Middle East Thread of Despair: More Broken Than Syria

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Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Xandu posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f9D6cDIu0E&feature=g-all-u

Supposedly the victims of the massacre in al-Tremseh.

That's really painful to watch, even more so considering how they're all laid out on the ground to be photographed by cell phones.

In case anyone was wondering, the narrator says "Martyrs of the Tremseh massacre, 12-7-2012... God is great... God is great..."

# ¿ Jul 13, 2012 15:50

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:00

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Xandu posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTp2X8dPAnk

"No peace and no watermelon (?), we want bullets and rockets."

I guess the "no x and no watermelon" is a common phrase in arabic.

It's not - "no x and no acorn" is what I've heard. "Watermelon" rhymes with "rockets" and I guess that's all they're going for (besides saying that peace is as desirable as watermelons to them).

E: why is Arabic script on Awful not working...

Tardigrade fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jul 16, 2012

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 23:38

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Toplowtech posted:

I would be more concerned by what will happen in Lebanon.

Nasrallah has already made it clear that poo poo will go down if Assad does.

Right now, things seem quiet. For now.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2012 17:13

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Capt Murphy posted:

Israel will join the fun the moment they feel threatened - and a Hezbollah coup falls under that heading.

A Hezbollah coup is threatening to everyone except Hezbollah. I'm certainly apprehensive of it, given that Lebanon will fall like a house of cards. Sectarianism is a bad, bad thing.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2012 18:12

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

HGH posted:

And we haven't gotten electricity for almost... 3 weeks I think? Aoun is still causing trouble, and I don't think backup generators/motors are going to last for a few months straight.

The electricity thing is getting everyone's hackles up, especially now when the air conditioning cuts off and we all wake up in sweltering heat. No wonder major events tend to happen in the summer.

What's Aoun's stance on current events?

# ¿ Jul 19, 2012 15:57

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

RIP Vilerat, and my condolences to his family.

gently caress the ones who made the video, gently caress the rioters, and gently caress the politicians who will use this for their own ends.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2012 15:53

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Guiness13 posted:

To be fair, it looks like theirs is probably going to be closed now, too.

Probably not. There were branches in several areas.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2012 18:25

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

ryan8723 posted:

Good god man, the object of military technology to allow your country to kill others without putting any soldier in harm's way. The future of warfare is robotics and AI. There will come a time when we will not need infantry at all to do precision strikes.

If you want a personal connection to war by purposely putting soldiers in vulnerable positions then you're a naive idiot who is out of touch with what the majority of people want. Americans don't want to have any soldiers die, but they want results. The only way to do this is with an increased use of technology to get soldiers out of the battlefield.

The disparity between the haves and have nots is going to get enormous this century because of the above too. At some point it wouldn't surprise me to see fully unmanned tanks, vehicles, movable turrets that have legs or tracks. The opposing force might never see an American soldier in some battles.

But they don't have that technology. They can easily be massacred by war robots designed to kill as emotionlessly and efficiently as possible and produce those "results" of yours.

If both sides were slugging it out with unmanned robots, then I'd agree with you.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2012 20:56

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Myrdhale posted:

He, like many others, is only exposed to Muslims through the Media when something get broken. It's ignorant, but sadly not uncommon.

It would be like saying every single person from Alabama was like George Wallace, or that all Christians bomb abortion clinics.

I think the problem, at least for an outsider, is that the events you mentioned are done by scattered individuals, while those are riots with (what appears to be) lots of people.

E: vvv You think the average outsider exposed to Muslims through the media has context?

Tardigrade fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Sep 19, 2012

# ¿ Sep 19, 2012 17:44

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

ThePutty posted:

Why do you think much of the population in the West seems to pay no attention to Syria? At least you have the UN paying attention, ineffective as that's proven to be, but if you went and asked some regular person on the street about what's happened in the Middle East over the past 2 years, they wouldn't have an idea. Are all of these changes really that uninteresting?

It's just those crazy Arabs killing each other, who gives a gently caress.

E: yes, I was being sarcastic, in case it wasn't obvious. It's hard to get any public interest when the US isn't directly involved. :smith:

# ¿ Oct 18, 2012 16:07

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

HGH posted:

Explosion hit pretty hard in Ashrafieh. From the reports so far, there have been no deaths, only injuries, but the area is in total chaos, what with being a large square in a fairly popular neighborhood.
Target is presumed to either be Bank Bemo or a March 14th party office of some sorts. The interior minister just arrived on the scene too.
If you've got the LBC channel, they're currently providing live coverage of the event.

BBC has 8 deaths and 70 wounded now. Please let this not be the revolution forcibly spilling into Lebanon, that's the last thing it needs. :smith:

# ¿ Oct 19, 2012 14:42

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Baloogan posted:

What the world needs now is Team America: World Police~!

Would foreign intervention even do anything productive at this point? I really want to hope for the best, but Syria looks like it's slipping into anarchy that could mire an army indefinitely. Certainly, any outside forces wouldn't be warmly received.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2013 02:40

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Well this is bad. Explosions and gunfire in Tripoli.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2013 21:16

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

HGH posted:

So, should me and my family evacuate from Lebanon or wait a while before doing that? I don't want to risk another 2006...

You should be fine as long as you stay out of Hezbollah-controlled areas, since obviously those will be the ones targeted. Also bridges. And try to avoid having anything near your place that looks like it could be rockets.

Otherwise it's a long exercise in getting used to the sound of bomb explosions, warplane roars, and the infernal din of drones.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2013 17:26

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Brown Moses posted:

You know what there's not enough of in modern warfare? Trebuchets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuSl3w03UdM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93QmLk9JCAA

Holy poo poo that's impressive. Are they that desperate? Is there anything particular they're targeting? It doesn't look particularly accurate.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2013 20:12

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Brown Moses posted:

Meanwhile in Syria

Supposedly Hezbollah is heavily involved in fighting in that region, so it'll be interesting to see what happens next.

This is very worrisome. Is this the first time the Syrian army issues a warning to civilians? Whatever it is they're planning, it looks like it's going to be indiscriminate.

Brown Moses posted:

The latest from Kafranbel

I can see how those would be game-changing. Hezbollah would be able to penetrate deeper behind enemy lines than ever before.

# ¿ May 10, 2013 19:40

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

New Division posted:

I always thought it resembled Lebanese Civil War on steroids. It might reignite that war too.

Full-scale Israel intervention and the party's complete.

Dragging Lebanon into it seems to be Hezbollah's goal, and I really hope that doesn't happen - Lebanon doesn't need another war to add to its list of wars, especially not another bloody sectarian conflict. I've already been told by one friend that he canceled his yearly visit to Lebanon, looks like everyone's scared and waiting to see what's next.

# ¿ May 14, 2013 23:07

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Sethmaster posted:

My guts tells me we will sooner witness a herd of flying pigs over our skies than that ever happening.

Not exactly asking for Israel's help, but this happened during the 2006 war.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 16:23

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Meanwhile, there's been a car bomb in Dahieh?

Nobody seems to have owned up yet, but it looks like another Syrian attack on Hezballah (Dahieh being the Hezballah suburb of Beirut). Or could it be something else? :tinfoil:

quote:

But Hizbullah MP Ali Ammar told al-Manar that the blast was carried out by the supporters of the so-called American-Israeli project.

There[sic] attack �bears Israeli fingerprints,� he said as he inspected the damage.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 19:17

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

MothraAttack posted:

In other news, it appears there might have just been a very large explosion in a predominately Shia suburb of southern Beirut.

edit: Early speculation suggests it was near a Hezbollah security complex. Picture of the aftermath emerges. My guess is that the initial "One dead, three injured," Reuters is citing will increase a bit.

Friday has been announced as a national day of mourning. Over 20 dead and many more wounded according to reports.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 19:17

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Volkerball posted:

There's also a massive storm passing through the region, which is awful considering hundreds of thousands of refugees are living in plastic tents.

The storm was given the name Alexa, incidentally. The Ministry of Education closed schools today and tomorrow in anticipation of it. And the authorities are apparently mobilizing aid for the refugees? If they're in the Beqaa the weather will be worst there.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:32

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

An explosion just went off in Beirut. Near Bank Audi/downtown. Car bomb apparently.

E: target was Muhammad Shattah, Sunni and former Minister of Finance. With the Hariri case ongoing, the perpetrators are obvious.

E2: Syria, obviously, wasn't clear on that.

Tardigrade fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Dec 28, 2013

# ¿ Dec 27, 2013 09:01

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

New Lebanon explosion, this time in (Hezballah region) Dahieh. The New Year is starting with a bang, depressingly enough.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 15:49

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Fader Movitz posted:

secreterian conflicts.

What's a secreterian conflict like anyway?

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 20:54

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

More altercations in Beirut.

BBC posted:

Fresh clashes have erupted in Lebanon's capital Beirut among supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanese troops were deployed after a number of casualties were reported in a predominantly Sunni Muslim area.

The clashes come after more than a week of factional violence in the northern city of Tripoli that has left 25 dead.

The fighting there is between supporters of Syria's rebels and those backing Mr Assad's Alawite sect.

Mr Assad has been fighting a three-year uprising against his rule. More than 100,000 have been killed since the conflict began.

Sunday's fighting broke out before dawn.

The state-run National News Agency quoted Shaker Birjawi, head of the pro-Assad Arab Movement Party, as saying four of his followers were wounded.

The army deployed troops to the area and the clashes appear to have decreased.

They follow more than a week of violence in Tripoli.

Battles there have raged between members of the predominantly Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Muhsin, which is populated mainly by Alawites, the heterodox sect of President Assad,

The war in Syria has exacerbated tensions between the two districts in the northern port city.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2014 14:59

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Phlegmish posted:

It's a good public relations move, he's purposely trying to present himself as a protector of religious minorities against jihadi terrorists. That's also why the regime highlighted the murder of that Dutch priest a while back.

It's kind of his main selling point. All the Christians I know are 100% in support of Assad, primarily because he did manage to keep minorities unpersecuted. That and the media is playing up the brutality of the rebels and "if they win you'll all be slaughtered".

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 17:38

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

HGH posted:

Welp, nice to see Lebanon's on the shitlist even for ISIS. I suppose we're a package deal with Syria and Israel.

ISIS presumably believes in Greater Syria. :v:

# ¿ Jul 8, 2014 01:19

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Friendly Factory posted:

Archaeology and the Taliban have a lovely legacy together. I could write an effort post but I doubt anyone gives a poo poo. Basically, archaeologists are shortsighted as hell and lack human decency ethically far too often. It boils down to whether you'd rather have a few statues of Buddha destroyed or give the Taliban millions of dollars to stop them from doing it. Archaeology is too often a study in human objectification.

Archaeologists have millions of dollars to give the Taliban? News to me, I wish I had that when I was doing fieldwork.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2014 05:00

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

bagual posted:

I was under the impression that Arab nations have a massive pickle with turks because of centuries of Ottoman domination? I'm not actually too well versed in mid-east political imaginary, but i think most Arab states would throw a fit over turkish intervention, and i guess the local population wouldn't be very supportive either.

Yeah, there's still lingering anti-Ottoman sentiment, not sure how serious it would be. It's especially notable in Armenians for justifiable reasons, to the point where Lebanese Armenians said they were siding with Hezballah because they're Shia, unlike the Future party which is Sunni (therefore like the Turks).

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 01:28

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Obliterati posted:

Can someone explain this new term 'Daesh' to me? Is it just another word for IS/ISIS?

داعش
الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام

It's a much better acronym than the real-word Isis, and it ticks them off too, so it's a win-win.

E:

Svartvit posted:

The alif in the acronym also corresponds to the alif in islamiyya?

Yeah, the i in English. Formatting turned out wonky on that one.

Tardigrade fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Sep 25, 2014

# ¿ Sep 25, 2014 20:42

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

What's stopping them from bulldozing the Ka'ba? I mean, obviously, beyond the revenue in pilgrims, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's yet another thing the hardliners want. Daesh wanted to do that too, if I recall correctly.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2014 21:52

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

CommieGIR posted:

I fully expect his next announcement to be "Moon made of cheese, and we landed there before the US"

It's almost as if he's intentionally trying to be cartoonishly evil. Probably will demand to be known as Fearless Leader in his next announcement.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2014 19:00

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Ardent Communist posted:

The Mongols did massacre people, but that was only after giving them two chances to surrender.

The warnings were pretty scary too. They sent this one to Qutuz of Cairo.

quote:

From the King of Kings of the East and West, the Great Khan. To Qutuz the Mamluk, who fled to escape our swords. You should think of what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the disorders that tainted it. We have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people. You cannot escape from the terror of our armies. Where can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand. Fortresses will not detain us, nor armies stop us. Your prayers to God will not avail against us. We are not moved by tears nor touched by lamentations. Only those who beg our protection will be safe. Hasten your reply before the fire of war is kindled. Resist and you will suffer the most terrible catastrophes. We will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God and then will kill your children and your old men together. At present you are the only enemy against whom we have to march.

It did not go over well.

quote:

Qutuz responded, however, by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on Bab Zuweila, one of the gates of Cairo.

Long story short, the Mamluks then proceeded to hand the Mongols their first real military defeat.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 21:26

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Vernii posted:

I've never heard of that, got a decent summary of how the war went?

Phoneposting right now, but Wikipedia has a good writeup, and far as I remember Amin Maalouf had a chapter on the subject (cf. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ain_Jalut

Also notable because it paved the way for Baibars' rise to power, and effectively the end of the crusader presence in the Levant.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 22:08

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

A friend posted this on Facebook, I felt it was appropriate for the thread as the year draws to a close.

"Daesh" wishes you a merry Christmas

Stay safe. :smith:

E: vvv of course it's not daesh themselves, if that wasn't clear.

Tardigrade fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Dec 25, 2014

# ¿ Dec 25, 2014 02:23

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

HGH posted:

I can't believe it's been 10 years already. It's depressing to know that there'll never ever be someone that could live up to Hariri, at least not in the current climate.
I want to be mad at incompetence in this whole issue but, in reality, there's no fighting Hezbollah here. It's like some horrible blood-sucking tick that can't be removed. The accused/defendants are probably beyond any organizations reach right now, short of razing the country to the ground, which isn't so improbable considering our neighbors.

Anyway, those bastards are still blocking the elections here. It's gonna be 8 months with no president soon.

Hey, at least we can claim to be a country capable of running without a president, right? :smith:

Kurds carving a chunk out of Syria seems like a good idea, at least until Syria decides to annex* Lebanon in retaliation and raze Kurdistan into unidentifiable rubble.

*_{at least, depending on who you ask, Lebanon has always been part of Greater Syria, how dare you insinuate otherwise?}

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 16:32

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

MothraAttack posted:

loving ISIS apparently just demolished the temple of Baal in Palmyra.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baalshamin

Going out on a limb here and guessing they don't recognize the influence of Northwest Semitic beliefs on the Abrahamic faiths.

Even if they did they wouldn't care. They'd be joining Saudi Arabia in bulldozing any ancient building associated with Muhammad.

Bait and Swatch posted:

Anyone have a good source on the background of the current protests? Like what has happened over the last year or so that lead up to this? With everything else going on, I haven't paid attention to Lebanon beyond a documentary on some border towns.

Short version: no president and lots of garbage.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2015 14:22

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Xandu posted:

Yeah but I mean DAISH means the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

And so does ISIS?

Daesh sounds a lot funnier in Arabic, at any rate.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 19:39

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

fade5 posted:

Original-sized picture I put on imgur, any chance someone in the thread can translate it?

Seems to be a list of security guards on the western sector.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2016 18:48

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:00

Tardigrade: Jul 13, 2012; Half arthropod, half marshmallow, all cute.

Gobbeldygook posted:

Does everyone in Lebanon still pay the generator mafia for electricity?

Yes, that isn't going to change any time soon (currently have two emergency sources of power besides national electricity).

Garbage crisis isn't leaving either. Aounsplainers were saying words to the effect of "it's not the president's job to deal with the garbage, you poor ignoramus".

# ¿ Nov 1, 2016 13:13

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