International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[Squiddy]

Bird of Jannah's blog 

http://birds-of-jannah.tumblr.com/

[Squiddy]

I bet they have great sex.
I can tell from her eyes she's a beast in bed. 

[Kara]

Nothing new from that video, but I did find out through it that the Likud charter also rejects a Palestinian state, which is interesting.

Yeah, no one really talks about Neo-Zionism (which supplanted Revisionist Zionism in Likud in the 70s I want to say).

[benjipwns]

thanks obama

[chronovore]

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/08/05/kim_jong_un_went_to_a_lubricant_factory

[Joe Molotov]

So after he went to the lubricant factory he also went to a McNugget factory?

[chronovore]

So after he went to the lubricant factory he also went to a McNugget factory?

[Great Rumbler]

So after he went to the lubricant factory he also went to a McNugget factory?

That was the McNugget factory.

[Joe Molotov]

So after he went to the lubricant factory he also went to a McNugget factory?

That was the McNugget factory.

That was the joke. 

[Great Rumbler]

OKAY

[sarslip]

Cenk kills it.

[Momo]

So after he went to the lubricant factory he also went to a McNugget factory?

That was the McNugget factory.

That was the joke. 

[sarslip]

Chomsky doesn't mince words.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/7/a_hideous_atrocity_noam_chomsky_on

[Mandark]

wut

[Momo]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

[Kara]

The US did prop up the Kurds with the no-fly zones in the 90s. I won't touch on PJAK because it's a little too , but there's that too.

It's still unclear to me how indicative the Peshmerga's loss to IS forces was, I was under the impression that they were a reasonably effective fighting force.

[huckleberry]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

oil and water.

[Steve Contra]

It would be nice if the US never had anything to do with Iraq ever again.

[Squiddy]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

Yeah, swing some of that US cash this way and I'll get something done.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

It would be nice if the US never had anything to do with Iraq ever again.

well, when does the oil run out?

[chronovore]

It would be nice if the US never had anything to do with Iraq ever again.

well, when does the oil run out?

What's weird is I've been seeing so many articles on alternative energy lately, with studies showing how "just this much land devoted to solar in Africa" could power the entirety of the EU, or how a combination of alternates in California could power the entire state... and it always leads me to wonder why we aren't performing some kind of New Deal to shift over to this kind of thing.

We could be free of all this middle-east bullshit in a few years, let those states settle their own differences on their own, without the benefit of a heap of interference and money from the outside.

[Phoenix Dark]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

oil and water.

to paraphrase Q-Tip, brown is brown.

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[close]

[huckleberry]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

oil and water.

to paraphrase Q-Tip, brown is brown.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Giving Turkey influence over the Kurds or a potential Kurdish state is like giving the fox the keys to the henhouse.

[Kara]

Any viable Kurdish state will have to have involved relations with Turkey, unless the Viable State Fairy visits the successor state(s) to Iraq and / or Syria, or Iran stops being an international pariah.

[huckleberry]

Relations with Turkey sure...I'm just saying it's not exactly in the Kurds best interest to give them carte blanche by "propping" up a Kurdish state.

[Phoenix Dark]

I don't support the intervention but still...thank god John fucking McCain (or Mitt Romney) isn't president right now.

@ZekeJMiller 12m

SAO saying Obama would send War Powers letter indicates that are not relying on 2002 Iraq War Resolution

[Momo]

It would be really nice if someone could prop up the Kurds, but I have a feeling if its the USA its just going to come back and bite the world in the ass. Would be nice if Turkey and the EU could step up there.

oil and water.

Uh yes, the reason I singled out Turkey and not any other state is I said it would be 'nice'. Killing the Turk/Kurd beef and setting the Kurds up to have their state. Ideal world scenario

[Kara]

Relations with Turkey sure...I'm just saying it's not exactly in the Kurds best interest to give them carte blanche by "propping" up a Kurdish state.

I know that's the word Momo used, but assuming the IS thing wasn't demonstrative (I believe the Peshmerga are trying to retake Mosul atm, so it doesn't seem that way), would a Kurdish state comprising what's presently Iraqi Kurdistan need to be propped up beyond having a strong trading partner with a port? (The fate of all landlocked nations.)

The KRG is (comparatively speaking) a functioning political actor and the region has been left to its own devices for quite some time (i.e. has been able to develop economically).

The only thing I can think of is guaranteeing its security (against Iran, possibly Iraq), but Iran really isn't in a position atm to go sabre rattling.

[Fifstar]

Doesn't Turkey and especially Erdogan (more or less synonymous thesedays) have an okay to  good relationship with the Kurds in Iraq and they have helped them in the past? Even in turkey Erdogan made some steps towards the kurds there in the last years and during his presidential campaign. Problem is that Erdogan seems to have alienated a lot of his international partners which makes it harder for him to coordinate support.

[Mandark]

Here is a decent summary on the Kurdish political situation, including Turkey's counterintuitively good relations with the Iraqi Kurds (or at least Barzani).

I'll be honest, the news of the Peshmerga getting beat has me a bit shook.

[Momo]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/04/South-Africa-Rallies-For-Israel/

Come visit me brehs

[huckleberry]

Relations with Turkey sure...I'm just saying it's not exactly in the Kurds best interest to give them carte blanche by "propping" up a Kurdish state.

I know that's the word Momo used, but assuming the IS thing wasn't demonstrative (I believe the Peshmerga are trying to retake Mosul atm, so it doesn't seem that way), would a Kurdish state comprising what's presently Iraqi Kurdistan need to be propped up beyond having a strong trading partner with a port? (The fate of all landlocked nations.)

The KRG is (comparatively speaking) a functioning political actor and the region has been left to its own devices for quite some time (i.e. has been able to develop economically).

The only thing I can think of is guaranteeing its security (against Iran, possibly Iraq), but Iran really isn't in a position atm to go sabre rattling.

Turkish cooperation with the Kurds in Iraq is pretty essential to keeping IS(IS) at bay in  the area. 
I was referring more to Turkish influence over a potential Kurdish state. The Kurdish population in Turkey have long been repressed and an independent Kurdish state would attract much more attention from the ethnic Kurds in Turkey desiring to join with it. Hell, the largest part of the Kurdish population and historical territory lies within Turkey itself.
Maybe Turkish attitudes towards the Kurds has changed since Erdogan due to the political reality of the eventual reality of them seeing statehood.  From my experience in southern Turkey there is a real ethnic dislike of the Kurds that runs deeper than PKK killings.  I guess the ceasefire is still standing with the PKK? I haven't followed the issue in a while.

[Momo]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/04/South-Africa-Rallies-For-Israel/

Come visit me brehs

rally for apartheid after you run out of apartheid, brehs

[Kara]

Doesn't Turkey and especially Erdogan (more or less synonymous thesedays) have an okay to  good relationship with the Kurds in Iraq and they have helped them in the past? Even in turkey Erdogan made some steps towards the kurds there in the last years and during his presidential campaign. Problem is that Erdogan seems to have alienated a lot of his international partners which makes it harder for him to coordinate support.

His primary political rival is Kemalism and a large part of his stay in power has rested on economic success, resolving the issue peacefully and sustainably is in his (and his party's) best interest.

[benjipwns]

rally for apartheid after you run out of apartheid, brehs

This is why you should stockpile like that one girl Jerry dated instead of waiting until the last minute like Elaine.

[Momo]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/04/South-Africa-Rallies-For-Israel/

Come visit me brehs

rally for apartheid after you run out of apartheid, brehs

https://twitter.com/CapeTown/status/498129839493509120

Come visit me brehs

[Kara]

https://twitter.com/CapeTown/status/498129839493509120

Come visit me brehs

https://twitter.com/CubanGorilla/status/498155877162319872

[Human Snorenado]

Here is a decent summary on the Kurdish political situation, including Turkey's counterintuitively good relations with the Iraqi Kurds (or at least Barzani).

I'll be honest, the news of the Peshmerga getting beat has me a bit shook.

The prowess of the Pershmerga is apparently over exaggerated.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/shock-and-awe

[doctavius bonbon]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/kurds-rescue-yazidis-from-iraq-mountain-201489135227783157.html

Iraqi Kurdish security forces have opened a road to Sinjar Mountain in northwestern Iraq, rescuing more than 5,000 Yazidis trapped there after running away from fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group, a Kurdish army spokesman has told Al Jazeera.

"I can confirm that we succeeded in reaching the mountains and opening a road for the refugees," said Halgord Hikmet, a spokesman for the peshmergas the Kurdish security forces.

US warplanes have launched several waves of airstrikes against IS group fighters in northern Iraq since Friday.

Aerial drones and F-18 fighter jets have attacked fighter positions close to the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

The airstrikes seek to allow the federal and Kurdish governments to claw back areas lost in two months of conflict.

On Friday and Saturday, the US also dropped food and water for the Yazidis hiding on Sinjar Mountain. The UK is also delivering aid and has announced it is sending medics to northern Iraq.

[Phoenix Dark]

https://twitter.com/Alansarialjanab/status/498177205944713216/photo/1

[Human Snorenado]

Why did I click that link? Now I'm gonna have to convince some CIA agents that I'm not a sleeper.

[Kara]

Why did I click that link? Now I'm gonna have to convince some CIA agents that I'm not a sleeper.

Yeah I'm already on a bunch of lists intentionally, I don't need to be on ones unintentionally too.

[Joe Molotov]

None of that matters as long as you're on the White Person List. :lenowned

[Kara]

None of that matters as long as you're on the White Person List. :lenowned

It matters lol.

I'll just get several interviews before being renditioned.

[Joe Molotov]

Normal people will be okay, though.

[benjipwns]

Tariq Abbas ‏@Algirish10  11h
@Alansarialjanab Why you ignoring me? I asked why are Shuaytat not Muslims? If you're going to make takfir of Muslims, at leat have daleel.

Tariq Abbas ‏@Algirish10  9h
@Alansarialjanab so I ask for dalil, n I become a dog and a madkhali. Sum-mun-buk-mun-um-yun is the only explanation there is for your type.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

ImaBeauty ‏@BobFary  5h
@Alansarialjanab That is Obama's cellphone.

[close]

[Kara]

I would rather make something beautiful and destroy myself. They would rather make something ruinous and beatify themselves.

[benjipwns]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/fear-of-another-benghazi-drove-white-house-to-airstrikes-in-iraq.html

Looming over that discussion, and the decision to return the United States to a war Mr. Obama had built his political career disparaging, was the specter of an earlier tragedy: the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and has become a potent symbol of weakness for critics of the president.

...

“We have an embassy in Baghdad, we have a consulate in Erbil, and we have to make sure that they are not threatened,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on Friday with Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times. “Part of the rationale for the announcement yesterday was an encroachment close enough to Erbil that it would justify us taking shots.”

So he finally admits it. Looks like this Presidency is over.

[Great Rumbler]

 

[T-Short]

"now write I will not question the legitimacy of the jewish state of israel a thousand times"

[Kara]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kurds-need-us-help-to-prevent-islamic-state-horrors/2014/08/10/e25e4990-20a2-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html

Authored by the KRG's current president.

[Broseidon]

Twitter n shit is on fire with people talking about Baghdad. People going on about chaos in the city and a potential coup. IDK, give it a while for things to clear up imo.

[Broseidon]

Jesus

[Kara]

Twitter n shit is on fire with people talking about Baghdad. People going on about chaos in the city and a potential coup. IDK, give it a while for things to clear up imo.

President appointed a new PM (from al-Maliki's party).

al-Maliki supposedly had special forces units "loyal to him" (whatever that means to the USA Today / WaPo ilk) manning key intersections in Baghdad.

[Broseidon]

[Kara]

The first Trolliphate?

Or was that Qurtuba?

Tarikh Maghribi.

[Momo]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=163537471

[Phoenix Dark]

if I was an Iraqi I'd hate the US so much

 we've been playing around with these people's shit for SO many years.

We've been bombing Iraq since before the first Gulf War. Plus imagine how many people there are like "Saddam was a dick but at least I was safe from beheading and random bombings..."

[Joe Molotov]

if I was an Iraqi I'd hate the US so much

 we've been playing around with these people's shit for SO many years.

We've been bombing Iraq since before the first Gulf War. Plus imagine how many people there are like "Saddam was a dick but at least I was safe from beheading and random bombings..."

That's probably what we'll say about Hillary after she gets put on trial by the Islamic Caliphate, and they install President Allahu Akbar bin-Laden as the new democratically elected leader of America

[Kara]

We also fueled the Iran-Iraq war (after it started) because no one about 1979 like the U.S. government.

In other news, I can't wait to hear, "But he cares about income inequality!"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/12/vatican-iraq/13946961/

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is urging Muslim leaders to denounce the "barbarity" of the Islamic State's attacks against Christians and other minorities in Iraq, saying their credibility is on the line.

The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the main Vatican office that deals with the Muslim world, said Tuesday that the forced expulsions and massacres of Christians and minority Yazidis shamed humanity and couldn't be justified by any religion.

The office said the "unspeakable criminal acts" — the beheading, crucifying and hanging of bodies in public places, the "barbaric practice of infibulation," the abduction of women and girls as spoils of war, and the destruction of Christian religious symbols — required a "clear and courageous stance on the part of religious leaders, especially Muslims."

"If not, what credibility will religions, their followers and their leaders have?" the statement warned.

Pope Francis has stepped up his denunciation of the attacks against Christians. He has also sent a personal envoy, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, to the region to show solidarity with the victims, provide them with emergency funding and meet with Iraqi and Kurdish leaders. The Fides missionary news agency said Filoni was heading to Iraq via Jordan on Tuesday.