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World // ISIS Crisis Continues

The violent acts being committed by the Sunni-Islam extremist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has prompted the United States and other nations take military action. ISIS, which has its base in Raqqa, Syria, has taken over large areas of Syria and Iraq. The group has declared this area to be the “Islamic State,” according to a CNN article. Its oppressive rule and interpretation of Islamic law has been ravaging civilians, including ethnic and Christian minorities. Video of public executions has been released on the internet as ISIS continues to tighten its grip in the Middle East.

MaryCroninAccording to CNN, the beheadings of two American journalists was an impetus to the United States’ military intervention. The offensive has mostly included missile strikes by sea followed by air raids by bombers and fighter jets. According to the US military, training compounds, headquarters, storage facilities, supply trucks, and armed vehicles were hit in the initial strike on Tuesday September 23. The Pentagon also stated that some ISIS operatives were hit, but the number was not specified.

Other nations have joined the United States, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. As stated by a Washington Post article, France has also lent its support to the offensive.

According to Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who was quoted in the Washington Post, there is a possibility that civilians may be at risk as ISIS moves from more open areas with visible targets to urban areas. “We’ll have to determine that, as we go forward, if we can sustain the level of preciseness that is necessary to limit civilian casualties,” he cautioned.

Another complication threatening progress in the fight against ISIS may arise. Though there has been much cooperation in the Arab world with the West on this matter, the fact that ISIS is technically a Sunni Muslim group may be problematic for some governments. As stated in a CNN article, some governments may face dissent from their people, and they disagree with Sunnis fighting against other Sunnis.

Furthermore, Syria has cited disregard of its sovereignty, according to the New York Times. The nation has complained that American military actions on its soil without its cooperation is a violation of sovereign rights. President Obama and other US officials, on the other hand, insist this is not the case. Civil war in Syria helped extremist movements like ISIS to take root and spread, and Obama contends that by striking only ISIS and not “Mr. Assad”, the United States is helping Syria, thus the nation’s sovereignty is still intact.

Recent action involved the US-led air strikes targeting ISIS positions in northeastern Syria while the Syrian government aimed at other insurgents near its capital, Damascus this past Saturday. Meanwhile, ISIS attacked a Kurdish village near the Turkish border, according to the New York Times. At roughly the same time, two car bombs were detonated in the Syrian city of Homs, killing at least 45 people, including 41 children. The group has not taken official responsibility for this, though it is likely that it is responsible because of their recently increased presence in Homs. This, among other issues, has caused even more civilians to flee to Turkey, joining more than 150,000 refugees already there, the New York Times reported.

Military officials, including General Odierno, have dismally predicted that this conflict could endure much longer than previously anticipated.

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News

Trouble with Peacekeeping Bases in South Sudan

United Nations peacekeepers are struggling to stop a humanitarian catastrophe in South Sudan after hundreds of civilians were killed last week by anti-government forces. Attempting to escape a conflict between government and rebel forces that is growing increasingly ethnic in nature, up to 22,000 civilians are seeking refuge within the U.N. base in the city of Bentiu. Water and sanitary facilities, however, are running low and peacekeepers fear that hundreds more could die within days as a result of these conditions.

Courtesy of www.france24.com
Courtesy of www.france24.com

The U.N. reports that on April 15 and 16, hundreds of people were massacred in Bentiu after rebel forces took the town from government forces in a conflict that first began in the summer of 2013. In one mosque alone, the rebels are accused of killing up to 200 people who had sought shelter there from the violence. The Washington Post reported that a top U.N. aid official described how “piles and piles” of bodies littered the streets, the mosque, and even hospitals during the rebel rampage. Currently, U.N. peacekeepers are helping to collect the bodies throughout Bentiu.

Violence in South Sudan, a volatile country that recently voted for independence from Sudan in 2011, erupted after President Salva Kiir accused his vice president, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup in July 2013. Machar was subsequently dismissed as vice president and now leads a rebel group seeking to overthrow Kiir’s government. Exacerbating the conflict, however, is the growing importance of ethnicity in determining who is friend or foe. President Kiir is an ethnic Dinka while Machar is a Nuer. Al-Jazeera reports that in Bentiu, the capital of the ironically named Unity province where the recent massacre occurred, one can find numerous ethnic groups, including Dinka, Nuer, Darfuri, and Misseriya Arabs. Insecurities regarding whether one’s neighbor is a potential enemy for being a different ethnicity is thus polarizing the city, resulting in thousands of people fleeing the possibility of future massacres.

In an attempt to protect civilians from reprisal attacks throughout the country, U.N. peacekeepers have allowed thousands to seek refuge within their bases. While attempting to ensure safety for these civilians, however, the results are mixed. Reuters reports that after the mainly Nuer rebels seized Bentiu, Dinka residents of the town of Bor in South Sudan’s Jonglei state attacked a U.N. base that sheltered up to 5,000 mostly Nuer people. Some 58 people died and 98 were injured after the Dinka had deceived the peacekeepers into believing that their protest was peaceful before opening fire on the base.

Furthermore, sanitation and water supplies within the bases are being stretched thin as more and more civilians arrive to seek refuge by the day. Tony Lanzer, the U.N.’s representative in South Sudan, stated that the base in Bentiu only had one liter of water per person available per day. Additionally, a growing public health crisis is emerging as sanitary facilities can no longer sustain the growing number of people inside the bases. Some 350 people, for example, are forced to share one toilet. Raphael Gorgeu, the head of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, warns that people will die inside Bentiu’s U.N. base within days because of the bleak water and sanitation situation.

Prospects for a quick resolution to the conflict in South Sudan are nil. Reuters reports that a January ceasefire between the belligerent parties has never taken hold. Meanwhile, the East African IGAD group has attempted to organize peace talks. The recent massacre, however, has led to the postponement of these talks until April 28. How this conflict will end is uncertain, but for a multiethnic country with one of the world’s lowest standards of living, one can assume that a successful resolution will not come quickly or easily.

 

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News

International Delegates Talk Syrian Peace

As international delegates arrived in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, January 21, doubts persisted concerning whether they would be able to bring an end to Syria’s three-year-old civil war.

Courtesy of radioaustralia.net.au
Courtesy of
radioaustralia.net.au

Sponsored by the United States, Russia, and the United Nations, the peace accords, known as “Geneva 2,” will bring together officials from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government along with the Syrian National Council (SNC) an opposition bloc consisting of various groups seeking to overthrow the Assad regime. However, numerous groups engaged in the conflict have refused to attend, including many Islamist fighters who seek to turn Syria into an Islamic emirate. Complications further expanded as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, under the lobbying influence of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, withdrew an invitation to Iran, one of Assad’s main financial and materials supporters.

According to Reuters, Ban faced immense pressure from both Washington and the SNC, the latter threatening to boycott the talks and further obstruct any chances of conflict resolution. Moreover, Iran rejected the caveat that it had to accept the guidelines of a previous peace conference held in Geneva in 2012 that called for President Assad to step down and allow a transitional administration to take over. These peace talks failed after the U.S. and Russia could not agree on Assad’s post-conflict, political role. Washington Post reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said excluding Iran is not a “catastrophe,” and said Russia and the other countries at the conference will still push for a productive dialogue between the warring factions.

Further complications arising as peace talks begin include the revelation of widespread torture and systematic killing committed by the Assad régime against 11,000 detainees in Syrian government custody. Al-Jazeera reports that thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria and examined by a team of war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts show emaciated bodies marked with signs of brutal beatings, strangulation, and other forms of torture. The photographs were taken by a photographer for the military police who had secretly defected to the opposition. While both sides of Syria’s civil war have been accused of war crimes, this evidence is the most definitive proof of large-scale killing on the part of the régime to date. According to U.S State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, one reason “Geneva 2” needs to be fruitful is because “the situation on the ground is so horrific that we need to get a political transition in place and…we need to get the Assad régime out of power.” Reuters reports that the former chief prosecutor of a war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone, Desmond de Silva, commented that “some of the images we saw were absolutely reminiscent of people who came out of Belsen and Auschwitz.” It is not yet known how the revelations of these photographs will influence the demands of other negotiators, such as Russia, or the SNC.

Meanwhile, as “Geneva 2” begins, warfare continues in Syria. It is estimated that 130,000 people have died along with 22 million being displaced. Spillover from the conflict has also affected neighboring countries. In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, a suicide bombing occurred in front of the headquarters of Hezbollah, a Shi’a group that actively assists Assad and militarily adheres to the Alawite offshoot of Shi’a Islam. Meanwhile, Iraq faces political strife as al-Qaeda-linked groups seek greater influence amongst the country’s Sunni population.  Currently, Iraqi government forces and tribal fighters are trying to expel al-Qaeda fighters, staunchly opposed to Iraq’s Shi’a-dominated government, from the Sunni enclave in the country’s west. Consequently, as the conflict between Sunni-backed rebels in Syria and the Alawite-majority government continues, sectarian divides deepen further throughout the Middle East.

 

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News

World Leaders Pay Respect at Mandela’s Funeral

Dignitaries from around the world flew to South Africa on Tuesday, December 10, to commemorate the life of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mandela, instrumental in ending apartheid policies in his country, died on December 8 at the age of 95 after a persistent lung infection.

Courtesy of forbesimg.com
Courtesy of forbesimg.com

According to the Washington Post, huge crowds of mourners filled a soccer stadium in Soweto, South Africa where together they sang and clapped, memorializing Mandela as a racial healer, a figure so humble and transcendent that he felt comfortable with rich and poor, young and old, black and white. The service lasted for four hours with many emotional tributes and joyous song about a great leader lost. This all happened during an intense rainstorm which, according to tradition, symbolizes the passing of a great leader into the afterlife.

The venue of the memorial service, Soweto, is symbolic for many South Africans. The Washington Post writes that Soweto was the site of the 2010 World Cup tournament and the last time Mandela was seen in public. Moreover, Soweto was a formerly segregated township that was at the center of anti-apartheid protests in the 1970s and 1980s, a fitting place for South Africans of all backgrounds and color to unite to mourn a leader who fought against this segregation.

Among the mourners were over ninety presidents and prime ministers from around the world, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and British Prime Minister David Cameron. According to the BBC, Obama, who was cheered as he took the podium to offer a eulogy to Mandela, remarked that “we will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. While I will always fall short of Madiba [Mr. Mandela’s clan name], he makes me want to be a better man.” Cuban President Raul Castro, whose brother Fidel showed much support for Mandela’s anti-apartheid cause, also stated during his eulogy address that Mandela was the “ultimate symbol of dignity and the revolutionary struggle.” Other mourners included many celebrities, such as Charlize Theron, who was born in South Africa, along with Bono, Oprah Winfrey, Peter Gabriel, and Sir Richard Branson.

While President Obama may have been cheered, the warm welcome was not spread to current South African President Jacob Zuma, who was booed and jeered as he prepared to give his closing address. According to Reuters, Zuma’s government is currently in the midst of numerous corruption scandals, upsetting many South Africans who view him as a fraction of the man that Mandela was. Undeterred by the booing, the BBC reports that Zuma stated that Mandela was “one of a kind…a fearless freedom fighter who refused to allow the brutality of the apartheid state to stand in way of the struggle for the liberation of his people.” Additionally, Zuma announced the renaming of a number of public buildings. This includes the Union Buildings in the capital Pretoria, where Mandela will lie in state until December 13, which will soon be known as the Mandela Amphitheatre.

The ceremony concluded with a speech by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who asked the crowd to rise to their feet for a final tribute. On December 15, a state funeral for Nelson Mandela will be held before his body is interred in a family burial plot.

 

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News

Snowden Controversy Continues with New Report

He has been called a hero and a villain, a patriot and a traitor. However he will be judged in history, Edward Snowden’s actions have nevertheless caused something of a ruckus for one of the largest intelligence organizations in the United States, the National Security Agency, and has reopened conversation on the ethics and lawfulness of government surveillance.

Courtesy of guim.co.uk
Courtesy of guim.co.uk

The leaks obtained by Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, represent one of the largest breaches in security that the United States government has experienced in its history. Snowden’s critics warn that these leaks will threaten American security and interests and will enable terrorist organizations throughout the globe. On the other hand, privacy advocates say that Snowden has performed an important act of civil disobedience.

The full 58,000 files that Snowden leaked to the Guardian (a British newspaper) and the Washington Post last summer have not, as of yet, been fully revealed. The Guardian’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, reporting to a parliamentary committee investigating the newspaper’s handling of the Snowden leaks, explained that the Guardian has only published one percent of the files and has withheld the rest, mostly on account of the sensitive nature of the information. “I would not expect us to be publishing a huge amount more,” Rusbridger also said to the committee.

Nevertheless, some of the information that Snowden provided is still forthcoming. On Wednesday, the Washington Post published a report that revealed the details of NSA’s cell phone tracking program, in which the agency monitors the data of individuals – wherever they happen to be in the world – using their personal mobile devices. The NSA accomplishes this by tapping into cell towers and tracking the movements of individuals using the signals from their cell phones to the towers. From this information, the NSA can also track the movements of possible associates, called “co-travelers”, if they pass through a number of the same cell tower zones. Furthermore, if monitored for a period of time, a target’s relationships and patterns of movements can also be uncovered using this information.

Though the NSA has said that it has no desire to map everyone’s movements, this is nonetheless the byproduct of tracking down target individuals that the NSA deems as dangerous or potentially dangerous. The Washington Post reports that the NSA is collecting almost 5 billion cell phone records every day throughout the globe, which in turn amounts to 2 trillion per year.

Throughout the course of the “Snowden scandal”, the US government has insisted that these measures are lawful, but they have been challenged by many privacy advocates – seeing a boost in support and attention – who argue that these measures violate civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. Other groups think that Snowden’s actions have put the United States in peril.

The American public remains divided, however, according to a survey put forward by the Huffington Post in late October. According to the survey, 51% of respondents described Snowden as “something of a hero,” while 49% described him as “more of a traitor.”

Who is Edward Snowden and what will his actions prove? Only time will tell.

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Opinions

Idolization of the Extremes

Christians go back and forth on whether ours is a religion of moderation or extremes. On the one hand, we are meant to abstain from indulgences such as sexual promiscuity, consumerism and materialism, and overeating. Purity and health are both important to us, and as any good nutritionist or fitness trainer will tell you, moderation is key. We should not hoard wealth. We should turn the other cheek. On the other hand, Jesus could easily be painted as a revolutionary. He braided whips and flipped tables. He told off the Pharisees. He called us to live in a radical way; the same standards that require moderation could also be seen as extremist when compared to the sedentary lifestyles of many—give up everything you have and follow me? In a way, it’s flattering to think of Christianity as a religion of extremes. We are supposed to be “not of this world,” after all, right? We are special. We are different from others in a profound and fundamental way.

I recently came across two different articles that changed the way I think about these questions of moderation and extremism. The first was an article on BBC News that described the heroic acts of a teenage girl who saved a middle-aged man. The girl, Keshia Thomas, was eighteen when she was witness to a KKK demonstration in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She attended with a crowd of black protestors. A white man with an SS tattoo and a Confederate flag t-shirt was noticed in the crowd of observers. They, along with Thomas, began to chase him out. At some point he was knocked to the ground and the crowd began to kick and beat him. Thomas threw herself down on top of him and fought off the attackers, quite possibly saving his life, had the blows escalated.

The second article, found in The Washington Post, is a profile of Nadia Bolz-Weber, a progressive Lutheran minister who heads a small church, House for All Sinners and Saints, in Denver. Bolz-Weber grew up in a Christian home but felt marginalized by the church and was heavily involved in drug abuse, surrounding herself with “underside dwellers . . . cynics, alcoholics and queers” for several years before eventually getting clean and becoming a minister. She has become well-known for her foul mouth and tattooed physique, and her church prides itself on being accepting of people from all walks of life.

I did not react to these stories as positively as you might expect. Do not doubt my esteem for Kehsia Thomas and what she did. Her selflessness and bravery brought tears to my eyes (which doesn’t hap—okay, it does happen often), but I fear for what many may take away from her story. My first thought was that I would probably never have such an impressive opportunity for goodwill. I will probably never be seen as a hero, I will never be caught in a mob or a riot or a warzone and I will never throw my body over an innocent or a grenade. This can be a very damaging way of thinking. No one should sit around waiting for their “big moment” to come. Waiting for a notable opportunity can cause procrastination on smaller goals. When you don’t feel like you can do any good from where you are in the world right now, it will not seem worthwhile to practice small kindnesses and general friendliness in everyday life. It is a mindset that cripples many, and it is noticeable on Houghton campus, in the numbers of students who have a longing to help others in a big way and yet do not take part in community service projects in Alleghany County. No one is ever going to be in the perfect position to make a huge impact. That is rare and happens to few people—people who were spending their days engaged in doing good work for the world in small places for a very long time before being noticed. As Teri Gunderson, a woman who was impressed with Thomas’ actions, says, “The voice in my head says something like this, ‘If she could protect a man, I can show kindness to this person.’ And with that encouragement, I do act with more kindness.”

The Bolz-Weber profile portrayed her church as a haven for those who have had rocky relationships with the Church (sadly a frequent occurrence), and it is indeed a beautiful thing that Bolz-Weber is giving those people a chance to connect with God in a refreshing church setting. Says one congregant of the experience, “House has a lot of people burned by religion, and this still holds for me. It’s the only church I can stomach.” But the article took an odd turn when it began to describe what happened when Bolz-Weber’s congregation started to expand. “Normal people,” i.e. Christians without torrid pasts, began to attend. “It was awful,” wrote Bolz-Weber. She claimed that the normal Christians were “f—king up [her] weird,” and a church meeting was actually held to discuss whether or not the newcomers should be allowed to continue to attend. This struck me as outrageous, considering that House was formed as an antidote to the unwelcoming nature of other churches. Bolz-Weber’s attitude represents another kind of extreme: the belief that one is not “real” or authentic or cannot know true forgiveness without having first dragged oneself through the rigmarole of sin and depravity. Bolz-Weber prides herself on her honesty and appears apathetic on matters such as chastity and foul language, behaviors that come with explicit guidelines in the Bible. Yes, being open and inviting are strong tenets of the Christian faith (“Come as you are”), but along with that approach comes the condition, “now go and sin no more.” By the end of the article I was left with the feeling that Jesus—a man who spent the first thirty years of his life working as a carpenter and the last three years preaching by lakesides—might not have felt comfortable in the House for All Saints and Sinners. And yet who could understand the message of salvation better than He?

Christians like to embrace extremes. You’re not “good” until you’ve adopted two third-world children, published a novel, and thrown yourself over a man to protect him from a mob. You’re not “forgiven” until you’ve done hard drugs, have a tally of sexual partners in the double digits, and, if possible, have spent at least four years in prison. But God does not call us to make momentous, heroic sacrifices when we find a perfect opportunity. God calls us to make the slow and steady sacrifice of our entire, day-by-day, minute-by-minute life.

 

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Government Faces Imminent Shutdown

Stop the presses – Congress is, yet again, at an impasse about the national budget and it appears as if this time it will consequently shut down the federal government unless lawmakers can come to an agreement by September 30.

Courtesy of www.cnn.com
Courtesy of www.cnn.com

There are two main issues at hand. Funding for the government for the 2014 fiscal year (beginning on October 1, 2013) must be decided by Congress by September 30. However, lawmakers have had a difficult time passing the appropriations bills required. Adding to this complication is the fact that the government is about to hit the debt ceiling (the debt ceiling is the legal limit on how much total debt that the government can assume) and the decision to raise or lower it, and thus let the Treasury borrow more or less, is highly contested between Republicans and Democrats. The debt ceiling debacle, though, is far more consequential because it has the potential to affect world markets negatively.

Agreements between Republicans and Democrats seem unlikely at the moment. House Republicans in particular have taken the hard line in the past few days and it looks like their demands will not find an easy compromise among Democrats. According to the Washington Post, House Republicans are taking on a “risky, double-barreled attack on President Obama’s healthcare law” and making it the center of the budget debate. In effect, Republican leaders–particularly Speaker John Boehner–told the media that they would put forward a stopgap government funding bill that would block funding to Obamacare. This is in response to many conservatives who are still demanding that Obamacare be halted. This stopgap bill will be put to a vote on Friday, but it is likely to be met unfavorably with Democrats.

Another initiative by Republicans, this time regarding the debt ceiling, will also target Obamacare directly. In order to lift the debt ceiling, Republicans are demanding that the healthcare law be delayed, as well demanding as other measures such as an overhaul of the tax code and an approval of an energy pipeline.

Needless to say, Democrats are aghast at what Republicans are demanding and the issues seem to point to a battle of wills that will force a government shutdown. In addition to Republican demands making compromise between the two parties highly unlikely, it seems doubtful that Democrats will extend an arm to help as they know that public opinion is strongly against Republicans in this matter. According to a poll taken by CNN, most Americans (51%) would blame the GOP should a government shutdown occur, thus strengthening Democrat popularity and electoral prospects. According to the poll, only a third would blame Democrats.

At the moment, the best possibility to avoid government shutdown by the deadline is if Senator Reid sends back the stopgap bill to the House, stripped of its demands to defund Obamacare. Then the hot potato would be placed again in Speaker Boehner’s hands to either approve the measure with Democratic votes or else to shutdown the government. This, however, does not seem likely.

Recently, congressional budget decisions have taken a pattern most familiar to college students: wait until the last minute before the due date and then patch together a final document. In this instance, it looks like Congress’ current debacle is no different.

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News

Congress Scrambles to Prevent Sequester

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are busy trying to prevent the sequester, massive spending cuts totaling to roughly $85 billion this year and over $1 trillion over the next ten years, that will hit the federal budget on March 1.

Courtesy of ivn.us
Courtesy of ivn.us

Should lawmakers fail to prevent the sequester, it will lop off a good portion of discretionary spending for defense and domestic programs and will also affect some mandatory domestic spending (most notably Medicare.) No programs will be eliminated, but all will be considerably scaled back.

The sequester will also affect federal employment. According to a Washington Post article, about 800,000 employees at the Pentagon will be put on unpaid leave if Congress cannot obtain a solution to the sequester. Military members and their families will also face cuts to benefit programs. Economic growth in the United States is also expected to slow and unemployment will raise a quarter of a percentage.

The sequester is the result of the debt ceiling crisis in the summer of 2011. It was intended to be an incentive for Congress to come to an agreement to cut federal spending, however, no agreement was ever reached. Originally, the sequester was supposed to take place in the beginning of this year (during the fiscal cliff crisis), but Congress made a deal to prevent the cliff and the sequester was delayed for another two months.

Nobody in Congress is pleased with the situation; neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can agree on how to best prevent the sequester.

President Obama and the Democrats are suggesting that the best way is to increase taxes. Obama has advocated for closing tax loopholes and increasing tax rates for the wealthy. The Democrats in Congress are pushing for tax increases, spread out over the course of a decade, and they are also recommending other measures such as cutting farm subsidies and tax subsidies for oil companies.

Republicans, on the other hand, do not want to raise taxes at all and thus find themselves not able to agree with Democrat proposals. Republicans are also very concerned about defense spending being cut, more so than domestic spending, and are pushing for considerably large domestic spending cuts instead. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Speaker of the House, John Boehner, wrote, “The president’s sequester is the wrong way to reduce the deficit, but it is here to stay until Washington Democrats get serious about cutting spending. The government simply cannot keep delaying the inevitable and spending money it doesn’t have.”

Overall, the sequester is another issue in the long debate over the size and role of the federal government, with the Democrats on the side of an expanded government and Republicans on the side of a smaller government. The results of the sequester that arise within the next week should be a test case to the larger debate. Hopefully, though, Congress will find a compromise to the sequester that is appealing to both political parties and will secure the future of American defense and overall well-being.