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Because events are heating up from the Trump Administration's belligerence across the globe, we need a thread to cover current events in the eternal struggle against Terror. All content in this thread should be limited to areas outside of Syria since that conflict already has its own thread, although the particular actions of the United States in Syria can be relevant as part of the Trump administration's wider foreign policy strategy. Current events as of the posting of this thread: Afghanistan:  http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/super-bomb-why-americas-enemies-fear-the-gbu-43-b-massive-20171 The United States dropped the "Mother of All Bombs" on an ISIS tunnel network in the Achin District of eastern Afghanistan. The MOAB is the biggest non-nuclear ordinance developed by the United States, and this is its first operational use to date. The Afghanistani government claims that the strike killed 95 ISIS militants, although this hasn't yet been independently verified. ISIS has a very minor presence in Afghanistan overall, which makes the use of MOAB on them highly questionable - but who cares when it's so cool? The media cannot get enough of this bombing, because of its raw awesome power, and its 16 million dollar price tag. If the media loved tomahawk strikes, and they love the MOAB, imagine how popular Trump will be if he drops a nuclear weapon on... North Korea:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/17/mike-pence-north-korea-missile-nuclear-strategic-patience-is-over quote:Mike Pence has warned that the “era of strategic patience is over” with North Korea and urged China to use its “extraordinary levers” to pressure the regime into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Tensions are high as Hell regarding North Korea, now that a blustering oaf is in command of the most powerful military force on the planet. The Trump administration is threatening a pre-emptive strike on North Korea for conducting a nuclear test, while North Korea is making threatening remarks as the United States performs massive military exercises with South Korea in the China Sea. They were raring to go to war over North Korea's ballistic missile test, but the missile launch failed and blew up so now everybody who makes a living in the MIC has blue balls. Yemen:  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/16/yemen-conflict-7-million-close-to-famine Because coalition forces keep getting owned by Houthi militias, the Saudis and their Gulf State & Hadi-government allies have implemented a full blockade on Northern Yemen, which is slowly starving millions of people to death including children. The Saudi-led coalition has engaged in terror bombing in civilian areas, including the triple-tap bombing of a funeral, and in response Western governments have continued selling them more weapons. The United States in response to these atrocities, continues providing the Saudi coalition with logistical support and helps to enforce the blockade. Likely because nobody has shown President Trump any pictures of all the beautiful starving babies we're making. Iran:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/14/trump-administration-sanctions-iran-prison-torture-industry.html In regards to Iran the Trump administration has been relatively less blustery, although threats are definitely being made. Three days ago the Trump administration sanctioned Iran for human rights violations in its prison system, which is a hypocrisy worthy of an ancient Greek comedy. Somalia  Al Shabaab with captured government forces following the 2016 withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Western Somalia Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda's Somali franchise, has been driven out of Somalia's major towns and cities but remains a potent threat in the countryside. AMISOM, the African Union peacekeeping force, has long been one of the primary bulwarks against their advance. The mission has an uncertain future however, with participants facing pressure to withdraw troops to handle unrest in their own countries and Western funding withheld over human rights violations and disputed elections. This month Trump designated the country an "active area of hostilities," and regular troops will be returning authorized for offensive operations for the first time since 1994. Iraq:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/world/middleeast/us-iraq-mosul-investigation-airstrike-civilian-deaths.html poo poo is all hosed up. Pener Kropoopkin has issued a correction as of 05:37 on Apr 18, 2017 |
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Apr 17, 2017 06:21
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did we win yet
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Apr 17, 2017 10:39
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by 'we' i of course mean the terrorists
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Apr 17, 2017 10:39
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rudatron posted:by 'we' i of course mean the terrorists they already won op trump is president
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Apr 17, 2017 11:31
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is trump the man who can win the forever terror war?
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Apr 17, 2017 11:41
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Pener Kropoopkin posted:Yemen:
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Apr 17, 2017 12:01
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rudatron posted:by 'we' i of course mean the terrorists the west is currently tearing itself apart in response to the concept of terrorism so yea we, the terrorists, are winning good ofc this has had the opposite of the intended effect and the US has in fact tripled down on forces and power projection committed to the middle east and North Africa so the part where they leave has perhaps not come to fruition
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Apr 17, 2017 12:45
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i'd like to claim there's a limit to what the us can do to nk without the permission of sk who don't want to start a war (especially post-park) but with trump who knows
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Apr 17, 2017 12:59
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how do death tolls get independently verified?
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Apr 17, 2017 13:21
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Peel posted:i'd like to claim there's a limit to what the us can do to nk without the permission of sk who don't want to start a war (especially post-park) but with trump who knows Like what leverage do they hold?
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Apr 17, 2017 14:57
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jBrereton posted:why the gently caress would the US listen to south korea? the american bases aiming guns at north korea aren't in china some of them are in japan or floating but even those aren't immune to the immense political difficulties caused by sk telling the us to gently caress off when the main justification for american presence there is defending sk from nk
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Apr 17, 2017 15:11
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how many nukes would it take america to wipe the NK population off the map? The stories of the terrible condition of them make me imagine a venture bros situation where the launch starts and the missile just falls over once its full out the silo
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Apr 17, 2017 15:13
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*trump watching the bush "axis of evil" speech* hm...
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Apr 17, 2017 15:27
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Peel posted:the american bases aiming guns at north korea aren't in china what like all the immense domestic political difficulties caused by US troops not just being unpopularly based in Okinawa but casually raping the locals? (ie absolutely none whatsoever)
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Apr 17, 2017 15:27
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jBrereton posted:lol the us presence in okinawa is not unpopular with the japanese government, or at least, not unpopular enough that they want to go through the effort of crowbarring the americans out. what the okinawan public thinks doesn't matter. but even if the trump admin went nuts and pissed off the japanese government enough that they demanded withdrawal, then went double-nuts and refused to go, and somehow were not destroyed domestically by arbitrarily annexing territory from an ally and endangering their whole alliance system, the okinawa bases are on a few small islands surrounded by the us navy, rather than on the japanese mainland surrounded by the jsdf compare korea, where the us position is much more dependent on local cooperation and there's much more scope for the us to anger the locals because the enemy state they're antagonising is a short drive across the DMZ away rather than on the far side of the sea of japan
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Apr 17, 2017 15:45
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Peel posted:compare korea, where the us position is much more dependent on local cooperation
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Apr 17, 2017 15:48
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the japanese government doesnt give a poo poo about the okinawans because they dont see them as real japanese which is why they've allowed the us to turn the island into a sprawling military base.
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Apr 17, 2017 15:49
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jBrereton posted:South Korea isn't important and the US doesn't care about its feelings. If the US cared about domestic opinion wrt its bases it would have been out of Europe decades ago, but it doesn't. Hope that clarifies things for you. south korea is important, obviously so. it is a first world country with a first world economy and a first world military in a strategic position right next to 1. america's main international rival and 2. the country america is currently beefing with. the united states does not care about the opinion of the local public about its bases. it cares about the opinion of the local governments which it relies on for military cooperation. those local governments typically do not care about the opinion of their local publics about the bases, which is why the united states doesn't. the united states is obliged to care about south korea's 'feelings' w/r/t its bases because if those 'feelings' turn against it the bases are gone unless the united states defeats the south korean government, an act which, if even possible, would be a triumph of foreign policy to make iraq 2003 look like panama 1989. one reason it would be so stupid is because south korea doesn't even object to having the bases there, and they have no real reason to do so unless america starts doing stupid poo poo like starting wars with the north without southern consent.
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Apr 17, 2017 16:10
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like, it's such an obviously stupid thing to do that the only reason we're even discussing it is the trump factor, and I wouldn't expect it even from him
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Apr 17, 2017 16:11
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Peel posted:south korea is important, obviously so. it is a first world country with a first world economy and a first world military in a strategic position right next to 1. america's main international rival and 2. the country america is currently beefing with. "Actually it would be Cool, Good, and Sane to start poo poo with an ally for no reason that would backfire in no way" - SA
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Apr 17, 2017 16:13
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we blew up all the terrorists and now there are none 
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Apr 17, 2017 16:43
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Karl Barks posted:we blew up all the terrorists and now there are none I wrote a thank you card to George W. Bush and so should you
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Apr 17, 2017 17:00
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I kicked a flaming terrorist in the balls so hard I tore a tendon in my foot.
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Apr 17, 2017 17:09
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jBrereton posted:The Yemen war fuckin blows and I genuinely don't understand why The Slightly Overgeneralised West pretends that Hadi is the leader of a legitimate government they should support by directing the Saudi air force. The parallels between the Yemeni civil war and the Biafran war are pretty insane, imo.
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Apr 17, 2017 17:26
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By the time of the second Trump term there are gonna be troops in Afghanistan who were not even born when the invasion started.
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Apr 17, 2017 17:27
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jBrereton posted:they should support by directing the Saudi air force. Into a mountain
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Apr 17, 2017 17:30
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jBrereton posted:The Yemen war fuckin blows and I genuinely don't understand why The Slightly Overgeneralised West pretends that Hadi is the leader of a legitimate government they should support by directing the Saudi air force. We need SA to play ball in Syria and pointing out hospitals to Gulf bombers is a cheap way to stay on their good side.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:24
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Squalid posted:We need SA to play ball in Syria and pointing out hospitals to Gulf bombers is a cheap way to stay on their good side. So true it starves Yemen to death.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:26
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god KSA sucks so loving badly. all the gulf monarchy arabs at my school are like hilariously disgustingly fat and sexually repressed. like they have figures u would think is impossible, like fuckin 5'9 with a size like 50 waist. seriously disgusting people. they have no idea how to have fun b/c theyre a bunch of unfuckable teetotalers so that brings me some cold comfort i guess. no wonder slavery and beheading is so popular in their countries.
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Apr 17, 2017 19:00
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i seriously think that being like loathesome and entirely unappealing to the opposite sex informs so much of their lovely culture where concepts like consent and mutually pleasurable intimacy just dont seem to take root in their parched, arid, burqa clad soil.
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Apr 17, 2017 19:16
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Plutonis posted:By the time of the second Trump term there are gonna be troops in Afghanistan who were not even born when the invasion started. holy poo poo that is mind blowing. I mean it's basic math but I never thought of that until you put in into words. by 2022 you could be an 18 year-old dude being sent to die in our forever war in the desert and it'd be a war initiated before you were born, by an administration that no longer exists. it'd be crazy to do longitudinal studies in 2022 and after, showing what percentage of the active combat forces were born before / after 2003. it'll be lol-tastic when the only active combat forces deployed that are older than the war are the officers, like captain rank and above.
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Apr 17, 2017 19:22
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Bip Roberts posted:I kicked a flaming terrorist in the balls so hard I tore a tendon in my foot. I am the air marshall.
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Apr 18, 2017 00:13
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OP you forgot Somalia (just like everyone else  )Add dis to the OP please from my dead Dnd thread Somalia Al Shabaab with captured government forces following the 2016 withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Western Somalia Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda's Somali franchise, has been driven out of Somalia's major towns and cities but remains a potent threat in the countryside. AMISOM, the African Union peacekeeping force, has long been one of the primary bulwarks against their advance. The mission has an uncertain future however, with participants facing pressure to withdraw troops to handle unrest in their own countries and Western funding withheld over human rights violations and disputed elections. This month Trump designated the country an "active area of hostilities," and regular troops will be returning authorized for offensive operations for the first time since 1994. I think c-spam might be a better place to talk about this than Dnd. Unlike say Syria there isn't anyone to root for in Afghanistan, and hence not much to argue about.
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Apr 18, 2017 05:18
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Squalid posted:OP you forgot Somalia (just like everyone else Somalia just isn't much of a priority in the American FP blob. We've been drone striking Al-Shabaab on occasion but there's not really anything in it for the United States outside of preventing Al-Shabaab or the ICU from taking over southern Somalia again. Nonetheless it is relevant, and I can easily see the Trump administration carrying out another massacre while claiming a success like they did in Yemen.
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Apr 18, 2017 05:40
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In any case. How can humanitarian interventionism make any claim to ideological consistency while the liberal commentariat is completely silent about the ongoing atrocities in Yemen? More than that, it's an atrocity that the United States is actively helping to carry out without even so much as a diplomatic nay-saying. How can we pretend to be any better than say, the North Koreans, while we're intentionally starving millions of people? The most immediate response would be to say that it's different when it's not your own people that you're starving to death - but that's nationalistic nonsense and not a morally sound argument. That's what the CHUDs believe.
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Apr 18, 2017 05:46
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Pener Kropoopkin posted:Somalia just isn't much of a priority in the American FP blob. We've been drone striking Al-Shabaab on occasion but there's not really anything in it for the United States outside of preventing Al-Shabaab or the ICU from taking over southern Somalia again. Nonetheless it is relevant, and I can easily see the Trump administration carrying out another massacre while claiming a success like they did in Yemen. I wouldn't underestimate just how much America prioritizes fighting Al Qaeda, however there are other concerns including piracy. Notably the US has led efforts to prevent Somaliland becoming independent as there were concerns Somali becoming permanently stateless would undermine the modern Westphalian social order. Boutros Boutros Ghali pushed really hard for an invasion and occupation of Somaliland, but Colin Powell told GW Bush that'd be dumb as hell. Anyway, the US has spent well over 1.5 billion dollars in Somali directly, matched by the EU, and both funnel about the same into the country through the UN. The EU and US pay, equip, train, and transport the Ugandan and Burundian mercenaries who enforce order in Mogadishu. US forces have been on the ground with local forces conducting "self defense" strikes on Shabaab training camps for more than a year now, for the moment the US is probably more actively involved in Somalia than even Libya. Pener Kropoopkin posted:In any case. How can humanitarian interventionism make any claim to ideological consistency while the liberal commentariat is completely silent about the ongoing atrocities in Yemen? More than that, it's an atrocity that the United States is actively helping to carry out without even so much as a diplomatic nay-saying. How can we pretend to be any better than say, the North Koreans, while we're intentionally starving millions of people? My guess is that they would become indignant at the implication they have been silent and point to the couple paragraphs they wrote last year vaguely condemning both sides in the conflict. They'd then deny that American is intentionally starving people and deflect blame first to Iran, then to SA, and then they'd change the subject.
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Apr 18, 2017 06:22
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There is no terror is years ending -00
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Apr 18, 2017 19:36
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 poo poo IS GOIN DOWN http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/04/saudi-arabia-bahrain-and-egypt-cut-diplomatic-ties-with-qatar.html quote:
This was almost certainly done with President Trump's ok. So now the GWOT is going to transform into a global war on Shia, and the incestuous Gulf State coalition is going to use their influence to persecute any Sunni state that even dares to cooperate with Iran or Syria.
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Jun 5, 2017 05:16
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Pener Kropoopkin posted:
you think they will invade? i am sure trump won't care even though we have bases there and and qatar is small as gently caress and i am sure even House Saude's inbred conscript army could take it.
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Jun 5, 2017 05:27
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Dapper_Swindler posted:you think they will invade? i am sure trump won't care even though we have bases there and and qatar is small as gently caress and i am sure even House Saude's inbred conscript army could take it. The gulf states couldn't invade with a road map, but this is part of a larger strategy to completely isolate Iran and possibly invade them.
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Jun 5, 2017 05:29
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