|
Count Roland posted:Are those fire extinguishers lined up there? Great for smuggling white powders
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2018 10:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 08:07 |
|
|
Squalid posted:So uh some guys in Bahrain were planning something really big: That's one hell of a bust. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2018 10:54
|
|
|
Sergg posted:Great for smuggling white powders
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2018 15:18
|
|
|
Radio Prune posted:You thought ~*PIPELINES*~ was high up on the galaxy brain scale? Someone's been reading too much Thomas Friedman quote:The French statesman Talleyrand famously observed about the Bourbons, “they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” Something similar might be said about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Once upon a time he was the avatar of a new age of economic interdependence that would lead to global peace. No two countries that each had a McDonald’s, he wrote, would ever go to war with each other.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2018 16:36
|
|
|
nevar forget: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3076512
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2018 20:53
|
|
|
Any idea what this is about? https://twitter.com/Gebran_Bassil/status/971423676292911106 Bing Translate sez "Today, the Lebanese registered to vote abroad can obtain a new passport of only 1,000 Lebanese pounds, very quickly and without transportation costs, to be able to use it in the upcoming parliamentary elections... A new step from the foreign Ministry to facilitate the election of the scattered GB" I've been seeing some negative reactions, for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 06:49
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:Any idea what this is about? Sounds like he's just pointing out that Lebanese citizens living abroad can pay 1k Lebanese pounds to purchase a new passport which can be used for voting. "Facilitate the election of the scattered GB" seems like a machine translation quirk and probably is more like "help the diaspora vote" and GB is his initials, i.e. he signed his post.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 09:53
|
|
|
If it is talking about diaspora getting a vote then that could totally explain negative reactions. When you consider that historically influence from those that have left a nation has had some pretty unsavoury influence (sometimes), it seems totally reasonable for Lebanese nationals to be uneasy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 13:50
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:
lol
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 14:59
|
|
|
Twitter uses it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 15:03
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:Any idea what this is about? This is google translate's version: Today, the Lebanese registered to vote abroad can obtain a new passport in the Lebanese pound only, very quickly and without the cost of transportation, in order to be able to use it in the upcoming parliamentary elections ... A new step from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the election of publishers And Bing translate without the initials at the end: Today, the Lebanese registered to vote abroad can obtain a new passport of only 1,000 Lebanese pounds, very quickly and without transportation costs, to be able to use it in the upcoming parliamentary elections... A new step from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the election of the spread So if we roughly merge them it's something like "The Lebanese diaspora can get a passport quickly and without having to travel to Lebanon for 1000 Lebanese pounds [or "can get a passport using Lebanese pounds," I can't actually read Arabic and no two machine translators have agreed on that part] and can use it in the upcoming parliamentary elections... A new step from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the diaspora's participation in elections" So yeah it looks like it's "letting the diaspora vote"
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 16:45
|
|
|
Cable Guy posted:If it is talking about diaspora getting a vote then that could totally explain negative reactions. When you consider that historically influence from those that have left a nation has had some pretty unsavoury influence (sometimes), it seems totally reasonable for Lebanese nationals to be uneasy. Oh, yeah, that's really controversial in Israel, as well. People keep bringing it up, but it gets shot down. Meanwhile it's been the standard in the US for I don't know how long. Is that a law that passed or is this some kind of unilateral decision by their interior/foreign ministry, does anyone know?
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 17:02
|
|
|
Absurd Alhazred posted:Is that a law that passed or is this some kind of unilateral decision by their interior/foreign ministry, does anyone know? According to Wikipedia, the debate has been ongoing for a while. The idea seems to be to create a constituency for expatriates, so that they can have representatives in Parliament.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 18:00
|
|
|
Cat Mattress posted:According to Wikipedia, the debate has been ongoing for a while. The idea seems to be to create a constituency for expatriates, so that they can have representatives in Parliament. Interesting. France works that way, while in the US you're associated with the constituency you last lived in.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 18:12
|
|
|
Lebanese diaspora is disproportionately Christian so letting them vote would be kinda like letting Washington DC vote in that it would predictably benefit certain parties and disadvantage others.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 18:24
|
|
|
Holy crap, East Ghouta barely exists anymore:  This reminds me of the collapse of East Aleppo, where formerly static lines that had held for years just vanished instantly. Douma/Duma is now almost completely surrounded.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 19:11
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/TheSyriaCmpgn/status/972526117562257419?s=19
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 20:33
|
|
|
Most of the government gains have been open terrain, the advance will slow down once they get into the populated built up areas and bimbing isn't as effective. Government losses have also been pretty heavy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 20:46
|
|
|
Well at least Ahrar's Nusra prisoners are OK. https://twitter.com/Tuairisceoir_/status/972531282478444545
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2018 21:55
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/WaelAlRussi/status/972580272683274240?s=20 https://twitter.com/AboZain6/status/972558744969252864
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 00:51
|
|
|
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-taliban/afghan-taliban-urge-religious-scholars-to-boycott-peace-conference-idUSKCN1GM0CLquote:The conference, proposed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in January and due to be held later this month, was an effort to present “the sacred Jihad in Afghanistan ... as unlawful bloodshed”, the Taliban said in a statement. Shocking.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 02:14
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:https://twitter.com/WaelAlRussi/status/972580272683274240?s=20 Is this the point where I post those warehouses full of dead children wrapped in white sheets from this bombing campaign and sarcastically note that they're terrorists and you're engaging in the same apologia that pro-Israel posters use by a factor of 10x, or are you already aware of that fact and totally accepting of it?
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 13:21
|
|
|
Sergg posted:Is this the point where I post those warehouses full of dead children wrapped in white sheets from this bombing campaign and sarcastically note that they're terrorists and you're engaging in the same apologia that pro-Israel posters use by a factor of 10x, or are you already aware of that fact and totally accepting of it? It’s city fighting, it’s inherently brutal, and US PGM’s didn’t change that reality in Raqqa or Mosul, or even Gaza. I must have been away when the international community was calling for ceasefires or holding security council meetings about the civilian casualties in IS strongholds. This isn’t calling the rebels in the Ghouta pocket the same as IS, but I am calling the civilians in any of the areas the same, as they are under what amounts to martial law. No country in the world would allow an armed rebel enclave in/next to their capital and to expect otherwise is fantasy. I don’t really get the tears over it other than war is hell.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 19:15
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/embed/0aaZmc2ONVM https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/972857035829235712
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 19:42
|
|
|
Looks like the siege of Afrin is going to be starting soon. Does anyone know how many civilians are still in the town?
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 19:57
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/Brasco_Aad/status/972810642326540288
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 21:32
|
|
|
Coldwar timewarp posted:It’s city fighting, it’s inherently brutal, and US PGM’s didn’t change that reality in Raqqa or Mosul, or even Gaza. I must have been away when the international community was calling for ceasefires or holding security council meetings about the civilian casualties in IS strongholds. Ghouta appears to have been a shitload more deadly so far than Raqqa, Mosul, or Gaza incursions so I'm really not sure what your point here is. Killing thousands because you don't give a gently caress and shell/bomb indiscriminately is actually worse than killing hundreds accidentally while trying to minimize civilian casualties. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Mar 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 21:50
|
|
|
Warbadger posted:Ghouta appears to have been a shitload more deadly so far than Raqqa, Mosul, or Gaza incursions so I'm really not sure what your point here is. Killing thousands because you don't give a gently caress and shell/bomb indiscriminately is actually worse than killing hundreds accidentally while trying to minimize civilian casualties. Literally thousands died in those incursions. The civillian death toll for Mosul was at least ten thousand and possibly several times that, while Raqqa is a destroyed hellscape that was rendered largely uninhabitable. When you drop a PGB on every single building, it ultimately becomes little different from randomly dropping bombs. While Raqqa and Mosul ended up in better hands than Assad, the fact is itfucking sucks to be a civilian in an urban warzone no matter who is fighting who.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 22:06
|
|
|
Warbadger posted:Ghouta appears to have been a shitload more deadly so far than Raqqa, Mosul, or Gaza incursions so I'm really not sure what your point here is. Killing thousands because you don't give a gently caress and shell/bomb indiscriminately is actually worse than killing hundreds accidentally while trying to minimize civilian casualties. Ghouta if counted over the entire civil war, maybe. I don’t agree with their terror bombing, but I also don’t blame the regime for doing non-proportional responses to shelling, anyone would, as anyone with a monopoly of force would do. It’s lovely when Israel does it, it’s lovely when Assad does it. Any time I hear this argument about PGMs being better, it’s basically an argument for the US and rich countries being the only ones who have a right to make war because they have the money to fight with the most sanitized toys. Your guess of damage and casualties during Mosul are really way off base of even the low estimates.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 22:21
|
|
|
you know that russia's been deliberately targeting hospitals right
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 22:29
|
|
|
It probably shouldn't really surprise me, but it's weird to see somebody in rebel held Idlib cheering a Russian air strike, and also recording it with obvious previous knowledge of where it's going to hit.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 22:53
|
|
|
MSF even stopped providing them with coordinates of their network field hospitals because they thought doing so made it more likely for them to be targeted, not less.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 22:53
|
|
|
steinrokkan posted:It probably shouldn't really surprise me, but it's weird to see somebody in rebel held Idlib cheering a Russian air strike, and also recording it with obvious previous knowledge of where it's going to hit. I'd presume he's reposting a video from another source. EDIT: Here's an earlier posting of the same video https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/972803290202279936 Ghost of Babyhead fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Mar 11, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2018 23:32
|
|
|
Coldwar timewarp posted:Ghouta if counted over the entire civil war, maybe. I don’t agree with their terror bombing, but I also don’t blame the regime for doing non-proportional responses to shelling, anyone would, as anyone with a monopoly of force would do. It’s lovely when Israel does it, it’s lovely when Assad does it. You don't really qualify that second sentence. Do you think that the capacity to enact foreign policy objectives should not necessarily be constrained by innocent deaths?
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 05:53
|
|
|
Kawasaki Nun posted:You don't really qualify that second sentence. Do you think that the capacity to enact foreign policy objectives should not necessarily be constrained by innocent deaths? It is flat out not constrained by innocent deaths. I don’t think less dead civilians by 50 or any percent is an acceptable justification to go forward with wars of choice. That said, there are still stacks of Iraqi dead due to US air strikes against IS. If it was presented equally or even challenged that would make me take seriously the earnestness of those voting in the security council. The same with regards to Iran’s missile program when the GCC arms itself to the teeth with American supplied weaponry across the gulf.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 06:13
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/972845125218000896?s=19 East Ghouta has been cut into three smaller pockets. https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/972850151395033090?s=19 The Turks have almost linked up and cut off Afrin.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 06:29
|
|
|
You seem to be oscillating between regime apologia and "US killed lots of people in Mosul/Raqqa too so who are we to criticize?" as though nobody in here criticized the tens of thousands of dead civilians in Mosul and Raqqa. Maybe your blanket position should be that indiscriminate murder of civilian populations is bad and also that fascist dictatorships are bad? Seems like it'd be a lot easier to be logically consistent with that one. I would also throw "People have a right to resist the tyranny of fascist dictatorships." but I dunno if you consider Bashar Assad to be the glorious torch-bearer of the Socialist Revolution instead of a murderous thug who turned his country to ash in order to avoid giving up an ounce of power.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 09:17
|
|
|
Since it came up in this thread, I thought I'd share an article about the growing casualty numbers from Raqqa. It's no secret that Trump felt the military had been on too tight a leash, and that civilian fatalities increased significantly since he took office. Reaching a major urban center would have led to an increase in deaths under any other president too of course, and it genuinely is impossible to avoid some level of civilian deaths in urban combat, but you can read the latest reporting for yourself and decide what you think about the outcome: https://www.thedailybeast.com/theyre-still-pulling-bodies-out-of-isis-capital
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 15:04
|
|
|
Speaking of city fighting, as would be expected, a lot of people are fleeing Afrin ahead of the fighting. Supposedly most are headed to Aleppo to wait it out. https://twitter.com/BarzanSadiq/status/973202077391446016 Still haven't been able to get any sort of accurate number for how people were/still are in Afrin though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 16:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 08:07 |
|
|
I can't blame them for leaving, and I'd do the same if I were them, but if ethnic cleansing really is what Turkey has in mind for the area, blocking people from returning and settling refugees in their homes will be a hell of a lot more camera friendly than actually expelling them. "Hey, they chose to leave!" Edit: I still think the idea of sending fighters from Rojava to Afrin was stupid though, and if anything fighters from Afrin should have fled to Rojava to save themselves and reduce the need for civilians to flee the coming fighting. It's hard to see how losing this quickly did anything to help their cause, and even if the capture of the city Afrin ends up being long and bloody, it's going to be bloodier for the Kurds than for the invaders. I get the idea that trying to hold out there as long as possible takes pressure off the east for now, but realistically the US (or a deal with the regime) is the only thing saving Rojava from Turkey whether it's today or six months from now, so I don't think they accomplished anything. Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Mar 12, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2018 17:09
|
|