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burstbombbitch · 7 years ago

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really ridiculously detailed character stats.

FULL NAME: Bonbon Rosalia Charbonneau NICKNAME(S): Bunny, Bon, Rosie, Xiuying (mother only). AGE: 19 - 21, verse dependent. MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE: ENTJ BIRTH DATE: December 5th. ETHNICITY: While Ethnicity is a messy case ( having stolen it from humans past, of course ), Bonbon would be essentially Chinese, with an unknown other half ( he has claimed French as his own for quite some time ) on the part of her father. Her mother hails from there, and the nation she was born in was a fragment of the now destroyed human country, China. The French aspect, adopted by her father, is all she knows. PLACE OF BIRTH: While her father insists she was born in Inkopolis, she was technically born on their returning trip back from a neighboring Inkling country --- Wūhanzéi. GENDER IDENTITY: Cisgender female. PREFERRED PRONOUN(S): She/Her. SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Pansexual. RELIGION: Believes in the Great Fax Machine. OCCUPATION: The lead pop-star of a musical light show performance, Inkaesthesia. FACE CLAIM: I draw her! But for another verse, I use Allura from Voltron.

Relationships

PARENTS: She’s definitely daddy’s little girl. Her relationship with her mother, albeit improved over time, is still mostly on a seldom basis --- when she feels kind enough to reach out. Despite Celeste’s best efforts, Bon still seems to hold a ( misguided ) grudge. SIBLINGS: None. SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S): She’s gentle and doting, as she is with anyone else. A needy attention whore, to say the very least --- you’ll know damn well when she’s feeling affectionate, considering she ( quite literally ) sticks to you. CHILDREN: None, presently. LEVEL OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE: She’s not a master at it, but she’s had sex before. At this point, she’s not particularly adventurous, but she’s no qualms ( granted you won’t catch me roleplaying it anymore ha ha fml ). STORY OF FIRST KISS: Does it count if she grabbed them by the collar, yanked them down to her height, and held their lips there for the longest time? Movies made it seem so romantic --- she couldn’t help but do the same. A shame that their back probably hurt after the fact. A SOCIAL PERSON? From time to time. There are other moments where she’d rather be on her own, reading a good book in the peaceful solitude of her own home. HOW DO THEY THINK OTHERS PERCEIVE THEM? She’s come to grow into a sense of greater self-esteem. Knowing that she is an idol, and thus a role-model to many, she places upon her persona a better outlook for those to look up to. As a result, she thinks she is within good graces with the community ( at least, those who she has not wronged in the past ). HOW DO OTHERS ACTUALLY PERCEIVE THEM? As a result, she is indeed treated with returned kindness. It is not without fault, however --- those who have yet to forgive her make their perpetual disdain known. It is with grace that she accepts it --- provided it never interferes with her day-to-day life. She isn’t above sabotage, even though her more brutish ways are long gone.

Physical Traits

EYE COLOR(S): Lilac. Her pupils are stars. HAIR COLOR(S): Pastel pink ink, gradient to lilac. HEIGHT: 4′0″ at her ( unfortunate ) max height. WEIGHT: 69 lbs. ;^) BODY BUILD: A very bottom-heavy pear. Thick, toned legs. Her arms boast some muscle, but most of it belongs to her legs. GLASSES? CONTACTS? She wears them purely for aesthetic ( and reading small text ). STYLE OF DRESS/TYPICAL OUTFITS: You’ll often find her in flowy attire, things that trail behind her, or poof outwards --- lolita-style, so to speak. She has an air of grace around the things she wears, loving to be fashionably jarring from time to time. One day, she’ll wear pretty pastels, fluffed out dresses, all lavish with ribbons and bows. The next, she’ll wear a slim-fitting tuxedo, tails flapping behind her ( and those days are, of course, the worst for those who find themselves enthralled by plump lower halves ). Most commonly, she’ll wear things that accent her growing collection of bio-luminescent freckles. JEWELRY? TATTOOS? PIERCINGS? There isn’t much fondness for things that rest on her skin, so despite being the type to be ridiculously fancy, she wears little jewelry. Tattoos are also by and far pointless for her --- considering her body naturally grows a “type” of their own. Piercings, however, mostly extend to a simple earring on her right ear, one that makes a jingle as she turns her head. ATHLETIC? Very. Despite having others to guard her, Bon’s activity has not ebbed. She still practices Capoeira --- both on her performing stage and in her spare time --- and strengthens her lower body. Her arms are toned, but by comparison, the power remains honed in her legs. The Dapple Dualies, too, are a method of exercise, for the power of jet propulsion must be assisted by body as well. HOW DO THEY WALK: Contrary to popular belief, the way she walks is merely an imitation. She once saw a girl’s sashay, the way she rhythmically crossed her legs, strutting in heels... and mimicked it for her own. Her hips push from side to side, her tentacles swaying like a pendulum behind her. Her heels dance around one another as her careful catwalk cuts her a path. Despite the air of debonair and confidence, she still finds herself to be sheepish when it comes to attracting the attention of others unintentionally. HOW DO THEY SMELL LIKE: Roses. Honey. Cinnamon. Tea. All things she loves to consume --- the roses included. Not the healthiest diet, but she definitely leaves a wonderful wafting scent about the room. WHAT’S THEIR POSTURE LIKE? She holds herself high, straight, but no longer stiff. Her hands, either resting upon her thighs or ensnared behind her back, are bound solely to keep them from flying wildly as she gestures. It’s frequent that you’ll find her swaying, ( unfortunately ) shaking wide hips from side to side. In reality, while she attempts to pose herself like a goddess, she is a bouncy mother fucker. In private, she slouches, throwing her legs up and kicking back. You can easily find her in an array of confusing poses, like the cat she truly is. It purely depends on her closeness with you as a friend to determine which you’ll get.

Phobias and Diseases

PHOBIA(S): Thalassophobia, monophobia, athazagoraphobia, and sedatephobia. MENTAL DISEASE(S): Synaesthesia, Autism, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. PHYSICAL DISEASE(S): None. WHEN WAS THIS DIAGNOSED? The unfamiliar strain of the former was discovered at birth, while the latter two are unknown. Through healthier methods and lifestyles, it matters less than it did in her childhood.

Intellect

LEVEL OF EDUCATION: College graduate. LEVEL OF SELF-ESTEEM: Knowing that she is a role-model and favorite to many, she has created a persona that holds itself with extreme dignity and pride. In reality, she is a self-critical and fidgety being. Ultimately, it balances out --- she is of high self-esteem more often than not --- but she is not immune to moments of weakness. GIFTS/TALENTS: Song, dance, and a literal Killer Wail for a voice. She’s also harboring a brain that can recollect numbers and advanced vocabulary with ease. SHORTCOMINGS: Socially inept, occasionally unable to decipher communicative cues, morally grey. STYLE OF SPEECH: As a result of witnessing the carnage she can cause with a raised voice, Bonbon becomes very soft-spoken. Her voice is like a lilt, a harmonious meld of crescendos and intentional pauses. She treats speaking like a song intentionally --- when bored, or disinterested, the monotony she holds is ridiculously noticeable. This way, she can keep herself entertained throughout the conversation, without the need of it being something she’s intrigued by. “LEFT BRAIN” OR “RIGHT BRAIN” THINKER: Right brain, for sure. ARTISTIC? Very! She writes her own songs and designs her own dances. MATHEMATICAL? She’s definitely got a penchant for numbers. MAKES DECISIONS BASED MOSTLY ON EMOTIONS, OR ON LOGIC? Emotions. She likes to pretend to be logical, but she’s all about following her heart, now. MOST SENSITIVE ABOUT/VULNERABLE TO: Her ears. Her voice. OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST? Optimist! EXTROVERT OR INTROVERT? Ambivert! It really depends on how she’s feeling and/or who she’s with. You’ll find that she’s ( somehow ) more extroverted, though.

Details/Quirks

NIGHT OWL OR EARLY BIRD? Night owl. LIGHT OR HEAVY SLEEPER? Heavy sleeper. FAVORITE FOOD: Soft things! Chewy things! She loves the sensation. LEAST FAVORITE FOOD: Yogurt and eggs. The latter much more than the former. COFFEE OR TEA? CATCH HER DRINKING TEA LIKE LIFE FUEL. CRUNCHY OR SMOOTH PEANUT BUTTER? Smooth! She loves to lick the spoon. LEFTY OR RIGHTY? Righty! FAVORITE COLOR? Pastels of any kind! CUSSER? HAHAHA--no. SMOKER? DRINKER? DRUG USER? Nope, na uh, zero. PETS? Her fiance keeps trying to avoid getting one. :c

tagged by: @sturmazing blows kisses at u tagging: hey. do it

#✧.° ⦙ ɪ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ᴄʜᴀɴᴄᴇs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʟᴏsᴇ. — ❪ & dash games. ❫#✧.° ⦙ ғʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ; ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛʜ ɪs ʏᴏᴜʀs ᴛᴏ ᴄʟɪᴍʙ. — ❪ & hcs. ❫#hey take it cause i need to clear me drafts a tad #long post

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upaanainitalindia · 6 years ago

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Most Lucrative Franchises

Contents

Worst franchise brands.

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Point guard chris

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Originally posted on Most Lucrative Franchises via Lucrative Franchises Most

#franchises #best franchise #starting a franchise #low cost franchises #fitness franchises

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militaryleak · 4 years ago

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Ebbing Air National Guard Base Selected to Host Singapore’s F-16s and F-35s

The Department of the Air Force selected Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Fort Smith, Arkansas, as the preferred location to host Singapore’s F-16s and F-35s training center. #military #defense #defence

The Department of the Air Force selected Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Fort Smith, Arkansas, as the preferred location to establish an F-35 Lightning II training center for Foreign Military Sales participants and the new location for the 425th Fighter Squadron, a Republic of Singapore air force F-16 Fighting Falcon training unit currently based at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. This decision…

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bountyofbeads · 6 years ago

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As Venezuela's two presidents face off, children rummage for food and soldiers run out of patience

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/americas/venezuela-military-protests-interview-intl/index.html

This is a heartbreaking💔😢😭 expose on life inside Venezuela and their struggle to survive. Muduro and his ilk have squandered the riches of the Venezuelan people.

As Venezuela's two presidents face off, children scavenge for food and soldiers run out of patience

By Nick Paton Walsh, Barbara Arvantidis, Alex Platt, CNN | Published Jan 28, 2019 | Posted January 29, 2019 |

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) - The drive into the hills around Caracas passes a burned-out police station, an overturned car, queues for bread, and a smoldering trash can. Together, they signal a troubling new message for Venezuela's embattled government: It's time to go.

This hillside community is where President Nicolas Maduro has nurtured his base of poor Venezuelans, trading vital state handouts for loyalty. Yet last week, night after night, locals have clashed with police special forces. On the afternoon we visited, armed forces were raiding homes and taking away residents.

Here, local resident Carolina's pristine porch belies the squalor she and her extended family endure. Their fridge contains two soda bottles, some pasta and condiments, and little else. Her young cousins play Grand Theft Auto, a relic of a better life, while she shows us cellphone videos of police raids and demonstrations. "My hand was shaking," she said of the grainy video of gunfire and locals banging pots in protest.

Hundred of thousands have taken to the streets to protest Maduro's regime in the past week. Amid the furor, opposition leader Juan Guaidó has declared himself president, prompting declarations of support from the United States, United Kingdom and most of Latin America, and calls for new elections.

The latest violence is not another episode of the unrest that periodically blights Caracas's poorest; it feels new and different, say Carolina's family, like change is nearer. One cousin, named Ronny, said: "We can't hold it in any more. We are being crushed. We are beggars now, always begging. This isn't political, it's survival. People are killing each other for a kilo of rice, or flour, or water."

AN EMERGENCY OF HUNGER

As the dispute over who should lead Venezuela escalated to a larger geopolitical struggle between the United States, Russia, China and others, we spent nearly a week inside the country attending protests, talking to soldiers, meeting rich and poor. Their live crisis is not about the fate of socialism in South America, or Cold War-era geopolitics, they told us. It is a very simple emergency of hunger.

The average Venezuelan lost an average of 11 kilos (24 pounds) in 2017, the result of years of inflation, economic mismanagement and corruption. Venezuela was once the richest petrostate in the region, but in one Caracas supermarket last week, no eggs or bread could be found. A modest basket of water, nuts, cheese, ham and fruit cost $200 US.

Within a month, food scarcity would likely drive the dollar cost of those groceries even higher. In local currency, the cost could easily double as the Venezuelan bolivar loses value. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that hyperinflation will reach a staggering 10 million% in 2019, putting the most basic supplies out of reach.

Anticipating spiraling costs and plummeting buying power, vendors end up charging tomorrow's prices today. Even fancy supermarkets frisk shoppers and search their bags as they leave, as food has become the most precious commodity.

'MADURO! I AM HUNGRY !'

Over a decade ago, Colombians would walk into Venezuela for well-paid work in the oil-rich nation. Now Venezuelans are the cleaners, the beggars, even the sex workers trudging across the border into Colombia, where food is suddenly available everywhere.

Crossing the Simon Bolivar International Bridge from Colombia into Venezuela, we passed a steady stream of Venezuelans walking in the opposite direction. The United Nations estimates 2 million people will leave Venezuela this year, joining the more than 3 million already scattered around South America.

Stopped cars line the road toward the capital. Petrol remains cheap and plentiful in Venezuela, but in this border area, it's reportedly being smuggled to Colombian buyers. This has caused a shortage for locals; some Venezuelans told us they slept in their cars for days, waiting to fuel up.

In Caracas, children scavenge the city's streets. In one of the capital's fancier neighborhoods, we met 14-year-old Uzmaria with five or six other children, who rummage through the trash to supplement their families' diet. "We gather stuff, we beg, a piece of chicken skin to take home," she said.

The rest of Uzmaria's group sport clumsily bleached hair. Two of the older boys play with plastic knives, practicing for self-defense. "My brother got killed in July by another gang," Uzmaria said. "He just disappeared and then they found the body in the river."

One of the kids held a stick like a rifle, shouting "Maduro!" as he pretended to take aim. "I am hungry!" he yelled, before seizing up with a wheezing cough.

SOLDIERS UNDER PRESSURE

On January 23, hundreds of thousands swarmed the city center to watch Juan Guaidó, the young speaker of the national assembly, swear himself in as interim president. The crowd — a polite mix of the elderly, bourgeois and young — raised their right hands with him as he took the oath of office. Then they slowly went home.

It was left to a motley crew of young men to throw rocks outside La Carlota military air base in Caracas that evening. The National Guard responded with tear gas, charging the crowds on motorcycles. A CNN crew witnessed two young men being severely beaten by the police. But the day's unrest slowly ebbed, and moved into the slums that night.

Both Guaidó and defectors outside Venezuela have called on the military to rise up against the government. The opposition-led parliament has drafted an amnesty law to protect defectors. But the top brass still appear firmly loyal to Maduro; last week, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez issued a lengthy message of loyalty on state television.

Discontent in the rank and file is growing, said one soldier, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said he is paid a dollar and a half on the first of every month. "If I buy a chicken, I have nothing else for the rest of the month," he said. Meanwhile, "the big fishes -- the senior officers -- are the ones eating, getting rich, while at the bottom we have it hard," he added.

"I would say about 80% of the army is against the government, especially the troops, who are going through a lot more than the officers," he added. "You can see in some states, soldiers have starting attending demonstrations. So, if there's international help, that will get bigger." Nevertheless, he said he doubts the military will rise up against Maduro without a sign from their leaders.

I ask if he would follow an order to open fire on protesters. "I would rather quit," he responded. "That person could be my brother, my mother, anyone. Every Venezuelan is going through this."

The names of some interviewees have been changed to protect their identity.

A WarnerMedia Company.

#u.s. news #politics #international news #venezuela #latest news #breaking news #news

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defensenow · 1 year ago

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Ebbing Air National Guard Base Selected for F-35 Training Mission

#youtube #F35A LightningII AceTraining FortSmithArkansas Military Aircraft Aviation Training AirForce USAirForce PilotTraining FighterJet Fly FortSmit

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nawapon17 · 11 days ago

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alamante · 6 years ago

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The flights were permitted by the United Nations Security Council, which waived an arms embargo on the conflict-ridden country to allow its armed forces to better equip themselves.

At the same time, 175 military trainers — all but a handful of them private contractors — arrived from Russia.

In turn, those trainers were followed by Russian companies eager to exploit the Republic’s reputed mineral wealth.

Their trip was backed by a foundation — the Center for Investigation — run by Russian exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A long-time foe of Putin who spent years in prison in Russia, Khodorkovsky wrote on Facebook Wednesday that the journalists were working on a project about “Russian mercenaries.”

The deaths of the journalists have focused attention on Russia’s growing interest in central Africa, and the relationship between the Kremlin and private Russian companies that combine security work with mining and other activities.

An ill-fated journey

The three men had traveled via Morocco on tourist visas, informing neither the Russian embassy nor CAR authorities of their presence because they wanted to investigate the activities of a Russian military contractor called PMC Wagner, the Center for Investigation said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the journalists were refused permission to visit a site south of Bangui, where Russian trainers are based at a crumbling palace that belonged to the former ruler of CAR, Jean Bedel Bokassa. Adjacent to the palace is a long runway.

Instead, the three journalists headed north towards a gold mine at Ndassima, operated by a Russian firm and guarded by Russian contractors. But the Center for Investigation says they strayed from their planned route.

According to CAR officials, the journalists had ignored advice not to travel after dark and were ambushed some twenty miles (32 kilometres) north of the town of Sibut. They were shot dead by men wearing turbans and speaking Arabic after refusing to surrender their vehicle and equipment, the officials said. Their driver survived and raised the alarm.

Alain Nzilo, a journalist in CAR who has covered the growing Russian presence, told CNN he was surprised by the location of the ambush. The rebel presence in the area had declined in recent months, there are UN peacekeeping patrols in the area, and the military operates in Sibut.

Nzilo also found it strange that the rebels appeared to have let the driver go free. “Often, the drivers are the first to be killed and not the foreigners,” he told CNN.

The Wagner effect

PMC Wagner is a secretive company — with no known address, phone number or official records — that recruits hundreds of former Russian soldiers, many of them special forces or “spetsnaz.” In the last few years, its contractors have appeared in a growing number of conflict zones.

Wagner was sanctioned by the United States last year for its involvement with separatists in eastern Ukraine. It has also played a major role in Syria, where dozens of its contractors were killed or injured by US air strikes in February when they undertook an ill-fated attack on a US-supported group. Their target was one of Syria’s richest oil fields in Deir Ezzor province. The company has not commented on either of the cases, or any allegations levelled against it.

More recently, Wagner appears to have developed a presence in Sudan, which shares a border with CAR. In fact, Russian instructors trained some CAR soldiers in Sudan, according to a UN report. In November last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir met Vladimir Putin in Sochi and asked him for “protection from aggressive US actions” and for Russian military experts to be sent to Sudan “to reequip [Sudan’s] armed forces.”

In CAR, Nzilo says the Russians combine basic humanitarian works with military training and mining. He says they are visible at three major mines and appear to be most interested in extracting diamonds and gold. Another source in CAR told CNN that the Russians sometime deploy mobile clinics for the local population at the same time as contractors and military hardware.

Establishing the ownership of Russian companies involved in Syria, CAR and Sudan is difficult, but CNN has established that several lead back to Yevgeny Prigozhin, often dubbed ��Putin’s chef” for his Kremlin connections.

In February, Prigozhin was indicted by a grand jury in the United States for his role in backing the “troll factory” in St. Petersburg known as the Internet Research Agency, which created fake social media accounts in the US in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Prigozhin controls a network of Russian companies, including Concord Management and Consulting. The US Treasury says Wagner is run by a man called Dmitry Utkin, who has been sanctioned. Someone of the same name used to be a director at Concord. However, both Prigozhin and Concord have in the past denied being linked to Wagner. Concord said last year: “We do not have any information about this organization.”

Concord Management is challenging the designation through the US courts, while Prigozhin was quoted by state news agency RIA Novosti at the time as saying that he “couldn’t care less” about the latest US sanctions placed on him and that he would “stop going to McDonald’s.”

Another Russian company with interests in central Africa is M-Finans, run by 54-year old Evgueny Khodotov. Company documents describe its main activity as the “extraction of precious stones.” CNN has found that M-Finans’ registration data lists an email address with the same domain as a company called Concord Catering, another part of the Prighozin empire.

Khodotov used to work as a police officer in St. Petersburg’s organized crime investigation unit. Many of the unit’s former employees have gone on to work in security roles for Prigozhin, according to Denis Korotkov, a reporter for St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka.ru who has been investigating Wagner activities since 2013.

And in Sudan, a Russian company by the name of M-Invest was granted concessions to mine for gold, just as President Bashir was calling for closer military cooperation. The Russian companies register shows that M-Invest, like M-Finans, is based in St. Petersburg and specializes in “extraction of ores and sands of precious metals,” including gold.

The concession on behalf of M-Invest was signed by “a regional director” named as Mikhail Potepkin. A man of the same name also co-owned a company called IT-Debugger with Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, one of those named in US special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians who worked for the Prighozin-run Internet Research Agency. CNN was unable to contact Potepkin.

These intricate and often opaque relationships also appeared in Syria. Wagner supplied hundreds of military contractors, while another company, Evro Polis, signed a deal with the Syrian government under which it gets 25% of oil revenues from fields that are recovered from rebel control. The US Treasury Department has designated Evro Polis “for being owned or controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin.”

Awash with weapons

As Russia looks for opportunities to project its influence in the Middle East and Africa, countries with weak governments and rampant insecurity are obvious targets. The scale of CAR’s problems — coupled with diminishing French interest in the country — has provided an opening for both the Kremlin and private Russian interests.

According to a UN report released on July 23, Russian contractors have distributed weapons to and trained some 900 members of CAR’s security forces this year, as permitted under the arrangement reached last December. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in March that “this assistance is provided in strict accordance with the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on the country.”

A Russian national, Valery Zakharov, was appointed the security adviser to CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, and has been in discussions with some of the militias opposing the government.

But it’s far from clear just what weapons the Russians have airlifted to CAR or shipped to the country through Cameroon. The UN report last month noted that “all parties concerned repeatedly committed to facilitating a detailed inspection of the stockpile stored at Camp de Roux in Bangui, but that has not yet taken place.”

A diplomatic source told CNN that the shipments were “shrouded in mystery.”

The UN panel also concluded that the shipments of Russian weapons to the government had “led to waves of rearmament” among rebel groups, which have acquired assault rifles and machine guns from neighboring Sudan. A group of Russian instructors and their trainees were ambushed by a rebel group in June; one instructor was wounded.

CAR’s bloody, multi-layered conflict shows little sign of ebbing. But a country traditionally close to France suddenly has a new suitor.

President Touadera met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the resort of Sochi last October, just as Russian companies were being set up to do business in CAR. Touadera visited Moscow to meet Putin in May.

Moscow’s ultimate intentions in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest and most volatile countries on earth, are unclear: whether to exploit the country’s mineral wealth, which may also include uranium, or to plant the Russian flag in the heart of Africa, in a country that has borders with six other states.

As in Syria, there may well be a neat intersection of political ambition and profit.

Saskya Vandoorne and Nathan Hodge contributed to this report.

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lmglegg-blog · 7 years ago

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Chapter 1, part 1

When the bell for justice tolls, how will you be found - not hearing, not heeding, complacent, lame, or bound?

Princess Chastney

Image by L M Glegg

"Well, well, well.....and whadda we have here?" a leathery old sentry spoke as he worked a key into the tarnished lock of a prison door. Taking a step into the dank cell, he stood and leered at a lovely young maiden with ill intent. "Me an' you's takin' a liddle walk, lassie. King's got sump'n special waitin' fer ya."

A fragile flower ruthlessly trampled into the mud, Chastney made no comment; she simply stared at her filthy surroundings from her battered cot with listless eyes - cold, pained, distant.

"Seems a shame to waste sucha priddy thing," the grubby guard lamented as he hobbled over and began pawing at her hair with awkward strokes, his mangled club of a hand twitching in uncontrollable spasms.

Casting an anxious glance behind, the guard then kneeled down and pushed his face into Chastney's. "Useta know one jes like you - long time ago," he muttered in a shaky voice through labored breath. "Watched her come into town ever' day, but couldn't never even git that girl to pay me no mind," the sentry continued, now caressing the maiden's shoulders.

Despite the foul presence and intentions that were upon her, Chastney remained as a corpse.

"Guess she thought she's too good fer me. What about you, lassie – you too good fer me, too?"

The cruel weeks of abuse had taught Chastney that physical resistance was futile. She had learned long ago that remaining deep inside herself was the only way to endure the pain. So there her body lay, awaiting its fate, numb and devoid of spirit.

But just as the attacker prepared to make Chastney a victim yet again, he caught a stone-like fist on the side of his head that came from behind and in silence. The force of the blow sent the guard sprawling into a limp heap as his ring of iron keys clattered across the coarse granite floor.

A six-and-a-half foot monster now towered over the girl, casting upon her an ominous shadow. It was a zhangar, a merciless killer covered with short, fine, tawny fur that patrolled these depths for the dungeonmaster. There was no wanton desire etched into its face, only slavish obedience unencumbered by the troubling weight of conscience. The muscular brute stared at her through greenish eyes, their vertical pupils narrowing into reflective slits each time the erratic torchlight pierced them through the gloom. Its flat, triangular nose throbbed, as if picking up a scent, then it released a guttural growl from deep within the pit of its colossal frame that would have turned the innards of most living beings into a mass of quivering gelatin. But Chastney lay unmoved at the terrifying sound, her face still a frozen mask. Another zhangar promptly appeared in answer to the call. The summoning beast made a motion toward the unconscious guard, then hoisted Chastney up by her arms and began to drag her through the dungeon.

The helpless maiden, pale, dirty, and disheveled, revealed a waning sign of life through a single tear that meandered its way down her delicate cheek. The future she had planned with her soul-mate, the children she was to bear, and the memories that would comfort the two lovers in their old age - all these beautiful dreams from better days had long since turned to ghosts. Now, even the fleeting wisps of her most desperate hopes vanished into the clammy darkness as she was hauled across the rocky subterranean path that led to her fate.

After traveling through an eternity of winding tunnels, the zhangar reached the center of a large chamber that was walled with barred cells. There, Chastney was unceremoniously dumped at the base of a newly-invented contrivance called a "guillotine" that stood at cold attention in the middle of the floor.

The savage miscreants penned within the cages howled in rapacious hunger at the luscious morsel that was placed before them, just outside their grasp. They pressed their grubby, toothless faces into the bars as they reached through them, clawing and gesturing with all the madness their years of imprisonment had hoisted upon them. Their jeers and obscenities reached a deafening crescendo that echoed throughout the cavern when the girl's hands were bound behind her back by a hooded executioner, then her long, silky black hair was sheared off in a single stroke with a red-hot blade. She was forced to her knees in front of the guillotine and pushed into a metal collar which locked her slender neck in place. Chastney now found herself staring down into the bloody bucket that was about to catch her head.

The roaring crowd, which had turned to making bids for the shorn black mane held aloft in the executioner's hand, let their single voice fall off in a dying wave as an effeminate young male slowly entered the chamber. Like the final, desperate gasp from a moribund beast, the din ebbed until swallowed by a tense and timid silence. The air grew heavy as the young man paused dramatically in the chamber entrance to make certain he was seen by all, his thin lips curling into a contemptuous sneer as his subjects softened their breath and held their tongues in mute submission. Two small boys trailed the newcomer as he entered, keeping the tail of his extravagant robe from dragging the damp stones.

Only the sputtering torches fastened to the walls dared compete with the sound of his clicking heels as the temperamental King Nevin approached the executioner with a painfully slow, pompous gait. His long, scrawny neck with its protuberant adam's apple jutted upward from a gaudy fur collar at the top of the bulky, embroidered robe that made him appear much more frail than he actually was. Upon reaching the executioner, Nevin simply held out his hand and was given the maiden's hair, his sallow eyes thrilling with the abject surrender displayed from so many bowed heads. The king pushed the black locks into his pointed nose, gave them a sniff, then whacked them repeatedly across his palm as he continued to parade toward Chastney.

"The disillusioned little Lowlander who would be queen," Nevin's taunting voice split the hush of the chamber. "I do hope my attentive staff has taken good care of you during your stay," he added, sparking a chorus of muffled snickers from among the human guards. The king waved the shorn strands of Chastney's hair in front of her face with a practiced arrogance as he came into her view. She craned to get a look at her tormentor as he continued. "Just think, if that bastard, would-be brother of mine were still alive, you two could have had the privilege of watching each other die. But with him gone, there's no reason to prolong your agony, I suppose."

Chastney lowered her head again, preferring to look into the rancid receptacle below instead of the cruel face before her.

But Nevin wasn't finished. Bending down, he yanked her back to face him by the short crop that remained on her head. "You could have been etched into history as the woman who reconciled the competing families. You would have been queen of this nation, the envy of the world. But you threw everything away for a mongrel, and now your foolish choices will cost you even your life."

Chastney's emotionless eyes refused to give him the fear or recognition he sought, the psychological sustenance he craved. In anger, Nevin rose and wrenched her head with him. A sickening and audible pop was followed by a shot of pain through the back of Chastney's neck. "Behold! the crown jewel of the Thanic dynasty," he announced to his audience of ghouls. "How proud her distinguished ancestors would be to see their lovely princess hunched over the dirty dungeon floor like a tavern sot, waiting to have her head lopped off."

Over her involuntary cries, Nevin continued to pull Chastney's face toward his, forcefully, with each emphatic statement he uttered.

"I don't think you realize how much I wanted to kill him. You were given the chance to turn that traitor over to me. But because of your betrayal, I missed the moment he drew his final breath. And for that, you – will – pay!" Nevin released the remaining fragments of his fury by whipping the handful of silken strands into her face several times before releasing her.

The torn and swollen muscles in Chastney's neck seized and kept her head locked in an upright position. The abrasive ropes bit into her cramped wrists as she feebly tried to work loose her hands and bring them to her stinging, watering eyes. The young girl sobbed, writhing in absolute, crippled agony.

Nevin's expression of satisfaction lingered as he turned and addressed his chief engineer, the groveling servant who had invented the killing machine in which Chastney was now bound. "This will be the final test. If all goes well, I want several of these devices installed on the parade grounds, next to the gallows," he instructed.

Knowing the king's penchant for giving ambiguous orders to his subordinates, the engineer tried to pinpoint some detail on his newest assignment. "How many exactly, and in what particular fashion would you like them arranged, my lord?"

"Surprise me," he answered with a sly smile.

"Yes, my lord," gulped the engineer in response.

Turning back to Chastney, Nevin sang out, "Give my regards to your lover." He signaled the executioner. A jerking motion, a loud clank, and then......................

....to be continued....

This is the first part of the first chapter of my upcoming novel, ...in darkness shalt thou conquer... If you’d like to read more, click here.

#medieval #fantasy #novel #art #lord of the rings #kings #game of thrones #adventure #dragon #magic

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dodyrrp · 7 years ago

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Debra Kay Mooney, a recently retired Sgt. 1st class with the Oklahoma National Guard and a member of the Choctaw Nation, reflects on her 23-year career—how the Guard and her heritage have shaped her life in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

In 2004, during a particularly tense period of Operation Iraqi Freedom II, an extraordinary event occurred at Al-Taqaddum Air Base near Fallujah, Iraq: a traditional Native American powwow. How and why such a ceremony took place in the middle of a combat zone is largely owing to the determination of one woman: Debra Kay Mooney, a member of the Choctaw Nation and Oklahoma National Guardsman.

Al-Taqaddum Air Base lies about a dozen miles west of Fallujah, where in early 2004, four private security employees were slain, their bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. In November of that year, U.S., British, and Iraqi soldiers began a major offensive to take back Fallujah from Iraqi insurgents. The urban warfare that ensued, known as the Second Battle of Fallujah, would be the deadliest of the Iraq war.

It is amid this turmoil that Mooney and a group of collaborators staged the powwow, a ceremony involving dancing, singing, games, and other cultural practices. “It seemed like a crazy idea,” said Mooney. But, if they could pull it off, it might improve the ebbing morale among the soldiers, and encourage more cohesiveness in the unit.

A tradition comes alive

It would take a lot of thinking, doing, and cooperating during stolen moments of time to make it work. The committees came first, to organize how they’d create the drums, crafts, stick ball game, and other physical components. “We made all of the ceremonial items from discarded materials,” said Mooney. “Anything unusable to the Army was fair game. We made the drum from a discarded barrel, cut down, then stretched over with canvas and fashioned with a wooden base.”

Service members participate in the traditional drum circle during the powwow that took place September 17-18, 2004 at Al-Taquddum Air Base. Photo by Master Sergeant Chuck Boers. Gift of Sergeant Debra K. Mooney.

Mooney stands next to the dress that was made for the powwow she organized in 2004 by her “adopted” Satepauhoodle family of the Kiowa Nation, now at the National American Indian Museum.

The stick ball game was another of the activities at the powwow. Photo by SFC Johancharles Van Boers, 55th Signal Company, Combat Camera, Fort Meade, Maryland.

Mooney stands at a podium for an event at the Smithsonian Institution. In the background are members of the 2004 powwow committee. “I try to never speak without a picture of them, because I guarantee you, I did not do this alone,” said Mooney.

While the decision to recreate the essential components of a powwow was the most fun, Mooney said identifying any practice or actions that might offend one tribe or another was the most crucial. Her unit had members from several different tribes, each with its own cultural practices. There could be no unified ceremony without these agreements.

Despite a spirit of cooperation, the powwow almost failed. Mooney and her team were given three weeks to prepare but only on their own scant downtime. If all the pieces weren’t in place by then her superiors would call it off.

While on mission, Mooney was a combat engineer with the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, working as a carpenter and mason building structures within the air base, as well as providing maintenance and security. She and the others in her unit moved around a lot, making the planning for the event even more tricky.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of downtime,” she said. “One part of our team would do our mission, another member would work on the powwow. Each one of us had to be dedicated in order for this to be successful.”

Shortly before the deadline, it somehow came together.

On the day of the ceremony, Mooney said she was amazed at the transformation that took place in the faces of the participants. “I saw soldiers turn into civilians with the beat of a drum. They were hooting and hollering and just enjoying the moment. The combat hardness in their faces was gone. It really did my heart good to see that.”

Mooney said it also brought the whole unit closer together through their determination to make it happen, and the education it provided. Non-Native Americans learned about the etiquette of the powwow, how to dance in the circle, and were exposed to the different traditions of the various tribes in their unit.

“I look back now and see the powwow as a symbol of the inclusiveness of the Guard,” she said. “We were different but united. I think that’s relevant for the Guard today. There’s always a way to unite behind similarities and not focus on differences. I was very blessed to be involved.”

The powwow took place in September 2004, a few weeks before the fierce campaign to retake Fallujah began.

Several items from the powwow, including the dress she wore (see images) and the drum they built, are now part of the collection at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

“When I was a soldier …”

Mooney starts a lot of her stories this way. Since her retirement in 2015, she views much of life through the prism of her 23 years in the Oklahoma Army National Guard and her Choctaw Tribal heritage.

From an early age, Mooney knew she wanted to serve. She tried to join the Marines right after high school but a heart surgery when she was 14 prevented her from passing the medical exam. So, she went to college, and after graduating, she signed up for the National Guard.

During her time in the Guard, she deployed twice during Operation Iraqi Freedom, once in 2004 and again in 2008. During the last five years of her career she trained Guardsmen for combat in a pre-mobilization training program. She communicated with units on the ground overseas and ran exercises simulating combat environments. “It was hard but satisfying work knowing I was helping to physically and mentally prepare troops for the rigors of combat,” she said.With the benefit of some hindsight, Mooney said joining the Guard was absolutely the right move for her, but it wasn’t without personal challenge.

Her first experience during annual training was not a good one. She felt isolated and was often left to herself when others buddied up. Fortunately, she had good advisors who recognized she presented two obstacles for folks who might hold prejudices—“I’m a woman and recognizable as a Native American.” They told her she just needed to get involved, and they introduced her to the Guard’s equal opportunity program, which she would remain involved in for the rest of her career. If a problem such as sexual harassment came up in her unit, she would address it using her EO title instead of her rank. “It had a weighty effect,” she said.

Still, Mooney has actively cultivated a thick skin throughout her life and career, based on her mother’s adamant advice: “She taught me never to use the term ‘discriminated against.’ I never allowed myself to think that way. I believe we’re products of the communities we grow up in. I’m from Oklahoma. We have a lot of Native Americans. I wasn’t treated differently there. So I wasn’t going to allow anyone to make me feel differently anywhere else.”

Seeking and finding support

As a member of the Choctaw Nation, Mooney said she is thankful to be part of a tribe with a deep history of military service. The Choctaw are the original “Code Talkers.” Before Navajo tribe members made this method of secret communication famous in WWII, 19 members of the Choctaw Nation in WWI helped transmit tactical messages back and forth in a language the enemy couldn’t decipher. They are credited with helping the American Expeditionary Forces win several key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, during the final large German push of the war.

Today, many members of the Choctaw Nation serve in the National Guard and on active duty. The tribe supports their well-being in numerous ways. Mooney has benefited from that support on a number of occasions—she struggles with PTSD, anxiety, and physical ailments from incidents while on duty. At one point, she was unable to get medical care through the VA because she had just come off orders when she was injured, and the tribe stepped up to help, at nearly no cost to her.

From providing parking spaces for vets at tribal facilities, to the big Veterans Day event they hold each year at Tvshka Homma, OK, the Choctaw Capitol, the Choctaw Nation routinely sends a strong message that they support their vets.

“Whatever they are aware of to do, they will do,” she said. “I have not seen them back away from any obstacle that a veteran has.”

Like other deployed tribe members, she also received care packages from the nation while she was overseas. And when she returned home from Iraq in 2005, a tribe representative knocked on her door to provide her with information about support they offered and to make a personal connection with her.

Activities like these led the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma to be named a recipient of the prestigious Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award in 2008. Among the reasons cited: the nation’s compliance with USERRA, despite being exempt as a sovereign nation; its commitment to providing full pay and benefits for its Guard and Reserve members while performing their military service; its Veterans Advocacy program; its support for deployed Service members and their families; and numerous other forms of support.

In addition to tribal support, Mooney said she was among the early waves of returning Service members introduced to a reintegration event developed for the Reserve Component. When Mooney came home in 2008 from her final deployment to Iraq, she was told she needed to travel to Norman, OK for an event organized by the newly formed Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program sponsored by the DoD. At first, she and her peers were not enthused to go, having just returned from deployment. At the event, Mooney recalled learning about financial resources, skills for coping with PTSD, how to obtain legal assistance, and help with family issues. All well and good, but it didn’t sink in for her at the time.

It was in the months after that she began to realize its value. Not only did she take advantage of financial resources she received at the event, it also helped her not to feel isolated:

“It opened up communication between help and the one that needed help. It gave more options. The fact that you go again and again, it gave you a base. It helped me feel connected,” she said.

Her experience with YRRP was just one among many during her career in the Guard that speaks to its spirit of inclusiveness and camaraderie, a spirit that is bolstered by the support of her Choctaw Nation, and symbolized by her own organization of the powwow in 2004.

Making legacies

In a poster produced by the Oklahoma National Guard, Mooney poses with her uniform jacket over a dress made for by her “adopted” mother, Joy White, of the Pawnee Nation; she holds an honor blanket also made by White (pictured in the featured image above), and various other tribal items.

Today, Mooney is often called upon to consult and reflect on her military service and Native American heritage. She serves on the advisory committee for the National Native American Veterans Memorial, to be built on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. She also recently took part in a reflection on Native Americans’ role in WWI during a WWI Centennial event in Kansas City recognizing the U.S. entry into the war.

“I’m humbled to play this role, and I’m proud of my Choctaw heritage,” she said. “It’s my spiritual and family touchstone. I’m equally proud of my National Guard service, where I found my true strength and courage. Along with my faith in the Lord, those are the things that have shaped me—my service and my heritage.”

There was a time when saying ‘I’m in the National Guard’ was met with judgment. “We used to be seen as weekend warriors with no real purpose,” said Mooney. “All that changed after 9/11. We’re proud of who we are and how we’ve served this country.”

“We still give all,” she said.

Choctaw Heritage, Guard Life Debra Kay Mooney, a recently retired Sgt. 1st class with the Oklahoma National Guard and a member of the Choctaw Nation, reflects on her 23-year career—how the Guard and her heritage have shaped her life in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

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webpostingpro-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Webpostingpro

New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/one-countrys-war-changed-the-world/

One Country’s War Changed the World

ISTANBUL — The arena appears awash in chaos and uncertainty, perhaps greater so than at any point since the stop of the Cold War.

Authoritarian-leaning leaders are at the upward thrust in Europe, and liberal democracy itself appears underneath siege. The post-Global Conflict II order is fraying as preventing spills throughout borders and global institutions — built, at least in an idea, to behave as brakes on wanton slaughter — fail to provide answers. Populist movements on both aspects of the Atlantic aren’t just driving anti-established order anger, but stoking fears of a religious “other,” this time Muslims.

Those demanding situations were crystallized, propelled and intensified through a conflagration once brushed off in the West as peripheral, to be filed, possibly, underneath “Muslims killing Muslims”: the Struggle in Syria.

Now in its seventh yr, this Warfare allowed to rage for goodbye, killing four hundred,000 Syrians and plunging thousands and thousands more into misery, has sent shock waves around The sector. millions have fled to neighboring countries, a few pushing directly to Europe.

Preserve studying the main story The belief that the postwar World would not permit leaders indiscriminately kill their own citizens now seems in full retreat. The Syrian authorities’ reaction to rebellion, continuing yr after year, threatens to normalize degrees of nation brutality not seen in a long time. All the even as President Bashar al-Assad invokes an excuse an increasing number of popular among the Global’s governments considering the fact that Sep 11: He is “fighting terror.”

“Syria did now not purpose everything,” said the Syrian dissident Yassin al-Haj Saleh, a mundane leftist who spent almost two a long time as a political prisoner underneath Mr. Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez. “however sure, Syria changed The sector.”

The United Countries Security Council is paralyzed. Useful resource groups are beaten. Even a United states missile strike on a Syrian military air base, ordered by President Trump in retaliation for a chemical assault on a revolt-held town, seems little more than a blip in the turmoil, the modern day unilateral intervention within the Conflict. two weeks later, the Syrian authorities, sponsored through Russia, keeps its scorched-earth bombings.

There remains no consensus on what ought to were or may want to nevertheless be finished for Syria, or whether a greater or less, the muscular international method might have introduced higher consequences.

The Obama White House kept Syria at arm’s length, decided, understandably, to keep away from the mistakes of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And Western leaders surmised that in contrast to the 1990s civil Conflict in Bosnia, the Syrian battle may want to burn in isolation from their nations.

Moral or not, that calculation becomes incorrect. The crisis has crossed Europe’s doorstep and is roiling its politics.

“We’ve thrown values by the wayside, however additionally not been capable of an act in our very own hobbies, due to the fact we allow matters move too long,” said Joost Hiltermann, a Dutch citizen who is the Center East director for the worldwide disaster Group.

The warfare began in 2011, with political protests. Syrian Safety forces cracked down, and with Western aid more potent in rhetoric than fact, a number of Mr. Assad’s fighters took up hands. The authorities replied with mass detentions, torture, starvation sieges and bombing of rebellion-held regions. Extremist jihadists arose, with the Islamic nation subsequently maintaining a caliphate and fomenting violence in Europe.

more than five million Syrians have fled their united states. Loads of lots joined a refugee trail across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Pics of crowds of desperate refugees — and of the extreme violence that they had confronted at home — had been used by politicians to fuel fears of Islam, and of Muslims. That lifted a ways-proper Eu events already driving on resentment of immigrants, from Finland to Hungary.

The refugee disaster has posed one among the most important demanding situations in memory to the cohesion of the EU Union and a number of its center values: freedom of movement, commonplace borders, pluralism. It heightened anxieties over identification and way of life, feeding off financial insecurity and mistrust of governing elites that grew over decades with globalization and monetary crises.

Abruptly Eu nations were erecting fences and internment camps to forestall migrants. while Germany welcomed refugees, different international locations resisted sharing the weight. Some distance right observed shielding white, Christian Europe. Even the Brexit campaign performed, in the element, on fears of the refugees.

On Sunday, the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim candidate Marine Le Pen — who desires Mr. Assad to live in power — ought to win the primary round of French elections. A German right-wing party has Chancellor Angela Merkel in its sights. In remaining month’s Dutch elections, the ways proper birthday celebration of Geert Wilders accomplished worse than expected, but shifted the political spectrum rightward, as the ruling celebration followed its populist approaches, inciting confrontation with Turkey over immigrants.

The Syrian warfare exposed — and turned into worsened by way of — disasters of the very systems the right rails towards.

the EU Union, the United Countries and NATO have been set up inside the past century, after devastating wars, to maintain peace, save you persecution, preserve leaders responsible and offer Resource to the most vulnerable. but self-assurance in them is ebbing while they are maximum wished. The Geneva Conventions on shielding civilians in wartime — in no way consistently enforced — are now overtly flouted.

Mr. Saleh, the Syrian dissident, worries that “the Syrianization of The arena” should get darker nevertheless. He compares these days’ populism and Islamophobia to the combination of fascism and anti-Semitism in Global Struggle II.

“The environment in the International isn’t always going toward desire and democracy and the character,” he stated. “It’s far going closer to nationalism, hatred, the upward push of the safety kingdom.”

inside the America, as in Europe, strains are being drawn from proper-wing nationalism to approval of authoritarianism and violence towards perceived Islamist threats. White nationalists like Richard Spencer and David Duke, the previous Ku Klux Klan leader, put up adoring snapshots on social media of Mr. Assad, who portrays himself as a bulwark towards extremism.

a few inside the West are pushing to normalize relations with Mr. Assad, hoping on the way to help the fight towards the Islamic state and get refugees to head home. but without accountability or political reforms, those results are less probable.

In my decade of masking violence against civilians within the Middle East, mass murder with the aid of states has regularly seemed much less gripping to Western audiences than some distance smaller numbers of theatrically staged killings — bad as they’re — by way of the Islamic nation and its Qaeda predecessors.

It’s miles tough to get away the feel that Western fears of Islamist terrorism have grown so severe that many are inclined to tolerate any quantity of deaths of Arab or Muslim civilians, and any abuses of country power, within the name of preventing it.

The united states’ own “Battle on terror” played an element in making violations of humanitarian and felony norms ordinary: detentions at Guantánamo Bay, the torture at Abu Ghraib and the persevering with drone and air wars with mounting civilian tolls in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and someplace else.

Then, too, Syria’s War broke out whilst the global level become set for department and ineffectiveness. Russia turned into keen for a larger position, The united states turned into taking flight, Europe was fed on with inner problems. Russia and The united states noticed contrary pastimes in Syria, deadlocking the safety Council.

The crisis uncovered the flaws of the United Countries gadget, which offers a Security Council veto to The sector Warfare II victors and privileges sovereignty without a provision for states that kill their people. The “obligation to guard” doctrine, a legal justification for army motion to prevent states from massacring their citizens, become attempted in Kosovo and Libya, with deeply disputed effects, and died in Syria.

The “pink line” incident in 2013 — the strikes threatened through President Obama but now not finished in response to a Syrian chemical attack that killed more than 1, however, four hundred humans — added to the experience of impunity. Mr. Assad won’t actually have fulfilled his pledge to give up all chemical weapons.

The United Countries cand, however, record War crimes as they become more habitual.

Now, the Syrian warfare is threatening the very foundation of clinical neutrality in Conflict — a Geneva Conventions precept essential to maintain global health efforts inclusive of combating epidemics — the British scientific journal The Lancet and the yankee College of Beirut concluded in a recent paper.

They warned of the “weaponization of fitness care” in Syria, in particular by way of the authorities, with more than 800 scientific people killed in Loads of assaults, docs arrested for treating injured protesters, and scientific elements withheld from besieged areas.

“This may repeat in different locations,” Dr. Monzer Khalil, a health professional in insurrection-held Idlib, said an afternoon after treating sufferers of the latest chemical attack. “If Europe and The us are honest, to keep the values they’re defending, they have to fight this oppression. There ought to be political stress on the regime.”

Win The Warfare, And Win The Warfare!

The disillusioned purchaser known as to whinge about a overdue delivery, “You stated the delivery would be right here via midday, I took off from work to be right here! It is 2pm and It’s nonetheless now not right here and I have never heard something from absolutely everyone! I’ve lost an afternoon’s pay and that i still do not have it. while is it going to get here?”

This communique can go any wide variety of approaches from right here however sincerely the business has an irate customer on the line and the person that is getting an earful can make things better or a ways worse. Stepping into an issue with a disillusioned purchaser, irrespective of what the cause, is a lose – lose – lose proposition!

1. You lose the income on the sale!

2. You could lose the client and All of the future business that patron represents!

3. You lose the humans the client talks to, and if they may be irritated sufficient they may inform everybody they understand and write scathing evaluations on social media additionally!

It is possible you might get that consumer to calm down and can even sense such as you gained the War – this argument, however, probable, you actually lost the Warfare – long time earnings from this patron and all folks who pay attention the story!

Research have shown that upset customers will inform 11 human beings about their revel in. Even worse, after they inform their tale, they contain sufficient dramatic gadgets (voice inflection, facial and hand gestures, and so forth.) to make their antique excessive school drama instructor proud. On pinnacle of that, they get to inform the entire tale from their angle because you aren’t there to defend your factor of view.

In preference to lose the whole thing when confronted with a disappointed consumer, regardless of who’s right or wrong, stop! Consider your long-time period goal. In case your aim is to grow a a success commercial enterprise, prevailing a little skirmish with a dissatisfied patron is counterproductive.

If you do not have a consumer Satisfaction Policy, it will be for your great interest to develop one and educate those who address clients to administer it. Recognise that losing earnings on one sale can also hurt, however you’ve got probably misplaced income by now that anyhow. In case you are able to easy this over in some way first-class to your consumer there is a great hazard You could win them returned and earn income over the years, and If you able to satisfy them sufficient to no longer put up their dissatisfaction to the whole Global, your reputation will no longer be trashed.

You will win the War Changed the World with the aid of growing satisfied customers. You will win the War from the income you’ve earned once they return!

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militaryspouse101 · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Military Spouse

New Post has been published on http://militaryspouse.com/msoy/2017-msoy-base-spouses-of-the-year/

★2017 AFI MSOY Base Spouses of the Year★

Congratulations to all of our amazing nominees!

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Get to know them. Click around to check out their profiles and pick your favorite to vote for on February 20th.

See All Candidates Here

Army

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Navy

Camp Lejeune: Claire Jones Eglin AFB: Carrie Fry Fleet Activities Yokosuka: Lindsey Savage Goodfellow AFB: Tamara Garcia Guam: Kalyn Kasten JB Andrews: Melissa Nauss JB Ellington Field: Mikiyta Stepney JB Little Creek-Fort Story: Vicki Krauter JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam: Laurie English JB San Antonio: Lissa Navarro Kadena AB: Yolanda Morris MCLB Albany: Tara Glenn MEPCOM: Esmeralda Guerra NAS Jacksonville: Kimberly Green NAS Key West: Katrina Pringle NAS Lemoore: Lisa Emme NAS Oceana: Delia Pettit NAS Patuxent River: D’Antrese McNeil NAS Pensacola: Scarlet Q. Turpin NAS Whidbey Island: Janice Case NB Coronado: Nicole Dowd NB Kitsap: Danielle Smith NB Point Loma: Ashley Camac NB San Diego: Alessia Rossi NB Ventura County: Michelle Tucker NCBC Gulfport: Laura Pipoly NH Pensacola: Jennifer Coble Not Affiliated With a Base: Justine Evirs NS Activity Norfolk: Carrie Sanders NS Everett: Bessie Childs NS Great Lakes: Nicole Close NS Mayport: Holli Recobs NS Newport: Joy Goodrich NS Norfolk: Lisa Wakeman NS Rota: Jaime DeWitt Parker NSB Kings Bay: Kristen Francis Faires NSB New London: Jennifer Taylor NSF Dahlgren: Sarah Otto

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Marines

4th MCRD Michigan: Kayla Reyes Camp Courtney: Jessica Curren Camp Pendleton: Kristie Slade Marine Forces Europe and Africa: Aletta Rice MCAG CC Twentynine Palms: Jessica Rudd MCAS Beaufort: Krysta Creager MCAS Cherry Point: Jessica Del Pizzo MCAS Iwakuni: Kelly Butler MCAS Miramar: Hilary Wilkerson MCAS New River: Catherine Fitzgerald MCAS Yuma: Evie Pine MCB Hawaii: Judy Otero MCB Quantico: Holly Vega MCBC Smedley D. Butler: Meaghan Perry MCLB Barstow: Natalie Brennan MCRD Parris Island: Dontaye Scott-Neal MCRD San Diego: Sarrah Goldschmidt Wright Patterson AFB: Karin Childress

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Air Force

Altus AFB: Carmen Bell Barksdale AFB: Samantha Nawrocki Beale AFB: Christian Brown Buckley AFB: Kimberly Robertson Cannon AFB: Lindsay Davis Columbus AFB: Therese Loe Dover AFB: Amber Odom Dyess AFB: Desiree Martinez Edwards AFB: Megan Rosario Eielson AFB: Kennita Williams Ellsworth AFB: Chasity Williams F.E. Warren AFB: Kristen McCreary Fort Bliss: Natalie Hayek Hill AFB: Angy Hogan Holloman AFB: Jenny Monroe Hurlburt Field: Hang Owen JB Anacostia – Bolling: Brandy O’Mary JB Charleston: Hannah Weatherford Keesler AFB: Heather Aliano Kirtland AFB: Dinah Dziolek Lackland AFB: Felicia Davis Little Rock AFB: Brittany Boccher Luke AFB: Amy Duncan Malmstrom AFB: Alexandra Fuller Maxwell AFB: Tabatha Copper Minot AFB: Brittany Porche Mountain Home AFB: Jeanette Jackson Nellis AFB: Nadine Batchelor Not Affiliated With a Base: Shelby Renninger Offutt AFB: Cassidy Spillman Patrick AFB: Natalie Ramsey Peterson AFB: Laila Ireland RAF Alconbury: Rachel Toney RAF Lakenheath: Marissa-Ellen Patterson RAF Mildenhall: Kimberli Roth Ramstein AB: Alicia Barnett Randolph AFB: Lindsey Litton Robins AFB: Trina Phillips Scott AFB: Jessica Barattini Seymour Johnson AFB: Charissa Godfrey Shaw AFB: Whitney Armstrong Sheppard AFB: Alexandra Hamby Tinker AFB: Chrichelle Fernandez Travis AFB: Autumn Lombardi Tyndall AFB: Elana Power Westover ARB: Trisha Smith White Sands Missile Range: Theresa Poling Whiteman AFB: Sarah Dvorak

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Coast Guard

District 1: Lindsay Thompson District 12: Meaghan Hurley District 7: Jennifer Kirkpatrick District 9: Jessi Adkisson

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National Guard

Alaska NG: Erica Glass California NG: Anna Burgos Fairchild AFB: Martina Hernandez De Cichowicz Florida NG: Cassandra Michelle Powell Kentucky NG: Robin Pruitt Louisiana NG: Danielle Trosclair Maryland NG: Laura Lane Unsworth McConnell AFB: Josephine Jacobs Michigan NG: Kimberly VanNortwick Minnesota NG: Rhiannon Knutson New Jersey NG: Courtney Mitchell Not Affiliated With a Base: Kari Mosher Ohio NG: Christina Grady Pennsylvania NG: Debra Berger Rhode Island NG: Michelle Lemieux Texas NG: Cassaundra Melgar-C’De Baca Utah NG: Melissa Wood Washington NG: Yolanda Flores

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