A sad telling about the events near Mosul. Never forget this most important fact:

 

“ISIS<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'adobe-caslon-pro', Times, Georgia, serif;"> was telling everyone, ‘We’re all brothers,’ ” Abu Malik said. “They let people smoke and drink. At the checkpoints, they distributed presents to the kids. They ate with people, drank tea with people. They were very nice—they didn’t bother anyone. Then, a week or so after they arrived, they started confiscating weapons. They told us it didn’t matter if we’d been with the Awakening or the Army or the police—if we gave up our weapons, we’d be forgiven. Ten days later, they started taking people. Everything changed. They took my cousin. My brothers dug holes in the fields and hid. I was at my house when they came for me. It was afternoon. I saw two Hyundai Santa Fes pull up outside, and I ran out the back and jumped over the wall. That was the last time I saw my family.”</span>

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/18/the-front-lines

 

We cannot ever forget that the first act of the tyrannous is to remove our means of self defense. 

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