|
LibCrusher posted:Honestly think the low level guys got given too much power and authority and got high off the “good vs evil” aspect of fighting ISIS. Also I bet a few of the guys thought it would be cool to blow up the dam. Ah, the strategic squad leader.
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2022 04:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 27, 2024 17:27 |
|
|
I do recall there was a book that came out last year I can’t remember the name of that essentially held as its central thesis that the US military was shifting moral responsibility downwards to soldiers by having official policies not to do war crime poo poo while deliberately but deniably propagandising their soldiers glorifying warcrimes and then delegating to lower ranked service-members the authority necessary to enact them, essentially ensuring the warcrimes would happen but any time they were caught it would be someone low-level taking the blame rather than a senior officer. This sounds like it tracks with that. An official policy not to blow up the dam, but quite deliberately no procedure in place to prevent a strike being called in on the dam.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2022 06:41
|
|
|
Then, tautologically, procedure was followed so nobody was in the wrong.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2022 08:05
|
|
|
Here's the update of Arabian peninsula happenings: Six days ago- bombs land in Abu Dhabi, killing 3. Houthis claim the attack as their action. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-01-17/drone-attack-may-be-behind-abu-dhabi-tanker-explosion-fire Here in the UAE the news coverage/discussion was minimal. It seems like they were trying to keep things very quiet, probably because the covid spike is already making a big impact on expo travel. In retaliation, the Saudi Led coalition bombed a few targets. In addition to Houthi forces, Doctors Without Borders/MSF is saying it is an atrocity. As of now, the UAE/Saudi are denying the attack, or at least last I read. 60+ dead, hundreds wounded. There is some discussion whether or not it was a prison or a temporary housing center for migrants, though that's not showing up in other sources. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/several-killed-air-strike-detention-centre-yemens-saada-reuters-witness-2022-01-21/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/22/saudi-led-coalition-denies-yemen-air-raid-un-us-call-for-calm I'm off twitter right now, so I'm sure there's lots of on-the-ground reporting tweets that could also add more depth. I seem to recall seeing an image of a serial number from a raytheon bomb and the bomb site. Today the UAE (with support from US forces) intercepted something coming up from Yemen, and it's starting to get more press coverage. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uaes-defense-ministry-destroyed-2-houthi-ballistic-missiles-wam-2022-01-24/ A long time ago someone in this thread discussed the complexity of the root of where/who the Houthi's are. Most sources say "Iranian-backed" but I recall discussion saying that the Iranian position in Yemen was (at least several years ago) much more hands-off than other non-state actors supported by Iran, but I don't know how to find good sources for any of that info or coverage. Anybody got good articles on who they are and what the state of the civil war in Yemen is by now?
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2022 17:33
|
|
|
Here's an odd onequote:At least 13 people have been killed in a major US special forces raid in opposition-held north-western Syria, first responders and activists say. The Syria Conflict Map is asking if the leader of ISIS has been killed. The links are in Arabic and I don't find anything in English. https://syria.liveuamap.com/ The raid took place in Northern Syria where the Syrian state isn't in control. The town Atmeh looks to be a couple km from the Operation Olive Branch territory.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 12:30
|
|
|
The building raided is a 15 minute drive from the Turkish border. There's multiple images of dead children, including a baby, going around social media, and one girl who was injured in the attack. The White Helmets are reporting the girl's family were all killed in the raid. As it's so close to the Turkish border there's already a lot of local media filming the site of the attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf3uehmShN0 It looks like there was an explosion on the top floor that blew out the walls and caused part of the ceiling to collapse. The ceiling is covered in blood splatter, and a wall some distance away is covered in blood and bits of flesh, so it looks like someone exploded. Whether or not it was a suicide bomb, or something the Americans did is unclear at this point. There's various rumours of who was targeted, including the new leader of ISIS, but there's been no official claim from the US or ISIS as of yet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 13:07
|
|
|
Thoughts and prayers to Turkish intelligence on losing another close friend and colleague.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 13:27
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1489219116732928004 No mention of the children killed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 13:57
|
|
|
The Guardian is reporting that some of the children killed may have been due to use of explosives by al-Qurayshi. But some of them appear to have been killed by gunfire. Those poor kids. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/03/us-special-forces-kill-suspected-jihadists-in-north-west-syria-raid
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2022 01:15
|
|
|
"taking several members of his family with him"..."went precisely as expected" Civ deaths don't count if you expect them ahead of time, apparently.
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2022 02:08
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/MazloumAbdi/status/1489940387334606852?t=-fZWopKjMlN9PLyEVEXUcQ&s=19 More and more people are saying this!
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2022 14:01
|
|
|
road potato posted:Here's the update of Arabian peninsula happenings: Just wanted to circle back and say that I felt bad for not responding to this post but honestly I haven't been keeping up with it as much as I probably should. It's been totally off the radar in the US, which is depressing. It seems like it might be about to come back on the radar, but in an even more depressing way: https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1491130254790127616 This sucks man.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2022 01:33
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1492089973738287105?s=21 https://mobile.twitter.com/etbrooking/status/1492160124336623620
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 18:17
|
|
|
Even with the understanding that it's money we gave Afghanistan in the first place, and aside from the humanitarian issue (which is real), it's a massive abuse of our financial power. Between this and the ever-increasing sanctions regimes the US is setting up, we're practically begging the rest of the world to look for alternatives. Nobody likes the Taliban, but if we can do it to them, we can do it to other countries too. Even when we froze Iran's money, we didn't just go ahead and start distributing it to Americans.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 18:22
|
|
|
Sinteres posted:Even with the understanding that it's money we gave Afghanistan in the first place, and aside from the humanitarian issue (which is real), it's a massive abuse of our financial power. Between this and the ever-increasing sanctions regimes the US is setting up, we're practically begging the rest of the world to look for alternatives. Nobody likes the Taliban, but if we can do it to them, we can do it to other countries too. Even when we froze Iran's money, we didn't just go ahead and start distributing it to Americans. dont worry man im sure there will be no consequences from causing a complete social collapse in afghanistan, people are physically incapable of leaving the geographic borders of the country they belong to, right?
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 18:46
|
|
|
Correct me if I'm wrong but the WTC attacks happened... over 20 years ago?? How is it possible that the families still need 3.5 billions in aid? I don't deny that it's nice to offer people help, but twenty years after? How much support have victims of other terrorist attacks received?
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 20:05
|
|
|
Nenonen posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but the WTC attacks happened... over 20 years ago?? Until today the 9/11 rescue workers still arent paid their health insurance and many of them died from not being able to afford healthcare lol what country do you think this is?!
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 20:15
|
|
|
9/11 restitution isn't evenly distributed in these kinds of situations. It's parceled out proportionally based on the projected future income of the individuals who died, and the tower was full of bankers with massive life insurance policies whose massive income disparity make sure only crumbs go to families of janitors and white collar peons who died whenever money gets doled out. The same thing will happen in this situation. The other half of the 7 billion isn't much better, the whole humanitarian trust fund is just going to trickle money that'll largely go towards mortgages in the northern Virginia suburbs as opposed to actually doing anything useful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 20:24
|
|
|
Tweezer Reprise posted:https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1492089973738287105?s=21 https://mobile.twitter.com/etbrooking/status/1492160124336623620 Cool cool. Glad that Biden takes a page off of trumps book: "folks don't worry we are only here for the oil."
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2022 21:00
|
|
|
Nenonen posted:Correct me if I'm wrong but the WTC attacks happened... over 20 years ago?? If it's justice for the victims of 9/11, shouldn't they be taking it from the Suadi's accounts? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2022 04:08
|
|
|
Greatbacon posted:If it's justice for the victims of 9/11, shouldn't they be taking it from the Suadi's accounts? We don't talk about that in America.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2022 04:10
|
|
|
Greatbacon posted:If it's justice for the victims of 9/11, shouldn't they be taking it from the Suadi's accounts? That's Marxism Also Lol that Nazis killed a few thousand people for "crimes oor traitorism". America will kill your entire country for two lovely rental scam buildings. WAR CRIME GIGOLO fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Feb 13, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2022 05:09
|
|
|
I've wondered if Turkey would try to take advantage of Russia being otherwise occupied with Ukraine to strike at Tal Rifaat or something, but it looks like there's at least some concern that Russia's going to be proactive about making their continued presence in the country apparent. Russian planes seem to have to been active over Al-Bab earlier, so it's not entirely speculation. https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1496586455686299657
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2022 21:59
|
|
|
Sinteres posted:I've wondered if Turkey would try to take advantage of Russia being otherwise occupied with Ukraine to strike at Tal Rifaat or something, but it looks like there's at least some concern that Russia's going to be proactive about making their continued presence in the country apparent. Russian planes seem to have to been active over Al-Bab earlier, so it's not entirely speculation. With how things are going for Russia right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians were to significantly scale down their involvement in the region.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2022 16:16
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:With how things are going for Russia right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians were to significantly scale down their involvement in the region. Yeah it's been an extremely bad couple weeks for Russia since I posted that. Honestly it's making me wonder if Turkey really could have saved Aleppo at this point. Obviously picking a fight with a nuclear power is still an extremely risky move, so they probably made the right call regardless, but Russia's conventional military looks pretty unimpressive at the moment. Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Mar 6, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2022 18:55
|
|
|
Notably Russia was able to provide specific bits of support to SAA and friends that they did not otherwise have that was, as far as anyone can tell, quite impactful, but the presence of multiple friendly conventional forces (eg elements of IRGC, Hesbullah, and SAA) meant that Russia didn't have to get into it that much later in the war. Originally Russian armor was regularly involved in ground fighting, but after they started losing t90s, they started moving their tank forces much, much more conservatively. Iirc the wagner guys deployed to syria were largely used as oil facility guards.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2022 01:06
|
|
|
I just read a kind of an interesting piece of news in the Finnish media about negotiations between Iran and the US about sanctions, nuclear stuff etc. In the article, its said that quite a bit of progress had been made, but Russia had started to cause some issues in regards to their own deals with Iran. Would someone know where to read more about how these negotiations have been going in english? It kind of felt like the Finnish news reported only the basics of the situation - surprising absolutely nobody, Finnish media's focus is on Russia right now when it comes to international politics.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2022 10:08
|
|
|
SpiritOfLenin posted:I just read a kind of an interesting piece of news in the Finnish media about negotiations between Iran and the US about sanctions, nuclear stuff etc. In the article, its said that quite a bit of progress had been made, but Russia had started to cause some issues in regards to their own deals with Iran. Would someone know where to read more about how these negotiations have been going in english? It kind of felt like the Finnish news reported only the basics of the situation - surprising absolutely nobody, Finnish media's focus is on Russia right now when it comes to international politics. I don't have a source handy, but from what I saw on twitter over the weekend I think the idea is that Russia just wants guarantees that their trade with Iran won't be disrupted by the sanctions against them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2022 18:52
|
|
|
apparently turkey imports a ridiculous amount of wheat from russia and ukraine, which combined with the massive inflation might be another reason for caution. high food prices have a tendency to drive real, serious unrest.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 02:30
|
|
|
V. Illych L. posted:apparently turkey imports a ridiculous amount of wheat from russia and ukraine, which combined with the massive inflation might be another reason for caution. high food prices have a tendency to drive real, serious unrest. Egypt gets 80% of its wheat from Russia & Ukraine and has even more food stability problems, they're a bigger concern. Pretty much every country on this chart is in trouble though: 
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 12:23
|
|
|
Blut posted:Egypt gets 80% of its wheat from Russia & Ukraine and has even more food stability problems, they're a bigger concern. Pretty much every country on this chart is in trouble though: Because Lebanon needed further problems on top of what they’ve already got 
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 12:28
|
|
|
Tardigrade posted:Because Lebanon needed further problems on top of what they’ve already got At least Lebanon hasn't suffered one of the biggest famines in recent history, like Yemen. Where's Yemen on this chart? Oh... 
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 12:59
|
|
|
Blut posted:Egypt gets 80% of its wheat from Russia & Ukraine and has even more food stability problems, they're a bigger concern. Pretty much every country on this chart is in trouble though: That's shocking to learn given that the Nile Valley has been the breadbasket of the Mediterranean for millennia. Has it all been switched over to cash crops (I assume cotton)?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:28
|
|
Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
|
PittTheElder posted:That's shocking to learn given that the Nile Valley has been the breadbasket of the Mediterranean for millennia. Has it all been switched over to cash crops (I assume cotton)? Cotton and sugarcane
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:35
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:That's shocking to learn given that the Nile Valley has been the breadbasket of the Mediterranean for millennia. Has it all been switched over to cash crops (I assume cotton)? That's my understanding of it. Building the Aswan dam coincided with a switch over from subsistence to large scale farming, and a higher reliance on cash crops. Also the population has gone from 20 to 100m since the end of WW2, so even without switching over to cash crops... Apparently still the 15th largest producer of wheat in the world over the past 5 years. Ukraine is 7th with about 4.5x the production of Egypt. Kalli fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Mar 8, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:35
|
|
|
This article is from 2018. I think the information is still accurate, though. https://millermagazine.com/blog/focus-on-egypt-grain-and-wheat-policy-2685 quote:e importance of wheat policy is reinforced by Egypt’s specific social realities: with over a quarter of the Egyptian population living under the poverty line, assuring the food security of all citizens is a key challenge for the government. A key component of government policy in this regard is the provision of low-priced bread to the population. This is achieved through a number of government subsidies at the various stages of the value chain: from subsidized fertilizers to subsidies of the price of the final product, “Baladi bread”. It sounds like they really do just consume that much wheat. You have so many people living below the poverty line that the only way they think they can feed them all is by getting as much wheat as possible to make cheap bread.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:40
|
|
|
Yeah, I was in Egypt in October and was kinda shocked at how much damage from the revolution remains in Cairo. Anytime we left the touristy protected areas, just torn up sidewalks, collapsed buildings, and people just sleeping in the streets wherever. Tourism is a rather large part of their economy and covid wrecked havoc with that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:47
|
|
|
So how much does de-SWIFTing Russia make their wheat exports more difficult? Because having trade from Ukraine disrupted is obviously bad in terms of global food shortages/price increases, but having both Ukrainian and Russian wheat exports markedly declining seems like a loving disaster. And weren't food shortages a major contribution to the Arab Spring revolts?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 18:52
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:That's shocking to learn given that the Nile Valley has been the breadbasket of the Mediterranean for millennia. Has it all been switched over to cash crops (I assume cotton)? It's much more due to the arable land being but 3 percent of the area (and that ain't really expandable) coupled with the absolutely enormous population growth since the breadbasket of rome days.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 19:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 27, 2024 17:27 |
|
|
They also have an additional problem where Ethiopia has built their own Aswan Dam (GERD) and that filling that reservoir is going to divert an absolutely titanic amount of water that Sudan and Egypt also need.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2022 20:05
|
|