Egginacup wrote: » ISIS (I don't even know who made up that name but the guys who are alleged to be ISIS members most likely don't call themselves that) are being fought by the US in Iraq and are being funded by the US in Syria. They just call them "moderates" when they fund them and "extremists" when they fight them.
Egginacup wrote: » ISIS are the new threat-du-jour don't you know? Al-Qaeda and the Taliban had become household names and so didn't carry the same fear factor. The Lords Resistance Army had some effect as did Boko Haram but ISIS chopping off heads really got us sh!tting in our toggs again and ready to do anything to be "kept safe".
Egginacup wrote: » Nobody is threatening your "way of life". You're just being spoonfed propaganda to keep you in a constant state of fear. Same thing was said about the communists. People were convinced by their government that if the US didn't fight in Vietnam then Asia would topple like dominoes to the red menace and before you know it we'd all be living in labour camps. Well the Vietnamese finally defeated and kicked out the Americans and guess what? They [Vietnamese] then went about rebuilding their little country and their lives. No red menace swept over the world. It was all bullsh!t
old_aussie wrote: » It was all rar rar rar till someone fired a real bullet at them, now they want to come home. When the going gets tough the irish get going.....home.
LorMal wrote: » The West - damned if they do, damned if they don't. Lefties annoy me - all they seem to want is to undermine the US - 'it's all a conspiracy for oil'...ad nauseum. Meanwhile in the real world another poor innocent man was beheaded today.
Zebra3 wrote: » Yeah, but when the US-backed regime in Saudi Arabia beheads people (which it has done for decades and beheads people at a much faster rate than ISIS) nobody cares. But feel free to shout "conspiracy theory".... :rolleyes: Why doesn't the US bomb Saudi Arabia, or Qatar were about 1,000 slaves have died building stadiums for the World Cup?
glued wrote: » The IDF have been trying to pull out of Syria since they were fired upon. Another set of troops were meant to be going out sometime this month to replace the IDF over there but it was decided to keep the current Irish troops stationed in Syria over there. In fairness the Irish troops aren't really trained or equipped for a real combat situation.
wretcheddomain wrote: » Saudi Arabia for all its faults, and many faults it has, does not actively send its army to occupy other countries. Yes, it lies with and supports undesirable bedfellows, but this is wholly alien to the idea of militants destroying the geopolitical integrity of two sovereign states (namely Syria and Iraq), while actively threatening all Western nations with internal terrorism through their propaganda beheading campaign.
wretcheddomain wrote: » An opponent of ISIS does not a supporter of Saudi Arabia make.
sparksfly wrote: » In the real world the us have supported the most vile and murderous groups imaginable. Fools still defend them. Anyone who points this out is a leftie or a commie. That's what annoys me.
LorMal wrote: » Who is shouting 'conspiracy theory?'
LorMal wrote: » No-one is condoning Saudi Arabia - it is a nasty regime.
LorMal wrote: » Doesn't make the US to blame for everything Zebra3. You need a little mature perspective here.
Zebra3 wrote: » See #1541. People are bitching about ISIS beheading people but aren't bothered in the slightest that the dictatorship in SA do it more often. The US offer military protection to the Saudi dictatorship. They are partly to blame.
Zebra3 wrote: » See #1541. The US offer military protection to the Saudi dictatorship. They are partly to blame.
old_aussie wrote: » Israel, can protect its own boarders, they don't need the irish. Where were the irish when Syria attacked Isreal in the Yom Kippur war?
LorMal wrote: » Nah - you are just being silly now. I do not think the US is perfect by any means but I bet you would prefer to live there than in Raqqa?
sparksfly wrote: » Stupid argument, I'd rather live in Tel Aviv than Gaza, doesn't mean I support Israel over Palestine.
Zebra3 wrote: » People are bitching about ISIS beheading people but aren't bothered in the slightest that the dictatorship in SA do it more often. The US offer military protection to the Saudi dictatorship. They are partly to blame.
LorMal wrote: » Your use of language is juvenile. No-one is 'bitching' about the beheading of innocent men. Outraged, upset, hurt, frightened perhaps...but 'bitching' no. I think we can all reserve the right (and indeed the obligation) to express our outrage at these horrible inhuman acts. 'Bitching' is about traffic jams or water meters - its not for a grown up discussion about international terror.
Gatling wrote: » The US sell military equipment to the Saudis who in turn hand the Americans large cheques , Simple economics
BuilderPlumber wrote: » Saudi Arabia's version of Islam is what has inspired all the others. Yeah, the likes of Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS and all their regional allies take that as their blueprint and then add even worse stuff to it. Beheadings belong in the middle ages and biblical times. That a supposedly modern state uses it as punishment to this day sets a bad example. When I was in college 2 years back, I saw all this Saudi open for business literature and they want to project themselves as modern and enlightened. Yet, despite all their space age buildings in Riyadh, stone age practices are carried out on its streets. The problem is: Saudi's regime is corrupt, barbaric and repressive. It more than likely ideologically hates the West too. Yet, it is defended by the US and the West. Despite being the most anti-Israel regime in the region, even Israel tacitly supports it. Why? -Everyone depends on its oil. Instability in SA would spiral the world into a recession that would make the 2008- one or even the great depression look like nothing. 9/11, Iraq, etc. set the ball rolling for the current one we must note and these along with other things helped cause it. If SA fell, it would spiral things totally out of control and we would have to make deals with Iran fast and even that would not help as Iran's oil exploration is not as advanced as SAs. Remember too that other oil producers then remain unstable and god knows the others could fall too. -If the Kingdom of SA fell, it is most likely because those who took over did not regard it as 'Islamic' enough. The new 'Islamic' Emirate of Arabia would emerge as a Taliban-like state that could harbour terrorism and cut off oil and use oil as a weapon. You could well end up with a state that launches terror attacks on Western capitals and yet the West would have to make a deal with it for oil! Of course, this is why Israel also prefers KSA to the alternative!! So, KSA is a US and Israeli protectorate in all but name! No one respects it but it is seen as a necessary evil. A blind eye is constantly turned to it and its existing funding of terrorism. By right, the Arab and Islamic world deserves democracy and coming into the modern world like everywhere and yes there are millions who yearn for this. Instead, they are stuck with either war ravaged lands or the others put up with less than perfect regimes for fear of worse taking over. The Al Sauds, Ali Khamenei, the constantly corrupt Pakistani regimes, Assad and the military regimes of Egypt are all hardly what one ideally wants but they are tolerated by their own people, by the West, by other powers and even by Israel for fear of worse taking over. The so-called 'Arab Spring' proved just that: Egypt hardly changed. The military decided to stay in control as they feared an 'Islamic' Taliban-style regime taking over. Egypt sans the pyramids would hardly work. Libya post the Colonel is a total mess, much worse than before. This has also helped further destabilise already unstable places like Niger and Mali as well as Algeria. Syria has gone from a country where there was hope to one of total despair since 2011. And Iraq has only got worse since the 'Arab Spring' (around 2008-2010, there was signs of it settling down). Sad and all as it is, the Middle East's current regimes seem to be about the most moderate of what's realistically on offer. Worse much worse are waiting in the high grass to control Riyadh, Kabul, Tehran, Islamabad and Damascus. They could soon even control Baghdad and Tripoli and it is scary.
Zebra3 wrote: » No, because bitching is it all it is. Because there's only people going on about a few beheading by ISIS and not the huge number of beheadings by SA.
Zebra3 wrote: » Nobody in the west has the right to support dictators that crushes the opportunities of freedom for the people of the ME.
Zebra3 wrote: » Also SA is not the most anti-Israeli regime in the ME. SA and Israeli secret services regularly collude with each other.