The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

Who carry western passports.

Richard Reid had a western passport. John Walker Lindh had a western passport. This isn't a new development.

[Admiral Yi]

Richard Reid had a western passport. John Walker Lindh had a western passport. This isn't a new development.

It is in the magnitude of people going over there.

[Martinus]

I find it interesting how the ISIL has brought out the warmonger in you, mongers. You're really quite strident, especially by your standards.

I find it inspiring. If there is nothing that can bring out the warmonger in you, you are as good as dead, because it means there is no ideal you are willing to fight for.

[Martinus]

So why is it with ISIS everyone seems to care so much about people they behead? From 2003-2010 or so during the heavy phase of our fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq a lot of Westerners were beheaded by the insurgent/terrorist groups in those two countries, and also caught on video shared on the Internet. Why the hype for ISIS? It feels like I have to read about some idiot getting his throat slit and his head hacked off every week as front page news, which frankly to me it isn't. People dying in war zones is expected.

I think there is a very deliberate effort from the mainstream media in the Western world to drum up popular support against ISIS, no doubt to help the governments do what is necessary.

I entirely disagree, I don't think there's some government/international community conspiracy to do this (shades of your EE upbringing showing), merely that reporters and news agencies are reporting the facts*, which in this case plainly speak for themselves.




* These facts, the atrocities ISIL are committing and the direct and indirect threats they pose to us, are so black and white, they have a broad impact on the Western public.

If only ONCE I could post something politics related here without being told I don't know shit because I am from Eastern Europe. I don't think you guys are aware just how condescending you are.

You totally misunderstood me, besides. Of course they are reporting facts, and I very much welcome them to do so, as the world needs to see what is happening there, and make a brutal stop to it, so this "islamic state" stops being a viable alternative in the heads of many misguided souls.

However, it is hard not to see the contrast mentioned here not by me, that when Allied troops were already on the ground and they were being beheaded on Youtube, the mainstream pretty much ignored it or made it a side issue, and now when public support for having boots on the ground evaporated, beheadings and general personal brutality (the one which already had been happening in Iraq and Afghanistan) becomes the focus and big talking points.

Again, I am HAPPY this is happening because it is for the good of the world. But that doesn't stop it looking guided by policies.

I agree with Tamas (on both counts). In democratic societies you need to drum up the public opinion for war - even if the enemy deserves every bit of it. It's no conspiracy. The WW2 was as black and white, in terms of good guys vs. evil guys, as any war of the last 500 years or so, but the West (especially those countries not directly involved in the war from the start, such as America) required a lot of propaganda effort to stand behind it. This case is no different.

[Martinus]

Meanwhile, in Mosul, ISIL tries to execute an allegedly gay man and drops him from a 7-storey building. He survives so locals show up and stone him to death.

I hope we soon get to the point when the Western public is fine with exterminating ISIL and their sympathisers (whether in Middle East or the West) like the vermin they are.

[DontSayBanana]

A big part of the problem is the way we've been pussyfooting around with groups like ISIL.  They've got strong enough territorial control- I say we recognize them as the legitimate government.  That way, their actions constitute a declaration of war and we can drop the hammer on them in a way we haven't been able to since Vietnam.  Then, when we've brought them into a conventional war and thoroughly gutted them, we "partition" the ISIL territory and give it back to the sovereigns it belonged to before the start of the war (extra brownie points if all parties can carve out a little Kurdish territory without much fuss).

It would also set a precedent that, instead of the messaging being "stop acting like a petulant child- that happens to be committing mass murder on a daily basis" and "stop asking for war, or you'll get it."

[Jacob]

Richard Reid had a western passport. John Walker Lindh had a western passport. This isn't a new development.

It is in the magnitude of people going over there.

Some really great people?

[Jacob]

I find it inspiring. If there is nothing that can bring out the warmonger in you, you are as good as dead, because it means there is no ideal you are willing to fight for.

What ideals are you willing to fight for?

... and I don't mean "post snarkily on the internet" or "hold forth on passionately at a dinner party amongst friends", but, you know, actually struggle and fight in some capacity?

[citizen k]

Then, when we've brought them into a conventional war and thoroughly gutted them, we "partition" the ISIL territory and give it back to the sovereigns it belonged to before the start of the war (extra brownie points if all parties can carve out a little Kurdish territory without much fuss).

Sykes-Picot 2.0?

[Ed Anger]

Cnn reporting pilot burned alive.

[11B4V]

Fucking barbarians.

[Ed Anger]

Fucking barbarians.

Trajan would know how to deal with them.

[Valmy]

All his hard work would be thrown away by Hadrian anyway.

[Ed Anger]

All his hard work would be thrown away by Hadrian anyway.

*cough* Dacia *cough*

[Martinus]

I find it inspiring. If there is nothing that can bring out the warmonger in you, you are as good as dead, because it means there is no ideal you are willing to fight for.

What ideals are you willing to fight for?

... and I don't mean "post snarkily on the internet" or "hold forth on passionately at a dinner party amongst friends", but, you know, actually struggle and fight in some capacity?

Go ahead, attack me. Play your "cool" when people are being burned alive, beheaded and stoned to death. I'm sure it will make you appear all rational, aloof and collected.

Raz at least has an excuse of being insane. What's yours, besides moral cowardice?