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1sikbITCH

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2001
4,194
574
126
Can't even stop opium trade in NATO "controlled" Afghanistan.

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You have not been paying attention.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-w...ds-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053

The US has propped up the opium trade in Afganistan on purpose. Hearts and Minds!
 

SSSnail

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
17,458
83
86
They're just taking advantage of our non-willingness to blow them the fuck up.

Edit: You know, it occurs to me that we carry out war like scrubs play video games. That is we play (war) within the constraints of self-imposed rules while the guys who are truly playing (warring) to win mercilessly exploit whatever advantages are afforded them without compunction. There's no wonder all our conflicts get stretched out into infinity. Massive wealth is the only reason we can compete at all.
Fixt that for ya.
That's crazy. How come this stuff isn't on the news?
The US has been propping up drug organizations around the world for decades, it's in the news. No one cared, nor can they do anything about it.

P.S. Dear guys in black suits, I'm just an apathetic guy that doesn't care, either. Don't accidentally accident me, please.
 

norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
13,990
180
106
The US has been propping up drug organizations around the world for decades, it's in the news. No one cared, nor can they do anything about it. P.S. Dear guys in black suits, I'm just an apathetic guy that doesn't care, either. Don't accidentally accident me, please.

Latin America has been some of the worst of all the shit.
 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
19,441
86
91
Amazing when you look at the scale of warfare the world has seen this past century, and now some ragtag group numbering only in the 10s of thousands is talked about as some new unstoppable force.

The U.S. won the battles but did not decisively win the war against the commies in Vietnam, however the NVA had A LOT more than just 10s of thousands of bodies to throw at the U.S., along with Soviet and PRC support. ISIS doesn't have enough strength to offer little more than a few skirmishes in open battle and then dissolve away into the mountains.

ISIS has taken over cities with just several hundred fighters. It would not take much to wipe them out. Even though ISIS kills fellow muslims... send in an American soldier and once he kills an ISIS fighter... well then it gets labeled a crusade.

Also ISIS was born out of the Sunnis getting the boot from PM Maliki. You could wipe out every ISIS fighter tomorrow and as long as there is this battle between sunnis and shias... there will always be some crazy group out there.
 

norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
13,990
180
106
Does Obama even have a strategy for Syria yet?

Like what? If anything the last few years have told us that relying on one set strategy is defeating strategy. We need to keep our options open and react to the dynamics of this geographical situation instead of working towards one set plan that not only may or may not work but might seem valid today and impossible or destabilizing tomorrow.
 

Ventanni

Golden Member
Jul 25, 2011
1,432
142
106
We also need to consider that, despite the monster that he is, Assad may be the best lasting option for Syria. I mean, do you trust any of these other jihadi groups or rebels in power? Heck no!
 

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
I have 3 words to end the problem.."Tactical Nuclear weapons"..

Things keep going down the current road, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't start showing up in the near future to be honest.

And I would say on the not on the US side.

Surprised one hasn't gone off by now myself, to be honest.
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
We need to help these countries, and peoples, establish Governments that are not based in Religion, but rather in the belief that all men are created equal, or...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

George Bush, went a long way towards this, when he assumed control of Iraq, but he lost sight of the goal, and succumbed to the pressures of the "liberals."

Nation Building is exactly what has to be done in these areas. They have a lot to offer. Including poppy seeds. :)

-John
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
We need to help these countries, and peoples, establish Governments that are not based in Religion, but rather in the belief that all men are created equal, or...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

George Bush, went a long way towards this, when he assumed control of Iraq, but he lost sight of the goal, and succumbed to the pressures of the "liberals."

Nation Building is exactly what has to be done in these areas. They have a lot to offer. Including poppy seeds. :)

-John
My ex-father-in-law said something pretty profound. He said the old saying "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime" is complete bullshit, because if a man is hungry, and his family is hungry, then he is going to be fishing as best he can if there's anything to him. All you can do is teach him better methods or help him get better tools.

Point is, a majority of these people do not want secular government, at least not enough to risk saying it. Unless and until we have that, teaching them secular government is useless. They will simply use it as a tool to further their religious aims.
 

touchstone

Senior member
Feb 25, 2015
603
0
0
The only reason ISIS is adopting such a dynamic use of territory is it cannot fight in open battle or conduct an insurgency as it must control land for its 'caliphate'. Bhagdadi knows it is only a matter of time until he is ejected from Iraq as a whole and he has taken up the strategy of quickly accreting more land while alternately setting thousands of IEDs in every one of the cities it gives up to the enemy. So while he quickly makes gains in Yemen, Tunisia, and the Sinai... he is very slowly losing land in iraq. Theoretically, if it can accrete land fast enough then it would be gaining much faster than losing and would eventually control the world. That's the idea anyway.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
Sanctions ain't going to do anything. How can you tell people to stop giving money to a radical Islamic group hell bent on rampaging, homicide, and vengeance on their religious beliefs? Obviously if people already know this yet enjoy the benefits of the trade, shit aint going to stop. Neither is another war at this point. Place is a vacuum and needs to change culturally which takes centuries.


Imperial Japan & Nazi Germany were changed culturally and it didn't take centuries, just the will and determination to do so.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
We need to help these countries, and peoples, establish Governments that are not based in Religion, but rather in the belief that all men are created equal, or...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

George Bush, went a long way towards this, when he assumed control of Iraq, but he lost sight of the goal, and succumbed to the pressures of the "liberals."

Nation Building is exactly what has to be done in these areas. They have a lot to offer. Including poppy seeds. :)

-John
Just in case anyone takes your post seriously,

Bullshit, George Bush helped bring Sharia law to Iraq and instantly made women who were enjoying secular type freedoms under Saddam second class citizens literally overnight, it had nothing to do with liberals, apologists, phonies or otherwise.

Islamist Sharia in Iraq Made in the USA
Historical and Investigative Research - 18 May 2006
by Francisco Gil-White

http://www.hirhome.com/iraniraq/sharia.htm
__________________________________________________________
Below, HIR reproduces a report by Reuters on the developing political climate in Iraq. The main message of the article is that, imposed by terror, Sharia, or Islamic law, is fast becoming the law in Iraq.
What does Sharia mean?


It means that if you own a store that sells alcohol, your store will be bombed. If you are a woman, you will be violently attacked if you neglect to wear a veil or dare to drive a car. If you are a man, you will be violently attacked if you wear shorts or decide to shave. This is the future of Iraqi society.


The article explains that things were quite different under Saddam Hussein:



“Baghdad [was] known under the secular rule of Saddam Hussein for its nightlife and liberal social culture.”


Something else that the article explains is that:
“Some of the militias suspected of being behind the attacks or the threats are linked to Shi’ite parties in power.”


In other words, what is happening in Iraq is that it is becoming the westernmost province of Iran. About 60% of the population of Iraq is Shi’ite, like the Muslims who run the totalitarian theocratic state of Iran, next door. Ever since 1979, the Iranian Shi’ites have been attempting to control Iraq through their influence on Iraqi Shi’ites, and their goals have now been largely accomplished: Newsweek recently remarked on just “how deeply Iran has infiltrated Baghdad.”[1]


The terrorist imposition of Sharia in Iraq is a consequence of the US invasion of Iraq, because before the US invasion, Iraq had a secular government and a “liberal social culture.” In other words, before the US invasion, the Iraqi government repressed political dissent but did not mess with the minutiae of Iraqi private life, so that the Iraqis were free to shave or not shave, drink or not, wear a veil or not, drive or not drive, and wear shorts or pants as they desired.
Now, in public the US claims to oppose Islamist terrorism, but HIR’s position is that governments very often have reasons to publicly misrepresent their real intentions and actions, which means that a social scientist can hardly be learning much if he constructs a model of the world with the statements of public officials. Ignoring, therefore, what US officials say, there are two obvious hypotheses to consider here:


Hypothesis 1. Iranian-style Islamist terrorism in Iraq is an unintended consequence of the decisions of the US foreign policy elite.
Hypothesis 2. Iranian-style Islamist terrorism in Iraq is a foreseen and intended consequence of the decisions of the US foreign policy elite.
HIR has been defending the second hypothesis. In favor of HIR’s view is the entire history of US foreign policy towards Iran and Iraq, which HIR has been documenting here:




As HIR has shown, US foreign policy has been remarkably consistent since 1979: the US ruling elite of both major US parties, over and over again, has made decisions whose effect is to strengthen Iranian Islamism. HIR has defended the view that the whole point of the US invasion of Iraq was to remove a secular rival so that Iranian-style Islamism could spread to Iraq. Consistent with this view is the absence of evidence to suggest that invading Iraq was necessary to protect the national security of the US, and the abundance of evidence that the US ruling elite had other motives and lied to the US citizenry.
Also consistent with this view is the fact that the US sponsored the imposition of Sharia in Iraq, as the Reuters article also explains:


“A new, U.S.-sponsored constitution introduced last year makes Sharia, or Islamic law, a main source for legislation.”


The bulk of the evidence is consistent with HIR’s hypothesis: the US ruling elite would like to see the spread of Iranian-style Islamist terrorism.
 

MarkXIX

Platinum Member
Jan 3, 2010
2,642
1
71
Does Obama even have a strategy for Syria yet?

I think he does and so far I think his strategy is working.

I firmly believe that his strategy is to finally make the regional powers of the Middle East get some skin in the game. We've sold them billions of dollars in military hardware, they train with us on a daily basis, etc. It is time they fought their own war(s) and stop being allowed to use the excuse of Americans being "anti-Muslim" when we go in to try to clean up their mess.

It is high time that the Shia and the Sunni factions get into an all out war and decide how they want to live their lives. That seems to be happening now thanks to ISIS and the Houthis. Let them fight it out and let us sit on the sideline and watch it happen for once.
 

MarkXIX

Platinum Member
Jan 3, 2010
2,642
1
71
Just in case anyone takes your post seriously,

Bullshit, George Bush helped bring Sharia law to Iraq and instantly made women who were enjoying secular type freedoms under Saddam second class citizens literally overnight, it had nothing to do with liberals, apologists, phonies or otherwise.

LOL! This article is all wrong and whoever wrote it should be ashamed of themselves.

First, Sharia law is more rooted in Wahabism, which is a Sunni issue. Second, ISIS is heavily Sunni which were the minority religion in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. Oh, he was Sunni as well.

Sunni's are heavily aligned with Saudi Arabia, the home of the Wahabi tribe.

I'm not saying that Shiite's don't have their issues with their interpretation of Islam, but the average Iranian's lifestyles are a bit more "liberal" than the average Saudi's lifestyle. Iranians have been largely held back by Western sanctions as a result of their religious leadership more than anything. Given the opportunity, the average Iranian would lead a much more Western lifestyle if not for stifling sanctions.