Assorted observations channeled from assorted books

- I started 1917 yesterday. In it, Herman recounts how Germany intended to break up the Eastern Front by rallying Poland around its own independence. Germany expected two divisions of insurgency out of it; they got less than 1500 volunteers because, as Herman explains, the Poles had no more trust for Imperial Germany than they did for Imperial Russia.

- Which, as it turns out, was very much the correct take as outlined by Tim Snyder in Black Earth. The vast majority of the Holocaust wasn't gas chambers and Dachau, it was farmers and firing squads. It worked a little something like this: Nazis show up and say "we're here for the Jews. You can shoot them in that ditch and take their farms and property, or you can get into the ditch next to them."

- I read a couple books on Iraq and ISIS. I can't remember their titles now. The basic take, however, was no different than No Good Men Among the Living: Religion is a stabilizing influence in times of turmoil, and the more tumultuous the turmoil, the more extreme the religion tends to be. ISIS wasn't nuthin' until the Iraqi Civil War, which only happened because we pushed Saddam over and left a vacuum. There's a lot of "join or die" among the rank and file of ISIS. As to the rest of it... Well, this whole column is worth your time.

- "Join or die" clearly does not apply to a 20-year-old from Alabama... but as Reza Aslan points out, extremist Islam doesn't come from the same place extremist Islam takes root. The 911 hijackers were all cosmopolitan. The 311 bombers were all cosmopolitan Europeans. ISIS' principle stars have names like "jihadi John" and "The Beatles" because they're all western-dwelling, western-educated, western-speaking elites whose beef is with their culture, not the culture they're pretending to assimilate into. Islamist extremism is a problem of modernity where an idealized past props up a repressive vision of the future. The whole of ISIS' schtick was for 20-year-olds from Alabama.

On the other hand, my logic tells me that this woman is the PERFECT person to cultivate into the next phase of ISIS. The 'western' world turns our back on her, and she goes into the only arms she knows with renewed vigor, and becomes a young and beautiful lure and promoter of ISIS psychopathy, mothers a dozen new child fighters, becomes an icon and a martyr, and is far more dangerous as a symbol than she ever was as a human.

LOL ISIS is Team Burqa. Women can be young, women can be beautiful, but women's faces and figures can't be gazed upon by anyone but their husbands anywhere but in their tents. THIS is why you're reading about her as a victim, rather than some dude cutting off Daniel Pearl's head - women aren't people to ISIS. This belief predates Islam by a lot and reflects the fundamental differences between ISIS, the social influencer and ISIS, the reavers.

From a social engineering perspective, you are feeling exactly what the CIA and State Department want you to feel - "that poor girl suppressed by islamic fundamentalists whatever I still hate her." This is why they threw John Walker Lindh in a hole - There's a narrative, and they will control it. Did you know that Anwar Al-Awlaki was a regular on PBS? Dude was the face of modern Islam for ten years. Born in New Mexico, led a life of an Islamic apologist, was the go-to for WGBH to explain "muslim stuff".

In 1991, al-Awlaki returned to the U.S. to attend college. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University (1994), where he was president of the Muslim Student Association. In 1993, while still a college student in Colorado State's civil engineering program, al-Awlaki visited Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation. He spent some time training with the mujahideen who had fought the Soviets. He was depressed by the country's poverty and hunger, and "wouldn't have gone with al-Qaeda," according to friends from Colorado State, who said he was profoundly affected by the trip. Mullah Mohammed Omar did not form the Taliban until 1994. When Al-Awlaki returned to campus, he showed increased interest in religion and politics. Al-Awlaki studied Education Leadership at San Diego State University, but did not complete his degree. He worked on a doctorate in Human Resource Development at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development from January to December 2001.

Li'l story. My parents did multiple tours in the Peace Corps; my mother three, my father two. They still have friends from there. My mother and father were hot-dropped into Brazil but one of their friends ended up in a "special group." Their coordinator stepped out of the room at one point and a man in dress blues showed up and said "listen up, pinkos, you may think you're getting out of 'Nam but each and every one of you little communists will be listening for us in Cambodia." The friend raised his hand and said "this is all very interesting. I'm Canadian. Can I make a phone call?" The room ended up going to Peru... but do you really think that was the only time that happened?

Scahill's Dirty Wars spends a good deal of time on Al-Awlaki, in no small part because his American past is so well-documented (have fun trying to find any of it, though). Al-Awlaki followed the archetypal Cold War arc - internationally-connected, western-educated, trained with Mujahedin, radicalized, Death To America, send in SOCOM. The basic problem is the United States was all about funding terrorism and insurgency going back to the Muslim Brotherhood - so long as it gummed up the Soviets. No Soviets? Fuck off, then, camel-humper. And holy shit whatever you do, don't open your mouth. Anwar Al-Awlaki's original sin was refusing to be bullied into spying on his congregation. CIA didn't ask, they told, and they threatened, and everything went pear-shaped after that.

"Listen up, pinkos."

Consider this - Suppose you were reading an article about a 28-year-old girl in a Mississippi work camp. She held up a convenience store at 20, was on the cameras, was arrested, and thrown in the nowhere hole of our back-country prison system. Now here she is, despondent, forgotten, and all she wants is to be transferred to minimum security.

Where's your heart at?

All Hoda Muthana did was fuck some d00ds

That passion you feel? That anger you can't quite wrap your head around? That's the State Department living behind your forehead rent-free. This is all so simple! Yet... my emotions on it are complex

But where's the line?

Lines are overrated. You're experiencing an allergic reaction to complex narratives. Don't worry, the more exposure you get the higher your tolerance. Or, you know, the harder you'll work to cling to the narrative that makes sense to you. On the one hand, Area Substacker. On the other hand, Freedom Caucus.