International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[Phoenix Dark]

be a US journalist brehs

Same applies to the never ending "if we armed the Syrian rebels they could have defeated Assad!" bullshit. Really reminds me of 2011 when every politician in Washington was calling for a no fly zone in Libya...which would have had no effect in Qadaffi's ground forces. The allure of advocating stupid policy that doesn't do anything except make you look "strong" on defense...

[benjipwns]

He should have just said "No."

[benjipwns]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dennis-michael-lynch-isis-america

A conservative filmmaker said Wednesday during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" that he's convinced ISIS is in America and that members of the jihadist group entered the country by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dennis Michael Lynch, whose work focuses on the border and illegal immigration, appeared on the show to discuss immigration.

"I would guarantee you, in fact I would bet my life on the fact -- your last guest just said about ISIS coming into America -- I would guarantee you, they're already here," Lynch said. "I have worked in the desert and I have caught these people before and I've seen Qurans, prayer rugs, you name it. They're already here."

[Great Rumbler]

The "prayer rug" that was found was actually a soccer shirt:

Still, it’s a hell of a catch by brave patriots, and possible evidence that America is under siege by a force even more threatening than al Qaeda: Footy hooligans.

[benjipwns]

“That’s when I saw this thing laying around. And I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ We walked over there and I didn’t really want to pull at it not knowing what was on it. I poked a bit at it with a stick and noticed some of the Arabic writing and was just like, ‘Oh boy.’ I snapped a couple of photos and then went on our patrol.”

[Broseidon]

[Kara]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/maliki-announces-relinquishing-power-to-rival-in-iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister for the past eight years, says he is relinquishing the post to fellow Dawa Party member Haider al-Abadi.

Al-Maliki says his decision is based on his desire to "safeguard the high interests of the country," adding that he will not be the cause of any bloodshed.

"I will stay a combat soldier to defend Iraq and its people," he added in the televised address late Thursday, with al-Abadi standing by his side.

Iraq's President Fouad Massoum named al-Abadi on Monday to form the next government, but al-Maliki had until now refused to step aside.

[Joe Molotov]

I got people at work telling me that ISIS wants to be recognized as the official Muslim state, the way the Vatican is an independent nation, and that doing so will turn every mosque in America into an embassy and that they would then send over ISIS fighters as diplomats and give them full diplomatic immunity.

I was like "Well, um ISIS isn't officially recognized as a country by anyone, so I wouldn't worry about it."

And they were like "Well yeah, but that's what they're trying to do!"

And I was like "oh okay"

[Great Rumbler]

I got people at work telling me that ISIS wants to be recognized as the official Muslim state, the way the Vatican is an independent nation, and that doing so will turn every mosque in America into an embassy and that they would then send over ISIS fighters as diplomats and give them full diplomatic immunity.

I was like "Well, um ISIS isn't officially recognized as a country by anyone, so I wouldn't worry about it."

And they were like "Well yeah, but that's what they're trying to do!"

And I was like "oh okay"

[Brehvolution]

I got people at work telling me that ISIS wants to be recognized as the official Muslim state, the way the Vatican is an independent nation, and that doing so will turn every mosque in America into an embassy and that they would then send over ISIS fighters as diplomats and give them full diplomatic immunity.

I was like "Well, um ISIS isn't officially recognized as a country by anyone, so I wouldn't worry about it."

And they were like "Well yeah, but that's what they're trying to do!"

And I was like "oh okay"

How did you contain your laughter?

[Squiddy]

The whole "Ambassador as a criminal"-trope never ceases to amuse me.

[benjipwns]

I got people at work telling me that ISIS wants to be recognized as the official Muslim state, the way the Vatican is an independent nation, and that doing so will turn every mosque in America into an embassy and that they would then send over ISIS fighters as diplomats and give them full diplomatic immunity.

I was like "Well, um ISIS isn't officially recognized as a country by anyone, so I wouldn't worry about it."

And they were like "Well yeah, but that's what they're trying to do!"

And I was like "oh okay"

So Catholic Churches are embassies? Useful information...

[Phoenix Dark]

A brief overview of my workplace responses to national or global politics questions/statements:

"Yea, pretty sad news"

"Seems like a pretty difficult issue"

"sorry to hear that"

"Israel has a right to defend itself"

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm just trying to eat breh.

[benjipwns]

And the subject was Rick Perry getting indicted!

[chronovore]

I got people at work telling me that ISIS wants to be recognized as the official Muslim state, the way the Vatican is an independent nation, and that doing so will turn every mosque in America into an embassy and that they would then send over ISIS fighters as diplomats and give them full diplomatic immunity.

I was like "Well, um ISIS isn't officially recognized as a country by anyone, so I wouldn't worry about it."

And they were like "Well yeah, but that's what they're trying to do!"

And I was like "oh okay"

I don't argue about politics with workpeople or anything unless they specifically ask me. I'm suffocating in a right wing talking point shithole online, I don't need it in real life

[benjipwns]

http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2014/08/18/the-gop-needs-to-return-to-a-feared-by-our-enemies-foreign-policy-n1879026/page/full

The GOP is in the midst of a public foreign policy debate. Debate is fine, but as Republican we must agree on some basic premises. The most important premise is that instead of laughing at us, our enemies should be terrified of us.

Yes, terrified. The world isn’t some sort of fantasy milieu of earnest, huggy people who want to work together to forge a brighter tomorrow for all the world’s citizens. It’s full of bad people, many of whom want us enslaved if not dead. They aren’t bad because we’re rich, or insufficiently carbon neutral, or any of that other nonsense. They are bad because they are bad, and our foreign policy needs to recognize the necessity of confronting and destroying them wherever they are.

Anything less is childish naïveté that will kill Americans down the road.

Foreign policy isn't a theoretical discussion in some college seminar led by a pony-tailed grad student who frets about “imperialism” and has never held a M16. I understand the idea and appeal of non-interventionism, and in some cases I'm even sympathetic – after all, I was twice one of those guys intervening.

But prior poorly executed and thought-out engagements overseas do not somehow give us a pass on our responsibilities in the future. We are the United States of America. There is no nation comparable – at least none on the good guys’ side – and if we decide to pull up stakes from the world, we are making a conscious choice to cede it to our enemies.

Yes, enemies. Those who oppose those are not simply unhappy because we support the democracies they hate or because they are aggrieved over some imagined slight. They are evil. A lot of people, including some Republicans, don’t want to face the concrete fact that evil exists. Denial doesn’t alter reality; it makes skyscrapers collapse.

[Brehvolution]

Spoken like a true military industrial complex lappy who won't have any skin in the game when it comes down to a fight.

[Great Rumbler]

Another article from the same guy:

Ironically, the blizzard of YJ-82X cruise missiles launched from the Chinese subs lying off the coast of Baja California crossed the beach directly over the SEAL training complex on Coronado. America had decided that its special forces were a cheap substitute for the less glamorous hardware and formations that had traditionally been the foundation of American military power. Now, those elite warriors watched helplessly as the missiles roared overhead north toward the two carriers berthed at North Island.

The casualties would have been much higher if the Navy had been able to fully man the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. As it was, when the missiles tore into their hulls and exploded, only several hundred sailors died instead of thousands. Still, in a few moments, two of America’s nine carriers were twisted hulks spewing radioactive smoke. Another dozen Navy ships berthed at local bases were in flames.

Only the people lining the downtown San Diego waterfront saw what was happening, though local TV camera crews were filming the carnage live. Their stations tried to upload the footage to the network satellites but they could not connect. The satellites were gone, knocked out by Russian ASAT missiles.

The rest of America was oblivious to the catastrophe in San Diego, and the similar disaster in Norfolk.

The TV stations next tried the Internet, but it was as if someone had just flicked it off. There was nothing but electronic silence. A coordinated cyber strike had hacked through America’s electronic defenses and shut down the web. Many of the hacks came not from Chinese and Russian teams across the world but from agents within America, infiltrated into key positions in American government and business, who introduced their malware directly into vital systems with thumb drives.

Simultaneously, outside major metropolises, groups of well-trained commandos, driving SUVs, followed the routes between power transmission stations that they had rehearsed using paper street maps (America’s GPS satellites having been eliminated in the opening minutes). With rifles, they opened fire on the critical transformer equipment, which was guarded only by chain link fences and cameras that no one monitored. When the irreplaceable equipment was shorted out and burning, they drove on to the next site and destroyed it. Between the cyber chaos and physical attacks, cities began to black out.

America ground to a halt, blind and paralyzed.

At sea in the Far East, anti-ship ballistic missiles appeared on the screens of the U.S.S. George Washington, the flagship of the only American carrier task force still in the Pacific. The guided missile cruisers cut when military budgets were slashed to fund record entitlement spending might have been able to save it. As it was, the missiles dived in at hypersonic speeds, punching through the flight deck and ripping the mighty ship apart.

American warships, for so long the hunters, became the hunted. Within a few hours, America’s 265-ship Navy had become a 100-ship Navy.

The President was about to speak at a rally to protest the opposition party’s “War on the Poor.” The other side had suggested holding military budget cuts to 15% instead of 18%, and the President was gleefully citing the cruelty of the opposition for funding the military-industrial complex on the backs of those living off of entitlements.

The military’s first instinct was to hustle the President to the 747 flying command post aircraft, which the enemy expected. The enemy could have disrupted that plan if it wished with an attack on the airfield by commandos, but they preferred the President remain in control.

The President’s flying command post took off, guarded by a flight of four F-15C fighters that were pushing 35 years old. It would have been six escorts, but two planes were down awaiting parts.

The President’s senior military advisor was a general, chosen for the job not because of a sterling combat record but for being the Public Affairs section’s telegenic face of “The New Military.” The general would have been hard pressed to explain the President’s options if they had not been so stark.

“Your options? You do have the capacity to launch a nuclear strike,” said the general.

There were still 100 Minuteman III missiles in silos in Montana that had not been eliminated during the last round of arms negotiations. Due to cuts in maintenance, only 62 were functional that day; they were safe from cyber-attack only because their 1970’s era computer systems were literally too primitive to be hacked. And there were three nuclear missile subs on patrol in the oceans; two were known to be combat effective, while the third may have been sunk – it was unclear.

“I won’t use nuclear weapons. Ever,” said the President, confirming the opinion reached by the teams of Chinese and Russian intelligence analysts, psychologists and game theorists who had studied the Commander-in-Chief in preparation for that very moment. Deterrence only deters when the threat is credible.

“What are my other options?” asked the President. The general looked down, shuffling papers.

“We don’t have a conventional option.”

“The Army? The Marines?”

“There are a few units forward deployed, but we’ve brought most of our forces home. What we have left we can’t move fast enough and most of it is designed for counterinsurgency, not conventional warfare – we’ve cut our armored forces because they cost so much to maintain. And to move them we’d need foreign ships, but we can’t count on them. We can’t even count on the sea lanes being clear.”

“The Air Force doesn’t have bombers? Fighters?” the President asked.

“Not enough, and not modern enough to get through Chinese and Russian air defenses.”

The President turned to the Secretary of State. “What about our allies?”

“No commitments yet. In fact, there’s been no response from several key allies.”

“We invoked NATO Article 5, didn’t we? We’ve been attacked!” the President shouted.

“They don’t have any significant forces left. Even if they were inclined to assist…”

“Inclined?” asked the President, stunned.

“We need to understand that they may be making a calculated decision…”

The President did understand. “To go with the winner.”

No one spoke; the only sound was the noise of the 747’s jets until a communications officer spoke up.

“I have a video transmission off a Chinese satellite coming … to us. How did they get our communications data?” It was yet another security breach.

“Just put it onscreen,” ordered the President.

The transmission was a split screen, the Chinese Premier on the left, the Russian President on the right. They were smiling.

“What do you want?” the President asked.

The Russian President spoke. “We want peace. We want justice. And that is why we are here to provide you the terms of your surrender.”

[Joe Molotov]

 

[Kara]

You can't leave us hanging like that, did the president surrender??

[Phoenix Dark]

mission creep brehs

[huckleberry]

Be a journalist. Do your job and do it well. Get beheaded for it.

Fuck.

[Joe Molotov]

Nuke everything. Everywhere. Just reset the planet.

[T-Short]

That link doesn't have the video, does it

not clicking anyway 

[Great Rumbler]

So...uh...don't go looking at the cover of today's New York Post if you don't want to see a man having his head cut off.

[Rufus]

Tabloids

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/dailyledes/2014/08/19/charles-johnson-james-foley-tweets/14320165/

What. The. Fuck.

[Eric P]

wooooo

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11052965/Tony-Blair-gives-Kazakhstans-autocratic-president-tips-on-how-to-defend-a-massacre.html

Tony Blair gave Kazakhstan’s autocratic president advice on how to manage his image after the slaughter of unarmed civilians protesting against his regime.

[Rufus]

The brits have Tony Blair, we've got Gerhard "Putin is a flawless democrat" Schröder. Both from the ostensibly left side of the political spectrum in their respective nations.

[Kara]

The brits have Tony Blair, we've got Gerhard "Putin is a flawless democrat" Schröder. Both from the ostensibly left side of the political spectrum in their respective nations.

Well your only actual left-wing party there (more specifically, the wing of it that's actual able to win elections and govern ) is the SED with a human face, so you can't be that surprised that its competition has to cozy up with a KGB agent.

[Rufus]

Never thought of it that way.

[Broseidon]

http://www.france24.com/en/focus/20140826-far-right-russian-jihad-fighters-cross-ukraine/#./?&_suid=140909993951708580179015366778

Unsurprising report on what sort of people make up the militants in Ukraine. Bonus for the attentive: some interesting things to note on tubs' t-shirt.

[Squiddy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/europe/ukraine-russia-novoazovsk-crimea.html?_r=0

Russia invading Eastern Europe, GG.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://liveuamap.com/?ll=46.849118508058964;36.234853515624984&zoom=7

[Kara]

Brits the least arrogant and most compassionate?

@ Italian self-loathing.

[benjipwns]

I like how in the first two they mostly all had one or two answers, and usually Germany, then for the last one they all picked their country.

[Boogie]

Well, the Greeks sure are full of themselves, aren't they?

[Rufus]

You poor fools.

I like how in the first two they mostly all had one or two answers, and usually Germany, then for the last one they all picked their country.

[Kara]

I just noticed that the Czechs said the Slovaks were the least arrogant. Once brothers, still friends.

[Brehvolution]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/europe/ukraine-russia-novoazovsk-crimea.html?_r=0

Russia invading Eastern Europe, GG.

http://www.mediaite.com/uncategorized/russian-troops-invading-ukraine-claim-theyre-actually-on-vacation/

They aren't invading. Just vacationing.

[Joe Molotov]

Seems legit.

[Broseidon]

[Kara]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/02/putin_takes_off_gloves_in_eastern_ukraine_donetsk_luhansk

Even Ukrainian government officials seem ready to admit that their forces have turned on their heels. Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said in a statement on Facebook on Monday that Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" to take back the east is over and that the government is now focusing on defending from a Russian invasion.

I don't really get the geopolitical strategy of surrounding yourself with failed states that fail across ethnic lines, but the Russian Federation sure seems dedicated to it.

[benjipwns]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/02/source-obama-given-detailed-intelligence-about-rise-isis-for-year/

President Obama was given detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of the Islamic State as part of his daily briefing for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer, a former Pentagon official told Fox News.

The official -- who asked not to be identified because the President's Daily Brief is considered the most authoritative, classified intelligence community product analyzing sensitive international events for the president -- said the data was strong and "granular" in detail.

The source said a policymaker "could not come away with any other impression: This is getting bad."

Obama, unlike his predecessors who traditionally had the document briefed to them, is known to personally read the daily brief. The former Pentagon official, who has knowledge of the process, said Obama generally was not known to come back to the intelligence community with further requests for information based on the daily report.

...

The president's team has publicly suggested that the group only recently gained in strength, accounting for why Obama earlier this year dismissed such extremists as akin to a "JV" team.

But after suggestions that the administration may have been blindsided by the rise of ISIS, and that poor intelligence was to blame, the former Pentagon official said some of the intelligence was so good in the region, that when the president drew a red line on chemical weapons use in Syria in 2012, the information was "exquisite."

The source said "[we] were ready to fire, on a moment's notice, on a couple hundred targets," but no order was given. In some cases, targets were tracked for a "long period of time" but then slipped away.

Has there ever been a President who takes his eye off the ball as much as this one?

No wonder Putin has become the most powerful man in the world. Obama doesn't even put up a fight.

[Joe Molotov]

Obama is the worst president Iraq's ever had.

[Phoenix Dark]

edit: wrong thread

[Mupepe]

We should have invaded Iraq AND Syria.  It's obviously the best solution

[Phoenix Dark]

Man, neocons must be at maximum rustling levels over Obama getting ten countries to help ether ISIL.

[benjipwns]

Man, neocons must be at maximum rustling levels over Obama getting ten countries to help ether ISIL.

Amazing, Obama is supposed to be defending the free world and he's getting help for ISIL.

[T-Short]

@ unionism bit

[Momo]

http://businesstech.co.za/news/government/67832/public-protector-a-cia-spy-deputy-minister/

Thanks Obama

[Brehvolution]

We should have invaded Iraq AND Syria.  It's obviously the best solution

Then create one state out of both and call it Ciroc.

[Kara]

@ unionism bit

 :deadpos

[Broseidon]

[Phoenix Dark]

he'll have something to cry about soon

Russia is threatening a return to Soviet-era airspace restrictions in response to new European Union sanctions, a move that could force Western airlines to cancel flights or improvise complicated and expensive alternative routes.

On Monday, the EU signed off on additional sanctions to punish the Kremlin for incursions into Ukraine in recent weeks. In a statement, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the sanctions targeting Russian oil companies — though not the gas producers that supply Europe with much of its energy — would take effect in the coming days.

The EU, however, said it would allow the sanctions to be reviewed in the future, pending the result of a ceasefire announced between the Kiev government and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east.

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said previously that such sanctions would trigger a response that could include blocking Western airlines from flying over Russian airspace. Russia's airspace is the world's largest, covering nine time zones from the Baltic to the Bering Sea.

"If there are sanctions related to the energy sector, or further restrictions on Russia's financial sector, we will have to respond asymmetrically," Medvedev told the Russian news site Vedomosti. "We work on the basis of friendly relations with our partners, and that's why Russia's skies are open to flights. But if we are restricted then we'll have to respond."

"If Western carriers have to bypass our airspace, this could drive many struggling airlines into bankruptcy," said Medvedev.

Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow banned most US-aligned countries from flying through its airspace. Under international aviation agreements, sovereign countries have the right to refuse entry to foreign aircraft.

"He's basically threatening to go back to the system that was in place," Robert Orttung, assistant director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, told VICE News. "The Russians feel compelled to respond in ways that are not very productive. It would make Russia more of a pariah state."

It was unclear if Russia would include flights destined for Russia, not just those traveling through the country, in the potential restrictions.

Aviation experts say a flight ban would cause hundreds of cancellations in the short term and over time could hold severe consequences for European-based airlines, especially ones that operate flights directly to East Asia.

"A lot of the flights we fly now didn't exist during Soviet times," R. John Hansman, director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation, told VICE News. "For direct flights from Northern Europe to Japan, for example, you'd have to go south all the way to Afghanistan and cut across China, or you'd have to fly all the way over the North Pole to Alaska and turn back."

By Hansman's estimate, a route over the Arctic Circle could lengthen flight times by as much as 70 percent, effectively making them impossible logistically and financially — unless an Alaskan city such as Anchorage takes on a role as a transcontinental hub.

Airlines with hubs along southern routes to Asia, such as Emirates, could possibly stand to gain from increased ticketing due to the restrictions.

But mutually assured economic pain could preclude the use of airspace as a weapon for very long. Should Western countries and the US respond by ending flights to Russian cities — as they almost surely would — the Russian economy, already feeling the sting of existing US and EU sanctions, could be devastated.

https://news.vice.com/article/russia-threatens-to-bankrupt-western-airlines-by-closing-its-airspace?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

[Broseidon]

Reports that much of the leadership of Ahrar al-Sham in Syria has been wiped out in an explosion at a meeting. If true then it's a Big Deal. Maybe ISIS?

[Momo]

http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-govt-disowns-minister-over-cia-spy-104404987.html

thanks again, Obama

[Kara]

http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-govt-disowns-minister-over-cia-spy-104404987.html

thanks again, Obama

imo you should be honored the U.S. even thinks it worth the resources to recruit an agent from the ANC. Do you think we bother buying off people in SWAPO or FRELIMO?

[Momo]

I havent heard anyone talk about SWAPO since 1992