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Started by Thurnez Isa, December 29, 2006, 04:11:55 PM

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Doktor Howl

Quote from: Cain on July 19, 2018, 02:02:27 AM
Violence in Iraq has remained pretty steady since December 2017, and ISIS has been responsible for the majority of it, even accounting for and removing the death tallies due to the mass graves that the Iraqi Army keeps uncovering.

And it's not like this wasn't predictable.  What did they do in 2008-9?  Retreat to the remote areas of Ninewa and Diyala governorates, establish zones of control and income (protection rackets, kidnapping, smuggling and hijacking).  Use those to fund attacks on outposts and assassinations of local political, military and religious figures.  Put in place a shadow government, build up forces until sufficient manpower allows for the overthrow of the state. It's classic guerilla warfare, Mao style.  They dominate the countryside, then infiltrate the cities, then establish parallel control.

The Iraqi security services all know this, of course.  The PMF commanders in particular are under no illusions - they know they're marked for death by ISIS assassins. But try getting anyone in any actual newspaper in Europe or North America to take notice.  Nope, "mission accomplished" time to pack up shit and pay attention to something else.  Again, just like 2008-9, when most foreign correspondents pulled out of Iraq.  And then they were surprised when ISIS took Fallujah and Mosul, claiming "no-one" could have predicted it, when *ahem* some of us did.

My son was on the ground in our last action there, and he's pretty pissed off that it was allowed to go back to shit.  He has a hatred of ISIS and other Nazis that makes ME look reasonable, and he thought there might be a CHANCE that the Kurds, etc, could stop this shit if we gave them a boost.
Molon Lube

Cain

Well, at least Maliki is no longer in charge.  That was a serious complicating factor, and going by how much everyone in Iraq hates his guts, he's never getting back into power again.

Surprisingly, our best friend in all of this might be Moqtada al-Sadr.  Not a sentence I ever imagined typing, but his "Iraq first" nationalism has the advantages of being non-sectarian, and he's politically savvy enough to see benefits in keeping Haider al-Abadi in office as PM.  He'll kick Iranian influence to the curb without favouring Sunni chauvinism in the process, and he won't suck up to Saudi Arabia either.

Sure, he also doesn't like Americans because, you know, the occupation, but he keeps Iraq out of wider sectarian conflicts, while promoting an Iraqi nationalism that runs directly counter to ISIS sectarianism.  He also has some arguments with the especially pro-Iranian elements of the PMFs, which is a shame because otherwise the PMFs have a similar view of "Iraq first" that meshes well with his own, and are generally, as a group, well-regarded by the Iraqi population.

Unfortunately, corruption in the KRG was always going to be a drain on their ability to fight ISIS.  That and the very strong Turkish military presence in the Kurdistan region, which I'm sure was in no way complicit in helping ISIS as a quid quo pro against the PKK and YPG.  The PKK and YPG would have been a better bet, but Turkey would have screamed bloody murder, and they have enough congressmen on the take to cause trouble for whoever is in the White House.

Doktor Howl

Quote from: Cain on July 19, 2018, 02:14:41 AM
Well, at least Maliki is no longer in charge.  That was a serious complicating factor, and going by how much everyone in Iraq hates his guts, he's never getting back into power again.

Surprisingly, our best friend in all of this might be Moqtada al-Sadr.  Not a sentence I ever imagined typing, but his "Iraq first" nationalism has the advantages of being non-sectarian, and he's politically savvy enough to see benefits in keeping Haider al-Abadi in office as PM.  He'll kick Iranian influence to the curb without favouring Sunni chauvinism in the process, and he won't suck up to Saudi Arabia either.

Sure, he also doesn't like Americans because, you know, the occupation, but he keeps Iraq out of wider sectarian conflicts, while promoting an Iraqi nationalism that runs directly counter to ISIS sectarianism.  He also has some arguments with the especially pro-Iranian elements of the PMFs, which is a shame because otherwise the PMFs have a similar view of "Iraq first" that meshes well with his own, and are generally, as a group, well-regarded by the Iraqi population.

Unfortunately, corruption in the KRG was always going to be a drain on their ability to fight ISIS.  That and the very strong Turkish military presence in the Kurdistan region, which I'm sure was in no way complicit in helping ISIS as a quid quo pro against the PKK and YPG.  The PKK and YPG would have been a better bet, but Turkey would have screamed bloody murder, and they have enough congressmen on the take to cause trouble for whoever is in the White House.

Iraq will never love us, and I can't blame them.  I'd hate us, too.

I'd just like to see a little stability.  And yeah, Turkey is against that for short-sighted reasons of their own.

My son says that the ONLY way that place will settle the hell down is to redraw lines based on ethnicity instead of the arbitrary crap left there by the Brits.  Give the Kurds something they can grab onto, and watch the fun.
Molon Lube

Cain

That would help, but with everything that's gone on, drawing a fair line at this point would be impossible.  Refugee flows on top of the existing mix mean the ethnic border in the north is pretty porous these days.  That said I'm actually surprised Iraq got Kirkuk back.

On the plus side, if ISIS can be pacified, there's going to be a lot of oil and gas being traded between northern Iraq, Kurdistan and Iran.  Enough money being made, and I think those differences will become a lot less important.  Southern Iraq has oil money and it is, recent riots aside, mostly prosperous and from a security perspective stable environment to do business in.

Doktor Howl

Molon Lube

Brother Mythos

The National Rifle Association, America's most powerful lobby, claims it's in financial crisis. What?

As per the article:

'The National Rifle Association (NRA), the premier pro-gun lobby in the United States and arguably one of the country's most powerful interest groups on any policy topic, says that efforts to fight it by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) could make it "unable to exist as a not-for-profit or pursue its advocacy mission."

In the July 20 amended complaint, first reported by the New York Law Journal's Dan M. Clark and embedded at the bottom of this article, the NRA accuses Cuomo, as well as New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Maria Vullo, of issuing a "series of threats to financial institutions that DFS ... will exercise its extensive regulatory power against those entities that fail to sever ties with the NRA."

The threats amount to a series of warnings and regulatory actions by the New York state government targeting insurance companies and other financial entities doing business with the NRA, warning that working with the group would put financial businesses in legal jeopardy or damage their public reputation. While it's in the NRA's interest to exaggerate the danger Cuomo and his allies' actions pose to the group (so as to strengthen the lawsuit's case), the complaint argues that Cuomo's actions could wind up threatening the NRA's continued existence.

These threats, the complaint goes on to argue, endanger the financial viability of the organization by putting its access to financial services at risk. Cuomo could, the complaint states, "imminently deprive the NRA of basic bank-depository services, corporate insurance coverage, and other financial services essential to the NRA's corporate existence and its advocacy mission."'

Here's the link: https://www.vox.com/2018/8/3/17648960/nra-national-rifle-association-companies-support-boycott-new-york-lawsuit

Apparently all of that Russian money still isn't enough to keep those guys afloat.
Discordianism is fundamentally mischievous irreverence.

Doktor Howl

This works for them in several ways.  The first and most obvious ways being:

1.  Their faithful bust out the checkbook, and

2.  They have a better than average chance of telling a state government to shut its face and go fuck themselves.

It's worth mentioning that they've been poor-mouthing for a couple of years, now.
Molon Lube

Cain

And they're likely to have some expensive court cases coming up fairly soon too.

Junkenstein

Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 03, 2018, 01:14:32 AM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/madden-19-appears-to-edit-colin-kaepernick-reference-out-of-soundtrack/ar-BBLq22A?ocid=spartanntp

History has been corrected and is now safe for Patriotic NFL Fans™.

That is both hilariously petty and another great example of EA's incompetent business practises. Did you hear about the guy who used the GDPR to get EA to reveal his spending on a couple of sports games and it was around $16K? That's got to be a kick in the balls to find that out and then have to legally disclose it.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Brother Mythos

Hardline U.S. 'gundamentalists' pressure NRA from within

As per the article:

'(Reuters) - About 100 protesters, many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "NRA = Not Real Activists," marched through the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas in May to slam the powerful gun lobby as too conciliatory on gun rights and rally for their candidate for the board.'

Here's the link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-nra/hardline-u-s-gundamentalists-pressure-nra-from-within-idUSKBN1KQ09H

So, the NRA is "too conciliatory on gun rights." Who knew?

Anyway, what I really love is gundamentalists. Guns, mental, and fundamentalist all combined into one word; I love it and have stolen it!
Discordianism is fundamentally mischievous irreverence.

Doktor Howl

Quote from: Brother Mythos on August 06, 2018, 12:22:40 PM
Hardline U.S. 'gundamentalists' pressure NRA from within

As per the article:

'(Reuters) - About 100 protesters, many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "NRA = Not Real Activists," marched through the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas in May to slam the powerful gun lobby as too conciliatory on gun rights and rally for their candidate for the board.'

Here's the link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-nra/hardline-u-s-gundamentalists-pressure-nra-from-within-idUSKBN1KQ09H

So, the NRA is "too conciliatory on gun rights." Who knew?

Anyway, what I really love is gundamentalists. Guns, mental, and fundamentalist all combined into one word; I love it and have stolen it!

Don't you just LOVE people being devoured by the monsters they created?
Molon Lube

Brother Mythos

Quote from: Doktor Howl on August 06, 2018, 07:20:29 PM
Quote from: Brother Mythos on August 06, 2018, 12:22:40 PM
Hardline U.S. 'gundamentalists' pressure NRA from within

As per the article:

'(Reuters) - About 100 protesters, many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "NRA = Not Real Activists," marched through the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas in May to slam the powerful gun lobby as too conciliatory on gun rights and rally for their candidate for the board.'

Here's the link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-nra/hardline-u-s-gundamentalists-pressure-nra-from-within-idUSKBN1KQ09H

So, the NRA is "too conciliatory on gun rights." Who knew?

Anyway, what I really love is gundamentalists. Guns, mental, and fundamentalist all combined into one word; I love it and have stolen it!

Don't you just LOVE people being devoured by the monsters they created?


I admit that I hadn't thought about it in those terms. But, now that you've been kind enough to bring it to my attention, I do love it!
Discordianism is fundamentally mischievous irreverence.

minuspace

QuoteHe had all the proper security credentials [...]
until he was taxiing down the runway and taking off
in a stolen passenger plane

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-stolen-plane-crash-20180811-story.html#nt=tertiarynavbar