wouldn't be surprised to see a population boom 9 months from now....

ISIS was CREATED.

The drought was the trigger, the imprisonment the straw that broke the camel's back. The Syrian government under Assad, and before him Assad, had brutalized its citizens for decades.

I was hoping the rebels would topple him. . .then Daesh put its nose in it and I changed my mind because Daesh are cockroaches.

The Arab Spring was fomented by outsiders as well as internal politics, and it has not gone as well as some thought. In fact, destabilizing governments plays into the hands of the likes of ISIS.

topple them without outside intervention.

Didn't the west learn anything with Vietnam, the fall of the Shah and the Taliban?

You can pump a country dry before you have to leave!

The rise of Boko Harem and ISIS, as well as all the other terrorist fundie nutjobs usually is based in economics, lack of education, and poverty, not in religion. Religion is just the tool to whip up the downtrodden to do insane shit.

who were held hostage by Isis for 2 years! Brave SDF women fighting to free them. Hoping some sort of normal life can return to that city!

I bet I know what you were thinking, and I like it!

Hard to get a good seal on a protective mask with a beard.

Something so many women without choice would love to do, while others in the west defend donning it as some ridiculous "feminist" statement.

What is attacked is the imposition of dress codes on women by males -- not just islamic males mandating burkas, nikabs, or hijabs, but including males in the west banning burkas, nikabs, and hijabs.

Many western women choose hijab, and no one should try to take that away from them.

this is the type of thing they are referring to, and it's a valid gripe, IMO.

They can make their own decisions. Medical, sartorial, religious ... whatever the choice is, the decision rests with THEM.

NOT you, eissa.

I remain standing with Muslim women who have no choice, be it dictated by the governments in the shithole countries they live in, or family and societal pressures outside of them. I'm from the region, and nothing exasperates liberal Muslim more than the false argument that the women who claim to wear that tent do so freely, while ignoring the intense pressure many of them feel to do so.

it's not your choice to make FOR them, period. All the rest of your post is irrelevant.

Done.

People who have never lived in a Muslim-majority country cannot possibly imagine the kinds of pressure there is on women in Muslim-majority countries to wear restrictive clothing. It is not a free choice. In fact, it is as much a "choice" as footbinding and FGM. The consequences may not be as gruesome, but the restriction of a woman's lifestyle is not something that should be taken lightly.

It's sad that the "choice" to hide one's body (because it is so evil and so dangerous to men) is being seen as some kind of feminist statement. I wish people would read some of the texts before jumping to the conclusion that it is a positive thing.

yup

I agree 100 percent, these women burning away those black voids of cloth are heros.

To say it's a woman's choice is to blithely close one's eyes and pretend everything is okay, nothing to see, move on.

Sometimes it may BE a woman's choice but I have nothing against advocating against these atrocious symbols of oppression.

And simply because it may be ONE woman's choice, it becomes an easy way to rationalize doing nothing about a very complex problem.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]This post was approved by Meredith McIver.[/center][/font][hr]

The root of the covering is the belief that women are by their very nature temptresses. The deeply ingrained mentality is that in order to prevent men from sinning, the object of their moral failing needs to be hidden away. Just because some women are wearing it by choice and are trying to turn it into some "feminist" statement doesn't erase its true meaning.

... now THAT'S the way you do it ...

... and you don't even need to be "greeted with flowers" ...

... just be an honest, knowledgeable and capable American administration ...

And I hope it gets broadcast that way all over the arab world.

I also hope it lasts. What will Putin do in response to this?

So happy for all of those civilians and the fighters who fought to free them.

congrats

keep kickin some daesh bag ass!