Islamic State

So the Islamic State is the topic du jour right now so lets carry on with it.

Who's doing what?

USS George H.W. Bush in Arabian Gulf

The U.S has already conducted its first offensive airstrikes in support of Iraqi army and Kurdish forces in the Mosul region. Obama has just ruled out putting boots on the ground for combat purposes but will be sending forces to assist the Iraqi army, the trouble is that it's easy to make statements but the reality can be very different. There is also talk of airstrikes in Syria, the U.S is warning the Syrian government against interfering in this.

Peshmerga forces

Britain has begun sending arms (heavy machine guns and ammo) to the Kurds (most probably the Peshmerga militias) as well as having already provided non-lethal support such as body-armor. Britain is also ferrying arms from Arab nations, it is not clear who is the recipient of these arms but it's probably the Iraqi army rather than the Kurds. Britain has also hinted that it would conduct airstrikes in Iraq if parliament approved, Syria appears off the table as experts have taken the view it would be illegal without a request from the Syrian government.

Islamic State, our new neighbours from hell

It's quite hard not to have heard of Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL or whatever you choose to call them these days. About 2 months back they rocketed on to the scene with a brazen invasion of Iraqi territories and the near collapse of the Iraqi military overnight. Before that, they were being reported on but I doubt many people were paying much attention - just another bunch of zealots in an area teeming with religious extremism.

Who are they?

IS fighters and commander Abu Waheeb

The group isn't new in any way. Their roots lie in an Islamic group formed in 1999 with the intent to overthrow the Kingdom of Jordan. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq they joined the insurgency (dare I say resistance) against the coalition forces and Iraqi government. In 2004 they pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and became known in the West as 'Al Qaeda in Iraq'. 

During the insurgency they gained control over various areas of Iraq and in 2006 declared an Islamic State, this was made possible by the disenfranchisement of the Sunnis (and Kurdish and other minority communities) by the government. In 2007 the American's stepped up their efforts to bring order to the country. America sent extra troops but more importantly the Sunni militias turned on the group who were foreign influenced and viewed as brutal and unrepresentative of the community as a whole - Al Qaeda in Iraq went in to decline.

Ukraine update

Following on from from earlier post here's how things are playing out on the ground.

A ceasefire was signed on Friday that has held for the most part. There was a flash of fighting around Mariupol in the days following the ceasefire - it appears this may have been a last volley against each other before the ceasefire fully took hold.

Since the ceasefire things have apparently been progressing on the surface. The pro-Russia rebels have released 1200 prisoners as part of the deal and the Ukrainian government is making the right noises about providing autonomy to the Eastern regions. This is all very promising but in reality it appears to just be a convenient arrangement - a stalemate situation has been reached and neither side (and I don't mean the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels who are just pawns) feels that a continuation of hostilities will be beneficial. The western powers made significant gains in resting Ukraine from under the control of Russia but Russia has equally made gains in increasing it's control over the eastern regions.

Despite an end to hostilities both Russia, the U.S and E.U continue to insist on firing shots across each others bows. E.U sanctions looks likely to still be put in place tomorrow despite the ceasefire and Russia has apparently cut gas exports to Poland over the course of the week.

U.S Fast Food worker strike

I'll try and throw in something positive from the news every now and then and here's the first installment.

Protester arrested outside Mcdonald's in Philadelphia

In the last year fast food workers have been becoming increasingly active in their demands to receive a living wage (In public policy, a living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their needs that are considered to be basic. This is not necessarily the same as subsistence, which refers to a biological minimum, though the two terms are commonly confused.). Last week protests took part across over 100 U.S cities during which hundreds of people were arrested.

The protests are starting to show an effect, although Federal policy to introduce a national minimum of $10.10 an hour has stalled several states have introduced their own minimum wages in the last year. Progress is also being made to enable restaurant workers to unionise (currently legislation prevents them from unionising on a large scale due to the franchise model adopted by the chains). A (strongly contested) decision made by the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Mcdonald's could be held jointly liable for employment and wage violations committed by it's franchisors. Such decisions are the first step in greater protections for restaurant workers as a whole.

Now I mentioned that this was good news but I guess it depends on who you are and what you view as the long term outlook of such actions. There is a big disagreement over the effect of raising the minimum wage, some believe that it will actually have a negative effect on poverty in that companies will lay off workers as they face higher labor costs. I personally don't buy this claim, the same thing was said about the introduction of Obamacare and jobs have been on the increase since then. Having said that it's hard to tell what's really going on with the U.S economy as there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and hard data about types of employment isn't available.

Today's News - The Ukraine Crisis

What is the Ukraine crisis? 

Kiev protests

The Ukraine crisis if you just look at the surface is an internal military conflict between two groups with opposing views. Those in the Western part of the country (the area around the capital Kiev) are pro-European and those in the East and the South are pro-Russia - the boundaries are obviously not that clear cut but for a generalisation it works. If you delve a little deeper things are a lot murkier. Ukraine has become a battlefield for the great and powerful to work out their differences. In 1989 when the Soviet Union collapsed Russia was put on the backfoot and powers such as Europe and the U.S capitalised on this. Many Eastern nations joined up with the E.U and NATO (OTAN) started signing up new members in the region. Now Russia is coming back to power and they're eyeing up their old territories - a line has been drawn in Ukraine and a conflict has erupted there.