The All Things Political Thread (The World and US Reunited)

[Azdeus]

I've been waiting for the Australien Government to release an official YT video on the Facebook news hubbub.

NSFW and all that

 

 

[ComradeYellow]

Biden launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria to “send a message” (msn.com)

LOL Biden really is Blue MAGA.

[InsaneCommander]

22 minutes ago, ComradeMaster said:

Biden launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria to “send a message” (msn.com)

LOL Biden really is Blue MAGA.

I guess this is not a case of... "different cultural norms"?

[BruceVC]

9 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

 

OTOH, Al Jazeera Arabic is hardline sectarian garbage which will happily push Sunni exceptionalism and Sunni victimhood as hard as anything from Saudi does. At least theoretically it does broadly support support 'democracy' (generally via Ikwhan/ Brotherhood, so political Islam) which is why they got banned by Saudi and pals who aren't exactly fans of that idea. Of course, neither is Qatar, at home.

Al Jazeera and Qatar getting into trouble with the Gulf States and other ME countries like Egypt was always unfair and unnecessary

But its because they do try  to be consistent with the principle of a  free media and most countries in the ME dont like the idea or concept of news channel being overly critical or raising valid issues like human rights. But they cant be too critical to the likes of CNN because of its direct links to the USA so AJ, and by extension,  and Qatar became the target. Their are still AJ journalists being jailed in Egypt without trial , do ever think you would have seen any CNN journalists being held in Egypt without trial for years ?

But as I have mentioned in the past the ME is a complicated place and sometimes mistakes happen so it doesnt help to dwell on these missteps that the Gulf States and their allies sometimes make. We need to always ask  " what is best way we can respond to ensure their is sustainable  regional peace and stability " and that means we have to move on from certain developments and not lose sight on the primary objective....dont let yourself become distracted Zora 

But going to back to AJ, its an excellent news channel and I continue to support it 

[BruceVC]

5 hours ago, Gorth said:

@Zoraptor would it surprise you, if I told you it's easier for me to follow AJ English than AJ Arabic?

 

Gorthfuscious !!! Im shocked and disappointed you dont speak or understand Arabic, its very important in the interest of cultural diversity and sensitivity that we learn multiple languages in life 

Their are so many English speaking people who only understand  and speak English and its unacceptable !!!

Please put effort in to learn Arabic, their will definitely be part time courses you can take in Oz, its not like we dont have time?

Keep us updated around how its going, we can do an update in few weeks on how your courses are going 

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, ComradeMaster said:

Biden launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria to “send a message” (msn.com)

Funnily enough the message being sent is probably more about the talks the SDF have been having with the central government in Damascus rather than anything else, and them getting rather too close to agreement for comfort. Nothing like randomly bombing someone's allies to up the tensions in negotiations and make the SDF think they can demand more.

As a general observation bombing some randoms in Syria- and until further evidence, almost certainly a posturing strike blowing up empty buildings- shows weakness rather than strength, since the reason they didn't strike in Iraq at real targets is being frightened of being ordered out of Iraq, again, having just decided to arbitrarily increase their troop presence. That wouldn't look good for Biden, and would be more difficult for the press to spin into a difference from Trump.

[Skarpen]

[ComradeYellow]

Has America Lost Eurasia To China? | Opinion (msn.com)

The whole world is slowly abandoning us, The East is growing stronger, and all we have left is a bloated military and absolute national hubris, like those Germans in the 1930's.

It may be too late to turn this ship around, we could have to take a defeat and rebuild.

[rjshae]

5 minutes ago, ComradeMaster said:

Has America Lost Eurasia To China? | Opinion (msn.com)

The whole world is slowly abandoning us, The East is growing stronger, and all we have left is a bloated military and absolute national hubris, like those Germans in the 1930's.

It may be too late to turn this ship around, we could have to take a defeat and rebuild.

I think we're just fine. No need to be so maudlin.

[Malcador]

The sun seems to have damaged Ted Cruz's mind.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Malcador

[Gromnir]

passover is still a month away, so why post?

Spoiler

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Malcador]

The **** is wrong with people.

[rjshae]

9 hours ago, Skarpen said:

The general implication being that is was not Russia and Syria that bombed the country into the stone age, but instead it was the USA? I believe that's in error.

[Skarpen]

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

The general implication being that is was not Russia and Syria that bombed the country into the stone age, but instead it was the USA? I believe that's in error.

Biden literally ordered a bombing yesterday...

[HoonDing]

killing non-white ppl will always be what AmeriKKKa does best

[ShadySands]

What's the drama? Is because Trump got called out for bombing Syria and now Biden has bombed it as well? I haven't been keeping up with pretty much anything in the past week

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

23 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

What's the drama? Is because Trump got called out for bombing Syria and now Biden has bombed it as well?

I dunno, I guess it's from people who think Trump was anti-war and forgot Trump assassinated an Iranian general last year. While US imperialism is obviously a bad thing, some folks are really selective about caring about it depending on who is in charge.

[BruceVC]

 

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

What's the drama? Is because Trump got called out for bombing Syria and now Biden has bombed it as well? I haven't been keeping up with pretty much anything in the past week

Good question, what is the drama? Their shouldnt be an issue from anyone with Biden ordering the bombing because it is retaliation for an Iran sponsored attack that cost American lives in Iraq last week

Biden needs also to show the Iranian militants  that he is not going to allow them to take advantage of his agreeable and avuncular  nature and also its clear that the previous alliance that Trump and USA was part in the ME is no longer as important to the Democrats 

This unfortunately creates several problems in the ME but to honest the way Obama was treated by  Netanyahu and Gulf States I am not surprised Biden is taking this new approach. But this creates uncertainty now about the best way to effectively deal with the hardliners in Iran......when Trump pulled the USA out of the Iranian nuclear agreement certain events were set in motion which I personally believe would have led to a better and more stable ME 

But in summary Iran has huge influence over most of the Shia factions and anti-American groups that exist in places like Iraq and Lebanon. So when American subcontractors are killed like last week the responsibility falls onto Iran as are the ones who can order these attacks.

But Biden is getting criticized because he criticized Trump last year when the USA killed Soleimani in Iraq. But it was inevitable that someone like Soleimani would eventually be killed, he created and is responsible for the Iranian Quds forces and they have been both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US and other coalition forces since 2003. So it was justice and understandable when Trump agreed to his assassination

As most of us who followed the Iraq war would know Iran interfered literally from day 1 when the USA invaded Iraq and never stopped. Iran should have stayed out of that misplaced conflict because Iraq is a sovereign country and its is interesting that no one asked " what was Soleimani doing in Iraq in the first place " but instead some people were critical of the USA for what they did 

 

 

 

[InsaneCommander]

2 hours ago, KaineParker said:

I dunno, I guess it's from people who think Trump was anti-war and forgot Trump assassinated an Iranian general last year. While US imperialism is obviously a bad thing, some folks are really selective about caring about it depending on who is in charge.

Oh yes, the good old days when we thought WWIII would start. Doesn't seem so bad now, does it?

Edit: just to be clear, things were not so bad when 2020 started. And now we are past 1 year with the pandemic.

Edited February 27, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

15 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Oh yes, the good old days when we thought WWIII would start. Doesn't seems so bad now, does it?

It feels like a decade ago and I have a hard time remembering tbh. I mostly remember the Iran thing because there was recently footage leaked of Iran launching a ballistic attack 13 months ago, which would coincide with the assassination.

[rjshae]

6 hours ago, Skarpen said:

Biden literally ordered a bombing yesterday...

Russia literally has killed tens of thousands of Syrians. We bombed Iranian forces.

[Zoraptor]

Well, about 20000, mostly combatants. The US is not that far behind (13k), especially since no one is really focused on counting the dead in Raqqa etc, as it's not politically expedient to. No one makes a fuss about the 30,000 dead civilians in Mosul, after all.

7 hours ago, ShadySands said:

What's the drama? Is because Trump got called out for bombing Syria and now Biden has bombed it as well? I haven't been keeping up with pretty much anything in the past week

Pretty much. People have dragged up stuff like Jen Psaki's comments on the legality of Trump bombing in Syria, and Biden's "America is back" tweet as in  Skarpie's post. The bombing itself appears to be a complete nothingburger and designed to put a line under the current round of tit for tat.

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, rjshae said:

Russia literally has killed tens of thousands of Syrians. We bombed Iranian forces.

Yes you are correct and the distinction when it comes to certain global events does matter. What I noticed from 2001 onwards was sometimes you meet people who have a very negative view of the USA and only see the mistakes that sometimes the US and its allies have made but they will ignore other countries that have committed more or the same bad decisions. Also their are several conspiracy theories that have always existed around the USA and its alliances with countries like Israel and these false narratives  still exist today  when someone will make a statement like " the USA only intervenes in conflicts when it has concerns over oil  " or what I use to come across fairly regularly  after 9/11 was the view " the USA  wants to destroy the Muslim world and is aligned with the Zionists and crusaders " which means for many Muslims outside the ME, like SA ,  they use to always phone in on talk shows and suggest that 9/11 was done by the USA to justify bombing the ME or that the US and UK are warmongers and just want to bomb everything back to the  Dark Ages

But that is not the truth about 9/11, we know AQ did it and why.  So its not even worth being vexed about criticism towards the USA responding to Irans belligerence by occasional bombings when Russia  has actively been involved in the systemic bombing and destruction of most parts of Syria not under Assad control. The Russians didnt send ground troops, that was QUDs militia and Shia fundamentalist's who  committed egregious atrocities once Aleppo was razed to ther ground and slaughtered any Sunni militia left alive if they found them

Sadly the same thing would have happened to the Shias in this conflict if the war had gone the other way.  I have seen this in parts of the ME where their is hatred between sectarian groups of Sunni and Shia, its not everywhere but its real and brutal 

But I have to be honest I dont hold Russia to blame for its military strategy in Syria because that war had reached a true impasse before the Russian intervention and that impasse was spilling over to other countries  and directly impacting the EU with the hundreds of thousands of refugees now looking for a new home. So you needed a country like Russia to take a side and help bring the war to an end 

But the reality of Syria is the West and most wealthy ME countries will offer limited resources to help rebuild Syria, you cant blame them because countries like Iran and Russia helped Assad stay on power so they  must rebuild the country....and that is not going to happen in any meaningful way 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Well, about 20000, mostly combatants. The US is not that far behind (13k), especially since no one is really focused on counting the dead in Raqqa etc, as it's not politically expedient to. No one makes a fuss about the 30,000 dead civilians in Mosul, after all.

Pretty much. People have dragged up stuff like Jen Psaki's comments on the legality of Trump bombing in Syria, and Biden's "America is back" tweet as in  Skarpie's post. The bombing itself appears to be a complete nothingburger and designed to put a line under the current round of tit for tat.

Nah, we dont know the actual numbers of civilian casualties in the Syrian war caused by the Russians bombing campaign but its not about the numbers because as you mentioned their have been several conflicts in the ME since 9/11 and thousands of civilians have died due to other events so Syria is just one example of needless death and truly broken country going forward 

But  I hope you  not comparing the USA and its efforts to stabilize Iraq with the Russian approach to end the war in Syria ?

The objectives were different and the Russians have the finesse of a bull in a china shop when it comes to ensuring " minimal damage "

 

[Guard Dog]

Gromnir disclaimer: The following image is being posted for the purposes of humor and amusement only. Guard Dog (herein referred to as poster) Makes no claims of the veracity of the image. Poster is not responsible for the creation of the image and assumes no liability for anyone who is triggered by it. Laugh or don't, poster does not care. 

 

[Skarpen]

14 hours ago, KaineParker said:

While US imperialism is obviously a bad thing, some folks are really selective about caring about it depending on who is in charge.

 

12 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Their shouldnt be an issue from anyone with Biden ordering the bombing

Well it checks out...