Yazidi warrior women

An Israeli news outlet reports on Yazidi women's uniting to join the Kurdistan peshmerga in fighting ISIS:

Yazidi Women Form All-Female Unit to Fight ISIS - Israel News

[For more on the Yazidi, see Yazidis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.]

The article is merely one of many detailing the horrors women suffer at the hands of ISIS.

Slavery is very old and is clearly supported by the Quran  (see Islamic views on slavery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and the Christian Old Testament (see e.g., What the Old Testament says about slavery), though modern religious scholars emphasize passages more humane.

In spite of god's plain approval, all countries, with great reluctance and much bloodshed, gave up the practice of human slavery.  The Arabs were slower than most: the Saudis abolished slavery in 1962; Oman, the last Arab country, in1970.

 In spite of universal condemnation of slavery, it was revived by several Saudi-financed jihadist  groups in Syria early in the Syrian Civil War.

ISIS, a Sunni-Muslim ur-country hoping to become a new Grand Caliphate,  ISIS has institutionalized human slavery, based on Wahhabism, the guiding religion of Saudi Arabia.

ISIS is particularly intent on enslaving those women captured in war, in line with Aristotelian precepts.

If you respect Aristotle, you will think it just that that salves be enslaved.  If you respect Aristotle you deserve wha t you get.

All other people should condemn human slavery.

ISIS's ability to enslave others should be brought to an end. Every effort should be expended to end the ability to enslave another human being.  Since ISIS is peculiarly Sunni Arab creation, Sunni Arabs should take the on-the-ground lead in the fight.

The brave Yazidi women deserve the support of all nations. Americans, call your Senators.

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Images from the Web of women enslaved by ISIS:

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Saudi military crossing into Yemen, when it should be crossing into Iraq to engage ISIS.  Brutal, pointless, and supported by Britain, France, and the US.

The united States is a Warrior Nation.

It spends more on War than any other nation, by a large margin.

It has military bases in most parts of the world, ringing Russia and China.

A partial  history US Wars

Military Conflicts in U.S. History

American Revolution (1775–1783) 

War of 1812 (1812–1815) 

Mexican War (1846–1848 

Civil War (1861–1865) 

Indian Wars (colonial era to 1890) 

Spanish American War (1898)

World War I (1914–1918)

World War II (1939–1945) 

Korean War (1950–1953) 

Bay of Pigs (1961) 

Vietnam War (1961–1973) 

Dominican Republic (1965) 

Lebanon (1982–1984) 

Grenada (1983) 

Panama (1989) 

Gulf War (1991)  

Somalia (1993) 

Bosnia (1994–1995) 

Kosovo (1999) 

Global War on Terror (2001– )  

Afghanistan (2001– ) 

Iraq War (2003–2010) 

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc.All rights reserved.  [Commentary delete

From 1619 until the end of the US Civil War, chattel slavery was legal in North America.

It's Wars with indigenous peoples of the North American continent and Hawaii were, in effect and in some cases by intention, genocidal.  See here.

A small section near the end of The reasons for war, a survey, reported in this blog yesterday, is entitled "Democratic Peace".  It suggests, indirectly, that we, the people of the United States, are the sovereign, and control decisions of War and Peace. 

I am ambivalent about our gigantic War Machine.  Spending tax money on War stimulates the economy, and the US has the strongest economy in the world, for now.  There are other, more useful, ways to pend money to stimulate the economy, with more lasting benefits.

On the other hand, China seems intent on taking money and markets away form the United States and becoming the dominant power in the world.  

If there must be a dominant power, I prefer the United States to China. 

The United States is a mixture of many religions, cultures, and points of view, which gives it an information stream that uniform nations lack, increases flexibility to meet a changing world, and is a source of strength.  

China, the current challenger, is dominated by a tribal culture, the Tribe of the Han, more intolerant of minorities that the US currently is.  That allows for uniformity, which can be a source of strength, and bodes ill for a multifarious world, if it becomes dominant.  

I prefer that the United States remain the dominant power, and the cost is vexing.

Something we, as the sovereign, could do is to change our income tax code so that  the flow of wealth goes to the many. 

The richest American is currently Bill Gates, with 77.5 billion dollars.  That's enough.

A billion dollars is 1,000 million dollars. 

The Koch brothers, together, have 80.8 billion dollars.  They are using a small portion of that money to buy elections.  That's too much power, in a democracy.

We the people need to make some changes.