US veterans of Iraq dismayed by country's chaos

KABUL, Afghanistan — Col. Samuel Whitehurst had been consumed with work in the last days of his brigade's nine-month deployment in eastern Afghanistan when alarming news about his former battleground in northern Iraq began to reach him.

Whitehurst fired off an email to the mayor of the Iraqi city of Samarra, who had become a close friend, saying he was thinking of him. Days after a band of Islamic militants took over Mosul and several towns in the north in early June, he got terrible news: Col. Gayath Sami, the Iraqi officer Whitehurst had groomed to run Samarra's security command center, had been slain in the fighting.

"To find out that he had been killed," said Whitehurst, who commands the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, deployed in Paktia province. "Those are the things I worry about — the friends I met there and what's going to happen to them."

The catastrophic turn Iraq has taken in recent weeks has startled U.S. veterans who spent years seeking to set up the country, and particularly its security forces, for success. The Iraq war killed nearly 4,500 U.S. troops and, by some estimates, cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion. The country's violent downward spiral as Islamist militants seized large swaths of territory has been particularly unsettling to those who are currently in Afghanistan at the tail end of America's longest war and hoping for a better outcome.

"Watching how much everybody worked to continue to have hope and progress for that country and to watch it crumble is fairly disheartening," said Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, who spent 42 months in Iraq and is now tactical commander of U.S. and allied troops here. "It's very personal when you get letters and notes and emails from all the people you know there who used to work for you saying: 'Can you get my family out of there, everything is collapsing.'"

Drawing parallels between Iraq and Afghanistan and the aftermath of the American invasion in each has always been difficult, but some similarities are unmistakable.

As they did in Iraq, U.S. military officials speak optimistically about the growing competence and strength of the security forces in Afghanistan that Washington has spent billions of dollars to train and equip. Echoing assessments about the strength of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq during the final year of the U.S. military presence there, commanders here assert that the Taliban movement has been markedly weakened and no longer controls important urban areas.

In some ways, Iraq's outlook seemed brighter as U.S. troops were making their exit. Its vast oil reserves were again luring foreign investment and propelling economic growth. Using its own funds, the government in Baghdad placed orders for advanced U.S. military equipment worth billions of dollars. The country's leaders felt confident enough about the post-American era that they balked at authorizing legal immunity for a small contingent of military advisers the Obama administration sought to keep after the combat mission ended in December 2011.

"It was set to be a huge success," Maj. Rob Wolfenden, 37, who is leading the effort to shut down a base in southern Afghanistan, said, recalling his optimism at the end of his second deployment in Iraq in 2008. "The oil was pumping. The Iraqi forces were completely solid. They knew how to fight, and they could fight."

As his current base, Forward Operating Base Pasab in Kandahar province, which was once home to some 5,000 troops, he has watched developments in Iraq with dismay.

"It's a shame to see Iraq now," the major said. "I'm bothered to see this lack of security."

Top commanders here have noted that the new Afghan president is all but certain to sign a security cooperation agreement with Washington, provided the dispute over alleged widespread voting fraud in the recent presidential election is settled and the new leader takes office soon. That would keep a small coalition of international troops here beyond the end of the year and, perhaps more critically, pave the way for continued foreign aid for Afghanistan for years to come.

In Iraq, shortly after U.S. troops left, many military and security officers who were groomed and championed by the Americans were sidelined or forced out as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki filled the ranks with loyalists. The shift exacerbated sectarian tensions as the country's security forces became increasingly dominated by Shiites and their Sunni colleagues complained they were being treated with contempt.

In the wake of Afghanistan's June 14 runoff presidential election, U.S. officials are anxiously watching the extent to which commanders here cast their lots with each of the candidates vying to replace Hamid Karzai. The potential politicization of the security forces has become a matter of growing concern as one of the candidates, Abdullah Abdullah, has called for protests after alleging that his rival's campaign rigged the vote. So far, U.S. commanders say they think it's not likely that Afghanistan's security forces could splinter along ethnic lines to the degree Iraq's did along sectarian lines.

"It's pretty clear in Iraq a Shiite leader did some pretty serious purging," Anderson said. "I don't see the rifts [in Afghanistan] anywhere near as much as I did in Iraq. They have done a better job in terms of having an integrated force."

Some American soldiers in Afghanistan said the aftermath of the U.S. pullout in Iraq shouldn't be seen as a failed military campaign but rather a case study of the limitations of what the armed forces can accomplish.

"Personally, I don't feel anything I endured in Iraq was in vain," said Capt. Rick McCuan, 31, an intelligence analyst with the 82nd Airborne Division who is deployed in southern Afghanistan. "We were charged with a mission, and we executed that mission to set the conditions for the Iraqi people to take control of their own destiny."

Others can't help but feel a degree of bitterness. Staff Sgt. Kenneth Ventrice, 34, of Boston, served three tours in Iraq and is on his second in Afghanistan.

"It affected me personally because I was in Fallujah," he said on a recent morning during a lull in a security patrol in Zabul province. "The blood, sweat and tears we spent trying to make that place better."

Anderson said he has sought to keep his feelings regarding Iraq in check.

"I can't get overwhelmed by it, but it is very frustrating, and it does make you more determined here to make sure that we keep doing everything we can," he said. "You have to be the eternal optimist."

Blasting pig eyes could lead to better eyewear for GIs

SAN ANTONIO — In a basement lab at Fort Sam Houston, researchers have been unleashing massive shock waves strong enough to bounce a postmortem pig eye out of the artificial socket and gelatin in which it had been sitting.

Macabre as this experiment may be, exposing pig eyes to shock waves equivalent to the blasts from improvised explosive devices allowed scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other area institutions to discover that the concussive force of an IED's blast alone — without any shrapnel or particles — is powerful enough to cause lasting damage to soldiers' vision.

The discovery could help doctors more quickly catch and treat related injuries and help provide clues to developing better protective gear, researchers said.

“The big thing that we found, that no one had seen before, is that the shockwave itself is sufficient to cause significant damage to the eye,” said Matthew Reilly, a UTSA assistant professor of biomedical engineering. “The current military eyewear that they use to protect soldiers is designed based on particle impact rather than dealing with the blast wave.”

Ocular injuries rank fourth on the list of most common military deployment-related injuries and account for 13 percent of battlefield injuries, according to the study by Reilly and others, which was published this year in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

With about $1 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, Reilly and other researchers, including ophthalmologist Dr. William Sponsel and those at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, used a shock tube — essentially a giant air cannon — to replicate an IED blast “without blowing up the lab” and explore its effects on the eye, Reilly said.

In a soundproofed room, the scientists built up pressure by pumping air behind a flat aluminum plate placed in a large tube. Once the pressure reaches a critical point, it will rupture the aluminum plate and shoot a shock wave of air down the tube. Researchers placed the pig eyes in its path, along with pressure sensors and visual recording equipment, to analyze the impact.

The pig eyes, procured from a slaughterhouse, provide a substitute for the human eye with similar anatomy, Reilly said.

Examining the eyeball before and after allowed researchers to survey the damage, said Sponsel, a UTSA adjunct professor of biomedical engineering. Sponsel said he had developed similar techniques when researching paintball injuries to the eye.

One theory on why there are so many injuries to the eye is that “body armor is really good for the rest of the body, but armor for the eye is not,” said Reilly, describing the current eyewear as similar to sunglasses or goggles. “The eye is also a relatively soft organ. It doesn't take a lot of force to damage it.”

The natural defense against eye damage is to blink, covering the eye with the eyelid. But Reilly said explosions can occur so quickly that a soldier would not have time to blink. The shock wave could cause detachment of the retina or damage to the optic nerve. The retina is “the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the inner eye” and the optic nerve “carries the information of vision from the eye to the brain,” according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Either of those injuries could result in “decreased vision or blindness” depending on the severity, Reilly said.

He said the eyewear now used by soldiers was not “designed to protect against the wave, so they've never really been tested in that regard.” Soldiers also have complained that the protective gear impeded their peripheral vision, which might also pose a safety threat, Reilly said.

The new findings could give military protective gear designers something to consider, he said.

Since World War II, the percentage of eye injuries among those that wounded soldiers have survived has increased, Sponsel said. He said the statistics reflect “the fact that people are surviving bad problems and are more likely to come home with eye injury as well.” But they also reflect the nastiness of IEDs, which “will do horrible things to eyes if the eyes are exposed,” he said.

Sponsel said the research will be “incredibly useful” since these types of injuries are likely to “be part of every blast injury.”

Panel member: Military sex assault response hard to fix

NORFOLK, Virginia — Harvey Bryant hoped the panel he was appointed to last year would bring a sea of change to the military's handling of sexual assaults. Instead, Virginia Beach's former top prosecutor says the group's recommendations are little more than "a wading pool."

He was one of nine members on a panel that examined the handling of military sexual assault and made recommendations for improving the process. The group submitted a 284-page report to Congress on June 27.

Bryant, who served for 13 years as Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney before retiring last year, said his biggest disappointment was the panel's support for keeping authority over the judicial process in the hands of military commanders.

"There would be a lot more confidence in the system if we... let prosecutors make prosecutorial decisions," Bryant said during an interview at his Virginia Beach home last week.

Commanders "are warfighters and that's what they should concentrate on," he said. "They just need to get out of the criminal prosecution business."

Bryant said he accepted his appointment to the Response Systems Panel on Military Sexual Assault hoping its work would have lasting impact. But after a year of meetings and conversations with victims, commanders and military and civilian lawyers, prosecutors and judges, he's disappointed.

"After the six or seven month mark, I began to feel like we weren't going to make a lot of substantive, game-changing recommendations," he said.

Last year, after a series of sex scandals involving senior officers, pressure mounted to reform the military's handling of sexual assault. Of particular concern was the treatment of victims, who complained of retaliation and further victimization if they reported sexual assaults.

Top military brass faced hours of angry questioning by lawmakers, and service branches began reforms to bolster the rights and treatment of victims. Congress stepped in to limit the power of military commanders to overturn sentences and subjecting them to oversight if they refuse to send a sexual assault case to court-martial.

A proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to altogether strip commanders of their discretion over what cases are sent to court-martial met with resistance after military leaders objected forcefully, saying that would harm their authority and damage morale. The proposal fell five votes short in the Senate; she has vowed to bring it up again.

The panel heard testimony from victims that it was "often subordinate leaders who perpetrated the sexual assault itself, ignored it when it was reported or engaged in retaliation" afterward.

Still, seven of the nine members concluded that removing the authority to prosecute from the chain of command would not reduce the number of sexual assaults, increase the reporting of assaults or improve the quality of investigations or prosecutions.

Bryant and another panelist dissented, writing that the recommendation was based on testimony from high-ranking commanders and ignored the words of survivors, rank-and-file service members, experts and members of allied militaries that have successfully made those reforms.

The system now "creates doubt about the fairness of military justice, has little connection to exercising legitimate authority over subordinates and undermines the confidence of victims," wrote Bryant and fellow panelist Elizabeth Hillman, a law professor at the University of California.

Bryant compared the "convening authority" of military commanders to a police chief who has the power not just to determine if one of his officers should go to trial for committing a crime, but also whether to overthrow the conviction or sentence.

"Nobody would stand for that," he said.

Bryant said the panel also failed to take a stand on several other key issues, including "collateral misconduct" - in which a victim reporting sexual assault can be prosecuted if they admit to violating a law themselves.

So, for example, if an 18-year-old rape victim tells an investigator she was drinking before the incident, she can be charged with underage drinking. That inhibits what victims tell an investigator and can lead victims either not to report an attack or to lie, Bryant said.

"The investigators told us, the prosecutors told us, everybody told us this really puts a damper on their ability," Bryant said.

On this and several other issues, Bryant said that several panel members felt they had enough information to make a recommendation, but the panel instead left the issue for "further study."

The panel made a similar determination over how rape is delineated in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Instead of being its own charge, it falls within a broad article that includes many sexual offenses, and doesn't differentiate between more and less serious ones.

Still, the panel did make a number of positive recommendations, he said. It called for bolstering victims' rights and input in how cases are prosecuted and called for a better system to monitor sexual assault reporting. It also recommended better alcohol education, something the Navy has already begun.

Bryant said that in Norfolk, the military is seeing a record number of acquittals in rape cases. Out of 31 cases that prosecutors handled in 2013, 10 were dropped, and seven resulted in acquittals, he said.

Bryant, who spent three years on active duty in the Army and five years in the reserves, said he felt members of the panel had "the best interests of the military at heart." But most of his fellow panelists were formed by careers spent in the military.

"I felt it might be a lot more difficult for them to see and agree on changes that needed to be made in a system of which they were a part and had spent their careers," he said.

Osan men win in return to Firecracker softball

Most times, the top and middle of a softball team’s lineup gets the job done. In the case of Osan Air Base of South Korea, the middle and bottom took care of business Sunday.

And the Defenders benefitted by capturing the men’s title in Firecracker Shootout softball tournament in their first appearance since winning it in 2008. Osan beat the same foe it faced in the final six years ago, rallying from 4-0, 6-4 and 9-8 deficits to dethrone American Legion of Okinawa 17-12.

“Pretty good. Awesome,” said Justin James, a two-time All-Armed Forces outfielder who was with that Osan team in 2008. “I told the guys it would be tough, it would be hot, but they worked hard and got the job done.”

The women’s final saw a repeat of a different sort. Led by tournament MVP Megan Soldano, the Okinawa Dragons won their second consecutive Firecracker, disposing Revenge 15-2 in five innings.

Leading the way for Osan were Chaz Wilson, who had two inside-the-park home runs, a double and five RBIs. Jabbari Cooley homered and drove in three runs and Ben Ernst and Jamie Cummins each had two RBIs for the resilient Defenders.

They settled the outcome with a nine-run sixth inning. A Wilson RBI double gave Osan the lead for good 10-9. Cooley, Cummins, Jeramy Aponte, Robert Goodman, Charles Cornacchio and Willie Wilson each had RBI hits and Ernst and Anthony Formell added sacrifice flies.

“The middle and the bottom of the lineup held us up today,” James said, also citing a catch by left-center fielder Aponte that robbed American Legion of a home run in the second inning. “The defense was sound all weekend.”

For the former champions, Eddie Perez homered and drove in three runs, Brandon Wolfgang had a home run and two RBIs and Tommy Meinhart hit two sacrifice flies.

“Déjà vu all over again,” Legion coach John O’Brien said.

Any Defenders celebration back at their home some 45 miles south of Seoul may be put on hold. They are due to fly out of Okinawa on Tuesday, the same day that Typhoon Neoguri is due to strike the island as a possible Category 5-equivalent storm.

“I have no idea,” James said of what the team might do if stuck on Okinawa. “Hopefully, we’ll try to get out early.”

No such issue existed on the women’s side, as the Dragons made quick work of Revenge in an all-Okinawa final.

Soldano went 3-for-3 with a double and three RBIs, Rebecca Wilkinson added three hits and three RBIs and the Dragons broke the game open with an 11-run third inning.

“Huge tournament,” coach Lawrence Occomy said of Soldano, who had just one game all weekend in which she didn’t reach base every time up.

ornauer.dave@stripes.com

Disabled veterans lose funds from unpublicized benefits

In 1996, local Vietnam veteran Rubin Willis was deemed 100 percent disabled by the U.S. Army — the branch he served for more than 25 years.

It wasn't until a few months ago that Willis found out he didn't have to pay property taxes to the state or county because of his disability. Willis, like hundreds of thousands of other veterans, didn't know about the benefit he was entitled to.

Willis, who has kept careful records of every tax payment he's ever made, has paid more than $3,700 since 1996. And he won't be able to get the money back.

"I feel like I should get my money back plus all the interest that should have been collected during that time," Willis said. "The money I paid should have been in my pocket. I should be able to recoup that."

Allyson Holland, chief clerk of the Montgomery County revenue commissioner's office, said like any other tax exemption, the individual has to apply for the tax break. She said the state statute governing the exemption makes it clear that Willis wouldn't be able to get his money back.

"A lot of people think we know they're disabled, and unfortunately, there's no way for us to know that unless they come in with that information," Holland said.

Holland said there are about 4,638 people who qualify for a tax exemption for being totally disabled. Those individuals include anyone considered disabled — not just veterans.

There are about 233,849 disabled workers in Alabama who qualify for the Old Age, Survivor and Disability Insurance program administered by the Social Security Administration, according to federal data. Of those, 16,900 are in Montgomery County and receiving the benefit.

There are about 177,062 people in the state, or about 3.7 percent of the population, who are on the Social Security Administration's Supplemental Security Income and Disability Insurance program for disability only. That figure includes 9,395 in Montgomery County, 3,435 in Elmore County and 2,345 in Autauga County.

Bill Van Der Pol, a staff attorney at the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, said not all veterans are on Social Security programs. He said there's no way to know how many people are disabled or would qualify for a property tax exemption because there are so many agencies who define being disabled differently.

Willis, who said he didn't learn about the exemption until a clerk at the probate office mentioned it earlier this year, was disappointed he didn't know about it. He said he takes advantage of his other benefits, but the counselor from Veterans Affairs he worked with when he retired for medical purposes never told him about it.

"Unfortunately, what he's experienced is not uncommon and it's not exclusive to Alabama or any other state," said Jeffrey Hall, employment director of Disabled American Veterans, a national nonprofit veterans advocacy group with offices in every state. "When someone gets out of the military, there's no master list that's provided to them that says here's everything you're going to be eligible for."

Hall said there's no hard data on how many veterans don't know about or take advantage of benefits, but he said he can confidently say most aren't aware of their state or federal benefits.

"People, in general, would be shocked about what veterans don't know," he said.

In rural areas, fewer people know about entitlements, Hall said. In urban areas, there are going to be more people who know about benefits because word of mouth is the biggest advertiser. Some veterans choose to exclude themselves because they don't feel they're disabled or qualified to receive benefits, even if they are, he said.

Hall said his organization has offices and representatives all over the country — including mobile offices that travel to rural areas — who help veterans learn about, understand and obtain their benefits.

When people are getting out of the military, they don't always pay attention to everything because they're focused on getting out, Hall said. Most have to go through three days of informational sessions about their benefits.

"So many things are thrown at them at the end of their service," he said. "(The military) is trying to provide information. They can better that information, and they're trying to. But if (a veteran) misses something, they can still go get assistance."

Willis, who served in the Special Forces in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was seriously injured in Vietnam. He was injured by a 50-caliber bullet from an M16 and sustained back injuries from being a paratrooper. He also has a plastic knee.

"I'm on medication for the things that happened to me in Vietnam that'll never go away," he said. "I paid my dues, I served my country, so don't take something away from me."

For information on veterans benefits, visit va.gov.

Hundreds mourn 'sweet,' 'brave' Marine killed in Afghanistan

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday at the Conval High School Auditorium and lined the streets for the funeral of a New Hampshire Marine killed last month by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Brandon Garabrant, 19, of Greenfield, died along with two other Marines on June 20 in Helmand province.

The funeral was at the school in Peterborough where Garabrant graduated last year. During the service, Garabrant, formerly a lance corporal, was posthumously awarded the rank of corporal along with the Purple Heart. For most of the two-hour service, friends and family struggled to come to grips with the loss.

"My love is with you always. I promise to be brave. I'll remember you, and honor you for the sacrifice you made," Aizlyn Alfonso sang during the service. The song, "In Honor," was composed by family friends Kaitlyn and Susan Gosnel. The song told the story of watching Garabrant grow from a sweet little boy into a young man and learning that he had been killed in action.

Garabrant's mother, Jessie, honored her son with a video montage of his life. She picked out pictures of birthdays and bath times, vacations and milestones — Garabrant joining the Temple Volunteer Fire Department, him wearing his Marine uniform — and quiet moments with siblings. As the movie played out, the soundtrack played a song asking God for strength.

The Rev. Brent Charles, pastor of Jaffrey Bible Church where Garabrant was an active member, could barely make it through his eulogy, at one point stopping and asking everyone to pray with him, "lest my heart get carried away from such grief."

He described Garabrant as a deeply spiritual person who adored his mother and father and who, even as a teenager, never had a harsh word to say about anyone in his family. Garabrant had a big heart and an even bigger smile, even when he was in trouble, Charles said.

Garabrant was buried with full military honors the New Hampshire State Veteran's Cemetery.

John Garabrant spoke of his son's bravery. He recalled a post from his son while he was in Afghanistan in which he wrote of being scared and asking for God's help.

"(He wrote) 'May God be with us on this night. May guardian Angels watch out and protect us. I'm sending love to all my family and friends,'" John Garabrant said, recalling the post.

"He was scared deep down inside," he said. "But he did what he had to do."

With that, he turned to the casket.

"I love you," he said. "I'm proud to be your father."

Islamic State's secretive leader makes perhaps 1st public appearance

BAGHDAD — The secretive head of the Islamic State militant group has made what appears to be his first public appearance, purportedly speaking from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a video posted online Saturday.

The video, uploaded by supporters to websites including YouTube, appears to show Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, chief of the Islamic State, an al-Qaida offshoot, leading prayers in the Grand Mosque in Mosul, which was overrun by militants last month as part of an offensive across northern Iraq. The Islamic State stands at the forefront of a Sunni Muslim uprising that threatens the U.S.-backed Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Baghdadi, a cleric previously known publicly only through grainy mug shots and audio messages exhorting fellow Sunnis to rise up and fight against “infidels,” appears as a plump, bearded figure outfitted in the group’s signature black clothing. He dons a black turban as he speaks in the mosque, famous for its leaning minaret.

In the footage, Baghdadi ceremoniously climbs the stairs to the mosque’s pulpit and then begins to address worshippers in a resolute tone, focusing heavily on religious matters. The 21-minute clip was apparently filmed a day earlier, the first Friday of the Ramadan fasting period.

The group’s release of the video seems intended to burnish Baghdadi’s leadership and religious credentials as head of an al-Qaida breakaway faction that has become infamous for its brutality, including public executions of perceived enemies and “apostates” and the crucifixions of some victims.

As he addressed the crowd, Baghdadi congratulated fighters for the group, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, for their territorial advances in broad swaths of both Iraq and neighboring Syria. The Islamic State is now running an Islamic caliphate established “after many years of jihad and patience and fighting the enemies of God,” Baghdadi said.

The speech was less a fiery sermon than a determined message dramatizing Baghdadi’s assertion that the Islamic State — which has attracted thousands of volunteers from the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere — sits at the vanguard of a global militant movement. He exhorted other Muslims to join what he called a righteous battle to restore Islam’s lost glory.

At one point, Baghdadi adopted a somewhat humble tone at odds with his position atop what many Western intelligence officials call the world’s best funded and most dangerous terrorist group — flush with cash, armaments and new recruits from the recent offensive.

“I have been plagued with this great matter, plagued with this responsibility,” Baghdadi lamented, “for I was placed as your caretaker, and I am no better than you.”

Baghdadi, believed to be in his early 40s, is a Baghdad-trained cleric from the city of Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital, who is reported to have fought against U.S. forces in Iraq. Baghdadi, whose real name is said to be Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al Badri, was held by U.S. forces in Iraq as a “civilian internee” for 11 months before being released in December 2004, according to a U.S. defense official.

Baghdadi is said to be a disciple of the late Abu Musab Zarqawi, an al-Qaida militant from Jordan. Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2006 after leading a campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings against both Western forces and Shiite Muslims, the majority sect in Iraq. Al-Qaida-style Sunni militants generally view Shiites and those in related Muslim sects as infidels.

Aside from its brutality and military acumen, Baghdadi’s group has become known as a deft user of social media and the Internet to further its cause.

The video clip of Baghdadi’s sermon follows a string of media releases by the group, whose prowess in crafting its social networking presence is the subject of grudging admiration by its rivals. Aside from a cadre of passionate supporters on Twitter and other websites, the Islamic State regularly distributes high quality videos, photographs, and “nasheed” (religious songs) to push its agenda.

It has even forayed into English-language media, publishing the first issue of an online magazine called Dabiq, after the site of an epic battle between Christians and Muslims predicted in Islamic texts.

Featuring “The Return of the Caliphate” as its cover story, the 26-page web-zine features stories heralding “a new era … of might and dignity for the Muslims” — a common assertion among militant factions who hold that only a full embrace of Islam’s early ways will restore the lost glory of past centuries.

“Soon, by God’s permission, a day will come when the Muslim will walk everywhere as a master, having honor, being revered, with his head raised high and his dignity preserved” begins one article. “Anyone who dares to offend him will be disciplined, and any hand that reaches out to harm him will be cut off.”

The Islamic State has also emerged as the militant faction most interested in creating the actual trappings of a government. Islamic State supporters traded pictures of cars bearing license plates from “The Islamic State — Nineveh province,” with unconfirmed reports by a Turkish newspaper of an Islamic State official in Mosul preparing to issue 11,000 passports “in cities and border points under IS control.”

Bulos is a special correspondent.