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

[Green Habit]

Loving the GOP response to the Iran deal tonight.

I find Netanyahu's reaction more entertaining.

[broken iris]

The deal accomplished nothing but getting a peak inside new facilities. It's a huge win for Russia and Iran. (Though the sanctions had already been reduced months ago)

[Harry Lime]

I listened to something interesting this morning on Morning Joe. It's probably been obvious for awhile, but I never took notice. That America's oil production will be so great in the next 50 years that we won't need to depend as much on the Mideast, and that countries like China (who import a lot of Midwast oil) will inherit whatever concerns there are with that regions turbulence. We'll always have Israel to worry about, but yeah.

[simple schoolboy]

I listened to something interesting this morning on Morning Joe. It's probably been obvious for awhile, but I never took notice. That America's oil production will be so great in the next 50 years that we won't need to depend as much on the Mideast, and that countries like China (who import a lot of Midwast oil) will inherit whatever concerns there are with that regions turbulence. We'll always have Israel to worry about, but yeah.

Remember when 'peak oil' was being trotted out?

[E.H. Ruddock]

So as a former military member it pains me to bring this up, but this Bowe Bergdahl release... we are setting dangerous precedent. Also, wasn't this guy a deserter?

[simple schoolboy]

So as a former military member it pains me to bring this up, but this Bowe Bergdahl release... we are setting dangerous precedent. Also, wasn't this guy a deserter?

Not necessarily a deserter, possibly just monumentally stupid.

I not sure this is a bad precedent. If the Taliban treated him in accordance with the Geneva convention and generally carried on as irregulars then why not do prisoner exchanges as we would do with other lawful combatants? Certainly some Taliban are 'terrorists', but generally they seem to focus their efforts on targeting combatants. If they make an effort to play by the rules, they are presumably due the same protections as us.

[simple schoolboy]

My previous comments were based on a mistaken premise. I thought this was the fellow that met up with some local friends just outside of base and subsequently disappeared. I don't know if this was an early and inaccurate account of Bergdahl or another serviceman alltogether. As it stands, according to his fellow platoon members, he mailed his computer and other personal belongings back to the US shortly before defecting. I can understand disagreeing with the mission. There are channels for this sort of thing. Apparently his father coached him to go with his conscience. It seems to me that shooting himself in the foot would have accomplished his objectives if he found the war to be in error or immoral. The only conclusion to draw is that, crisis of conscience or not, he failed to sufficiently consider the circumstances.

The Israeli serviceman was traded for what, 1000 Palestinians? While the ratio is not all, we got this guy back for 1/200th of that. Is that the going rate for a soldier on post versus a soldier doing whatever it was he was doing? Give him a dishonorable discharge*, find him guilty of desertion and sentence him to time served.

*this level of idiocy might very well warrant reduced rights.

[broken iris]

2010 article on this guy:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... kills.html


And a recently deleted tweet from the guy's father:






All and all, a very strange event that reeks of a "wag the dog" trick to bury the VA scandal.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Is that tweet really from his dad or a bogus account? If it is from his dad, holy crap...

[broken iris]

Is that tweet really from his dad or a bogus account? If it is from his dad, holy crap...

I got it from a story in the WashPo, but it's internet so they may have gotten it from elsewhere or not thoroughly fact checked it.

[broken iris]

[McParadigm]

I love how, in 2002, the idea that going into multiple Middle Eastern countries might produce volatile political instability and a rise of extremism was openly mocked by the same people who are now pretty sure that it's Obama's fault.

[broken iris]

Boko Haram:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... ok-nigeria

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... -witnesses

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... ria-kidnap

Is it time to do more than tweet?:

[dimejinky99]

Fucking Israel man..they need to get taken out and beaten
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 96542.html

[simple schoolboy]

Fucking Israel man..they need to get taken out and beaten
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 96542.html

What's the death per bomb ratio? .25? That of course is with guided munitions, so either their aim sucks or they aren't really trying too hard. This has to be the least effectual ethnic cleansing ever. Maybe they do hold some moral responsibility for telephoning the targeted buildings to warn the occupants and the occupants refusing to leave, but there's clearly no love of life on the opposite side.

Sure, many of their policies are open for criticism, but its pretty obvious that their response has been anything but indiscriminant.

[dimejinky99]

my friend lives there..theyre using fucking drones to kill innocent people..they need to be stopped..
over 800 dead Palestinians...on the Israeli side? 10 cows and 60 hospital visits for anxiety...
seriously

[dimejinky99]

update from Gaza
Just spoke to friends in Gaza. In Beit Lahiya. Noone is leaving the house, people in the street are being targeted by drones. Water is scarce. Petrol for ambulances is scarce. My friend Sabr, co-ordinator of the Beit Hanoun المبادرة المحلية - Local Initiative said that everyone is feeling fear, isolation, terror, no government speaking in support of them and just a huge sense of collective punishment. People were bombed watching the World Cup in a cafe, what sort of message does that send out to people? You are a target, wherever you are. My friend Samah's cousin's home in Al Bureij was destroyed. Sabr reckons it's been about 900 bombs so far, they just keep coming. But, he and Samah (parents of 4 children, the youngest 'doesn't know fear yet' but will grow up in it) are clear and direct, saying that people are staying steadfast, dignified, defiant, keeping morale up by sticking together, maintaining their rights to life, and that this as a state of mind in itself is a form of resistance. Everyone is united in not just struggle for survival (there is no choice, Gaza is a ghetto with all entrances locked, there is nowhere to go, there is no safe place, at all) but for their fundamental rights. He and Samah hope that people on the outside will act to stop Israeli colonialism, apartheid and collective punishment and spread the word about what Israel is doing. Demo tomorrow, Israeli Embassy, 5.30pm, London, one of countless around the world. Be there! xx

[broken iris]

Dime, they fired rockets at a nuclear reactor inside Israel. A fully fueled and functioning nuclear reactor. Imagine what would have happened if they had been successful. And according to local reports, one rocket is being fired every 10 minutes from Gaza at Israeli civilians (on average). What, exactly, is a sane response from Israel in this case? I am not going to defend the horrible things that Israel does, there will be an international reckoning for them sooner rather than later, but at the same time I understand Israel has a right to defend themselves against all who attack them, even if the attackers are a much weaker group or if the attackers are operating under the belief they are retaliating for injustices they have suffered. The Palestinians don't get a pass because they have only inflicted small amounts of damage so far and the kill ratios are lopsided.

[McParadigm]

Samah (parents of 4 children, the youngest 'doesn't know fear yet' but will grow up in it)

Dear Sabr and Samah's children,

If only your dear parents could have imagined that conflict might someday come to the oh-so peaceful suburb of Gaza. Then, they could have taken you somewhere else, and your lives would not now be at risk.

Sincerely,
All of History, Esq.

[Fuck You Jobu]

Dime, they fired rockets at a nuclear reactor inside Israel. A fully fueled and functioning nuclear reactor. Imagine what would have happened if they had been successful. And according to local reports, one rocket is being fired every 10 minutes from Gaza at Israeli civilians (on average). What, exactly, is a sane response from Israel in this case? I am not going to defend the horrible things that Israel does, there will be an international reckoning for them sooner rather than later, but at the same time I understand Israel has a right to defend themselves against all who attack them, even if the attackers are a much weaker group or if the attackers are operating under the belief they are retaliating for injustices they have suffered. The Palestinians don't get a pass because they have only inflicted small amounts of damage so far and the kill ratios are lopsided.

Just because the technology difference is great, doesn't make the intention any different.

Dimejinky, how is Israel supposed to respond to a group that has it in writing to destroy Israel? If this was your country, would you accept random rockets being shot at your civilian neighbors by a nation that has declared war on you?

Please I would like to hear answers to this, not some politician response on the tragedy of the Palestinian situation - which nobody is denying.