The Syrian conflict

[Babelfish]

Are you talking about the Russian proposal which the Syrian government has accepted, that it dismantle willingly of its chemical arsenal? That surely is interesting, even with all the understandable doubts. I admit I'd have much rather see Assad and his brutes get some sort of violent punch for using chemical weapons against civilians... but this is a gut feeling; in fact, losing their chemical arsenal would be a much greater loss.

[Babelfish]

Claiming that it isn't a chemical weapon, but merely an incendiary weapon is an argument that a person whose arm is burning all the way to the bone would probably not understand.

As far as the Gaza case is concerned, I really don't know what was intended, but the end result is burned civilians. Please begin making war a bit less horrible by forcing your own government to use smoke and flair grenades that aren't capable of harming civilians.

And a person losing his arm due to "conventional" weapons would probably not understand the entire argument about whether something is a chemical weapon or not.
And it's not Israel calling for a military strike on Assad*, it's the USA. And yet you tell us to force our government to use less harmful devices (which I sure prefer they did), and no one here actually mentioned when and where the USA used white phosphorous.
* Not publicly anyway - and many people here, including senior politicians, say that whoever or whatever replaces Assad may be worse from our perspective, so we've got no incentive to call for ousting him anyway.

What are you, some kind of walking encyclopaedia for alleged war crimes? I can search Google too, and find out that A. White phosphorous is also used for smoke-masking (sorry, my bad)

How convenient is it to have a "legitimate" excuse for using white phosphorus regardless of the circumstances? If it's dark outside, then the force were simply trying to illuminate the area. If it's bright outside, they were trying to mask it (and not, you know, burn it to the ground). Any casualties (human or otherwise) are simply an inadvertent consequence.

"Excuse"? Sounds like you're trying to claim that Israel used white phosphorous to purposefully harm people. Now why on Earth would it do that, when it would actually harm rather few people (as opposed to per se chemical weapons) and only "earn" some level of world-wide outrage?

[TeneReef]

Norway's kids joining the war in Syria
http://www.thelocal.no/20140924/norwegi ... -syria-pst





Fears for Scandinavian teens joining Isis
http://www.thelocal.se/20140924/fears-f ... rs-joining

[Ludwig Whitby]

I'm more worried about NATO, Al-Qaida, Saudi Arabia, Iran and every baddy in the world joining the war than a few Scandinavian kids.

Also, our beloved Nobel Prize winner is bombing yet another country! Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria! There's no stopping his peace-making!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvA1bKLQtbM

[Патрислав Андреевич]

I'm not surprised that they support ISIS, it's Scandinavia's own fault because of their policies.

What I can't find in the news about the bombing is what's Syria's stance? I know Assad fights against ISIS as well, and that U.S. is bombing them and not Syrian forces. I know also that Assad himself proposed cooperation regarding the ISIS issue. Now, are they cooperating with Syria? (Talk about obvious answers...)

I'm all for destroying the islamist threat, but if Syrian government didn't give "the coalition" consent for military operations against IS on its territory, then it's just unlawful aggression. And it'd only confirm that the USA is a threat to world peace. And a bunch hypocrites.

I think at the end of his temr Obama will not only hold the Nobel Peace prize, but also the Worst President of the USA prize.

[Varislintu]

I'm not surprised that they support ISIS

I really don't see how anyone could be. Of course immigrants or children of immigrants will be at special risk to have radical feelings about conflicts in their heritage-regions.

[TeneReef]

I'm not surprised that they support ISIS

I really don't see how anyone could be. Of course immigrants or children of immigrants will be at special risk to have radical feelings about conflicts in their heritage-regions.

Only if they're mentally unstable.
I can't see Loreen joining ISIS.

[Ludwig Whitby]

http://oil-price.net/dashboard.php?lang=en

ISIS has managed to make oil incredibly cheap. Oil became cheaper and cheaper ever since they conquered northern Iraq.

No wonder thy're under attack...

[Патрислав Андреевич]

I'm not surprised that they support ISIS

I really don't see how anyone could be. Of course immigrants or children of immigrants will be at special risk to have radical feelings about conflicts in their heritage-regions.

They were brought up like that. It's the result of these countries' own stupidity. And are they really "Norway's kids" or "Scandinavian teens" anymore? They decided to leave it behind and kill themselves in stupid wars, let them do that. Now what the governments should do is identify the young jihadists and deny them entry to Europe for life if they ever wanted to come back. Many of them will die in combat of course, but those who survive will gain military experience, which will be dangerous. Everybody knows what ISIS wants to do with Europe. And it won't be an open war with a front, with "us" on this side, "them" on the other one. They'll want to come inside and will use those "Norway's kids" who survived, with experience and even more hate planted in their heads by the islamic peacemakers. And the glorious Sword of Islam will hang over Europe as their cities burn and the infidels scream for mercy. Allahu akbar.

[linguoboy]

So you seriously think the combined might of European policing, intelligence work, and armed force can't overcome a few dozen delusional young adult extremists? I have a little more faith in your countrymen than that.

[vijayjohn]

So you seriously think the combined might of European policing, intelligence work, and armed force can't overcome a few dozen delusional young adult extremists?

When did he ever say that?

[linguoboy]

So you seriously think the combined might of European policing, intelligence work, and armed force can't overcome a few dozen delusional young adult extremists?

When did he ever say that?

How do you read, "And the glorious Sword of Islam will hang over Europe as their cities burn and the infidels scream for mercy"?

[vijayjohn]

So you seriously think the combined might of European policing, intelligence work, and armed force can't overcome a few dozen delusional young adult extremists?

When did he ever say that?

How do you read, "And the glorious Sword of Islam will hang over Europe as their cities burn and the infidels scream for mercy"?

He's saying ISIS is a threat, not a few Scandinavian kids.

[linguoboy]

So you seriously think the combined might of European policing, intelligence work, and armed force can't overcome a few dozen delusional young adult extremists?

When did he ever say that?

How do you read, "And the glorious Sword of Islam will hang over Europe as their cities burn and the infidels scream for mercy"?

He's saying ISIS is a threat, not a few Scandinavian kids.

He's saying that ISIS will wage its war by means of a fifth column within Europe, of which these kids are one example. (And the only example he cites.) ISIS has maybe 50,000-100,000 fighters total. How many of these do you think will be able to infiltrate Europe and, of those, how many will have the ability and opportunity to cause any real damage?

Yeah, ideally we should try to keep jihadists from reimmigrating to Europe. But saying that a possible failure to stop will will deliver it right into the hands of the Enemy is just rolling down a slippery slope to Eurabia.

[md0]

http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/09/25/vesse ... s-out-sos/

Close to 350 people, thought to be refugees from Syria, have been rescued by a Cypriot cruise ship after the vessel they were in issued a distress signal early on Thursday.

The reaction was overwhelmingly negative and the government issued a statement along the lines of "international treaties force us to intervene, it can't be helped"... Not as if half of the Greek Cypriots became refugees in the aftermath of a war just 40 years ago. No They are here to take their job and live on welfare forever. "If you like them so much, let them stay in your home".

An interesting bit of information here was that the ship skipped Cyprus. They were well west of the island when they send the distress signal. Its destination was Italy but bad weather made them stop. According to one Greek-language newspaper, they even refuse to step off the rescue ship and insist to be left to continue until they reach Italy.

Cyprus is closer to Syria than Cyprus is across (you can see Syria from Keryneia). But indefinite detention awaits them here.

[md0]

And since we don't have an ISIS thread:
http://www.philenews.com/el-gr/eidiseis ... -tin-kypro

If the British Parliament decides to bomb ISIS in Syria and Iraq, their Sovereign Bases in Cyprus will be used. (The Western SBA, in Limassol).

Yay At least ISIS doesn't have an airforce (yet?), because it was only last year that Assad send his fighter jets over Cyprus to tell the UK not to get any funny ideas. Or in the 80s, when Cyprus was bombed by Libya to retaliate Libya's bombing by the US.

[Babelfish]

Darn, I didn't know Cyprus got dragged into the Middle-East conflicts due to this "attack me and I'll attack you're closest friend who's got nothing to do with this" attitude

[vijayjohn]

meidei, does Cyprus often get dragged into conflicts in the Middle East that have nothing to do with it? I think I remember you saying something about this before.

[md0]

Darn, I didn't know Cyprus got dragged into the Middle-East conflicts due to this "attack me and I'll attack you're closest friend who's got nothing to do with this" attitude

To be precise, what they target every time are the SBAs, which are a British Overseas Territory, and not Cyprus as in either the RoC or the TRNC. So technically, they are attacking a belligerent.
But Cyprus is tiny, and SBA territory is scattered in 3 positions in Cyprus (WSBA, ESBA, and the Echelon Intelligence Facility up Mt Troodos) and RoC and TRNC roads and towns are build through or around the SBAs (we have some crazy borders because the Empire never planned the bases with the possibility of independence in mind)

I think I remember you saying something about this before.

Yes, the most recent I talked about was when RAF jets and Assad's jets engaged over Cyprus (it was when the US send vessels to WSBA in preparation for an attack on Assad - that attack happened in the end).

I'm not going to say that we get nearly as much war spill-over as, say, Lebanon, but the SBAs are the operation base for all NATO attacks on the MENA area. It seems like once every decade we fail dodge a bullet or two. In the 80s it was Libya, in the 90s Egypt attacked our international airport, in the 00s we had UK soldiers going around stabbing guys they hated from highschool when they'd come here for vacations and well, the whole Syria thing lead to this too (well, we did destroy the confiscated ammo in the end ).