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Kurt_Cobain posted:So psychological warfare is not involved at all with those? I guess it depends on whether you're freaked out more by immediate, certain death or beautiful floating death. From my experience flying the F/A-18 hornet (*cough*in a video game*cough) that lack of forward momentum is essential for some types of weapons, like the BLU-107 runway bomb, which descends vertically and then fires a rocket to drive itself deep into the ground and buckle the runway so it can't just be paved over.
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May 17, 2013 20:37
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Brown Moses posted:This video shows an illumination round deployed during the day, which I suspect has been done to make anyone who sees it think it's some sort of chemical weapon The cameraman seems to think it is an incendiary round, so maybe it is being used to clear some vegetation or just start a fire?
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May 17, 2013 20:42
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Muffiner posted:Apparently they've started adapting their vocabulary to western sensibilities now. Well the parachute of the round is visible, and I've seen these used before in the conflict. I strongly suspect they are using them to scare people, and it seems to work.
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May 17, 2013 20:45
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Unrelated, but now that your indiegogo campaign is over, you may want to put the link to your blog back in your twitter profile.
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May 17, 2013 22:09
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Kurt_Cobain posted:So psychological warfare is not involved at all with those? hepatizon posted:Gnawing on a corpse is small potatoes as war atrocities go, especially in a war like this one where at least one side is routinely torturing people to death. It seems like people only care because it's a novel kind of savagery, instead of the routine savagery we've become accustomed to. It's a western mentality thing. It's also a small aversion to seeing people ripping out hearts are eating them and knowing that the heart munching guy is the leader of a battalion of men. I needed to make a small change  http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=h...ly+Sakkar+Halen
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May 17, 2013 22:42
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I've just written an incredibly long and detailed post on the "chemical attack" in Saraqeb, which you can read here. My conclusion is I REALLY doubt these were lethal chemical weapons, and it also indicates another attack wasn't chemical weapons either.
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May 17, 2013 23:11
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Have you gotten paid yet?
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May 17, 2013 23:47
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Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:Have you gotten paid yet? Just need to transfer the money out of my Paypal account, then visit my accountant to see how much the tax man gets.
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May 17, 2013 23:54
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Brown Moses posted:Just need to transfer the money out of my Paypal account, then visit my accountant to see how much the tax man gets. One for you and nineteen for me, of course.
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May 18, 2013 00:49
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Don't forget the SA cut, I've only been reading this thread for the vig. Seriously, glad it got worked out. Hopefully you can remain same through this, I don't see this doing anything but get worse.
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May 18, 2013 03:04
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hepatizon posted:Gnawing on a corpse is small potatoes as war atrocities go, especially in a war like this one where at least one side is routinely torturing people to death. It seems like people only care because it's a novel kind of savagery, instead of the routine savagery we've become accustomed to. The lesser of two evils is still loving evil.
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May 18, 2013 06:47
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I never thought I'd see the day where somebody describes a distinction between bringing a human heart to your lips and eating a human heart.
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May 18, 2013 07:04
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The difference being showman ship and a nebulous grey area where there isn't a distinct good and bad side.
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May 18, 2013 07:23
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Jut posted:The lesser of two evils is still loving evil. Bringing democracy is never evil, son. We'll cut the heart out of every man in Syria until they get the vote! Ardennes posted:The difference being showman ship and a nebulous grey area where there isn't a distinct good and bad side. So tell me, where exactly is the line here? Killing the guy, stabbing a knife into his chest, bringing the bloody heart up to his lips... that's okay because he's just doing it for the camera?
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May 18, 2013 14:28
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Ardennes posted:The difference being showman ship and a nebulous grey area where there isn't a distinct good and bad side. No, there is still a good side and a bad side, it's just that neither side in the current conflict can stake much claim to the good side.
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May 18, 2013 14:37
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Pureauthor posted:No, there is still a good side and a bad side, it's just that neither side in the current conflict can stake much claim to the good side. Yeah, I was talking about the second type of "side" your using in this case. quote:So tell me, where exactly is the line here? Killing the guy, stabbing a knife into his chest, bringing the bloody heart up to his lips... that's okay because he's just doing it for the camera? Not okay but the argument is that bringing it to your lips is different than taking that bite, I don't think it is a strong argument but that divide does actually exist. For the record, I don't think the opposition should be trusted at this point.
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May 18, 2013 15:15
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Here's a good article about how a splintered state is the most likely outcome http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/world/middleeast/pressure-of-war-is-causing-syria-to-break-apart.html
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May 18, 2013 17:21
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redscare posted:Here's a good article about how a splintered state is the most likely outcome Doubtful about this speculation. There's never going to be a cease fire between the groups, and the article plays up Kurds like they're a majority player in this conflict, which is just not the case.
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May 18, 2013 21:15
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Partition? Really? I wonder if that writer was one of the people pushing for a three-state Iraq.
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May 18, 2013 21:36
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Next time I drunk tweet about Eurovision and Syria I should remember poo poo like this happens.
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May 18, 2013 23:08
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Brown Moses posted:Next time I drunk tweet about Eurovision and Syria I should remember poo poo like this happens. I saw you posted most recently, and I was going to yell at you for watching videos when Eurovision voting was going on. Should've know better. Haha.
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May 18, 2013 23:22
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Brown Moses posted:Next time I drunk tweet about Eurovision and Syria I should remember poo poo like this happens.  How in the hell did a Stg44 end up in Syria much less in working condition unless its a replica.Edit: wait they found thousands of them???  is Assad a secret nazi fanboy or something, Jesus Christ.
Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 23:28 on May 18, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 23:25
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Raskolnikov38 posted:
Yugoslavia and East Germany had a fuckton of them after the end of WWII and started to sell them to various third world conflicts during the cold war. As a result they seem to pop up all over the Middle East and African horn, I do remember seeing a pickup truck full of them in Syria at the beginning of the war. Don't forget, they made about 425,000 of them. For comparison the Germans only made a little more than a million MP40-type Submachine guns and the US only made at least 100,000 BAR's so that's a shitload of guns made.
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May 18, 2013 23:37
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Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:Bringing democracy is never evil, son. We'll cut the heart out of every man in Syria until they get the vote! The outrage over the whole heart eating thing seems really arbitrary to me. Both sides have been regularly torturing and executing people they even suspect of being on the other side for quite a while now, and most people in the thread still supported the rebels. Now one guy comes along and mutilates a corpse in a specific way and suddenly its "Oh poo poo the rebels have totally lost all moral authority, I guess Assad should win now I mean what's the difference right?". Kind of a weird place to draw the line.
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May 19, 2013 00:39
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LP97S posted:For comparison the Germans only made a little more than a million MP40-type Submachine guns and the US only made at least 100,000 BAR's so that's a shitload of guns made. All true but its a nearly 70 year assault rifle, in a desert environment no less. I mean a gun is a gun but I can't imagine anyone, even Assad, bothering with the upkeep of them when Kalashnikovs exist in the numbers they do.
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May 19, 2013 01:12
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paragon1 posted:The outrage over the whole heart eating thing seems really arbitrary to me. Both sides have been regularly torturing and executing people they even suspect of being on the other side for quite a while now, and most people in the thread still supported the rebels. Now one guy comes along and mutilates a corpse in a specific way and suddenly its "Oh poo poo the rebels have totally lost all moral authority, I guess Assad should win now I mean what's the difference right?". Kind of a weird place to draw the line. Has anyone actually changed their opinions substantively? I mean, most of the people on the thread already knew that the rebels weren't angels and the general hope is that the leaders of a post-Assad Syria won't be committing ethnic cleansing against the Alawites, it's just that it rarely needed to be repeatedly reiterated until people came in to defend the heart-eating.
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May 19, 2013 01:24
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Raskolnikov38 posted:All true but its a nearly 70 year assault rifle, in a desert environment no less. I mean a gun is a gun but I can't imagine anyone, even Assad, bothering with the upkeep of them when Kalashnikovs exist in the numbers they do. From my limited (near non-existant) knowledge of arms collecting those things are worth an absolute fortune - depending on condition, like 10s of thousands of dollars each.
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May 19, 2013 01:53
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Raskolnikov38 posted:All true but its a nearly 70 year assault rifle, in a desert environment no less. I mean a gun is a gun but I can't imagine anyone, even Assad, bothering with the upkeep of them when Kalashnikovs exist in the numbers they do. The Germans did some pretty good engineering and if it works, (although they probably have more collector value admittedly). I do think opinion of the rebels as a whole is shifting, to at least a more neutral position which doesn't leave many options for post-war Syria. Turkey and the United States don't want to send troops or occupy the country, but they don't want Assad in power and they don't want chaos. If the rebels can't reliably be trusted (they probably were never really reliable) then there isn't any way out.
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May 19, 2013 01:53
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Banano posted:From my limited (near non-existant) knowledge of arms collecting those things are worth an absolute fortune - depending on condition, like 10s of thousands of dollars each. Only if you can sell it legally.
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May 19, 2013 06:28
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The Syrian army has finally launched a major assault on Qusayr city: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/syria-military-pounds-rebel-town-killing-13-065853922.html#IlkvZf7 Some reports indicate they've managed to break through. Its amazing how much the momentum has swung in Assad's favor in recent months. Without major intervention things will only get worse for the rebels. Its too early too speak of a collapse just yet but with their forces splintered as they are and the govrenement's becoming better organized and winning major victories we could see a snowball effect and rebel morale collapsing before the year is out.
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May 19, 2013 11:40
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Or we could not and the war lasts for 20 years 
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May 19, 2013 12:04
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Herostratus posted:The Syrian army has finally launched a major assault on Qusayr city: It's only a single city, it's not exactly as if the rebels have entered Russian winter
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May 19, 2013 12:25
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Pimpmust posted:Or we could not and the war lasts for 20 years And it could very well may. The Qatari and Saudi royals would love to keep exporting Islamist elements in their own country and stymie the Iranians at the same time and Syria gives them that opportunity. America is perfectly okay with this arrangement as long as al Qaeda and others stay in Syria, hopefully permanently  , and continue to fight the Assad regime, ally to Russia and Iran and an enemy to Israel.
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May 19, 2013 12:27
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ThePutty posted:It's only a single city, it's not exactly as if the rebels have entered Russian winter We've been receiving more and more news of Assad gaining lost ground and zero news about Rebel offensives.
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May 19, 2013 12:31
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Taking a look at a map and any "offensives" are restricted to a bloody tiny area and a bunch of villages/Towns around Damascus. With supply lines that short, and everything within range of everything, it be bloody surprised if the regime couldn't pull it off. That it has taken them months/years to do it still should tell you something about how long any war of attrition is gonna take. This is turning into some ww1 poo poo.
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May 19, 2013 13:19
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Well, that's exactly why some people are fearing the government offensives. They were in a pathetic shape but they're making more and more organized attacks. Even if they're in the vicinity of their supplies the fact that they are doing it when before they couldn't even do such a thing is worrying.
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May 19, 2013 13:35
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Mans posted:We've been receiving more and more news of Assad gaining lost ground and zero news about Rebel offensives. Well, maybe you are looking at the wrong sources? In this article from a German newspaper I found something about an ongoing rebel offensive south of Damascus: Translation by Google translate The translation is horrible, but hopefully still understandable. If not, here the shorthand: The rebels are trying to capture the base of the 52nd tank brigade 80km south of Damascus.
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May 19, 2013 13:50
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The interesting angle is just how much ammunition and weapons the Syrian regime is getting, because I can't imagine there's much production going on domestically and the economy was shot to poo poo years ago. Same goes for the rebels of course, and their #1 limit for offensives seem to be their lack of ammo. Seems difficult to believe that the regime is getting most of their stuff from aircraft flights from Iran/Russia, so is there a lot of shipping coming in? Brown Moses probably knows more there.
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May 19, 2013 14:16
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point of return posted:Has anyone actually changed their opinions substantively? I mean, most of the people on the thread already knew that the rebels weren't angels and the general hope is that the leaders of a post-Assad Syria won't be committing ethnic cleansing against the Alawites, it's just that it rarely needed to be repeatedly reiterated until people came in to defend the heart-eating. No, nothing has really changed. We had this same discussion probably a year ago when a video came out of an opposition group lining up a bunch of POW's and dumping hundreds of bullets into them, and again when a video came out of rebels tossing bodies off of a tall building. I don't think there's been any significant viewpoint changes either in people's perception, or in Syria itself.
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May 19, 2013 15:35
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Volkerball posted:No, nothing has really changed. We had this same discussion probably a year ago when a video came out of an opposition group lining up a bunch of POW's and dumping hundreds of bullets into them, and again when a video came out of rebels tossing bodies off of a tall building. I don't think there's been any significant viewpoint changes either in people's perception, or in Syria itself. Well my opinion has changed, yes. When the FSA and secular elements were firmly in control of the rebellion, I was supporting them 100% but now that they've been sidelined and are more or less irrelevant at that point, and that Al-Nusra/AQI are now at the forefront, I can't say I'm rooting for them to win and take over. If AN/AQI can somehow defeat the government and then allow for a democracy to take hold over Syria, I will be happy, but I'm afraid we're going to see a repeat of the Iranian revolution. A repeat in the sense that the extremist elements who allied themselves with the Leftists and Secular elements will turn around once the regime is removed and start purging them until they have established their own dictatorship over the Syrian people. Frankly, Al-Nusra in power in Syria sounds to me like an even worse scenario than Assad staying in power that this point. Not to mention the severe ethnic cleansing that is bound to happen if they were to take over. Sorry but the idea of these people in power and access to the chemical and biological weapons from the Assad regime sounds almost as bad as the Taliban taking over Pakistan. Terrifying scenario.
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May 19, 2013 16:55
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