Some of the more feeble-minded Assadists are trying to replicate in the Philippines what they pulled off in Syria with all the head-chopping rhetoric. It comes from the same reactionary, debased impulses of supporting authoritarian regimes.
Duterte has been on a death squad war against the poor since he entered office June 30th, 2016 & has gunned down about 1,000 people a month in cold blood. He now claims ISIS has taken over part of the country & imposed martial law in that region with threats to extend it nationally & “decapitate” opponents of his death squads. How believable is a monster like that?
The sarcasm of denouncing head chopping in Syria & supporting Duterte who threatens to decapitate human rights activists goes right over the cement heads of the Hands Off Syria crowd.
The truly regrettable, if not criminal thing, is that understanding the development & counter-revolutionary function of extremist militias in Syria & Iraq is important. But fear-mongering & fabricating atrocities has made that understanding very difficult indeed. If they are turned into super-demons rather than politically analyzed there is no way to understand how to deal with & defeat such reactionary currents.
With the “drive them out” campaign launched by Trump in Saudi Arabia, we are going to be hearing accusations of ISIS appearances all over the globe. This essay by Syrian revolutionist Yassin Al Haj Saleh is a good introduction to our study of extremist, violent militias.