|
No. afaik he taught himself combat medicine only from youtube videos and similar before he went to Libya, the experience he gained there is probably invaluable, but it's difficult to believe he'll be able to leave his involvement at the field hospital.
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 19:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:56 |
|
|
THE AWESOME GHOST posted:It's great how this guy basically is telling the country "I embezzled everything meant for public transport and can afford to give away $100k in a country where giving away $1000 makes you rich" His counterpart in India was Laloo Prasad http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laloo_Prasad, which should tell you everything about Railway Ministers in South Asia. Seriously though, it's because of coalition politics. The ruling party needs his party's support, so they throw him an unimportant but lucrative position, and his people vote the right way for PM and the budget.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 19:30
|
|
|
Pureauthor posted:I was under the impression that Assad is losing support from within at a steady rate? The rate of defections is much less than it was a few months ago. The remaining forces seem to be sticking around for the moment.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 19:51
|
|
|
Banano posted:christ alive. loving hell. Reminds me of the aftermath of the Halabja gas attack.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 19:52
|
|
|
Banano posted:christ alive. loving gently caress. This is probably the worst, most nightmarish video I've seen from this war. Why the hell do we follow this stuff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 19:58
|
|
|
I think that might have been another bread queue that was targeted, gives you an idea of what the Syrian Army is like when it comes to dealing with civilians in areas that are rebelling.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 20:04
|
|
|
steve1 posted:loving gently caress. This is probably the worst, most nightmarish video I've seen from this war. Why the hell do we follow this stuff. If nothing else it is bearing witness which is the very least we can do. If as distant observers we can watch such things without indulging in the pornographical aspects we can at least start to understand the motives of people who would be labelled 'terrorists' by their government for commiting violence themselves in the hope of preventing further, similar crimes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 20:12
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:I think that might have been another bread queue that was targeted, gives you an idea of what the Syrian Army is like when it comes to dealing with civilians in areas that are rebelling.  It's Sarajevo all over again.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 20:15
|
|
|
Like I've said before, I look forward to the day I can check my big list of Syrian Youtube channels without coming across at least one new video of a dead or dying child.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 20:20
|
|
|
What I want to know is why the heck am I not seeing these videos on CNN, Fox news, MSNBC etc every day. Obviously the extreme violence would make it difficult to show these videos on primetime news shows, but at the very least they can do more than give it 5 minutes of lip service a week. But you have to wonder, how much of the American public is really aware of the atrocities going on in Syria? Yes, its a civil war now and there are atrocities going on on both sides but I think the networks can take some more time out of the election coverage and tell us whats going on outside of America. Its like Afghanistan, how often do you hear about that in the news? Yet every day Americans are fighting and dying there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 20:56
|
|
|
Banano posted:christ alive. To give people an even more detailed account of what's in this video: the first casualty seen is someone with their head smashed in half. There's dozens of people who are dead and missing limbs or heads. There was a guy with his guts hanging out but still alive. At 4 minutes in there was a a guy hopping along with the bottom half of one leg hanging on by a thread, jangling about. People walking about wounded just bumping in to each other. Must have been a hell of a lot of shrapnel. One of the worst videos I've seen in a long time.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 21:10
|
|
|
Not that it matters but it's apparently from August 21st, not a new video. Personally I've not seen it before, and I check videos everyday.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 21:12
|
|
|
One thing I've noticed recently with activist videos are the increasing numbers showing cats or birds, as if the activists have realised dead kids aren't just pulling at the heart strings anymore.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 21:40
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:One thing I've noticed recently with activist videos are the increasing numbers showing cats or birds, as if the activists have realised dead kids aren't just pulling at the heart strings anymore. Maybe they should make a movie of Assad insulting Mohammed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 21:46
|
|
|
This is a really great article about the foreign fighters arriving in Syria, really worth reading.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 21:50
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:This is a really great article about the foreign fighters arriving in Syria, really worth reading. I just read that and I wonder if there's a paper to be written comparing the Mujahedeen to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:04
|
|
|
It highlights what will be a major problems even if Assad goes, those Jihadists aren't going to pack up and go home once things are over, expect a lot of fighting between them and the FSA. And that's not to mention the Kurdish issues.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:11
|
|
|
Interesting to see so many Chechens. Also does the fact that the foreign brigades are called Jihadis mean they are all of the religious kind? I immagine some of them, like the Turks mentioned should be more secular right?
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:28
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:It highlights what will be a major problems even if Assad goes, those Jihadists aren't going to pack up and go home once things are over, expect a lot of fighting between them and the FSA. And that's not to mention the Kurdish issues. I dunno, you didn't see quite as many jihad fighters stay behind in Afghanistan when it descended into civil war between the various militias. Most foreign fighters saw the mission (pushing the Soviets out) as being complete and left. But yeah, I think it will be interesting to see exactly how this goes. Davincie posted:Interesting to see so many Chechens. Also does the fact that the foreign brigades are called Jihadis mean they are all of the religious kind? I immagine some of them, like the Turks mentioned should be more secular right? It should also be noted that just because someone is fighting in a jihad, doesn't make them a fundamentalist. Darkman Fanpage fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Sep 23, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:37
|
|
|
Davincie posted:Interesting to see so many Chechens. Also does the fact that the foreign brigades are called Jihadis mean they are all of the religious kind? I immagine some of them, like the Turks mentioned should be more secular right? With regard to the turks there being secularists almost certainly not. I would imagine anyone putting themselves in such real danger is probably motivated by religion. The threat of fascism in the 30s was so overt, obvious, and most of all new/novel that it was bound to be opposed by something like the international brigades. Nowadays it would take something like that video looped unedited on the BBC 6 o'clock news to maybe convince a handful of comfortable westerners to put themselves in the firing line. I admit, it made me want to go caro for all of five minutes 
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:49
|
|
|
It shouldn't be surprising to see Chechens, they show up wherever there's a war to be fought in the Middle East or Central Asia.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:50
|
|
|
Charliegrs posted:What I want to know is why the heck am I not seeing these videos on CNN, Fox news, MSNBC etc every day. Obviously the extreme violence would make it difficult to show these videos on primetime news shows, but at the very least they can do more than give it 5 minutes of lip service a week. But you have to wonder, how much of the American public is really aware of the atrocities going on in Syria? Yes, its a civil war now and there are atrocities going on on both sides but I think the networks can take some more time out of the election coverage and tell us whats going on outside of America. Its like Afghanistan, how often do you hear about that in the news? Yet every day Americans are fighting and dying there. US media rarely shows visceral images of war in the news. They don't show dead US soldiers either. I am sure someone has a theory as to why that is.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:51
|
|
|
Kombotron posted:US media rarely shows visceral images of war in the news. They don't show dead US soldiers either. I am sure someone has a theory as to why that is. The Vietnam War put a stop to that. It's hard for politicians and generals to sell a war to the people back home when the media is showing footage of entire villages being napalmed and US troops being dragged onto helicopters in body bags. The military is now keeps a very close eye on what they allow the media to see and report, restricting them to a sterilized version of war.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 22:55
|
|
|
I understand not wanting to show horribly violent images on the news. Although part of me thinks it should be shown because its the reality of whats going on. But what Im curious about is the lack of coverage. You dont hear much about Syria or Afghanistan in the news (in the US) And I wonder if that is orchestrated? I dont think the US government wants Syria to be in the news constantly as it might sway public opinion heavily to the side of intervention. Which the west wants nothing to do with. Or the lack of coverage about Afghanistan might be because it just isnt going the way the US and NATO wants, so the less people know about it the better?
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:03
|
|
|
It's because it doesn't appeal to Americans. The news in America might as well be considered part of the entertainment industry.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:06
|
|
|
Crasscrab posted:It's because it doesn't appeal to Americans. The news in America might as well be considered part of the entertainment industry. Yeah, disturbing images drive away viewers which means fewer eyeballs to see ads.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:10
|
|
|
I don't have a TV so most of my news comes from the BBC website and BBC Radio 4, and I get the i in fits and bursts. From that, it doesn't look to me like we cover the middle east stuff all that much, but there have now been two series on BBC 3 of a programme called Our War. It's interviews and helmet footage taken by British troops in Afghanistan and pretty interesting stuff. It's got British casualties in the field and even, if I remember right, had a little girl being shot by Afghan army guys accidentally. Has there been an equivalent show to this in the States?
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:15
|
|
|
Benzoyl Peroxide posted:I don't have a TV so most of my news comes from the BBC website and BBC Radio 4, and I get the i in fits and bursts. From that, it doesn't look to me like we cover the middle east stuff all that much, but there have now been two series on BBC 3 of a programme called Our War. It's interviews and helmet footage taken by British troops in Afghanistan and pretty interesting stuff. It's got British casualties in the field and even, if I remember right, had a little girl being shot by Afghan army guys accidentally. Has there been an equivalent show to this in the States? Nope. The most we see of da troops is usually a shout out from one of their bases with them all hanging out and having fun.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:19
|
|
|
Benzoyl Peroxide posted:I don't have a TV so most of my news comes from the BBC website and BBC Radio 4, and I get the i in fits and bursts. From that, it doesn't look to me like we cover the middle east stuff all that much, but there have now been two series on BBC 3 of a programme called Our War. It's interviews and helmet footage taken by British troops in Afghanistan and pretty interesting stuff. It's got British casualties in the field and even, if I remember right, had a little girl being shot by Afghan army guys accidentally. Has there been an equivalent show to this in the States? Restrepo is probably one of the closest you'd get to the Our War style. If you put "Afghanistan documentary" into Youtube, you'll get a whole bunch of full documentaries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAMbnElCMAo
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:24
|
|
|
Crasscrab posted:The Vietnam War put a stop to that. It's hard for politicians and generals to sell a war to the people back home when the media is showing footage of entire villages being napalmed and US troops being dragged onto helicopters in body bags. The military is now keeps a very close eye on what they allow the media to see and report, restricting them to a sterilized version of war. I wonder what would have happened if the technology the Syrian people have now was available to Iraqis ten years ago. That video was seriously the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. The most upsetting thing isn't the gore, it's the screaming and crying. Americans really should be exposed to some aspect of these videos and know that real human beings live over there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:32
|
|
|
Charliegrs posted:You dont hear much about Syria or Afghanistan in the news (in the US) And I wonder if that is orchestrated? I dont think the US government wants Syria to be in the news constantly as it might sway public opinion heavily to the side of intervention. I doubt anything would sway US opinion towards intervention in Syria, there's too much war fatigue in the US to stomach another Middle Eastern adventure at the moment. The government certainly isn't trying to prevent reporting on Syria here, it's just a matter of the US population getting tired of hearing about the conflict, and the news media adjusting their coverage to reflect this.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2012 23:45
|
|
|
Absolutely no way western powers could get overtly involved barring some kind of my lai style horror captured on film. Even then there would always be doubts and reservations at home and abroad. The syrians have already been filmed expressing serious doubts about the motivations of foreign muslim fighters, the best we can hope for is significant weapons (SA7s and the like) getting in and becoming widespread.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 00:04
|
|
|
Davincie posted:Interesting to see so many Chechens. Also does the fact that the foreign brigades are called Jihadis mean they are all of the religious kind? I immagine some of them, like the Turks mentioned should be more secular right? New Division posted:It shouldn't be surprising to see Chechens, they show up wherever there's a war to be fought in the Middle East or Central Asia. You always have to take reports of Chechen jihadists fighting worldwide with a grain of salt. They often turn out to not be Chechens at all. This makes sense because Chechen jihadists aren't numeric enough to do so. Russia's puppet dictator there isn't going to let Chechens fight in Syria because Russia backs Assad. It would have to be the rebels fighting Russia, who currently have a really hard time trying to survive in the mountain regions. If they would abandon their comrades there they would also have to cross the the Caucasus mountains on foot which is pretty loving tough, even for a Chechen... There is however a huge diaspora of North Caucasians in the Middle East including Syria. They speak mostly Arabic; Circassians who were cleansed from the Caucasus in the 19th century (about 150,000 in Syria), but also Chechens (up to 20,000 in Syria). There's also a large amount of Chechen refugees from the recent Chechen wars throughout the middle east (especially numerous in Turkey) or simply students at islamic institutions who won't be very good at Arabic (Syria included). Also note that Russia's Caucasus is the home to a huge amount of ethnic Muslim nations which all have Jihadists. Chechens are just one of these nations, the others are rather unknown to the outside. I've never heard of Ingush, Avar, Dargin or Circassian jihadists fighting in other countries. Chechens however are very respected among jihadists, it wouldn't surprise me if jihadists from the Caucasus pretend to be Chechen just for status. But the fighters mentioned in this source might as well be Chechen refugees from Turkey, especially since they identify as the 'Turkish brothers'. This article article has some useful info. It's from a while ago, but not much has changed since. Except that one dead Chechen foreigner has been confirmed. He was from Georgia (a refugee) and was the son of a former Chechen warlord. Well actually his family has now made a statement that the kid was just a student in Syria and the Islamic institution in Aleppo he was in was bombed, hitting him and many others. But because he's Chechen he will definitely go down in history as a rebel... Pieter Pan fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Sep 24, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 00:23
|
|
|
Moses, what do you think of Syrian's chemical weapons? Evidently they've been getting moved around lately and the Assad regime has stated that they'd only be used in the event of foreign intervention, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if they were used as a last resort.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 00:37
|
|
|
Crasscrab posted:Moses, what do you think of Syrian's chemical weapons? Evidently they've been getting moved around lately and the Assad regime has stated that they'd only be used in the event of foreign intervention, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if they were used as a last resort. Wouldn't moving those weapons around make it more possible for the rebels to get their hands on them? Or do those convoys have special plot armor?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 00:50
|
|
|
cgeq posted:Wouldn't moving those weapons around make it more possible for the rebels to get their hands on them? Or do those convoys have special plot armor? A chemical weapons cache was allegedly moved from a depot in Damascus to the port city of Tartus. Tartus happens to be host to the only Russian naval port in the Mediterranean, so it's possible they could be giving the weapons to the Russians to ensure nobody will try to gently caress with them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 01:05
|
|
|
Lots of things are possible
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 01:21
|
|
|
Banano posted:Absolutely no way western powers could get overtly involved barring some kind of my lai style horror captured on film. Even then there would always be doubts and reservations at home and abroad. The syrians have already been filmed expressing serious doubts about the motivations of foreign muslim fighters, the best we can hope for is significant weapons (SA7s and the like) getting in and becoming widespread. Do you consider what you saw in the video a walk in the park? It was pretty drat visceral. I think that video needs to be shown as much as possible until it becomes mainstream. It should become a rallying point for intervention.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 03:27
|
|
|
Crasscrab posted:It's because it doesn't appeal to Americans. The news in America might as well be considered part of the entertainment industry. This. I wish McCain was the Republican Nominee this cycle just for the sake of ANY opinion on Syria being covered widely. It's a shame. An attack in Al-Treimseh, Syria has left somewhere around 200 killed. The attacks were condemned by the U.N. and the Obama Administration. In other news....No wait, I saw the footage of that. You should probably loving talk about it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 04:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:56 |
|
|
Kombotron posted:I think that video needs to be shown as much as possible until it becomes mainstream. It should become a rallying point for intervention. Because emotion driven reasoning is the best way to justify going to war (which is what an "intervention" would be.) I'm with you guys 100% on the vapidity of mainstream American news (compounded by the fact that most Americans don't even follow the worthless mainstream sources) but there are about 500 different reasons why open Western intervention would be a terrible idea and only one in favor: stopping bad people from doing bad things...which happens every day all around the globe. Doing nothing is a valid policy option and on this issue it appears that D.C. finally remembered that for once.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2012 04:52
|
|
