
Thursday Beirut suicide bombings kill 43 - personjerry
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/middleeast/beirut-explosions/
======
gotchange
31 October - The Russian plane brought down likely by a bomb in Sinai, Egypt

9 November - 6 people killed in a mass shooting in Amman, Jordan.

12 November - +40 people killed in two suicide bombing attacks in Beirut,
Lebanon

13 November - +20 killed in suicide bombings in Baghdad, Iraq

13 November - +120 people killed in a multiple attacks in Paris, France

We're having a very busy calendar this month for violence and terrorist
attacks.

On a more serious note, it's very worrying if all these ops were committed by
ISIS or any off-shoot organizations and even more worrying if there was any
type of central command or coordination between those seemingly unrelated
attacks. We'll be in deep shit.

EDIT: Added the Iraq line item and the epiphany

~~~
yeukhon
and hundreds more every month in Middle East. What can we do to stop ISIS from
brainwashing these people?

Injecting a chip inside a human being and terminate the rogue one when one
goes bad? But that power can be abused and nobody wants a chip implanted
inside their own body. What can we do!?

~~~
littletimmy
1\. Stop screwing with other countries. No false wars, no state engineering,
no exporting democracy.

2\. Stop protecting the terrorist regime in Saudi Arabia.

3\. Stop trying to control the world. There's no hegemony without blowback.

4\. Stop being a safe haven for laundered money from the third world (looking
at you City of London). Let that money be invested in third world
infrastructure.

5\. Stop toppling secular dictators. Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, Bhutto,
Mossadegh... spot the pattern here. This needs to stop.

Start with these 5, then we'll move on. You are making the mistake of thinking
that the US gives a shit about terror, btw. Read about how foreign policy
makers (people like Kissinger, Brzezinski, Stowcroft) think. They don't give a
shit about blowback, they want to maintain hegemony. Terror is just a useful
tool to keep public opinion in check.

~~~
ljf
For more on point 1, see Bitter Lake by Adam Curtis
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gyz6b](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gyz6b)
(if you are in the UK, if you are outside there are likely other ways to see -
[http://m.imdb.com/title/tt4393514/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt4393514/) )

------
DominikR
I guess nobody gives a damn about bombings in Lebanon because it's basically
"our guys" (crazy terrorists) bombing the Iranian proxy.

Or think about the reporting a few days ago when the Russian airliner was shot
down.

All kinds of accusations where made against the Russian government and against
Putin in specific. (it's their own fault, they are hiding the truth and so on)

Charlie Hebdo even created some nice caricatures making fun of the Russian
victims.

I bet Charlie Hebdo wont make fun about the victims in Paris.

~~~
tzs
> I guess nobody gives a damn about bombings in Libanon because it's basically
> "our guys" (crazy terrorists) bombing the Iranian proxy

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Lebanon bombings and the target was
Hezbollah. Which of those two is supposed to be "our guys"?

~~~
DominikR
Michael Flynn, former director of the DIA until 2014 stated in a live
interview, that the US government knew about the rise of these extremists in
2012 and that the US government made a "wilful decision" to turn a blind eye
on them in the hope that they will get rid of Assad.

He also stated that the US government supported Al-Qaeda in Syria.

[https://www.rt.com/usa/312050-dia-flynn-islamic-
state/](https://www.rt.com/usa/312050-dia-flynn-islamic-state/)

This link is from RT, but you can watch the video of it.

Oh, and then there's general Petraeus who tried to convince the government
that there is some part of Al-Nusra that is cool and okay, and we could use
them.

~~~
tptacek
Juan Cole disagrees.

[http://www.juancole.com/2015/05/strategic-against-
assad.html](http://www.juancole.com/2015/05/strategic-against-assad.html)

Short summary: the text of the actual DIA memo is much more complicated than
the interview lets on, but the memo itself was uncovered by conservative media
sites who then spun it into "Obama sponsored ISIS".

~~~
DominikR
Please explain how it is possible that ISIS expanded their territory during a
time when the US-led "anti-ISIS" coalition flew more than 8000 sorties against
them and now when Russia starts a war against them with a significantly
smaller force they are loosing ground massively.

How is that even possible? I cannot believe that the US military is so
ineffective.

The US military was ordered to be ineffective, they are probably bombing the
desert or some infrastructure that isn't used anymore just to make it seem as
if they are doing something against ISIS.

And to be frank: It would not surprise me if we one day see proof that ISIS
was actually trained, supported and equipped by the US.

I think that most US citizens wouldn't be surprised by this.

There's just no way you can explain away the fact that a smaller Russian force
crushes ISIS so quickly while the strongest military power in the world cannot
seem to stop them with much more firepower, allies and time at their hand.

Edit: Another reason why I am sure that the US government supports Sunni
terrorism: All the countries where the US intervened in the last 15 years sank
into total chaos and are today ruled by either ISIS or Al-Qaeda affiliates.

This is not mere incompetence, the US military has probably some of the most
competent personell in the world. Total chaos in these countries was no
coincidence, it was their OBJECTIVE.

~~~
tptacek
I am not interested in this political debate at all. You can safely assume any
argument I'd come up with would just be sourced from people like Juan Cole
anyways, and go read him instead.

~~~
DominikR
Okay, I'll just quote parts of the declassified the document you linked to:

"C. IF THE SITUATION UNRAVELS THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A
DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER
ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT,
IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME, WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE STRATEGIC DEPTH
OF THE SHiA EXPANSION (IRAQ AND IRAN)."

So a Salafist principality is exactly what the supporters (US, Turkey, Saudi
Arabia) of the opposition want.

~~~
tptacek
You picked one of the very few parts of the memo Cole quotes directly, and
then applied a meaning to it that was the opposite of the one Cole took. I'm
not persuaded.

------
axis967
Frankly, I find the different reactions to Beirut and Paris sickening. The
U.S. (media and residents) cares more about people that are 'more like them'.
Too many paint the middle east with a single brush and consider it a disaster
not to get upset over unless the issue involves Israel.

~~~
mc32
I think that's too simple a view.

Paris of recent decades has not experienced frequent terror attacks. It's not
expected to happen there. It is not a war zone. There aren't belligerent
factions attacking each other. It does not have the sectarian violent history
of Beirut.

When ETA was bombing around Spain and it became commonplace, it also received
little attention after a while. That's just how it goes.

