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Cable Guy posted:Uh... I think you mean the Byzantines, who the Ottomans waxed in the 15th century. that's what I said, Rome
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Oct 3, 2019 23:15
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Helsing posted:Throwing your allies of convenience under the bus once you're done with them is a proud American tradition at this point.
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Oct 3, 2019 23:16
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Without prejudging how this is going to go, because we've had several 'omg the US is abandoning the YPG' freakouts at this point, everyone involved knew this was going to be a relationship that would be difficult to maintain from the start. The YPG objectively aren't worth fighting a war with Turkey over, but supporting them made sense in the context of the anti-ISIS fight and Turkey's covert support for ISIS early in the conflict. I was all for the US supporting them, but there should have been a long term plan in place that wasn't just abruptly withrawing whenever Trump gets bored or Erdogan forces the issue--the YPG should have been freed to make their own deal with the regime if that's what was in their best interest a long time ago instead of being used as a tool to deny the regime access to oil fields east of the Euphrates. If we end up leaving forces in the south of the country to guard those oil fields while allowing Turkey to invade in the north, it'll be pretty much the most cynical outcome possible.
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Oct 3, 2019 23:28
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if they can just hold out until President Sanders is inaugurated, they can be the first victors in the United States' global socialist revolution
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Oct 3, 2019 23:35
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GreyjoyBastard posted:if they can just hold out until President Sanders is inaugurated, they can be the first victors in the United States' global socialist revolution DC is pissed.
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Oct 3, 2019 23:39
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Downtown Baghdad has turned into a war zone. Waves of protesters are trying to get into the Green Zone and security forces are dispersing the crowds with heavy machinegun fire. https://twitter.com/realsadaam/status/1179887368284917766
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Oct 4, 2019 00:29
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That could just be celebra-(12 sec mark) Ok, never mind. Is there any central group with these protests or is it mainly just people pissed at no jobs, rolling blackouts and corruption?
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Oct 4, 2019 00:44
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pro starcraft loser posted:That could just be celebra-(12 sec mark) Ok, never mind. al-Sadr called for a general strike, so the Sadrists are in support, and they're aligning with the Kurds. Suunis should be wary of being marginalized in the aftermath, but so far the protests are cross-sectarian.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:18
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Sinteres posted:I was going to say he's smart enough to know the difference, but everything I've read about him makes him sound like a pretty massive moron, so maybe he's not. Runs a country like it's ck2 or some poo poo.
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Oct 4, 2019 01:23
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Sinteres posted:Without prejudging how this is going to go, because we've had several 'omg the US is abandoning the YPG' freakouts at this point, everyone involved knew this was going to be a relationship that would be difficult to maintain from the start. The YPG objectively aren't worth fighting a war with Turkey over, but supporting them made sense in the context of the anti-ISIS fight and Turkey's covert support for ISIS early in the conflict. The Kurds have been free to make deals with Assad's government and have been making them as necessary. The problem is Assad isn't interested in giving away territory or autonomy. He knows he can take the territory by force if/when Kurdish international support goes away anyways, so he can wait. The Kurds by contrast aren't interested in getting ethnically cleansed to break up their influence over the Kurdish regions or everyone of any importance getting black-bagged by the secret police as soon as it becomes convenient to ensure they aren't a problem in the future. Those who are Socialists probably aren't too keen on being part of a particularly brutal baathist/fascist regime, either. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 05:19
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 5.56  quote:Internet access has just returned in Najaf but electricity still cut off in some areas of the city. Residents could hear non-stop gunfire through the night yesterday and it started again this afternoon: "It's as if we're in the middle of a war"  Not sure what this is, a tear gas grenade maybe?  WAR CRIME GIGOLO fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 05:33
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This just popped up on my home page https://youtu.be/Ly4Y4vDPwog
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Oct 4, 2019 10:52
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Less Claypool posted:This just popped up on my home page
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Oct 4, 2019 11:12
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Warbadger posted:The Kurds have been free to make deals with Assad's government and have been making them as necessary. The problem is Assad isn't interested in giving away territory or autonomy. He knows he can take the territory by force if/when Kurdish international support goes away anyways, so he can wait. Yeah, the regime offered no meaningful protection before from Ottoman puppet attacks when they did make accomodations, there's no reason to think that they will otherwise.
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Oct 4, 2019 11:15
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Warbadger posted:The Kurds have been free to make deals with Assad's government and have been making them as necessary. The problem is Assad isn't interested in giving away territory or autonomy. He knows he can take the territory by force if/when Kurdish international support goes away anyways, so he can wait. That's not true, the US was definitely discouraging them from making deals with the regime east of the Euphrates, and stopped them from selling oil to the regime. Of course the YPG has reason to be fearful of the regime (and obviously the regime has hurt its ability to keep territory out of Turkey's hands by being unwilling to negotiate substantial concessions, and by being untrustworthy), but the YPG actively collaborated with the regime against the rebels in the west of the country, so it seems clear that given the choice they'd choose the regime over Turkey. I mean I guess they didn't in their doomed defense of Afrin, but they seem to have overestimated their ability to hold off the Turkish forces, and were perhaps afraid of setting a larger precedent in the smaller of the two territories under their control. Tal Rifaat remains under their control due to the regime, however. Speaking of Turkish colonization, they seem to be establishing three branch universities in northern Syria: https://twitter.com/Kgthetweet/status/1180010743250505728 Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 12:40
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Did the Houthis ever end up parading those thousands of Saudis they claimed to have captured?
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Oct 4, 2019 21:08
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A Typical Goon posted:Did the Houthis ever end up parading those thousands of Saudis they claimed to have captured? I saw a video where they showed off a bunch of prisoners and equipment, dunno if they did something more organized
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Oct 4, 2019 21:19
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A Typical Goon posted:Did the Houthis ever end up parading those thousands of Saudis they claimed to have captured? They didn’t parade them AFAIK, but the videos they had did show huge numbers of captured soldiers and at least a battalion worth of abandoned Strykers with Saudi-aligned soldiers running away.
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Oct 4, 2019 22:46
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Reports: Up to 35 Russian Mercenaries Killed in Libyaquote:MOSCOW - As many as 35 Russian mercenaries are reported to have been killed in Libya while they were fighting for Khalifa Haftar, the military general most associated with the rule of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, who launched an offensive earlier this year on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, home to the country’s internationally-recognized government, according to a Russian media. I don't really know how reliable this Meduza outlet is, but it doesn't sound like anyone is really denying this story so it might be true. Pretty crazy if so.
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Oct 4, 2019 23:00
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Squalid posted:Reports: Up to 35 Russian Mercenaries Killed in Libya US Special Operations units routinely kill russian pmcs operating in non aligned conflicts.
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Oct 4, 2019 23:03
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WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:US Special Operations units routinely kill russian pmcs operating in non aligned conflicts. do you have anywhere in mind besides Syria? Idk if'd say it's routine. . . Of course this was US spec ops responsible for this airstrike in Libya or even US allies. Trump is kind of on Haftar's side. The airstrike was presumably by a Turkish drone supplied to the GNA forces from Tripoli.
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Oct 4, 2019 23:06
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Book review in the latest NYRB on Peter Hessler's book on recent events in Egypt https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/10/egypt-between-order-and-chaos/
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Oct 5, 2019 14:04
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Turkish and American jets seem to both be heavily flying along the border, this time not in joint patrols, and the SDF are back digging trenches where they just filled them in as part of the safe zone bullshit. I hope they flinch, but it's going to be interesting to see what happens if Turkey actually pulls the trigger this time.
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Oct 5, 2019 21:55
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A Typical Goon posted:Did the Houthis ever end up parading those thousands of Saudis they claimed to have captured? Somewhat predictably, the videos were noteworthy but not close to what was claimed by Houthi PR folks.
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Oct 5, 2019 22:52
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Conspiratiorist posted:al-Sadr called for a general strike, so the Sadrists are in support, and they're aligning with the Kurds. Is al-Sadr still mainly about limiting Iranian influence in the government?
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Oct 5, 2019 23:01
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Sinteres posted:Turkish and American jets seem to both be heavily flying along the border, this time not in joint patrols, and the SDF are back digging trenches where they just filled them in as part of the safe zone bullshit. I hope they flinch, but it's going to be interesting to see what happens if Turkey actually pulls the trigger this time. That, and more troops are confirmed to be moving to the border from their side. One thing, at least, is sure. If they pull the trigger now, the safe zone crap had only one point to it - to give whatever small advantage to the Turks they could get with filled trenches and their flyovers. All their cries of: "But the perfidious Kurds didn't do enuff!" were complete BS. Still, I can see why they'd pick this time to do it, what with president babbyhands far too busy losing his mind on Twitter and making GBS threads his pants over impeachment. Actually no, two things are sure - it also means the word of the Turkish government means diddly poo poo and shouldn't be trusted whatsoever. CrazyLoon fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Oct 5, 2019 |
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Oct 5, 2019 23:34
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Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but Turkey is about to destroy a 12,000 year old city.
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Oct 6, 2019 00:02
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steinrokkan posted:Is al-Sadr still mainly about limiting Iranian influence in the government? Its not like he's a one issue guy. He's complicated and savvy. He spent some years in exile in Iran, so its not like he's staunchly anti-Iranian.
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Oct 6, 2019 02:41
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Sadr is definitely out of line with Iran these days, whether that's out of sincere differences or just because he's a cynical opportunist who sees a viable lane in being an Iraqi nationalist opposed to both American and Iranian influence in the country. Notably, he called on Assad to step down after the Khan Shaykun chemical attack, which obviously isn't Iran's preference, and he visited MBS in Saudi Arabia, though he's also criticized the Saudi war in Yemen. I'll never like or trust the guy, but he seems to make more of any effort than most to bridge sectarian divides and got some positive press here for a while because of that. Edit: Back in Syria, it looks like American forces so far are moving toward the border rather than away from it. Erdogan may have misread American intentions, whether that's because he heard what he wanted to hear or because Trump told him what he wanted to hear and then the military said lol no and talked him around. Or the Americans are bluffing and will withdraw the second Turkey crosses, who knows. Edit2: lol https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1180933016794910728 Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Oct 6, 2019 |
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Oct 6, 2019 03:27
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I see she's still active: https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/1180654904873848832
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Oct 7, 2019 02:47
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FWIW this is the reference about the SAS soldiers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4264614.stm
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Oct 7, 2019 03:20
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Clearly the SAS is up to its nasty old tricks again.
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Oct 7, 2019 04:14
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eke out posted:https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1181043939899523072 uh. . .
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Oct 7, 2019 04:26
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Jesus, not even a hint of compromise, just a total surrender. Trump and his administration really do have two different foreign policies: https://twitter.com/wesleysmorgan/status/1181047042656935936
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Oct 7, 2019 04:34
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Sinteres posted:Jesus, not even a hint of compromise, just a total surrender. and a hilarious attempt to pre-blame the EU for the coming ethnic cleansing 'gee guys we wouldn't have given this place to Turkey if you just...took these randos off our hands I guess?'
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Oct 7, 2019 04:36
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I, for one, am glad donald trump is taking a strong stand against US imperialism
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Oct 7, 2019 04:48
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It isn't my foremost concern at the moment, but it'll be interesting to see how Turkey deals with Qamishli and (depending on the depth of the invasion) Hasakah. They've made pledges to respect the territorial integrity of Syria, and while they're obviously bullshit, invading regime occupied areas would be pretty blatant.
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Oct 7, 2019 04:57
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Trump had to continue the time honored tradition of US Presidents loving over the Kurds
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Oct 7, 2019 04:59
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FlamingLiberal posted:Trump had to continue the time honored tradition of US Presidents loving over the Kurds Dont wotry we'll turn against turkish hitler when we can liberate constantinople for Putin with no questions.
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Oct 7, 2019 05:05
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It's going to be nuts if the US still bombs any regime forces they send across the Euphrates to try and establish a defensible line to keep the Turkish incursion limited. It seems pretty unlikely that we'll just hand over the oil fields to them tomorrow, but who the gently caress knows.
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Oct 7, 2019 05:09
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