Monthly Archive:: November 2015
25 Nov 2015
InfoMullet: Battle of Five Armies PT II
TLDR Up Front: The Syrian government remains holding the most gains in the Aleppo battle, but a counter-offensive by the Al-Nusrah front aims to undermine those gains southwest of the city, while ISIS continues to try and contain the Syrian government's advance east of Aleppo to Kuweyenes air force base.
19 Nov 2015
InfoMullet: A (Brief) History of Salafi Takfirism
TLDR Up Front: Evaluate your news sources by applying the Eurocentric Bechdel test! In addition to the Eurocentric lead role upon which the news story will (of course!) primarily focus on, are there *at least* two named indigenous influential actors presented with their own agency, motivations and conflicts/disputes that are not tied to the Eurocentric
18 Nov 2015
InfoMullet: History of the Names of ISIS
TLDR Up Front: The Islamic State of Syria & Iraq (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) is just the latest in a series of names for a salafist takfiri group, each representing a shift in their strategy and geographic perspective, as well as efforts by opponents to portray them in a negative light (eg. Daesh); which have largely
14 Nov 2015
InfoMullet: Segmentation of Salafi Takfiri among all Muslims
TLDR Upfront: In light of the Paris attacks for those who want to (rightfully) avoid the fallacy of generalizations (1) in describing the attackers I recommend using the term "Salafist Takfiri" to *specifically* describe militant members of groups such as AQ, ISIS, AQAP, Boko Haram etc. who share a common set of behaviors and beliefs.
06 Nov 2015
InfoMullet: Battle of Five Armies PT I
TLDR Up Front: Although Aleppo has been the Sarajevo of Syria since 2012, it's forming into just such a battle as no less than six distinctly separate major forces converge onto the city from all sides. This is creating a "swirling" effect visible on the map as each group takes, loses and retakes ground. Except