The Waltonian

Just like 31.5 million Americans, I am of Irish descent—that is roughly one out of ten Americans. But unlike many of those 31.5 million Americans, my family has much more immediate ties to the Emerald Isle (Ireland); both of my Dad’s parents were born in Ireland in the 1920s before coming to the United States in the 1960s where they met and then got married. Because of my grandparents, I possess both U.S. and Irish citizenship. As one can imagine, St. Patrick’s Day has always been celebrated with my family for as long as I can remember.

St. Patrick’s Day is both a feast day to commemorate the death of St. Patrick who Christianized Ireland and also a secular holiday. In the United States, the day takes on the form of a celebration with drinking and celebrating Irish culture such as music and dance while in Ireland traditionally the day would include attending Mass before later in the day feasting and celebrating.

The first St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States were organized by Irish immigrants. The mass parades that we see today began in the mid-19th century after the arrival of around one million immigrants as a result of the mass starvation of the An Gorta Mor (the Great Potato Famine) caused by potato crops being blighted and the British policy of exporting Irish crops. It was a time when the Irish could show their political strength and celebrate their culture when they were despised by many Americans.

Growing up, my Dad always told me that on St. Patrick’s Day “everyone’s a little bit Irish.” It is a day for everyone in the country to celebrate Irish culture. My family celebrated it mainly in the traditional American way. We did not go to church, as my family is not catholic. We would have breakfast including black and white pudding. Only the black pudding is made with animal blood; they are much closer to scrapple than what one would consider as pudding. My family would also have Irish bacon, which is closer to Canadian bacon than American bacon. Later in the day, my family makes scones and Irish soda bread to have with tea as we sit as a family. Commonly, my Dad will share stories about his parents and their childhood. Both of my paternal grandparents were born in the early days of an independent Ireland only a few short years after the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War when Ireland experienced a great amount of change.

St. Patrick’s is one of my favorite times of the year and provides an opportunity to celebrate Irish culture and heritage. On that day, everyone’s a little bit Irish.

Sources: St. Patrick’s Day: Origins, Meaning & Celebrations – HISTORY – HISTORY, How St. Patrick’s Day Was Made in America – HISTORY, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to the One Out of 10 Americans Who Claim Irish Ancestry (census.gov)

On Oct. 20, Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz became engulfed by protests after the election tribunal stopped electronically reporting the running count of the recent election when it looked like the election was going to be a runoff. 24 hours after the pause, they released that the incumbent President Evo Morales was able to pull out a razor thin victory without the need of a runoff election. The protesters called the election illegitimate, and accused Morales of election fraud.

Morales would have been unable to run again for his fourth term. But after a failed attempt at a referendum to remove term limits, Morales was able to have the Bolivian Supreme Court rule that it would be a violation of his human rights to impose term limits on him thus allowing him to run for election again.

The people of Bolivia took to the streets in droves to protest the election results. The protests escalated quickly. Eventually, it came to a point where the military strongly suggested to Morales that he should resign from office, which he did and was followed by the Vice President of Bolivia.

The interim President, Jeanine Añez, is a right wing politician who was the president of the Senate. She has said that her goal as president is to oversee a new set of elections monitored by outside observers: “My mission, as the constitution states, is to call for clean and transparent elections with all the qualified political actors as soon as possible,” Añez said in a televised address. “I will not accept any other path forward.”

Nations such as Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico have called the ousting of Morales a coup because of the military interference that led Morales to step down. These governments are all either leftist or socialist governments and have all been allies with the Morales regime. The new interim President Añez has cut diplomatic ties with Venezuela and Cuba as well as expelling 725 Cubans, mainly medical personnel.

The Mexican government has offered asylum to Morales and his Vice President, as Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico decided to grant asylum “for humanitarian reasons, and given the urgent situation faced in Bolivia.” The offer was accepted and Morales is now in Mexico. The change of regime has not stopped the protests. Morales was the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and he still has strong support amongst the indigenous people of Bolivia.

The recent wave of pro-Morales protests has shaken Bolivia. Twenty people have required medical attention and eight lay dead, which Morales has called a “massacre.” Some of the protesters have said “The people are crying, we want him to come back.” Others have chanted “Civil war, now!” Many of Morales’s supporters have promised to make the nation ungovernable until he returns by placing roadblocks to prevent food from reaching the administrative capital of La Paz to starve it out. This was quickly ended by the use of military force.

The supporters of Morales are primarily indigenous people and farmers, and his party has control over two-thirds of the house. This means that even with Morales gone, his party still holds political power.

Morales does plan on returning, saying, “It pains me to leave the country for political reasons but…I will be back soon with more force and energy.”

Sources: The Guardian, SkyNews, WSJ

On Saturday Oct. 26, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a raid on his compound in northwestern Syria. For half a decade, al-Baghdadi has led ISIS and its war of terror across the world, conquering large swaths of Iraq and Syria and with affiliates primarily across Africa. It lost the last of its territorial holdings last march.

The U.S. has been hunting al-Baghdadi for half a decade as he moved across Iraq and Syria. Earlier this past summer, one of al-Baghdadi’s wives was arrested and interrogated and gave up information that led to the eventual discovery, according to American officials. The death of al-Baghdadi caused uncertainty over who will succeed him, as his most likely successor, al-Muhajir, died during a drone strike and many of the other high ranking members have been either arrested or killed.

The raid that killed al-Baghdadi was carried out by Delta Force commandos, which are Army Special Forces. Delta Force was able to enter the compound by blowing a hole through the wall around the compound. This method was chosen as they decided that it would be too risky to attempt to enter through the main entrance. They were immediately under heavy fire from members of ISIS; al-Baghdadi was chased down a dead end tunnel with three of his children and when he reached the end of the tunnel, he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and the kids. No soldiers or Army dogs were killed in the operation.

On Thursday Oct. 1, ISIS announced the death of al-Baghdadi, as well as that of his successor. The new leader of ISIS is Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, but we do not know who that person is. The name given is not the person’s actual name but is meant to represent the location of origin and clan affiliation, which is a common practice for ISIS to refer to its leaders. The most important part of the name is al-Qurashi because that would mean that the new leader is a direct descendant of the Muslim Prophet Muhammed, which has been a prerequisite to be a caliph. That is important since ISIS claims to be a caliphate.

The death of al-Baghdadi has been likened to the death of Osama bin Laden, “while it had faded a bit in memory by the time President Barack Obama was up for re-election the following year, it was a talking point for his campaign,” David Sanger said, a reporter with the New York Times who has been on three separate teams that have won Pulitzer prizes.

President Trump is still moving troops from Northern Syria with the exception of having troops remain at the oil fields. Representative Wallz, a Republican from Florida, who previously served as a Green Beret, believes, “We must keep in mind that we were able to strike Baghdadi because we had forces in the region.” The U.S. had less time to prepare for this mission than they would usually have. If the U.S. had waited until after it had pulled its troops out of Northern Syria, there would not be enough troops in the region to be able to successfully complete the mission. This mission has also increased the calls from both parties to remain in the region; Adam Schiff said that this raid does not make up for leaving Kurds.

As Senator Lindsey Graham said, “The war is by no means over, but the caliphate is dead, and the leader of the caliphate is dead.” The war will continue, and the U.S. has moved troops back into Northern Syria.

Sources: CNS, CNN, NY Times

The White House has made the decision to pull troops out of Syria

As of Oct. 18, the United States forces are moving out of Syria, leaving only a force of 125 soldiers in the south of the country. It is not clear where all of the 1,000 troops being pulled out of Syria will be redeployed to in the Middle East, though we do know that some of them will be redeployed to Iraq, according to Defense Oﬃcials.

Since the departure of U.S. forces in the region, Turkey has taken this as the opportunity to invade Northern Syria. The Turkish goal with the invasion is to carve out a buﬀ er zone in the northeast of Syria. The twenty mile buﬀ er zone in the northeast of Syria that Turkey wishes to create is controlled by Kurdish Forces, who have been U.S. allies in the region in the ﬁght against ISIS. Due to the removal of U.S. forces and the incoming invasion from Turkey, the Kurds have had no choice but to retreat as the Turkish Army is much more advanced, which makes it hard for them to put up a ﬁght, according to a senior White House oﬃcial.

Since President Trump sent the order for the withdrawal of U.S. troops out of Syria, the decision has faced bipartisan scrutiny from Congress. The blame has been pointed directly at the president, such as when Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island) said, “instead of telling Erdogan to stand down, President Trump is in full retreat. It’s shameful.” The U.S. moved its troops out of northern Syria out of fear that they would be hit by the Turkish artillery or by the disorganized Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. The Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said during an interview with Fox News that the U.S. is reluctant to go into an armed conﬂict with a fellow NATO member. “Their behavior over the past several years, has been terrible… they are spinning out of the western orbit, if you will,” Esper said, in reference to Turkey.

Turkey has wanted to attack the Kurdish-run Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) because of their ties to the YPG (YPG is the acronym used for the Kurdish words meaning “People’s Protection Units”). The YPG is recognized as a terrorist group by both the United States and Turkey, as they fought a guerilla campaign for several decades within Turkey. While the SDF has attempted to distance themselves from the YPG, Turkey still views them as a terrorist organization. The SDF has been a long standing regional ally with the United states with the ﬁght against ISIS. Turkey is a close military ally to the United States as a fellow member of NATO. The United States has been putting economic pressure on Turkey but has been resistant to do any military actions.

The relative calm in Syria over the past few months compared to earlier parts of the civil war has ended. The sudden surge of violence in the region has caused a new exodus from the already war torn region with around 300,000 people ﬂeeing primarily from the cities of Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad. The artillery and machine gun ﬁre has been reserved not only for military targets but also hospitals, with the Roj Hospital, the last remaining medical facility, being hit by machine gun ﬁre, killing one of their workers. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has reported that a “trauma stabilization point” has been hit by an artillery attack, even though it was clearly marked, damaging two of their ambulances. The ambulances that are operational have been unable to enter Ras al-Ayn without being attacked as they approached the city.

The invasion by Turkey has caused the creation of a new front in the already violent and chaotic Syrian civil war. Turkey has no reason to stop as they view the SDF, the Kurdish group in control of northeastern Syria, as indistinguishable from the PKK (Kurdistan Worlers’ Party), which has fought with Turkey for Kurdish independence for decades.

Sources: NY Times, The Guardian, WSJ, Washington Post.