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Interesting that they have a mix of ARs and AKs, it seems like if you're going to the trouble of outfitting a battalion with snappy low-drag desert cammies and plate carriers you would want them on a standardized weapon platform. I guess having both in the field could have some pros and cons.
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Feb 27, 2015 03:37
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It could just be a matter of personal experience/preference, even if it's US provided stuff I doubt they're being micromanaged that much
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Feb 27, 2015 03:42
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It might also be a matter of training and preference. Some of these guys probably brought their own guns, others are probably just using what they're used to. e: curses, foiled again.
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Feb 27, 2015 03:42
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Hard to tell in the top image, but in the bottom image, only 1 guy has an M16, and it's an old guy up front with a unique LBE. My guess is he's important and the M16 is a mark of status. Kind of like how officers in the US wear pistols in country for no discernible reason.
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Feb 27, 2015 03:47
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Volkerball posted:Hard to tell in the top image, but in the bottom image, only 1 guy has an M16, and it's an old guy up front with a unique LBE. My guess is he's important and the M16 is a mark of status. Kind of like how officers in the US wear pistols in country for no discernible reason. IIRC, the AR has a rep of being a death ray laser compared to the AK, at least what I remember hearing about US soldiers training Iraqis using the gun, but it doesn't have the availability of the AK and it still looks like that's probably an issue when it comes to ammunition and spare parts. It could be a personal weapon or it could be a sharpshooter-issued weapon while everyone else gets AKs.
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Feb 27, 2015 03:52
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SedanChair posted:I will; if you saw pictures of me eight years ago compared to now you'd be like "how many countries was this guy the president of?" Is this a reference about how you turned from black to white?
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Feb 27, 2015 04:02
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It is a bit more accurate, but that doesn't matter when 90% of the firefights I've seen out of Syria have been The AK is just more like the shotgun of assault rifles. You can dump sand in it and it'll still fire, it's got more stopping power, and the recoil is worse. Weapons in the M16 family are more likely to jam, much touchier, more complicated, need more maintenance, and have weaker stopping power, but are more accurate and more than get the job done as far as 5.56 tumbling goes. I've seen it issued as a marksman rifle, but it's also seen as the nicer weapon since it's not such a basic, it gets the job done, kind of thing.
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Feb 27, 2015 04:08
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Young Freud posted:IIRC, the AR has a rep of being a death ray laser compared to the AK, at least what I remember hearing about US soldiers training Iraqis using the gun, but it doesn't have the availability of the AK and it still looks like that's probably an issue when it comes to ammunition and spare parts. It could be a personal weapon or it could be a sharpshooter-issued weapon while everyone else gets AKs. Volkerball posted:It is a bit more accurate, but that doesn't matter when 90% of the firefights I've seen out of Syria have been It may well be due to ammunition availability issues as well. I'm sure things are a little better now, but on visits to various Pesh outposts a few years ago, ammunition was at a premium, but there seemed to be plenty of rifles. It probably is a rank/status item to have an M-16/4 weapon, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's also because these units can't get one type of ammo in large enough quantities supply their troops with a uniform load out. SedanChair posted:You're right of course. This is going to sound ridiculous, but it is pretty easy for Westerners to criticize ethnic cleansing in the middle of a conflict like this. Reprisal is absolutely built in to us as human beings, and without strong central authority there is very little that could conceivably stop it. Right. It's not surprising that this is happening, but it is pretty loving disappointing. I read through the Human Rights Watch article here, and a few questions crossed my mind. Which peshmerga units are in the area that have been cordoned? Even in the KRG, the pesh are pretty partisan, and from the geographic location of the reports, I'm guessing that they're KDP units. Were these villages that had been previously "ethnically clensed" by the Ba'athists? After the invasion in 2003, there were a lot of Kurds who went back into Kirkuk and found the homes that they'd owned before the Ba'athists had forced them out. Needless to say, violence ensued when former Kurdish owners knocked on doors that were answered by current Arabic owners. I'm not saying that this is right, but I wouldn't be surprised if the villages that are being cordoned off are villages that had previously been forcibly settled by Arabs during the 70's and 80's.
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Feb 27, 2015 04:38
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sharknado slashfic posted:Is this a reference about how you turned from black to white? First of all: gently caress off Second: here's ISIL perspective 
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Feb 27, 2015 05:05
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Gimmick Account posted:Not to be rude, but do they just imprison and/or murder minorities where you live? If not, then perhaps you can understand my beef with the Kurds here? I would think that we all hold them to significantly higher standards than the fanatics they are fighting against. CanPol would probably tell you yes, but we certainly have in the past, and if the existence of Canada was ever in question, we would probably commit all manner of human rights abuses. Like obviously prevent refugees from returning home is wrong, but ethnic cleansing is a really common part of building a nation state. SedanChair posted:You're right of course. This is going to sound ridiculous, but it is pretty easy for Westerners to criticize ethnic cleansing in the middle of a conflict like this. Reprisal is absolutely built in to us as human beings, and without strong central authority there is very little that could conceivably stop it. Yeah, the U.S. can try to lean on the Kurds here, but Kurdish human rights abuses will have to get a whole lot worse before the U.S. can credibly threaten to stop supporting them. SedanChair posted:I do think we should go on record as deploring it though. Agreed. It is quite literally the very least we could do.
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Feb 27, 2015 05:22
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Young Freud posted:IIRC, the AR has a rep of being a death ray laser compared to the AK, at least what I remember hearing about US soldiers training Iraqis using the gun, but it doesn't have the availability of the AK and it still looks like that's probably an issue when it comes to ammunition and spare parts. It could be a personal weapon or it could be a sharpshooter-issued weapon while everyone else gets AKs. You'd think there would be handsome profit for a CIA shell company running US market parts over there. Sure it's easier to just get more AKs, but where's the fun in that? It's not like anybody gets to see the budget.
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Feb 27, 2015 05:54
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Young Freud posted:I think it's also that we view artifacts and structures like that as being almost "immortal". People die but objects endure. They've already outlive their builders by hundreds if not thousands of years and you expect it to be around for another millennium. But by destroying them, it brings it around as they are the same temporal fleeting moment as human being. Nothing is immortal. Everything falls apart. I would also say it's part of how irreplaceable the archaeological record is by it's very nature. Once it's gone, it's gone and you can't replace it.
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Feb 27, 2015 07:48
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Feb 27, 2015 08:27
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SedanChair posted:So anyway like we were saying, the Kurds have a few image problems--
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Feb 27, 2015 09:01
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B-b-but the king of Jordan was on Star Trek! And he fights ISIS! This infographic, it lies! 
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Feb 27, 2015 09:05
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Charlz Guybon posted:That's been a popular style of salute for thousands of years. People without any cultural connection to Nazi Germany aren't going to be willing to change it. No, you see, people on twitter are going to see that and go "are these guys nazis???" They can't allow that to happen if they want to survive against ISIS.
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Feb 27, 2015 09:19
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sharknado slashfic posted:Is this a reference about how you turned from black to white? How dare you try to define SedanChair's ethnic identity for him simply because he looks like an albino Norwegian with vitiligo. Brown Moses posted:ISIS destroys a bunch of priceless historical artefacts A number of articles on ISIS from a few months back alleged that the black market trade in antiquities was a significant source of their income. Has that changed, or do they just feel the need to emphasize their credentials by destroying some 'un-Islamic' art?
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Feb 27, 2015 09:19
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Snow Job posted:B-b-but the king of Jordan was on Star Trek! And he fights ISIS! This infographic, it lies! Hey at least they're only imprisoning critics! Only....
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Feb 27, 2015 09:26
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dr_rat posted:Hey at least they're only imprisoning critics! You're reading the chart wrong. They are guilty of all those overlapping things. edit: Wait actually I may be the one reading it wrong. Why did they make it so confusing.
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Feb 27, 2015 09:31
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I am glad to see that Lebanon is an upstanding preserver of human rights. Or is so lovely it might as well not be noticed. Well ok, we probably don't have problems with personal freedoms nearly as much as any local country. It's both nice and a bit scary to be living in the "progressive" country if this is what it's like. HGH fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Feb 27, 2015 |
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Feb 27, 2015 10:03
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Qatar and Tunisia managed to stay off that list as well, so, uh how's that for company?
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Feb 27, 2015 10:29
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Qatar should be on there somewhere, but Tunisia is no surprise. In Freedom House's annual report, Tunisia became the first non-Turkey, non-Israel MENA country to ever earn a "free" rating. bigger http://www.freepressers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Freedom2015.jpg
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Feb 27, 2015 11:07
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Duckbag posted:Qatar and Tunisia managed to stay off that list as well, so, uh how's that for company? Kuwait has more personal freedoms than Qatar, to be fair, so yeah it is weird.
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Feb 27, 2015 11:10
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Tetraptous posted:PYD/YPG/YPJ are pretty clear about their aims and philosophy; what does HXP stand for and how are they distinct from YPG? Are they still affiliated with PYD (or PKK)? Anyone have more details? There isn't too much detail about them yet to be honest. They are under the command of the Desteya Parastin who are heavily affiliated with the PYD and there has been very little separation between the two in terms of politics, the HXP might just be a re branding exercise (something PKK affiliates have a love of). Then again the images they have released so far have been pretty light on Ocalan flags and other symbols associated with the PYD (bar the obvious red star in their logo), the decision to ditch the guerilla image for something more formal is also interesting - the PKK has an ideological obsession with the peasant guerilla image. The HXP may be an attempt by the PYD affiliated canton government to try to pitch themselves more in the middle ground. I've also seen one or two people claim Iraqi Kurdish involvement in their training/arming. That would certainly explain where the uniforms came from and may explain the more neutral presentation re: symbols, I haven't seen anything explicitly confirming it but I would imagine any training would be coming from PUK peshmerga (who have trained with the PKK in Kirkuk) as opposed to KDP units. Of course, that would mean that some of the weaponry/equipment that was sent over to the KRG, which foreign governments assured was for the KRG only, may be crossing the border - something that may make some people a little bit uncomfortable. Here's Desteya Parastin's twitter, facebook and website if anyone wants to poke around themselves (unusually most of it's in Arabic): https://twitter.com/desteyaparastin https://ar-ar.facebook.com/DesteyaParastin http://d-parastin.com/ar/ Weltlich posted:Which peshmerga units are in the area that have been cordoned? Even in the KRG, the pesh are pretty partisan, and from the geographic location of the reports, I'm guessing that they're KDP units. Most of the reports I've seen have focused on KDP controlled areas but there have been some warnings coming from UN agencies about some dodgy goings on in Kirkuk (which is PUK controlled) recently: OCHA posted:Protection monitors continue documentation and verification of an increasing number of forced eviction cases of IDPs from different communities inside Kirkuk City. Over 20 IDP families in Kirkuk from Diyala Governorate were evicted from their houses and escorted to the Kirkuk border in early January; the IDPs had been in Kirkuk since 2006. A further over 170 families were threatened with eviction in the week beginning 11 January. The Governor of Kirkuk, responding to the UN appeals, sent an official letter assuring the humanitarian community that IDPs will stay in Kirkuk as long as their areas of origin are not safe to return. kustomkarkommando fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Feb 27, 2015 |
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Feb 27, 2015 11:43
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Morocco? I take it that Middle East means "muslim country regardless of geographic location" now.
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Feb 27, 2015 11:52
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Where is the Syria Twitter list?cebrail posted:Morocco? I take it that Middle East means "muslim country regardless of geographic location" now. No, but Arab.
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Feb 27, 2015 11:54
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Any Arabic speakers that can give me a summary of what this guy is saying? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4G5u5e_JhU It's Hadi al-Amiri, an influential member of the Iraqi government, and the head of the Badr brigades, which is the network of Iranian militias in Iraq. He's one of the biggest Iranian shills in the country. The video is described as him threatening Iraqi Sunni civilians. If that's the case, it certainly shows how institutionalized sectarian violence from Shia militias in Iraq is.
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Feb 27, 2015 12:10
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cebrail posted:Morocco? I take it that Middle East means "muslim country regardless of geographic location" now. Svartvit posted:No, but Arab. Most of the world's Muslim nations are not on that list. Hell, Sudan isn't even on the list. If the criterion is "nasty Arab regimes," then it would certainly be on there and Israel and Iran just as certainly would not. I assume this chart was simply combining the Middle East and North Africa into one region (the "MENA" Volkerball mentioned) as they're commonly linked together in international relations circles. They probably thought Sudan was too far south to fit the geography and they may be lumping Turkey in with Europe or Central Asia (or they're just giving them a pass same as Lebanon). kustomkarkommando posted:PYD HXP PKK PUK KDP KRG Man, how many three letter acronyms do the Kurds need? When people talk about them one at a time it almost starts to seem like I might actually be understanding the situation over there, but then a post like this comes along to remind me how laughably clueless I really am.
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Feb 27, 2015 12:42
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Article I read about the nature of ISIS, from the Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/ Titled: What ISIS Really Wants The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
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Feb 27, 2015 12:55
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There's articles of every stripe about ~what ISIS wants~. You can't read one and expect it to give you an accurate picture. ISIS sells drugs and artifacts, yet people claim they are sticking to a strict interpretation of Islam. They only portray themselves as Islamists when it suits them to do so. They're Islamists like North Korea is Democratic. They're a cartel.
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Feb 27, 2015 12:59
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In other news, I don't have any more details, but it sounds like Turkey's train and arm program for Syrian rebels is scheduled to begin on March 1st. That was quick.
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Feb 27, 2015 13:02
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Volkerball posted:Any Arabic speakers that can give me a summary of what this guy is saying? He is threatening punishment however it doesn't sound sectarian, but he says "to our families in Albu'ajeel, stop being neutral, time to have a clear stand you are either with us or against us, those who are with us we welcome them with all our hearts, those with daesh will be punished".
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Feb 27, 2015 13:16
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Duckbag posted:Most of the world's Muslim nations are not on that list. Hell, Sudan isn't even on the list. If the criterion is "nasty Arab regimes," then it would certainly be on there and Israel and Iran just as certainly would not. I assume this chart was simply combining the Middle East and North Africa into one region (the "MENA" Volkerball mentioned) as they're commonly linked together in international relations circles. They probably thought Sudan was too far south to fit the geography and they may be lumping Turkey in with Europe or Central Asia (or they're just giving them a pass same as Lebanon). For reference, here are the countries of the Middle East as the word is practically used (aka MENA): Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Israel and the OPT, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran. Some people put Afghanistan and Pakistan in there. I don't think it's weird.
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Feb 27, 2015 14:06
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Very good article that makes a lot of points that don't get a lot of mention. It's called "I survived a local cease-fire in Syria." http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...7c35_story.html
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Feb 27, 2015 14:35
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One of those times when McCain says something completely right on an issue that no one else is even addressing. quote:Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement on human rights concerns in Egypt:
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Feb 27, 2015 15:21
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sharknado slashfic posted:Is this a reference about how you turned from black to white? lol
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Feb 27, 2015 15:32
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Volkerball posted:One of those times when McCain says something completely right on an issue that no one else is even addressing. Surprised that he made it through three paragraphs without blathering on about how we should start World War III over Ukraine.
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Feb 27, 2015 16:17
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Seems like Tal Hamis has been liberated by YPG with great losses on both sides. edit: Ie, ISIS lost 200++ vs YPG 38+. But just going by random tweets. BernieLomax fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Feb 27, 2015 |
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Feb 27, 2015 16:38
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How does Israel or Syria not fall under "Security forces used excessive force" 
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Feb 27, 2015 18:03
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Volkerball posted:Qatar should be on there somewhere, but Tunisia is no surprise. In Freedom House's annual report, Tunisia became the first non-Turkey, non-Israel MENA country to ever earn a "free" rating. So why is it that Tunisia has been the only country so far to actually achieve what the arab spring was promising? I mean I know the transition didn't involve a bloody civil war like Syria or Libya, but didn't they have about the same amount of government push-back that Egypt, Qatar, Yemen, and Bahrain did when it came to trying to stomp out the protests? Was it because it was first was it the government didn't know what the gently caress to do yet so it had a much more peaceful transition? Like why are they a total success story while Egypt and the rest are total poo poo shows?
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Feb 27, 2015 18:12
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