If this is true, it shows that truth is stranger than fiction.

[www.bbc.com]

But...we old hands at Cult Education Institute message board should not feel too surprised.

Think of the number of communes, revolutions, cults, utopias, in which some members are given preferential treatment - better lodgings, etc.

What a British jihadist's anti-Arab rant tells us about life in the so-called Islamic State


The discussion on Reddit

[www.reddit.com]

Google
[www.google.com]

Bing
[www.bing.com]

It is easy to laugh at the people who are now voicing regret after spending time in Syria and becoming disillusioned.

Glamor has been a major ingredient of recruitment into war -- has been for thousands of years.

And in our teens and twenties, many of us are at the height of our powers, long for a way to be of service, make the world a better place.

And because young people crave empowerment, many of them resent it when their
real friends attempt to warn them and tell them how exploitable they actually are - exploitable by anyone who can feed them vivid images, exploit their anger and impatience, promise them agency and dignity.

I am grateful I have never been on a battlefield or in a besieged town or city.

After listening to combat veterans and reading the news and historical accounts, I can list a few things about war and military life that recruiters
never tell young persons.

You learn that your becoming a jihadi actually serves to make a your leader richer and more powerful.

You discover your leader is merely a successful warlord feuding with other guys who want to take his place, not for the glory of Islam, but so they can
get access to his sources of income.

You see the recruits who are the most attractive, most articulate being selected to be members of the leader's entourage, and chosen to do PR videos while you and your less good looking friends are sent to grunt assignments - or worse. A guy who is a brilliant computer hacker will not be chosen as a suicide bomber -- he is much too valuable to be given a short career as a human bomb. But you....step right up. Let's fit you for a vest.

* You learn that your leaders talk a fine game about discipline and purity, but
most of them find ways to get laid whenever they wish. And these guys always get first pick of the attractive captives.

* Leaders and their favorites find ways to stash millions of dollars in secret bank accounts while you and your friends go home penniless, and that is if you ever get home at all. Your leaders find plenty of ways to make money -- such as selling looted antiquities on the black market, giving a nod to smugglers and drug traffickers.

* You learn that the disruption of war doesn't spread Islam; you learn it gives
freedom to smugglers of gasoline, human traffickers, drug couriers. When ordinary economies are disrupted and necessities are expensive, black markets appear and flourish and all those involved pay your war lord/emir so they can
do business in his territory.

* * You discover the leaders keep themselves safe while you and
your friends live in squalid conditions. You get sick from
dirty water, from inhaling dust.

* You find you are sharing quarters and battlefield conditions with guys who
are vicious and crazy, along with guys who snore and others who are thieves.

* You go to have a pee and discover another guy is a perv and follows along to have a peek. If he outranks you and is a leader's favorite, you either have
to live with this -- or try like hell to arrange a transfer to another unit and hope that unit doesn't have someone even worse.

There you are, bladder burning, holding your wee, waiting for the perv to go to sleep or leave on an assignment. Your online IS recruiter didn't tell you about shit like this.

(And if you smuggle out a message to the world, telling how you regret joining IS and its jihad, you don't mention this -- you know the world would . laugh at you.)

In an official army, these creeps would not be there. They'd be rejects because they'd flunk the psychology interview or be ID'd and kicked out of boot camp. But in IS, you have 'em for company. Your online recruiter didn't tell you about this...

You thought you left this shit behind by leaving high school andjoining IS. But..you find that life in this army is high school -- high school in hell.


* You learn you have to shake out your boots before putting them on, just in
case a scorpion crawled inside. If you are not warned to do this, you learn
the hard way.

Your commanding officer is a fun hating puritan who forbids you and your pals from having a good time.

You sneak off for a 'night on the town.'A few days later, you all discover you have the clap. You are all in pain. How do you find medical care without the CO's knowledge? And, until you do, keep from screaming each time you need to use the karzi?


** You discover that people get sick and die from diseases here that
are prevented or do not exist in the First Word. In Syria, rabid dogs
can kill people. One gets bladder and visceral infections from waterborne parasites -- just bathing in an infested river or creek can put you at risk. You see locals and your friends developing large skin ulcers
due to sand fly bites.

[www.google.com]

* To prevent these and other illnesses you have to boil your water use purification tablets or bottled water. Meat? In the Third Word, meat may
have parasites that can infect you. Which means you need to cook it thoroughly
or hope the cook did so.

[www.google.com]

[www.i24news.tv]

[www.google.com]

Quote

Syria hit by flesh-eating worms disease

Three cases of myiasis reported near Damascus, caused by flies laying eggs in humans' open wounds

Three cases of myiasis have been reported near Damascus, marking the first appearance of the flesh-eating maggot disease in Syria, UN health experts said Friday.

Myiasis, an affliction caused when flies lay their eggs in wounds, is not lethal for humans, but its appearance says a lot about worsening living conditions in war-ravaged Syria, the World Health Organization said.

It has already issued an alert about the reappearance of polio in the north of the country, where tuberculosis, typhoid and scabies have again become endemic.

“Three cases of myiasis, otherwise called screw flies, were reported on November 19 in Syria,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told AFP.

The cases were spotted in Douma, a rebel bastion northeast of the capital held by a Salafist group, which has been under government siege for more than a year, with residents facing dwindling food and medical supplies.

“This disease is not so much a danger in itself, but should rather be seen as an indicator for very bad water supply, sanitary and hygienic, as well as socioeconomic circumstances in besieged and hard-to-reach areas,” Lindmeier said.

He pointed out that neighboring Damascus, which usually has a daily supply of around 350,000 cubic meters of water, “has lost two thirds of its drinking water supply”.

The UN health body said it was launching a hygiene promotion and water rationalization campaign in Syria in a bid to help people avoid behaviors that can lead to myiasis and other water and hygiene-related diseases.

The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed more than 195,000 people since it began three and a half years ago as an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

(AFP)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2015 09:15PM by corboy.