Whereas President George W. Bush oversaw fewer than 50 drone strikes during his tenure, Obama has signed off on over 400 of them in the last four years
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Daniel Byman | Why Drones Work | Foreign Affairs - 0 views
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And they have done so at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.
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So drone warfare is here to stay, and it is likely to expand in the years to come as other countries’ capabilities catch up with those of the United States.
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Critics of drone strikes often fail to take into account the fact that the alternatives are either too risky or unrealistic.
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Even the most unfavorable estimates of drone casualties reveal that the ratio of civilian to militant deaths is lower than it would be for other forms of strikes.
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signature strikes,” which target not specific individuals but instead groups engaged in suspicious activities.
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After a strike in Pakistan, militants often cordon off the area, remove their dead, and admit only local reporters sympathetic to their cause or decide on a body count themselves. The U.S. media often then draw on such faulty reporting to give the illusion of having used multiple sources. As a result, statistics on civilians killed by drones are often inflated.
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data show that drones are more discriminate than other types of force.
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Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also at times allowed drone strikes in his country and even covered for them by telling the public that they were conducted by the Yemeni air force.
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As officials in both Pakistan and Yemen realize, U.S. drone strikes help their governments by targeting common enemies.
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A 2012 poll found that 74 percent of Pakistanis viewed the United States as their enemy, likely in part because of the ongoing drone campaign. Similarly, in Yemen, as the scholar Gregory Johnsen has pointed out, drone strikes can win the enmity of entire tribes.
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Many surveys of public opinion related to drones are conducted by anti-drone organizations, which results in biased samples.
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And for most Pakistanis and Yemenis, the most important problems they struggle with are corruption, weak representative institutions, and poor economic growth; the drone program is only a small part of their overall anger, most of which is directed toward their own governments.
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The U.S. Needs to Rethink Its Anti-ISIS Approach in Syria | TIME - 0 views
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As a result, morale among nationalist fighters in northern Syria has plummeted
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ISIS remains essentially unchallenged in its heartland in northern Syria, despite repeated U.S. air strikes
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In the south, nationalists have fared better at keeping ISIS out and Jabhat al Nusra in check, partly due to a coherent, rational U.S.-led support program operating covertly out of Jordan
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A strategy to beat the jihadists and make sure they stay beaten must be locally-driven, led by nationalist forces supported by the Sunni population that forms the insurgency’s social base.
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The U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has scored some points in Syria, weakening ISIS’s oil infrastructure and revenues and keeping the group out of Kobane
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the promised U.S. train-and-equip program is unlikely to reverse the nationalists’ losses or jihadists’ gains in northern Syria
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air strikes alone, and treating nationalist groups as agents rather than partners, violates this principle
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, the U.S. has helped nationalists in the south avoid the fragmentation, infighting, and lawlessness that weakened them and benefited the jihadists in northern Syria
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ISIS offers conquered populations the choice between submission – which brings a sense of order and some protection from regime violence – or futile resistance and death
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Jabhat al Nusra has driven nationalist forces out of much of their core territory in northern Syria, and ISIS continues to threaten those that remain
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Even if the coalition wants to avoid confronting regime forces, it can and should concentrate air strikes closer to ISIS’s front lines with the nationalist insurgency, helping the latter block ISIS advances in cooperation with local Kurdish forces when possible
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the United States has excluded them from the coalition military effort
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, U.S. interests would be better served by a two-pronged approach in northern and southern Syria, helping nationalist rebels contain ISIS and compete with Jabhat al Nusra for control of the insurgency.
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U.S. airstrikes on jihadists have spared the regime’s forces and inadvertently killed Syrian civilians
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that Sunni Muslims are under siege by oppressive regional minorities, Iran, and even the United States itself
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Ironically, the coalition campaign has contributed to the near-collapse of nationalist forces in northern Syria who, despite their imperfections, were ISIS’s most effective rivals and competed with Jabhat al Nusra for leadership of the insurgency
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campaign has had serious local side effects that have undermined the broader, long-term objective of degrading and destroying ISIS in Syria and preventing the Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al Nusra, from replacing or thriving alongside ISIS
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The U.S. should no long really solely on air-strikes to bring down the ISIS group in Syria but it needs other strategic plans. They need to work with the people in Syria and gain their support and trust in order to defeat ISIS.
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Tunisian Women Face Challenges in Achieving Gender EqualityMorocco World News - 0 views
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After January 14, 2011 the issue of equality between men and women rose. Later in 2014, Article 46 of the new Constitution guaranteed equality between the sexes and highlighted the principle of parity. "The state is committed to protecting the acquired rights of women. It supports and works to improve them..."
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The Age of Proxy Wars - 0 views
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This article accentuates the "Age of Proxy Wars" in the Middle East. While Syria and Libya are the 2 most known proxy situations, the article illuminates other states involved as well. We know already about UAE, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, which this article also brings up, but new information suggests that Bahrain and Kuwait are supporting sides of the regional war as well. While these nations think they're doing their part to support their values, these proxy wars are actually fostering further extremism since people supporting each side do not directly suffer the consequences. The article states that the metastasizing of these jihadist groups is grave threat to US national security, and the US must intervene in order to solve this crisis. The author says the US needs to improve their performance in donor cordination, funding the right groups, as well as be more aggressive in working directly with elections, uncovering networks of money and influence. He says rather than the conduction of elections, we must focus on the nature of politics in general, curbing corruption and embedding sectarian democratic values in their political sphere.
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shared by mariebenavides on 11 Nov 14
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In Place of War - 0 views
www.inplaceofwar.net/ffiti-in-post-revolution-egypt
graffiti street art egypt sadpanda revolution war politics egyptian
shared by mariebenavides on 11 Nov 14
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This article also focuses on the Sad Panda, specifically on one art work where it shows a solider throwing a baby into a fire. The piece garnered a lot of attention. Attached to this article is a video, talk about where the artist got the inspiration from.
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shared by allieggg on 13 Nov 14
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I watched Libya seize its freedom. Now I have to flee its new chaos | World news | The ... - 0 views
www.theguardian.com/...bya-freedom-now-flee-new-chaos
libya armed groups middle east Revolution recontruction war militias chaos the guardian revolutionaries
shared by allieggg on 13 Nov 14
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the first democratically elected parliament, the General National Congress, rather than disband the militias, funded them, each faction seeing its own forces as insurance against those of everyone else.
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An Islamist-led coalition came to dominate parliament, but as the squabbling grew worse it realised it would lose an election, so delayed having one.
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Then, in May, a former Gaddafi-era general turned rebel leader, Khalifa Hiftar, launched an offensive against Islamist brigades in the east while his allies stormed congress in Tripoli. An election was duly called in June, and the Islamists duly lost, or expect to lose when parliament assembles this week. The result has seen some of their militias grab what Tripoli real estate they can, triggering civil war.
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"Within Libya it is region against region, within regions, tribe against tribe, within tribes, family against family."
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The Islamists call themselves revolutionaries, implying that anyone opposed to them is against the revolution. Their opponents also call themselves revolutionaries, labelling the Islamists "terrorists", while the Islamists accuse their opponents of following Gaddafi. Neither label is true: both sides have plenty to give that is positive. But the time for giving in Libya seems past.
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"We are like a class of kids where the bad teacher is suddenly dead," he said. "Now we all fight each other."
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"My problem is, it's hard to be a radical moderate."
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Flying away, I leave the country as I found it, back at war. It is a country so rich in possibility and so undone by a chaos you can unpick for ever without getting to the nub.
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My photographer friend had the answer. "Confused?" he told me. "Then you understand Libya."
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This article illuminates the aftermath of Gaddafi's reign from a first person perspective of a citizen fleeing the country due to its devastating chaos. He offers a short version of the conflict and the rise in militant groups. The root of the issue is the fact that when the GNC took power, the factions funded the militant groups for their own insurance rather than working towards their disbandment. The Islamist coalition dominated parliament, and as chaos deepened when they realized they would loose the election so they just delayed having one. This is where General Khalifa Haftar chimed in, launching his offense against islamic insurgency by storming the capitol in Tripoli leading the country to slip into civil war. The Author says "We are like a class of kids where the bad teacher is suddenly dead," he said. "Now we all fight each other." When the light finally comes to a country that was for so long in the dark, its blinding.
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How ISIS Games Twitter - The Atlantic - 1 views
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strong, organic support online.
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strategies that inflate and control its message.
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using social media to recruit, radicalize and raise funds,
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Twitter app called The Dawn of Glad Tidings, or just Dawn.
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way to keep up on the latest news about the jihadi group.
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Once you sign up, the app will post tweets to your account
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spaced out to avoid triggering Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms
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organized hashtag campaigns
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repetitively tweet hashtags at certain times of day so that they trend on the social network.
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ISIS hashtag consistently outperforms that of the group’s main competitor in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, even though the two groups have a similar number of supporters online.
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ISIS also uses hashtags to focus-group messaging and branding concepts, much like a Western corporation might.
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ISIS does have legitimate support online—but less than it might seem.
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Author J.M. Berger discusses ISIS's strategy on Twitter, comparing their highly skilled techniques on this platform to the likes of a P.R./ marketing team working for a Western corporation. Berger goes on to discuss programs that automatically post tweets to users accounts, an app they developed that provides updates, and an intricate system able to surpass Twitter's spam and security teams.
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Rolling Stone ME - Hend Kheera | Michael Downey - 0 views
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This artifact is a picture of an article titled "The Writings on the Wall," a piece about Hend Kheera, an Egyptian street artist, who grew in popularity during the revolution. She speaks about the focus of her work and what it means for the future.
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Did Saudi's King Abdullah have a soft spot for women's progress? - Fortune - 0 views
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Saudi Arabia former leader, King Abdullah, who passed away recently, seemed to be pushing for a slow reform in women's rights. While in power, many small but worthy advances were made for Saudi women. One of the most notable of these advances would be the role of women in the work force growing exponentially.
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A daring plan to rebuild Syria - no matter who wins the war - Ideas - The Boston Globe - 0 views
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The first year of Syria’s uprising, 2011, largely spared Aleppo, the country’s economic engine, largest city, and home of its most prized heritage sites. Fighting engulfed Aleppo in 2012 and has never let up since, making the city a symbol of the civil war’s grinding destruction
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Rebels captured the eastern side of the city while the government held the wes
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, residents say the city is virtually uninhabitable; most who remain have nowhere else to go
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In terms of sheer devastation, Syria today is worse off than Germany at the end of World War II
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ven as the fighting continues, a movement is brewing among planners, activists and bureaucrats—some still in Aleppo, others in Damascus, Turkey, and Lebanon—to prepare, right now, for the reconstruction effort that will come whenever peace finally arrives.
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In a glass tower belonging to the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, a project called the National Agenda for the Future of Syria has brought together teams of engineers, architects, water experts, conservationists, and development experts to grapple with seemingly impossible technical problems
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It is good to do the planning now, because on day one we will be ready,”
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The team planning the country’s future is a diverse one. Some are employed by the government of Syria, others by the rebels’ rival provisional government. Still others work for the UN, private construction companies, or nongovernmental organizations involved in conservation, like the World Monuments Fund
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As the group’s members outline a path toward renewal, they’re considering everything from corruption and constitutional reform to power grids, antiquities, and health care systems.
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Aleppo is split between a regime side with vestiges of basic services, and a mostly depopulated rebel-controlled zone, into which the Islamic State and the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front have made inroads over the last year
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The population exodus has claimed most of the city’s craftsmen, medical personnel, academics, and industrialists
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It took decades to clear the moonscapes of rubble and to rebuild, in famous targets like Dresden and Hiroshima but in countless other places as well, from Coventry to Nanking. Some places never recovered their vitality.
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Of course, Syrian planners cannot help but pay attention to the model closest to home: Beirut, a city almost synonymous with civil war and flawed reconstructio
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We don’t want to end up like Beirut,” one of the Syrian planners says, referring to the physical problems but also to a postwar process in which militia leaders turned to corrupt reconstruction ventures as a new source of funds and power
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Syria’s national recovery will depend in large part on whether its industrial powerhouse Aleppo can bounce back
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The city’s workshops, famed above all for their fine textiles, export millions of dollars’ worth of goods every week even now, and the economy has expanded to include modern industry as well.
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Today, however, the city’s water and power supply are under the control of the Islamic State
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Across Syria, more than one-third of the population is displaced.
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A river of rubble marks the no-man’s land separating the two sides. The only way to cross is to leave the city, follow a wide arc, and reenter from the far side.
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Parts of the old city won’t be inhabitable for years, he told me by Skype, because the ground has literally shifted as a result of bombing and shelling
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The first and more obvious is creating realistic options to fix the country after the war—in some cases literal plans for building infrastructure systems and positioning construction equipment, in other cases guidelines for shaping governanc
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They’re familiar with global “best practices,” but also with how things work in Syria, so they’re not going to propose pie-in-the-sky idea
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If some version of the current regime remains in charge, it will probably direct massive contracts toward patrons in Russia, China, or Iran. The opposition, by contrast, would lean toward firms from the West, Turkey, and the Gulf.
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At the current level of destruction, the project planners estimate the reconstruction will cost at least $100 billion
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Recently a panel of architects and heritage experts from Sweden, Bosnia, Syria, and Lebanon convened in Beirut to discuss lessons for Syria’s reconstruction—one of the many distinct initiatives parallel to the Future of Syria project.
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“You should never rebuild the way it was,” said Arna Mackic, an architect from Mostar. That Bosnian city was divided during the 1990s civil war into Muslim and Catholic sides, destroying the city center and the famous Stari Most bridge over the Neretva River. “The war changes us. You should show that in rebuilding.”
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Instead, Mackik says, the sectarian communities keep to their own enclaves. Bereft of any common symbols, the city took a poll to figure out what kind of statue to erect in the city center. All the local figures were too polarizing. In the end they settled on a gold-colored statue of the martial arts star Bruce Lee
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“It belongs to no one,” Mackic says. “What does Bruce Lee mean to me?
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is that it could offer the city’s people a form of participatory democracy that has so far eluded the Syrian regime and sadly, the opposition as well.
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“You are being democratic without the consequences of all the hullabaloo of formal democratization
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A great deal of money has been invested in Syria’s destruction— by the regime, the local parties to the conflict, and many foreign powers. A great deal of money will be made in the aftermath, in a reconstruction project that stands to dwarf anything seen since after World War II.
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While it is still unclear as to who will win the Syrian conflict, there are people who are already looking towards the future and a better Syria. Plans are being made but, of course, these plans will entirely depend on who wins the war.
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North Korea And Iran: Partners In Cyber Warfare? - 0 views
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Evidence reveals that North Korea and Iran may be working together in cyber warfare after an attack on Sony Pictures. A scientific and technology cooperation was signed between the two countries after attacks on Iran's nuclear program.
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Syria talks in Moscow to focus on humanitarian issues | Reuters - 0 views
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(Reuters) - The Syrian government and some opposition figures will start a second round of talks in Moscow on Monday focusing on humanitarian issues, although a broader agreement is unlikely as Syria's main opposition group continues to boycott the talks.
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do not expect any big breakthrough towards ending a conflict
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January's unproductive first round of consultations in Moscow was shunned by the main political opposition group, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition
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take part only if the talks were to lead to the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia
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Russia says fighting terrorism in Syria should be the top priority now and has called on the opposition to work with Assad to that end
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Randa Kassis, a former SNC member who now favors talking to Damascus because of the rise of radical Islamists in Syri
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focus on confidence-building measures including ensuring access for humanitarian aid
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Moscow has not said which opposition figures will attend. But the line-up is likely to be similar to January, when more than 30 representatives of various groups attended, most from groups tolerated by Assad or who agree that working with Damascus is necessary to combat the rise of Islamic Stat
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released 650 prisoners from at least three prisons in Damascus on March 25-27, including women, children, political prisoners and fighter
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release of these people to the talks would be "just an ac
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A second round of talks will be held in Moscow. These talks are said to focus on humanitarian issues in Syria.
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Fatah, Hamas agree to cede control of Gaza to unity government - Arab-Israeli Conflict ... - 0 views
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Israel's view of the new Palestinian unity government in the Gaza Strip. The sharing of power allowed over 70,000 people to return to government work.
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Using technology to empower women in Saudi Arabia - 0 views
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Princess Reema talks about her efforts to train women to join the workforce. She was recently interviewed on her thoughts of social media. She feels it is a strong driving force. What people say is heard immediately. It is making a very positive impact. She wants to teach women skills they need for work such as personal communication and what HR is.
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shared by mharcour on 11 Apr 15
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A Quick Nullification? - 0 views
www.al-monitor.com/...mas-fatah-plo-accusations.html
Israeli-Palestinian conflict Palestine Hamas PLO Fatah
shared by mharcour on 11 Apr 15
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In this AL Monitor article, the growing dissatisfaction between Hamas and Fatah is outlined in detail. A short time after the agreement to work together was made, current accusations of treason by each side have the organizations on shaky ground.
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Saudi Arabia plans new city for women workers only - 0 views
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This article was extremely interesting. It discussed the potential for an all women city in Saudi Arabia. The city would be an area for single women to work to and learn new skills allowing them some independence. The idea of an all women city is baffling to me, it seems the country is moving even further back in time with gender advances.
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Egyptian woman lived as man for 40 years to support daughter - 0 views
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Sisa took on male identity after her husband s death in order to find work to support her daughter. This lasted for 40 years. She is not up for a presidential award.
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shared by alarsso on 26 Mar 15
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In Syrian civil war, emergence of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria boosts rival Jabhat a... - 0 views
www.washingtonpost.com/...3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html
syria civil war ISIS Jabhat al-Nusra conflict rebels
shared by alarsso on 26 Mar 15
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With the rise of ISIS in 2013, rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra (deemed a terrorist group by the US) has been increasing in popularity. The foreign fighters in Nusra along with extreme members left to join ISIS. This has created a more moderate Nusra and Syrians are more willing to work with them.