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A Meatslab posted:
One thing I can probably answer there; lol, no. Israel used to have bipartisan support in the Cold War but those days are long over, and China's got literally no incentive to cosy up to Israel especially in the event of them losing Western support, especially given Israel is already a pariah in the global south.
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Apr 3, 2024 07:44
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Potato Salad posted:Maybe they'll answer if you bait and switch about, idk, TikTok drip-feeding your child brain-heroin. Paywall bypassed here https://archive.md/IYj1u . Didn't see any model variants mentioned.
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Apr 3, 2024 08:00
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Potato Salad posted:Those will likely be the Israeli E-ish variant, yeah? The paywall kicked in before I could get much farther than the fourth paragraph. They said they have air to ground capability so it's some variant of strike eagle, yeah.
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Apr 3, 2024 08:05
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Quackles posted:I'm told that phone calls to a representative's office will generally be more notable for them and so have more of an impact. My representative is getting primaried and her opponent is jumping on "she said mean things about Israel" as the main attack. https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/wesley-bell-explains-his-position-on-israels-actions-in-gaza-41296861 
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Apr 3, 2024 11:33
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Gonna reiterate that offing an IRGC-QF commander regardless of collateral damage is a good thing. Thank you for your honesty. I can at least appreciate how this moment is coaxing so many into confessing.
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Apr 3, 2024 12:35
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still salty about 1983
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Apr 3, 2024 12:49
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Oh no, won’t someone think of the poor IRGC general and his compatriots. disgusting Kith posted:yes but those are ACCEPTABLE losses, killing innocents is acceptable if i get to hurt the people i don't like every single time
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Apr 3, 2024 15:15
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What a wedding....er, I mean, consulate between a bomb and a bad guy.
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Apr 3, 2024 15:22
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There are no innocent Iranian government workers in Syria. Particularly IRGC-QF generals. Iran fully backs the Assad regime, and wants to see Israel eliminated. It’s hilarious how you guys want to get precious over this. To me at least.
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Apr 3, 2024 15:27
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I guess 13 years of helping Assad fight his genocide just gets more goodwill in GiP these days. Who knew! (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Apr 3, 2024 15:28
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you have been poisoned
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Apr 3, 2024 15:32
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Kith posted:you have been poisoned Oh, ok.
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Apr 3, 2024 15:33
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:I guess 13 years of helping Assad fight his genocide just gets more goodwill in GiP these days. Who knew! Even if you take a real-politick "ends justify means" approach and decide the IRGC is your sworn foe, so morality be damned, from that same real-politick perspective, it doesn't engender stability for Israel to blow up a consulate without even warning, much less clearing, the action with its allies and supporters.
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Apr 3, 2024 15:34
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:There are no innocent Iranian government workers in Syria. Particularly IRGC-QF generals. Absolutely does not justify bombing a consulate, sorry. Again, given Israel's willingness to drop a bomb through marked hospitals and aid convoys, if even basic international legal agreements are null and void then worse is going to happen. Israel is more than capable of doing things like robotic drone assassins with machine guns to hit a specific isolated target, yet they needed to bomb a consulate to get this guy? C'mon now.
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Apr 3, 2024 15:50
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PhilippAchtel posted:Thank you for your honesty. No. LtCol J. Krusinski posted:I guess 13 years of helping Assad fight his genocide just gets more goodwill in GiP these days. Who knew! LtCol J. Krusinski posted:There are no innocent Iranian government workers in Syria. Particularly IRGC-QF generals. I don't understand how "bombing a consulate is a bad thing holy poo poo" isn't getting through to you. Take a break from this thread for a day to two because jfc
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Apr 3, 2024 15:53
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1) America is extremely vulnerable to Iranian attack in Syria, Iraq, all throughout the Persian gulf/red sea span really. Bases that do not have enough dedicated AA to put down a full barrage of missiles, oil and transport infrastructure, etc. Thousands of personnel in the region are at risk and can be liquidated very quickly if Iran gets froggy. Even starting an emergency evacuation would be problematic, as attacks of convenience could be scaled up, and Israel would go basically to Defcon 1 if that happened. The US is only in a position to attack Iran if it 'goes first' - and even then it would be wildly painful, in dollars and lives. 2) People are really not talking about Israel as a nuclear power - a rogue state completely surrounded that is quickly losing support for it's activities. If North Korea tomorrow identified a minority group inside it's borders and started exterminating them - could we stop them without nuclear war? I doubt it. This is clearly where the 'might = right' rubber meets the road. If Israel loses military support from the US, it'll get even more aggressive in it's wars against Iran, Syria, and Lebanon - and it has nuclear weapons while it's opponents do not. If the US starts dramatically evacuating it's personnel from the region to lower their risk of attack, Israel will take that as a signal to go ape. What's the solution here? A general draw down of US assets, signaling to Iran and other adversaries that the US is lowering the temperature while Israel is doing everything in it's power short of nuking Rafah to raise those same temperatures.
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Apr 3, 2024 16:20
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The American Right hitched themselves to Israel bringing about the Rapture and Israel will definitely try to do that if they think that the US is abandoning them in the bed Israel made. I don't know exactly how much damage a handful of nukes that Israel probably has would do, but once the cork is out of the bottle, other people are going to start tossing them and then where does that go? Nobody knows
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Apr 3, 2024 16:35
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orange juche posted:The American Right hitched themselves to Israel bringing about the Rapture and Israel will definitely try to do that if they think that the US is abandoning them in the bed Israel made. I don't know exactly how much damage a handful of nukes that Israel probably has would do, but once the cork is out of the bottle, other people are going to start tossing them and then where does that go? Nobody knows I'd assume they have more than a handful given their signalled willingness to use them in the event Israel fell.
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Apr 3, 2024 16:36
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CommieGIR posted:I'd assume they have more than a handful given their signalled willingness to use them in the event Israel fell. IIRC one of the more recent US secretaries of state had estimated around 200, yeah. What kind of delivery systems they have, I don't know, but even with IRBM capability that's enough to return every major population center in EMEA to the dirt.
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Apr 3, 2024 17:46
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Tangy Zizzle posted:1) America is extremely vulnerable to Iranian attack in Syria, Iraq, all throughout the Persian gulf/red sea span really. Bases that do not have enough dedicated AA to put down a full barrage of missiles, oil and transport infrastructure, etc. Thousands of personnel in the region are at risk and can be liquidated very quickly if Iran gets froggy. Even starting an emergency evacuation would be problematic, as attacks of convenience could be scaled up, and Israel would go basically to Defcon 1 if that happened. The US is only in a position to attack Iran if it 'goes first' - and even then it would be wildly painful, in dollars and lives. There's little to no way we are going to draw down forces in Syria and Iraq with ISIS still there.
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Apr 3, 2024 19:03
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Bored As gently caress posted:There's little to no way we are going to draw down forces in Syria and Iraq with ISIS still there.
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Apr 3, 2024 19:10
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Bored As gently caress posted:There's little to no way we are going to draw down forces in Syria and Iraq with ISIS still there. I'm sure that math will stay the same when Iran-linked militias start ramping up drone/mortar/artillery attacks on American bases that generate significant casualties.
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Apr 3, 2024 20:18
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Cugel the Clever posted:What strategic threat do they post which requires continued US presence? Have they really not been degraded to the point that local actors can handle them? [Quote] There's a decent article from the Soufan Center that addresses this a little bit Tuesday, April 2, 2024 IRAQ NAVIGATES THE MIDEAST CRISIS Bottom Line Up Front: The March attack by Islamic State (IS) on a Moscow theater has dimmed the prospects for a substantial drawdown of the U.S. contingent of 2,500 military advisors and trainers still in Iraq. The upcoming U.S. visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani will focus on the U.S. troop presence as well as efforts to prevent further attacks on them by Iran-backed Shia militia groups. Major disputes between Baghdad and Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq, as well as between major Kurdish factions, have flared over the rules for June elections in Iraqi Kurdistan. Many Iraqis support the stance of Iran and its allies in the ongoing Mideast crisis, but Baghdad wants to avoid alienating Washington and to limit Iran’s influence in Iraq. As Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani prepares for a pivotal visit to Washington in mid-April, his government is attempting to navigate through multiple currents roiling the region, calls to distance the country from U.S. mentorship, and internal crises that continue to divide Iraq’s Arab leaders from their Kurdish counterparts that run northern Iraq. Although al-Sudani is expected to have a broad agenda for his visit, including not only security but political and economic relations, the key driver for the trip is U.S.-Iraq negotiations for a reduction in the U.S. military presence in Iraq. The U.S. military mission currently consists of about 2,500 personnel advising, mentoring, and training Iraqi forces combatting the threat posed by Islamic State (IS). In January, partly to alleviate political pressure exerted on al-Sudani by pro-Iranian Iraqi militia leaders, Iraqi and U.S. military officials announced they would hold formal talks through the bilateral U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) on the mission of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The announcement, which implied the U.S. would agree to reduce its presence in the country substantially, appeared to represent, in part, a U.S. effort to deprive Iran-backed groups in Iraq of a rationale to continue attacking U.S. forces. Pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria attacked U.S. bases in both countries on 180 occasions from October 19 until February 3 but have since stood down following significant U.S. strikes on their facilities in early February. The U.S. agreement to consider a departure or drawdown also appeared intended to assuage an Iraqi population that is highly pro-Palestinian and has tended to support Iran’s actions against the United States and Israel since October 7. Although it appeared that U.S. officials might acquiesce to a significant force reduction in Iraq, developments in the past two months have perhaps shifted Iraqi calculations, making a substantial U.S. drawdown less likely. The two governments are re-evaluating whether the threat to Iraq from IS has been reduced to the point where the U.S. advisory and training mission could be terminated or even significantly scaled back. The March 22 attack on a theater outside Moscow, for which IS claimed responsibility and which killed nearly 140 persons, has caused global intelligence agencies to re-evaluate the degree to which IS’ terrorism capability has been degraded. Inside Iraq, government forces announced they had killed a prominent IS fighter, Samir Khader Sharif Shihan Al-Nimrawi, on March 28, suggesting the group is showing signs of resurgence in the country. According to Iraqi authorities, Nimrawi was responsible for the transfer of fighters, weapons, and explosives between Iraq and Syria, where the group has also become more active in recent weeks against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. On March 21, IS killed 11 truffle hunters in northern Syria. Nearly 900 U.S. forces remain in Syria fighting IS, while also containing the activities of Iran-backed Syrian militia operating in the east, across the border from Iraq. At a late March hearing of the House Armed Services Committee hearing, the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, testified that U.S. intelligence estimates there are around 1,000 IS fighters still fighting in Iraq. Yet, debate on the strength of IS in Iraq and Syria is unsettled: in its report on IS for the fourth quarter of 2023, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General said: “IS continued to conduct attacks against civilians, Iraqi and Syrian partner forces and regime forces in Syria,” but “…remained incapable of mounting large, complex attacks locally or externally, even as coalition forces increased their focus on force protection due to the Iran-aligned militia attacks.” The report characterized the militants as being in “survival posture” in Iraq and Syria, adding that, “[i]n Iraq, due to counter-terrorism pressure, the IS threat was largely contained, though IS continued to exploit security gaps between federal Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and conducted sporadic attacks, mostly in Shia communities.” Prime Minister al-Sudani is also likely to discuss with President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials the internal situation that is compounding the government’s challenges from IS, Iran-backed groups pushing to expel U.S. forces, Iranian efforts to influence the country, and economic difficulties. In March, a major dispute arose between federal election authorities, which run all elections within Iraqi territory, and the most powerful Iraqi Kurdish faction, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Baghdad’s supreme court altered an election law for the long-delayed elections, planned for June 10, to vote for members of the 111-seat parliament in the Kurdish-run northern region. The court eliminated the 11 seats “reserved” for minorities (Christians, Turkomans, and Armenians) – which generally are elected in KDP-controlled territory and ensure the KDP more seats in the body than its main rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The decision provoked the KDP to announce a boycott of the Kurdistan elections, throwing the holding of the elections into doubt outright and compounding already significant disputes between Baghdad and the Kurds over the exportation of oil from northern Iraq, revenue sharing, and other issues. U.S. officials are unlikely to try to mediate any Baghdad–Erbil disputes, but U.S. officials will likely urge al-Sudani to resolve the rift amicably. U.S. relations with Iraqi Kurdish groups have been close and extensive since the 1991 war to expel Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait, and the Kurds staunchly oppose any drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq, some of which are based in the north to work alongside the Kurdish “peshmerga” militia units. President Biden and other U.S. officials are furthermore certain to use the al-Sudani visit to encourage Baghdad to maintain pressure on the Iran-backed groups that remain strong and highly anti-U.S., despite standing down in the face of U.S. retaliatory attacks on their facilities. U.S. officials are confident that moderate Iraqis of all the major communities will overlook U.S. support for Israel in the Mideast crisis and oppose increased Iranian influence in Iraq. Many Iraqis view alignment with Iran as likely to alienate Iraq from the Arab world, undermine Iraqi democracy, and aid Tehran’s exploitation of Iraq’s economy. During a late March visit to Washington by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, in advance of al-Sudani’s trip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) addresses not only security relations, but also many areas of economic cooperation that the al-Sudani government considers crucial, including water, energy, environment and delivery of service issues. U.S. corporations have invested extensively in these and other Iraqi economic sectors since the 2003 U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Suggesting Baghdad did not want to jeopardize U.S. investment and other economic benefits, the Iraqi foreign minister affirmed his country remains a critical U.S. partner, and stated Baghdad needs to continue joint efforts with the United States to build Iraq’s economy. Implied, but not stated, in Hussein’s comments was Baghdad’s understanding that its relationship with Tehran, which is under extensive U.S. and other sanctions, furnishes little, if any, tangible economic benefit to the Iraqi people. Baghdad is unlikely to distance itself from the United States because of ideological and political pressure from Iran, Iran’s allies in Iraq, or even from the sentiment of the population that is highly critical of the U.S. stance on the Israel-Hamas war. Still, it remains an open question whether Iraq would be willing, or able, to act against Iran-backed militias if the groups resume their attacks on U.S. bases in the country. With yesterday’s Israeli strike on a high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF) compound in Damascus, Syria, three IRGC-QF generals were reportedly killed. The Damascus strike will almost certainly be met with an escalatory response from Iran and its so-called "Axis of Resistance," which could come in the form of a Hezbollah strike against Israel, more Houthi missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea, militias in Syria firing at U.S. troops, or perhaps something more direct from the IRGC-QF itself.
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Apr 3, 2024 21:31
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/displeasure-bidens-handling-hamas-israel-war-was-display-closed-door-w-rcna146244quote:
Biden’s going to lose Michigan because of poo poo like this and at this point he deserves to.
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Apr 4, 2024 00:27
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pantslesswithwolves posted:https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/displeasure-bidens-handling-hamas-israel-war-was-display-closed-door-w-rcna146244 Sadly that won't do anything to improve the situation. Quite the contrary.
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Apr 4, 2024 06:12
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Take heart brave Palestinians, the world's most annoying votescolds are on it
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Apr 4, 2024 14:31
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pantslesswithwolves posted:https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/displeasure-bidens-handling-hamas-israel-war-was-display-closed-door-w-rcna146244 Technically he could have seen the photos before
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Apr 4, 2024 14:52
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Proud Christian Mom posted:Take heart brave Palestinians, the world's most annoying votescolds are on it Do we have any Palestinians on this site? I'm not certain Ive ever seen someone make that claim in the past 20+ years. Is the idea that they'd prefer a symbolic gesture that would harm their situation over the status quo? Seems like a dubious proposition to me. Grip it and rip it fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Apr 4, 2024 |
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Apr 4, 2024 15:36
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TheBuilder posted:Technically he could have seen the photos before Biden reviewing all the photos on people's phones before meeting them. He's seen everything.
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Apr 4, 2024 15:47
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Grip it and rip it posted:Do we have any Palestinians on this site? I'm not certain Ive ever seen someone make that claim in the past 20+ years. There are some.
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Apr 4, 2024 16:06
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McNally you were right to probe me, and those of you pointing out the obvious that we shouldn’t bomb consulates, I know you’re right. I know was in the wrong morally on this. I’m just a huge fan of IRGC generals getting got. Not really anymore complicated than that and I made an rear end out of myself instead of just shutting the f up. I’ll try not to let it happen again.
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Apr 4, 2024 17:50
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Grip it and rip it posted:Do we have any Palestinians on this site? I'm not certain Ive ever seen someone make that claim in the past 20+ years. I think the idea might be that there may not be any appreciable number of Palestinians left by November. And also, if both options are allowing your family to be killed then neither option is in any way supportable in any moral sense. But then, no one was advocating not voting for Biden, you invented that as a reason to scold us for thinking this might cost him the election,
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Apr 4, 2024 17:57
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I have to admit part of me is just really depressed about this dramatic change in tone from the political and pundit class after the WCK attack. Jose Andres seems like a really good dude, but the critical element here seems to be he's very, very plugged in to the DC social scene. These ghouls were fine with 6 months of Israel bombing hospitals and apartments full of children, and wrote endless op-eds justifying it. It isn't until they tried to murk one of their very good friends from DC cocktail parties (and then claim a hamas guy was standing nearby) that they actually got upset.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:23
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Lovely Joe Stalin posted:I think the idea might be that there may not be any appreciable number of Palestinians left by November. And also, if both options are allowing your family to be killed then neither option is in any way supportable in any moral sense. Also sitting out the election (by either not voting or not organizing) because both choices clearly don't see people like you and your family as human beings is both totally understandable and not at all the same thing as going to the polls to check the box for Trump. No amount of scolding about ORANGE MAN BAD from op-ed writers is gonna change that.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:26
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Like how it took MBS cutting up Kashogi into little pieces for people in DC to realize that maybe he was but a good dude. War in Yemen is fine, but killing someone they'd had coffee with? That crosses a line.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:28
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The line of familiarity. "This is dangerous, it happened close to me"
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Apr 4, 2024 18:35
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Lovely Joe Stalin posted:I think the idea might be that there may not be any appreciable number of Palestinians left by November. And also, if both options are allowing your family to be killed then neither option is in any way supportable in any moral sense. I'm not following - Are you Proud Christian Mom's alt or something?
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Apr 4, 2024 18:38
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Kazinsal posted:IIRC one of the more recent US secretaries of state had estimated around 200, yeah. What kind of delivery systems they have, I don't know, but even with IRBM capability that's enough to return every major population center in EMEA to the dirt. Full triad, but medium range only. Jericho 3 ICBM has a range of ~5-6000 km, which is Europe, India/western China and maaaaybe South Africa. Diesel electric subs. Count Roland posted:Like how it took MBS cutting up Kashogi into little pieces for people in DC to realize that maybe he was but a good dude. War in Yemen is fine, but killing someone they'd had coffee with? That crosses a line. The war in Yemen had direct American participation so this should not be surprising.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:51
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mrmcd posted:I have to admit part of me is just really depressed about this dramatic change in tone from the political and pundit class after the WCK attack. Jose Andres seems like a really good dude, but the critical element here seems to be he's very, very plugged in to the DC social scene. These ghouls were fine with 6 months of Israel bombing hospitals and apartments full of children, and wrote endless op-eds justifying it. It isn't until they tried to murk one of their very good friends from DC cocktail parties (and then claim a hamas guy was standing nearby) that they actually got upset. This is kind of a bad take. DC itself has had a ton of pro-Palestinian activism and protests and Israel’s war is deeply unpopular with most people here. For elected officials, it’s a different story, but there are tons of people who may be a degree or two of separation from pundits/politicos who have been agitating for an end to the war and intensely critical of Israel. And of course there’s always going to be a proximity bias for any kind of negative event. What makes the WCK incident even more egregious is that Israel likely deliberately targeted the international staff of a humanitarian organization that was supposed to be the lynchpin of relief efforts despite their clear compliance with deconfliction and notification procedures. This was clearly meant to undermine and deter the relief effort- speaking as a security manager who has some exposure to how planning for humanitarian relief is organized, I’d bet that many other orgs are assessing the degree of risk to be too high for them to effectively manage field operations in Gaza.
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Apr 4, 2024 19:42
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TheBuilder posted:Technically he could have seen the photos before 
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