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I guess with the continued failure of peace plans and increases in sectarian violence and massacres it's good to remind all the factions who's the nearest world power so they make the appropriate overtones towards them.
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Jun 7, 2012 22:16
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I just heard a report today about Russian preparing 2 or 3 ships capable of amphibious assaults, potentially for sitting off Syria in case they need to evacuate the base there. Or so the public reason goes.
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Jun 19, 2012 18:37
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Banano posted:No, because they are merely combatants, therefore we can do absolutely anything we like to them. You can't surrender to helicopters so you're an active enemy combatant or a corpse. No compromise. vvv What the gently caress. Are you psycho? namesake fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Jul 19, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 01:08
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truth masseuse posted:I was just going to say, getting hit with a 30mm, the chances of your surviving a hit from just one of those is pretty low. So those guys on the ground are probably minutes or less from bleeding out, or shock. Better finish the job with aerial bombardment just to make sure then? loving hell. Euthanasia isn't a moral position when you inflict the initial mortal wound.
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Jul 19, 2012 01:17
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcArnepkhv0
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Aug 17, 2012 12:27
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I imagine that strategic maps are non-lethal aid meaning they're being passed over from the UK and the rest of Europe like chocolate.
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Oct 3, 2012 14:54
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SquadronROE posted:Multiple revolutions isn't unheard of. The French had something like 4. Here's hoping for a permanent revolution heh. Also: Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad says in a tweet a "full military coup" is under way in Egypt. "Tanks have started moving through the streets," he writes.
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Jul 3, 2013 17:09
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This shows the actual voting pattern much better:  The USSR was not terribly active in vetoing stuff after 1966, looks like it's done less than the UK from 66-85.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:21
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Any reason Iranians produce armaments in english except for lingua franca?
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Dec 18, 2013 21:33
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More of an unsafe really. Are there any up to date maps about who controls what in Syria? What are the best sources for seeing what everyday life is like across the country?
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Jan 1, 2014 19:12
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visceril posted:So, yeah sorry for the ultra-depressive post; it's frustrating that people have devolved into infighting BEFORE the old regime was actually overthrown. The less armed and ideologically opposed groups that exist at the end of the struggle, the more quickly a stable society will emerge (of course whether it's a fair, non-repressive society is still unknown but that will always be true). If this infighting is meaning Assad is now more likely to win then that's a cause for concern but otherwise getting them out now will hopefully be for the best. Also repeating my request for any reports of 'day in the life of an average Syrian'.
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Jan 6, 2014 13:36
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more friedman units posted:Okay, question. So ISIS has been effective because they can field relatively well-organized fighters who are fanatical and experienced, right? How are they keeping their forces staffed when they seem to be oriented towards extremely aggressive tactics? By winning? It's a momentum thing: successful operation -> more fighters live/join -> opposition demoralised, give up more easily -> more successful operations, etc.
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Jan 7, 2014 12:37
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The Nazi party only ever obtained minority seats in the parliament, Hitler was handed overall power by stupid and scared conservatives who were in control.
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Jan 19, 2014 22:52
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Libluini posted:What the gently caress are you talking about? The NSDAP won the March 1933 elections (which I was talking about) handily. They got 43,9% of the popular vote and ended up the strongest party in 33 of 35 electoral wards. Their enemies ended up with the "minority seats"! They won 288 seats and needed 324 for a majority, so I guess you're right that they were fairly elected (as the majority party in a coalition) but that's not a resounding indicator of popularity. namesake fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jan 19, 2014 |
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Jan 19, 2014 23:27
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Without Hitler and Stalin, anarchists and libertarian socialists liberate Spain ushering in the start of the global workers state. By God I think you're onto something.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:10
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New Division posted:I wonder what's going to happen with the Kurdish portion of Syria. It's setting out on an independent course that no one wants to acknowledge. So like Iraq it'll basically set its own borders in the chaos and then probably be ushered into an under the table autonomy by the weak victor of the rest of the country.
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Jan 23, 2014 00:50
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Well, so much for the hopes people had about moderate Syrian groups being able to use Iraq as a distraction for ISIS and Shiite militias and make their own gains I guess.
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Jun 30, 2014 20:36
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Kurtofan posted:What's going on in this video? It's a phone app which calculates firing trajectories for artillery.
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Jul 12, 2014 19:12
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Xandu posted:Well if you're going to claim they're fake and wrong, what exactly is wrong with them? Created for the benefit of foreign administrative and political ease rather than by local administrative and political desire? That doesn't mean another more local force redefining them is going to be better though.
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Jul 12, 2014 20:17
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DrProsek posted:How would that plan even work, "Hey guys, Assad is using chemical weapons on his own civilians! We need to send guns to the rebels to stop the crazy dictator!" *a few months pass* "Hey guys, that crazy dictator is alright, send him guns to defeat those other rebels!" Minus the chemical weapon and arming the rebels in the first place this is pretty much the USAs approach to Egypt, so yeah.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:32
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i am harry posted:I love that they immediately cover their stolen million dollar American machines in garbage cans and assorted blankets. Well what would you expect? Paint bullseyes on the top?
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Jul 14, 2014 14:08
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^^^It can have severe reproductive and other medical consequences.Xandu posted:And more importantly, ISIS is still fighting to hold onto its territory and Baghdadi's top priority is apparently issuing a decree calling for all women to be mutilated. As though there's nothing else to worry about. The international community is hardly rushing to aid the Iraqi government though, and their counter attacks are not succeeding and fueled by equally sectarian militias. The IS honestly seem to have bitten off as much as they can chew and are acting accordingly by starting to govern the areas they control according to their principles, not to mention the recruiting benefits that such statements create. They are a theological militant movement, not a pillaging mercenary band.
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Jul 21, 2014 23:47
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Cippalippus posted:So entirely expected and not newsworthy that virtually every news outlet in the world reported it. Besides, the chances that you're an expert on English demographics (or an expert on anything that isn't cheetos) are less than one in a trillion, so please don't tell us that you're "aware of the cultural trends that cause them". Hello I'm English, have a BBC link and you're a terrible person/poster. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23663337 
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Aug 27, 2014 18:45
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fade5 posted:What the hell do you do when you've tried basically every possible approach, and all of them have failed? Diplomacy and a foreign policy not based around neo-colonialism, flat out imperialism or economic domination.
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Aug 31, 2014 00:06
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Kaal posted:Read: Vaguely tell other people to do things while we all sit back and see how things shake out, aka the Assad Option. No you're right, we have a right to maintain our spheres of influence.
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Aug 31, 2014 00:19
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Kaal posted:Yeah that whole non-interventionist stance is working really well over in Syria right now. I mean sure the place is going to hell in a handbasket and tens of thousands are dying while the global oil economy is threatened by the rise of ISIS, but at least no one can accuse us of being colonialists! Hey nothing's a perfect solution but I think the evidence that going in guns blazing without longstanding relationships of mutual trust and co-operation with actual locally and popular movements across the whole region doesn't even slightly work and instead creates horrible strongmen regimes and reactionary rebellions.
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Aug 31, 2014 00:41
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Ardennes posted:That said, they are the groups with the most limited objectives as well, the want to defend Kurdish territory and thats about it. That may be the most ambitious objective that can actually be achieved without allowing imperialists a free reign, empowering other reactionaries or just causing/feeding another clusterfuck of a regional conflict costing more lives.
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Sep 14, 2014 15:33
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For a group consisting of tens of thousands of active soldiers with no standard level of training or experience the IS is not breaking under these airstrikes yet, either they won't be effective and the internal dynamics of IS can weather the bombing or they'll need to continue to pick off all easy available targets like opposition towns to maintain internal cohesion through news of victory. I don't know which. Also the bombing of oil infrastructure means that the USA considers the workings of IS to be more like a state than an insurgency, they're undermining their economic basis to continue their war effort rather than just attacking military elements.
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Sep 25, 2014 05:58
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Unlearning posted:Wondering what people in this thread think about this blog post, '5 Myths About ISIS', arguing for the pro-intervention side. I admit my knowledge is nowhere near extensive enough to comment, but the post seems pretty fact-based and persuasive, even if some underlying interventionist assumptions are left unexplored (eg the assumption that intervening is justified just because it might decrease violence). He appears to be saying that the US literally needs to redo the Iraq War, go in, kill the bad guys, occupy the place with US troops until it's stable enough to be without US military presence. My counter argument: The Iraq War.
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Oct 7, 2014 23:45
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Have the plummeting oil prices had any noticeable impact on IS' operations yet or have they now diversified enough and have enough territory to offer the fortune seekers enough rewards or no other choice?
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Dec 1, 2014 20:05
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HarlanHell posted:These guys weren't some doe eyed innocents caught up in a conflict they didn't understand. Before they went over they knew that suicide bombings, kidnappings, beheadings, and terror came with joining up. I seriously doubt most of them want to come home because they object to the violence against innocent people, or any of what IS is doing. Most of them want to come home, because living in a war zone being hunted by the most advanced military's on earth is a hard lifestyle. They had their adventure, they got their street cred with the local radicalized community back home, and now they want out, because its much more comfortable to support jihad from their couch. Expecting them to understand and accept the full horrors (and boredoms) of war before they go is stupid, for plenty of them they're suddenly not the hero they thought they would be, they're isolated and scared shitless, surrounded by locals who probably don't give them much support or are too afraid of them to treat them like humans. Any government which was serious about stopping the flow of their citizens to go to Syria and Turkey would have one message for these people: Get your arse to Turkey or the Kurds if you can't get that way, surrender yourself to them saying you're a Western citizen and within a week you'll be in a comfortable secure location with access to televisions and communication with friends and family. All you have to do is tell us exactly how you were radicalised, who convinced you, who you communicated with, how you got passage to Turkey or whatever, who you met there, what training did they give you, what weapons did they have, what other nationalities were you with, where were you stationed, where were any hostages that you saw kept, etc. If they do all of that then they're allowed to return home, utterly a pariah from the radical community they just sold out, probably with some sort of monitoring order and limited travel restriction for a year or so and free to report all the horrible poo poo that happened over there to the media as a start of their new life. Instead we've got kneejerk TERRORIST legislation meaning it's impossible for these people to return home and not be terrorists any more and no insight into the psychology or capabilities of IS and their networks to actually stop it happening.
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Dec 4, 2014 19:25
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Al-Saqr posted:A act of murder against a lovely unfunny French racism comic elicited more outrage than the fact that everything you do and say on the internet, Skype, phone, and mobile phones are recorded and monitored 24/7 and stored in a server somewhere in Langley, something far more dangerous to the average Frenchman than a few kooks and crazies here and there. Also I bet the French wont bother to stop arming extremely repressive despots and apartheid governments, who are the essence of all the problems out there. The media turns the public debate into whether the state should increasing restrict your speech or restrict your religion to avoid all the messy questions about imperialism leading to jihadis existing in the first place and why they target anything French at all and then the various states move in to do both for their own benefits.
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Jan 12, 2015 19:16
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Can I interject with the point that even presuming the intention of the cartoons was sympathetic to the Muslims depicted (easy to do with the sex slaves of Boko Haram, harder to do with mocking the massacre victims) they were still often depicted as racist caricatures (i.e. black person as a monkey) and the fact that they were supposed to be mocking the far right who have those views doesn't excuse the cartoonists from using that racist imagery in the first place?
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Jan 12, 2015 22:22
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McDowell posted:If CH was for a global audience and global tastes I could see what you mean, but it seems they were fairly niche prior to this (wasn't their circulation something like 70,000, in addition to being in french) Taste of the audience is irrelevant otherwise it's ok to be racist as hell if you're courting the racist audience. quote:The agency of a person who picks up a gun, aims, and fires should never be discounted (the manufacture of the gun matters, too). The perpetrators are dead - an approximation of justice and closure should be the tone now. If we really want to see an end to bloodshed we should aim to honor the secular and fraternal values that come into contrast when individuals attempt to impose their will on the world in the worst possible way. Just to be clear on this, even if it is racist they did not deserve to get killed over it. However I feel your second sentence needs to apply more to states and authorities (the actions of violent imperialism) even more than these shooters and is the main issue to be taken from these sad events. Nenonen posted:Maybe you should first ask their subjects if they're okay with the cartoons? Eg. Mrs. Taubira? Otherwise you're just conjecturing. Isn't this just saying 'I can't be racist because I have black friends'? Even if it's aimed at a specific person of colour, other people of that colour can be offended and doesn't make the action justified. Agnosticnixie posted:The Boko Haram slaves caricatures look like slightly tanner version of their usual caricatures of french people. Your equivocation of the caricature of Taubira as a monkey to illustrate what the FN was saying in private and implying throughout the Rassemblement Bleu Marine mess, something which Taubira herself reacted positively to, with the other stuff is pretty much a ridiculous decontextualized sleight of hand. I think you have to explain why they aren't in the same context, what with them being presented in exactly the same way.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:51
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Cat Mattress posted:It's not a question of the audience's taste, which is whether they'll like it or not. It's a question of the audience's ability to understand what you want to convey; without things getting lost in translation due to different cultural backgrounds, different references, different ways to handle second degree and irony... No, sod the intended audience entirely; are the French Muslim population content with a section of the French public saying 'No seriously I'm laughing WITH this stereotypical image of Muslims, not at them' amid an every day cultural experience of exclusion and state repression? Is it not just another (admittedly fairly minor) example of racism being acceptable in general discourse? I say yes. Agnosticnixie posted:It's absolutely not; there's significant differences in presentation; for one the Rassemblement Bleu Racist one is meant to look like what a serious FN publication would have. Seriously? Please show me some examples, because unless you're right it's literally just using their logo in the corner (maybe their font?) and is most definitely a Charlie Hebdo cartoon and I'd say it's you who's trying to decontextualise them.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:20
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Agnosticnixie posted:Not what I said. It's not an imitation of a FN thing I can find or remember off the top of my head, but the "Rassemblement Bleu" title makes it really blatantly obvious who this thing is aimed at and lampooning. The fact that you still insist on digging in heels about the Taubira caricature is pretty ridiculous. Wait you mean satire is trying to lampoon something!?! MY GOD THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! Look this is not difficult (or at least I thought it wasn't), even a well intended satirical piece seen exclusively by a receptive audience can contain racist elements which should not just get a nod and a wave from those who take anti-racism seriously. Saying it was racist is not saying they got what they deserved or that it should have been banned, merely that their caricatures should be seen as such and receive an appropriate reaction (i.e. criticism of the actions of the French state and wider imperialism to allow this extreme reaction to the cartoons to exist in the first place rather than debates about Enlightenment values and free speech against bigoted portrayals of Islam, which as I already said just allow the state to further police both speech and religion).
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Jan 12, 2015 23:33
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Glenn Zimmerman posted:Ok, this has been bugging me for a while, but what percentage of your posts are of your own creation? Do you subscribe to any particular thinktanks, political scientists, or anything? I'm not familiar with any that spouts this stuff, anyway. He isn't advocating a political position, he's Pax Americana with an account.
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Jan 15, 2015 22:18
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A Winner is Jew posted:So since all the AQ/ISIS poo poo mostly starts at radicalized mosques... is there anything being done to combat that at all? I think 'mostly' would be very hard to demonstrate. General lived experience of oppressed persons will cause them to seek answers to their troubles and there are plenty of avenues they could go, the fact that they're frequently targeted for their religion is what will cause them to tend towards a jihadi path.
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Mar 19, 2015 22:34
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Baloogan posted:Is there a book that covers the arab spring to the current chaos? Specifically focusing on what the bad guys are actually doing? Occupying and operating government facilities.
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May 23, 2015 16:03
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