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Golbez posted:(Then again, didn't we commit solely to air strikes in the former Yugoslavia? That didn't get us far...) Actually, it did a pretty okay number on Serbia's ability to wage a ground war, and was a big factor in convincing Milosevic that without some sort of peacekeeping agreement NATO was going to pound him into paste and/or destabilize his government. Wouldn't be at all surprised if it was part of the inspiration for this whole current plan, since the Serbian military certainly had much better equipment and training than the KLA.
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Jul 29, 2011 13:03
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Members of NATO (well, mostly Turkey, but there have been noises in support of the effort) have repeatedly offered to broker a deal, to which Gaddafi's response was along the lines of "we shall invade Europe for this sacrilege and burn your cities to the ground!" I think that means no.
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Jul 29, 2011 16:03
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Thing is, Qaddafi expressed no interest whatsoever in negotiating, though you're correct that the rebels were a bit short on enthusiasm for it as well. It's definitely something still worth pursuing, given that there are plausible sane reasons to not give the offer(s) any credence - notably wanting to put on a show of confidence for his top ministers and officers, who have to be wondering about their own options at this point and might not respond well to perceived weakness.
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Jul 29, 2011 16:18
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I'm not sure I see the systemic problem with Kucinich's visit - he's taking his reliable anti-war stance a little far and is a bit of a doofus for listening to the Gaddafi regime, but I see no compelling reason for legislators to not make up their own minds on any given conflict. Providing direct aid and comfort to a regime on the opposite end of an armed conflict is something else entirely, and while it would be nice for Welch's reputation to suffer, I am not going to hold my breath.
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Sep 1, 2011 11:39
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Man, the trigger discipline in a lot of these non-combat showing-off-weapons shots is TERRIBLE. Brown Moses, you're doing the Lord's work.
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Oct 14, 2011 21:45
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Warcabbit posted:So, what's next? Kurdistan issues are heating up. What happens if Turkey/Iraq light on fire? Turkey won't in the same way as Tunisia/Syria/Libya/Egypt/Yemen. The vast bulk of the population is, well, not Kurdish, and is by and large (from everything I've heard) pretty cool with their lot, and is under a government that is as democratic as it can be obnoxious. But that's probably not what you were asking. Actually, Turkish/Iraqi Kurdistan is a huge goddamn mess right this very instant, after a couple major ambushes on the Turkish side killed two dozen or so soldiers and really, really horked off the Turks. Ten thousand Turkish troops are stomping around the mountains targeting (probable? known?) PKK camps.
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Oct 21, 2011 09:06
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ThePutty posted:What's the problem with giving Kurds independance, anyway? I've always wanted to know more about this conflict. Because Turkish territorial integrity, basically. (Same goes for Iraq and Iran, but the biggest reason Iraqi Kurdistan was a sticky problem after Saddam went down is that Turkey is a very handy ally who takes a very dim view of any Kurdish self-determination anywhere.) It should actually be LESS of a problem these days because Turkey is, uh, un-erasing the Kurds from history and culture - for a rather long time the government's policy was to Turkify them, which is a maneuver that's a bit easier if you're a bazillion Russians leaning on the Tatars than if you're sixty million Turks with fifteen million Kurds (and a whole pile more just over the borders). And actually, mainstream-ish Kurdish opinion in Turkey isn't so much in favor of independence as it was - depending on the poll and where you take it, of course. As you get up into the mountains - and closer to the other countries with large Kurdish minorities - you get a lot more independence-minded people. So why's it still a problem? Old bad blood, for one; and the time-honored story about recursive feedback, for another. Every time Turkish nationalist assholes (there are a lot, including in the government) do something blatant or the government drags its heels on its outreach to the Kurds, the Kurds and/or Turkish liberals protest and the PKK occasionally kicks up a fuss, all of which are great ways to distress the Turkish government, which distresses the protesters, and on and on and on. Especially with the Arab Spring emboldening pretty much everybody involved. I don't really know a whole lot about the Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian bits, except insofar as the US had to tiptoe around a whole lot after deposing Saddam and not be TOO nice to our cooperative Kurdish buddies lest Turkey throw a shitfit about encouraging Kurdish separatists and giving the nastier bits of the PKK a place to rest and refit. Edit: Most of my information and slant comes from Turkish leftists, who figure the Kurds are pretty justified. The PKK does get up to some pretty nasty stuff when tensions are high though, so I can sort of understand where the "why the gently caress do we give any credence to the Kurds, anyway" vibe from the right comes from. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Oct 21, 2011 |
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Oct 21, 2011 09:54
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Rrail posted:I don't believe journalists in general in regards to war because the vast majority of them don't know what the hell they are talking about any time it comes to armed conflict. They are seriously all hacks, with a couple few exceptions. That's all well and good, but this other fellow's saying it's a ~Grand Western Conspiracy~, not people talking out of their asses. (I also find that Al Jazeera's coverage of the Arab Spring has been pretty good, but a lot of that's probably just them being in a somewhat better position and having an easier time talking to the people on the ground. Not necessarily superior knowledge of How War Works.) Edit: Also, I coulda sworn that video was posted already, but maybe in the other thread.
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Oct 21, 2011 10:29
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annatar posted:Cool poo poo Hey man, thanks for this.
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Oct 23, 2011 11:40
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Would you say Wafd and FnJ are likely to carry out what they were talking about a couple months ago and form a coalition (plus whoever they need for a majority)? It sounds like the Salafists and FnJ aren't terribly likely to join up with each other.
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Dec 3, 2011 03:11
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Lascivious Sloth posted:For lying about being assaulted, most likely. Also, they are conservative Salafists. Mayhap there is something about changing/modifying the body in their interpretation of the Qur'an? Cosmetic alterations in general (tattoos/piercings/surgery) are verboten in a number of conservative sects, yep, with exceptions for severe deformation or injury. (I seem to recall a particularly conservative scholar specifically calling out dental braces as uncool at one point, but it's been loving ages since I talked jurisprudence with any Muslim friends and I am not particularly educated on the topic other than that, so that might just be me misremembering.) Also, I can't recall how severe a violation they represent, but they sure ain't something encouraged in official representatives of the community. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Mar 5, 2012 |
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Mar 5, 2012 20:19
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Wait wait wait wait BACK UP John "Postbox" Yates? That's sort of hilarious yet sad.
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Apr 17, 2012 18:14
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something original posted:Interpol has issued a red notice for Iraqi VP Al-Hashimi. ...I am sort of amused that he is still the sitting (sort of) VP.
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May 8, 2012 11:43
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How much support was there for those? Is it just "I'm a bigger theocratic rear end in a top hat than the next guy" grandstanding or stuff that actually has a chance of passing?
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May 25, 2012 17:58
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It's obviously a conspiracy to bury the truth about Syria. Or maybe Lowtax insulted the wrong guy at the last Illuminati meeting.
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May 28, 2012 19:25
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Yeah, even today Hinds are reasonably terrifying assholes in any scenario that doesn't involve hostile jetfighters. And since a no-fly zone in Syria is an escalation nobody's terribly willing to make, the FSA pretty much needs to pick up some stylin' AA weaponry from defectors. Or foreign suppliers, I guess, but the whole thing with Afghan Stingers and requiring that used tubes be returned in exchange for a refill was precisely so that as few as possible extremely sophisticated aircraft-murdering missiles would find their way into the hands of people who might be inclined to use them for purposes that aren't killing Hinds. Edit: on the other hand the FSA has some pretty secure-ish areas so I guess they don't actually need man-portable devices as desperately as the mujahideen did, they could get away with static or static-ish emplacements. So whatever, maybe just ship them an assload of AA guns or something. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Jun 13, 2012 |
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Jun 13, 2012 09:12
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Al-Saqr posted:Prince nayef bin abdel Aziz, heir to the Saudi throne and the extremely conservative head of both the intelligence services AND the religious police has died of illness, this is huge news and people feel both a huge shock since this is the second heir to die in the same year. ...Yeah, good riddance. Not that Mutaib's great, but pretty much anyone would have been a step up.
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Jun 17, 2012 20:46
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J33uk posted:I'm sure the Syrian people are just thrilled. Kill a few thousand of them? No problem, as long as the unfortunate international political problem goes away. This initiative will never get anywhere but what a loving tragic position to negotiate from. The Yemen model will once again attempt to be used in Syria and will once again fail. Again, I can't imagine a proposal more half assed than this. Beats a vicious civil war with a couple dozen more massacres that it's entirely possible the FSA will lose (with the attendant horrible results). Unfortunately, precisely BECAUSE it's not a foregone conclusion, there's no drat way Assad accepts terms. He can reasonably still expect to Kill loving Everybody and retain power.
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Jun 21, 2012 08:01
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Martin Random posted:Not exactly. Fox portrayed the MB as this super radical islamic party that would turn Egypt into this sharia law caliphate, while NPR called the MB a sort of grass roots service based moderate islamic organization. There never was any debate that I saw about MB having a serious ground game advantage over other contenders, but that's because they've been delivering the goods in the form of soup kitchens and neighborhood services for years and years. Which isn't to say there aren't theocratic goofballs in the Muslim Brotherhood, but not nearly as many (nor as crazy) as Fox portrays. Some of that may admittedly be due to al-Noor siphoning off the real lunatics, and it's plenty unsettling that a round-the-bend Salafist party got as much support as they did, and for that matter that the MB is playing ball with them regarding the constitution. But yeah, Fox misrepresented the situation because that was easier (and reflected worse on Obama) than the truth.
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Jun 22, 2012 07:53
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i poo poo trains posted:If your best-case scenario is sending in the CIA you might want to re-evaluate your thinking, really. Traditionally, the CIA is actually pretty good at the logistics of funneling money and guns to insurgent groups. It's just also famous for picking ill-considered ones to support.
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Jun 23, 2012 19:51
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Brown Moses posted:Ahmadinejad, if you believe the conspiracy theorists. Ahmadinejad's days may well be numbered, but not for any popular unrest reasons - rather because he's gone to some lengths to annoy and perturb the other power brokers in Iran. (I guess we might see an outside bet on somebody in the UAE but after Bahrain I'd place no bets on success.)
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Jul 6, 2012 22:55
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zero alpha posted:And he goes by "Spengler", which should give you a huuuge clue about his leanings. Maybe he just really likes Ghostbusters.
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Jul 25, 2012 00:09
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I'm not sure anyone not in the inner circles of Iraqi Kurdistan knows what they'll do in the event of a successful-ish breakaway in Syria - they're doing quite well for themselves as a stable autonomous substate with (tacit governmental and active economic) Turkish support, so I suspect they'd weigh the pros and cons of picking up their Syrian countrymen very, very carefully.
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Jul 27, 2012 02:56
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quote:3) Over time, allow new currencies to enter our market to compete as legal tender. Those currencies could be issued by the treasury OR private companies. The privately issued capital would be issued by new "central" banks (oxymoron, since no longer "central," but you understand the meaning - new creators of legal tender based on private markets) issuance of this capital would be controlled by government regulations to protect the economy from inflation and other unintended consequences of flooding the money supply, but would not be subject to the misaligned investment goals of the private fed and it's for profit member banks (its owners).  Somebody's not terribly familiar with the history of bank-issued currency. Edit: This is why starting halfway through is a bad thing (as is not remembering which thread I'm in!). I am impressed with the crazy on show in the first half of that. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Sep 9, 2012 |
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Sep 9, 2012 21:09
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McDowell posted:They care but there isn't much they can do about it since this is supposed to be a new era for Popular Sovereignty and a practical test of the NeoCon Democracy Agenda. The Suez thing is actually even bigger - the Mubarak regime was FAMOUSLY poo poo at running the Suez Authority, to the point that it wasn't uncommon for freighters to not know how much they (/their company) would have to pay until they arrived at the drat canal. It would be difficult for the new government to do worse, even if they prove to be both pants-on-head moronic and irredeemably corrupt (neither of which there is much evidence for yet).
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Nov 11, 2012 02:21
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Corny posted:Netanyahu wants to keep the lights off on the Israeli populace, so to speak. If it looks like he is doing something to protect Israel from 'un-warranted attacks' (you say israel bombed targets in the gaza strip before these attacks? shhh) he will be able to say that he is protecting Israel better than the "traitorous left-wing" will ever be able to (borrowing language from an assortment of ministers from Likud/YB) The weird thing about Hamas is that they're actually quite good at getting everyone to line up behind ceasefires when they sign them (albeit with the promise that they'll return the confiscated mortars and rockets after class). But they're still Hezbollah-esque assholes who get about half of their positive image from Standing Up To The Jewish Oppressors. Which yes, means that they may very well be perfectly happy to have Netanyahu in charge.
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Nov 14, 2012 21:41
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Crasscrab posted:
"Cultural Ambassador" is a nigh-meaningless title. It's a slightly more visible PR flack with somewhat less actual responsibilities.
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Nov 25, 2012 04:39
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The components wouldn't necessarily be fun to breathe but chemical weapons are not traditionally stored in their active form. Also, a bit of airborne dispersal from a storage site that's just been turned into a very large hole in the ground is probably preferable to chemical weapons or components thereof disappearing into the post-Assad resource roulette.
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Mar 6, 2013 18:04
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Can't speak for the others, but Poland seems to have gotten lucky in the transition - the guys who scooped up the privatization of the state (Jan Kulczyk, looking at you) were actually interested in advancing things rather than running them into the ground for a quick kleptocratic profit. Or at least that's the impression I got flipping through the shock doctrine craziness as a side note to some research on the country's infrastructure.
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Mar 12, 2013 22:40
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Evil Fluffy posted:Iran's president is little more than a talking head for Khomeini so don't expect anything to actually change with their elections. 1) Khameini. Khomeini's dead. 2) ...Kinda. Ahmadinejad's gone off the reservation in an excessively authoritarian direction at times (cf the protests around the last election), so it's not inconceivable a more moderate candidate might have some impact on anything the Guardian Council doesn't care enough about to stick its nose into.
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May 12, 2013 15:13
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Warcabbit posted:a Kurdish state carved out of Syria? (Yes, I know, never happen, but if I were Erdogan, I'd certainly be promising it in return for aid, if I were aiming at Syria.) On the one hand, Turkey's the biggest supporter of semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdistan (on the condition they don't support the PKK too much). On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure they want to keep setting that precedent.
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May 12, 2013 18:31
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Brown Moses posted:Brilliant, I'm now part of a shadowy cabal on Facebook that hates Israel, according this article, Yes, There Is an Anti-Israel Media Cabal and They All Meet on Facebook. Don't worry about that one, it's just a rumor spread by the lizard people.
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May 25, 2013 20:16
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Jut posted:So the status of the Arab Spring countries so far?  Aren't Tunisia and kinda-Libya still in comparatively good shape? Also, Yemen's kind of a different dynamic than the four "functional country with shithead dictator" cases. And Jordan is as always fine, thanks to the king as always making some preemptive concessions and generally being a cool dude. If you squint really hard you could also claim that Iran's been improved by the Arab Spring, seeing how it contributed to the chain of events that got Ahmadinejad to fall out of favor with the Guardian Council and their hangers-on. Baloogan, I'm really going to hope that's bullshit or incorrect by Al Jazeera.
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Aug 5, 2013 09:08
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Muscle Tracer posted:I can tell you right now that I'm not an NSA operative. Fuckers had their hiring budget slashed right when I got out of college, so infuriatingly, neither am I. 
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Aug 20, 2013 17:28
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Aurubin posted:Man people are going apeshit over Al Jazeera America. Gotta love ingrained racism and the self-censorship of US media outlets in their universal condemnation of Al Jazeera. This is loving enraging. I pay dramatically more attention to Al Jazeera than I do to most (all? does the Associated Press count?) American journalists. Also, you could make an argument that the network's existence results in some pushback against extremism. Distribution of unbiased-ish information does help. ...Maybe not against the folks pissed off about American imperialism :usa:, but possibly on some subset of the rural powerbase of Islamist groups.
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Aug 21, 2013 05:16
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Paul MaudDib posted:or start arming and funding who knows what kind of groups (which in the long run went Really Poorly for us in the Arab Spring). Citation needed? I'm pretty sure it's worked out just fine in the long run for us. Libya and Syria are about the only places we armed and funded who knows what kind of groups, and Libya's vaguely functional and landed really loving hard on extremists after the consulate thing. For that matter, pretty much all the places we DIDN'T arm and fund much of anybody (except the regime  ) are in alright condition from the West's perspective.Even Mali seems to have not quite imploded, and that mess was a direct side effect of weapons leaking from Libya. I'm pretty sure Syria would go less-well, but your parenthetical doesn't hold water.
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Aug 22, 2013 00:32
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farraday posted:I wouldn't really call it vaguely functional unless you're really a half is glass full kind of guy. To be fair, I am! Thanks for the oil terminal information. I'll read up on that.
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Aug 22, 2013 00:51
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Ardennes posted:I think it needs to be mentioned everything from the composition of the FSA and the various rebel groups doesn't point to them being able to handle a Libya. As much of an inveterate optimist I am about Libya and Tunisia (Carthage represent?), this a million times. I still prefer them to Assad under the circumstances but I don't really expect an outcome better than a Lebanon-style clusterfuck. Which would be appropriate in some ways, given that Syria was a (the?) major investor in keeping Lebanon a clusterfuck.
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Aug 28, 2013 01:47
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 I hope you are properly rewarded for your increasingly preposterous diligence. I'm sharing the poo poo out of your work on Facebook. 
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Aug 28, 2013 20:41
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Sergg posted:"start of tunnel that leads to secret underground chemical weapons storage bunker" I'm not loving making this up. Secret?
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Aug 28, 2013 20:52
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