The war in Syria (3 Viewers)

[Billy Bats]

Killer of journalist James Foley is close to being identified, possibly a British rapper.

That was known about 3 weeks ago.

Oh. Seen it on ABC world news announcing it like it was a big break through. Sorry for the :honda:

 

[tri-man 47]

Killer of journalist James Foley is close to being identified, possibly a British rapper.

That was known about 3 weeks ago.

Oh. Seen it on ABC world news announcing it like it was a big break through. Sorry for the :honda:

But lovely, though, isn't it? Like the Boston bombers, this guy now is notorious around the world, which is only an encouragement for more extreme actions.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

Which is greater:

A. Number of Bad Muslims in the world

B. Number of Bad Christians in the world

According to statistics in 2012:

Christianity 31.5%

Islam 23.2%

Unaffiliated 16.3%

Hinduism 15.0%

Buddhism 7.1%

Folk religions 5.9%

Other 0.8%

Judaism 0.2%

 

[timschochet]

Which is greater:

A. Number of Bad Muslims in the world

B. Number of Bad Christians in the world

There are 1.5B Muslims in the world. Let's say 1/1000 are awful evil pieces of ####, that would make up 1.5MM people. It's unfair to call the remaining 1,498,500,000 people or their religion a problem... Even if you use the most aggressive unrealistic numbers like 30% (which is obviously ridiculous), it is still unfair to say that religion is the problem for those other 1 billion plus people.

With all of that being said, if there is ever another 9/11 scale attack on US soil, I'd have no issue with dropping nuclear bombs and just wiping out the entire region. I'd actually like to put the whole region on alert, that way they no it's game over if anything happens here... Maybe then they'll deal with the problem themselves.

so you are willing to kill over 1 billion people if 3,000 more Americans are killed? I've never read a more immoral argument in this forum.

 

[jamny]

I never get the whole "nuke 'em all" strategy, even after 9/11. Do people really still think that radicals are just in one convenient bomb able area?

 

[Sinn Fein]

I never get the whole "nuke 'em all" strategy, even after 9/11. Do people really still think that radicals are just in one convenient bomb able area?

Thats the beauty of nuclear weapons - the radiation poisoning will spread out - sort of like opening a Raid de-fogger - it gets in places you can't reach.

 

[lod01]

I never get the whole "nuke 'em all" strategy, even after 9/11. Do people really still think that radicals are just in one convenient bomb able area?

Thats the beauty of nuclear weapons - the radiation poisoning will spread out - sort of like opening a Raid de-fogger - it gets in places you can't reach.

...it's the only way to be sure. - Aliens

 

[Sinn Fein]

Female Fighter pilot from UAE leads attack on ISIS

 

[TheIronSheik]

Female Fighter pilot from UAE leads attack on ISIS

Again?

 

[Sinn Fein]

Female Fighter pilot from UAE leads attack on ISIS

Again?

Maybe

 

[wazoo11]

Earlier this month, the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said that because of the ongoing war Syria had lost the equivalent of four decades of human development

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

 

[Mark Davis]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

Yeah you're right about that, but for some reason we were pretending we would go to war with Assad over this. No one seems to remember but the president actually asked for a AUMF against Assad.

 

[tommyGunZ]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Are you suggesting that we would be better off if Syria had it's full arsenal of chemical weapons?

 

[cstu]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

Especially since chlorine gas is such a tactical weapon with no danger of killing innocents.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Tommy to answer your question I have no idea what the right answer is - it is completely muddled. Cstu is right as well. - I still can't get over how a real army, one that wasn't devastated by the US in the Iraq War, has been so ineffective against Isis and other rebels. - They're really on the verge, if Damascus falls that is really bad news.

 

[Mark Davis]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

Yeah you're right about that, but for some reason we were pretending we would go to war with Assad over this. No one seems to remember but the president actually asked for a AUMF against Assad.

I agree. I never was with the President nor McCain on this. Asaad is the lesser of the evils right now. We have some pretty compelling evidence from the recent past of what happens when we intervene to overthrow ME dictators.

 

[tommyGunZ]

Tommy to answer your question I have no idea what the right answer is - it is completely muddled. Cstu is right as well. - I still can't get over how a real army, one that wasn't devastated by the US in the Iraq War, has been so ineffective against Isis and other rebels. - They're really on the verge, if Damascus falls that is really bad news.

My question was whether you think we would be better off had Syria retained all of their previous supply of chemical weapons.

 

[Mark Davis]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

Especially since chlorine gas is such a tactical weapon with no danger of killing innocents.

I didn't argue the effectiveness tactically nor the impact on innocents. Are you advocating that this is the United States' issue to fight? It's awful what the North Korean regime subjects its innocent citizens to as well but we don't intervene in NK. In Syria it's good enough reason that when Assad is removed there is going to be a power vacuum. It's been pretty evident those tend to get filled by radical religious militants in that region. I really don't have any interest in assisting ISIS, Al-Nusra, or whichever of those two win the battle royal that would follow, to power.

 

[Sam Quentin]

After driving ISIS out of Iraq and into Syria, we decided to weaken Assad, send weapons to the "rebels" and take our troops out of the area

Wtf

 

[BigSteelThrill]

take our troops out of the area

Wtf

There is no wtf for that.

 

[Short Corner]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Count me in for someone who doesn't give two ****s if Asaad gasses ISIS.

Especially since chlorine gas is such a tactical weapon with no danger of killing innocents.

I didn't argue the effectiveness tactically nor the impact on innocents. Are you advocating that this is the United States' issue to fight? It's awful what the North Korean regime subjects its innocent citizens to as well but we don't intervene in NK. In Syria it's good enough reason that when Assad is removed there is going to be a power vacuum. It's been pretty evident those tend to get filled by radical religious militants in that region. I really don't have any interest in assisting ISIS, Al-Nusra, or whichever of those two win the battle royal that would follow, to power.

They aren't planning a pipeline to facilitate getting Iran's oil to the open market in NK.

 

[cstu]

Especially since chlorine gas is such a tactical weapon with no danger of killing innocents.

I didn't argue the effectiveness tactically nor the impact on innocents. Are you advocating that this is the United States' issue to fight? It's awful what the North Korean regime subjects its innocent citizens to as well but we don't intervene in NK. In Syria it's good enough reason that when Assad is removed there is going to be a power vacuum. It's been pretty evident those tend to get filled by radical religious militants in that region. I really don't have any interest in assisting ISIS, Al-Nusra, or whichever of those two win the battle royal that would follow, to power.

Nor do I since the situation is unwinnable at this point. However, that's no reason to support Assad gassing people.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

 

[jonessed]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

If we had done this when the rebels (we are now supporting) had Damascus surrounded we wouldn't have to be dealing with this crap now. We stalled, Iran sent in Hezbollah, ISIS grew in the war zone, and now it's a three-headed monster with money, arms, and people flowing everywhere.

The plan of do nothing until you absolutely have to sounds nice, but it often leaves you wading in to a much bigger mess.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

If we had done this when the rebels (we are now supporting) had Damascus surrounded we wouldn't have to be dealing with this crap now. We stalled, Iran sent in Hezbollah, ISIS grew in the war zone, and now it's a three-headed monster with money, arms, and people flowing everywhere.

The plan of do nothing until you absolutely have to sounds nice, but it often leaves you wading in to a much bigger mess.

Militarily we're ineffectual. Politically it's controversial. Diplomatically we tick people off.

We have had two AUMF requests under this president - two. For what? Why? It's just completely incoherent. At least 'get out and stay out' is a policy but we can't even do that, in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen, we've been in and out and in and out.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Basic issue: deterrence is not aggression. Aggression is not deterrence. Two different things. We are asscheeks up against Russia right now.

 

[Todem]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

The Donald would not mind one bit if Putin carpet bombs Syria and wipes them out.

Just saying. And this guy is running for President if you did not know by now.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

The Donald would not mind one bit if Putin carpet bombs Syria and wipes them out.

Just saying. And this guy is running for President if you did not know by now.

Yeah there's diplomacy and then there's Trump. Actually I think Trump kind of likes Putin and his style and what he's gunning for.

 

[msommer]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

The Donald would not mind one bit if Putin carpet bombs Syria and wipes them out.

Just saying. And this guy is running for President if you did not know by now.

Letting Putin get more assets in the Med will be very bad in the long run.

 

[Ditka Butkus]

CNBC Now ‏@CNBCnow 44m44 minutes ago

BREAKING: White House to announce today that U.S. special operations forces will begin to operate on the ground in Syria - @NBCNews

Reminder folks, RUSSIA has air force and live troops on the ground there.

WTH are we doing?

Do we have A policy?

Exactly..nothing could escalate if Russians mistakenly bomb our position. It is almost like we are putting these guys there in hopes of this happening. This is more stupid than George Bush getting us in a war with Iraq. Obama should be impeached . What a ####### imbecile.

 

[the moops]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

 

[the moops]

Obama should be impeached.

 

[Ditka Butkus]

Obama should be impeached.

That's right.......Charge.......Using our military as pawns to start WWIII.

 

[culdeus]

A few updates:

• Remember those chemical weapons that we allegedly negotiated with Syria (and their patron Russia) to dispose? Well guess what the Syrians are on the verge of using them because they didn't get rid of them to begin with. At any rate we did not exclude them from using chlorine gas, which is nuts. I guess this is what we can expect from the Iran nuke deal.
• ISIS is driving on Aleppo. For those who don't know Aleppo has been an historical key to seizing Damascus and establishing control for the Mediterranean coast and even further into Arabia.
• Syria may be partitioned, it may already be a "rump state", but if ISIS takes Damascus that won't matter.

Are you suggesting that we would be better off if Syria had it's full arsenal of chemical weapons?

Maybe they use their cl to keep their pools shocked.

 

[The Commish]

So our position/approach hasn't changed, but we're sending troops?? ok

 

[the moops]

Obama should be impeached.

That's right.......Charge.......Using our military as pawns to start WWIII.

You think that is Obama's endgame here? To go out of office with a bang by starting WWIII? Are you related to jamesbrownskid?

 

[cstu]

Obama should be impeached.

That's right.......Charge.......Using our military as pawns to start WWIII.

THANKS OBAMA!!

 

[Ditka Butkus]

Obama should be impeached.

That's right.......Charge.......Using our military as pawns to start WWIII.

You think that is Obama's endgame here? To go out of office with a bang by starting WWIII? Are you related to jamesbrownskid?

Infamous people are more remembered than famous people.

 

[Fennis]

why the #### are we getting more involved in this cluster? What a joke

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

 

[Fennis]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

 

[Fennis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Inherent_Resolve

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

And now, not?

Also, the last year is a relatively short time diplomatically.

What is our policy?

 

[roadkill1292]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

And now, not?

Also, the last year is a relatively short time diplomatically.

What is our policy?

I hope it's to be sneaky and underhanded and committed to causing as much difficulty for bad people as possible without anyone in the area laying eyes on a single American military uniform.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

And now, not?

Also, the last year is a relatively short time diplomatically.

What is our policy?

I hope it's to be sneaky and underhanded and committed to causing as much difficulty for bad people as possible without anyone in the area laying eyes on a single American military uniform.

Ha, now that's funny.

"Go to war, boys, now kill `em! (...err... but don't get hurt)."

Sure.

 

[roadkill1292]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

And now, not?

Also, the last year is a relatively short time diplomatically.

What is our policy?

I hope it's to be sneaky and underhanded and committed to causing as much difficulty for bad people as possible without anyone in the area laying eyes on a single American military uniform.

Ha, now that's funny.

"Go to war, boys, now kill `em! (...err... but don't get hurt)."

Sure.

It's not meant to be funny. Lots of nations have substantially influenced events elsewhere through unconventional tactics. We have a tendency to see the problem more basically -- there's a nail sticking up over there and we have the world's biggest hammer. And a lot of us (not me) want to keep policy at pretty much that level.

 

[cstu]

why the #### are we getting more involved in this cluster? What a joke

The President has approved a current cap of less than 50 troops, with the first contingent expected to be about two dozen.

"The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria for taking the fight on the ground to ISIL in their own country," Earnest said, using another acronym for ISIS. "That has been the core element of the military component of our strategy from the beginning: building the capacity of local forces on the ground."

Earnest said that this key element of U.S. strategy in confronting ISIS hasn't changed with Friday's announcement.

He was also careful to insist: "These forces do not have a combat mission."

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

If only jonessed and/or saints were in charge of our military this problem would have been solved a long time ago!

Ha, ok, I'm just saying have an actual, consistent policy. I am just a guy at the end of the bar with an opinion like all`y'all.

the us has had a pretty consistent policy over the last year.

And now, not?

Also, the last year is a relatively short time diplomatically.

What is our policy?

I hope it's to be sneaky and underhanded and committed to causing as much difficulty for bad people as possible without anyone in the area laying eyes on a single American military uniform.

Ha, now that's funny.

"Go to war, boys, now kill `em! (...err... but don't get hurt)."

Sure.

It's not meant to be funny. Lots of nations have substantially influenced events elsewhere through unconventional tactics. We have a tendency to see the problem more basically -- there's a nail sticking up over there and we have the world's biggest hammer. And a lot of us (not me) want to keep policy at pretty much that level.

You can't go to war with others on the ground without risking human life of your own forces. Can't do it, unless we're living in some Arnold Schwarzenegger movie inspired dream world where only bad guys die and the good guys win the day every day.