Take the “thoughts and prayers” and shove em
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN “Pray for Germany,” read one meme floating around on Facebook. But I’m not praying for anyone and you shouldn’t either. “Thoughts and prayers have become the […]
Tag Archives: ISIS
Liberating the land: Seth J. Frantzman reports from the Mosul offensive
By Seth J. Frantzman On October 17, 2016 the Iraqi central government launched the long-awaited Mosul offensive. Thousands of Iraqi army soldiers from three units, the 9th Armored, the 16th […]
Five faces of the Trump election and the origins of political dysfunction
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Racist. Bigot. Ignorant. Sexist. Homophobic. Islamophobic. Angry. White. Men. If you’re going to insult people repeatedly, and you are running an election against them, you’d better […]
Photo essay: Inside a Kakei village liberated from ISIS by peshmerga
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN In May of 2016 more than 5,000 Peshmerga, including Zerevani special forces, liberated nine Kakei and Shabak villages that lie near the Great Zab and Khazir […]
Moral barometer: How the Syria conflict divided the left, pro-Palestinian voices and exposed a murderous support for Assad
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN There’s a war on twitter. “I have been relentless [sic] harassed by OzKaterji & his pro-NFZ [no fly zone] trollmates over the past days,” wrote Max […]
Can the clusterf— of US policy in Syria today be unravelled
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN On August 24th Syrian rebel groups and the Turkish army rolled across the border into Jarabulus in an operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield.” The operation was aimed […]
No, morons, Islamic State is not “feeding off Islamophobia”
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN When France’s National Front did well in the first round of December regional elections a narrative emerged that the rise of the right in France was […]
Assad did not “save” Palmyra, he’s the reason it was endangered
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN When Muhammed the XII had surrendered Granada to the Catholic king and queen of Spain in 1492, he was riding away and looked back in tears. […]
Society must confront ISIS the way they would Neo-Nazis, not just shrug shoulders
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN In January of 1963 the 104th episode of The Twilight Zone aired. Named ‘He’s Alive’, starring Dennis Hopper as Peter Vollmer, it chronicles the life and death of […]
Why would Israel’s Ya’alon say he “prefers ISIS”?
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN “Israel defense minister says he prefers Daesh to Iran in Syria,” proclaimed Iran’s pro-regime PressTV. That sounds pretty bad. Other headlines were more nuanced. RT said […]
Seth J. Frantzman - author - analyst 