You Think You're Slamming ISIS, but Really You're Just Delegitimizing State's in General...

I woke up this morning to an article in the NY Times entitled "Predatory Islamic State Wrings Money From Those it Rules," with the introductory blurb claiming "The earnings from the militants' violent collection practices total tens of millions of dollars a month, approaching $1 billion a year, according to some estimates." The article proceeds... claiming that an ice cream truck driver "hands $300 to fighters from the Islamic State for the privilege of driving his refrigerated truck full of ice cream and other perishables from Jordan to a part of Iraq where militants are firmly in charge." But let's think about this language, the italics I've denoted. If this happened at another country's boarder, wouldn't this be an import duty, not a bribe? (Yet the author's language sues a specific - and negatively connotated word that I am not sure must be clarified or stated in these terms).  The driver gets a receipt that he then shows at other checkpoints (we do check points in the U.S. as well near borders - even 100 miles from them in some Texas, and we give customs and tax receipts as well). If the driver doesn't pay “they either arrest [him] or burn [his] truck.” (we arrest people if they don't pay their taxes, and we compound/repossess cars for non-payment as well).  The article continues to claim the Islamic State does this with "the goal of building a credible government," but that it "has set up a predatory and violent bureaucracy that wrings every last American dollar, Iraqi dinar and Syrian pound it can from those who live under its control or pass through its territory."  (how is this "predatory and violent bureaucracy" different from other states or the U.S.? What are taxes, duties, and the police acting violently at the behest of American bureaucracy?) And according to the Times' interviewees the Islamic State is "exacting tolls and traffic tickets; rent for government buildings; utility bills for water and electricity; taxes on income, crops and cattle; and fines for smoking or wearing the wrong clothes." (all things we do in America, yes we tax cigarettes and give fines and jail for marijuana, and while we may not give fines for wearing the wrong clothes, you can be arrested for not wearing any, and we do enact plenty of social penalties for alternative attire - control of what kids wear to school, ridicule of "punks" and "dirty unkempt homeless" or "hippy" looking people, that come with plenty of prejudice against them and having the police target them more than other groups.  Appearance is a HUGE precursor to judicial attention in the U.S. - nevermind profiling more broadly...).

This article in fact carries much propagandized and nationalistic rhetoric it is painful.  The Times' goes on to state that:

NY Times: "The better known of the Islamic State’s revenue sources — smuggling oil, plundering bank vaults, looting antiquities, ransoming kidnapped foreigners and drumming up donations from wealthy supporters in the Persian Gulf — have all helped make the group arguably the world’s richest militant organization. But as Western and Middle Eastern officials have gained a better understanding of the Islamic State’s finances over the past year, a broad consensus has emerged that its biggest source of cash appears to be the people it rules, and the businesses it controls."

or......  so smuggling is simply trade that someone else - in a position of power - deems illegal. In regard to "plundering bank vaults"... what is the Federal Reserve and monetary policy, nevermind taxation, eminent domain, and civil fortefure by police when compared to "plundering" banks (i.e. taking people's money/assets) against their will? The "looting" of antiquities, could easily be described as claiming possession (i.e. stealing in a capitalist property driven account - or nationalization of assets in other worlds) and then buying and selling in the art market. Ransoming kidnapped foreigners, could easily be said to be trading in spys and illegal migrants and using them for leverage in geopolitics.  And of course, donations from the wealthy... what is the military industrial complex?  Or any other 'XXXX-industrial complex for that matter, nevermind privatized campaign finance!!

NY Times: "the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has taken over the legitimate revenue collection operations of the governments it has usurped. And it has used the ever­present threat of violence to extract as much as it can from the people, businesses and property it now controls."

So how far back does legitimate go?  The U.S. took its land violently, from "the governments it has usurped" power from, just as ISIS has. Does that make the U.S.'s revenue collection illegitimate?  And do we not use the "ever present threat of violence" to extract as much as we can from our people, businesses, and property?  The police and the threat of jail time or even death) is a constant threat to us all should we not pay or act accordingly.  And make no mistake, the police in this country kill over 1000 people EVERY YEAR. Nevermind the death penalty and incarceration more generally.  I'm pretty willing to say that we have a larger proportion of our population in prison than the Islamic State does, no?  And all of these prisoners are under the threat of violence...  And  before you claim the U.S. is a democracy, please, we know better. We are an oligarchy (at best) that uses voting by half the population to lay claim to the illusion of democratic voice.

NY Times: "the militants turned a police station that dated to the 19th ­century Ottoman era into a market, with 60 shops selling fruits and vegetables. The annual rent for a market stall is 2.8 million Iraqi dinars, or roughly $2,500."

How nice it would be to turn an office of oppression in black and brown communities into a fruit and vegetable shop. To many, it would seem to remove an occupying army while simultaneously alleviating the 'food desert' problems found in many of these communities. And, oh my, they charge rent... um... the U.S. government charges rent for everything we can, or they privatize things so others can charge rent for it use.  Is your problem (the NY Times) that they haven't privatized it? Are you saying that perhaps the problem with ISIS is actually that they are socialists?

And within these shops, ISIS apparently "collect a cleaning tax — 2,500 to 5,000 Syrian pounds, or about $7 to $14, per month depending on the size of the shop. Residents go to collection points to pay their monthly electricity and water bills, 800 Syrian pounds, or roughly $2.50 for electricity and 400 pounds, about $1.20, for water.

Yup, they have tax collectors... they send people to collect taxes as opposed to taking it off monthly bills and using direct deposit. But of more importance...... imagine... only paying $3.70 for electricity and water!!!!  That sounds a whole lot better than what I'm paying right now in this privatized heaven we call America!!

NY Times: "Another Islamic State department, the Diwan al­Rikaz, or the Office of Resources, oversees oil production and smuggling, the looting of antiquities and a long list of other businesses now controlled by the militants. It operates water­bottling and soft­drink plants, textile and furniture workshops, and mobile phone companies, as well as tile, cement and chemical factories, skimming revenues from all of them."

Again, smuggling and looting are just other words for trade and civil asset forfeture. And the militants are simply the equivalent of a national guard, military law, or the police - all things we do in the country and certainly would in a time of war, and the British did during the U.S. revolution.  Hell, we rounded up all the Japanese during WWII to put them in internment camps, and have multiple presidential candidates not only vilifying all Muslims, but threatening internment, marking, and databases "for their kind." And as for the Islamic State operating (or acting in ownership roles of) businesses and "skimming" off the top; they've simply nationalized companies and are taking dividends on the profits of those companies.  It's called state ownership of the means of production (i.e. socialism), or state capitalism (i.e. China!).  And it was used to bail out the banks in the US, and in much of the rest of the world, and is used exceptionally well in China and Northern Europe.  Skimming.... as you say, is simply a shareholder dividend to G.E. or to a Chinese company that the state gets because it has an ownership stake.

NY Times: "Officials of the so ­called caliphate dislike the term “tax,” preferring the Islamic term “zakat,” which refers to the alms Muslims are required to pay. Although the norm would be 2.5 percent of a person’s wealth under typical interpretations of Islamic law, the militants are taking 10 percent, justifying the high rate by saying they are a “nation in a time of war,”"

Ok, so its not a tax, its a tithe - the same thing Ben Carson talks about in his presidential campaign here in the States, and the same ten percent Mormans pay to their church.  And to justify something "extra" in times of war?  One needent look beyond U.S. airport security and NSA surveilance or France's draconian justifications for shutting down everythign right now from climate justice marches to roads to squats.  During WWII, we asked more of our people just as ISIS seems to be right now (whether those people feel conquered is a different story, but the point is the same - state's do these types of things).

NY Times: "The group has taken over the collection of car­ registration fees, and made students pay for textbooks. It has even fined people for driving with broken taillights, a practice that is nearly unheard­of on the unruly roads of the Middle East."

Again, all things most every state does... except, there are some that offer free textbooks of course along with free university education! And broken taillights sounds an awful lot like broken windows policing.  Perhaps the Islamic State is trying to instill a level of law and order akin to what Giuliani and Bratton did here in NYC?  Oh, and who are you to say what is "unheard of throughout the whole of the middle east?  As if all the roads there are unruly and beneath the standards of normal taillights (or civilized people for that matter). Smh.

NY Times: "Fines are also included in the punishments meted out for breaking the strict living rules imposed by the Islamic State. Smoking is strictly forbidden, for example, and Mohammad Hamid, 29, said that when he was caught smoking a cigar in his shop in Mosul in late August, “ISIS not only whipped me 15 times in public but forced me to pay a fine of 50,000 dinar,” or about $40 at the time. He soon after fled to a Kurdish area of Iraq."

A. I wish smoking was strictly forbidden here.  B. Singapore canes people in public for chewing gum and spitting it on the floor, and the U.S. doesn't exactly treat people smoking marijuana to well... Honestly, whipping someone is horrible, and nothing I agree with.  But Adrian Pederson - one of this generation's best american football players - routinely beat his children with a "switch", even had a dedicated room for it, Yet he is back playing in the NFL, no worries...  I mean, it's not like we don't have a "spare the rod, spoil the child" culture here in the US as well.  And it's not like our prison system isn't atrociously violent both formally and informally.  I've been assaulted by a police officer (and seen others beaten) for speaking in public.  Free speech and protest is not exactly condoned in the U.S... people get pepper sprayed, beaten, and arrested for it, just as you get in the Islamic State for smoking.

NY Times: "The group also earns tens of millions of dollars more from other revenue sources, such as kidnapping. And it looted roughly $1 billion from banks in the towns and cities it took over — including $675 million in Mosul alone — though that was a one­time source of revenue."

So they kidnap, we also "kidnap" "high value targets" with information we want.  We then torture or "extract" that information by whatever means necessary (or send them to some "black" facility in another country without laws where they do it for us).  So ISIS kidnaps for money, we do it for information and power - same thing.  And yes, we have done plenty of kidnapping (or detaining) of spies and bartering or ransoming them with other countries - um... the cold war... And what of this bank looting?  NY Times, can you please tell us more about this? What banks, who's accounts?  Did they just take the money - smash and grab?  Who's was it?  Perhaps it was their enemies, perhaps they put "sanctions" on Assad or Iraqi governmental accounts, confiscating the assets for their own use - that is U.S. policy all over the world - especially in sanctioning other countries it doesn't like, nevermind the entire "drug war" in a nutshell.  

NY Times: "it could not be “judged by the standards of other terrorist groups.” Only the “pseudo­state” of Colombia’s FARC, which once controlled territory the size of Switzerland, came close."

Right on cue.... The FARC, the drug war. They are an autonomous group that fought to claim and control territory for their own autonomous use.  This is how nation-states began and begin. Claiming land, delineating borders, legitimizing the use of force and a uniform ideology, and centralizing control over that territory.  Its simply the construction of a sovereign state, and in this case one that many people within it may disagree with ideologically and in terms of enforcement - ummm... news flash, a great deal of Americans disagree with our entire governance and economic system, actively protest against it, yet are still forced to adhere to its laws and norms.  And yes, we can theoretically say what we want, but I can assure that writing this will not go unnoticed, and move me further up any list of possible agitators Im on, just as being a part of Occupy and expressing my views in public got me assaulted by the state (i.e. police) and on those lists to start with. The face of oppression may be different, but it is all still oppressive.

In short, I could go on and on...  There are two problems here, A) the U.S.' notion of itself as somehow better than everyone else and above the shitty deads performed in places like the Islamic State, and B) the propogandization of what is supposed to be a reputable media outlet in the NY Times.  This article, as every critique I've mentioned above points out, is wholly biased towards American propogandized perspectives on what is happening in the Middle East and the Islamic State. Every word used is designed to inform and legitimatize the Islamic State and its practices.  And yes, I would not want to live there.  I am not Muslim, nor religious, and as such would not appreciate living under their laws. And to put this in perspective, there are plenty of people in the US that want this to be a Christian nation, living under Christian rules and even laws (my father and multiple presidential candidates included).  So before we get all high and mighty, lets realize that the U.S. is just as bad as the Islamic state in so many ways.  We kill so many of our people. Whether it is through actual state practices such as the death penalty or police killing civilians, or indirectly through capitalist motivated medical (non)care, profit driven industries that want more gun sales that have people kill others, or the daily struggle to live and survive in our hyper individualized and ostracizing capitalist wage-labor based American society.  We incarcerate millions. Many for simply smoking marijuana. We have political prisoners or exiles in this country (we just find something else to pin on them - assata chakur, mumia). We collect taxes, generate revenue from people living here, use practices such as eminent domain and civil asset forfeture to take people's property. We impose the laws of the many on the few, or better said have created a tyranny of the minority on the majority. The 1% and wealthy, powerful, technocratic elite controls our lives and the very choices we get to vote for.

The bottom line, is that ISIS occupied and now controls the people in that territory, just as the colonists occupied, controlled, and created a sovereign state that dictates legally and culturally upon the people living there.  This is what states do, the claim the legitimate use of violence and use it to make people do and be what they want.  And whether you think the Islamic State is a terrorist group that took over a country and is illegitimate, or you view it is a now sovereign state-like actor, it is remarkably similar to most other States - including the United States - violent and oppressive, opportunistic and ideological.

So to the NY Times: I think it is time for you to figure out what your real critique is.  Is it that ISIS is a horribly bad entity killing and maiming people in the erroneous name of Islam, or is it simply a state, doing what states do? And in the case of this article, you are actually delegitimazing many of the practices used by the U.S. and those of more socialist leanings.  So is this your problem?  They've nationalized businesses?  And you can't abide that?  Or that they've claimed their own sovereignty and trade networks that your ideology and nationalist American backing claims to be illegitimate?  Is it simply that they have different laws and understandings of property rights than you do, than America does?  Or maybe that you don't think another state should come about in the same manner that many of the original or older states (including the U.S.) came to pass - through direct violent force.  Do you want ISIS gone or to demonize the state? Because if you look past your irresponsible rhetoric, all there is left, is a half-hearted attempt at demonizing of another person's ideology, and a full throated rejection of the state itself.  If this is the case, then you need to express that, and you need to own that America is no angel, no state is, and that America does so many of the horrible things that the Islamic state also does. Get off your high horse NY Times and America, we're not different from ISIS.  We kill and control in the name of our ideology just as well, if not wholly better.