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[ by Charles Cameron — from Abu A and Abu B to Steve and Donnie ]
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Karl Sharro is a Middle Eastern architect and satirist based in London, whose two modes of “simply” explaining the Middle East I presented a while back. His third view envisions ISIS as a board game, and asks Who can devise the most convoluted way to wipe out the Islamic State?

**

Anyway, KarlreMarx has two jihadist ezxtremists he’s been tracking for some while — Abu A and Abu B:

Outside Sharro’s fevered imagination, ISIS does indeed have an air force — of weaponized drones.

Suicide? No, martydom — and individual ISIS members are as expendable as their goals are lofty:

Sometimes, to be honest, those goals make little sense..

— and besides, eclipses are signs of impending apocalypse..

**

Time rolls on, however — and Sharro has shifted his target. As he put it in a tweet today, “I decided to retire Abu A and Abu B and replace them with another radicalised pair”:

Steve and Donnie — two’s company.

We shall see what we shall see..

[ by Charles Cameron — not so ]
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On the one hand you have Sheikh Wael Al-Ghitawi..

Montreal mosque facing calls for investigation after imam preaches on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories https://t.co/TaQ8Vk2vq3

— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) February 28, 2017

— and on the other, Prof Aisha Ahmad —

This is my son. At some point, he is going to learn that some people hate him because he's a Jew. I'd like to put that off as long as I can. pic.twitter.com/Qol6r1301n

— Alex Halpern (@HalpernAlex) February 28, 2017

When that time comes, you can also tell him that others – including this Muslim girl right here – are willing to human shield him. https://t.co/46HVhyZ3go

— Aisha Ahmad (@ProfAishaAhmad) February 28, 2017

Alhamdulillah!

[ by Charles Cameron — a meditation on grief, politics and the raid in Yemen ]
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That long moment with SEAL William “Ryan” Owens‘ widow, Carryn Owens, was the central human moment of President Trump‘s speech to the Joint session of the United States Congress today.

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My emotions were varied and braided. The widow’s grief was obvious, and I felt and grieved for her, as I’m sure we all did.

What the President did w Owen's widow was capital P Presidential. It was the single most extraordinary moment I've seen from Trump – by far.

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) March 1, 2017

At the same time, the President featuring it in his speech seemed manipulative and, in the worst sense, political:

It was by far the grossest thing Trump has done and reporters are bizarrely intoxicated by it https://t.co/fGG0Ap3627

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) March 1, 2017

As I say, my emotions were varied and braided.

**

Nor let us forget the father’s grief, which expressed itself in an angry, anguished question —

— nor, finally, the grief of the Awlaki family at the loss in that same raid of Nawar Anwar Al-Awlaki, Sheikh Anwar Awlaki‘s 8-year-old daughter — an American girl among the civilian casualties.

I grieve again.