|
Some poo poo is going down in Tunisia. https://twitter.com/FadilAliriza/status/950700168034299904
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2018 14:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 14:15 |
|
|
Sinteres posted:While I think some level of SAA success against the rebels in Idlib isn't terribly surprising, the amount of progress they've continued to make in the last couple days has been pretty crazy, suggesting there's been a pretty massive rebel collapse. If the rebels aren't planning a counterattack pretty soon, it looks like a big chunk of eastern Idlib is going to be cut off entirely before too long, though obviously the length of this salient does mean the SAA has a lot of exposed territory to guard which can be attacked from both sides, so they risk envelopment themselves if they do overextend themselves. Really doesn't look at the moment like anything is going to stop the SAA linking up with Aleppo 
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2018 14:38
|
|
|
Cat Mattress posted:Keyword here being big. Do that with an F-16 or a MiG-21. But why would you, when what you're after is being able to hang out and blow poo poo up on the ground?
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2018 15:48
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:One thing that's interesting to me is they appear to be using cheap DIY drones, likely made to be disposable, such as the one pictured here: This is just a basic hobbyist drone, it literally might just be a kit. They wrapped the electronics and batteries in green plastic/tape to make it relatively weather proof, which is smart, albeit hilariously rudimentary. quote:Another example is seen here: I'm pretty sure this is also a kit body, just their weatherizing makes it look super DIY. Scratch that, it looks like they've just designed a super simple small drone that can be easily made out of light-weight plywood. Like a guy with a jigsaw could make a ton of those frames in an hour. I mean it's pretty easy to DIY a wing and a functional body. You want something more efficient if you're trying to put a weapon on it cuz every gram of drone is a gram of weapon you are missing out on. The batteries and engines are mass produced and super easy to buy online. Again, they could be rigged out of whatever, but it'll be more of a bitch to learn to control. By the way, that they're cutting out spare bits of plywood shows they're trying to get some optimal performance out of them. That's literally taking away just a few grams of material. There's also the same pattern of material removed on both drones, though that doesn't really mean much. It's worth checking out FPV planes on amazon because that's literally how simple it is now to get basic access to real time transmitted aerial drone footage. Kits are cheap, but it's already pretty simple stuff to put together. Better cameras, longer lasting batteries, better engines, and more powerful transmitters cost a little more, but the actual cost to put together drones capable of transmitting decent resolution battle footage is likely $700-1000 (before you factor in the smuggling tax of getting that poo poo into your respective corner of Syria). At this point there's no reason why any group anywhere should be going into battle without drone support. Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jan 9, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2018 19:37
|
|
|
Volkerball posted:Some poo poo is going down in Tunisia. There have been protests like that every couple months for the last 7 years (well, maybe only the last 5) including with semi-accidental deaths like the guy yesterday. I guess this could always be the protest that makes it big, but really it's business as usual in Tunisia right now. I follow Tunisian news/politics for personal reasons, and e.g. am headed down there this weekend. Just do a French google news search for tunisie + manifestation, it's almost as frequent as France and strikes. English media just only randomly covers it whenever there's a slow news day about whether the man has made a tweet or not. Saladman fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Jan 9, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2018 19:57
|
|
|
Saladman posted:There have been protests like that every couple months for the last 7 years (well, maybe only the last 5) including with semi-accidental deaths like the guy yesterday. I guess this could always be the protest that makes it big, but really it's business as usual in Tunisia right now. I follow Tunisian news/politics for personal reasons, and e.g. am headed down there this weekend. Everyone is hyper sensitive on middle eastern protests at the moment as well. In news https://twitter.com/BijanCNN/status/950379626131574784 Most estimates have the current population of Idlib province at 1 million+.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 10:14
|
|
|
Everyone who responded that the SAA incursion into Idlib was too big to take out was obviously right, and now the regime seems to be grabbing cities in eastern Idlib from multiple directions, including south from Aleppo, so the collapse looks to be headed toward total capture of that area rather than an enduring pocket being created. ISIS has opportunistically expanded the size of their territory in the area too, though presumably they'll be next once the regime finishes with the rebels.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 14:37
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/A_Tabatabai/status/951058800458510336 Huge if true with little or no strings attached. Drug offenders make up the majority of executed prisoners in Iran. If the government stopped executing them, it would immediately drop Iran from most executions per capita in the world to a totally average number. The debate on this subject has gone on for a while, but I'm curious as to whether this is a concession to protesters. It's certainly something that is more of a benefit to the everyday Iranian than it is to your socialite in Tehran or your cleric.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 14:48
|
|
|
Volkerball posted:Everyone is hyper sensitive on middle eastern protests at the moment as well. I don’t know why they’re focusing so much on that, when there’s a separate imperialist invasion of Tunisia that just started which is guaranteed to kill more people in the long run: http://www.businessnews.com.tn/kfc-ouvre-son-premier-restaurant-en-tunisie,520,77207,3
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 15:38
|
|
|
Volkerball posted:https://twitter.com/A_Tabatabai/status/951058800458510336 Good, I hope it happens. I didn't hear anything in the protests about drugs or executions, did anyone else? But you're right, drug problems and associated crime is usually a lower-class, poverty related issue. And one that can be a huge issue in rural areas, too. Iran has a massive drug problem, but obviously executions are not going to (and haven't) solved it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 15:47
|
|
|
Saladman posted:I don’t know why they’re focusing so much on that, when there’s a separate imperialist invasion of Tunisia that just started which is guaranteed to kill more people in the long run: Libya built some cinnabons right before everything fell apart. Might be on to something here.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 16:10
|
|
|
Speaking of which, what's the state of Libya these days? Any good articles lately summing it up?
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 16:17
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/jmalsin/status/951032818074836993
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 16:22
|
|
|
That title reads like something out of the Onion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 18:20
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/951063282714103808
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 19:01
|
|
|
Interesting, if inconclusive video, of a thing that may or may not have shot down an F-15. Preview image is completely unrelated to the video, for stupid reasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaD4qjjNLbE
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2018 23:48
|
|
|
From what I hear from Tunis, the only (?) protest in the center of the city was at Av Habib Bourguiba—a major landmark outside the medina—but it was pretty much a non-events as far as newsworthiness of protests go in Tunisia given how frequent they are. One of my wife's friends was there and took some photos but it wasn't more than a hundred-ish people. Only article I can find on it at all is: https://www.tunisienumerique.com/tunisie-video-manifestation-nocturne-a-lavenue-habib-bourguiba-pour-la-liberation-dactivistes/ It does sound like the protests are more serious in Kasserine and some of the other provincial towns, and we'll see if anything happens, especially since this Sunday is a holiday for the 7th anniversary of the flight of Ben Ali. I'm not there for politics at all, but I'll probably walk over and look if something is going on av Habib Bourguiba... more because I'd have to go out of my way to -not- go that way than anything else. TBH I think it's getting more news because of the trumped up stuff about Iran and anything that gets called a protest in an Arab (+Iranian) country right now is hot press cakes. Saladman fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jan 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 16:49
|
|
|
Do you think Tunisia is safe for tourists now? Would probably help the economy if that sector could recover
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 17:53
|
|
|
Well this puts a bit of a halt on any warming of Turkish/Syrian and Turkish/Russian relations: https://twitter.com/HaidHaid22/status/951405909980442624 quote:It seems that Turkey has finally permitted its Syrian rebel allies to launch a counteroffensive in #Hama and #Idlib. At least 6 Turkish-backed groups are part of the ongoing military operations and some are even using Turkish military equipment.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 18:39
|
|
|
Saladin Rising posted:Well this puts a bit of a halt on any warming of Turkish/Syrian and Turkish/Russian relations: They could also be doing this to convince Russia that's what they'd do unless they come to the negotiation table.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 18:52
|
|
|
Some footage from the counter-offensive https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/951415388520280064 https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/951441279170334720 https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/951446457038581762 https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/951463317545127936 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4T5taGQnkU
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2018 18:56
|
|
|
Squalid posted:Do you think Tunisia is safe for tourists now? Would probably help the economy if that sector could recover Yeah, it's fine for tourists -- there have only been two terrorist attacks since the revolution that affected tourists (both in 2015), so if you're not worried about going to France or NYC then there's no reason to worry about terrorism in Tunisia. But, tourists worry far far far more about Muzzlim countries than they do about terrorism elsewhere. Like, why does almost no one cancel trips to Thailand despite it being run by a brutal military regime every bit as bad as Egypt and, if discounting Sinai, suffers similar levels of terrorism? That said, by the way minibus drivers drive, I get the impression they all have previous experience driving SVBIEDs at hardened military outposts. After a handful of such experiences I'll now take the trains or rent a car. On that note, by far the most dangerous thing that tourists usually do in any country is taking inter-city buses, but that doesn't quite grab headlines the same way unless it's like in Peru or Bolivia where one goes off a cliff and kills 80 people every few months. E: There are a handful of "no go zones" like the mountains around Kasserine and the Libyan border but generally nothing that a tourist would go to anyway. I've heard that the wall they built on the Libyan–Tunisian border also helped a lot in terms of security, as previously there were a lot more attacks on security forces, but this was really focused specifically on Ben Gardane in the far south, where a tourist isn't going to go anyway unless they really love dusty, depressing, decayed Mad Max towns. Saladman fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Jan 12, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 09:22
|
|
|
Radio Prune posted:Some footage from the counter-offensive more crazy footage. https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/951550512142475264/pu/vid/640x360/Ol-pFx6X8yjbgdFW.mp4 warning, the camera man kills someone.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 09:26
|
|
|
Seems like Russian air support seems to be still MIA in Idlib. Just Syrian, although that does'nt seem to be going to well https://twitter.com/SyrianRevolutin/status/951392057364500480
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 09:58
|
|
|
One of my team did a piece on the drone attack on Russia's air base https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/01/12/the_poor_mans_airforce/ Interesting things to note is the munitions appear not to fit the types used elsewhere by drones in Syria, and there's been a few attacks using the same drones in a fairly wide area.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 12:48
|
|
|
Squalid posted:Do you think Tunisia is safe for tourists now? Would probably help the economy if that sector could recover Yeah, tourism is back in Tunisia, though I think they still have far to go to recover the level they had in, say, 2010. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-12/27/c_136853778.htm Egypt is recovering, too: https://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/egypt-tourism-revenues-rocket-1.619997
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 14:16
|
|
|
Completely anecdotal, but I visited a friend (both of us are American, he speaks fluent Arabic and I do not) in Tunisia in August and September of 2017. Went all around Tunis (including the Bardo) and visited Bulla Regia, Ain Draham, and Hammam Bourgiba. At no point did I feel unsafe. There was a slightly elevated military presence in Ain Draham and other areas near the Algerian border, but nothing crazy. We did not go into Kasserine or Kef, FWIW.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 17:07
|
|
|
Saladman posted:I don’t know why they’re focusing so much on that, when there’s a separate imperialist invasion of Tunisia that just started which is guaranteed to kill more people in the long run: 
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 17:46
|
|
|
Not a great day for the regime--that wide salient is definitely losing some chunks. The regime has probably made enough progress closing the pocket from the east that they could connect there if they absolutely had to, but if previous rebel offensives are any indication, they tend to stall and reverse pretty quickly since exposing themselves to aerial attack/Assad forces regrouping is a real problem for them. Russia really does seem to be taking a much smaller role than they have in the past though, so the aerial threat isn't quite as daunting as it has been in the recent past. Edit: I guess some reports are already suggesting the regime has had success in pushing back the rebel gains, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Jan 13, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 20:29
|
|
|
checking in real fast to drop some big news:- https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/951544337862660096 This is a gigantic nationalization of one of the top 3 companies in the entire country, it's basically giving a precedent of the government shaking down and simply taking over businesses rather than pay them back and detaining their owners. so much for encouraging private companies in the country! Jamal Khashoggi wrote an interesting article regarding national companies:- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...m=.7f73aa13fb54 also women being allowed to go to the stadiums and stuff. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42668841 What's so wierd is that I distinctly recall going to a friendly KSA-Brazil match a bunch of years ago and there were women sitting in the stadium, maybe it's that they're opening up the whole thing and not just the family section? I dunno. Al-Saqr fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jan 13, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2018 23:58
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/Endemic22/status/952005553529569281 Click through for more videos from other towns/cities. Several of those places are depopulated and destroyed now 
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 05:07
|
|
|
We've definitely heard this tune before, but Erdogan's promising a military operation in a week unless Afrin and Manbij surrender. Pissing off Russia and the US at the same time is a pro tier strat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 13:22
|
|
|
Sinteres posted:We've definitely heard this tune before, but Erdogan's promising a military operation in a week unless Afrin and Manbij surrender. Pissing off Russia and the US at the same time is a pro tier strat. It's likely another empty threat, demonstrating his impotence outside his own country. But yea, if he loses his mind and actually does it, nothing good will come out of it for Turkey. Their military wasn't all that hot when they pushed to take Al-Bab from ISIS if I recall, so not only does it piss off every neighbor, it'll likely also expose the Turkish army's flaws with that initial action.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 13:53
|
|
|
SOMEBODY KILL THIS FUCKER! I forsaw this 6 years ago! Please tell me I'm not the only kwisatz haderach on this rock? Christ! What the gently caress is it to be gained by keeping these chaos loving mother fuckers around?
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 19:23
|
|
|
54.4 crowns posted:SOMEBODY KILL THIS FUCKER! hmm. . . yeah why on earth would Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and the UAE support an Arab strongman moving to block the implementation of a democratic government? Truly a mystery for the ages. Literally everybody knew exactly what Haftar was up to as soon as he got involved in politics. That he has been so transparent about his ambitions is why he has so many dedicated enemies, but also why so many foreign elements feel they can do business with him. So on a completely unrelated topic, Afghanistan is going to have a parliamentary election this year, and a Presidential election in 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...t-idUSKBN1EW07N Stand-off over powerful Afghan governor foreshadows bitter election fight posted:MAZAR-I SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A stand-off between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Atta Mohammad Noor, the powerful provincial governor he is trying to remove from his northern stronghold, is increasingly turning into a battle over next year’s presidential election. So for anyone who isn't aware, there was massive voter fraud in 2014 that probably swung the election in Ghani's favor. Politics in Afghanistan is divided along ethnic lines. Many ethnic Uzbek's and other smaller ethnicities feel Pashtuns stole the Presidential election, and if we see a repeat of the 2014 fraud warlords like Noor and Dostum may be tempted to make much bigger demands on the central government or threaten to a civil war. However if a Pashtun loses the Presidential election it may be an even more dangerous situation for the Afghan government. Men like the recently pardoned Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have stoked Pashtun chauvinism and called for the removal of non-Pashtun leaders from the cabinet. At a recent rally of his he made statements like quote:“There are ‘sovereign islands of power’ in the country…This trend must come to an end”, without directly referring to his main political rival Jamiat-e-Islami party, he said. (ed: he is denouncing warlords like Noor) This is all despite Pashtuns having controlled the Presidency since the beginning of the US occupation. If Ghani loses and a non-Pashtun wins and is seen to be favoring Tajiks or Hazara, it will drive them faster than ever into the arms of the Taliban, much as the Shia favoratism of the Iraq government set the groundwork for the growth of ISIS. Squalid fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jan 13, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 21:43
|
|
|
So..... the solution to keeping Afghanistan from falling to the Pashtun-supremacist Taliban, is to let the Pashtun control all political power in perpetuity? (same for Sunnis in Iraq)
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2018 22:42
|
|
|
lol if you think there's a solution keeping the Afghan government intact through 2019 is going to require an immense amount of tact and diplomatic wrangling. I'm sure Trump and Tillerson have carefully prepared for all contingenci-- BAHAHAhah ha ha edit: I was reading an FP article the other day titled "Why the Taliban are actually losing" and it was the weakest most desperate poo poo ever. It concluded by saying that it would definitely be in the Taliban's best interest to cut a deal for amnesty and a few seats in the executive cabinet along with some other small concessions in exchange for putting down their arms and participating in the government, in an incredibly pathetic projection of the authors own fantasies of the most favorable possible way for the US to end its Afghan entanglement. The people running this war are grasping at straws Squalid fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jan 14, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 02:17
|
|
|
Squalid posted:edit: I was reading an FP article the other day titled "Why the Taliban are actually losing" and it was the weakest most desperate poo poo ever. It concluded by saying that it would definitely be in the Taliban's best interest to cut a deal for amnesty and a few seats in the executive cabinet along with some other small concessions in exchange for putting down their arms and participating in the government, in an incredibly pathetic projection of the authors own fantasies of the most favorable possible way for the US to end its Afghan entanglement. The people running this war are grasping at straws Whatever happens in Afghanistan has zero significance on the day-to-day life of the average American citizen. And we live in the post-fact era, where the reality-based community lost. So what's needed to win the war in Afghanistan is simply to let people believe that the war is won, pull out, and then hope the media will find more interesting things to speak about than the Taliban seizing power again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 02:54
|
|
|
Cat Mattress posted:Whatever happens in Afghanistan has zero significance on the day-to-day life of the average American citizen. And we live in the post-fact era, where the reality-based community lost. So what's needed to win the war in Afghanistan is simply to let people believe that the war is won, pull out, and then hope the media will find more interesting things to speak about than the Taliban seizing power again. It isn't going to work, the US political zeitgeist took decades to recover from Vietnam, and Iraq only initially worked because we had to pull out entirely when the country was relatively stable so we could declare victory We stuck around too long in Afganistan to the point where any sense of victory wore away and now we have to either climb back to where we are around 2011/2012 or pretty much stay there to the end of time. If there are photos of people waiting in line to get on to helicopters out of Kabil, there are going to be political consequences. Squalid posted:edit: I was reading an FP article the other day titled "Why the Taliban are actually losing" and it was the weakest most desperate poo poo ever. It concluded by saying that it would definitely be in the Taliban's best interest to cut a deal for amnesty and a few seats in the executive cabinet along with some other small concessions in exchange for putting down their arms and participating in the government, in an incredibly pathetic projection of the authors own fantasies of the most favorable possible way for the US to end its Afghan entanglement. The people running this war are grasping at straws Well one thing is for sure they (and to be honest most of the US media at this point to varying degrees) aren't going to stop gaslighting for anything. We will always be on the edge of victory.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 03:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 14:15 |
|
|
posting this to trigger Al-Saqr https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-reassuring-foreign-investors-154200721.html quote:Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne in Saudi Arabia, has taken steps to modernize the country with a bold, progressive blueprint to change the country socially, economically and politically with Saudi Vision 2030. quote:A key initial step in the plan is the country’s corruption crackdown that has led to the arrest of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, billionaire and member of the Saudi royal family, among others. quote:“The concern that, you know, most of the people have right now in the U.S., and in France, is that the message in Saudi Arabia should be that you have a rule of law that nobody is above, but, it is very important to define the rule of law and to present it to make the foreign investors secure about it.”
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2018 08:08
|
|
