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The Arab Spring and "the War on Terror"


legov

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I think the priority should be to contain ISIS to areas they already hold, then use a combination of sanction, financial pressure and where neccessary, military operations to weaken key areas - a sort of closing loop around them.

The problem with this plan is that first we need to have in idea of what we want to leave behind, a motivation to actually do it and importantly we need to be prepared to upset the Saudi's. Politically, ISIS fill an important role in US foreign and domestic policy as the bad guy now - Bin Laden was left alive until they arrived and until either Putin or China is ready to step up and terrify the tax dollar out of the folks back home, I don't think there's a political will from the US to really do much about it.

 

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The problem with this plan is that first we need to have in idea of what we want to leave behind, a motivation to actually do it and importantly we need to be prepared to upset the Saudi's.

Bingo. 

PS.  We are not.

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I think we should constantly drip feed insufficient millions of dollars of guns and ammunition into this region in the hope of having an influence but on a budget. I have no knowledge of the complex history, politics or various cultural groupings but if we could just give a small number of bombs and guns to groups that haven't already been outed as bad guys by the media, I think we'll be fine.

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I definitely need an update.

I thought the reason parliament voted against fighting in Syria was that we couldn't decide who the enemy was, Assad or IS.

I remember Assad being the bad guy and then he was less so but then Putin was bad for supporting him.

They are now saying that both IS and Assad are the bad guys but more importantly, if we destroy the bad guys, who are the good guys we then hand power to for some future peaceful resolution? 

Thanks!

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Caught a bit on the radio driving back from VP last night about a Danish journalist who had been living amongst groups of ISIS fighters

(wasn't the whole show more of  teaser trailer)

 

his findings ( which we have to accept at face value)  were summarised in the trailer as

 

He saw few if any copies of the Quran and came to the opinion most of the fighters weren't practising muslims

Most were being paid $50 a month and  were fighting to buy women from the sex trade  ... these women change hands at $1500 and thus fighting was the only way they were likely to get the sums of money required

that was the gist of it , the $50 may be an error on my part

 

The show will be \was on radio 5 if anyone wants to track it down

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Its looking increasingly like Russia's significantly increased presence in Syria is going to prop up Assad and really put a dent in ISIS.

Not only are they putting a couple of thousand special forces on the ground by aircraft, ammunition, weapons and crucially aircraft including recon.

ISIS have taken a battering in the last 48 hours and its only going to intensify when they get the port and airport up to speed.

No longer will Syria and Raqqa be a safe haven for these scum bags.

With the coalition efforts in Iraq and Russia in Syria there aren't many hiding places left for them, well unless the Saudi's or Turk's welcome the foot soldiers of their proxy war.

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Very interesting. Russia could basically walk into Iraq and take control of the whole show. 

The whole show other than the massive US bases that protect the gas and oil pipelines and secure the money that comes from them. The rest of it is worth nothing - other than as a political bargaining chip.

 

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It just seems like Russian interests are propelling them towards some sort of reckoning with the West...be it a direct assajlt on sovereign Ukraine, or competing for influence in the vacuum of Syria/Iraq.

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Very interesting. Russia could basically walk into Iraq and take control of the whole show. 

The whole show other than the massive US bases that protect the gas and oil pipelines and secure the money that comes from them. The rest of it is worth nothing - other than as a political bargaining chip.

 

Source?

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Very interesting. Russia could basically walk into Iraq and take control of the whole show. 

The whole show other than the massive US bases that protect the gas and oil pipelines and secure the money that comes from them. The rest of it is worth nothing - other than as a political bargaining chip.

 

Source?

I don't have one that I had in mind - I was thinking of the huge embassy and a map I'd seen just after the second war with a line of bases that followed a recently built oil line.

I've had a look and it's difficult to find anything that makes sense - there's a whole mass of stuff about bases in the war, but not much afterward. So, I dunno. I could be wrong and my assumption is a few years out of date.

Oddly, there do seem to be a few stories suggesting that China controls most of the oil in Iraq.

 

 

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