Adam responds to some questions from his recent post. This is a few days old because I forgot to post it, but the info is still relevant:
Answers to Some of the Questions Raised in the Islamic State Post
Adam L. Silverman, PhD*For tonight’s entry in (M)Ad Homonym Theater I wanted to try to answer a couple of the questions that were raised yesterday in the comments to my post on ISIL. The first of these will be BettyCracker’s question on the best way to break the chain of neutralization and drift. I want to approach this one very carefully. I am not applying this empirical theory in a very systematic way. Rather I had been asked, back in 2010, by someone I was providing support for with the Department of Defense (DOD), if I could provide a socio-cultural explanation for why we had a small number of Muslim-American and Anglo-Muslim youth suddenly trying to get to Pakistan and Afghanistan to join al Qaeda (AQ), as well as a small number who actually made it to Somalia to join al Shabab or to Yemen to join up with the AQ affiliate there. When I dug into the news’ reporting on the four or five youth that were stopped from going to Pakistan/Afghanistan – I think they were from the DC suburbs – and the ones that made it to either Somalia or Yemen, what struck me was the similarity to what Sykes and Matza had theorized. The more recent examples with ISIL and the other Syrian rebel groups, such as the one that Anne Laurie wrote about last night, also strike me as good examples of neutralization and drift. Essentially, I’m eyeballing it…
Now that the caveats are out of the way… There have been a number of attempts to incorporate solutions rooted in neutralization and drift into either crime reduction or delinquency diversion over the years. Some of these are built into the concepts of restorative justice, as well as many other programs, which seek to reinforce established norms in order to prevent techniques of neutralization from leading to drift. As one might imagine, and as with a lot of the attempts to translate criminology’s vast empirical explanations for crime, deviance, and delinquency, we are a lot better at diagnosing or explaining the problem than we are at prescribing solutions to them based on our theoretical explanations. Where I see the possibility of utilizing the recognition that we are observing a form of neutralization and drift is to connect it to engagement with communities – leadership, other elites and notables within the communities who could function as role models, and as many other community members that can be reached – to counteract the most likely neutralization techniques. There are five of these, but the three that seem to be most likely in play here are: denial of victim (retribution against perceived injustice/the victim had it coming), condemnation of the condemners (action against perceived hypocrisy), and appeals to higher authority (religious, ideological, etc). According to Sykes and Matza, using these techniques provide one with episodic relief from conformity to norms allowing for drift. As a result the solution is to try to remove the salience and validity of these appeals and provide other, more acceptable, and less negative and destructive outlets for periodic forays away from conformity.
Linnaues asked what I meant by reactionized. When I was in grad school I was exposed to writings on ideology that broke up the spectrum (from Left to Right) as Radical; Liberal with breakouts for Classic, Economic, and Social; Centrist (moderate is often used here); Conservative with breakouts for Economic, Social, and/or Religious; Authoritarian; and Reactionary. Moreover, the best way to graphically display this was to use a horseshoe with the two ends actually closer to each other than they are to the center, rather than as a left right continuum plotted along a line. Since then I have read a lot of other things that provide even better and more nuanced explanations of ideology, such as Professor Robin’s and Professor Altemeyer’s work, but what always stuck with me was how reactionary was defined as the belief in an imagined golden age in the past and the attempt to reconstruct it in the present. This was contrasted with radical, which is the belief in an imagined, better future and the attempt to create it in the present. In both cases one could attempt to achieve one’s utopia, whether of the past or future, violently, non-violently, or as a combination. When you look at the type of Islam that is propagated by the hardcore believers within ISIL, or by bin Laden or Zawahiri, what they are promoting is a return to an imagined, glorious past. The reality of that past is not what they have bought into. However, they think it was how they conceptualize it and believe that they can recreate it. Most problematic – they are willing to use force to get there. I hope that clears the usage question up.
Suffern ACE: Sorry I was unclear, my worry is for the Muslims who have come from Europe, more than for those who have come from the US as 1) there are much more of them and 2) Chechnya is in Eastern Europe, so there is a proximity concern as well.
Villago Delenda Est: Yes, ISIL is one of the negative effects. The only Islamic extremists in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq were in his prisons or those from other states he was sheltering for his own foreign policy purposes. He did not tolerate religious extremists within the Iraqi populace as they were a threat to his dictatorship. He was, like the rulers in many other parts of the Middle East, more than happy to fund them where they would be someone else’s problem, but he was ruthless with them when they were found within Iraq. ISIL grew out of AQI, which developed in the social, political, economic, and security vacuum that we created in Iraq.
Chris: Some of the Awakenings folks were able to form political parties or join Ayyad Allawi’s coalition and get into either provincial government positions or into the Iraqi parliament. A lot of them, however, were rolled up. When I was in Iraq in 2008, as the US was getting manipulated on how the provincial elections were going to be done, PM Maliki was regularly rolling up or trying to roll up Awakenings groups that were involved in fielding candidates for those elections. I remember reporting in Iraqi and regional news on these operations for Awakenings folks in Wassit and Diyala Provinces (My brigade’s operating environment was in between the two). Moreover, because Iraq belonged to the Iraqis and we were beginning to transfer sovereignty by mid 2008, we began to transition control of the Sons of Iraq to the Iraqi government. As many as possible were supposed to be incorporated into the Iraqi Security Forces, this never really/properly happened. At the same time PM Maliki was setting up his own version that would be loyal to him as part of the attempt to coup proof himself. The Awakenings and Sons of Iraq folks are still in Iraq. They are the tribal Sunnis and some of the tribal Shi’a. A good deal of the tribal Sunnis are exploiting ISIL to get back at the Iraqi government, which they perceive as anti-Sunni. Others, such as the ones who won political office in Anbar Province, have made public appeals for US help against ISIL. AQI, ISIL’s progenitor, really mistreated the tribal Sunnis. They attempted to both impose their understanding of Islam and short circuit the kinship relations. This worked in Afghanistan, because kinship dynamics under the Pashtu do not look anything like those among the Iraqis. It also worked because religion and kinship were not blended in Afghanistan as they are in Iraq – many of the sheikhs I did engagements with are also imams. Members of the Anbar tribes have long memories…
Mnemosyne: actually I did type it quickly and did NOT proof it properly before sending it across. I promised John I would get it to him yesterday morning. I had a 1:30 PM meeting that was an hour away and was rushing to meet both the commitments I had made. And as is the case with anything anyone writes: it is always easier to catch other’s errors than one’s own; especially, when one is working in a hurry. You are not incorrect that clean writing or precise writing should have few, if any errors – factual or stylistic. However, the homonym errors that so assaulted your senses are some of the most common ones made when working in haste. As for my dissertation, two theses, and every report, assessment, research note, etc that I do professionally, I usually write them in crayon on construction paper. Actually, I have two or three folks proof them for me to make sure I do not miss anything. That’s just good practice. What always amazes me is when we all manage to miss one little thing. Apparently each of us are not as dumb as all of us combined…
* Adam L. Silverman most recently served as a civilian subject matter expert with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Security Dialogue and US Army Europe. Prior to that he was the Cultural Advisor at the US Army War College from JUL 2010 through JUN 2014. He was deployed in Iraq as the Cultural Advisor for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team/1st Armored Division in 2008.
Your turn.
Baud
What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
khead
I need a third team to put with the Bengals and Eagles in a 3 team parlay in DE this weekend – and I don’t want to have to fade the Steelers in Carolina. Who should I take?
Betty Cracker
Thank you for another informative and thoughtful take on the situation. General question for anyone: Did you see Chelsea Manning’s take on the ISIS situation in The Guardian? She makes a lot of sense, IMO.
magurakurin
Wow. Someone is kind enough to give his valuable time to spread a little light and reason here, and Mnemosyne slags him for some spelling errors?
Really poor form.
I apologize to Mr. Silverman for that. I am embarrassed as a long time reader, general lurker and occasional commenter.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Baud: European or African?
Betty Cracker
@magurakurin: I’ve participated on blogs / message boards populated solely by editors that had fewer pedants than this one. It’s a mystery.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I…I don’t know that.
Howard Beale IV
@Betty Cracker: Indeed she does. I would like to think what what Prof. Cole has to say.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Betty Cracker:
Actually, it should read “It’s a puzzlement.”
/Young Frankenstein pedant.
LT
@magurakurin: Isn’t *pretty poor form* the skin, bones, and blood of that particular beast?
Gene108
What do you mean by kinship dynamics? How exactly are they different between Iraq and Afghanistan?
My general understanding of the Taliban rise to power was they had the backing of the Pakistani military, which gave them a logistical advantage over other militias. They also promised an honest government in the Pashtun regions, so they were able to establish local governments. They totally lacked any desire to deal with other ethnic groups in any manner other than force and intimidation, which galvanized various militias into the Northern Alliance.
Al Qaeda was invited into Afghanistan, by the Taliban, but I do jot believe they had an active, direct role, in governing Afghanistan, which was still in the hands of the Taliban.
Also, any thoughts on where Pakistan fits into the grand scheme of things, with regards to ISIL. Pakistan propped up the Taliban, in exchange for terrorist training bases, in Eastern Afghanistan, with which to attack India. They have cracked down a bit on the Frankenstein monster, they created, of terrorist groups setting up bases within their border, from some news accounts, but by all accounts they are still actively backing the Taliban’s activities in Afghanistan.
Mnemosyne
I probably should have said that I am a proofreader by trade, so running across errors makes me cringe much more than a normal person. But, really, I was responding more to the other commenters who claimed that anyone who cared about grammar and usage could only be a troll, and you kind of got caught in the cross-fire. ;-)
Mnemosyne
@magurakurin:
It was a little more complicated than that — you can go to the original thread if you like. It was more that one commenter who picked up on a couple of errors was getting piled on as a troll, so I pointed out that I had noticed the errors, too, and it kind of spiraled from there.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker: Her tetrapartite “strategy to disrupt the growth of Isis” seems reasonable. I have questions but still — reasonable.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: The difference between containing ISIS and avoiding direct action against ISIS is somewhat murky.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): To say the least.
By the way, have you ever seen “The King and I” on stage or screen?
Gene108
@Gene108:
Just wanted to clarify my point, Al Qaeda never governed anything , ISIL is trying to govern territory they have conquered. In this regard, I do not see how ISIL is comparable to al Qaeda. They seem more like the Taliban.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: On screen, yes. Why do you ask?
John Cole +0
If people get fits from spelling and grammar errors, they clearly have never read anything I have written. They must just skip by those posts.
The Dangerman
Sure, I got questions. The topic isn’t ISIS, but rather…
…”Great Examples of Exercising Your Rights in 2014″.
First example: The Open Carry crowd converges on Chili’s and were castigated (and, I believe, rightly so). Were they within their rights? As best I can tell (as IANAL), apparently so, but, exercising their rights or not, they were assholes, IMNSHO.
Second example: An African American actress refuses to provide ID to police and she’s hailed for exercising HER rights (even though she MAY have been required to submit her ID per the LAT; at best, it is unclear). Even if she was exercising her rights (same as Chili’s example above) and she didn’t HAVE to turn over, I find her actions questionable (same as the Chili’s example, above).
Of course, being consistent (again, IMNSHO) between those two examples earns me accusations of calling the actress Uppity in the thread this morning, among a variety of other epithets tossed my way.
So, explain to me why people clearly exercising their rights (Example 1) is bad (and I believe that it was) and a second person exercising her, at best, questionable rights (Example 2) is good.
Maybe, just maybe, people, whether white and gun-carrying or African American and allegedly carseat fucking, can both be idiots for exercising their rights (if those are even held, again see LAT).
Cervantes
@efgoldman:
Saw that in the Globe.
I have to say, an article about “the language police” that does not even mention Henry Fowler is just … well … odd.
John Cole +0
@Howard Beale IV: I thought it was interesting. Not much to add because with that limited space all she can offer is broad outlines. It’s akin to describing a cat as saying it has a tail, four legs, whiskers, and meows, and those are all true (in most cases), but it is vague and doesn’t really give you the feel for what a cat is.
If that makes sense.
Howard Beale IV
Gaah
Howard Beale IV
@John Cole +0: My mistake. I wsan’t referring to John Cole but to Juan Cole.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: I think the ‘This far and no farther” lines are being set in Iraq. Mosul was perhaps the first one. Resisting mission creep (which would consist of very violently attacking ISIS is towns with lots of civilian casualties as a malign side effect, is needed.
I think we will know when ISIL or AQ ‘understands’ western and US culture when they start promising to send pairs of DC snipers, armed with a little cash, a sedan with a hole in the trunk, and a rifle. If they do, every muslim young man in America will be confined to ‘protection camps’, for their own good. So far they have no understanding of us.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@The Dangerman:
The whole purpose of those open carry orgies is to intimidate those who disagree with them – an asshole move.
Someone exercised her rights without any attempt to intimidate others. The cop did try to use his badge to intimidate Ms. Watts – an asshole move.
So, you are right that there were assholes in both situations; you were just off as to who the asshole was in the second example.
catclub
@John Cole +0:
Einstein’s explanation of radio as a cat with its tail in New York and its head in LA. You pull its tail in New York and it meows in LA. Except there is no cat.
Linnaeus
Thank you for elaborating on the term “reactionized”. I had a feeling that it meant something along the lines of what you explained it to be, but wasn’t sure if it had a different meaning that was specific to your field.
Mnemosyne
@The Dangerman:
What Omnes said. Plus if you can point me to the story about the open carry assholes being handcuffed for asserting their rights, please point me to it.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that your examples prove the opposite of what you claim: white guys asserting their right to open carry were left alone by the cops, while a black woman asserting her right not to show ID was handcuffed and berated by the cops. So far, all you’ve shown is that white guys don’t get hassled by the cops for asserting their rights but black folks do which was — surprise! — the point everyone was making.
khead
@The Dangerman:
I’ve never been intimidated or shot by anyone fucking. Even accidentally. And that’s assuming the WORST about the lady in LA.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Oh, because “(Is) A Puzzlement” is one of my favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein numbers.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: Ah, yes. I am not a huge fan of the musical, so it was not the first thought that came to my mind. Nice, subtle oneupmanship, Well played.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Cordray sues Corinthian Colleges :)
Restitution, damages, and “disgorge all ill-gotten profits”
The CFPB can reach them because they “created and controlled” a private student loan company called “Genesis” and that makes them a “provider of consumer financial products or services”
stickler
As one of the grammar pedants who commented on the form rather than the content (my moniker is not an accident), let me say that I very much value Dr. Silverman’s contribution. And that I very much hope he’s not overlooking homophone errors that grated on my nerves in his original post. I like his clarification of the definition of “reactionary” vs. “radical.”
What really worries me (as an American) is that his granular analysis of the situation is insightful, but completely irrelevant. We have neither the will nor the means to do the things which would actually neutralize ISIS. We also don’t have the political culture which would allow us (US) to leave the Iraqi and Syrian populations to sort out their differences. We don’t have the means to force our solution on the region, and our political culture won’t let us leave them alone. That is a recipe for quagmire. If not disaster. Dr. Silverman’s insights are extremely valuable. But they don’t help point the way forward for us (US) — because I don’t see how there is a way forward in that region for us (US).
Cervantes
@The Dangerman:
You and others may find the following interesting:
Chesterton wrote that more than a hundred years ago. In case you are wondering, here’s his conclusion:
As I say, perhaps it is of interest.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kay: I have always liked that guy. As I may have mentioned in the past, my first political contribution after law school was to his attempt to unseat Betty Montgomery.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Why call it one-upmanship if you don’t like the musical? I shouldn’t.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: You went to a source earlier than mine. I just found it amusing in the context of the mock pedantry I aimed at Betty Cracker.
Steeplejack
Yeah, no. You seem to be using reactionized as a strictly right-wing alternative to radicalized, as if the latter is implicitly left-wing (which, of course, is not the case). But you didn’t make that point clearly. It seems to be derived from your statement that
So I presume that when you say someone has been “reactionized” you mean that he or she has been radicalized in a rightward way, i.e., toward “an imagined golden age in the past.”
Howard Beale IV
@catclub: Ya got that right. Too bad a lot of folks have forgotten that that.
Cervantes
@Kay:
Excellent.
Did you see the following, perhaps through a glass, darkly?
And now abideth faith, hope, greed, these three; but the greatest of these is greed.
(As Paul never said to the Corinthians.)
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Well, it was meant to amuse. Glad it worked.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.”
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Ah, yes, Tom Noe’s friend. What is she doing with herself these days?
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
If they hadn’t have been so absolutely disgustingly greedy and created their own in-house, rip-off loan program he probably couldn’t have reached them.
Cervantes
@Steeplejack:
Well, there is a sense of “radical” that means “wanting things to be improved from the roots up, that is to say, changed completely.” In that sense, actual “conservatives” can’t really be “radical,” even if they agree that only the best things from the past need to be preserved.
I won’t bore you with references.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes: She appears to be Of Counsel at a small firm in New Albany, Ohio – a McMansiony, wealthy suburb of Columbus.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Thanks. I see that her federal practice is said to be in FTC & FCC matters. Interesting.
Steeplejack
@Cervantes:
I think radical conservatives do want “things to be improved from the roots up, that is to say, changed completely”—back to the way they were in some imagined past (or even better).
Kay
@Cervantes:
Well, that, which is horrible, but if you read on you will find that Corinthian entered into an agreement with the Dept of Education to (among other things) set up a fund to reimburse students for tuition. 30 million dollars. They haven’t set up the fund. Surprise, surprise, they aren’t complying with the agreement.
What they HAVE done is quickly sell off 550 million in debt (face value), bad debt, for which Corinthian received 19 million dollars. I think Cordray wants to grab the dwindling stack of money before they make off with it.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
She’s a moderate Omes, Montgomery. Everyone loves her :)
Well, not me, but everyone else.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kay: A story that was related to me by a law school classmate who was there: On 9/11/01, Betty was throwing fits and demanding that her staff pester the clerks office at the US Supreme Court about a death penalty case – the hurrying along of which was one of her pet projects. Her staff pointed out that the USSC might be a little preoccupied with other things on that particular day. Her response was that she didn’t care; she wanted an answer to the question that she had. Ghoulish. For what its worth, one of the guys who served as state solicitor under her took a temporary special prosecutor position in the Delaware County prosecutor’s office so that he could prosecute a death penalty case. Again, ghoulish. Unfortunately, we have mutual acquaintances and thus ran into one another in social situations. After his death penalty gig, I could not even bring myself to be civil to him.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
The hurrying along of which was many of her pet projects.
Not my favorite human being.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cervantes:
Nor mine. Her election resulted in the retraction of an offer to me of summer position with the AG’s office. In the end, it was probably for the best – I don’t think that her AG’s office was a place I wanted to work, but I had jumped through a bunch of hoops to get that offer. The only people she hired for summer positions were ones with connections to the GOP. Bitch.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Damn, I hope Mnem doesn’t read this and tear me apart for my typos.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
No one expects the
Spanish Inquisitionroving proofreader!Though, to be pedantic, it’s not typos that bother me, it’s homonym trouble. Getting “their” vs. “there” wrong bothers me far more than a typo.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
[Rain | rein | reign] is the current leader at Balloon Juice.
ETA: Aside from [its | it’s], which is so common it has been dropped from the rankings.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I am sometimes kind and assume [its | it’s] is actually a typo. But [rein | reign] drives me pretty batty.
You did see that Weird Al Yankovic did a song just for us, yes?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mnemosyne: I think that the issue, and why you got attacked in the earlier thread, is that a blog post and especially comments on a blog post are not and should not be judged at the same standard that an edited publication is. I was a law review editor; I edited papers written by noted law professors and judges. We went through things about 20 times be for we put them to bed and then we went back through again after the proofs came back from the printer. Blogs don’t do that. Your comment in the previous thread that you hoped that Dr. Silverman had someone else read his thesis/dissertation (I forget which term you used) doesn’t really matter since the man was indeed awarded his PhD. Obviously his work was good enough – and I bet the committee noticed things like homophones. It came off as damned condescending. Do with this comment what you will. Write me off as someone who doesn’t watch network TV if that makes you happy.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Needed more twerking.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I was annoyed by the implication that anyone pointing out usage and grammar errors must be a DougJ spoof troll because nobody really cares about that shit. Sorry, but I actually do care, even if it comes across as condescending, Mr. Kettle.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, that explains this comment. It wasn’t aimed at other commenters. It was directed at Dr. Silverman himself.
Also, I am not a great typist and I don’t reread my comments nine or ten times before I post. Do you really think that FPers do much differently? It is a blog. If it had editors, it would be a different thing.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Putting comments aside (for which, I agree, there is a lower standard), I think there is a gray area with blog posts. Yes, they are not formal “publications,” but there is a difference between a casual, purely personal blog and one that gets into “serious” issues and is, or has the potential to be, cited across the blogosphere and even in the “mainstream” media. It’s the difference between casually strumming a guitar in the company of a few friends and “performing”—even in a very casual setting. Careless writing undermines your message, at whatever level, just as an out-of-tune guitar is going to sound a little off, no matter who’s playing it. Tone matters, and it matters more the higher you go.
Richard Mayhew has done the best writing on Obamacare that I have seen anywhere, but it isn’t helped by his occasionally sloppy editing. Jeez, just a quick spell-check would fix most of his problems, and how hard is that these days? Lack of attention to (some) details raises the question (even if subconsciously) of what other details are being allowed to slide.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Steeplejack: I am perhaps influenced here, but the fact that I am a very poor editor of my own writing. If I don’t give it at least 24 hours, I tend to see what intended to write rather than what I actually wrote. In my profession, I am actually seen as a good writer – I tend to get the time to go back and look at things a day or so later. I am also a decent editor of other’s writings. Blogs don;t have editors. Holding blog writing to the same standard as edited work is, IMO, unfair.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
That’s true, and it’s a direct response to his comment that included this:
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Perhaps, but I think there is often a cop-out in self-editing because “it’s just a blog.”
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mnemosyne: Recalibrate your sarcasm detector.
@Steeplejack: Again, if I reread something I wrote 20 times, I might well miss egregious errors. Or I might catch some. Anything that is self edited should be judged by different standards than something edited by others.
Chris
Thanks for answering my questions, Adam! I knew the Awakening had more or less dissolved as an organized group by the end of the last decade (no more U.S. to pay them, no one in Baghdad interested in taking over), but that still leaves a whole bunch of people lying around with guns and the knowledge to use them, so I thought, surely they must’ve gone somewhere.
You say many of them are using ISIL to get back at Baghdad (quite understandable). Does this mean that ISIL’s been smarter about accomodating their concerns than their AQI predecessors were?
Chris
@Gene108:
Tangentially related:
I heard something on the news the other day about how a faction of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib had broken off from their parent organization and sworn loyalty to Baghdadi. Don’t know if this is a trend yet, but if it becomes one, we might end up with two competing franchises of jihadism all across the board (not just in Iraq/Syria).
Cervantes
@Chris:
For one thing, ISIL is not as squeamish about Muslim-on-Muslim violence as Al Qaeda was and is.
JoyfulA
@Betty Cracker: Real editors understand that the best writers need copyeditors and proofreaders to produce their best work. For some reason, blogs are unwilling to pay for copyediting and proofreading.
EthylEster
@stickler wrote:
I agree whole-heartedly. And (referring to your last comment in the other Silverman thread) by the “old” stickler, I meant the guy who commented regularly here years ago. I think you that commenter are because what you wrote on this thread is like things i recall from the “old” stickler.
Sondra
Thank you. This is informative. Are you saying that in Iraq, the family and/or tribal dynamic is stronger than religious ties?