The year is 539 BC……Persian king Cyrus the Great conquers Babylon and frees the Hebrew slaves and allows them to return to their homeland……but that is not important for we hate Iran (Persia)…..
But what happened here in the good old U.S. of A.?
Does anyone know what happen 90 years ago today? (Of course you don’t for it does not concern you)……
……..I will wait while the Google machine gets a work out…….
It was called “Black Tuesday”….does that help?
The great Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of what would be called the “Great Depression”….a time that changed much here in the US.
On October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39), the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.
Let us look closely at what happened that caused this “crash”?
The stock market crash of 1929 – considered the worst economic event in world history – began on Thursday, October 24, 1929, with skittish investors trading a record 12.9 million shares. On October 28, dubbed “Black Monday,” the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 13 percent. The market fell another 12 percent the next day, “Black Tuesday.” While the crisis send shock waves across the financial world, there were numerous signs that a stock market crash was coming. What exactly caused the crash – and could it have been prevented?
Now we know what happened so the question now is could it happen again?
Few people are alive anymore who remember living through the stock market crash of 1929. But plenty of people still view that fateful plunge as a worst-case scenario for what might befall investors.
The roughly 20% decline for large stocks in October 1929 actually wasn’t the market’s worst month ever, but the drop incited nearly three years of relentless selling and helped to usher in the Great Depression. Could a 1929-style market setback happen again?
I can hear the Who in my head and think an episode of CSI is about to begin….but NO….I am wondering who will lead the leaderless ISIS now that Baghdadi is no longer among the living.
My intel files has several candidates to lead ISIS……
the most likely candidate to succeed Baghdadi is Abdullah Qardash, also known as Abu Omar Turkmani, a former Iraqi military officer under Saddam Hussein.
A former senior leader of al-Qaeda, Turkmani was detained in Camp Bucca along with other IS leaders, the paper said.
According to Iraqi sources quoted by the paper, “Qardash is characterised by cruelty, authoritarianism and militancy, and he was among the first people to welcome al-Baghdadi in Mosul in 2014.”
The second nominee for the group’s leadership is Haji Nasser, or Abd al-Nasser, who has been on the US terrorism list since the end of 2018. Haji Abd al-Nasser is known for belonging to the most radical trend within IS.
The third nominee is Mu’taz al-Jaburi, better known as Hajji Taysir. A senior IS leader, Washington has set a $3m reward for whoever gives information leading to him.
Sami al-Jaburi, the fourth candidate, is the former IS financial affairs director and was in charge of the group’s oil and gas sales, according to the paper.
The fifth candidate, according to Arabi21, is Abul Hassan al-Muhajir, IS’s official spokesman since the end of 2016 – but he was reported killed at the weekend in another US-led raid.
Muhajir is out…….so that leaves 4 candidates….who are you….who….who?
And now we have a winner!
ISIS already has a new leader — a feared former officer for Saddam Hussein known as “the Destroyer,” according to reports.
Abdullah Qardash was reportedly already running day-to-day operations and kill campaigns for the terror group and formally took over its leadership after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death on Saturday.
“Baghdadi was a figurehead. He was not involved in operations or day-to-day,” a regional intelligence official told Newsweek in confirming the successor. “All Baghdadi did was say yes or no — no planning.”
Qardash had been loyal to Baghdadi after they were held together at the Camp Bucca detention center in Basra after being jailed by US forces over their links to al Qaeda in 2003, the Times of London has said.
(NY Post)
You have your answer now let the hunt begin…..tic toc……
Breaking News: The top spokesperson for ISIS has been killed…..
Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, the successor to lead the Islamic State was killed in what is believed to be a U.S. airstrike in northern Syria, just one day after U.S. special operations forces raided a compound and took out the terrorist organization’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Muhajir, a spokesman for the ISIS terror group and the likely successor to Baghdadi, was being smuggled across northern Syria in the back of an oil tanker truck when the truck was hit by what appeared to be a U.S. airstrike, New York Times reported Sunday.
Now for the news of the day yesterday about the raid and the aftermath……
I listened to Trump and his 40 minute diatribe on why he is the best and smartest person on the planet when he should have been discussing the death of Baghdadi…..and now in his own words….
Thank you to the service members, military leaders, and agency officials who were critical to the success of this mission. pic.twitter.com/Az8DYZDqtW
You have listened and now the rest of the world wants to take a bow for the death of the ISIS leader…..
First Iraq says they gave the info to the US…..
Iraq said on Sunday that its National Intelligence Service found Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s location and provided it to the United States, which carried out a raid that killed him.
“After constant monitoring and the formation of a specialised task force over an entire year, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service acting on accurate information was able to locate the den in which the head of Daesh terrorists Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and those with him were hiding in the Syrian province of Idlib,” the Iraqi military said in a statement.
Turkey wants to claim they gave the info to the US on Baghdadi’s whereabouts…..
Turkey on Sunday said there was “coordination” between Ankara and Washington before the operation which US media reports said targeted and killed Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Prior to the US Operation in Idlib Province of Syria last night, information exchange and coordination between the military authorities of both countries took place,” the Turkish defence ministry said in a tweet.
So many taking credit and so little time to actually care…..as long as the SOB is still DEAD.
But finally what does the death of Baghdadi’s death really matter?
The complex heliborne raid occurring yesterday killed the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The long sought after terror leader’s death marks a milestone for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Islamic State, particularly at a time when the U.S. has precipitously drawn down its forces in Syria. What should we make of al-Baghdadi’s death?
How much does Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death matter?
Before I go any further let me state beyond any confusion…I am NOT an advocate of super restrictive gun laws. Got That?
We know by watching our favorite news station that gun violence seems to be on the rise….and of course when that happens the conversation turns to some sort of gun control…..and then the debate starts and the insults and the lies and then total break down of any constructive dialog is gone.
Does that sort of sum up the never ending gun conversation?
Did you know that gun deaths are rising across the the US except in the two states with restrictive gun laws……
U.S. gun deaths have have surged over the last several years, according to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs.
Since 1999, researchers from the University of Michigan found that the annual rate of people killed by firearms had remained relatively stable, hovering around 10.4 deaths per 100,000. But from 2015 to 2017, a new pattern emerged, and the rate began to skyrocket, ultimately increasing by around 14 percent over the previous 15 years.
Nearly one-fifth of all people living in the United States who died at the hands of a firearm since 1999 were killed over a three-year period.
The study reported that only two states, California and New York, and the District of Columbia saw firearm mortality rates decline across most demographic groups (such as race, sex and age) in recent years. This is notable considering these jurisdictions’ relatively strict gun laws.
If you actually read the article then you probably have an opinion….right or wrong…..
How about a history of gun rights in this country…..
To say the history of gun rights is contentious would be an understatement. It is a history that has become guided by political ideology and cultural attitudes more than by facts.
For more than a decade, I have researched, written, debated, and discussed the history of gun rights, and its legal ramifications. I am not anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment, associated with communism, or some other negative stereotype used by gun-rights advocates to “pigeon hole” anyone who does not wholly subscribe to the tenets of gun-rights theology.
There’s a lot going around about the Second Amendment. Some on the left have been spreading a little rumor that it isn’t necessarily about protecting any right of the individual. Some say it doesn’t hold water compared to the government’s ideas on ensuring public safety.
Let’s not forget that the Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” isn’t our only clue to determine what the founders thought of the right to bear arms. They’ve left behind plenty of writings which outline the purpose of the 2nd Amendment.
Many people find this obvious. It’s hard to imagine what else the Second Amendment could possibly be intended to do. James Madison wrote the Second Amendment in the aftermath of a bloody war for independence from a tyrannical empire. The first shots of that war were fired to resist disarmament. Can anyone truly believe that Madison wrote the Second Amendment with, say, hunting or target shooting in mind? It’s a preposterous notion.
But, let’s suppose that we’re not sure what “arms” the Second Amendment refers to. How might we figure out what the authors of our Constitution and Bill of Rights were thinking when they used the term “arms?” Were they thinking about “weapons of war,” or something else?
One very popular, (at least with the voter, not so much with the industry)…I wrote a post a few months ago that got the ire of the health industry demanding that I explain how we will pay for the program……please check out the comments on that post……https://lobotero.com/2019/03/04/medicare-for-all/
So in that vane I have read a piece that will help explain how this can be paid for……
Every candidate is offering a plan, ranging from Joe Biden’s Affordable Care Act upgrade to Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” that would abolish private health insurance. Even the president is joining the bandwagon and unveiled his own Medicare plan.
On the high end, a full-scale single-payer heath care system would come at a steep price: I estimate about US$40 trillion over 10 years.
There is, however, a simpler and less costly path toward single-payer, and it may have a better chance of success: simply strike the words “who are age 65 or over” from the 1965 amendments to the Social Security Act that created Medicare, which would mean virtually everyone would be covered by the existing Medicare program.
I say we can and must fund a policy of health care….I do not care what we call it just that it gets done and soon.
There is more….there is the LIE that hospitals will close with Medicare For All…..call this what it is manure (I was being polite)…….this lie was spread by a Dem candidate, Delaney…..
Delaney’s staff told us his talking point came from three sources. First: the fact Medicare pays hospitals on average 87 cents for every dollar of costs. Second: a federal report suggesting that “more than two-thirds of hospitals are losing money on Medicare inpatient services.” Third: Delaney, his staff said, “has been asking this question at the rural hospitals he has visited over the course of the campaign.”
Experts we spoke with offered a different take — mainly, that his evidence is not strong enough to support his claim. In addition, they told us that the potential impact of Medicare for All on hospitals would be much more nuanced — it is not at all clear that “every single hospital” would close, and while some would do worse, some might do better.
I will be honest (more than the people that would lie this proposal out of existence) this Medicare For All is just a re-name of the old single payer…..and is it for all?
This “is an issue that affects, literally, every single person in this country,” he said. “Even putting the medical issues aside, it’s an economic issue. The way we finance health care promotes economic inequality.”
Medicare-for-all, in the purest sense, largely would replace private health insurance with a single, government-run program covering most everyone. It would be similar to traditional Medicare, the current federal health insurance program for most adults over 65 and young people meeting federal disability requirements, hence the name.
Both sides of the issue have put so much stuff out there that this whole issue as become, to use my grandmother’s words, clear as mud.
We need a program that will help the population get the adequate health care they need and at a reasonable price……you will hear and read many versions of this please do some research and get the real story not some sanitized crap we always get.
On an up note—-a health industry insider is telling the tale of the profit system of the industry…..
Eleven years ago, after a moment of reckoning at a country health clinic in Tennessee, Potter left a high-ranking job as head of corporate communications at Cigna to tell the truth about the excesses and abuses of the health insurance industry. Since then, he has worked hard to spread the word, authoring two best-selling books, Nation on the Take (with Nick Penniman) and Deadly Spin, and founding the nonprofit investigative journalism site Tarbell.org, named after muckraking Progressive Era reporter Ida Tarbell.
Now, among all his other efforts, activist Wendell Potter has become president of Business for Medicare for All, the only national business organization working for single payer health insurance. This group of the economically pragmatic lends expertise and credibility to the cause of reform at a time when many, including some of those running for the Democratic presidential nomination, question the viability of single payer.
You want to know why your medical bills are so high……ask Sen. Moscow Mitch…..
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised last month that he would block a drug pricing plan introduced in the House, calling it a “socialist” program that would do “damage to the healthcare system.”
Now, new analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has found that drug plan, put forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, would in fact save Medicare $345 billion over a decade.
The bulk of this savings would come from allowing the program to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies — something that is currently banned by law — to save money on the insulin and other expensive medications.
So please stop blaming Obama for the higher prices and start blaming the slugs that are making the higher charges possible…..Moscow Mitch and his Ilk.
I await the industry hit man to make his presence known.
Until then a bill offered up by Speaker Pelosi to lower drug prices according to the CBO would save Medicare millions….
A preliminary analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the core provision of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) signature bill to lower drug prices would save Medicare $345 billion between 2023 and 2029.
Democrats quickly touted the projected savings to show that their bill would effectively lower drug prices.
But not to worry a Pharma friendly Dem, Rep. Neal, is crushing the lower drug pricing bill……like he is paid to do…..
Following the lead of pharma-friendly Rep. Richard Neal, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee this week crushed several progressive amendments to a House drug pricing bill that would have expanded the number of medicines covered by the legislation and extended lower costs to the nation’s tens of millions of uninsured.
The Interceptreported Wednesday that Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, warned his Democratic colleagues against offering any amendments to the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 (H.R. 3) during the committee’s markup of the legislation on Tuesday.
After 5 years of trying to rid the world of the leader of the ISIS Caliphate the US has overseen his destruction…..
President Trump grabbed the world’s attention Sunday with major news: Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was dead. Now details are emerging about the US military raid against the Islamic State leader. Turns out one of Baghdadi’s wives and a courier were arrested this summer and revealed his location in a part of Syria where rival al-Qaeda groups hold sway, US officials tell the New York Times. An elite Army unit devised and rehearsed the raid, which involved eight American helicopters flying from Iraq to an area north of Idlib city in western Syria, drawing gunfire on the 70-minute trip. Commandos then blew out a wall of Baghdadi’s compound and killed several people in a gun battle. For more:
‘Whimpering and crying’: Trump said Baghdadi killed himself and three children using a suicide vest, “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.” All true? “Well I don’t—I don’t have those details,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on This Week, per ABC News. “The president probably had the opportunity to talk to the commanders on the ground but, clearly, the guy was a coward and a murderer.”
Russia first: Nancy Pelosi praised military and officials behind the raid, per USA Today, but said “the House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance.” Trump said he didn’t tell Pelosi because “I wanted to make sure this kept secret.”
The Kurds: The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces called the raid a “joint operation” between Americans and Kurds, per the Washington Post. Kurds provided more intel than anyone, a US official tells the Times, even after Trump ordered US troops to leave Syria and let the Kurds battle Turkish forces alone.
Witnesses: A family in Syria apparently witnessed the night raid. “They said foreign soldiers with machine guns stormed in and took [people] away,” a Syrian journalist tells the Independent. “People they had never seen before. … When they left, after taking prisoners and killing the rest, a plane came and struck the house to completely destroy it.”
Trump’s team: The White House has released images of Trump and his national-security team stoically watching the raid, per USA Today. One Twitter user contrasted it with President Obama’s staff observing the Osama bin Laden raid.
Who was Baghdadi? A jihadist whose Islamic State captured Iraqi and Syrian territory, establishing a “caliphate” that was lost in 2019 fighting against US-led forces. Baghdadi also inspired terror attacks worldwide, per the Wall Street Journal.
Not over: More attacks on terrorists in Syria may follow, a US defense official tells CNN. Indeed, Newsweek reports that US strikes killed Islamic State spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in Aleppo province on Sunday.
The announcement of the death by Trump turned into a 40 minute of him, Trump, being victimized and getting no credit for his amazing (in his mind) presidency and his person.
With the death of Baghdadi the barbaric group known as ISIS will soldier on…they will not disappear because their leader popped the cork on his suicide vest……
It is not immediately apparent who Baghdadi’s successor would be, as little is known publicly about the inner workings of ISIS. His death clearly means a leadership reshuffle, however, and for such groups in the past, that has often meant worsening insurgencies as new leaders try to put their stamp on the organization.
Indeed, with ISIS barely existing in Iraq or Syria anymore, it is possible that ISIS leadership might come from a different region. ISIS has active affiliates across Asia and Africa and becoming the new hub for the group might give those groups a major shot in the arm.
Ultimately, some are seeing ISIS as potentially reinvigorated by Baghdadi’s death, and even if that doesn’t happen, the individual affiliates are likely to keep plugging away no matter who is in charge.
(antiwar.com)
My question now is….who will get the $25 million reward for the location and death of Baghdadi?
I believe that is enough said about the SOB….He is dead and the world is a better place.
The US has pulled its troops out of Syria…some say it was a “cut and run” move……some say he gave Russia an opening for more presence in Syria……….some say the Trump gave his buddy Erdogan everything he had wanted for Syria…..
There some hard realities that must be considered……like what was the end game for our Syria invention? To destroy ISIS? What?
U.S. troops are leaving Syria, and yet what happens there will continue to affect U.S. interests, both regionally and globally.
Tens of thousands of Islamic State terrorists imprisoned in northeastern Syria could escape, unleashing foreign fighters to sow havoc in their homes in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The Turkish offensive could displace as many as 300,000 Syrians, exacerbating the already monumental challenge of addressing the basic humanitarian needs of the 6 million Syrians who have taken refuge elsewhere in their country, and the nearly 7 million who have fled altogether. Russian President Putin is pointing to the U.S. withdrawal as a reason to turn to Moscow for security guarantees.
U.S. policymakers tasked with finding a way forward need a clear-eyed understanding both of American goals and objectives in the region and of the constraints placed on the United States by political, economic, and military realities. Acquiring this understanding requires an unflinching look at various hard truths. Among them:
According to The American Conservative the failure of our Syrian policy is the 4 “A”s……
The ceasefire agreement brokered by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday accomplishes very little outside of putting window dressing on a foregone conclusion. Simply put, the Turks will be able to achieve their objectives of clearing a safe zone of Kurdish forces south of the Turkish border, albeit under a U.S. sanctioned agreement. In return, the U.S. agrees not to impose economic sanctions on Turkey.
So basically it doesn’t change anything that’s already been set into motion by the Turkish invasion of northern Syria. But it does signal the end of the American experiment in Syrian regime change, with the United States supplanted by Russia as the shot caller in Middle Eastern affairs.
Apparently all the GOP criticism has gotten to our Dear Leader….he has ordered armor back into Syria…..
America will never desert Syria’s oil, President Trump promised Thursday—and he suggested that if the Kurds want protection, they should move closer to the oil. Syria’s oil fields “were held by ISIS until the United States took them over with the help of the Kurds,” Trump tweeted. “We will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields!” He added that he had enjoyed a conversation with Syrian Kurdish commander Mazloum Abdi, and “perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region.” A Pentagon source tells USA Today that the US plans to send troops, tanks, and armored vehicles to protest oil fields in eastern Syria, just weeks after most American troops withdrew from the country.
Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the White House is considering having around 500 troops and dozens of tanks in northeast Syria, though the Journal‘s sources say no final decision has been made yet. Under pressure from GOP lawmakers including Sen. Lindsey Graham, Trump left around 200 troops in the area after earlier ordering the pullout of all US troops. A defense official tells NBC that the number of American troops—who would again be operating alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces, the mostly Kurdish force that Abdi leads —has not been settled on yet, but “we’re not talking thousands.” Analysts say that although Trump spoke of protecting the oil from ISIS, the deployment may really an effort to prevent it being seized by Russia or the Assad regime.
Illustrates just how powerful FOX has become…..they help the president with his foreign policy decisions…..
One last thing from a Neocon perspective…..Is Anything Salvageable in Syria?
For the past eight-plus years this writer has done his best to try to convince American officials that what happens in Syria does not stay in Syria; that Syria matters enough to the security of the United States and the safety of its citizens to merit a comprehensible objective and a consistent (if flexible) strategy.
That effort—in and out of government—has failed. Two successive American presidents, absolutely sure they knew it all and needed no advice, have unintentionally but decisively advanced the work of America’s adversaries. After eight-plus years of responding to gratuitous setbacks with specific proposals on national security objectives and an accompanying, fully resourced strategy, recent events pose a relevant question: Is anything at all salvageable from the latest mega-blunder?
BUt not to worry when this impotent foreign policy goes to crap….Trump and the Slugs will just blame Obama and/or the Democrats…..they, Trump and Slugs, refuse to see the error of their moronic decisions.
A Psi Phi (ΨΦ) Society–Fall Session–2019……the meeting was at the usual place with 5 members in attendance….
The Land Of Firsts
I can remember when the Middle East was seldom in the news….those days I was studying in university in subject I did not realize would become so important to the discourse.
Let us look at the region we call the Middle East…..a region rich in history and tradition.
So many of history’s firsts were invented in this region…..written word and math……
The Sumerian civilization (known also as Sumer) was one of the earliest civilizations in the world. This ancient civilization emerged in the region of southern Mesopotamia (modern day southern Iraq), between the Tigris and Euphrates River. The Sumerian civilization began around the 4th millennium BC and ended around the 24th century BC, when the whole of Mesopotamia came under the control of the Akkadian Empire .
The Sumerians re-emerged during the 22nd century BC and ruled southern Mesopotamia once more. The Third Dynasty of Ur that they established, however, did not last for long and fell after about a century. Although Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia ended definitively this time, its numerous innovations benefitted subsequent Mesopotamian civilizations , and its legacy can still be felt even today.
To begin with the notion of civilization was first tried in the area (there is some dispute of the claim of first) but for the most part I agree with the Fertile Crescent as the “cradle of civilization”….
Sumer, located in Mesopotamia, is the first known complex civilization, developing the first city-states in the 4th millennium BCE. It was in these cities that the earliest known form of writing, cuneiform script, appeared around 3000 BCE. Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. These pictorial representations eventually became simplified and more abstract. Cuneiform texts were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed used as a stylus. Writing made the administration of a large state far easier.
These developments led to the rise of territorial states and empires. In Mesopotamia there prevailed a pattern of independent warring city-states and of a loose hegemony shifting from one city to another.
Once civilization is up and running smoothly comes the next step…the first empire…..
pectacular things were happening in Mesopotamia in the period we call the Early Bronze Age, particularly in the southern part of it, commonly called Babylonia. It was here that the wealthy, sophisticated Sumerian civilization developed, its growth and prosperity greatly spurred by the invention of writing. A magnificent assortment of beautifully wrought items, like those unearthed from the so-called royal tombs of Ur and now on display in the British Museum, testifies to the high level of craftsmanship of the Sumerian civilization at its zenith.
In the wake of the Sumerian Early Dynastic period ( 2900–2334 BC), there arose in southern Mesopotamia the first great empire in Near Eastern history—the Akkadian empire ( 2334–2193 BC) founded by Sargon, which at its peak extended through the whole of Mesopotamia, and north-westwards into south-eastern Anatolia. Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia’s archaeological remains and prolific tablet-finds provided rich and exciting fields of investigation for archaeologists, historians, and linguists alike.
Once great empires were established then came another first….the first diplomatic correspondence….
The Amarna Letters are a body of 14th century BCE correspondence exchanged between the rulers of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. They are perhaps the earliest examples of international diplomacy while their most common subjects are negotiations of diplomatic marriage, friendship statements and exchanged materials. The name “Amarna Letters” derives from the place where the tablets were found: the ancient city of Akhetaten (built by order of the PharaohAkhenaten), but nowadays known as Tell el-Amarna, in Egypt.
They are the first international diplomatic system known to us, i.e. they contain rules, conventions and institutions responsible for communication and negotiation. Although in the early third millennium BCE there was already another form of relationship, this was merely straightforward written communication between Mesopotamia and Syria. With time, this form added some rules, based on necessity and developed the beginning of diplomatic mechanisms, which would culminate in the Amarna system. Thus, diplomacy was created to be used as a tool in the process of creating an empire.
When empires clashed in conflict the results were another first…….Then there was the very first Peace Treaty….between Egypt and the Hittite Empire….
Ramesses II (The Great, 1279-1213 BCE) ruled Egypt for 67 years and, today, the Egyptian landscape still bears testimony to the prosperity of his reign in the many temples and monuments he had built in honor of his conquests and accomplishments. There is virtually no ancient site in Egypt which does not mention the name of Ramesses II and his account of his victory at The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE is legendary. Among his greatest moments as pharaoh, however, is not an act of war but one of peace: the signing of the first peace treaty in history.
While there does exist an earlier treaty, known as the Treaty of Mesilim, between the Mesopotamian cities of Umma and Lagash, dated to 2550 BCE, scholarly consensus rejects this as an actual peace treaty and defines it as a Treaty of Delimitation (meaning a treaty which sets borders or boundaries). Further, as the Treaty of Mesilim is actually a written agreement between the gods of Umma and Lagash, and not between the rulers of the city or those rulers’ representatives, it cannot be considered an actual peace treaty. The Treaty of Kadesh of 1258 BCE, then, holds the distinction as the world’s first peace treaty.
According to the museum, the two cities were disputing over a fertile area called Gu’edina or the ‘Edge of the Plain.’ Around 2400 B.C. Enmetena, king of Lagash, had the pillar erected to stake his claim to the territory. Rachel Campbell-Johnston at The Timesreports it is likely the earliest written evidence of a border dispute and is also the first time the term “no man’s land” is used.
Personally I think the treaty with the Hittites was more a peace treaty than the Treaty of Mesilim…..but make up your own mind.
The next first is the Declaration of the Persian king, Cyrus the Great……on human rights……
In 539 BCE, Persian troops under Cyrus the Great entered the city of Babylon, which they took without encountering any resistance. On 29 October 539 BCE, Cyrus himself entered the city and proclaimed himself “king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world,” after which he placed the Cyrus Cylinder, the world’s first declaration of human rights, under the walls of Babylon, in the foundations of the temple of Esaglia. The text of the cylinder denounces Babylon’s previous leader, Nabonidus, glorifies Cyrus, and describes how he improved the lives of the people of Babylon. Upon conquering Babylon, Cyrus is said to have proclaimed, “Today, I announce that everyone is free to choose a religion. People are free to live in all regions and take up a job provided that they never violate other’s rights.”
This acknowledgement of human rights and freedom of religion—made more than 2,500 years ago by perhaps the most powerful man on Earth at the time—was an astounding example of benevolence, tolerance, and mercy. True to his word, Cyrus respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered. Upon conquering Babylon, he is said to have freed the Jews there from captivity. (You would think that the Israelis would celebrate this…after all they celebrte a wandering for 40 years in a desert)
The Next “First” was a canon of laws…..the Hammurabi Code”…..
Hammurabi was the sixth king in the Babylonian dynasty, which ruled in central Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) from c. 1894 to 1595 B.C.
His family was descended from the Amorites, a semi-nomadic tribe in western Syria, and his name reflects a mix of cultures: Hammu, which means “family” in Amorite, combined with rapi, meaning “great” in Akkadian, the everyday language of Babylon.
In the 30th year of his reign, Hammurabi began to expand his kingdom up and down the Tigris and Euphrates river valley, overthrowing the kingdoms of Assyria, Larsa, Eshunna and Mari until all of Mesopotamia was under his sway.
1. If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed. 2. If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed. 3. If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver. 4. If a slave marries a slave, and that slave is set free, he does not leave the household. 5. If a slave marries a native (i.e. free) person, he/she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner. 6. If a man violates the right of another and deflowers the virgin wife of a young man, they shall kill that male. 7. If the wife of a man followed after another man and he slept with her, they shall slay that woman, but that male shall be set free. 8. If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin slavewoman of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver. 9. If a man divorces his first-time wife, he shall pay her one mina of silver. 10. If it is a (former) widow whom he divorces, he shall pay her half a mina of silver.
Then there is the science and technology firsts…….
Fast forward to Islamic Golden Age, 750-1258, and a host of first as well……
Advancements in mathematics, including the birth of algebra and new insights into geometry and trigonometry.
The origins of the scientific method, along with the development of chemistry, physics, and astronomy as discrete fields of inquiry.
The invention of the modern “teaching hospital” and a medical encyclopedia that served Europe for the next 600 years.
The preservation and translation of the world’s great literature, from the Hadith (or sayings of Muhammad) to the master works of Greece and Rome.
Ontological philosophy that served future Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians concerned with the nature of God and the relationship between faith and reason.
The region today may be a hot bed of violence and may be it has always been so, as so many believe, but that does not ever diminish the accomplishments of the people of the Middle East.
More firsts…the Sumerians lead the way……
The Sumerians were responsible for many of the most important innovations, inventions, and concepts taken for granted in the present day. They essentially “invented” time by dividing day and night into 12-hour periods, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds. Their other innovations and inventions include the first schools, the earliest version of the tale of the Great Flood and other biblical narratives, the oldest heroic epic, governmental bureaucracy, monumental architecture, and irrigation techniques.
Baghdadi has been reported killed or gravely wounded several times in the past, only to reemerge unharmed. The Pentagon suggested that further verification is pending, but that the man believed to be Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest after a brief firefight.
The leader of ISIS since 2010, Baghdadi has been considered one of the highest value targets on the US list ever since. This would have been a much bigger deal when ISIS was an active force in Iraq or Syria, but is still significant to the group’s operations. It has never been entirely clear who would replace Baghdadi, despite his regularly being reported taken out of action.
It’s also not clear what this will mean for the US war in Syria, though since the war has already been transitioning to being about controlling Syria’s oil, which probably won’t be changed by this killing.
(antiwar.com)
Good news if accurate….but keep in mind al-Baghdadi has been said to be dead on at least two occasions that I know of and injured in several others.
We await an official announcement from our Fearless Leader…..keep in mind he said Obama did not kill Osama it was the soldiers……which is correct of course…..I want to watch the spin.
