fade5 posted:

This guy watched the Bambi and the Lion King growing up. Think about that for a minute.

TheOtherContraGuy posted:

Here's a Frontline article on it.

By the way, there's a new Frontline that goes rather in depth into Obama's decisions in Syria/Iraq.

Anosmoman posted:

omg they're human

fade5 posted:

The internet and twitter in particular has lead to some really weird changes on stuff like this. Twitter allows for basically real-time conversations with active ISIS members, it also allows of real-time updates of any and all fights on the ground, and tons of cross-culture stuff has popped up in the most unexpected places.

TheOtherContraGuy posted:

Here's a Frontline article on it.

By the way, there's a new Frontline that goes rather in depth into Obama's decisions in Syria/Iraq.

Count Roland posted:

Anime is pretty popular all over the world I think, especially with mal-adjusted young men whose lives lack meaning so they go out and join a war.

Charliegrs posted:

Al Jazeera did an interview with Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the Al Nusra Front:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/28/syria-al-qaeda-leader-our-mission-is-to-defeat-regime.html

Some interesting things in this interview. He claims that Al Nusra only wants to fight the Assad regime, and has been ordered by Ayman Al Zawahiri (leader of Al Quaeda) not to use Syria as a launching point for an attack on the west. Also at what point is the US going to stop pouring billions into an intelligence apparatus to find these high level terrorist leaders when apparently all you have to do is have Al Jazeera interview them? I remember they were able to interview Bin Laden multiple times both before and after 9/11 and it took us 10 years to find him.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Bin Laden was also a kept man of the Pakistani intelligence services up until he was assassinated. There are many ways in which American intelligence is... opaque in its effectiveness.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Bin Laden was also a kept man of the Pakistani intelligence services up until he was assassinated. There are many ways in which American intelligence is... opaque in its effectiveness.

Charliegrs posted:

Also at what point is the US going to stop pouring billions into an intelligence apparatus to find these high level terrorist leaders when apparently all you have to do is have Al Jazeera interview them? I remember they were able to interview Bin Laden multiple times both before and after 9/11 and it took us 10 years to find him.

Smoothrich posted:

Gonna be a dead human within the year probably, and hopefully, too.

Bip Roberts posted:

Is this based on anything besides the lovely Hersh report?

Charliegrs posted:

While I think you are totally right, I don't think theres been any publicly available proof the Pakistanis were harboring Bin Laden. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

I for some reason thought that these allegations were more substantiated. They're not citing the Hersh report, though.


Is what that wikipedia article cites considered public knowledge? Some of the earlier USG allegations were not substantiated by any specific evidence, but there's later stuff.

Kenzie posted:

Looking back on the battles, commanders said they realized that in the irregular Iraqi forces, they faced a more committed enemy than they’d seen before, more persistent than the Republican Guard divisions that were supposed to be the most potent in the Iraqi defenses. They also saw signs of a strategy based on the success of Somali militiamen against Army Rangers a decade earlier: Cut off the attacking U.S. troops, isolate them on city streets and pour in reinforcements to inflict maximum casualties.

quote:

Syrian rebel group ‘seizes’ city of Ariha in Idlib province

A coalition of rebel groups has said it seized the last city in Idlib province in northwest Syria near the Turkish border.

The Syrian army pulled back from the city, which is the last that was still held by the government.

A coalition of rebel groups called Jaish al Fateh, or Conquest Army, said it had taken over the city. Syria’s al-Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front is a major part of the coalition.

The coalition said it had overrun several checkpoints that defended the city. The Syrian army said intense fighting was going on with Nusra forces that had infiltrated Ariha.

“There are heavy clashes between the army and the terrorists of Jabahat al Nusra who infiltrated inside the city,” said an army statement released on state television.

Later the army admitted its forces had pulled back from the city, the latest string of defeats by the Syrian army and a big blow to the morale of president Assad’s government forces who have vowed to defeat Sunni militants financed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey who seek to overthrow his rule.

“Units of our armed forces evacuated their positions in Ariha and withdrew to defensive positions in the vicinity of the city after battles it fought facing large number of Nusra terrorists,” the army source was quoted as saying.

A rebel source from Ahrar al Sham confirmed that street fighting was going on inside the city between army fighters and the insurgents. “There are many bodies that litter the streets,” he said, adding that the rebels were searching for Assad’s government forces inside the city.

Many civilians have hidden inside shelters.

Syria accuses Turkey of financing and aiding rebels seeking to topple the government. Damascus says foreign jihadi fighters allowed into Syrian territory by Turkey have played a pivotal role in recent rebel gains.

Rebel sources say they have secured more US-made missiles in recent months that have helped them to gain a military edge over the Syrian army.

The Nusra Front has made gains in northwestern Syria alongside other insurgent groups in recent weeks, seizing the city of Idlib, the town of Jisr al-Shughour and bringing them closer to government-held coastal areas north of the capital.

The loss of Ariha would leave the insurgents in control of most of Idlib a region that borders Turkey and neighbours president Assad’s heartland in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast.

The city, once home to more than 80,000 people, is strategically located on the main army supply lines between Idlib and Latakia.

fade5 posted:

This guy watched the Bambi and the Lion King growing up. Think about that for a minute.

Loving Africa Chaps posted:

My god! this means? Yes surely it can only mean that at one point in this 19 year olds life he was a younger child

fade5 posted:

quote:

I will destroy your polluted western culture (just as soon as I'm done watching the Lion King)!

Charliegrs posted:

While I think you are totally right, I don't think theres been any publicly available proof the Pakistanis were harboring Bin Laden. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Charliegrs posted:

Well yeah, anything in wikileaks is public knowledge. But a lot of that material seems somewhat inconclusive. My point being, that if the US government hasnt flat out said some level of Pakistani government knew about Bin Laden then theres always going to be some doubt. Now naturally the US might have good reason to keep the truth a secret ( like every American demanding we bomb the hell out of Pakistan)

Again I'd like to stress I think the Pakistan government or at least the ISI knew about Bin Ladens location and may have even facilitated it. I just wish our government would come clean with us about it.

icantfindaname posted:

Sort of like how Mogadishu had pre-planned withdrawal and abort criteria that they didn't execute because they hosed up? It's almost like you somehow don't think it's possible for the US Armed Forces to gently caress up ever despite, well, the last like 60 years of recorded history

Charlz Guybon posted:

The US army/marines haven't lost a pitched battle since the Korean War. Wars have political dimensions, since wars are by definition merely politics by other means, so we haven't won some of those wars, but the performance by the military could hardly have been better.

That remains the problem with Iraq. We can send in the troops and they'll crush everyone they come in contact with, but that hardly seems like it will solve the problem. As soon as they leave the whole country will fall apart again.

Martin Random posted:

Warfare like this was a lot easier two+ thousand years ago when genocide, rape, and enslavement was the standard practice. The Romans would have come in, killed just about everyone, made the practice of Islam illegal, demolished any and all holy sites, and set up a brutal, repressive client king to manage it for them. I think ISIS is just reverting to that earlier standard. It's easier to hold territory when you've killed a ton of folks who would oppose you and anyone left is completely terrified of you.

Martin Random posted:

Warfare like this was a lot easier two+ thousand years ago when genocide, rape, and enslavement was the standard practice. The Romans would have come in, killed just about everyone, made the practice of Islam illegal, demolished any and all holy sites, and set up a brutal, repressive client king to manage it for them. I think ISIS is just reverting to that earlier standard. It's easier to hold territory when you've killed a ton of folks who would oppose you and anyone left is completely terrified of you.

blowfish posted:

to be fair murdering the entire population is probably the most effective way of fighting rebels since there'll be no way of hiding in the general populations when everyone is dead

Zeroisanumber posted:

The Putin method.