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Larssen wrote:

I would actually like to dispute that because the senior leadership had Yemeni's, Kurds, a few Chechens, Syrians and other nationals in there as well. Yes, there were a number of former Iraqi army officers / Iraqi religious scholars in there (quite a few) and some who were instrumental in its rise but to say 'almost all' is in my assessment an exxageration. Particularly if we consider the fact that ISIS after conquest relied heavily on recruited local elites. With half the territory in syria, there were quite a number of syrians involved as well. If you search a little harder than wikipedia you'll be able to find it.

It's also still beside the fucking point. ISIS was not an expressly 'Iraqi movement'. It attracted thousands of fighters from all sorts of nationalities outside of Iraq. It wasn't in any way ethnically or nationally exclusive. It was sunni and deeply rooted in Islamic extremism. The whole take that it was 'an Iraqi terror organisation' and to lay blame with the Iraqis is a fucking stupid statement. Yes I do kind of agree to the notion that without the war in Iraq it is unlikely ISIS would've existed. But that's a bit too much counterfactual history for my liking.

I'm sure ISIS in Iraq was mostly Iraqis, and a good proportion of the leadership were Saddamites.

According to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group, almost all of ISIL's leaders—including the members of its military and security committees and the majority of its emirs and princes—are former Iraqi military and intelligence officers, specifically former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath government who lost their jobs and pensions in the de-Ba'athification process after that regime was overthrown.[191][192] The former Chief Strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the US State Department, David Kilcullen, has said that "There undeniably would be no Isis if we had not invaded Iraq."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State

Larssen wrote:

It's a an oversimplification to state that ISIS consisted of Iraqis. Let's remember that the movement originated in the syrian civil war and had many thousands foreign jihadis from chechnya, tunisia, saudi arabia plus some 5000 from western europe in its ranks - it very much was an internationalist movement. It was also in no small part the various militias in the hashd/PMF that repelled ISIS on the ground and these were almost exclusively iraqi.

ISIS didn't 'grow out of dispossed iraqi military' - analysis of various martyrdom videos proved that a minority of fighters were experienced combatants. If you're looking at former Iraqi army turned militia, it's the Iraqi insurgency and particularly the 2006-2007 period that's relevant. ISIS did come to possess a ton of Iraqi army supplies. It was an ill-disciplined, badly trained and corrupt force that put up very little meaningful resistance to the initial ISIS advancement.

My understanding was the senior part of ISIS was former Iraqi army, the foot soldiers were idiot jihadists.

Hmm, given that a non-cast member was killed and another non-cast member was injured my guess is Baldwin had a tantrum over direction and thought he'd give them a scare with a prop-gun.

Blank-firers can kill or injure at point-blank range, oops.

Been through Miami six times, you'd think someone would say "hey, I've seen this package before"

Pretty sure its a pentagram, but I will do.

The Adventures of Springy

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Holy mother of all things fucked.

Completely comparable with Powell being a lifetime lickspittle and liar.

uziq wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

uziq wrote:

iraqis had nothing to do with terrorist attacks in the united states.

I never said they did. Again, I am not defending the War in Iraq. Everything bad you can say about that war I would agree with.

My point regarding Iraqi terrorism is the fact that when ISIS without much resistance took over Mosul, they were greeted as liberators. The Sunni Arabs of that country then provided manpower and resources for a group that would have mowed us both down if we were in a French nightclub at the wrong moment. Muslims inspired or even coordinating with Iraqis committed terrorist attacks across the world. (Easter bombing in Sri Lanka?). The sympathy the world has for Iraqis is all dried up at this point.

Quoting Iraqi death figures is again the worst argument you could make. You would have been better bringing up Vietnam.

very weird that you somehow absolve america of all responsibility in creating ISIS, but whatever. it seems a little questionable to me to blame the iraqi people (or more precisely a portion of them) for welcoming xyz group after 2 decades of sectarian conflict, caused in large part by you guys destabilizing their society.

you removed all of iraq's infrastructures and ability to operate as a civil, peacetime state. you installed corrupt and inept leaders in their place and categorically fucked up every part of the rebuilding process, totally blind to local political dynamics. then you blame them because they're unable to repel extremist assholes? or even welcome them, in some cases?

it's not like the arrival of ISIS in iraq was one huge hoorah. ISIS murdered a lot of iraqis.

ISIS Literally grew out of the dispossessed Iraqi military which was suddenly unemployed, destitute and still in possession of most of the weapons of the Iraqi army.

Its as if the neo-cons wanted a forever-war against muslims and set about creating it.

Thats her.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

People are still called hipsters?

Wait, people who don't have iphones are hipsters now?

Powell was also directly responsible for the Highway of Death, extending the war so he could use the name "100 Hour War"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death

My Lai Whitewash, Highway of Death, WMD Fiasco, Iraq Disaster - what a legacy.

Yeah not really no

Maybe Northern Ireland could unify with Scotland.

Then no-one would be happy which is fine by me.

Medieval solutions just haven't worked for my state.



Maybe Australia should 'learn to live' with stinkbugs.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-19/ … /100550654

Sensible solutions are stupid.

If I don't feel like answering my phone I don't.
Most things can wait.

Why? I'm not anti-vax.

Why are you anti-sensible restrictions?

I think its "don't shit on your own doorstep"

My scientific literacy is fine.

Also its Dilbert the Tenth

These aren't street gangs these are international crime gangs importing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs and weapons.

Sure, anyway I've deleted the post.

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Today was a very good day. I wish I could share all of the good news with you but I don't want to get cancelled. Only way this day can get better if I got laid.

Did something good happen or did you not get found out for something bad you did?

RTHKI wrote:

@dil I don't get why anyone would be mad someone with cheap gear took better photos than them.

Well some people do.

Not if they're imported - which they are - and imported from the nation which delivered the pandemic.

uziq wrote:

so why is it surprising to you that iraqis would consider australia a more suitable choice?

The question is why Australians would consider whether Iraqis have made a suitable choice.

From the perspective here each wave has been a disaster - post-war wogs, 10 pound poms, bloody lebos - each wave has failed to integrate, brought their problems and improved nothing.

What we need is an Iraqi gang to deal with two Lebanese gangs
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-20/ … /100552710

Reminder: Being cishetallo is not “the norm”.
https://www.queerundefined.com/search/cishetallo

OK

I think if you don't put the effort in now you'll be a bit disappointed when you come back to look at them.

Phones can take good photos, for 99% of people including myself a good compact is often a better choice than a DSLR, and they can take great photos on auto with a little effort and understanding of what its doing and what the settings mean.

With film I think I found a bit of a style.

Everyone used to read the same photography magazines, I guess now everyone apes everyone else on instagram.

uziq wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Suggest working on your composition, you can take classes.

i have a terrible and scratched camera on a 4-year-old iphone.

Exactly the reason to focus on composition, a better camera doesn't improve composition.

You don't have to go to a class, you can read a book - probably the best option.
And with a digital camera practice is free, when it wasn't with film. I see people rattling off heaps of photos as they make basic mistakes and wonder what they're thninking.

I took a trip with a friend, I had a $200 Olympus snap camera, he had some $000s Leica something or other top of the range got great reviews etc and took thousands of pics because of course he had the max size memory card.
He was pissed that mine were uniformly better.

Passive photography is mostly about seeing how light falls and composition.

I was thinking of Palestine before it was invaded.

No we keep illegal migrants on islands a lot nicer than the places they left, and we did it to stop boat disasters like that.

I'm sure afghans and iraqis have closer ties to israel than australia - maybe israel should take them.

Apparently they were all in fact stabbed, not arrowed to death.

Wish I'd bought a Nikon D750 when they were in runout, may get a D7500 though.

Suggest working on your composition, you can take classes.

No-one is forgetting anyone else, my god.

"cog in the machine handed the task"

You don't get a spot in a neo-con white-house if you're a free-thinking socialist.

Goddamit

No-one has claimed he was the mastermind, pretty clear he was up to his neck in orchestrating an illegal war based on lies - at the same time as carefully stacking up his get out of jail cards.

Facebook reminded me of this today



Pretty clear he was the 'trustworthy salesman' and he knew what he was doing.

Yeah, cats just glare and stalk off - then people think they're unfriendly.
Very few cats will be your friend instantly.

The neighbours cat is hilarious, he plays pranks on their dog and did so to my cat.

SuperJail Warden wrote:

I have never owned a cat. I went to a friend's house and noticed on his couch there was a long haired cat with big eyes staring at me. I didn't think it was real the way it looked and how it was wide eyed staring at me. I had to ask if it was real. And my friend was like "yeah, that's a cat".

Cats are creepy animals at least for people who have never owned one. The cat just stood there gazing into my soul.

Most people don't understand cat behaviour, this is where most problems come from.

If some huge beast came into your house uninvited would you just start doing tricks or go to sleep?

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Especially useless now that he is dead and cannot be called to task.

CP Consistently refused to be questioned on any of this.

I don't believe a word of that explanation, CP was in on all of it and yet he points the finger at everyone else.
There are various Freudian slips that give the lie.

No-one has suggested it was him alone in a vacuum.

Goebbels wasn't a patsy, nor was Powell.

uziq wrote:

except israel literally does accept christian refugees and black africans

Except they literally don't, they get no rights, no option to become citizens and Israel does everything to send them back

israel is an officially racist apartheid state. i don't even disagree with you. but you picking on these african refugee stories is silly and spurious. you're literally trying to argue that israel is being 'cruel' because they won't grant citizenship to a bunch of nigerians who started identifying as jews in 1970.

So how many generations does someone have to be jewish for until the jewness outweighs the blackness?

Funny when converts now have a right to citizenship, or supposedly do.
Neat trick, you can only come into Israel if you're jewish, you can only convert if you're in Israel.

YOU of all people are the biggest advocate for race/religion-based citizenship

Well not really, but I enjoy your hypocrisy in defending Israel and its god-given right to be white and jewish.

SuperJail Warden wrote:

but most Americans supported that disaster

Thanks in large part to the lies told by, er, Powell.

uziq wrote:

Curiously Israel only takes proper jews as refugees, then only a few hundred, anyone else Israel refuses to recognise them as refugees and sends them back ASAP
https://www.timesofisrael.com/offered-l … -a-refuge/

only a few hundred? do you know how many black africans are living in israel? they're in the hundreds of thousands. are you missing the three well-established and hugely publicized wikipedia links i posted above? in which israel literally sent for african refugees numbering in the thousands, to give them safe refuge in israel?

They only sent for jews though.
How many of them have refugee status or residence now?

How many other countries select refugees based on race/religion?
You'd go berserk if BoJo said "We'll take white christians but not brown muslims, and then only if they can prove their lineage going back 4,000 years"

uziq wrote:

120 deaths a day is a fraction of the death toll this time last year with comparable case numbers. so, erm, it really seems like vaccines make a significant difference ... which is something you weirdly keep trying to call into question.

covid is never going away. we are never going to extirpate it. making a country of 60 million stay at home because of 100 deaths a day is not good public health policy. it WAS good policy when there was no hypothetical limit to daily death numbers, and when the prospect of hospitals being overwhelmed was a very real one. that was the right circumstance for EMERGENCY lockdown measures. now we have widespread vaccination that provides increased immunity to people across all age brackets.

amazing how you fail to grasp this.

if the UK can nail our winter 2021 booster shots as well as we nailed the initial vaccine rollout (after doing much very badly, it must be said), then we will be well on our way to properly taming this pandemic. once again: 100 deaths a day with 40,000-50,000 cases is a significant difference to this time last year. with mask-wearing mandates this winter and prudent controls on large indoor gatherings (a lack of which has driven an avoidable spike in case numbers -- but not deaths, importantly), we could have our case/death numbers much more in line with the rest of western europe.

the picture is actually rather promising for any country that has its head together and good organization. but you seem to think we are still hopelessly lost and don't have any means at our disposal other than lockdowns and isolation. 'vaccines might become marginally effective given enough time'. no. that's not what the data says. vaccines work and they work in a big way. lockdowns do not work as effectively against the delta variant and are an increasingly costly way of buying time ... for more vaccination.

If you could just sensibly control the borders you could eradicate covid and get out of lockdowns.

If the world could have just properly shut down and controlled travel for three months this would never have happened

uziq wrote:

in the recent conflicts in ethiopia which have badly destabilized the region, israel has been taking waves and waves of refugees. which is a lot more than any white australian like you can say, isn't it? why are so many gammon-faced middle-aged men against accepting war refugees, anyway?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55171742

Curiously Israel only takes proper jews as refugees, then only a few hundred, anyone else Israel refuses to recognise them as refugees and sends them back ASAP
https://www.timesofisrael.com/offered-l … -a-refuge/

can you imagine australia giving a senior ministerial post to a refugee from the middle-east or africa? or even an aboriginal?

We gave Josh Frydenberg a ministerial post.

the particular group in your article are from nigeria with absolutely no historical or genetic link to israel. i'm sure you'd love it if a group of pakistanis organized themselves in a remote mountain region and started claiming long-lost australian heredity and thus jus sanguinis citizenship. DERP.

So for jews it is about race, not religion, thanks for the confirmation.

Bleh he was a shit-sack, whitewashed My Lai and delivered the Iraq invasion.

No, its always "the past owner could no longer look after them"

We've agreed we'd be fine with an older cat.

Anna 8/10

Predictable with plot holes but enjoyable Besson nonetheless.

Sasha Luss is impossibly pretty and a good actress.