Word: militiaization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Formed in 1979 as Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's personal militia, the IRGC acquired a reputation for suicidal human-wave attacks in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. After Khomeini's death in 1989, the government of then President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sought to channel the guards' fervor into reconstruction projects, allowing them to dip into the coffers of massive religious and charitable foundations known as bonyads; in time, the guards came to control the foundations themselves...
...There have been other signs that jihadi organizations are reaching out to disaffected young Muslims in the U.S. Consider the Somali-American youths who flew from Minneapolis to join al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked militia that runs much of Somalia. If it turns out that it was al-Qaeda (or the Taliban) that reached out to Zazi and his associates - and not the other way around - then it would suggest that the U.S. is vulnerable to attacks from within...
...Parus Hotel, the only hotel in town that's (sort of) equipped to handle a delegation of Moscow bigwigs, there were hordes of militia and security-service agents hanging out in the lobby and outside the hotel. (Wi-fi, fine dining and down comforters, among other amenities, are not common in Russia outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.) At night, the almighty descended on the bar in the first floor of the Parus for a spot of vodka or black tea. The bartender, who declined to give his name for fear of losing his job, quipped: "They ate, they drank, they...
...Many of these youngsters fit Hollywood casting for Southeast Asian guerrillas: scrawny, scrappy adolescents who show no sign of needing a shave anytime soon. But Felix, who sidled up to me as I watched the KIA academy cadets run through their drills, disturbed the easy image of a militia conscripting hungry boys in return for a fistful of rice. Armed with a university degree in international relations, Felix speaks fluent English and expresses himself eloquently on political philosophy. But as an ethnic Kachin - an ethnicity more than 1 million strong, famed for its fortitude while serving on the Allied side...
...foot soldiers and an arsenal of heavy artillery, is the strongest of the rebel armies - is providing support to the shreds of Kokang forces still fighting, as well as giving sanctuary to Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng. With the junta reinforcing troop levels in the country's north, another ethnic militia, the Karen National Liberation Army in eastern Burma, hopes to recuperate after a devastating series of losses earlier this summer...