems the existence of enough jobs at all. The problem is that saying it out loud would force to challenge the core of our society.

Eh, we have more jobless people than jobs, but we're now acting like they are just not trying hard enough. We can live in denial of structural joblessness, the rise of shit jobs (which don't pay enough to pay a substantial or any amount of taxes), and we even applaud the growing number of soup kitchens, so...

[Phoenix Dark]

Does Iran have a nuclear bomb yet?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

.com

[close]

[Great Rumbler]

I guess the big question now is whether the GOP can put together enough opposition in Congress to stall or block this deal somehow. It goes without saying that Obama would use every tool in his arsenal as the chief executive to stop them from messing it up, but if the GOP gets themselves sufficiently worked into a frenzy, there's no telling how this might all play out over the next few months.

[recursivelyenumerable]

The day the U.S. permanently became another Europe.

this does seem bad - other than "final countdown" what does anyone remember of them?

[Brehvolution]

I guess the big question now is whether the GOP can put together enough opposition in Congress to stall or block this deal somehow. It goes without saying that Obama would use every tool in his arsenal as the chief executive to stop them from messing it up, but if the GOP gets themselves sufficiently worked into a frenzy, there's no telling how this might all play out over the next few months.

They won't do shit. All talk and no action.

[brawndolicious]

The funny thing is that they have to oppose it to win their primaries but a year from now they'll have to back away from it hard. Assuming Iran is cooperating and there isn't some diplomatic meltdown (pun intended).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

veep Rand Paul part 2?

[close]

[Phoenix Dark]

The funny thing is that they have to oppose it to win their primaries but a year from now they'll have to back away from it hard. Assuming Iran is cooperating and there isn't some diplomatic meltdown (pun intended).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

veep Rand Paul part 2?

[close]

They'll never let it go. There's no negative to absolute opposition. They can dance away from "so you want war instead?" questions as they always do, play the tough guy, and rake in donations.

[benjipwns]

We welcome them into the family of nuclear powers?

[Great Rumbler]

What happens if they decide to go full speed ahead for a bomb after 10 or 15 years?

Presumably the same thing that would happen in the absence of a deal.

[benjipwns]

http://www.smartertimes.com/1423/the-times-yalta-flip-flop-and-iran

It's taken 70 years, but the New York Times has finally seen the light on the matter of Yalta.

Or at least the editor of its editorial page has. That's what I gather from a post by Andrew Rosenthal at "Taking Note," the blog of the Times editorial page. As part of a long list of "most destructive foreign policy decisions," Mr. Rosenthal lists "the decision to carve up Europe with Stalin, creating the Soviet bloc, sparking a nuclear arms race and leaving entire nations in bondage to the Kremlin for a half century."

It's terrific that the senior editorial leadership of the Times has come around to this view of the agreement struck by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in February of 1945. It's been a long time in coming. In its post-Yalta editorial of February 13, 1945, headlined "For Victory and Peace," the Times pronounced that "the first glance" at the "long and detailed agreements" indicated that they "show the way to an early victory in Europe, to a secure peace, and to a brighter world." The Times editorial described Yalta's resolution of the "troublesome problems represented by the names of Poland and Yugoslavia" as "a compromise that will have to be accepted on all sides as the best that can be obtained in the present troubled world."

[Phoenix Dark]

The deal doesn't sound great to me...but I'm not sure why folks were expecting a perfect or even great deal. It's a compromise. And ultimately I'll take it over the alternatives, which are war or a continued state of antagonism/sabre rattling that benefits no one except hardliners and arms dealers. If Iran breaks the deal they'll get shitcanned again by sanctions. With money flowing in/oil flowing out they should be able to increase their influence and continue to challenge Saudi Arabia. That seems far more important and lucrative than taking pot shots at Israel, whose influence seems to be waning.

I'm no expert and will defer to our Eldesr person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation statesmen, Mandark and Kara, of course.

[benjipwns]

Really, Israel's only been such a factor in the region because it was the one thing everybody agreed on. But that's also led to it becoming kinda just something to go through the motions on. Now that these countries are actually developing their own more modern economies and running into their own modern political issues and so on, Israel isn't as important to Syria as say ISIS swallowing up half their territory.

All of which has probably been the person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation plot from the beginning.

[benjipwns]

And by beginning I mean 6000 years ago at the start of the Earth.

[Madrun Badrun]

[brawndolicious]

The funny thing is that they have to oppose it to win their primaries but a year from now they'll have to back away from it hard. Assuming Iran is cooperating and there isn't some diplomatic meltdown (pun intended).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

veep Rand Paul part 2?

[close]

They'll never let it go. There's no negative to absolute opposition. They can dance away from "so you want war instead?" questions as they always do, play the tough guy, and rake in donations.

Is it so important to get donations when you're in the last few months and the only conservative choice? While it took a long time to change some people's minds on healthcare, I think war in the middle east is a much simpler thing to argue against since Americans have experienced it for a decade and a half.

The situation a year from now will probably be undecided voters seeing that this was an actual solution employed on the neighbor of a country we wrongly invaded and left in the hands of a terroristical caliphate. I don't think undecideds will vote for another Bush who doesn't take a more moderate tone and Jeb is probably smart enough to try to think a way out of that trap.

[benjipwns]

Jeb! is the guy who blundered his way into reintroducing the whole Iraq debate on the first official day of his campaign. I wouldn't underestimate his incompetence.

[Cerveza mas fina]

There is so much hate from poor North Western Europeans directed towards immigrants it makes me sick to my stomach.

These people think that closing the borders will magically solve their economic problems, when an influx of cheap labour is probably one of the few things keeping things moving along in some way in Europe.

The whole post war generation is about to go into retirement soon and someone will have to pay to support them.

The problem now is not to have cheap labour, but seems the existence of enough jobs at all. The problem is that saying it out loud would force to challenge the core of our society.

Eh, we have more jobless people than jobs, but we're now acting like they are just not trying hard enough. We can live in denial of structural joblessness, the rise of shit jobs (which don't pay enough to pay a substantial or any amount of taxes), and we even applaud the growing number of soup kitchens, so...

Well I def think the middle class is disappearing everywhere, its just being masked by more and cheaper products

Cheap chains are the only retail on the rise, its a race to the bottok

[Cerveza mas fina]

Hope those crusty fucks are happy now they chose greece over poland in yalta

 

[Great Rumbler]

The funny thing is that they have to oppose it to win their primaries but a year from now they'll have to back away from it hard. Assuming Iran is cooperating and there isn't some diplomatic meltdown (pun intended).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

veep Rand Paul part 2?

[close]

They'll never let it go. There's no negative to absolute opposition. They can dance away from "so you want war instead?" questions as they always do, play the tough guy, and rake in donations.

Is it so important to get donations when you're in the last few months and the only conservative choice? While it took a long time to change some people's minds on healthcare, I think war in the middle east is a much simpler thing to argue against since Americans have experienced it for a decade and a half.

The situation a year from now will probably be undecided voters seeing that this was an actual solution employed on the neighbor of a country we wrongly invaded and left in the hands of a terroristical caliphate. I don't think undecideds will vote for another Bush who doesn't take a more moderate tone and Jeb is probably smart enough to try to think a way out of that trap.

We're talking about the party that's still doing investigations into the Benghazi attack, nearly three years after it happened. That's voted more than 50 times to destroy Obamacare, that still wants to get rid of it even though that's virtually impossible now. I think you're seriously underestimating their willingness to toss piles of red meat to their base.

[brob]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/16/angela-merkel-comforts-teenage-palestinian-asylum-seeker-germany

To be on the receiving end of Mutti's searing compassion

[Rufus]

I refuse to watch that video.

[brawndolicious]

The funny thing is that they have to oppose it to win their primaries but a year from now they'll have to back away from it hard. Assuming Iran is cooperating and there isn't some diplomatic meltdown (pun intended).

spoiler (click to show/hide)

veep Rand Paul part 2?

[close]

They'll never let it go. There's no negative to absolute opposition. They can dance away from "so you want war instead?" questions as they always do, play the tough guy, and rake in donations.

Is it so important to get donations when you're in the last few months and the only conservative choice? While it took a long time to change some people's minds on healthcare, I think war in the middle east is a much simpler thing to argue against since Americans have experienced it for a decade and a half.

The situation a year from now will probably be undecided voters seeing that this was an actual solution employed on the neighbor of a country we wrongly invaded and left in the hands of a terroristical caliphate. I don't think undecideds will vote for another Bush who doesn't take a more moderate tone and Jeb is probably smart enough to try to think a way out of that trap.

We're talking about the party that's still doing investigations into the Benghazi attack, nearly three years after it happened. That's voted more than 50 times to destroy Obamacare, that still wants to get rid of it even though that's virtually impossible now. I think you're seriously underestimating their willingness to toss piles of red meat to their base.

I've only been able to vote through a couple presidential elections but I think this has happened before. Maybe with somebody named Romney or McCain. I mean I'm sure a Ted Cruz or Rand Paul type candidate will stick to their morals but most of the moderate, very well funded candidates are going to be flip flopping based on the next state they have a primary in.

A year from now, they'll be asked what the advantages would have been of maintaining sanctions or even doing an airstrike, and they'll either say that there should be no negotiating with a state sponsor of terrorism and a military strike was okay to do or that maybe it would have allowed them to bargain from a position of greater power if they maintained sanctions for longer. They'll give both answers at different times and places. Bookmark this shit.

[Great Rumbler]

Hey, I hope your optimism proves out, but I haven't forgotten that this is the same group of people who sent a letter directly to the leaders of Iran telling them they'd scuttle any deal Obama made and invited a foreign leader behind Obama's back to trash the negotiations before a joint session of Congress. I'm just really unwilling to give them any benefit of a doubt.

[brob]

[Mandark]

I guess the big question now is whether the GOP can put together enough opposition in Congress to stall or block this deal somehow. It goes without saying that Obama would use every tool in his arsenal as the chief executive to stop them from messing it up, but if the GOP gets themselves sufficiently worked into a frenzy, there's no telling how this might all play out over the next few months.

Because of previous legislation, Congress doesn't need to pass anything for the deal to go through, but they would need to pass a bill to stop it.  Obama's not about to sign anything like that so they'd need a 2/3rds majority in both houses.  The greater threat is that President Jeb or whoever scraps the deal, but even then I'm optimistic.  It would mean withdrawing inspectors and letting the sanctions fall apart, which is maybe too much of an own goal to ignore for publicity's sake.

Of course maybe Iran pushes its luck too much on the implementation and there's friction and it goes pear shaped anyways, but this is still a big fuckin' deal.

[benjipwns]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/21/uk-iran-nuclear-kerry-idUKKCN0PV0KG20150721

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowing to defy American policies in the region despite a deal with world powers over Tehran's nuclear programme was "very disturbing".

"I don't know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that's his policy," he said in the interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, parts of which the network quoted on Tuesday.

"But I do know that often comments are made publicly and things can evolve that are different. If it is the policy, it's very disturbing, it's very troubling," he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei told supporters on Saturday that U.S. policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran's, at a speech in a Tehran mosque punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

"Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant U.S. will not change," Khamenei said.

[chronovore]

Enh.... I can only imagine the Ayatollah's power is not going to be reinforced by saying, "Great news! The evil country we have forever told you was evil, well -- guess what -- we just made a great deal with them!"

We'll have observers in-country to keep them in line, who gives a flying diarrhetic bowel movement what the guy says to keep his herd in line?

[benjipwns]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-richer-iran-will-target-the-americas-1437342912

In the foreword to the 2014 book “Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America,” former Colombian Defense Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez wrote that Venezuela’s “ ‘axis of unity’ with Iran embodies Latin America’s growing distance” from the U.S. “This is not to distract from the many conflicts the U.S. is engaging in the Middle East or elsewhere,” she noted. But she wanted “to remind our northern neighbors of the kind of disengagement in Latin America that led to a nuclear standoff in 1962.”

Now the Obama administration has agreed to phase out many economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for its promises to disable parts of its nuclear program. The deal provides for winding down international restrictions on trade and investment with Iran. It is also expected to gradually liberate more than $100 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the U.S. and other countries.

This means that even if the agreement prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, it will make the world less safe. National Security Adviser Susan Rice admitted as much last Wednesday when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked if “support [for] international terrorism” might be one use for the liberated assets. “In fact,” Ms. Rice said, “we should expect that some portion of that money would go to the Iranian military and could potentially be used for the kinds of bad behavior that we have seen in the region up until now.”

And not only in the Mideast. One likely destination for some of that money will be the Islamic Republic’s military, ideological and terrorist activities in the U.S. backyard. As Joseph Humire, executive director of the Washington-based Center for a Secure Free Society, put it to me last week, “if Iran gets access to the global financial system, they’re going to double down in Latin America.”

...

Propaganda is an Iranian priority. HispanTV, launched in 2011, is a Spanish-language channel run by Iran. It has partnership agreements with state-run television in a number of ALBA countries. In his 2014 book, “Remote Control,” the respected Bolivian journalist Raúl Peñaranda alleged that Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad donated $3 million to President Evo Morales to finance and equip Bolivia’s state-owned television station Abya Yala.

Gen. Douglas Fraser , former head of the United States Southern Command, testified to Congress three years ago that Iran was backing at least 36 Shiite Islamic cultural centers in Central America, the Caribbean and South America. This year Gen. John Kelly, who now runs Southern Command, testified that there are more than 80.

Last October a Hezbollah operative was arrested in Lima on suspicion of plotting terrorism in Peru. Press reports said that police discovered detonators and TNT in his home, and evidence that he may have been scouting out the Jorge Chávez International Airport for a possible attack.

President Obama is boasting that his deal is Reaganesque. But Reagan did not abandon Latin America to enemies of liberty.

[brawndolicious]

It honestly doesn't sound like he said anything that inflammatory. I would be nervous if he actually said anything specific but why would he let his president do the deal if he wanted to jihad it all?

[benjipwns]

UNTRUSTWORTHY, LIARS, CAN'T TRUST 'EM, MAD MULLAHS

MAD

MULLAHS

[benjipwns]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/world/middleeast/isis-transforming-into-functioning-state-that-uses-terror-as-tool.html

ISTANBUL — The Islamic State uses terror to force obedience and frighten enemies. It has seized territory, destroyed antiquities, slaughtered minorities, forced women into sexual slavery and turned children into killers.

But its officials are apparently resistant to bribes, and in that way, at least, it has outdone the corrupt Syrian and Iraqi governments it routed, residents and experts say.

“You can travel from Raqqa to Mosul and no one will dare to stop you even if you carry $1 million,” said Bilal, who lives in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria, and, out of fear, insisted on being identified only by his first name. “No one would dare to take even one dollar.”

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, initially functioned solely as a terrorist organization, if one more coldblooded even than Al Qaeda. Then it went on to seize land.

But increasingly, as it holds that territory and builds a capacity to govern, the group is transforming into a functioning state that uses extreme violence — terror — as a tool.

Uh...yeah...what else do you expect a state to do?!?

That distinction is proving to be more than a matter of perspective for those who live under the Islamic State, which has provided relative stability in a region troubled by war and chaos while filling a vacuum left by failing and corrupt governments that also employed violence — arrest, torture and detention.

While no one is predicting that the Islamic State will become steward of an accountable, functioning state anytime soon, the group is putting in place the kinds of measures associated with governance: issuing identification cards for residents, promulgating fishing guidelines to preserve stocks, requiring that cars carry tool kits for emergencies. That transition may demand that the West rethink its military-first approach to combating the group.

“I think that there is no question that the way to look at it is as a revolutionary state-building organization,” said Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is one of a small but growing group of experts who are challenging the conventional wisdom about the Islamic State: that its evil ensures its eventual destruction.

...

"Honestly, both are dirty, the regime and Daesh,” said Ahmed, owner of an antiques shop who recently fled to Raqqa to avoid airstrikes in outlying areas. But the Islamic State, he said, “is more acceptable here in Raqqa.”

Ahmed, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals, has also lived under the Free Syrian Army, or F.S.A., the rebel group that rose up in 2011 to fight the Syrian government. The F.S.A., he said, is “like the regime. They are thieves.”

Under the Islamic State, he said, life can be brutal, but at least it seems more stable for those who can avoid crossing the group’s leaders. “Here they are implementing God’s regulations,” he said. “The killer is killed. The adulterer is stoned. The thief’s hands are cut.”

A similar sentiment helped the Taliban consolidate power two decades ago in Afghanistan: While the Taliban were feared, and their justice was brutal, they were respected by many Afghans for standing against corruption and chaos — and they remained firmly in control until the American invasion in 2001.

[benjipwns]

[Kara]

[Joe Molotov]

*smirks bourgeoisly*