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Brown Moses posted:ABC News just contacted me about my blog post about Tlass, seems the lack of actual information on him has made my blog a top result on Google. And I've got an even bigger story to come on him. Good grief, any more of this and soon you'll start charging us for the prime seat. I want my un-known Brown Moses back. (only kidding, with a new-born and a wife, you'll need all the dough you can get 
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Jul 7, 2012 10:27
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0l5togayig I swear Jordanian politics isn't usually so violent.
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Jul 7, 2012 13:00
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Xandu posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0l5togayig Wow, that looked like fun. Can we get some back ground on who/what is happening? What got them so riled up?
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Jul 7, 2012 14:26
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They're both Jordanian MPs and they're arguing about Syria, and then the guy on the right (pro-Assad, big surprise there) gets really angry and throws a shoe and then pulls his gun.
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Jul 7, 2012 14:31
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The one MP and the host got some brass balls to try to dissuade that one guy with the gun.
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Jul 7, 2012 14:39
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Young Freud posted:The one MP and the host got some brass balls to try to dissuade that one guy with the gun. Seriously, it's too bad the sound was cut because the way he just points his finger at the dude, after calmly putting his glasses away, at 1:16 is amazing.
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Jul 7, 2012 14:43
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Young Freud posted:The one MP and the host got some brass balls to try to dissuade that one guy with the gun. Open vacancies at Jordanian Radio and Television Corporation: Political Journalist Requirements: * bachelor or higher degree in journalism * at least 2 years work experience as a bouncer, bodyguard or riot police
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Jul 7, 2012 14:51
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A Libyan friend just posted this message- JUST VOTED IN LIBYA'S FIRST NATIONAL ELECTIONS SINCE THE FALL OF THE QADDAFI REGIME. A great feeling multiplied by the exuberant sense of joy expressed by the people on the street. After voting we rode to Martyrs' Square which was crowded with honking cars draped with fluttering flags. It was at least 90 degrees at 10:00 A.M. but people were still streaming in. I imagine a big party there tonight. Sad that so-called federalist thugs are trying to disrupt the elections in Benghazi, sad that the cradle of the revolution and country's living heart, Benghazi, is being robbed of the joy it deserved more than any other city in the country. The voting process was as orderly as any I'd participated in in the U.S. People stood in line, and they never stand in line. People talked about the issues, and did not reveal who they voted for. And below the sense of decorum and awareness of the importance of this moment, there was a sense of excitement and real joy that could not be con tainted. Women ululated and men shouted praise to God as they exited the voting stations. They pinned flags to their cars and honked their horns as they drove around the city. This is indeed a new era. Beyond the hope lies an awareness of potential, and despite an intuition steeped in corruption, there is a desire to do things fairly and properly. What's interesting about the elections, it seems to me, is that a collective experience of self-respect is reflecting itself on individuals. A social contract made up of individual signatories who must now feel bound by it. We shall see disturbances, and an aftershock of cynicism for sure, but a sea change has taken place. And all for the better, I hope, still.
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Jul 7, 2012 15:21
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One thing that seems So it went directly to, "pick your MP!"  without any serious discussion of what structure the people wanted.
zero alpha fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jul 7, 2012 |
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Jul 7, 2012 18:05
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All of those can be changed or reformed with a democratic mandate.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:20
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Annan: We have failed on Syria As if that wasn't obvious enough weeks/months ago.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:23
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And the people elected today will be responsible for writing the constitution and various other aspects of the new political system, so nothing is set in stone yet. Reports suggest things have gone well, and those areas where voting was disrupted will have there voting time extended and moved to other polling stations where ever necessary.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:25
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Section 31 posted:Annan: We have failed on Syria As if that wasn't obvious enough weeks/months ago. Kofi Annan is a do-nothing who tries to play nice with war criminals for fear of making people angry. You'd think that after the Rwandan Genocide people would realize that he simply has no business being in charge of peacekeeping anything. He's just too much of an optimist.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:31
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Kaal posted:Kofi Annan is a do-nothing who tries to play nice with war criminals for fear of making people angry. You'd think that after the Rwandan Genocide people would realize that he simply has no business being in charge of peacekeeping anything. He's just too much of an optimist. Kofi Annan makes Neville Chamberlain look like an interventionist warmonger. I really can't imagine why they even bothered to send him of all people to get Assad to stop.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:41
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Spiderfist Island posted:Kofi Annan makes Neville Chamberlain look like an interventionist warmonger. I really can't imagine why they even bothered to send him of all people to get Assad to stop. Annan makes inaction look good, that's why. It's the UN equivalent of letting an issue die in committee.
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Jul 7, 2012 18:43
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Never mind, stupid derail. Congrats Libya, this is a tremendous achievement and I wish you peace, stability and prosperity.
zero alpha fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jul 7, 2012 |
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Jul 7, 2012 19:25
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I feel that the Libyan elections aren't quite as dramatic as the Egyptian ones, since the Egyptian one was a battle between good and evil while in Libya it's just choosing between normal candidates since the all the people and the elements of the old regime has been killed, literally.
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Jul 7, 2012 19:52
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Al-Saqr posted:I feel that the Libyan elections aren't quite as dramatic as the Egyptian ones, since the Egyptian one was a battle between good and evil while in Libya it's just choosing between normal candidates since the all the people and the elements of the old regime has been killed, literally. It'll be interesting to see which country is a more stable democracy 5 or 10 years from now.
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Jul 7, 2012 20:08
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Spiderfist Island posted:Kofi Annan makes Neville Chamberlain look like an interventionist warmonger. I really can't imagine why they even bothered to send him of all people to get Assad to stop. Kofi Annan *has no powers*. The UN is *not a country*. And despite that, the brief semi-ceasefire he managed to produce was probably the most anyone has managed to do for Syria up to this point. Blaming Annan for anything is absolutely ridiculous. What's he supposed to do? Command the security council to declare an intervention?
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Jul 7, 2012 21:08
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Seeing reports of militias burning ballots.  What militia would that be?
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Jul 7, 2012 21:10
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Xandu posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0l5togayig Well I'll be, I didn't know they had Zell Millers in Jordan.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:14
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ufarn posted:Seeing reports of militias burning ballots. Some pro-Federalist groups caused some problems, but nothing really major. From what I've read most of the damage they did has been dealt with so no-one misses out on voting.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:27
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Brown Moses posted:Some pro-Federalist groups caused some problems, but nothing really major. From what I've read most of the damage they did has been dealt with so no-one misses out on voting.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:32
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No, unless you've heard of another incident. After at least one of those incidents the voters themselves blocked anyone who wasn't voting from going near the ballot place using cars as a barricade.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:38
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Here's my latest post on the weapons of the FSA, going to make it a regular feature, as it's a good way to track the weapons being used by the FSA and how their equipment is improving. This week, more mortars, more captured armour, and more truck mounted guns, plus some bonus bomb and rocket making.
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Jul 7, 2012 22:45
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Here's the latest of the Libyan electionquote:Jibril’s National Forces Alliance looks set for victory
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Jul 7, 2012 23:43
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Fangz posted:Kofi Annan *has no powers*. The UN is *not a country*. And despite that, the brief semi-ceasefire he managed to produce was probably the most anyone has managed to do for Syria up to this point. Blaming Annan for anything is absolutely ridiculous. What's he supposed to do? Command the security council to declare an intervention? He could start by not covering for Assad in the international community. He could have reported back to the UNSC that Syria was devolving into a sectarian conflict, and that Assad was killing thousands of innocents in order to stay in power. He could have used his peacekeeping forces to establish a temporary refugee conduit out of the country. Instead he dicked around for months talking about "maintaining the peace" when there was artillery raining down on cities. He finally came up with a six-point plan that had no basis on the facts on the ground and no one would ever agree to. He pulled the same crap with Rwanda, and allowed hundreds of thousands to be killed without even a voice of protest. Kofi Annan is the man who gets sent to difficult situations in order to do nothing about them.
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Jul 8, 2012 00:33
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Kaal posted:He could start by not covering for Assad in the international community. He could have reported back to the UNSC that Syria was devolving into a sectarian conflict, and that Assad was killing thousands of innocents in order to stay in power. You don't know what he told the Security Council. Consultations are closed. quote:He could have used his peacekeeping forces to establish a temporary refugee conduit out of the country. Instead he dicked around for months talking about "maintaining the peace" when there was artillery raining down on cities. No he couldn't have. First of all, he had no command over UNSMIS. Secondly, establishing a refugee conduit wasn't under the mandate of UNSMIS from the Security Council. az jan jananam fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 01:01
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To be honest i don't know what he could've done to avoid the civil war. He could call Assad every bad word in the dictionary, what would that do other than give the rebels moral support? A ground invasion is out of line, the Syrian army is simply too strong ( some of their forces have actual military training ) for that and supplying rebels with firearms is the only thing they can do, which i assume Turkey is already doing.And don't even say economic sanctions because i don't think those ever worked.
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Jul 8, 2012 02:14
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Mans posted:To be honest i don't know what he could've done to avoid the civil war. He could call Assad every bad word in the dictionary, what would that do other than give the rebels moral support? It also would have jeopardized Russian/Chinese support for UNSMIS, as they were intended to be a neutral party. In addition to endangering the lives of the unarmed monitors. Annan and UNSMIS were explicitly not there to forcibly stop a civil war in Syria and they had no real capability to do so. They were there to monitor and advocate/negotiate Syrian implementation of the plan which all parties nominally agreed to. az jan jananam fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 02:38
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Mans posted:A ground invasion is out of line, the Syrian army is simply too strong ( some of their forces have actual military training You mean like Iraq and its army? The difference in power between a military like Syria's and the US or a European power is several magnitudes apart. You'd be looking at a Russia vs Georgia scenario, even if it was just Turkey that invaded claiming retribution for the fighter pilots. Invading would be beyond stupid, but there's nothing Syria's military could do to stop it even if you ignore that they're being beaten by the uprising.
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Jul 8, 2012 03:15
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^^^^ While it's true any developed force could walk right into Aleppo, that uprising is no joke, and as soon as the invasion was over, it would be time to get out or you'll be fighting the remains of the Syrian Army, the FSA, and whoever jumps in to push out the invaders on their home front, and not many countries in this world, if any, could handle that for any extended amount of time. az jan jananam posted:It also would have jeopardized Russian/Chinese support for UNSMIS, as they were intended to be a neutral party. In addition to endangering the lives of the unarmed monitors. Well to be fair, they would've had that capability if Russia and the U.S. were on board. I'm not surprised to see the Syrian people throwing rocks at U.N. vehicles because it has to be frustrating, but I'm not really seeing the outcry against Putin I would expect from the international community, though I might just be missing it. If the roles were reversed, I could absolutely see the U.S. supporting Assad's regime if it benefited them and there was little public repercussion (Mubarak), so it's not about dem Russians, but it's pretty clear that Russia is the biggest wall between Syria and its independence. All that Kofi Annan hate needs to get redirected that way. Volkerball fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 03:40
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The international community won't direct its hate at Russia too much because it doesn't really want to have to intervene.
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Jul 8, 2012 03:42
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Volkerball posted:Well to be fair, they would've had that capability if Russia and the U.S. were on board. I'm not surprised to see the Syrian people throwing rocks at U.N. vehicles because it has to be frustrating, but I'm not really seeing the outcry against Putin I would expect from the international community, though I might just be missing it. Hillary Clinton has recently made diplomatically strong statements blaming Russia (and China) for the current situation. Everyone knows what Russia is doing and they are outraged. The reason there hasn't been a strong constant stream of invective towards Russia is because destroying cooperation amongst the P5, however limited, isn't a fruitful option. az jan jananam fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 03:54
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So how 'liberal', economically speaking, is this Mahmoud Jibril? Like Blair, or Clinton?
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Jul 8, 2012 04:14
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Syrian army would be a door mat at this stage, not only is fighting morale so low that even Republican Guard generals are fleeing from the country but there's also no real secure area for the army to operate from. Despite of all this, an invasion would require a large buildup of forces, which is expensive. In 2003 US and UK sent 200k soldiers to Iraq and even that wasn't a force large enough to pacify the nation or even secure all ammo dumps before they were looted by sectarian fighters and Ba'ath loyalists. Then there's the need to make sure that Syria doesn't try anything stupid out of desperation like vengeance strikes on Turkish or Israeli border towns. It's easier to support action against a country that can't physically get back at you.
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Jul 8, 2012 04:28
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Wouldn't a foreign force entering Syria be a great propaganda tool?
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Jul 8, 2012 05:51
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In the current situation it wouldn't have an effect on anybody's allegiances - at most it would be a catalyst so those who believe fiercely in the government would do more so, those who have no faith in the survival of the government would resign further away from it and those who want to see the government collapse would be even more enthusiastic about it. The bottom line is that propaganda doesn't stop tank battalions or even children that put hallucinogenics in their milk.
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Jul 8, 2012 06:44
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The best/worst thing about the Libyan elections is seeing all the bitter anti-interventionists trying their best to belittle the election, especially as their predicted winners, the Muslim Brotherhood, aren't doing very well. If they don't see al-Qaeda forcing sharia law onto everyone in Libya it'll shatter their worldview, so they need to find a new way to criticise the Libyan intervention. Lot's of "well elections and democracy don't mean much anyway."
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Jul 8, 2012 11:33
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Early indications are that the Jibril led liberal alliance, the National Forces Alliance is out performing the Islamist Justice and Construction party in most heavily populated areas. They've avoided the errors of the Egyptian and Tunisian liberals by forming a coalition party early on to ensure the vote wouldn't get split, and it seems to be working well.
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Jul 8, 2012 12:09
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