magnkarl

Hopefully Iran attacking Israel means that the vote in congress will go through. The take away from recent conflicts is that everyone needs a nuke. 

Thanks Russia.

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

Eh? Biden’s fault? Are you completely missing the House GOP blocking every avenue taken by the White House and even the Senate?

Biden has backed Israel to the hilt, even with their clear war crimes, lastly with intercepting lots of drones for them. Did that need to go through congress?

If you’re Ukraine you can’t but help feel like the US aren’t even out of first gear with their aid, and recently back to park.

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

Dems going to great lengths to get help to Ukraine…

But like some of his fellow GOP colleagues, Johnson not doing anything…

 

They went to great lengths for Israel. For Ukraine they’re leisurely walking at a pace akin to that of the US while England was being terror bombed and Hitler was killing 2 million people from minorities a year before they were attacked themselves. FDR wanted to help but was hamstrung by the same clownery we now see in congress.

To think that one orange clown and his tiny minority of under-clowns in congress can let a horrible dictatorship do whatever they please with a European ally, just goes to show that the US aren’t reliable anymore.

It's weird to me how Biden (and allies) can be so up for defending the country with the most advanced air defense shield in the world from the same volumes of drones and missiles which Ukraine gets lobbed at it in a week, but yet refuses to go to the same steps for Ukraine.

The drones are made by the same people, Russia and Iran are intertwined at this point yet Biden can only defend the country that is being attacked by the country without nukes. I feel like his foreign policy is slipping all over the place (not that the republicans are any better). He's letting Putin show China and any other country that if you just get a nuke you can do whatever you want. It's a dangerous foreign policy from the world's largest and most powerful military.

We could in example extend the black sea patrol corridor and shoot down Russian ballistic missiles with a trajectory towards Poland/Romania or other allies. That would alleviate the pressure on Lviv and many of the Western cities. We could do it without killing any Russian soldiers and we'd only be shooting down metal and chips. 

1 minute ago, meregreen said:

Arteta showing all the grace in defeat of a herniated hippo.clearing in the woods.

That's an insult to hippos!

Loving the gunners forum.

What's with the horrid commentary? Can they at least try to get someone in the studio who doesn't polish 'top 4' rockets all night?

Should have been 0-4, that is all.

36 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

My solution?
oh I don’t think my way of doing things would be very popular. Rather than dabbling in the performative troubles of terror state allies like Israel I think I’d choose my friends more carefully. The sort of ally that doesn’t start fights and then demand others help. But then I’d be all in with the help once it was deserved and needed, not get bored or start worrying about the bills. I’d probably try and get some sort of briefing on the history and culture and geo politics of the area, not just hope a limited bombing campaign would lead to some enhanced capitalism opportunities.

I wouldn’t over promise and under deliver for 40 years.

I’d have an operational aircraft carrier and the ability to fire a deterrent that costs £3billion per annum, or bin it off.

But I’m not sure my solution is relevant to my ability to crit the idea of sending western troops to sort out Middle Eastern proxy armies.

I think we're on the same wavelength. If I was the US secretary of defence I'd have my aircraft carrier camped outside Odessa. I agree that Israel in its current form isn't a great ally, neither is UAE or Saudi Arabia. Iran hasn't just attacked Israel though, they've gone for US troops, Pakistan, civilian shipping and essentially everyone not male or Shia inside their own country. Why can we intercept missiles and drones heading for Israel while Russian missiles are allowed to plow into Ukrainian nurseries, pharmacies, hotels and schools?

I don't think we should send Western troops. I think we should fund the forces that are for democracy, like Ukraine, the Yemeni opposition, Iran's student organisations, women and minorities and so forth. But the cynic in me knows that people who haven't experienced war or the military doesn't really know that our liberal values stop the moment our own soldiers put on their combat load out. War is hell, and Iran knows that our way is weak as we're squabbling in congress about supporting countries who want to be democratic but are bombed to hell by their autocratic neighbours.

28 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

 

Then it should even more simple than our absolute supremacy and definitive wins in those nation state conflicts. Weird we haven’t already sorted it all out. 

 

No no, let's keep letting a regime that hangs people in the market square for being gay, beats women to death for dancing and hunts down minorities with absolute scrutiny keep on keeping on.

What's your solution? Biden's solution with Iran makes him look weak, and makes US allies doubt their ability to be supportive.

The battlefield isn't liberal, so if we want to preserve our liberal way of life something's got to be done about Russia and Iran. Stern words don't work. The three last years are proof to that.

46 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Do you mean like in Libya? Or would Afghanistan be a better example? Or maybe you’re using Iraq as your metric?

You've listed three nation states, Iran's proxies are not the countries they inhabit. In all cases there's viable groups that oppose them which the US could use to kick them out.

Hezbollah are actually not very popular in Lebanon, and Islamic Jihad (who would've thought), isn't very popular in Syria and Iraq.

For all of Trump's faults the IRGC were on the back foot outside of Iran when he was in the office (largely due to the people at the MOD), as soon as Biden took over the stance towards Iran became how to integrate them in the international system again and now we see the effects of that.

6 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

I wouldn’t presume that this is all Biden led. It has been - since the twin catastrophes of Afghanistan/Iraq - to at all possible - de-escalate and do nothing that will involve US overt commitment, but provide arms in any way possible. 
 
This testing of the waters by both Iran and previously Russia is on the same axis of coordination. You are right that the US essentially is telegraphing their lack of desire in participating in a war while maintaining a “don’t do that”

Instead of speak softly and carry a big stick, it is, “You better not or else we might provide more arms.”

From Obama to Trump to Biden, there is an unwillingness to get drawn to direct conflict but a willingness (to some degree as we’re seeing in Ukraine) to provide arms. 
 
It is an interesting paradigm overall as the US electorate does not want a war but this obvious lack of commitment has emboldened the Russia’s and Iran’s to continue poking and prodding without fear of a true reprisal. 
 
Because a true US reprisal is WW3 and contrary to the commonplace thought, the US electorate does not want war. 

I agree, I just don't think it would even need to be a war. The US could bomb Iran's proxies to pieces and dismantle them with ease. A bully thinks you being in pain is funny, someone needs to make sure the bully feels the pain it is causing.

It brings us back to the point about NATO needing Europe to step up. The US are proving an unstable, fascist-infested (maga) mess. It doesn't feel like Uncle Sam cares about democracy and freedom anymore. If China is so dangerous to the US, the US sure isn't giving China many reasons not to invade Taiwan. Biden might trot out his stern language. Scary.

I don't get Washington's stance here. Iran is the US' enemy, Israel is essentially willing to do the US' dirty work here, yet the US are holding them back? If this is how much chaos America is going to tolerate Iran causing (boarding ships, stopping shipping, bombing US allies using proxies ++) then what will they allow when or if Iran gets the bomb?

It all feels a bit like the US isn't sure what to do. Iran is essentially getting rewarded by being a massive bully, they've orchestrated the Hamas attack, fed weapons to proxies which have been used to bomb US troops and ships abroad. What more do Iran need to do before the US knocks them properly on the nose?

I presume this all leads back to the US election and Biden being afraid of being seen as too close to Israel. I can't remember a US president more afraid of putting a nation like Iran in its place than Biden. If China wants to emulate how to break apart US resolve they just need to get enough pro-Chinese groups to cause havoc to international shipping, attack a US ally causing war and then just keep stepping over red lines. The US appears weak over Ukraine and Israel. Both could cause real damage to US enemies but with Ukraine they won't even give old weapons anymore and with Israel they seem to care more about optics than a fundamentalist Muslim dictatorship causing havoc in the ME.

Several Iranian missiles got through. I don't see how Israel aren't going to go after the launch sites. Civilian housing hit in particular outside Ramon air base.

Iran just launched around 1000 missiles and UAVs at Israel for a strike in another country by 1 missile. 'This is a response to your missile! Here, have 1000!'. Israel has an excuse to go after production facilities for shaheds, launch sites, and anything related to the attack in Iran. Judging by how many of the other neighbours of Iran that tried to shoot their stuff down I'd likely argue that the ME would be better if Iran was put properly in its place.

German and French assets also working hard against Iranian drones. Pakistan? Afghanistan? 

Feels like Iran is risking a lot here. Death throes of the priesthood?

If Iran launches ballistic missiles we’ll likely see the next version of the iron dome in action, as well as what the f35 is capable of.

If Israel doesn’t openly side with Ukraine now I don’t know what it’ll take.

This is what it was about since the start. 

Expect the US to go hard now. 

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

my daughter has a tablet but that was more because we travel a fair bit with my work

she is a proper tablet zombie, has unbelievable meltdowns over it

she also knows that Saturday afternoons daddy watches the football and she gets the tablet, she will wake up at 7am and start asking me about when the football is on, she associates me watching football with her getting the tablet

the main problem is that they work, same with the TV, if my wife is at home right now and wants to cook something, I'm not there, the only way she is sitting my 1 year old and 3 year old is by putting the TV on

the next problem is that i also love the TV and IMO (but definitely not my wifes) TV creates moments with me and the kids, we watch Disney films together, my daughter is now also the age where she wants Disney songs on in the car, I want to take her to the cinema more, i don't consider it lazy that on a Sunday afternoon i want to lie on the sofa and watch toy story with my kids, that to me is good time with them

To be fair I don’t think the Disney-type long film is the issue. It’s the horrid excuse for cartoons and games that kids find on YouTube and their tablets. I paid attention to what the 8year old was watching the other day and it’s essentially a weird mix of YouTube shorts by other kids doing makeup and being horrible, and fast paced cartoons with extreme stimuli in them. Let’s just say that it wasn’t exactly Sesame Street..

I understand why kids love the content. It must lead to high levels of dopamine and gratification. I just don’t think it’s healthy.

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

Like @GeorgeVilla82 said, its a balance. 

Your entire day, is not a typical day for a working adult.  

My day is up at 6.30/7, kids downstairs, breakfast, dressed, make lunches (if I've not done it the night before), school bags sorted, teethbrushed and get myself ready for work.

Finish work at 5, go pick up from afterschool club, back home around 5.30. 

Make them dinner because they're hungry.  If I don't want to do fish fingers again, then it takes longer to prep/cook everything.  Dinner usually served for 6-6.30pm.  They are slow eaters, finish anywhere between 7-7.15pm.  4 year olds bedtime, go upstairs, get ready for bed, read 2 stories and downstairs for 8pm.  9 year goes up when I go down, usually a bit of reading with him for 15-20 mins, leave him at 8.30-8.45.  Meanwhile, my wife has made our dinner and I eat around 8.30-9pm everyday - way too late and not entirely practical. 

So yea, my kids usually want to watch TV or play their Switch/Tablet or PS5 whilst they're waiting around for those things to be done.  So they probably have 1.5-2hrs of screen time per day. 

Weekend we're always out doing something, so not much screen time on weekends.

I very much look forward to the days where I get more time, but with things the way they are - costs for everything from after school clubs etc etc etc etc - we don't and we work full time. 

What I'm saying is, is don't judge too harshly, because there are reasons for the increased TV time and its not usually the parents fault, its a lack of time.  

I'd like to know what your family structure was when your daughter was a child - both working full time?  If not, how did you achieve the day you listed with her? 

As I said, I am an old grumpy man, so take it as you will, hehe. 

When we had two kids that age ourselves we both worked full time. I started at 7am and ended at 3pm, she started at 9 and was finished at 5pm. Sure it was stressful, but people raised kids before tablets and endless TV on back to back zombie-tube. We had help from her parents occasionally but generally our kids were encouraged to play outside and to learn how to play themselves. This day and age it seems like the short cut is often an iPad. I probably would've done that myself, but I feel that my kids would suffer for it. The amount of ADHD and short attention spans these days might be correlated to high screen time and instant gratification?

Our kids got to watch Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Pablo the red fox when it was on for half an hour. That was it. They couldn't watch kids shows all day even if they wanted to.

I just don't think kids are meant to be spending 3-4 hours a day on an iPad, it screws up their brain and body. I feel like kids these days need to learn how to be bored. I know that sounds grumpy again..

So, I have two grandchildren ages 2-8. Recently the missus and I have been babysitting a lot as my daughter has to go to work in France twice a week after Brexit made her company move her job to Calais and her husband works shifts. I love the kids, I really do, but it annoys the living heebiejeebies out of me that these two kids are so glued to their pads and TV. I've tried to talk to my daughter about it, but she says it's fine and that everyone is doing it.

So, in order to prove a point we did a test the last two days, I took the little one for the day, we went for a walk to the pond, fed the ducks, climbed on trees, were physically active and had all our meals outside in the garden. We then went on to planting vegetables and we made the 2 year old her own little vegetable plot where she could sow anything she wanted.

The day before this we let her do what she does at home which is essentially to come home from nursery, watch her iPad, get overstimulated, have a melt-down, struggle through some physical play and then bedtime. 

The day where the kid didn't have her iPad, she fell asleep in half a minute, while in the other it took us 1 hour between us. 

How do I bring it up to my daughter that the iPad is rotting my grandchildren's brains? What do parents do these days if they want to be 'different' and not have their kids be so exposed to screens, hyperstimuli and the mental issues this brings? 

Edit: I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man (I am) but what the hell happened to actually spending time with your kids and not have some screen full of short edited cartoons be their babysitter?

I might do a rule that the only shows the kids are allowed to watch in this house is stuff from the 90's - before everything was turned into an acid trip full of short clips, sounds, bright lights and stuff like lululemon..

3 hours ago, Genie said:

because seeing around you is over rated.

There's a video of this tank's assault squad doing the rounds on reddit, it's trying to turn a sharp left at some point and has to go back and forth like it's got epilepsy to get the angle right, all the while Ukraine takes out 3 of the 5 vehicles waiting behind it to get through.

At least that one tank survived - which for Russian armoured assault standards is a 100% improvement. 

2 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Hamas being part of it is really awkward isn’t it.

We’ve been told for 6 months they are a terrorist organisation, yet there is to be a negotiation with them. Israel have stated they will erase them totally, but are now prepared to negotiate. Undoubtedly, letting them back in in any significant way will eventually lead to the next cycle of violence. But as we learned in Iraq, getting rid of all structure and everyone with any link to the regime will lead to failed state chaos.

If ever there was a project for the UN to properly engage in and act as world police, this would have been it.

I guess they're keeping the hostages for this very reason. Without them Hamas has zero capital left, except for firing rockets and going on raids from within refugee camps and the odd statement from the leadership pretending to be angry from their golden high-rise apartments in Qatar and UAE..

UN should've been in Rafah weeks ago, clearing up the mess we're now in. My guess is that Russia would veto that every day of the week to keep the focus on Palestine rather then the extensive glide bombing Russia is currently putting the population of Kharkiv through.

17 minutes ago, bickster said:

Also confusingly there are reports that talks broke down due to Hamas refusing to accept certain conditions

Here's an article about it from Reuters:

Quote

CAIRO, April 8 (Reuters) - Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, a senior Hamas official said on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza's last refuge for displaced Palestinians.
Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.
Burn's presence underlined rising pressure from Israel's main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.

I don't even know why Hamas are part of these negotiations anymore. They've clearly got no regard for human life, just like the IDF.

Another night, another airport hit. Ukraine is going after Russia's glide bomb fleet.

Ukraine also claiming to have sunk a ship in Kaliningrad by setting a fire in the engine room. Could be fake news, but if it's true the war is moving to Russia's other fleets too.

9 hours ago, villa89 said:

Do you really expect any Israeli government to do that? 

With enough pressure from the US, maybe.

It wouldn't be the first time Israel charges high ranking politicians internally, compared to how we treat our own politicians Israeli politicians can be sentenced to 'breach of trust' where they serve time for going against their oath of office. It's why Netanyahu has worked tirelessly to remove power from the courts as he's lined up to take the hit for corruption. Famously Prime Minister Elhud Olmert was sentenced to 6 years in prison for breaching trust in 2015. There's also a wide range of people, from President to knesset members who have or are serving time for the same thing. The Israeli courts are far from favourable to politicians who misuse their office.

Ben-Gvir, in example, has already been convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist group. If he's ever tried again he'll have no chance of a reduced sentence.

4 hours ago, Jareth said:

Is this one of those AI experiments that were previously tasked with spotting terrorists?

You'd be surprised of how many people are just like this on both sides right across the internet and society as a whole. Villatalk is an oasis of quite intelligent people in a desert of dumb.