Happy Halloween, readers. It’s been another busy week in the drugs and thugs world. Here’s a quick list of some of the more interesting news and analysis articles from this week. Like the rest of Drugs and Thugs Blog, the topics addressed will focus on terrorism, insurgencies, transnational criminal organizations, and narcotics trafficking.
ISIS is a Part-Time Terrorist Group: From Slate’s Joshua Keating, a discussion on the distinction between terrorists and rebels, showing that ISIS slots somewhere in the gray region between those terms. The term “terrorist” might be misapplied only because it is politically expedient to do so. (Not to self-promote, but this is similar to my thoughts from two weeks ago).
Governor Replaced in Missing Student Controversy: From OCCRP, a report on the effective resignation of the governor of Guerrero state in Mexico. This comes in the wake of the massacre of over forty demonstrators by drug cartel members, assisted by local police officers.
Treasury Hopes ISIS Will Go Broke on its Own: From Money Jihad, commentary on Treasury official David Cohen on ISIS’s finances. Although US financial actions will prove difficult to make much of an impact, the Treasury is betting that the necessity of governance will bankrupt ISIS.
Fighting Between Jihadists, Haftar’s Forces Escalates in Benghazi: From Caleb Weiss at The Long War Journal, an article on the current conflict between the Libyan state and the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council. The Shura Council is heavily supported by Ansar al Sharia, an al-Qaeda affiliate group. Heavy fighting continues in Libya in the fallout of the 2011 revolution.
Mexico’s Knights Templar Leader Vows Never to Surrender: At InSight Crime, David Gagne’s article notes that La Tuta, the current head of the Knights Templar (Caballeros Templarios) cartel has released audio in which he states his defiance of Mexican authorities. Although it would be more rational to retrench his position, La Tuta has decided to fight to the bitter end.
Fighting ISIS: We Should Admit That What We’re Doing is a Containment Strategy: From Tom Ricks’s The Best Defense blog at Foreign Policy, a guest post by Col. Gary Anderson. Anderson highlights the inability of our current strategy to truly defeat ISIS, although it will likely be successful in limiting their expansion.
Strategic Overstretch and the Jihadist Generation Gap: From Mark Stout at War on the Rocks, a comparison of ISIS and al-Qaeda Central through their publications. Stout personifies ISIS as the drunk scruffy teenage son and AQ Central as the cardigan-wearing repressed father, arguing that the difference between the two groups might be simply generational.
Knife Fights: John Nagl’s Reflections on the Practice of Modern War: Octavian Manea interviews John Nagl at Small Wars Journal on the lessons learned both on the battlefield and in the bureaucracy. Nagl’s responses are profound, calling upon influences as disparate as TE Lawrence, St. Augustine, and Mao Zedong. This is an excellent interview.
For comments, thoughts, concerns, or criticism, please comment below, email me at conormlarkin@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @ConorMLarkin (Drugs And Thugs Blog)
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment