[ by Charles Cameron — nightmare of the cartographers ]
.
Let Yassin Musharbash have the first word:
The #ISIS Narrative of eliminating the Sykes-Pikot-Borders? You have to admit: Good choice of a narrative. Resonates with many. #Mosul
— yassin musharbash (@abususu) June 11, 2014
ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria / Sham, clearly doesn’t like the separation implied by the “and” in its name. They don’t merely want it removed as a line drawn on maps, they’re actually interested in erasing it with bulldozers…
Aaron Zelin has the image:
Here’s ISIS’s symbolic destruction of the Sykes-Picot border from yesterday pic.twitter.com/Qf4VJrtKqB
— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) June 11, 2014
Symbolism is powerful.
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Sykes-Picot, the Durand line — repeat after me the Gospel of Korzybski:
The map is not the territory!
— and when the two diverge, it’ll mostly be the territory that redraws the map.
