Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 9. Sudden collapse edition.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew, Chapter 24.

British troops entering Damascus, October, 1918.

I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria. 

Bashar al-Assad

It is no exaggeration to say that Syria holds the key for nearly all of America's foreign policy goals in the Middle East. As Syria goes, so goes the region. 

Reza Aslan

From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated.

Ignatius of Antioch

December 8, 2024

Syrian Civil War

Syrian rebels took Damascus and Assad has fled.  The Syrian army is still fighting in some places, but has declared it is not under Assad.

Syrian rebels have attacked Kurdish forces in the north of the country.

cont:

It appears that the Russian manufactured airplane carrying Assad and his family out of the country was shot down near the Lebanese border.  Or at least that's the rumor.

December 9, 2024

Syrian Civil War

Assad fled to Moscow and has received asylum.

Israel has seized positions in the Golan Heights outside of those it normally occupies.

cont:

Israel has occupied Mt. Hermon, Syria's highest peak, which puts Damascus within range of Israeli artillery.

December 11, 2024

Syrian Civil War

The US has been hitting ISIL targets in Syria since the fall of Assad.  Israel has been hitting Syrian Army supplies.  Turkey hit the Kurds with a drone strike.

December 13, 2024

Pope Francis.

Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace

I. Listening to the plea of an endangered humanity

1. At the dawn of this New Year given to us by our heavenly Father, a year of Jubilee in the spirit of hope, I offer heartfelt good wishes of peace to every man and woman. I think especially of those who feel downtrodden, burdened by their past mistakes, oppressed by the judgment of others and incapable of perceiving even a glimmer of hope for their own lives. Upon everyone I invoke hope and peace, for this is a Year of Grace born of the Heart of the Redeemer!

2. Throughout this year, the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee, an event that fills hearts with hope. The “jubilee” recalls an ancient Jewish practice, when, every forty-ninth year, the sound of a ram’s horn (in Hebrew, jobel) would proclaim a year of forgiveness and freedom for the entire people (cf. Lev 25:10). This solemn proclamation was meant to echo throughout the land (cf. Lev 25:9) and to restore God’s justice in every aspect of life: in the use of the land, in the possession of goods and in relationships with others, above all the poor and the dispossessed. The blowing of the horn reminded the entire people, rich and poor alike, that no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will (cf. Lev 25:17, 25, 43, 46, 55).

3. In our day too, the Jubilee is an event that inspires us to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world. In place of the ram’s horn, at the start of this Year of Grace we wish to hear the “desperate plea for help” [1] that, like the cry of the blood of Abel (cf. Gen 4:10), rises up from so many parts of our world – a plea that God never fails to hear. We for our part feel bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbours oppressed. [2] These injustices can appear at times in the form of what Saint John Paul II called “structures of sin”, [3] that arise not only from injustice on the part of some but are also consolidated and maintained by a network of complicity.

4. Each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family. Systemic challenges, distinct yet interconnected, are thus created and together cause havoc in our world. [4] I think, in particular, of all manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole. At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about. [5]

II. A cultural change: all of us are debtors

5. The celebration of the Jubilee spurs us to make a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone. [6] We do well to recall the words of Saint Basil of Caesarea: “Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you would deny God by not recognizing the Creator and being grateful to the Giver”. [7] Without gratitude, we are unable to recognize God’s gifts. Yet in his infinite mercy the Lord does not abandon sinful humanity, but instead reaffirms his gift of life by the saving forgiveness offered to all through Jesus Christ. That is why, in teaching us the “Our Father”, Jesus told us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses” ( Mt 6:12).

6. Once we lose sight of our relationship to the Father, we begin to cherish the illusion that our relationships with others can be governed by a logic of exploitation and oppression, where might makes right. [8] Like the elites at the time of Jesus, who profited from the suffering of the poor, so today, in our interconnected global village, [9] the international system, unless it is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped. A mentality that exploits the indebted can serve as a shorthand description of the present “debt crisis” that weighs upon a number of countries, above all in the global South.

7. I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets. [10] In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the “ecological debt” incurred by the more developed countries. [11] Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. [12] In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice. [13]

8. The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to “rediscover once for all that we need one another” and are indebted one to another. [14]

III. A journey of hope: three proposals

9. If we take to heart these much-needed changes, the Jubilee Year of Grace can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy. [15]

God owes nothing to anyone, yet he constantly bestows his grace and mercy upon all. As Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Father of the Eastern Church, put it in one of his prayers: “Your love, Lord, is greater than my trespasses. The waves of the sea are nothing with respect to the multitude of my sins, but placed on a scale and weighed against your love, they vanish like a speck of dust”. [16] God does not weigh up the evils we commit; rather, he is immensely “rich in mercy, for the great love with which he loved us” ( Eph 2:4). Yet he also hears the plea of the poor and the cry of the earth. We would do well simply to stop for a moment, at the beginning of this year, to think of the mercy with which he constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace.

10. In teaching us to pray the “Our Father”, Jesus begins by asking the Father to forgive our trespasses, but passes immediately to the challenging words: “as we forgive those who trespass against us” (cf. Mt 6:12). In order to forgive others their trespasses and to offer them hope, we need for our own lives to be filled with that same hope, the fruit of our experience of God’s mercy. Hope overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.

11. Consequently, at the beginning of this Year of Grace, I would like to offer three proposals capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the journey of hope. In this way, the debt crisis can be overcome and all of us can once more realize that we are debtors whose debts have been forgiven.

First, I renew the appeal launched by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”. [17] In recognition of their ecological debt, the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe. Naturally, lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness, a new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial Charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.

I also ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world. Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation. [18]

In addition, following in the footsteps of Saint Paul VI and Benedict XVI, [19] I do not hesitate to make yet another appeal, for the sake of future generations. In this time marked by wars, let us use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change. [20] We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones. The future is a gift meant to enable us to go beyond past failures and to pave new paths of peace.

IV. The goal of peace

12. Those who take up these proposals and set out on the journey of hope will surely glimpse the dawn of the greatly desired goal of peace. The Psalmist promises us that “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss” ( Ps 85:10). When I divest myself of the weapon of credit and restore the path of hope to one of my brothers or sisters, I contribute to the restoration of God’s justice on this earth and, with that person, I advance towards the goal of peace. As Saint John XXIII observed, true peace can be born only from a heart “disarmed” of anxiety and the fear of war. [21]

13. May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises. [22] May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.

14. Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed”. [23] With such gestures, we progress towards the goal of peace. We will arrive all the more quickly if, in the course of journeying alongside our brothers and sisters, we discover that we have changed from the time we first set out. Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.

15. Lord, grant us your peace! This is my prayer to God as I now offer my cordial good wishes for the New Year to the Heads of State and Government, to the leaders of International Organizations, to the leaders of the various religions and to every person of good will.

Forgive us our trespasses, Lord,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,

the peace that you alone can give

to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,

to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,

to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,

and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.

From the Vatican, 8 December 2024

The Kurd's in control of northern Syria have ordered the pre 1964 Syrian flag, which is used by rebel forces, flown on their territory.

December 14, 2024

South Korea

In a process that's clearly different than the American one, the President of South Korea has been stripped of his powers for declaring martial law, but remains in office until a constitutional court decides his fate.  This is the result of an impeachment, one I'd note that worked.

December 16, 2024

Poland

Poland Poland has introduced compulsory military firearms classes in all its elementary and secondary schools.

December 17, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian agents killed Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, outside an apartment building in Moscow.

Last edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 8. Wider wars.

Labels: 2020s, 2024, Hezbollah, Iran, Kursk Ukraine, Lebanon, Mercenaries, Middle Eastern War, North Korea, Russia, Russo Ukrainian War, South Korea, Trailing thread, Ukraine, War, Wars and rumors of wars

Friday, September 12, 1924. Second Assyrian Uprising and National Defense Day.

The complicated  Second Assyrian Uprising, or the Nestorian Rebellion, broke out in southeaster Turkey.  It was the second such uprising by Christian Assyrians who had returned to their homeland and was brought about due to intentional Kurdish misrepresentations about the intentions of the Turks.

Grossly outnumbered by Turkish and Kurdish forces, relying on promises of British intervention which didn't come, and with most of their fighting age men in British service in Iraq, they were defeated, although the British did end the war with the intervention of aircraft, and returned to Iraq.

In the US it was National Defense Day and the National Defense Test, test of the nation's radio system in an emergency took place.

A lot of military demonstrations and events occurred as well.

Casper participated in events.

Businesses stated their patriotism.

Last edition:

Wednesday, September 10, 1924. Eucharistic Congress, St. Mary of the Woods.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Catholic, Christianity, Music

Sunday, May 12, 1974. Divorce Italian Style.

Italians voted to retain the newly granted right to obtain a divorce, dating from 1970, in Italy's first public referendum.  The vote was 59% in favor of retention of the law.

Italian divorce or the lack of it, had actually been the theme of an Italian movie of several yeas prior, at the time that Italian movies and bombshell actresses were a big thing.  In the film, which I've never seen, apparently Ferdinando Cefalù, placed by Marcello Mastroianni, is married a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman when he falls in love with his cousin Angela, a 16-year-old girl he sees only during the summer.

Ick.

So he starts to plot to kill his wife, and it goes on from there.

I don't think I'll bother to catch it.

Mastroianni is an interesting character, as his own marriage failed due to his infidelities, but he and his wife remained married throughout his life.  Asked once about it, he was horrified when it was suggested he should divorce, noting that he was Catholic and Catholics do not divorce.

Daniela Rocca, who played the devoted wife in the film, actually was rendered mentally unstable during it, and attempted to commit suicide. Stefania Sandrelli, who played the 16-year-old love interest, and ultimately unfaithful second wife, was actually only 14 years old when she played the part.

Leyla Qasim, became the first woman to be executed by Saddam Hussein's regime.  She was one of five Kurds charged with attempting to hijack and airplane and plotting to kill the Iraqi leader.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 9, 1974. Probable cause.

1970s, 1974, Disaster, Geology, Government, Japan, television, Watergate

Monday, March 11, 1974. The Obstinate

Imperial Japanese Army Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda formally in the Philippines.  He had been recently informed by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, that the war was over.

Originally part of a party of four such soldiers, one who abandoned the group in 1949 to surrender, they carried out guerilla raids which ultimately reduced Onoda to the sole survivor.  Their ongoing obstinacy was frankly irrational as well as deadly.

He found post-war Japan disappointing and became a cattle rancher in Brazil.

Contrary to popular belief, he was not the last Japanese soldier still holding out.  At least one more, Teruo Nakamura, who was Taiwanese, was in Indonesia.  He was actually a private and of native Taiwanese background, with a poor command of Japanese and Chinese.  He'd be captured in December 1974.  Another, Fumio Nakahara, may have been holding out in the Philippines as late as 1980, although that has never been determined.

A ceasefire between Iraq and the Kurdish Democratic Party was subject to an ultimatum, which provided that Kurdistan could be autonomous.  The offer would expire without acceptance, and a renewed war resumed.

The United Kingdom tended its Oil Embargo related state of emergency.

Last prior:

Friday, March 8, 1974. Exit Brady Bunch

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part IX, Late Summer.

September 15, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Vasily Popov, commander of the Russian 247th Guard Air Assault Regiment, was killed in a counter-attack in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia area.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing Belarusian President Lukashenko as complicit in Russian crimes and called upon the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for his arrest.

The Duma proposed blocking WhatsApp as part of the Kremlin’s effort to control the Russian information space. 

cont:

Pro Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is critically ill.

September 16, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian forces liberated Andriivka near Bakhmut.

September 19, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Six Ukrainian deputy defense ministers were fired on Monday as part of an ongoing cleanup of corruption in the Ukrainian defense department.

Post Soviet Union Ukraine has been plagued with corruption, as has post Soviet Union Russia.  This is no surprise, as the Soviet system encouraged corruption by its very nature, and so that post Soviet societies would feature a lot of it is to be expected.

Ironically, this fact has led opponents of supporting Ukraine, which is democratic and is fighting a just fight, to cite the corruption as a reason to allow the country to be conquered by Russia, although they don't put it that way.  While the country has featured a lot of corruption, Russia's is now endemic and currently not only that case, but watching modern Russia is a lot like watching Goodfellas in real time.

Following 2013's Euromaiden protest, the country has moved increasingly towards the west and has had a strong desire to join the European Union and NATO.  That is what has, in no small part, brought the current war about, as Putin, a Russian nationalist at heart, is opposed to that and sees Ukraine as a mere Russian province.  Efforts to join NATO have lead to a list of further items Ukraine must address in order to do so, once the war is over, and cleaning up corruption will no doubt continue.

The ISW is giving praise to Ukrainian offensive efforts near Bakhmut, which it cites as having kept Russian forces committed in that area, leaving the Russians unable to reinforce further south.  It's reporting that Russian forces in both areas are suffering severe degradation.

Iran v. Kurds

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has deployed unis to the border with Iraq in an effort to put pressure on Iraq to arrest Kurdish efforts in Iran.

Iran messes heavily in regional conflicts, taking an active pro-government role in Syria for example.  Here, however, the war in Syria and the conclusion of the war in Iraq has led to Kurdish semi autonomy, which has in turn lead to Kurdish activity in northern Iran.

cont:

Azerbaijan v. Armenia

Azerbaijan’s declared an “anti-terrorist” campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is under Armenian control. Armenian media indicated air raid sirens and mortar fire in the regional capital of Stepanakert had been observed.

Armenian forces recently trained with U.S. forces.

September 21, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

The Prime Minister of Poland has announced; "We are no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming ourselves with the most modern weapons".

Poland and Ukraine have been in a dispute over grain, which has been flooding the Polish market as Ukraine's ports have been blocked, even while Poland has been a major supporter of Ukraine's war effort.

In spite of the way it's been portrayed, historically Poland and Ukraine have not gotten along and following World War One fought over their respective borders.  During World War Two, Ukrainian nationalist militias committed acts of genocide against Polish villagers.  The recent Polish support of Ukraine may reflect Polish animosity towards Russia as much as anything else.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul, who is a libertarian with isolationist tendencies, is holding up the most recent funding for Ukraine.

What both of these stories point out is that the slow moving progress of the Ukrainian offensive, while receiving support from some analysts such as those from the ISW, presents real problems in terms of ongoing Western support.  Ukraine's strategy, from those supporting it, is reputed to be a slow moving offensive using artillery to attrit Russian forces, made necessarily in part by a lack of air assets.  That may be correct, but if it is, Ukraine may find itself with decreasing material support from the West including the United States should the U.S. far right gain in Congress.

Wagner is withdrawing from Syria.

Cont: 

German Marder AFV, some of which appear to be beyond prepared Russian lines.

Ukrainian light armor appears to have pushed through Russian lines near Bakhmut, which would be significant, if substantial and correct.  Indeed, the fact that there are reports of this is significant as it would suggest Russian forces must be very downgraded in the area.

American Stryker AFV, some of which have also been reported having passed Russian prepared defenses.

September 22, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian Navy Admiral Sokolov, the Commander of Black Sea Fleet, was killed today by a Ukrainian missile/drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet's Sevastopol headquarters.

September 23, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Poland walked back its earlier statement about not transferring arms to Ukraine, indicating that what was meant that new arms it is acquiring for itself will not be transferred.

September 24, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

According to ISW, the Ukrainian Army has broken through Russian field fortifications west of Verbove in western Zaporizhia Oblast. This is not, however, the final Russian defensive line.

September 25, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian forces are attacking north of Verbove appear to be close to surrounding the 56th VDV Regiment deployed in Novofedorivka.

September 26, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces reported on September 25 that a precision Ukrainian strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea, on September 22 killed 34 Russian officers, including BSF Commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov.

Azerbaijan v. Armenia

Armenia effectively surrendered, and the subject enclave will be abandoned.  Armenia is blaming Russia for its peacekeeping forces being ineffective.

US v. ISIL

The U.S. announced the capture of ISIL official Abu Halil al-Fad'ani in a raid in northern Syria.

September 27, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian Navy Admiral Sokolov, the Commander of Black Sea Fleet, was in fact not killed on the Ukrainian missile strike on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet.

A Russian drone strike cut the ferry ties between Ukraine and Romania.

September 30, 2023

Armenia v. Azerbaijan

Almost the entire population of the ethnic Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, some 100,000 people, have since Azerbaijan seized the region last week.

October 1, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

The emergency stopgap bill to fund the U.S. government for 45 days omits funds for Ukraine.

October 5, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian drone attacks now occur inside of Russia daily.  Two Russian cargo jets were destroyed at the Russian air base at Pskov yesterday, with the Russians claiming that the attacks were launched from inside of Russian territory.

Ukrainians have carried out a second commando raid on Crimea.  The Russian navy has pulled out of Sevastopol and dispersed.

October 6, 2023

Syrian Civil War

A drone attack on a military graduation ceremony in the Syrian Homs, killed 80 and wounded 240.  Some civilians were amongst the casualties.

China v. Everyone

A Chinese nuclear submarine is reported to have been caught in a Chinese submarine net last December, resulting in its sinking and the loss of the entire crew.

October 7, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Hamas launched a large scale offensive against Israel yesterday, sending both ground forces and rockets across the border.  Israel has termed it a war and has called up reservists.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine has deployed snipers overseas against Wagner forces.

October 8, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Belarusian leader Lukashenko stated to newsmen last week, "I have to say that Zelensky is acting absolutely appropriately", a surprising statement from a Russian ally.

Hamas v. Israel

Russia bizarrely called for a ceasefire between the warring parties.

Civilian casualties are about equal so far, each standing at about 250 persons.  Hamas took hostages back into Israel.

Last prior edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part VIII. The high cost of freedom.

Sunday, April 22, 1923. Agrarian rise.

The British commenced their occupation of Rawandiz, in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish city is near the Turkish and Iranian borders.  The United Kingdom was occupying the country under a League of Nations Mandate.  The border was contested by the Turks, who had occupied the city only a year prior, which motivated the British to garrison the town.

The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union won the vast majority of the seats of the country's Parliament.  The agrarian party is the only such party to come to power by a majority of votes being cast for it outright.

The party was a founding member of the International Agrarian Bureau and part of a strong rising agrarian movement in Eastern Europe. The movement would eventually spread to Western Europe as well, but the rise of Communism and World War Two would effectively destroy it and its influence waned. The Bureau dissolved in 1971.

The Italian fascists cut 1B lire from the country's budget by cutting civil service jobs, leaving the deficit in the budget at 3B for that year.

A bomb exploded at Comiskey Park in Chicago, but didn't injure anyone.  Nobody was arrested from the explosion, but it was suspected that it was the result of the hiring of non-union labor to point the exterior of the ballpark.  

I don't know if it's related, but owner Charles Comiskey was notoriously cheap.

"Queen of the Pinups" Bettie Page was born on this day in 1923.  Page was a good student, but from a broken home.  After several attempts to get her feet on the ground she turned to modeling in her late 20s and rapidly became, by the early 1950s an infamous pornographic model and actress and one of the few individuals in that line of work whose name was well known.  In 1958, she experienced a radical conversion to Christianity, stopped her pornographic career, and devoted the rest of her life to her conversion, although she ended up marrying and divorcing three times in her life. Her divorces prevented her from being accepted in a new desired career of Christian missionary to Africa.  She was subpoenaed to testify in front of a Congressional committee at the time investigating the pornography industry at a time when there still remained sufficient public will to attempt to do something about it, an era that has now very much faded.

In making her switch, she dropped out of the public eye but oddly was subject to a large scale revival in interest in the 1980s, which is the only reason I've heard of her.  She was the subject of a major biography at the time, and I can recall reading a detailed review of it in The New Republic, which used to have fantastic book reviews.  In the intervening thirty years, all sorts of rumors had spring up about her, even though she remained alive at the time.  About as much as can reasonably be said is that she struggled with her mental health and had abandoned the life that brought her to a certain section of the public eye.  She shares that trait with many in the industry, including many Playboy models, which in fact she was one of.

Dying in 2008, Page is a sad tale of a very smart person whose early life slid into vice with grotesque and tragic results, but also one of recovery and redemption, if not full recovery.  It's interesting that the public focus was on her only when she was deep into depravity, and then again late in life when a pornified culture wanted to focus on her earlier image.

Of some interest, Page and Marilyn Monroe took the same path, at almost the same time, although Monroe's turn to modeling, including nude modeling, happened at a significantly earlier age.  Both women were the products of broken homes, although Monroe's was significantly more broken.  Monroe, moreover, was just a teenager when she was first a true model, and it was not until the late 1940s that she was photographed nude.  Ironically, Monroe was able to start a career in acting before the news of her nude photographs broke, and while she was Playboy's first (unwilling) model, she was able to escape the immediate implications of it due to the intervention of Life magazine, which ran the same photographs before Playboy as glamour photos in order to save her career.  Page, in contrast, began a rapid descent after first consenting to be photographed.  They were almost bookends in a certain story in the evolution of American morality and the portrayal of women.  Neither of them was able to really able to escape their early story, although Page certainly lived a much longer life.

Both of them would suggest that something about the Second World War and the culture that followed, including the release of false "studies" that the public was apparently willing to accept at the time had an impact on the culture, assuming that the war was merely conicidental in this story. That seems unlikely.

Wednesday, December 20, 1922. Rises and falls.

Sir Percy Cox, British Administrator for the Iraqi Mandate, agreed to a joint Anglo Iraqi declaration to create ea government for the Kurds provided that rival Kurdish leaders could agree on a constitution for the state, and to its borders.  

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji.

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, who had appointed by Cox as the governor or southern Kurdistan, refused to go along with it and allied himself with the Turks against the British, destroying the opportunity for an independent Kurdistan.  He is regarded to this day as a hero in Kurdistan, but it can't help but be noted that his obstinacy may have frustrated Kurdish aspirations, perhaps permanently.

William Hays lifted the ban against Roscoe Arbuckle in the movie industry.

Poland appointed Stanislaw Wojciechowski as President of the republic.

Monday, October 10, 1921. Putative Beginnings

On this day in 1921the Federation of Central America, made up of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, came into existence. Tegucigalpa was the capital.  The treaty creating the union provided only for provisional delegates to its parliament, so in reality it never took off.

There have been numerous efforts to create such a union, following the end of Mexican claims to the region in the 19th Century. All have unfortunately failed, which has been a major contributor to the agony of the region in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

On states that failed, the Kingdom of Kurdistan was proclaimed on this day in 1921.

Encompassing a fairly small area of the region inhabited by the Kurds, all of which was within Iraq, the British put the putative kingdom down in 1924, and it was incorporated back into the British mandate in Mesopotamia in 1926 by the League of Nations.

Here too, if the state had been allowed to exist, much of modern history in the region would have been different, and potentially better.

The Yankees won game 5 of the 1921 World Series, regaining the lead from the Giants. The score was 3 to 1.

In other sports, a photographer caught a group of Army officers playing polo at Camp Grant., Illinois.

Polo, Camp Grant, October 10, 1921

Polo had become a big Army sport in the early 20th Century, and the interwar years were really its high water mark. During that period it was widely participated in and encouraged by the Army.  Polo became common not only in the Regular Army, but in the National Guard.
 

Hines was back at work photographing Appalachia, including the members of an African American 4H Club..

Miners cabins on the Elk River at Bream, W. Va. near Charleston. Others on slope beyond. A typical mining community here. Children go to Big Chimney school. Oct. 10, 1921. Location: Bream, West Virginia

Former 4H members who were attending an African American agricultural college in West Virginia.

May 2, 1921. Uprising in Upper Silesia

Polish insurgents in 1921.

On this day in 1921, the Third Silesian Uprising commenced in which Poles in Upper Silesia who sought to separate from Germany.  The uprising followed a plebiscite which yielded indefinite results and followed Polish fears that the British would support German claims to the region, which was proved to be correct.  The French supported the Poles.

During the fighting, the French somewhat supported the Polish insurgents and the British somewhat supported German forces in the region, but outside forces were barred from entry.  Ultimately the Poles prevailed.

On the same day the US announced that it would not mediate reparations disputes involving Germany and the Allies.  The French mobilized 50,000 men for anticipated Ruhr occupation.

Also on that day President Harding was visited by the American Waldensian Aid Society.

American Waldensian Aid Society, 5/2/21

While I'd never heard of it, it still exists, and is based in the Waldensian Church, a protestant church that claims a connection with the Waldensian heresy of the Middle Ages.  In 1975 it merged with the Methodist Church.

Harding appears to have had a busy day of meetings.

He met with members of International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, depicted above.

And also with the Alabama Congressional delegation.

And with Social Service School Workers.

Somebody he didn't meet with, but who was photographed that day, was Prince Zerdecheno, who claimed the title of Emir of Kurdistan, and his wife, May 2, 1921.

Elsewhere the famous hairpin turn on the Mohawk Trail and the Niagara Falls Fire Department were photographed.

August 10, 1920. Turkey and the Blues

Panoramic view of Lake Fairlee from Quinibeck Lookout,  August 10, 1920.

On this day in 1920 Mamie Smith recorded Crazy Blues, which would go on to be the first blues recording in American musical history to cross over the racial divide and be a general musical hit.

Mamie Smith

Smith would go on to have a short but successful blues career, but after her retirement from music things did not go as well.  She died penniless in 1946 at age 55 and was buried in an unmarked grave in New York City.  A gravestone was finally erected after a campaign to have one installed in 2012.

The Ottoman government signed the Treaty of Sevres in which they agreed to dismantle the Ottoman Empire, recognize Greek and Italian claims to Anatolian domains, and grant Armenia independence.

Signed outside of Paris, the Ottoman government was already fighting a revolt from Ataturk and therefor the treaty would never really come into full effect in the way envisioned.  Those parts of that would more or less be carried out were in those areas where the Allied already controlled Ottoman domains outside of Anatolia.

Regarded as an example of outrageous overreach by the Allies today, the treat wasn't completely without its merits.  The release of non Ottoman territories in Arabia, if only into mandates that were effectively European colonies, did recognize that those areas should eventually be independant, even though they definitely were not at the time.  Achieving a free Kurdistan and Armenia would have been a real achievement, the former of which has never occured and which continues to plague the region today.  Greek claims to the Anatolian mainland grossly overreached, however, and doomed any chance of acceptance of the treaty, which in turn doomed Armenian and Kurdish independence.

Photographed on this day in 1920, with "US" service lapel pins, campaign ribbons, Nurses service pin, and overseas stripes.  Still really don't know what more is here, but something is as it was a news photograph.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi apparently killed by U.S/Kurdish strikes in Syria

Ironies abound.

We've recently been hearing how a U.S. presence in Syria isn't necessary anymore (and I'll concede that I both didn't think we should be in Syria in the fist place but, having gone in, we shouldn't leave and abandon the Kurds).

Now we find that Syria is hotter, ISIL wise, than we supposed.

And we've gotten Al Baghdadi, in a joint operation with the Kurds.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of ISIL.  Not a huge amount about him is known other than that.  He's an Iraqi by birth and had some university education, apparently being a student of Islamic law while attending university.

ISIL started off as the Iraqi component of Al Queda and became active after the U.S. occupation of Iraq.  It's early history is murky but Al-Baghdadi quickly became its leader and has been ever since.  His death would therefore be roughly equivalent to that of Bin Laden's, which came about in a similar fashion.

He took his group in a highly radical direction, at least as radical as that of Al Queda, if not more so.  He proclaimed himself to be the new Caliph, a proposition that's dubious under Islamic law in his case, and found adherents for a brand of Islam that is uniquely severe.  Included in its views are the wide scale use of violence against all opponents and the routine use of violence against non Muslims.  Moreover, his group revived the line from the Koran allowing men to take concubines with "their strong right hand", although that was interpreted, apparently, to amount to forced marriage.* All sorts of horrors have accordingly resulted.

Al-Baghdadi has an odd connection with the U.S. in that he was the apparent direct detainer of American Christian relief worker Kayla Mueller.  Mueller was working with Syrian refugees in Syria but stunned Doctors Without Borders when she showed up with a Syrian boyfriend in Aleppo.  They put her on a bus back to Turkey the next day but it was ambushed and she was taken prisoner and forcibly married to Al-Baghdadi who reportedly repeatedly raped her while she was his captive.  ISIL attempted to force her to renounce Christianity while she was a captive, which she would not do.** She also reportedly acted as a protector and sympathetic ear for younger captive "brides" of Al-Baghdadi.  She was later a casualty of a Coalition air strike.

All of things brings a number of points to the forefront right at the point in which there may still be time to do something about them, even though its highly unlikely the United States under the current administration will.

This raid took place in northwestern Syria, the very region we're currently pulling out of.  While ISIL is an opponent of the Syrian regime in Damascus, our withdrawal or quasi withdrawal is to that regime's benefit.  What would have occurred if Damascus completely reasserted its sovereignty on the portions of the country not occupied by Turkey and Russia isn't clear.

Murkier yet is what would have happened had this are been occupied by the Turks.  The Turks have shown a surprising level of ambivalence recently in regard to Islamic extremist and their occupation of what amounts to an expansion of their border with Syria has resulted in ISIL adherents being freed and the insertion of radical Islamic Syrian militias.  If Al-Baghdadi's enclave had been found in their territory, which is admittedly unlikely, what would have we done?  This points out that even with the U.S. out, we're much better off with the Turks also not in.

That would raise again my point about UN Peacekeepers.  Not that this is going to happen.
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*I'm certain many current Muslims would dispute that the Koran allows the taking of captive sex slaves but the fact of the matter is that it was at one time highly common in Islam and there is in fact a line in the Koran allowing Mohammed's male combatant adherents to have sex with women captives.  I'm  not a scholar on the topic so what the current counters to that within Islam are, I don't know.

In ISIL's case, however, the practice was widespread and apparently limited in the way it was originally was, i.e., the captives are non Muslims when forced into the relationship.  The Koran, however, may sanction taking slaves in that fashion (I don't think it actually requires the captor to marry the slave) but it doesn't appear to actually sanction rape.  That may seem like a distinction without a difference, but its noted here anyhow.  I.e., a woman forced into captivity in the ancient world in the role of  sex slave probably doesn't have a lot of choice in what she does.

ISIL does seem to depart in requiring that there be a "marriage" in these circumstances.  However, in the Christian view of marriage, no such marriage would exist as marriage requires consent of both parties and always has.

**The entire Mueller story was an example of monumentally bad reporting by the American press.

Mueller was only in Turkey as she was a Christian.  She'd previously gone to Guatemala in the same role.  However, Mueller was a Protestant of the supposedly unaffiliated type.

This particular topic is really badly reported in general as "unaffiliated" Christians in fact are affiliated, as they fit into the loose  American protestant tradition. This means that they aren't part of one of the "main line" Protestant faiths, but the "unaffiliated" churches are in fact fairly uniform in their theology and are affiliated, even if they don't realize it.

Her Christian status was nearly completely ignored by the Press.

As was the fact that she was naive.  Apparently the courage of her convictions really showed while she was a captive, but she never should have been where she was in the first place.

Turkish Sanctions Lifted

I hadn't even realized sanctions had been imposed when they came off, but President Trump lifted sanctions on Turkey that followed its invasion of northern Syria.

The invasion followed the American abandonment of the Syrian Kurds, lead by the YPK, which we've been following.  Following that, the  Turks have aligned with the Russians which are now jointly patrolling an occupied zone of northern Syria, also occupied by Syrian Islamist militias which have been executing Kurdish prisoners and releasing some ISIL affiliated ones. 

The sanctions, a type of strike back that rarely works, were supposed to address Turkish excesses in Syria and were proclaimed now unnecessary in light of a supposed cease fire worked out by the United States.  It's hard to see what deal we actually reached as the Turks achieved their goal and moved oddly closer to Russia in the mix, something they're likely to regret.  Overall, the long term results are likely to be unhappy for everyone, including the United States which comes out of the entire affair looking simply awful.  It's worst of all for the Kurds and what little democratic forces there are in Syria.

A Complete And Total Defeat

Turkey, a nation with a good, but 1970s vintage (maybe 80s vintage) military was able to enter northern Syria as we left, abandoning the Kurds to their fate.  Hence they took what amounts to either a Turkish/Kurdish/Syrian DMZ or what amounts to an expansion of their border south into Syrian Kurdistan thereby retaking a slice of land they last held in 1918.

And now they, the Syrian government, and Russia have entered into an agreement whereby the Russians will patrol the border with Turkey and will "clear" a border region 18 miles deep, with some exceptions, into Syrian Kurdistan.

The implications of this are vast.  It seems to signal the ongoing evolution of Turkey, under its current prime minister, into a rogue state that's increasingly aligned with enemies of the West.  It elevates Russia above its natural status into an increasingly important regional power broker.  And it's the open doorway for Damascus to regain the entire northern Syrian region, given that Syria and Russia are strange bedfellow allies.

As I've repeatedly noted here, I never thought the United States entering the Syrian civil war was a good idea in the first place, and that fact make me seem hypocritical here.  Had I had my way, the natural results of it would have been that Damascus would have won the civil war and be occupying the country all the way to its frontiers right now.  So doesn't this just do what my "If I were President" position would have done?

Not really.

For one thing, this day would have arrived much earlier and with much less bloodshed.  It wouldn't have elevated Syrian Kurdistan into a putative state, as has occurred, with which we allied, and then abandoned.  That latter fact would likely have meant that the incentive for increased YPK violence against Turkey would not have increased, as the Turkish action seems likely to do.  And while Russia would have been involved, as Syria's only ally, the victory wouldn't have elevated Russia's position in the region while decreasing our own, which has now very much occurred.

So the disaster enters a new stage, and not one pleasant to contemplate.  Moscow isn't going to put Russian troops into harms way for charitable purposes and there will be a price to pay for everyone, including Turkey.

All because we were short sighted when we entered, and even more short sighted when we left.