Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s sorta weird, but collaborating with ISIS is still technically illegal even with Turkey so clearly supporting militia that have been thoroughly infiltrated by jihadis, as they’ve been helpful enough to document for us. But yeah—there’s still somehow anti ISIS law enforcement. My latest: Manbij anti-terror forces bust ISIS human smuggling ring in north Syriahttps://t.co/7qa08fMcq4Continue reading “Nov 25 (2/6): The Law of War”

There is something unnerving about the predictability of the grinding of the gears. And yet despite the inexorably predictability of the process, the violence inflicted comes off as arbitrary, sometimes almost capricious. It must drive people insane. A Tale of Two Cities. Fighting quiets down one place. Quiet at Ayn Issa today. Lots of TFSAContinue reading “Nov 25 (1/6): A Tale of Two Cities”

Because I share an alma mater with one of the guys in Penn & Teller (the magicians who people get mad at for telling how tricks wok), I’m going to rip a bit of the curtain back for people who are interested in seeing how following a war on Twitter actually works even though itContinue reading “Nov 24 (5/5): The Devil’s InstaGram”

Every once in awhile you get a clear glimpse of one of the “miscellaneous” players in the conflict that demonstrates why this is so confusing to follow, i.e. it’s bug fucking insane. Check it out: The headquarters of terrorism in Kfarouma are on fire — Y.N.M.S (@ynms79797979) November 24, 2019 hunting map to Goat fuckers-ZarzourContinue reading “Nov 24 (4/4): Leagues of Shady Gentlemen”

Further adventures in legal formalism! Also: Why the phrase “that’s just semantics” should never, ever be fucking used again. Ever. It doesn’t mean what people think. The degree to which definitions matter in Syria right now beggar belief. So this is great: Russia wants to avoid fighting with TURKEY. The TFSA are different. SOHR isContinue reading “Nov 24 (3/5): Russia: Formally at War”

Remember, remember, twenty-fifth of November… OK, so this is going to appear to be a digression into International Women’s Day which is relevant to the conflict in Syria in a lot of ways, obviously, but a more serious consideration of that would delve into jineology and shit, and this is not that. The best wayContinue reading “Nov 24 (2/5): Happy International Men’s Day!”

I’ve mentioned before that a lot of the people on the Rojava “side” of the conflict actually police or, if you will, “mod” [moderate] the communications even on the Twitters. I’ve even seen people “shout” “We’re better than that!” in response to a debunked image of a Kurdish child being wounded in the early daysContinue reading “Nov 24 (1/5): Modding the War”

Note: I first apologize if there is a long load time on this post. Trying something new that I hope will be interesting for this post and, if it works, it should be worth the load time. Thank you for your consideration. Ayn Issa is lit. I was going to call it the Battle forContinue reading “Nov 23 (3/3): The Struggle for Ayn Issa”

So Turkey is continuing to convoy people into the towns it occupies in northern Syria as part of the ethnic cleansing campaign that Erdogan has sometimes explicitly described as such and other times said he would never do it because it would be cruel to the Arab refugees in Turkey. But, like with everything inContinue reading “Nov 23 (2/3): Demographic Engineering: Not So Clean”

People, Place & Thing: 3 POVs on the big picture. Groups on the ground continue to facilitate research, fact checking, interviews, and investigations into the situation on the ground for the international community. This kind of facilitation has been made even more necessary than would normally be expected, particularly with respect to the humanitarian crisis, dueContinue reading “Nov 23 (1/3): Notes from the Above Ground”