According to Google, ~817 MILLION people live below the poverty level (<$3 / day / person / PPP), yet somehow the vast majority manage to live their lives without becoming radicalized.

1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

According to Google, ~817 MILLION people live below the poverty level (<$3 / day / person / PPP), yet somehow the vast majority manage to live their lives without becoming radicalized.

I guess Gorth had to explicitly mention it's about increased likelihoods, not guarantees.

https://apnews.com/article/us-iran-war-hormuz-april-27-2026-374d81d1aac6d8f19c21e1d1e10ab103

Trump should take the deal, based off his comments previously, save himself some work.

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

According to Google, ~817 MILLION people live below the poverty level (<$3 / day / person / PPP), yet somehow the vast majority manage to live their lives without becoming radicalized.

Yes its a legitimate point you making. Its similar to the argument " we see so much crime from community x or y because of inequality\poverty " ( or something similar )

Its not convincing because the majority of people living in poverty don't commit crime

But as far as these insurgencies are concerned there are 2 main groups involved. Separatists aren't considered radicalized, they just want their own region

The AQ\ISIS linked groups are more radicalized and they only exist in certain African countries and there Islamic extremist ideology only resonates with some people

The vast majority of people in these indigent regions dont join them but they suffer the worst consequence of there ideology and they largely Muslim themselves

Whats also making recruitment much easier is the brutality and military response from the Juntas and Russians in trying to crush these insurrections. Not a surprise of course to see the Russians fight war like this

This has been going on for years in these 3 countries

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmx7x3yjyko

"A shopkeeper has told the BBC how Russian mercenaries fighting jihadists in Mali carried out the cold-blooded murder of two men in front of him and then threatened to chop off his fingers and kill him too.

This is one of several similar testimonies collected by the BBC showing the tactics used by the Russian fighters as they waged a brutal counter-insurgency operation against Islamist militants in the West African nation - methods widely condemned by human rights groups."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/28/mali-army-wagner-group-atrocities-against-civilians

"Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. Military drone strikes on a wedding celebration on February 16, 2024, and during a burial on February 17, 2024, killed at least 14 civilians, including 4 children."

4 hours ago, HoonDing said:

"Islamist radicals joined forces with northern separatists to orchestrate the biggest rebel offensive in the West African country in 14 years, with attacks on towns, cities, military bases, airports and homes of senior politicians."

Slava Ukrianaiji

Funny thing, the bigger one, 14 years ago, was when the region was under French domination. What were the French doing to stop it, it's all their fault, why haven't things improved in 130 years of French domination etc etc said Bruce, never, ever.

Funny thing as well, that was due to the primarily French decision to topple Gaddafi to unselfishly and generously try and keep then President Sarkozy out of jail for accepting definitely not bribes from Libya. Which flooded the area with unregulated arms and the completely unregulated support of anyone anti Gaddafi lead to AQIM getting a lot of them.

A painful lesson- well not really, since the people who suffered from it weren't the rich white euroweenies who caused it, they patted themselves on the back while ignoring the open air slave markets etc- which at least was learnt from when it came to Syria. Where, of course, ISIS caliph al Baghdadi's deputy and head of Al Qaeda in Syria is now feted by people like... the French President at the Elysee. Ho hum.

didn't france get kick out another part of west africa this or last year

where will they find another place to loot for fuel for all their nuclear power plant

Côte d'Ivoire was last year, and probably a bit unexpected since France had still retained enough influence to arrest Laurance Gbagbo after a disputed election only 15 years ago, and the beneficiary of that move (ie Alassane Ouatarra) is still in office. 15 years, and four 'elections' later*. Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso were the others that went earlier.

*Some might say that a 95.3% vote for a candidate is a tad suspicious but I'm sure that he was- was- just that competent and popular. Though the more cynical might have just the most tiny little thought that maybe, just maybe, his legitimacy is going to be called into question at some point in the future by the same people who'd been ignoring it previous.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Zoraptor