Word: militiaization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Italy's ongoing wars provide King's book with its narrative structure, but Machiavelli's personal struggles give it drive. After 15 years of service - representing Florence abroad, raising and training its first citizen militia, and collaborating with Leonardo da Vinci on engineering projects - Machiavelli watched his beloved city-state fall to the Spanish in 1512. Under the subsequently installed Medici family, he was imprisoned, tortured by having his shoulders dislocated, and banned from his former offices. He retreated to the countryside with his wife, then pregnant with their seventh child. King doesn't miss the irony: "He understood better...
...This seems to be Bush's preference; it's certainly been the neoconservative line. Crocker, however, isn't so sure. In a recent conversation, he said, "We are getting some feelers from southern tribes who are tired of JAM," referring to the Jaish al-Mahdi, the Sadr militia. But, he continued, "tribal identities are stronger among Sunnis." Shi'ites tend to adhere to larger social structures, like the two prominent family dynasties in Shi'ite Iraq-the Sadrs and the Hakims. "It has a lot to do with Shi'ites' traditional underdog status," he said. Actually, Crocker seems constitutionally averse...
...Command, are pressing for an all-out assault on Gaza. This would require four to five divisions of troops, and its aim would be to arrest the leaders of Hamas and destroy the Islamist militant group that seized control of the territory from U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's militia last June. A full-scale assault, say military strategists, might cause "over a thousand" Palestinian casualties and the loss of "a few hundred Israelis," but it would smash Hamas's military capability and seize an estimated 40 tons of explosives and tens of thousands of weapons, including anti-tank rockets...
...Hamas, meanwhile, says it is not afraid of an Israeli siege on Gaza. "The Israelis will pay a heavy price," said one Hamas leader, who claimed that his militia had studied Hizballah's tactics against Israeli in last summer's Lebanon war. That may be bravado, but since its takeover of Gaza, Hamas has been busy fortifying itself against a possible Israeli attack. And Palestinian militants may get increased support from Iran. On Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is hosting a Palestinian militant jamboree with envoys from Hamas and other resistance groups. Israelis say Iran is providing Hamas with funds...
...Bringing the militias to heel is no easy task, considering that it's not clear that the supposed leaders can even control their own fighters. On Wednesday a spokesman announced that Sadr was freezing his militia for six months to bring rogue elements under control. It's difficult to imagine that Sadr would willingly neutralize the militia that aided his rise to prominence in 2004 and has been an important asset in his difficult and often violent relationship with the government and other Shi'ite factions. More likely he is responding to the bad publicity resulting from the scuttling...