[Peace-discuss] "ISIS Crisis Exegesis" - Phyllis Bennis' book on ISIS, reviewed by David Swanson

Tue Jul 14 11:34:11 EDT 2015

(This is the book I'd brought to last Sunday's AWARE meeting.)

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[ufpj-activist] ISIS Crisis Exegesis
Date: 	Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:26:05 -0400
From: 	David Swanson <davidcnswanson at gmail.com>
To: 	ufpj-activist <ufpj-activist at lists.mayfirst.org>

  ISIS Crisis Exegesis

By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/4828 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__davidswanson.org_node_4828&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=bG9Q5nse3LsSljAu6oYSbSjqxGbNs94xU-n5BhTUBiM&e=>

Talking with Iran has made the war profiteers and their servants sad and 
the rest of the world happy. Perhaps the novel idea of negotiating 
rather than killing will be carried over to several other parts of the 
world. Mainstream corporate voices are even raising 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__grahamefuller.com_defeating-2Disis-2Dby-2Dtalking-2Dto-2Dit_&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=5wKzfXdhPCKzd4V6WfMkEW4ixFIUAjO5G9FbI_YjXJY&e=> 
the idea of talking with ISIS, or at least talking with the nations of 
the region ISIS is in about ISIS, or at least ceasing to make the ISIS 
Crisis worse by ignorantly doing everything wrong -- which just might 
include making friends with Iran in order to fight ISIS together.

"But what about ISIS?" That has been the endless zombie question 
encountered by all peace activists ever since the propaganda coup of the 
videos of two U.S. journalist beheadings. And part of the answer has 
always been: learn where it came from. Phyllis Bennis's new book can 
help with that job wonderfully. The book is called /Understanding ISIS 
and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amazon.com_Understanding-2DISIS-2DNew-2DGlobal-2DTerror_dp_1566560942&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=rI3hX1A_x4X3HymJMZLkg-l9TZIfbeUiusHBbIsUUc8&e=>/. 
Whether you think you understand ISIS or not, I urge you to pick up a 
copy, or better a box of copies. This is a small book that should be 
passed out like a vaccine to residents of the enormous camp of refugees 
from sanity and historicity that we call the United States of America.

Bennis's book is excellent on what to do, although that topic is found 
in a handful of pages near the end. The focus, however, is on 
understanding origins and context. If anything, this is overdone, though 
it's hard to see what the harm could be in people learning a little too 
much. The book covers Syria, the Arab Spring, Libya, Iran, the United 
Nations, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other tangentially related 
topics (I wish she's added a section on the phony reports of ISIS 
actions in the United States). The book is excellent on the 2013 Syria 
Missile Crisis and the role that popular resistance played in preventing 
a massive U.S. bombing campaign in Syria. That, even more so than the 
successful negotiation with Iran this week, should be our model for 
future activism.

Bennis relates an excellent history of the Mountain Rescue Excuse and 
places it in the context of the Imminent-Genocide-in-Benghazi Scam and 
other past justifications to launch wars that have predictably and 
immediately veered off into unrelated murderous operations.

But I think the most interesting point in this wide-ranging book may be 
one that Bennis makes about the Sunni Awakening. You might recall that 
when the United States began the 2003-2011 destruction of Iraq it 
quickly dissolved the Iraqi military, dismantled the civil service, and 
got rid of the Baath Party. Angry, trained, and armed fighters joined 
the popular resistance to the U.S. occupation. Among the new fighting 
groups that formed was Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2006, the Bush 
administration gave up on the hopeless mission-never-to-be-accomplished 
of trying to fight these groups, and started buying them off. This was a 
key part of the success of the "surge" that was itself no success at 
all. But some of the groups, including AQI refused to be bought off or 
to cease fighting.

In 2008, the United States turned over to the Iraqi government the job 
of buying off Sunni groups. The Iraqi government ceased making the 
payments. And the growth of ISIS, the renamed AQI, was underway. And it 
was exacerbated by an Iraqi government that shut out Sunnis and attacked 
Sunnis, while being funded and armed by the U.S. government. People 
think ISIS came out of nowhere, but many of us were, in the years before 
ISIS hit the news, struggling to oppose 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__act.rootsaction.org_p_dia_action3_common_public_-3Faction-5FKEY-3D9035&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=joV-a5-5DNbjJvZiG4ysz3iS55ZfuD-roC7H2wviB5k&e=> 
the U.S. provision of weapons to the Iraqi government for use in 
attacking Iraqis. This is where ISIS and broad support for ISIS among 
Sunnis came from.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia had told Sir Richard Dearlove 
of MI6, "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it 
will be literally 'God help the Shi'a.' More than a billion Sunnis have 
simply had enough of them." ISIS funding flows from Saudi Arabia, 
Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar, as well as from oil sales and artifact sales 
and kidnappings and thefts.

When 1,300 ISIS fighters overwhelmed 350,000 Iraqi soldiers and helped 
themselves to loads of U.S. weaponry, ISIS had the support of Sunni 
leaders angered by the Iraqi government, and of former Iraqi military 
leaders thrown out of work by Paul Bremmer -- not to mention benefitting 
from the chaos and flood of weaponry into Syria, and critically from the 
lack of enthusiasm for their cause among members of the Iraqi military.

So why do I say the Sunni Awakening is the most interesting point? 
Because something was working. Making small payments of cash to Sunnis 
-- sums far smaller than those spent on the weapons and the training (at 
$4 million per trainee now 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.politico.com_story_2015_07_price-2Dfor-2Dsyrian-2Drebels-2D4-2Dmillion-2Deach-2D119858.html-3Fhp-3Drc1-5F4&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=pE5THoEHcPKElsC_2HBmYhkq-aPBVBDUnL33JYtHCy4&e=>) 
to fight them -- was working. What if, instead of ending those payments, 
they had been continued, or been transformed into a program of 
nonviolent aid to everyone in the region, accompanied perhaps by a note 
of apology for having destroyed the place?

Bennis' first recommendation for what to do is an arms embargo. I think 
if Americans realized that their country was arming the region that 
their country constantly laments the violence in, the idea of an arms 
embargo would have overwhelming appeal. Beyond that, Bennis recommends: 
an inclusive Iraqi government, an end to airstrikes, a withdrawal of 
U.S. troops, and the use of diplomacy, including possibly talks with ISIS.

Bennis also suggests reversing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 
/Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project/ which can make teaching non-violent 
activism to groups abroad into the crime of "material support for 
terrorism." And she proposes a massive increase in U.S. aid through U.N. 
agencies.

Of course, aid has a tendency to make things better and a proven record 
of working in Iraq. So I assume every other possible approach will be 
tried first.

*NOTE TO THOSE IN WASHINGTON DC AREA:*
Come to the book launch party for this book, with its author, on July 27 
from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Busboys & Poets 5th and K, 1025 5th St NW, 
Washington, DC.

-- 

*David Swanson *is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He 
is director of WorldBeyondWar.org 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__WorldBeyondWar.org&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=vtG5LxqYn-Wacnr7NvvyDW2H_6Lm3BE8l4dz0w8juv0&e=> 
and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org 
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__RootsAction.org&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=KGmNeXhRyUwTqdseuKjOth-zjdq-280rapNHbE6gp1U&e=>. 
Swanson's books include /War Is A Lie 
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and WarIsACrime.org 
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<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__davidswanson.org_taxonomy_term_41&d=AwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=_iuwmBDMEAIAz6k1h--JVoji6x5mlDiImSbbdIp2zWg&m=k3wHPmNK6t9rNYRkln0xgWraNj29Y4g7AB_pa997WH4&s=5ySLDW9IwhQh9WB0TBWb_Lpl5K6N33Q7Zn_zGb1FK80&e=>.**He 
is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee 
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