Oh yeah. That. Honestly hard to keep track these days.
I always think of the many infernos being lived on this planet, in this very moment, that no one cares or knows about. The injustice and atrocities committed, where there are no journalists reporting from.
And then there is this, kind of even worse, inferno. Everyone knew about it, but it got eclipsed by all the other, bigger, infernos.
We’re a fun and peace loving species.
So many fucked up governments and civil wars in Africa.
I wonder if ruthless European colonialism might possibly have something to do with it?
In this case it’s ISIS religious colonialism. That’s not quite European.
Why do you think ISIS exists in the first place?
ISIS exists because Taymiyyan Salafists forced out of power by the dissolution of the Iraqi army joined with their Jordanian counterparts to create a caliphate and force everyone in the Greater Syrian region to live in it, which has been the goal of Taymiyyans since at least the 14th century in spirit, if not name. Are you saying that is a reaction to European colonialism?
I can’t tell if you’re implying the Ottomans, the Hashemites, the Ba’athists, or the United States are European colonizers, or someone else? Maybe the Hashemites, since they were allied with Britain and France in WW1 against the Ottomans?
Who do you think ought to have sovereignty in Iraq? The Ba’athists? That’s who helped ISIS gain control in the first place, and they’ve always been against the majority Shia in the area.
Why does Iraq exist? Do you think it might have something to do with the British Mandate?
The British Mandate that lasted less than 2 decades between Ottoman imperial rule and Iraqi independence? Yeah, it has something to do with Iraq’s existence, but it doesn’t define it, and isn’t the sole explanation for it, especially in its current form. Do you feel at all like you minimize the agency, relevancy, and life experiences of millions of people who lived in or ruled that region over millenia when you focus only on European colonization of a place that has never been an actual colony of a European nation? At least, none of my Iraqi coworkers believe it was, and one just got annoyed at me for even proposing it. But that’s an anecdotal appeal to authority, I suppose, so maybe I should discount their views and knowledge of their own history. Do you answer questions, or only ask them?
