Which if you think about it is quite strange, because as a whole this is pretty much a war of Muslim sects (is that the right word).
While yes there's a chance that they can kill Christians and the odd person from the West, but this is a internal religious war.
So I don't know if I quite see how its super attractive to disenfranchised people.
I get it with the Western recruits because the recruiting message is that the evil Christians and the West hate you so come to our Caliphate where you will be protected from prejudice.
But this whole thing is about prejudice.
Agreed with all of this. I think the message about combatting the decadent West is definitely a successful recruiting tactic within developed nations, like you said. But the point about this being primarily and internal Muslim conflict is a really important one that drives the movement: after all, many of the atrocities committed within the region are perpetrated along sectarian lines.
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Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
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Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
ISIS apparently has seized enough radioactive material from various government facilities to build a dirty nuclear bomb according to NATO and Australian intelligence sources.
Dirty bombs aren't all that hard to make, take you're standard explosive, and surround it with the radioactive material and you basically contaminate large areas depending on the explosive yield.
I have no doubt that ISIS is probably going to take one of their super suicide bomb Humvees and do this, they are tough to stop, Command and Control by the Iraqi's isn't quick enough to destroy the suicide bombers before they reach their destination, and ISIS really only needs to get it into the middle of a large civilian group in a van painted like Mystery Inc.
the end game for ISIS is Western involvement so that they can bring on their dreams of a apocalypse. If they manage to do this, and its true, the pressure on the Western powers to put boots on the ground will be enormous as the use of a WMD like this is a whole other ball game according to the International Community.
I have my doubts that Pakistan is going to sell them a working Nuclear Weapon, I believe that's just India trying to stir up stuff against their enemy, but Pakistan has a sizable stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons that can be fired from a mortar, a mobile artillery piece or from a hand built truck mounted MLRS.
The implications are somewhat terrifying, I doubt that ISIS will use something like this is a foreign Western Country, but the threat of it alone will force action.
If this story is true, this war is going to move to a new stage, from half hearted in effectual airstrikes, to actual armor and troops on the ground in an active bomb search.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
According to the Site Intelligence Group, that monitors online jihadist propaganda, the video shows five prisoners locked in a metal cage suspended over a swimming pool. The cage is then submerged and an underwater camera records their final frantic moments.
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Also recently made public by the Middle East Media Research Institute was a contest held by ISIS for a Qur'an memorization competition, in which the top prize was a female sex slave.
__________________ "I think the eye test is still good, but analytics can sure give you confirmation: what you see...is that what you really believe?" Scotty Bowman, 0 NHL games played
ISIS militants have blown up two ancient shrines they consider sacrilegious in Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria, the ultra hardline Sunni Muslim group said on Tuesday.
^ Appalling. Sickening. Another in a long list of crimes against humanity by these people.
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"Life of Russian hockey veterans is very hard," said Soviet hockey star Sergei Makarov. "Most of them don't have enough to eat these days. These old players are Russian legends."
Having visited multiple historic sites throughout the Middle East (not Palmyra though), this makes me extremely sad. Those sites are like nothing else on earth and it's devastating if we lose them to these pieces of ####.
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^ Appalling. Sickening. Another in a long list of crimes against humanity by these people.
Ok, I'm going to sound like a piece of crap here, but I think that there are bigger reasons to go after ISIS then this, and this isn't new at all to religious extremists.
Remember that the Taliban were the kings of destroying ancient artifacts and shrines.
To me while this is tragic its almost secondary to the very real treatment of innocent people over there and that's where the focus should be.
To me ISIS is that rare representation of a purely evil organization out there where the worst of humanity congregates. It seems like its a 50 year cycle. We had the rise of extremism in pre WW2, with the 4 strong men rising at the same time in Stalin, Hitler, BM in Italy and the militant Japanese leadership. These lead to horrific crimes against humanity.
We said never again, and that as human's our duty is to kill these kind of movements and these kind of strongmen concepts in their grave.
By going after ISIS with what I believe are half a$$ed measures, we've allowed what I consider to be pure evil to entrench itself and grow like a cancer to the point that the situation is so un-winnable that we're willing to stand by and watch it while saying platitudes like, this is horrible, and these people are monsters, and really nothing is being done.
I give the Kurds credit more then anything else as they're fighting ISIS on the ground.
But as far as Western Policy goes, this will go down as a monumental failure.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The "solution" is to define Kurdish territory at what it currently is, keep the Kurds armed and support those borders with airstrikes. For the rest of the region, let them have their civil war and re-audit the situation afterwards.
It's a cold solution, but the West isn't going to be able to keep it from happening forever. Not enough fingers for the dyke.
Ok, I'm going to sound like a piece of crap here, but I think that there are bigger reasons to go after ISIS then this, and this isn't new at all to religious extremists.
Yeah, this isn't new. Check out what the Christians did to pagan religious artifacts they encountered in virtually every European country they showed up in.
Yeah, this isn't new. Check out what the Christians did to pagan religious artifacts they encountered in virtually every European country they showed up in.
Yeah but Christian's had every right to do it, they worshipped the real God!
Last Friday, following months of negotiation with Washington, Turkey launched its first-ever air strikes against Isil in Syria.
A few hours later it started dropping bombs in Northern Iraq — not on Isil, but on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with which Turkey has been locked in bitter conflict since 1984.
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It's unclear whether Washington and other Nato powers — Turkey being a Nato member — actively endorse Turkey's assaults on the Kurds or are simply tolerating them.
In fact, the Turkish government is pretty strongly suspected of working with ISIS in this.
In the wake of the raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, suspicions of an undeclared alliance have hardened. One senior western official familiar with the intelligence gathered at the slain leader’s compound said that direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking Isis members was now “undeniable”.
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Isn't Turkey the biggest customer of illegal ISIS oil?
Turkey, Iran and Jordan.
To be fair it's not like the goverments are buying them, but independent traders. Probably operating with some sort of at silent consent from their governments, but still.
