New New Rojava General

Obligatory

Source on that?

twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/849922933141229568

anfenglish.com/news/tabqa-siege-safsafah-villages-cleansed-of-isis-19346

...

How are they this good at encircling?

Yeah, the interviews done by Doug Morris are really good. I'd recommend checking out the book Anarchism, Marxism, and the Future of the Left if you liked this interview. This book is a collection of interviews like this, edited and put into book form. It's one of bookchin's best volumes of work.

Pincer and encircle has been a tried and tested SDF technique for the longest time. Works very well against ISIS.

here we go

Yeah I'm aware. My question is rather why hasn't ISIS adapted to this strategy? Why has the SDF been able to consistently encircle like this?

lel of course he would say that. Trump would never risk a conflict with Russia

I didn't know it was possible to hate so many factions of a war at the same time.

It's pretty much impossible to counter against in rural, wide open areas with air support targeting you from overhead as was the case in the earlier stages of Wrath of Euphrates.

It's a bit different now as they're starting to hit more urban and dense terrain. What SDF are doing is asking ISIS if they're prepared to allocate enough numbers to save Tabqa, but then undermining their manpower in Raqqa. ISIS just doesn't have the manpower to put up effective resistance in both Tabqa and Raqqa so the encirclement here I would guess is to spread ISIS' meagre amount of fighters as wide as possible, and cut through them more effectively. Tabqa is said to have not that many ISIS left in it. It's not much smaller than Manbij but it'll be taken far faster.

Michael Israel was one of our best. Fuck Turkey for killing him.

what the hell happens to Rojava in the event of U.S. intervention?

If there is one thing I've learnt about Sultan Erdo is that that he talks a lot of shit to make himself look more important and scary.

It's a typical attention seeking strategy; it's how Trump and the likes always ends up in the media and is also a key part of Erdogan's cult of personality.

In the past PYD has said they don't like Assad but they oppose military intervention to get rid of him at the same time.

In any event Rojava will likely remain neutral, especially as Turkey will definitely play a large part in any anti Assad operations

Exactly this just fucking happened.
twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/850059818165559296
This is fucking major.
Does this mean open NATO/Russia conflict is coming?

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-minister-idUKKBN1781DI

Interesting from the Syrian Foreign Minister.

Possibly but Russia stated earlier today that their support for Assad isn't "unconditional".

Trump SAYS all sorts of things. I'm skeptical, and I guess we'll have to see.

I think this has a lot to do with it:

Isis on both a tactical and ideological level needs to continuously be carrying out offensives. They are utterly useless at static defense and instead repeatedly carry out reckless attacks. This obviously creates vulnerability to having units surrounded.

ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-cult-of-the-offensive-the-islamic-state-on-defense

...

Oh shit m8

Now that's a fucking reach lmao. This guy held a minor position in Kobani canton 3 or 4 years ago and he's apparently clued into the inner workings of what could be the biggest event of this war? Doubt it. Wonder how many people she went through before she could get a quote like this

reuters.com/article/amp/idUSBRE97Q0LP20130827

From 2013 regarding Ghouta but relevant today.

US just struck a Syria airbase with dozens of missiles. We'll see PYD and SDF related views tomorrow I'd guess.

Russian and US ties are falling apart as we speak. For Rojava this is like mom and dad (as in Rojava's main political backers) going through a divorce. There's Russian troops, American troops and Syrian troops in Rojava territory.

Interesting to see how they navigate this minefield.

d-did I jinx it?

Worst case scenario for YPG/PYD is that the more pro-SAA/pro-Russia cantons such as Afrin and Shahba will split off from the more pro-US Kobane and Jazira cantons.

That seems comically unlikely. What's with the constant barrage of defeatism and hopelessness from even the revolutions supporters on here? Is it just because they can't find a better excuse to not go?

I did not say that this is likely. I just said that that would be the worst case scenario for PYD

Reminder for all fellow Frenchfags to read this: international-communist-party.org/Francais/Relation/017Kurde.htm.

I'll translate it to English if any of the feeble utopians ITT are interested a proper Marxist critique, or are actually prepared to stomache one at all.

Sorry. I'm just frustrated with the constant defeatism and concern trolling regarding rojava.

If it's like the Duave article then it's meme tier. Enjoy your armchair though

I'll see you lads in a few years. Make sure to already prepare a proper list of excuses for how things didn't work out how you imagined they would. I'll be there to say I told you so. Don't worry: critique is totally not because I care.
I will absolutely be doing this from my armchair, which is the comfiest place to wait and see the Kurdish proletariat die for the cause of national liberation veiled under progressivist pretexts; something completely alien to their interests.

see

Hush now, comrade. Just let me observe the fallout of your failures and betrayal of the proletariat from my armchair. Fully entertain your notions and devote yourself to your cause. Good luck!

truly ebin

FIVE

YEARS

wdhmbt?

He wanted to say:
The life expectancy of the Democratic confederalist experiment shall not be longer than five revolutions of the earth around the sun for the Kurdish uprising rest on utopian premises.

Approximate amount of time before your national liberation project of choice either becomes another Venezuela- or Chiapas-style social democracy or crumbles, both at the cost of proletarian lives being led into these treacherous ventures.

Enlighten me on Chiapas. How did it became SocDem? I have no idea what's happening with EZLN recently

It was always just a movement to protect traditional ways of peasant organization. It's just indigenous nationalism with talk of democracy and civil society. Anarchists liked them (liked, because nowadays they don't even hide their ineptitude and have gone full neoliberal, participating in Mexican parliament) because of the class dimensions involved, the middling classes, and the idea of autonomous regions which is something that anarchists are into. Anarchists aren't above supporting nationalism and national liberation. The funniest thing I read about anarchists was a pamphlet about "keep[ing] the revolution local" in regards to implementing more bicycle routes.

Shame you didn't make it shorter then that. Now I'm going to have wait 5 years to rub it in :^)

democracynature.org/vol2/bookchin_nationalism.htm

You'd better not be a Marxist, or this statement would be hilarious.

Nah: marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1959/09/nationalism.htm.

Marx and Engels supported Polish national liberation from Russia and the union of the German states into one nation-state.

That's why it's fucking hilarious that a Marxist would accuse anarchists, who historically have been the ones to question national liberation and anti-imperialism, of doing just that.

Critical point: they didn't pretend to call these things revolutionary, socialistic or even post-capitalistic.
wew lad.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_the_Sixteen
dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/malatesta/ForgottenPrinciples.html

Now you're just moving the goal posts user.
As to imply that Marxists don't, and clearly they do.

Nice wikipedia link.
Perhaps you should read it yourself.

Which anarchists have called national liberation socialist?

No, that was literally the whole point. Rojava fancies itself revolutionary while being nothing but national liberation with a utopian project on the side. Marx never had any such reservations.
"Anarchists", as in: many anarchists.

I've read it. Take a gander at the other link and its display of other instances of anarchists forgetting their principles and supporting one nation over the other.

...

The other link, is Malatesta writing about the content of the first link, which clearly said that this attitude was not prevalent amongst anarchists and was met with great controversy by the vast majority of Anarchists.
You know, unlike the doctrine of anti-imperialism amongst Marxists.

What part of it is national liberation when it isn't trying to establish an independent ethno/nation-state?

I implied that they don't on the basis that it's in any sense revolutionary, yes. And I would fully distance myself from any "Marxist" who would attach such notions to their politics.

Read the wholy thing. Kropotkin's support of WW1 is not the only topic discussed.

Among Stalinists*. "Anti-imperialism" is a notion invented after Lenin and his theory of imperialism. I posted another link of a Marxist disavowing all elements of nationalism as revolutionary in regards to socialism, and how this is most congruent with Marx himself.

>literally Kurdistan
You didn't read Dauvé. The other thread showed you got hyper-triggered at the first few paragraphs and then stopped.

Do your replies instead of spamming like a redditor.

You're addressing the wrong user. I was the one that posted in that thread. DFSNS is not limited to Kurdistan, stating their intention to federalize all of syria under the same system of DemCon. DemCon at it's roots is a revolutionary theory for the whole middle east.

Literally not in their name. They deliberately changed their name to not include Rojava, a Kurdish name for the area. Their ideology is explicitly anti-nationalist and there's no evidence that the leaders think any differently. There's definitely still a large amount of Kurdish Nationalism among the fighters, but the past tells the future, and the past tells us that the DFNS is not nationalist or even has any desire to be an independent nation-state.

Fine. As long as you stop lying and admit that all material says that these notions were almost universally panned amongst the anarchist movement, then I am happily willing to admit that Kropotkin was being a retard. Sure.
But you have no material indicating that this notion was shared amongst even a significant portion or the anarchist movement.

Lenin himself, Just like Marx, supported Polish independence, so both of them supported national liberation in the anti-imperialist sense, in order to weaken the Russian empire.
Sure, they didn't think it was socialist, but they didn't care.
See also Marx' support for Irish national liberation.

Also, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria is not "literally Kurdistan".
They explicitly stopped calling it that because they didn't want it to be a ethno-nationalist project. Arabic is even the more common lingua-franca at this point.

tbh interventionism is something I struggle with. with regards to coalition airstrikes on ISIS and SDF's alliance with the coalition, it's uncomfortable working in such slide quarters with a capitalist military industrial complex behemoth. And yeah, it's a violation of Syria's sovereignty too.

but I also think of what would've happened without coalition airstrikes. Without the thousands upon thousands of airstrikes ISIS would definitely be in control of much of Syria and Iraq right now. I mean they were unstoppable till the airstrikes came into play at Kobani. Despite literally everyone in the region fighting them and bombing them even now, they're still a highly capable force.

it's a tough one.

Add these to the OP, mods:
crimethinc.com/2015/09/23/feature-understanding-the-kurdish-resistance-historical-overview-eyewitness-report

kurdishquestion.com/article/3830-rojava-has-revolution-eliminated-the-state

An absolute must read for you radicals -
lookleftonline.org/2016/12/interview-with-mlkp-rojava/

zcomm.org/znetarticle/no-this-is-a-genuine-revolution/

weareplanc.org/blog/a-real-revolution-is-a-mass-of-contradictions-interview-with-our-member-in-rojava/

biehlonbookchin.com/rojavas-threefold-economy/

syriauntold.com/en/2017/03/women-rojava-laws-dream-turned-reality/

Not about Rojava but I'll still add it because biji serok apo -
warscapes.com/reportage/revolutionaries-bethnahrin

...

...

Salih Muslim statement on recent events.

essentially: rebels should be punished for using chemical weapons too, calls on the regime to come back to the negotiating table with PYD.

Fuck that is some slick maneuvering by Muslim.

aranews.net/2017/04/turkey-steps-attacks-kurdish-ypg-syria/

Can't tell if this is the usual Turk posturing or if it's serious, thoughts?

I'm sorry about sounding like a newfag who doesn't know the answer is in the thread, but can anyone give me a run-down to read about Rojava and its history? I wanna learn more about this thing, but I have absolute no idea on where to start and I heard it's a pretty complicated topic

Turkey will definitely not go into Iraq without America getting involved.
However there's a good chance that Trump will look the other way as Turkey slaughters the Kurds.

Even with all the attention given to Syria in the past 24 hours, I haven't seen the Kurds get any mention at all. The MSM will barely cover the destruction of Rojava by Turkey.

If it's Rojava specifically, the links in this thread should do you good enough.
If you want to get into the SCW in general, I think a good first step is lurking the SCW subreddit and checking out their sidebar links.

Does anyone know where I can read The Next Revolution?

...

twitter.com/BarzanSadiq/status/850248197150617603

lmao that's perfectly blunt

It's all but guaranteed, in the realm of geopolitics the Turks are simply too valuable to piss off for the burgers
If necessary the US would exterminate every Kurd and present their heads to the Dark Lord Roach in his tower in Ankara

on the topic of SCW and Lord of the Rings overlap, I love this:

youtube.com/watch?v=yj1OvWUTOlU

But also a bit disingenuous. If their primary supplier of air support have a stated goal of regime change, it very much does concern them when they have been somewhere between ambivalent and opposed to the issue so far.

anfenglish.com/news/12-gang-members-killed-over-40-others-wounded-in-shehba-19359

Here's the report on the clashes from the YPG end. Jaysh al Thuwar putting up great resistance again, god bless em. I think Turkey might go seriously for Tal Rifaat.

I suspect they're trying to straddle a line, they don't want to piss off the US but nor do they want to antagonize the Syrian gov't

So basically, they're being smart

For now
They really do need to distance themselves from the US though, it's gonna backfire horribly on them when the US decides they're no longer useful

YPG once again showing they are the nimblest of navigators making a statement that satisfies all sides and establishes them as the adults in the room who want a political solution.

lol apparently Turkey has been peddling anti-KCK propaganda in Europe

twitter.com/arabthomness/status/850416694363291648

All the recently trained and joined Arabs from Raqqa have formed their own battalion within SDF: Jazeera Knights.

Anyone else notice /r/Syriancivilwar has gone to shit since Trump launched those missiles. Full of uninformed new cunts now.

It has always been that way whenever something major happens in Syria, random uninformed retards will suddenly flocked in to give their stupid unsolicited opinions before they fucked off after a few days

I just lurked and read about scw for months before I felt comfortable commenting

geopolmonitor.com/international-coalition-suspends-air-operations-syria/

oh man this could be very dangerous for SDF. fucking Trump, you absolute retard.

Them Turks may begin their slaughter soon. Trump will not do anything to stop it. And Leftists will cry 'muh interventionism' if anyone suggests we help the kurds.

their more immediate worry is ISIS taking this as their chance to reverse SDF gains. I mean I'm sure SDF commanders have been proceeding on the assumption they'll have air support so having it taken from under them just like that could leave them very exposed.

Another MLKP martyr.

RIP Roza Rênas.

THE SOCDEMS CLAIM A NEW VICTIM!

You ppl keep calling Communalism utopian, as if that isn't explicitly recognised by Communalists and as if that isn't a good thing.

Reddit is generally filled with your average sheeple joe. I was banned saying that Turkish soldiers are just as much terrorist as daesh, this was when daesh had major success in their SVBIED attacks near Al-Bab. r/SCW does have quick updates though, which is the only reason why anyone should be lurking there. I can't deal with redditors. I mean, a lot of them are just your average neoliberal and centrist pig.

Shehid namirin

/r/Communalists is a fairly high quality subreddit about a unique subject too.

7 links + OP, u KKKunt

...

Thanks for the recommendation bruh bruh

quick translation of MLKP statement on this:

She died in an accident?

iirc pkk1978 said something sad about MLKP haven't released the names of every martyr

How many men do you think the average female kurdish fighter has slept with?

What an odd question to ask

It's very vague on how she died, or even where.

And yeah they might have released this girls name because she's a Kurd from Amed, where I gather pretty much everyone supports the PKK. I think the logic behind not releasing the names of Turkish martyrs is due to fear of their families being targeted by the government or ultra nationalist mobs. In the PKK heartland this of course, not as great a threat.

reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/5v8v80/what_role_does_the_marxistleninist_party_of/de0eyeq/

this is the post you are talking about

they're qts and not as religious as women in the area

They don't have access to showers and other hygienic toiletries. I don't think anyone really wants to have too much sex in the middle of a war.
The men are not even allowed to masturbate each other.

idk i've been in the military and every chick fucks on deployment

Zero, since it's actually extremely forbidden for them to have sex while serving in the military. PPG seemed somewhat upset by this.

Are males held to the same standard?

...

PPG mentioned that they weren't allowed to masturbate…so probably.

I've been told that's mostly to stop the guys and grills from fuggin.

The IFB just keeps getting new member units. I wonder how many they will have by the end of the war.

one of the /r/rojava mods joined the YPG recently and he said a lot of the people at the academy want to join IRPGF after training so their numbers will only grow

...

End of April if the rumors are true

god antifa in the first world are so cringeworthy i hope it isn't the same in rojava

Antifa are a reflection of fascism. 1st world antifa are a reflection of people like Richard Spencer. The fascists Rojava has to deal with are serious business.

Who are the fascists in Rojava and how are they fascists? Is there anything "fascist" about them other than the YPG doesn't like them

Antifa varies from place to place. Fucking Portland antifa or whatever might be shit but Antifa in Greece are based and do a lot of literal fascist bashing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamofascism

The Islamists that were aligned to the Axis in WWII are no longer around.

That's not even what that article is about, but there are several strains of ideology in that region that are at least proto-fascist. The Islamic State, the main target of the SDF.

at that point they're just calling everyone they're fighting fascists. IS is not fascist as much as it is trying to restore the caliphate which began over a thousand years before fascism

Well I forgot to finish that sentence so that's not quite what I meant but as far as this goes:
The textbook examples of fascism were also claiming to restore the glory of old empires.

:^)

crazy that he's so insecure to feel the need to post this

ISIS, Edrogan and Assad are pretty fascist.

what does that even mean

This is incorrect they were very modern movements. Hitler even said something along the lines of the times of Kings were over and a fascist leader is the modern day variant.

Also there is a whole economic system that goes along with fascism

I imagine he's talking about why you don't huck a ten million dollar missile at a structure that can be repaired in an afternoon.

Yeah, it's called "Capitalism."

He got upset because people were wondering why the missile strike was so useless

corporatism*

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

Maybe in America and Clanada.
The antifa in Germany is straight up gangsta and are determined to fight nazism. It even birthed a YPG commander. I don't see why a lot of mainline people are so opposed to violence against nazis and fascists. People have pretty much deemed the holocaust as a one time historical event.

Is there much interaction between the German left and Kurds in Germany? Obviously there's a huge Kurdish and Turkish diaspora. I recall seeing a pic of an anarchist squat in I think Hamburg draped in a huge PKK flag

"fighting nazism" in germany today is the same thing as fighting tsarism in the USSR. They're not doing anything but labeling people they don't like as fascists.

when people starting labeling everyone as nazis and fascists the public won't bat an eye when actual fascists arise

Not what I said at all. A group defined by opposing another group is going to be shaped by that group. That's not the same thing as the two being no different from each other.

Corporatism is just a particular stage/form of capitalism. Either way, the Wahhabist/Salafist ideology entails total control of society with politics and economy part of the same system dominated by religious law. If the Islamic State isn't fascist then the word has little relevance any more.

i don't think that was his point
he meant that antifascism is just an answer to fascism so they are as serious and organised as their opponents
i don't really agree with that but it's an understandable position

isis are textbook fascists imo

Yes, I wasn't debating this I was saying fascism's economics is a very specific form of capitalism that isn't present in Syria.

Fascism is not a general term for authoritarianism. And this is exactly what I am saying, fascism has little relevance outside of accusations from the cringy antifas

Because in the meantime, the terms Nazis and fascists had been diluted in the general discourse, so you have situations when people consider beating up Nazis means beating up people disagreeing with Antifa.
People underestimate how much the bastardization of language is a cancer that have deep effects on praxis.

You's tripping. Antifa quite literally fights nazism. Like, with violence.

I'm sorry

nazism died in the 40s

I KNOW ITS YOU STIM

No but it's also means more than the very specific ideology followed by certain European countries in the early to mid 20th century. Kind of like how Marxism has a broader meaning than the specific ideology Marx outlined and has come to mean a number of variations (although this was done by people self-identifying with the label).
The accusations have merit, not in the sense that the targets fit the narrow band of ideology but the larger trend that the word fascism has come to mean. In the first world fascism is not really an issue so of course first world antifa have nothing of value to do. The tradition of fighting fascists or "fascists" if you prefer is at least a useful one regardless of whether they strike you as LARPers.

I don't think this is necessarily true, my main point was that in the first world there's little pressure on antifa to shape them into something meaningful whereas in the middle east there's a very clear opportunity for a serious antifa (though that doesn't necessarily mean it will be filled).

Marxism has a broader meaning because people around the world have implemented versions of Marxism and identified as Marxists.

Fascism however has only occurred in 20th century countries in Europe and the only people who proclaim themselves fascist were people in 20th century Europe.

Fascism only means "more than the specific ideology when people are accused of being fascists for not embracing the specific form of leftism of the accuser.

There's a pretty huge gulf between not being a specific leftist tendency and being the Islamic State.

No one is saying ISIS is leftist but to call them fascist is dishonest

youtu.be/j2Q1ybd4DZM

Based Greeks

Now it seems like you're deliberately misleading. This post said
to which I responded here by saying
by which I meant that opposing the Islamic State is a very different thing from sectarian infighting, and that if fascism is to mean anything relevant to contemporary geopolitics (which there is room for), then applying it to the IS is pretty reasonable and certainly infinitely more reasonable than applying it to "not a true leftist". Nowhere did I claim the opposite of this:
that is, that someone is calling the IS leftist. I never said anything to that effect. My point with this post is that it's wildly unreasonable to compare/equate labeling the IS fascists and leftist sectarians casually using fascist as a pejorative. Especially since the original post in this chain was hoping that this distinction exists. If you were saying that antifa in Rojava were sectarian shitflingers you'd have a point, but you're not so you don't.

I'm not even going to get into the whole "Our order of dragonslayers has slain the last dragon, now what?" thing other than to point out that it doesn't much matter if they keep calling themselves dragonslayers while they slay krakens as long as they are slaying krakens.

DSA released a statement about the Syrian Civil War.
Kurds were not mentioned.

dsausa.org/democratic_socialists_of_america_condemns_the_u_s_bombing_of_syria_dl

twitter.com/AfarinMamosta/status/850689739384647681

jihadbucks, everyone

That may be the least egregious part of that article.

What's your stance on the subject?

What, the Kurds? I support pretty much any attempt at revolution because it's better than what we have. I expect the Kurds to get wiped out sooner or later unfortunately so I don't see much point in getting invested. Lack of coverage makes that easier, but the DSA isn't making any special failure by ignoring them. Everyone does.

If you meant my stance on the rest of the article I was referring to the incoherent mess of liberal ideology.

I am new to the left. Can you tell me how it's typically liberal?
Most liberals support intervention.

Are Holla Forumsyps doing organized anti-Kurd shilling now?

...

/sg/ in Holla Forums hated YPG since at least the Hasakah clashes between YPG and SAA and former forced out the latter out of the city (except for the small municipal police at city's security box). Although, before then some of them already hate YPG, mostly butthurt Assyrian diaspora and Turkish posters

When I say liberal ideology what I mean is the article is a patchwork of different talking points common in liberalism but mashed together in a way that doesn't make sense, like the author has broken the pieces apart and is trying to fit them together in a new way. Here…

So first off they're not talking about Rojava here, but the other "rebels" who are the actual US puppets that certain people claim Rojava are. You know, Al Qaeda affiliates and the like. Calling these people a democratic uprising is one liberal narrative they're buying into. Assad running a "brutal" "regime" is another, particularly that they're buying the story of chemical weapon attacks despite suspicious circumstances and lack of confirmation. Allegations of chemical attacks seem to originate from the western media. Also note the use of "regime" in particular, which is a word used to tar a government western powers dislike while an equally abusive state that's their ally will receive much friendlier language. That seems like a nitpick but appearances are paramount in liberal ideology.

Unapproved military action has been happening regularly since Bush 43. This part of the story is not what's newsworthy and it unduly favors US and international law, which is a joke coming from a "socialist" press.
This is a fairly common liberal talking point that ignores the purpose of such actions. There are economic incentives at play here, not least of which is the need of the military industrial complex for people to kill. Liberals (used to) complain about endless war (now they suck Trump's dick). Socialists are supposed to recognize the reasons why these wars are fought.
The article mentions imperialism but then ignores this point because it follows it up with:
They should know better. Military contractors and other vested interests will out-lobby regular Americans. Calling your Congressman amounts to pissing in the wind with stuff like this, because for every bleeding-heart who wants the war to stop there's a soldier and an arms factory worker who will flip shit if they lose their job (and it's very easy to rally support for those people in the USA).

Post is gonna get too long. I'll continue.

Condemning chemical attacks means little and unskeptically buying the story is boneheaded as I already said. The UN is a fucking joke at best and a tool of oppression at worst. Deferring to them is a liberal thing to do. Given the severity of the alleged chemical attacks and the seriousness with which this article takes them, something stronger than the suggested course of action would be appropriate. It's consistent with liberalism to try regulating away a problem but this applies mostly to shit like Iran having nukes, not mass murder. This is what I mean by liberal positions mashed together. None of these things has to do with socialism as they depend on the hegemony of capitalist power structures like the UN or western media (re: believing the allegations of chemical attacks), but the scenario here is a mismatch of two different liberal ideas that don't really go together (you will still see some liberals who don't claim to be socialists saying things like this).

This is on point except for the part where they treat the US as if it's this free-willed person who chooses to do bad things rather than a collapsing machine obeying particular laws of operation. This is an example of a "classical liberal" position, but has nothing particularly to do with leftism. Moralizing about the great wrongs of US foreign policy is pretty pointless other than to get people's feelings going and to drive clicks. Analysis of why it happens would be more useful, not that you can't mix that other part into it.

This is just a bunch of pie in the sky bullshit that will (rightly) draw that criticism from rightists. The DSA being a prominent face of socialism are dropping the ball if this is their reaction to the bombings. They really should know better too, look at the response Barney Sandals got when he called out systemic underpinnings to problems. People are ready and glad to hear that kind of thing. Opining that impossible scenarios need to happen (especially ones that depend on the bourgeois democratic framework of global capitalism) makes the left look stupid to leftists and rightists alike. This is a third sort of liberal talking point that's unusually out of place here.

And this is weird because this is a sort of third-worldist position (completely opposed to typical liberalism). Foreign powers could certainly help by sending resources to Rojava. That's only hypothetical but the article did say "cannot."

April 5th., 2017 presentation of David L. Phillips's book, An Uncertain Ally, at the National Press Club, organized by Kurdish Policy Research Center.

facebook.com/kurdispolicyresearchcenter/videos/400004973711737/

Look at this beauty
plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745399768&, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745399768&, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745399768&&osa=sync&os9sync=CE8N393X6X4889794A2V69&os9iam=http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745399768&

Is there any proof yet the chemical attacks have been carried out by Assad? It is just really, really hard for me to believe.

en.hawarnews.com/refugees-situation-worsening-in-afrin-canton-amid-lack-of-help/

Afrin is starting to struggle with the amount of IDPs/refugees it's getting. Minimal to no help coming from the international community or NGOs.

Can someone tell me what Assad's motivation is to use chemical weapons? Why should I believe that the regime is to blame when we already know from experience that the western powers are more than willing to lie?

Gulf of Tonkin part 2?
Yet in the end trumps use of missiles seemed to be of a warning than an out right invasion plan as some are making it out to be.

Just to be clear, it makes no sense for Assad to do this, and I'm 99.9% sure that Assad had absolutely no say in this. But that's not to say this wasn't done by SAA either. All it takes is a rogue commander. As to 'why', read these comments by an active NDF (pro Assad) militia on the history of the place that was bombed, and the type of people some SAA commanders are.

reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/646u57/new_airstrikes_target_the_syrian_town_of_khan/dfzuurn/?context=3

reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/63d2zt/saa_claims_they_hit_a_chemical_weapon_depot_in/dft54j8/?context=3

The rebels also have used chemical weapons in the past, on the YPG no less. And it's definitely within their interests to have the US hit Assad whilst their losing. And Idlib is dominated by jihadists and Islamists, so the likelihood of an independent investigation is very slim.

I don't know who did it, but I'm discounting no one. I doubt we'll ever really know and I suspect this will go much the same way as the Ghouta chemical attacks, as in both sides blame each other with credible evidence and narratives but no conclusive proof of on either side.

so, what's the deal with Iraqi Kurdistan?

A bunch of ethno-nationalist authoritarian conservatives who suck Sultan Erdo's small "cock" by killing off the PKK and Yazidis for him.
They are the runt of the litter of the Kurdish community. Too bad most of the west think of them when people mention Kurds.

The PUK are OK. It's the KDP that's the problem, Barzani tribalist fucks.

Yeah the PUK are pretty good considering they had a civil war with the KDP

...

Eh, the Peshmerga favour the PUK over the KDP, there will be a civil war in Iraqi Kurdistan: especially since hte KDP is trying kurdify areas like Sinjar; which are under PKK protection.

is the PKK implying that they'll help SAA if the US attacks them lmao

How do you pronounce Rojava and Kobane?

Roh-ža-vah
The 'j' in Rojava sounds like the 'g' in beige, the 's' in pleasure or the 'ž' in Žižek.

Koe-ba-nee
The î in Kobanî is a 'ee' sound

Thank you♥

polite sage

twitter.com/MhmtSlmz/status/851117075821203457

turkish commies are absolute mad men

People who put their faith in "communist" Kurdish nationalist movements don't know Kurds. Just ask the thousands of Christian Assyrians being ethnically cleansed by the Kurds in Nineveh. (not the first time Kurds have tried to genocide them either, they even defend it the same way the Turks defend their genocide of the Turks "hurr it was de Ottomans not Us. They fought back! etc")

Telling that YPG murdered the Assyrian guards leader when he was becoming a thorn in the side of the land grabs in North Syria and that they attacked Amnesty International for publishing a report on their ethnic cleansing.

lel

...

UN confirmed that that report was bullshit. Troll harder

Amnesty international never mentioned ethnic cleansing. A good chunk of the victims of the supposed collective punishment were themselves Kurds. Anyone presenting it as ethnic cleansing had a foot in the game.

Literally all they said was that they believed the YPG's bullshit about the ethnic cleansing being done for reasons of combatting ISIS, which is about as believeable as their claim that the reason they shot at Sootoro forces was ISIS activity at their checkpoint (or for that matter that the assassination of the Khabour Guards leader wasn't coordinated), rather than ethnically displacing natives in key strategic areas for their post-war plans.

The people who assassinated Dawood Jindo were in the YPG, but they weren't operating on orders when they killed himself and they received 20 years imprisonment by the Rojavan authorities afterwards.

twitter.com/uncoisyria/status/841360775105114113

twitter.com/Anit_Garibaldi/status/835268523513425920

YPG laid down their lives to liberate Christian/Assyrian villages from ISIS and then handed them back to the local Assyrians to govern and defend. Assyrians in Rojava areas have a degree of cultural rights and self determination that they never had under Assad.

do you realise that ISIS booby trap the fuck out of places before they leave them and have them scattered with IEDs? demining and destroying booby traps is a precarious process that takes time. If YPG let the villagers back in immediately and they got shredded by mines you'd be crying ethnic cleasing too I bet. every was later left back into their homes when the situation was safe.

Lay off the PartisanGirl tweets.

The original report never accused them of ethnic cleansing. At worst it is collective punishment that has included kurds as victims.

They did demolish some homes that were particularly badly trapped (they straight on admit this) so clearly not EVERYONE got to go back to their homes because some homes didn't exist anymore.

This. Despite the rare, isolated flare up already mentioned, the Assyrian Christians have been allies in the fight against ISIS for years now. Under the SDF they have full freedoms and the ethnic cleansing bs was already cleared.

That would be based
Af

A rogue YPG soldier killed David Gendo you mean who was punished by cantonal authorities by 20 years of imprisonment

Its Khabour Guards you fucking idiot. In fact, they just joined SDF

twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/700992214101430272

Why the fuck would they join SDF if YPG officially sanctioned the murder of Gendo

Which is why YPG allowed Khabour Guards their own autonomy and allowed Assyrian areas to fly their own flag? pic related

Nowadays is fucking weird.

It is a weird age that "surprise" now means jack shit, and tweeting about an offensive before it happens means you can rally others to your side in-order to have greater support. I remember Trump mentioning that "everyone knew the Mosul offensive was coming", well yeah, that allows an immensely large coalition of peeps to organise a solid attack.

Fuck off already

The wars in the M.E, particularly the SCW, are incredibly well covered. This is largely due to social media, which allows an immense and fast information flow from both primary and secondary sources. By going to actual ground sources (who have twitter and facebook accounts) you are effectively and successfully avoiding the bullshit mainline media outlets.

Yeah, even the UN refuted those claims. Funnily enough evacuating frontline villages is actually he humanitarian thing to do.

al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/iraq-kurdistan-turkey-pkk-kck-qandil-cemil-bayik.html

New interview with PKK leader. Al Monitor is definitely the best Middle East news outlet imo

...

SEXTS FOR ROJAVAAAAAAA

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SDF just captured Ayed Kebir so I'd expect them to go for Jabal Ayd in the next day or two and then begin a fully fledged assault on Tabqah city.

After that's finished I read they'll move up east of Tabqa, probably to Baath dam, and take that also. Maybe they'll go further but I dunno.

Then it's case of pushing down from that pocket north of Raqqa and then preparing for hell in the city.

Looks like US involvement is about to massively increase if WH press release is accurate
Further bombing of civilians and use of child seeking barrel bombs will see US military strikes

rt.com/news/384256-us-syria-more-strikes/

Also, while most likely larping, a Jordanfag claimed that there's a gradual but increasing US military build up in Jordan right now

...

Jordan, the US and Southern Front are apparently gearing up to clear out the ISIS pocket here

I don't want to sound like Holla Forums but I wonder which nation (who many or may not control the Golan Heights) told Jordan and the US to do that without having to get involved themselves.

That is ballsy af. I don't really know what they're trying to accomplish but good for them. With all the turkroach shit we have to remember their are good lefty turks out there fighting against erdogan.

It could also be the "safe zones" that the US and Turkey have been shilling for

from what I gather some neighbourhoods in Istanbul are DHKP-C/leftist strongholds, in the same vein as Exarcheia in Athens is an Anarchist stronghold. so with the upcoming referendum regarding Erdogan, you probably had some unknowing AKP shills straying into these areas which merited the "if you try shill for Erdo here we will kill you" message seen in the vid

Holla Forums is more anti-zionist than Holla Forums, you are 100% allowed to shit on Israel

I've come to assume that diehard Holla Forumsyps will try to piss on these Rojava threads simply out of envy.

They see Holla Forums having nice things and they must sperg out about it. Not like there's anything to celebrate on Holla Forums right now, after everyone finally realized that Trump is a fucking moron who bluffed his way to the top.

You're overthinking shitposting, please stop.

our resident ISIS shitposter hasn't paid us a visit in a while.

Do you think he died?

Allah willing.

our brave brother abu shitpost took the hallowed path of the inghimasi and martyred himself in the most esteemed way, fighting the PKK communist kurds

You're underestimating autism.

Remember Checkers?

serious ownage itt

Why can't I access the YPG website?

God damn I wish these existed in my country. I would unironically love to roam around with a mask and gun acting like a big guy.

...

Good fucking god I hope the communists in the DSA purge all the socdems fucking OUT.

If they don't it'll be the end of the DSA tbh, it'll just go down the same route every contemporary Socialist group has in the US, becoming a bunch of cheer leaders for the Dems while doing free groundwork for them on elections.

Fucking perfect.

I think the infographic is bretty accurate.

Why would Assyrians hate Rojava

Nah, that's too specific for LARPing. Aqaba is the logical place for US Navy to dock the ROROs and offload the MPF rolling stock. At least the Atlantic portion, since it's just Atlantic -> Med -> Suez -> Gulf of Aqaba.

So it makes sense to have Army assets coming in via Jordanian air Force bases. US doctrine for large invasions uses massive joint force on a single border section to allow a breakaway contingent of Marines (who would in this case come in through Aqaba port) to rush for strategic targets, while Army forces (coming in via Jordanian air Force Base) sweep in behind for cleanup.

So when he says he sees AFVs (probably MRAP) and IFVs (probably Bradley's) coming in on cargo planes at Jordanian air bases…

This is too fucking legit to not be happening.

Imagine ending your friendship with someone over their politics.

You wouldn't stop being friends with a nazi?

No, of course not. I'd tell him to stop being a dumb fuck but I wouldn't end a friendship over something that's such a tiny part of who you are.

This. People that say otherwise are usually narcissistic and self obsessed.

dw.com/en/more-than-200-people-from-germany-fighting-with-kurdish-forces-against-is/a-38371055

Even if this is specifically for clearing out that ISIS pocket, it's pretty fucking scary to think that there's active military action going on, that's in a position to threaten the SAA. I really fucking hope this doesn't escalate, but with how the American MSM has been reacting to the missiles I'm quickly losing hope.

On the one hand this is a pretty standard PKK target and makes sense to attack… on the other hand I don't think it makes sense to be doing this so close to the referendum.

Strong disagree. If someone genuinely holds the belief that gay people aren't human or cops are always good or the U.S. military is an instrument of God or whatever dipshit right-wing thing you can think of, how does that not inform the way they interact with absolutely everything in their life? I couldn't be friends with a Nazi.

I guarantee you it's "safe zones" occupied by American and Arab League troops

Moving in to "defeat ISIS" is just a pretext
I've also been hearing rumors that the Americans and Saudis are funneling a ton of weapons to Sunni tribes in Anbar, potentially for an Iraq break up on Sunni-Shia lines in order to stick it to Iran

How does an explosion like that only injure four people?

Either the real numbers aren't reported or the building wasn't occupied

...

Rojava memes: niche, but dank

For some reason I assumed his edginess would protect him from the real world.

wait, didn't the PKK stop the bombings? I thought Öcalan had told them to chill and try a political solution?

Actually just a budding Bookchinite. Would love to get into Rojava stuff though – is the only literature available "Democratic Confederalism" by Apo?

read some of this my man

More murmurs and rumors of US military buildup in the ME

...

Most likely just shitting on Deep Ecologists again

all i know is i wish I was one of them

Given that a decent chunk are there to escape arranged marriages and sex is forbidden, probably

It's an anti-fascist and Communalist investigation into anti-fascism. The book listed in the graphic is the new version, but the old version can be read online here:
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/janet-biehl-and-peter-staudenmaier-ecofascism-lessons-from-the-german-experience

Investigation into ecofascism I mean*

this is the inevitable outcome of Rojava and I hate the world for it

The PissPig is back home

Ew mîrza e.

Is this a recent photo? I though he was a lot thinner from battle/andor/trainng in Rojava.

Stop fat shaming my lover.

Im just saying he looks fit in the Rojava picts

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TEV DEM putting out another call for civilian volunteers.

Man all these depressed leftist artists need to see this.

anfenglish.com/kurdistan/hpg-claims-responsibility-for-the-action-against-police-in-amed-19459

PKK have claimed this and said it killed up to 200 riot police. Now they're inflating that for sure, but they definitely did far more damage than is being let on from Turkish outlets.

They tried, but talks collapsed and total war resumed.

he's always had a fat face

well that sucks

It's mostly due to Erdogan not giving any ground to the kurds. Even when the HPG ceased their attack the turks still bombed them. The PKK's goal after the capture of [biji] Serok Apo in Kenya, 1999, was to create an autonomous kurdish federation within Turkey (exactly like Rojava). But the turkish constitution doesn't even recognise kurds as minorities. They kurdish people in Bakur aren't even allowed to speak their language or create kurdish organizations. The democratically legitimate party HDP has thousands of members jailed after the recent, failed coup d'état because they were a sizeable opposition to the AKP party (quite literally fascists). When turkish planes bombs kurdish civilians they usually blame the PKK, shit they even blame attacks that weren't commited by the HPG on the PKK.

...

washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/rojava-seeks-to-break-out-in-syria

a good read on economic relations with damascus and trade

...

byline.com/column/57/article/1580

Good article on Sinjar and YBS.

Why is there a weird clique of people on Twitter who are always angry at this particular individual?

The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs has claimed that the YPG has killed and exiled 500,000 Kurds from Syria because they're not Marxists lmao

t24.com.tr/haber/mevlut-cavusoglu-ypg-komunist-olmayan-500-bin-kurtu-surgun-etti,398665

It's just tankies mad that he's fighting against their husbando Assad.

Ass*d and tank*es can fuck off, even f*scists are better than tank*es because you know what side they are on.

Does anyone else think of Rojava with Spanish pronunciation? It looks like a Spanish word to me for some reason

SDF have begun the last phase of the Wrath of Euphrates campaign (clearing that pocket North of Raqqa). Will run in conjunction with Tabqa operations

how is it pronounced?
Ive just been pronouncing it like royava

I've been hearing that China is planning on increasing the number of advisors to Syria
Is it true?

I don't understand why the tankies like Assad tho. Has he ever even really claimed to be a communist or anything? Do they think you have to be completely in love with someone to disagree with imperialism/intervention or goofy Western propaganda smears?

see:

Where did you find this?

A few highlights:
Not only the middle east, but the whole world could sufferen from the creation of a North Korea in this region.

The Kurds are a strictly religious, courageous and peaceful people, which honors their tradition and treasures their family relations. On the other hand [we have] the PKK as a godless and amoral organization, which rejects any religious or family ties.

After 9/11 the PKK changed their name to PYD in 2003 […]

That'd be like… 1/5 all the kurds there.
Wtf

sound legit duh

twitter.com/erinmcunningham/status/852509071500599297

ffs. Coalition killed 18 SDF yesterday in a friendly fire incident.

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haha, wow

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It's really strange to have an opinion on Syria. Those public figures who are critical of the rebels are Pro-Assad while those who criticize Assad have blanket support for the rebels. I feel lost trying to figure out whether military action is justified and if so how it is best applied.

That's why I keep my support limited to the SDF. I'm a simple American and I can only root for the good guys and they seem like good guys.

What's the point of the lesser evil anyways?

Pretty sure the point of lesser evilism is to allow for the conversation to grow gradually more and more evil as time goes on.

Smells like bullshit. No way my beloved Corps has completely gone to shit in 6 years while the conflicts have still been simmering.

Now… 6 years of current spending with the fighting at a rolling boil, sure.
6 years of this kind of fighting with less spending, sure.
6 years of no fighting at all, maybe.
But 6 years of this? No fucking way, man.

I wonder if by combat readiness they mean conventional war. As the Turkish army recently found out with Euphrates Shield having an effective counterinsurgency military makes you shit at advancing on entrenched positions and well disciplined soldiers.

I would also wonder if some of the newly arrived soldiers were preparing with wargames against mock Chinese or Russian soldiers.

From context, it sounds like he was talking about the US government definition of combat readiness, which is to say % of personnel that have met training requirements, and % of equipment that is operational and up to date on maintenance.

I was on the maintenance side of things while I was on active duty (6 years ago, hence my comment) and there's just no fucking way. Maintenance Marines are too good at what they do for that shit to happen so quickly.

He's not from North America or Western Europe.

From reading about Rojava it sounds like Assad is an imperialist though. Erdogan is definitely an imperialist. She just sounds like a Maoist who sees third world (what's a new word for this since there is no second world anymore?) imperialism as superior to first world imperialism.

The idea is that the West is bad and ebil and that Kim Jong Un dindu noffin.

That's about the depth of it.

They fetishize non-whites and support any anti-western movement/state/government. They are Holla Forums with some nouns flipped.

Friendly reminder that tankie twitter isn't actually leftist. They're the hipsters who chose an ideology based on its obscurity. I serioudly doubt they're into theory like a few people here. Any past revolutionary would roll in their grave if they saw these tankie mothafuckas.

Opposition media still trying to push the ethnic cleansing meme even after the UN report:
syrianobserver.com/EN/News/32599

lovemeimaliberal.mp3

I got you fam.
youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw

There's been some talk about handing over territory to the turkish backed FSA? What on earth could possess them to do that. This isn't the first time that Tel Rifat was apparently being handed over, but that was months ago and it was to go to the SAA.
twitter.com/iAssil/status/852522783422787586

Day moderate beheaders get BTFO by SDF advance on Idlib best day of my life.

Trying to buy time before the Turks move against YPG
MAY

So a better analogy is, they're SJWs who admitted they have a pathological obsession with authority.

I haven't seen these claims verified yet so I'm pretty skeptical. I doubt turkey can even effectively carry out an invasion of Syria, even if they were to use their own army instead of proxies.

Ty for your response

It's such a shame pkk1978 stopped posting. He's really gifted with the written word even though he isn't even natively english. Reddits userbase is so faggy they managed to push away a veteran fucking guerilla fighter. That must speak multitudes about the pricks there.

They have access to water sometimes. That's enough for a quick hygenic check-up. But, yeah they sometimes go weeks on weeks with the same clothes. Men are "allowed" to jerk off it's just considered embarrasing. And since the dudes live in a tight communal space with each other, there's a high risk of getting caught. I remember some volunteer stating that internationals are given a green light to do it as long as they keep it on the low. That seems generally applicable to the native kurdish fighters aswell. Kurdish society is still conservative. It's not about hygiene or anything. It's about maintaining order and discipline. You can't have a bunch of YPJ fighters go on maternity leave when they're supposed to be spraying Daesh. Then it's also about minimizing potential drama and shit within the ranks. Fighters can have a spouse and child but they'd have to leave the YPG/J if that was the case. Then you also have to consider the facts that a lot of females in the YPJ/HPG are young (mid-teens), so you can understand their parents opposition if there weren't any rules about intimacy. Finally there's the point of feminism. Women are emphazised and revered since Apo's debut - you aren't even allowed to brush your teeth or change clothes in front of a female fighter because they are so respected. I don't know about you guys but I absolutely love this about Apoism/PKK/YPG. It's a sincere feminist revolution and not some western, bourgeois, liberal load of bullshit. Goddamn I hate western feminism, they're a fucking joke. I'm really sad to see the lack of western feminists in Rojava. I am aware of Hannah Bohman (Tiger Sun on leddit) and a couple of other volunteers but that's it. It really shows how false the so called "feminists" are here. But nah, let's talk about some trivial fucking issue and shit on men in general. Kurdish women > western women - and that's an objective fact, son.

That's so hot tho

There was a sandstorm yesterday around Tabqa and ISIS used the conditions to stage a three pronged counter attack. ISIS took some SDF prisoners and killed some SDF but they were eventually repelled on all sides

That was an interesting rabbit hole. And interesting that they genuinely seem to want the standard western-translator thing. Moreso than soldiers.

jeshalthowar.com/?p=1709

Jaysh al Thuwar, the group that actually holds these areas, said this is bullshit.

Read his AMA its incredible.

Erdogan's referendum in two days comrades, keep an eye out for that.

Erdoğan suggests that if he wins, Kurds would be treated better.

...

They're fucking worse than smashies.

komnews.org/turkish-prime-minister-says-hell-resign-turkey-shifts-federal-system/

twitter.com/anadoluagency/status/852873685493055491

...

twitter.com/AraratKurd/status/852975281992347648

lots of reports of suspicious movements on the Turkish border with Afrin lately, something might be brewing

twitter.com/RaoKomar747/status/852970699270610944

kek

twitter.com/dihaberturkce/status/848799471731343360

Chinese volunteer on the Taqba front

twitter.com/AlexandruCandet/status/852837782430994432

Bolivian fighter on the Taqba front

The diversity of nationalities among the YPG seems to be increasing.

Yes, like I posted before. It's just high-schoolers trying to find a clique and using Stalinist symbolism to unite.

It's more than that – it allows you to look down upon other socialists. It's like an extra layer of smugness, on top of your pre-existing looking-down-on non-socialists. That extra layer is key for providing a truly special snowflake experience.

But that's just my own experience. It's what I did, with Holla Forums and egoism.

ayy bretty good stuff. Props to YPG comrades

As far as I could tell it wasn't Reddit being full of pricks so much as it was full of armchair memers who would guess about things they clearly knew nothing about, and whose responses to a long thought-out post which happened to mention American beards would, you guessed it, utterly revolve around making jokes about American beards.

tbh it sounds pretty bullshitty to me.

Chastity works. It does enforce obedience. It's what fanatics do the world over.

I like Rojava because it's the best bet we've got. I don't like Rojava for what it is.

calm your autism m8

Do I sound like a YPG fighter.

My objection is that they literally do this to commit themselves to the cause. For the same reasons we had eunuchs, and for the same reasons we had hermits. That's fucked up. Necessary, probably, but no less fucked up.

Might as well give up on socialism m8. You're not going to ever accomplish anything unless you're willing to sacrifice.

Reread my posts motherfucker

I did faggot. You're pretty much judging the whole society negatively (I don't like Rojava for what it is) because soldiers are required to sacrifice via celibacy, as if this is some great injustice. Get the fuck out of here

Not an injustice. Disgusting. They're making fanatics and building their nation on their corpses.

And I said that was probably necessary. Like I said, they're our best bet. That doesn't stop it from being disgusting – nor them from being an evil, even if by far the lesser of them all.

And before you make some big deal out of how it's "just celibacy" – it's not. It's the forcing you to not marry, to not have a family, to not have a relationship, to not have any attachments other than to the cause. It's part of the package – the rest is a willingness to die, a distancing from normal society.

They don't force you to join the YPG (at least, to my knowledge), so your outrage is kinda silly.

Peak liberalism. Literally nothing wrong with promoting socialist ideology and having ardent supporters of it.

YPG members can leave to have a family anytime they want, they just can't be in the YPG at the same time. The exception is if you want to become a party member, and that's a personal choice as is joining the YPG a personal choice.
You need to go back >>>/reddit

by exception, I mean that if you become a party member then that is for life

Out of pure curiosity - what happens if you try to leave the party?

I'm not entirely sure. At the very least, you become persona non grada

Actually, they do conscript. But I don't mind that. I'm talking about fanatics, user. I hope you don't support them.

Except for the dehumanisation of said supporters into nothing other than bricks for your revolution.

Who cares if it's a personal choice? Becoming a fanatic of anything is a personal choice.

One canton decided democratically to conscript.
Because enforcing celibacy is totally just reducing people to bricks. Liberal pls
Wew lad
Nah, just moral grandstanding faggots with no legitimate arguments tend to be liberals.

I read that the conscripts are guards not combat troops.

Yeah they are, and it's only one canton

They do conscript in Rojava, but not for YPG. They conscript for 6-9 months for HXP, which is like a home guard/garrisoning force. HXP holding positions allows YPG greater manpower and mobility.

No, I do not support fanatics. I don't see this as fanatical.

Oh wow, that's interesting. Literally never heard of the HXP. Link to an article on the decision-making process?

The diversity is already wider than it seems, I think. I thought there weren't any Brazilians there because my usual haunts never showed one, then suddenly I found six.

modernslavery.calpress.org/?p=949

Not so much on HXP but this is a good read on HPC. Kurds love their alphabet soup but basically:

Asayish: Rojava's form of police

HXP: cantonal guards, mans checkpoints and does inspections

HPC: civilian defense units, basically people guarding their neighbourhoods and communes

HXP was also a reaction to complaints by revolutionary families with many members at the fronts that carried the burden while many others just slacked off without occupation. The compromise is HXP service for all that dont have atleast one family member in the YPG/J. The number of HXP that actually died is below 10 iirc and they never fight at the front. HPC is imo the most importat militia as it isnt under controll of central authorities but directly controlled by the communes. A long time ago I read that there is also a 4th branch consisting of sleeper cells but I forgot where it was mentioned.

Why are Turks such fucking faggots?

Get fucked you greek rapebabies

Depends on how you do it, there are former guerillas leaving the party and settling down with a family afaik. You cant just run away though.

I hope that they can improve on what the Zapatistas have done and go back into lowkey organizing form. Before they fall, they should make outreaches to other places to adopt their ideas (like in Cleveland or Greece as a whole) and try to avoid looking like commies to the entire world.

If I were to go to Rojava how hard would it be to get an 18-20something qt?

picking up a qt isn't why you should be going there lol

twitter.com/kurdishquestion/status/851765677786624006

TEV DEM's ability to organise and educate is amazing. I see so many updates like these in regards to TEV DEM, they're like unceasing force of revolution.

Pathetic! Sad!

Every fucking day, some dumbass asks "huehue do you think they'll sell me one of those qts XD do you think it'll look like in my anime porn XD XD"

Harder than if you joined a domestic socialist organization.

I don't really care that much, but what's the need for the cult of personality around Ocalan. Like all the pictures everywhere.

Just something left over from the ML days. Nothing you can really do about it now

...

DemCon is already sort of that. Besides the Ocalan cult there's also the party member for life thing that Maoists do

It will if it can answer the questions of "what next?" after it is first crushed on the open field of battle. It's face with almost-insurmountable odds which no other libertarian-leftist revolution has ever overcome. If it can get over itself and not be life-stylist like that, with a full action plan, it could well make it past the current embryonic state and become like spores.

If it does grow, it won't be through open conquest of the Middle East by a largely-Kurdish army. Not only will the USA glance at it and cause it all to blow up, but the other countries, particularly Arab-Sunni ones, are spooked to all hell about race.

They also maintain those brutal self criticism sessions which the Soviets and Mao liked. But tbh if they find that it works for them then why not? PKK's decades of Stalinism has probably benefitted them in a lot ways too, even if they moved beyond it.

Hasn't happened yet and most likely won't happen
I would be very surprised if Syria doesn't adopt the demcon model. Russia is basically pushing for that because all they really want is to undermine the US and maintain their political interests in the area, which only necessitates a friendly government not a dictatorial regime via assad.
How is it in any way "lifestylist"? They believe in living as they preach sure but the revolution is more then how the YPG lives. They've already made their intent for a DemCon Syria quite clear, from their it's only a matter of time before spreading influence to countries with large kurdish populations like Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
When I said conquer I didn't mean it in the literal sense. It will spread through political groups creating dual power structures in their respective countries.
Fam Syria is probably one of the most spooked places on earth when it comes to race and ethnic tensions and they're coping fine with that. DemCon gives ethnic groups autonomy and self government, something which is very appealing to spooked groups

Yeah I'm not sure how I feel about the struggle sessions. I would have to see one in action

Atleast in the YPG they are pretty mild criticism and self criticism sessions, in some documentary they where are filmed and its just general stuff “Heval x is a bit self centered and doesnt do the dishes well“ not much worse than many flatshares do, I think it also creates a sphere where its ok to criticise the commander which helps a lot. Dunno how its among the political cadres in the PKK, doubt its as nice there.

That doesn't sound too bad actually. I can live with "stop being a cunt m8" sessions.

Battle of Tabqa hype! This place is about the same size as Manbij.

That doesn't stop it from being conscription faggot.
Yes. It is. I explained why – you should probably deal with that instead of calling everything liberal.
wew lad
STEMlord pls

Conscription isn't automatically wrong ultra faggot
Absolutely retarded. By this logic virgins like yourself are just "bricks"
Sophist pls. This is a spook free zone

Did I say it was automatically wrong?

This is your problem – you're so twitchy about hearing any criticism of your pet revolution that you assume any talk abut it MUST be liberal propaganda.

If they voluntarily keep themselves virgin in the service of a higher ideal? Like monks? Like Catholics before marriage? Yes. Of course.

Don't Stirnermeme if you haven't even read his book.

Wait, really? Sauce??

Just going off the pre war population stats. Tabqa had a population of roughly 70,000 and Manbij was at 75,000. Manbij's population is said to have grown to 100,000 since the war began with all the refugees though

A YPJ fighter would shoot your neet dick off, faggot. Stop sexualizing them, you fucking prick.

They were Marxist leninist, not stalinist. The goal was never an authoriarian, status-quo, state-capitalist shithole.

The YPG/J is a daughter organization of the PKK. Not only does the PKK have a lot of fighters in the YPG/J, it was also them who introduced tekmil along wih everything else to Rojava. YPG/J is modelled after PKK.

Self-criticism is a huge part of Apoism. That's how we evolved from MLism to DemConism.

:O
The YPG/J managed to get to the city entrance even though it was mined af and had a lot of Daesh snipers. B I J I

twitter.com/anasanas84/status/853231168300494848

twitter.com/CT_operative/status/853231152878018561

oh my fucking god the rebels (or ISIS) just detonated a car bomb killed a ton of Shia civilians who were being evacuated out of Idlib. this is so fucking disgusting.

lel triggered xD

Can't blame 'em for using a good tactic.

I'm voting tomorrow.

W-wish me luck.

In what?

Good luck Turk-bro!

I assume it is the referendum that will enshrine Erdogan as dictator.

Oh yes.

No. In fact I will take your luck away from you.

Sultan actually

aranews.net/2017/04/assad-support-whoever-wants-liberate-raqqa-terrorists/

Is Assad fucking retarded? Has he looked at a map of his country? How is he under the impression that "nothing's happening on the ground" in regards to Raqqa.

Are all the kurdish girls cute or do they just put the attractive ones on camera for PR?

They put a lot of unattractive ones on camera. 'cause, you know, they're soldiers.

So, after a good year or so of networking, I finally found a way in - one that will require minimal electronic communication with parties actually inside the DFNS.

I've already assembled a small team of devoted communalists/libsocs who are willing to go by 2019, but we need more.

This is where I recommend we organize. The more who go together, who know each other beforehand and are willing to support each other ethically and ideologically down there, the merrier.

Therefore I recommend we set up groups where we can keep in regular contact with each other, learn the language (both arabic and kurdish), exchange the ideas, ect.

So let's help out each other. Perhaps we can get our own little trabon going.

Y r u using tha intrnt

I was thinking – would it be a good idea to spend four years in the military before going off to whatever state may or may not exist in Syria?

Before you say, no, I have no helpful talents. I'm not a doctor, or an engineer, or a media dude.

Yes.
This is good advice.

Cool 'cause that's my current plan.

same

within four years I'd expect a civil war in Turkey at least so even if things with the YPG in Syria cool down you could join the PKK and their friends in Turkey when that comes around.

He's just trying to downplay Rojavas success mostly out of embarrassment the SAA is getting better and better through the war but it's still embarrassing outside of the elite divisions

Based TMU!

What point are you even trying to make?
I welcome criticism when it's constructive and valid. All you've done is shitpost though.
Good thing the YPG is all voluntary then :^). Seriously guy, your talk down from a moral position you don't even bother to qualify based on complete ignorance of the situation at hand. Kill yourself my man>>1573476

That your point is based on butthurt assumption. I thought that was obvious.
try harder user i believe in you
user that's what I'm saying is spooked. People are giving up their lives in service of the ideal.

Misread what you said. So you're entire argument is just le spooky stirner memes and moral grandstanding? wew lad

What did you think this was? An argument about efficiency? It should not have been hidden that this was an argument about morals. Unless you're arguing they're not fanatics, of course.

ebin

Arguing about spooks is a moral argument, user, just like arguing God doesn't exist is a religious one.

Morals are spooks, user. Claiming that it's wrong cause of morality is a spooky argument

Claiming it's wrong because of spooks is a moral argument.

...

Claiming it's wrong because of spooks is still a spooky argument. Spooks aren't good or bad, because to claim that in itself it to adhere to a spook. Stirner actually really lacks any substance, and the fact that you base your feelings on the project on some meme philosopher is pretty sad

There's no worthwhile difference in this conversation.

Wrong. It is perfectly unspooked to say that something is irrational (i.e. "wrong").

I don't remember posting any Stirner images, user.

If you'd actually read Stirner you'd know what a fucking spook was

But he's right. Spooks aren't right or wrong in the moral sense. Well, unless you look at them from a spooked perspective.

Even saying that x is wrong because x is irrational is a spooky argument. Doing anything that isn't within your "will" to do is spooky. Don't go from stirner meming to arguing that it's irrational, because frankly you haven't made any argument as to why it can even be considered irrational.

You obviously haven't or else I wouldn't need to be explaining this to you

Not morally wrong. I mean like this: 1 + 1 = 3 is wrong.

Saying you should avoid it because it's irrational is, IMO, spooked. But that's where I diverge from Stirner.
And the point of spooks is that they aren't within your will. Or rather they are, but you don't realise that and instead subordinate yourself to them.
But that's Stirner's whole argument.

Rationality is still an abstraction i.e. a spook. Subordinating yourself to what is rational is still to be spooked, so why even make a stirner meme argument concerning it's irrationally when you've failed to even qualify it as irrational? "It makes sense but it's still wrong" is an essentially irrational AND spooked argument.

why does everyone in the middle east have to be so mean ?

bump

Are you going for civilian or military purposes?

Sweet

Don't actually do this though. Her biji PKK and all but joining a blacklisted organization is a bad idea.

twitter.com/ThomasOz_/status/853169940354011136

This guy (who's got good sources in Afrin) seems to be convinced Euphrates Shield are prepping an assault on Tel Rifaat after the referendum.

twitter.com/qalaatalmudiq/status/790830053827473408?lang=en

There's a very intricate defensive system prepared for this in Tel Rifaat. If Russia could exert enough pressure for Turkey not to provide air support for this operation, I feel like Jaish al Thuwar would fare really well and would probably repel Euphrates Shield.

Moderate beheaders are going to get BTFO in a big way. Doesn't the SDF have some AA weapons?

no ATGMs is the most advanced shit they have in that regard, and even then they don't have many.

How unlikely is it for SAA to give AA weapons to the SDF? Seems like it would be in their best interest to

The SAA are not the SDF's allies. Assad is not going to arm the SDF with weapons they'll eventually be using against him.

Russia seems like it wants a peaceful relationship between the two, especially since it endorses a federal solution to the Syria conflict. It's either support the SDF or allow the moderate beheaders and turkey to occupy more syrian land, and eventually jeopardize the regime.

Russian doesn't really give a fuck about Rojava, they are just paying lip-service. They actually do care about Assad though and Assad has no intentions of giving Northern Syria autonomy. The federation is not going to happen.

They don't support the SDF, they just have a truce with them that the regime flatly stated was temporary. Once the FSA is squashed, the SDF is likely next to go - since Daesh is pretty well-entrenched.

Does Russia actually care about Assad though? They've continuously said they're open to a post-Assad Syria. I think Russia is in Syria because of larger geopolitical goals. Goals that can be realized with or without Assad.

I think you're right though in that Russia doesn't really care about Rojava. I think they're stance towards them right now is just so they have a playing card against Turkey in case they need it.

Well the Russians don't love Assad, but they are more supportive of him than they are of Rojava (or anyone else). Russia is possibly open to someone taking Assad's place yes. But they have invested so much money and effort into propping up the Assad regime that they can't allow the regime to fall. Maybe Assad could be replaced, but his successor would likely have to be very similar. Not to mention, Iran supports Assad as well and both Iran and Russia want to save face here.

As for why Russia has supported Rojava so far - it has little to do with Turkey. There is not really much hostility between Russia and Turkey - it's mostly posturing. Russia supported Rojava merely because Rojava keeps territory out of the hands of Daesh and the rebels. Once the rebels are defeated that support likely goes away.

Both.
People who are going for civilian and military purposes can easily go together.
Indeed, it is recommended for all who go for a military purpose to also go for some kind of civilian one.

Oh fuck I'm an idiot.

How much access would you have to fairly basic medication (amphetamines, specifically)? It seems like they do have supplies to some extent.

No. Fighters will be taken to Qandil for prep, then they go to Rojava to the line. Civies will be taken straight away to some major place in Rojava like Kobani, etc. If you're a civie you won't meet the dudes that the fighters will meet. You'll be segregated even if you arrived together.
Smuggling fighters into a warzone through relatively unfriendly territory isn't something that's taken lightly. There's already a lot of volunteers who have called out the volunteers that are a little bit too relaxed with disclosing information,

Is the Turkish referendum today?

Any news?

We'll see the results at the end of the day

twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/853578530994749440

twitter.com/TurkeyUntold/status/853572881783148544

twitter.com/kolektifler/status/853582316706332672

Well no shit.

Yes.
What I meant that we can organize and go (arrive) together, even if we are going to different places once we're already there. There's no reason to divy up even before that.

These guys have been playing too much HOI with all these encirclements.

You realise that the security at Sulaymaniyah are very suspicious of foreigners even if it's PUK land? In Erbil they'd arrest you
Imagine if you were them and saw a sizable group of westerners arrive at the time together with different cover stories or all the same. You'd be lucky if they'd let you through but bet your naive ass you'll be detained and questioned, and your country notified. They might just flat out refuse to give you your visa and put you on some terror suspect list. You'd fuck up if you straight up admit you're going to Rojava, but they'd also be suspecting that.
The only way to get there is to look harmless with a good story and not with a dozen other white dudes.

nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/04/07/yazidi-woman-enslaved-by-isis-shares-her-story-of-survival/

ISIS are like comic book villains. they are evil incarnate.

wait, the dude raped a fetus??? holy shit wtf

This seems a little bit too much even for Daesh?

The Sultan just won because of the diaspora vote.

RIP Rojava

remember, these are the "moderate" rebels who we wanted to take over to keep scary Iran/Russia and save the Syrians from the tyranny of Assad.

Typically it would be but there's pretty much no limits to to what they do to Yazidis.

ISIS are not the "moderate rebels" lmao

yeah that's what i was thinking

ISIS was never considered to be "moderate rebels"

Erdogan just won the referendum, what does this mean?

It means things are going to get more interesting.

yfw he orders Ocalan's execution and triggers a Kurdish uprising

Point taken.
One can go in shifts.

There is little argument to make against cooperation and organization, though. At least none presented here.

user, what argument is there FOR organisation?

Don't even joke about that. He can't possibly be on a 30th dimensional level of political chess that us silly mortals can't comprehend

But user, what if he WANTS a Kurdish revolution?

That sounds like an even better excuse.

To a leftist, that should seem self-evident.

The same argument as there is for any kind of cooperation.
The fact that we may enchance individual performance through mutual cooperation, practice and train with each other, and help each other. It may also encourage more to go, who otherwise wouldn't have.

There's already an organization there. You don't need to create your own just for lols?
Write them an email, pretend to be a journalist, get smuggled in and that's that. Don't be out to create your own IFB.

Yes.
And that group is busy. Fighting and stuff.
They're going to be able to be available to train and organize with you. Beyond that, a lot of those groups, and thier emails are either down or compromised.

also the IFB is largely a joke. You want to try and get in somewhere else

If an individual cannot of their own will muster up the strength to enter war, then they should not do so by cooperation. Seriously that's not gonna end well.

They clump you into groups as soon as you arrive anyway, no?

Perhaps you should tell us your networking secrets, oh wise one.

Again, then join them as someone in HQ who can respond to emails. Not to mention that internet isn't that easy to come by in Syria nowadays.

I'd like to see you say that to a turk who came to Rojava. Because someone would risk their life and risk being blacklisted as a terrorist for a joke?
What a disrespectful comment. I wonder who's the real joke: and actual revolutionary or some larping, arrogant, ignorant primitivist?

By the same token, any and all cooperation is pointless.
I mean, If a worker is is not able to get a living wage on their own and by their own merits, then they should not do so by joining a union.

Unless I am missing something here, this whole thing seems like twaddle?

You're not going to prepare at all before going? You're able to learn both Kurdish and Arabic on your own?
If so, then I congratulate you, you're a really muh privileged person, but most others might need help from others with all the knowlege and training that will become crucial before going.

The IFB is not a network. It's a fighting batallion. They won't be able to help you learn.
Also, they're sort of notorios for either being unstable individuals or for being glory hounds. Amongst the Kurds I am familiar with they garner very little respect.
Also from what I've heard their training and dicipline is not great.
It would be a much greater idea to get into a batallion of native kurds or arabs, perhaps in a foreign auxillary unit.

How does this help with preparation encourage cooperation?

There's a tendency to think of white westerners when one thinks of IFB but in reality it's mostly leftist Turks who keep their head down and don't post themselves all over social media.

Yeah, well, of course the MLKP makes up a huge chunk of them.

They're also pretty hardline tankies, so I am not sure that is entirely assuring for any kind of libertarian socialist.

There's a difference between trying to get a living wage and going off to a warzone. If you're only able to pressure yourself into going to war with company…yeah, it's not going to be fun. There's no shortage of westerners, just let those who want to go, go.
They do teach you those there, they just want you to do work on your own beforehand to make things easier. But I do agree that cooperation is helpful (just not necessary).
I hope that BORN DEAD faggot isn't the one dude influencing that. Or, I guess I am hoping that. Where are you getting this info, given the MLKP thing?
IIRC according to Pkk1978 they're pretty DemCon now.

do they do this? integrate fighters or put all the foreign fighters in one group? i also thought IFB by definition would necessarily be a foreign auxiliary group

But the point is not to have fun either. It's about it being a necessecity, an ethical duty, something that might have been too overwhelming for most to do on their own. A lot of people might not even know where to start. That's what we have each other for.

Obviously, I can't give you names, but I know a person who's a verteran from down there, someone who's volunteered as a doctor and several kurds (albeit amongst them few who have interacted with the conflict in person).

Certainly they could be transitioning, but even the PKK has huge problems with hardliners/nationalists amongst their ranks. In this way the YPG/PYD has the ideological advantage being youger and thus more committed to the new ideals.

Both. There are groups for foreigners, but foreigners also get integrated. There are examples of both, certainly.

I suppose it is, but it seems to be independent from the YPG.
That's in contrast to something like the IAT, which is not a member of the IFB and is foreign auxillary unit under the YPG.

question

why don't the supposed communist YPG and foreign volunteers expel imperial forces( CIA and Western SOF) from Rojava?

Because they're not stupid.

Air support is like the most cherished thing in any war. With it, YPG are almost unbeatable and they will rid Syria of ISIS. When the US packs up and leaves, let them. But they're using this period to spread their control and ideology as far across Syria as possible.

US support will naturally wither away when ISIS stop posing a threat.

Wait, so who IS your contact then? Who're you joining? – How do other people join your sekret club?

Probably because they're not suicidal.

or this happens. And all the anarchist volunteers are sent back home

My contact is a person who's been there several times and whose family originates from the area. Depending on how good I can get at arabic or kurdish, I'll probably get integrated into a local unit, or I will seek out the AIT.

Other people can get in the same way by telling me. Then I will tell my contact that I will need to get more people in, and the arrangements will be made.

There is no way KRG and DFNS will unite, they literally had clashes just a month ago in Sinjar

why would that happen when no one on the US or Kurdish end actually wants it to happen?

everyone involved in the syrian civil war from assad to the US general to PYD officials are all constantly saying "we don't want a Kurdish state" but apparently it's all a ruse and "greater Kurdistan" is in the pipeline because some bullshit blog said so