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Zohar posted:Somehow I think they were going for the fear rather than the love side of the equation. Which is a really funny angle of attack to take on ISIS. Lets out-atrocity them so people will be more scared of us. ISIS doesn't have public support specifically because of that poo poo, so maybe, like, I dunno, being the counterpart to that might be a good approach. Also, that's a losing battle if I've ever seen one.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:50
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Trying to out-atrocity ISIS seems like a tough game to play. But by God, if there's anyone in Iraq that can do it, it's the Mahdi army.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:52
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illrepute posted:A mod (Xandu) said they weren't the same dude, so I'm willing to bet that was just BC trying to take someone down with him. A suicide posting, if you will. Well, if that's the case, then I'll just drop it and add GuyinCognito to my ignore list, where he'll be joining his brother from a different mother BabyChoom. For actually being on topic: how does a violent sectarian militia summarily executing members of a different sect dissuade them from joining a better armed faction that actually offers some kind of collective self-defense? Does anyone over there actually think this through?
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Jul 31, 2014 19:52
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illrepute posted:Trying to out-atrocity ISIS seems like a tough game to play. But by God, if there's anyone in Iraq that can do it, it's the Mahdi army. They've rebranded, they're the "Peace Brigades" now. In all honesty, all of the Shia militias are pretty thuggish and there's lots of them in Iraq. The Iraqi military is not that great either. About the only thing they do well is bombing and shelling cities.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:55
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New Division posted:They've rebranded, they're the "Peace Brigades" now. I think all militias are going to be "thuggish" regardless of affiliation, if only because they have little training, no clear command structure, and are mostly motivated by nationalism/patriotism or religious zealotry. This heavy reliance on militias to stop ISIS really undermines the Iraqi government's influence because they have a huge army that is well trained and equipped, but for some reason doesn't want to fight.
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Jul 31, 2014 20:17
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I'm not sure I'd call the Iraqi army particularly well-trained... their equipment really ought to be sufficient enough though. The biggest issue with the Iraqi army is that is insanely corrupt and has crippling problems with morale and cohesion.
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Jul 31, 2014 20:18
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God loving dammit, sometimes I hate being right. 
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Jul 31, 2014 20:24
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New Division posted:and has crippling problems with morale and cohesion. A decade of getting car bombed and constantly hearing "the check is in the mail" will do that to you.
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Jul 31, 2014 20:26
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Regarding Libya, Haftar apparently ran to Egypt after recent setbacks. Would assume he's going to try to goad Sisi into giving more support. While I would not yet put this in the category of likely, I would not be shocked if Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria try to coordinate some kind of military operation in Libya if the situation continues to deteriorate.
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Jul 31, 2014 20:29
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New Division posted:Regarding Libya, Haftar apparently ran to Egypt after recent setbacks. Would assume he's going to try to goad Sisi into giving more support. The Egyptian government denied Haftar was in Egypt, but I wouldn't take their word for it. The situation in Libya is escalating extremely fast, with tens of thousands of refugees in Tunis, and thousands of Egyptians coming back from Libya through the land border. With the amount of noise in the Egyptian media currently I would not be surprised if Sisi took unilateral action in eastern Libya.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:05
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Does anyone else have a hard time calling ISIS "Islamic State" or "IS"? They'll probably never take any territory outside Iraq and Syria.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:11
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Sergg posted:Does anyone else have a hard time calling ISIS "Islamic State" or "IS"? They'll probably never take any territory outside Iraq and Syria. I go with ISIS or their arabic acronym, "da3sh" ("Dah-Esh"), which is apparently pejorative (good). Calling them "The Islamic State" is like the Third Reich calling itself the Party People Republic.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:14
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I just call them ISIS.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:17
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New Division posted:Regarding Libya, Haftar apparently ran to Egypt after recent setbacks. Would assume he's going to try to goad Sisi into giving more support. Is Tunisia really in a situation to mount a foreign military operation? The unrest there has been mostly political, but there was a bombing or an ambush or something a short while ago that killed some soldiers.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:17
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illrepute posted:I go with ISIS or their arabic acronym, "da3sh" ("Dah-Esh"), which is apparently pejorative (good). Calling them "The Islamic State" is like the Third Reich calling itself the Party People Republic. Any sources on it being pejorative? Da3sh is just the acronym of Dawlat al-Islamia fi Iraq wa-a(l)-Shams = ISIS/ISIL, isn't it?
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Jul 31, 2014 21:18
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Any sources on it being pejorative? Da3sh is just the acronym of Dawlat al-Islamia fi Iraq wa-a(l)-Shams = ISIS/ISIL, isn't it? I've never heard ISIS refer to itself as Da3sh, only non-ISIS Arab groups who are opposed to it, and heard it mentioned a few times that it was pejorative so I went and poked around and found this. I'm only a second-year Arabic student so I can't verify it, though.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:23
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Sergg posted:Does anyone else have a hard time calling ISIS "Islamic State" or "IS"? They'll probably never take any territory outside Iraq and Syria. I can't help myself but think of something like this each time:  Makes them seem less threatening anyway :P.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:26
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Kurtofan posted:I just call them ISIS. Me too, this way I can confuse it with SSIS and just blame Microsoft for it as usual.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:27
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illrepute posted:I've never heard ISIS refer to itself as Da3sh, only non-ISIS Arab groups who are opposed to it I mean, how many Arab groups really support it nowadays?
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Jul 31, 2014 21:29
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illrepute posted:I go with ISIS or their arabic acronym, "da3sh" ("Dah-Esh"), which is apparently pejorative (good). Calling them "The Islamic State" is like the Third Reich calling itself the Party People Republic. A lot of actual countries have official names that I'm happy to ignore. I'll call a miniscule guerrilla group the 'Islamic State' as soon as I'll start calling Cliven Bundy's militia the 'Christian State' and Democratic People's Republic of Korea the 'Atheist State'.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:31
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Any sources on it being pejorative? Da3sh is just the acronym of Dawlat al-Islamia fi Iraq wa-a(l)-Shams = ISIS/ISIL, isn't it? Yeah, it's pejorative because it's insulting to them. Imagine if you called a Prime Minister "PM" and he got mad and demanded to be called Prime Minister, and you were like "haha, PM, PM," and he cut your head off. That's ISIS. And I still call them ISIS. Still just the same poo poo terrorist group they were before their announcement. I feel like calling them IS or Islamic State legitimizes their claim as a caliphate, when really it's a barbarian warlord stronghold.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:31
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Nenonen posted:A lot of actual countries have official names that I'm happy to ignore. I'll call a miniscule guerrilla group the 'Islamic State' as soon as I'll start calling Cliven Bundy's militia the 'Christian State' and Democratic People's Republic of Korea the 'Atheist State'. To be fair, they're a lot more than a minuscule guerrilla group at this point. What do you call them, anyway?
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Jul 31, 2014 21:43
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Elyv posted:To be fair, they're a lot more than a minuscule guerrilla group at this point. What do you call them, anyway? An army ran by a local warlord? That's what we'd call it if this was happening in Africa.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:49
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Volkerball posted:Big protests kicking off this evening outside the UN mission in Tripoli. "No to terrorists. No to militias." I would love a source for this. Like 99% of the the pro-Israel people on my FB feed always ask "where are the protests when Arabs kill other Arabs?!?!" in the midst of this conflict. Aside from this being an important protest in it's own right.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:51
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Xoidanor posted:An army ran by a local warlord? That's what we'd call it if this was happening in Africa. ISIS is a lot more concise and everyone knows exactly what you're referring to, though.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:56
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Count Roland posted:Is Tunisia really in a situation to mount a foreign military operation? The unrest there has been mostly political, but there was a bombing or an ambush or something a short while ago that killed some soldiers. Tunisia probably would just secure their part of the border in this scenario. Algeria and Egypt would be the ones who actually have some ability to send expeditionary forces inside Libya. Both seem paranoid as gently caress about what is going on there.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:58
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dorkasaurus_rex posted:I would love a source for this. Like 99% of the the pro-Israel people on my FB feed always ask "where are the protests when Arabs kill other Arabs?!?!" in the midst of this conflict. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/31/Protests-against-militias-break-out-in-Tripoli.html According to that, Ansar al-Sharia, the group responsible for the Benghazi attack, also declared Benghazi an Islamic emirate. It's like a caliphate arms race. That's the 3rd I've heard of. On a related note, I just noticed that Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the leaders of that attack, was captured two weeks ago and is en route to a trial in the US. 
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Jul 31, 2014 21:59
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Elyv posted:To be fair, they're a lot more than a minuscule guerrilla group at this point. What do you call them, anyway? Compared to the number of adherents of Islam, they're worthless. I'll give it some more thought after they assimilate Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia. Until such time, ISIS is fine. Or just 'those brutes'.
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Jul 31, 2014 22:02
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The Levantine Janjaweed. 
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Jul 31, 2014 22:03
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/hezbollah-man-dies-jihad-duty-iraq-20147302029917675.html Hezbollah commander killed in Tal Afar, Iraq, during "jihad". WTF man? When did Hezbollah put boots on the ground in Iraq?
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Aug 1, 2014 02:27
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Sergg posted:http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/hezbollah-man-dies-jihad-duty-iraq-20147302029917675.html
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Aug 1, 2014 02:47
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JT Jag posted:In response to ISIS' expansion in Iraq over the last few months, a lot of Shia militiamen moved there from Syria to support the government. It doesn't surprise me that some Hezbollah is amongst them, though obviously most of them are in Syria. There was a quote from Nasrallah or maybe some other Hezbollah official about how the battle for Karbala and Najaf were more important than everything in Syria, iirc. **shrug** they're in Syria up to the waist, no reason not to go to Iraq as well, the enemy is largely the same and they're right next to Iranian allies.
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Aug 1, 2014 03:38
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Has anyone posted this Syria TOW video yet? I haven't seen it before. Note the rebel using the military issue lawn chair to get a stable firing position: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=706_1406826347 I have to wonder if the Syrian rebels are getting any more of these TOWS? I would think the possibility of them falling into ISIS hands is too great at this point?
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Aug 1, 2014 06:04
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Charliegrs posted:Has anyone posted this Syria TOW video yet? I haven't seen it before. Note the rebel using the military issue lawn chair to get a stable firing position: OK that was really funny, the guy on top of the ZSU sees the missile and jumps off right before it hits, like it was a GI Joe battle. We're still sending weapons to groups like the FSA and a few other "heavily vetted" ones. This is specifically because they're at war with ISIS.
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Aug 1, 2014 07:31
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These are incredibly  photos from an Assad prisone: may have been posted earlier in the year (there's a dailymall article from Jan that has the same photos, not sure if it was ever posted here). Was just put up by the White House mitztronic fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 07:32
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaAxR4NI-MU This video is Suqour al-Sham and Jaiysh al-Islam, two of several members of the Islamic Front, a coalition of groups, announcing they are merging and becoming the Islamic Front (rather than being two groups who make it up). The implication is other groups who were part of the Islamic Front coalition either need to fully merge with it, or be left out.
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Aug 1, 2014 08:25
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Brown Moses posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaAxR4NI-MU
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Aug 1, 2014 09:33
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Interesting story on Homs ever since rebel fighters were allowed to evacuate. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/31/-sp-homs-syria-life-devastation-residents-rebel-assad-forces
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Aug 1, 2014 11:33
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JT Jag posted:On one hand, rebel groups consolidating in Syria could be a good thing in terms of their efforts defending against both the regime and ISIS. On the other hand, where on the ideological spectrum do these particular parts of the Islamic Front fall amongst the entire group? Well, one of their leaders said he'd happily kill all Alawites, so I'm not expecting much.
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Aug 1, 2014 14:50
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I assume most people following this thread are also paying attention to the I/P thread, but I'll put this in here anyway. It's a Monty Python-esque ISIS parody made by Palestinians in the West Bank, and it is loving hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5nigZzgf4Y
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