Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, October 06, 2014

The Alamo of the Kurds: Kobane Near Falling to Islamic State

Ismat Sheikh, commander of the Kurdish forces at the border town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) that is besieged by ISIL tanks and artillery, says that he expects massacres of its inhabitants if it falls to the Sunni Arab extremists.

He warned that ISIL fighters are less than a mile from his front line.

Despite US air strikes, ISIL has drawn up some 25 tanks and a number of artillery pieces to pound Kobane repeatedly.
There was also heavy close-quarter fighting in the east and the south of the town between Kurdish guerrillas and ISIL units on Friday.


Last week over 60,000 Kurds were forced to flee to Turkey as ISIL advanced into the Kurdish region of Syria.

Most Syrians speak Arabic, but the Kurdish minority speaks a language akin to Persian.



Although Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pledged not to allow Kobane to fall, he later backtracked, saying that Turkey has few options for intervening directly in Syria.
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Related Video:
Original Article
Source: truthdig.com/
Author: Juan Cole 

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