Some of these people are really up on their understanding of conflict in theoretical and historical context. Comes with the whole revolutionary bit.
This guy gets it.
So does she.
How the fuck do you settle a town? Like, if there’s an existing town, what is the settling that is being done?
This is like saying Clay Buchholz settled his schoolmates’ laptops when he was in college.
Of course, the problems this creates for the people already living in northern Syria are manifold. For example, as part of the process, Turkey is reopening the opening in the border at Tal Abiad that the SDF shut down for the fight against ISIS.
Turkey has been notorious about letting jihadis move back and forth across the border for years. It’s kinda a rueful joke in the west where they’ve never had the kind of organization that Rojava, to say noting of a whole bunch of Green Berets, had to staunch the flow.
This move re-engages the issue of how well understood it is on the ground that militant jihadis are being deployed i this conflict.
<WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW (TWITTER VIDEO)>
Like, some time ago the international community was willing to express fears about ethnic clashes. But now pretty much everyone accepts that yeah, racism, tribalism, religious bigotry, etc. are primary drivers on the ground despite that claims the various state governments are making.
Like, it’s far from a theoretical concern when there is mounting video evidence. Here’s an example:
<SECOND WARNING: GUY GETS SHOT>
The fascination some of these guys have with documenting their crimes is really something.
Of course, the issue of identity and definition is rather central to this conflict, with respect to who gets to kill whom.
Which makes some of the consequences of Assad’s Russian backed proposal that the SDF join the Syrian Army wonderfully humorous.
The problem of definitions and who is allowed to kill whom had already been weaponized by Turkey. This is a fascinating twist.
Now if the idea of people swapping hats changing who kills whom seems a little too po-mo—
—then, recall this from a Nov 18 post:
From the point of view of boots on the ground, it’s just Kabuki theater. Or rather, as someone I know put it, it’s a performative act but Kabuki is meant to call attention to itself and have its meaning best understood by elites, so it’s the negotiations that are Kabuki and really are just distracting us from a war that is about anybody but the people actually fighting it who are pawns for other interests. But as with many things, it’s not symmetrical in effect; the Kabuki theater offers appearances constructive activity while actually providing legitimacy and cover for a status quo that is characterized by ongoing violence.
And now consider Russian’s media broadcasting of this:
It’s just the world we’re living in.
Rojava to Rock 