The War on Terror /Central Asia/Mid East/Africa thread

[stip]

It will favor the Rs. It happened under a democrats watch, and even though Hilary might be a bit more hawkish her party and her base won't necessarily be singing the same tune. National Security issues would be a great issue for Republicans to rally around--and trump's unhinged bellicosity would play great to a population seeking revenge.

[bada]

Despite your political bent and I can't imagine anyone can listen to Hillary speak about foreign affairs and not be impressed by her breadth of knowledge compared to any of the other candidates.

[stip]

Not that kind of election, not that kind of electorate, especially when everyone's backs are understandably up due to fear.

[Henery Hawk]

That JV team sure is a pesky bunch

[bada]

Not that kind of election, not that kind of electorate, especially when everyone's backs are understandably up due to fear.

I have a hard time imagining Trump not getting exposed as a Sarah Palinesque intellect in a one on one debate with Hillary on foreign policy. I don't think a minority of the GOP base can push someone into office that can't find Syria on a map. The lefts fear of Trump feels more like not wanting to jinx their favorite team as opposed to any sort of reality.

[stip]

People respond to strength and confidence, not nuance. In fact, nuance is seen as a sign of weakness.

Not everyone, obviously, but large numbers of voters. Trump promises certainty.

[stip]

Candidate responses to the Belgium attacks

[bada]

People respond to strength and confidence, not nuance. In fact, nuance is seen as a sign of weakness.

Not everyone, obviously, but large numbers of voters. Trump promises certainty.

Maybe my opinion of the general electorate is too high.

[Green Habit]

People respond to strength and confidence, not nuance. In fact, nuance is seen as a sign of weakness.

Next time someone asks me whether I'd consider running for public office, I should just say I'm too nuanced for the job.

[simple schoolboy]

That JV team sure is a pesky bunch

We're going to multiculti good and hard, and thats all we're going to say about that.

[McParadigm]

People respond to strength and confidence, not nuance. In fact, nuance is seen as a sign of weakness.

Not everyone, obviously, but large numbers of voters. Trump promises certainty.

Certainty. Like Bush '04, faith healing, and advanced leukemia.

[Mine]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgi ... SKCN0WQ1NY

Brussels suicide bomber Najim Laachraoui was a nice, intelligent boy, his brother said on Thursday, and gave no warning signs of being radicalised before he left for Syria in 2013 and broke all contact with his family.

Laachraoui, a 25-year-old Belgian, was one of Tuesday's suicide bombers, security sources have told local media. A veteran Islamist fighter in Syria, he is also suspected of making explosive belts for last November's Paris attacks.

No one in the family saw any change in his attitude before the day he called them to say he had left for Syria, his 20-year-old brother Mourad said. They also have no clue as to what could have led him to be radicalised, he said.

"He was a nice boy, and above all he was clever, that's what I remember of him," Mourad said of his brother, who graduated in electromechanics. The last time he saw Najim, he told a news conference, he looked "normal."

The family warned the police in 2013 when Najim told them he was in Syria, Mourad said. The police visited them at the time and came back to search their home after the November 2015 Paris attacks.

Mourad, who said he was deeply saddened by the November attacks, said he never saw his brother with their suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, another Belgian, or anyone else involved in the Paris or Brussels carnage.

Najim was religious, as is the family, Mourad said, adding that he would do everything possible to make sure his three younger siblings still at school do not become radical.

Mourad is a taekwondo athlete who has represented Belgium in European and world competitions, Belgium's ABFT taekwondo federation said on its website.

"It's crazy, really - the same parents, the same upbringing, and one turns out really well and the other really bad," his lawyer Philippe Culot said. "Mourad and his whole family are crushed that Najim could have committed such a barbaric act."

"You don't choose your family," Mourad remarked.

Authorities have not officially said that Najim is dead and his family has had no confirmation either, Mourad told journalists.


"VERY GOOD STUDENT"

Najim Laachraoui was a model student in a Brussels Catholic high school, its director told Reuters earlier on Thursday.

"Najim Laachraoui was a very good student," said Veronica Pellegrini, the director of the Institut de la Sainte Famille d'Helmet, a Catholic school in the ethnically mixed east Brussels borough of Schaerbeek.

"He never failed a class," Pellegrini said of Laachraoui, who studied at the school for six years, until graduating in 2009. "We haven't heard from him since," she said.

Traveling under the false name Soufiane Kayal, Laachraoui was documented driving from Hungary into Austria in September in a car driven by Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks who was arrested in Brussels last week.

There is speculation Laachraoui had just returned from Syria, possibly by sea with refugees.

Catholic religion classes are part of the school's curriculum for all students regardless of their religion and Laachraoui would have attended those classes as any other student, Pellegrini said.

It is not uncommon for Muslim pupils in Belgium to go to Catholic schools, which can be seen as more conservative or more exclusive than state schools.

[BurtReynolds]

Happy Easter everyone!

[Bammer]

People respond to strength and confidence, not nuance. In fact, nuance is seen as a sign of weakness.

Not everyone, obviously, but large numbers of voters. Trump promises certainty.

This is actually a really good point.

[Henery Hawk]

So the death toll in the Pakistan bombings of the Christians is double that of the Belgium attacks yet the POtuS has yet to deliver a statement? He gave the Brussels victims 51 seconds of his valuable time so you think he could've at least given the victims in this attack a recycled tweet or maybe even a shout out.

[Strat]

Hussein Obama

[Simple Torture]

So the death toll in the Pakistan bombings of the Christians is double that of the Belgium attacks yet the POtuS has yet to deliver a statement? He gave the Brussels victims 51 seconds of his valuable time so you think he could've at least given the victims in this attack a recycled tweet or maybe even a shout out.

I mean...you're allowed to be outraged if you want, but I think it's disingenuous to throw up the faux "Why don't people care about Pakistan?" attitude. The answer is pretty simple: Belgium is a US ally and it's a Western society that resembles our own; it's also a nation where terrorism (especially of this variety) is exceedingly rare--I found 4-5 incidents in the past 40 years of so after some quick research. Since 9/11, more than 35,000 people have been killed by terrorism in Pakistan, which is equal to almost twelve 9/11s. It's also a society that doesn't resemble the US to many degrees (really only just got out from under military rule, tribalism, etc.). Pakistani Americans also make up a whopping 0.1% of the population over here.

[b_i_revisited]

Hussein Obama

[Redemption]

The goal in Syria should be democracy yeah? Russia came in and pounded the US/west funded rebels, hit some ISIS targets, really fucked shit up in a hurry. thing is, had russia continued, eventually the situation would have been perceived- blatantly obvious-as the US trying to topple another leader. MSM hides it pretty well, and its true, any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the United States media.


Iraq is the shittiest place on earth.... the US military, probably the most deadly force the world has ever seen, they don't just kill enemy combatants, they kill everyone- and destroy the entire fucking country.

When they are murdering innocents en masse, the official line is "collateral damage". I have a problem with that, as the "deciders" know before hand that that will happen. If you do something knowing innocent people will suffer, whatever its called or where ever they were hiding-none of that shit matters. its murder, on a large scale.


here's how obedient US MSM is....

[BurtReynolds]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... &tid=ss_fb