|
Can you explain to me what that means? By M16 did you mean MI6? http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...s/confused.gif damm spelling gremlins and those who spot them ;) |
Eclectic, did you forget that chunk of Iran for the Kurds? :E
|
And the smidge of Armenia...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...%281992%29.jpg |
in this morning's news, we have the report of some bizarre behavior by the leader of one of the Islamic faction's the not quite famous (until this morning's news coverage) Omar al-Farouq Brigade ...
A Syrian rebel commander has been caught on video cutting out the heart of a soldier and biting into it, Human Rights Watch said late Monday. Amateur video posted online shows a man cutting into the dead solider's torso and removing his liver and heart. The New York-based rights group identified the man as Abu Sakkar, a founder of the rebel Omar al-Farouq Brigade. In the video, which prompted outrage on all sides of the country’s deadly civil war, the man says: "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,”according to HRW. Abu, you may regret this little stunt. You wanted attention, I think you'll get it ... and maybe not the kind you were looking for. |
I think desecration of dead bodies is a war crime...or maybe at worst against the Geneva Convention.
I seem to recall a case of a Para making a necklace of ears from dead Argies immediately after some of the engagements had finished. I think he got in trouble for that... |
Is cutting the heart out of a corpse and eating it any worse that blowing people up with a missile from a UAV piloted from an air conditioned room thousands of miles away? Or shooting up insurgents from a mile out with 30mm ammo fired from the nose of an Apache? Limbs still get ripped from torsos, people are decapitated in the process and innocents caught in the mix.
|
Eclectic: to some people, desecration of a corpse is offensive for a variety of reasons. Your attempt at moral equivalence misses the point.
Whomever died, and however he died, he's dead. The civil war in Syria is terrible enough. To then take the trouble to descerate the corpse for ideological purpose, or for some act of showmanship, is a different sort of horror, with different motivations than fighting in a war. |
Is cutting the heart out of a corpse and eating it any worse than blowing people up with a missile... |
Elements of Crimes
International Criminal Court
Article 8 (2) (b) (xxi) War crime of outrages upon personal dignity Elements 1. The perpetrator humiliated, degraded or otherwise violated the dignity of one or more persons.49 2. The severity of the humiliation, degradation or other violation was of such degree as to be generally recognized as an outrage upon personal dignity. 3. The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with an international armed conflict. 4. The perpetrator was aware of factual circumstances that established the existence of an armed conflict. 49 For this crime, “persons” can include dead persons. It is understood that the victim need not personally be aware of the existence of the humiliation or degradation or other violation. This element takes into account relevant aspects of the cultural background of the victim. |
It appears that this incident was instigated by the perpetrator looking at was on his victim's phone. There he found video of Alawites abusing Sunni women.
“We opened his cell phone and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked, and he was humiliating them” Syrian rebel defends eating dead soldier's organ as revenge - Telegraph |
Eclectic, are you defending this desecration as justifiable? :confused:
Wry thought: cell phones cams keep causing people grief, even after they are dead! :eek: |
An interesting piece on what got this Syria civil war going, a few years back.
Without Water, Revolution (Written by Tom Friedman, NYT)) Caveat: Friedman is full of crap as often as not, but he may be on to something here. He sees the war through the prism of draught, and of the government's poor water policy. In Texas, we have similar issues at hand with the boom in the Eagle Ford Shale region, which also has ground water issues in an agricultural region. Eerie parallel ... “The drought did not cause Syria’s civil war,” said the Syrian economist Samir Aita, but, he added, the failure of the government to respond to the drought played a huge role in fueling the uprising. What happened, Aita explained, was that after Assad took over in 2000 he opened up the regulated agricultural sector in Syria for big farmers, many of them government cronies, to buy up land and drill as much water as they wanted, eventually severely diminishing the water table. This began driving small farmers off the land into towns, where they had to scrounge for work. Then, between 2006 and 2011, some 60 percent of Syria’s land mass was ravaged by the drought and, with the water table already too low and river irrigation shrunken, it wiped out the livelihoods of 800,000 Syrian farmers and herders, the United Nations reported. “State and government was invented in this part of the world, in ancient Mesopotamia, precisely to manage irrigation and crop growing,” said Aita, “and Assad failed in that basic task.” The best jobs in Hasakah Province, Syria’s oil-producing region, were with the oil companies. But drought refugees, virtually all of whom were Sunni Muslims, could only dream of getting hired there. “Most of those jobs went to Alawites from Tartous and Latakia,” said Zakaria, referring to the minority sect to which President Assad belongs and which is concentrated in these coastal cities. “It made people even more angry. The best jobs on our lands in our province were not for us, but for people who come from outside.” “Religion is for God, and the country is for everyone.” This of course isn't the only point of view on this civil war, but it informs somewhat the mechanism by which so much of the population was open to radicalization: despot exploits people and resources, and massive move from rural to urban settings by a displaced population. Recipe for revolt. |
with the number of islamist suufi nutters getting turned into worm food, including a large influx of the most extreme black flag waving aq, supporting both sides gets my vote. At the very best, we should just leave them to it. from previous footage, its oretty obvious these people want to live on a sixth century battlefield, consuming human organs. why should i risk my neck to defend the indefensible?
the Phrophet made it pretty clear what would happen to those engaging in fitna. |
Luckiest rebels out there, watch the anti tank missile just clear the turret at about 1.12 mins
Video: Missile Misses Tank by Inches - Middle East - News - Israel National News |
Close shave. I wonder if the tank crew was shooting at the anti tank missile firing position. Some AT weapons leave a pretty large visual signature when they go off.
|
Seems like FSA now getting zero support as Assad having weathered the storm and been resupplied and retrained the spring campaign is winning back lost territory.
Benghazi is potentially having a direct impact as US pulls its supply lines and the other GCC states realising the $$$$ don't all go that far. The fact that native population haven't joined up in their millions pretty much gives an end game which is unlikely to be pleasant and scores will be settled. |
That was close.
I couldn't freeze frame it on my system, anyone manage to work out what type it was ? |
Looks like the Israelis and Syrians are getting on each others' nerves near Golan ... more fun.
Israel and Syria clash on Golan Heights cease-fire line - World News News this morning seems to confirm, from Hezbollah and Syrian sources, the Hezbollah and Syria are "shoulder to shoulder" in a few fights in central/west Syria. Not pleased to see that ... :( |
500N wrote
I couldn't freeze frame it on my system, anyone manage to work out what type it was ? |
|
the rebels have been using the Russian Metis (AT-13 Saxhorn) IIRC
|
|
I couldn't find anything Russian that looked like it
but that doesn't mean it's not. It certainly looks close to the Javelin. Any thoughts from anyone ? If it is a Javelin, does that mean US Troops might be on the ground or the US has supplied a few to the rebels ????? |
|
If it is a Javelin, does that mean US Troops might be on the ground or the US has supplied a few to the rebels ????? Not likely. IIRC, that video is a shot of a rebel group in action with a tank. Various gear of war has been infiltrating into Syria via a few of our allies in the Persian Gulf for the past few years, to support various insurgent factions. They have plenty of American kit that might get slipped across a border here and there ... |
No chance of No fly zone now
Russia will deploy S-300 according to BBC:ouch:.
oap |
BBC News - EU ends arms embargo on Syria rebels
Its totally insane, giving weapons to terrorists. Its really the UK and France to blame for this, wonder what the real agenda is. The real axis of evil in the world are the UK, France and USA what with all their badly thought out little interventions, actually more like the axis of incompetence. |
Would the West be doing any of this were the Saudis and a few others not the major suppliers of crude to the industrialized world?
Think back a bit, and ask yourself if the EU and NATO intervention in Bosnia would have happened were the above not an issue? I got a few inklings back in the mid 90's that the Saudis had an influence behind the scene on behalf of the Muslim faction in Bosnia. I do know that Iran had a few hundred Pasdaran in country. Arming the rebels allows the war to go on longer, which allows more martyrs for the faith and more dead and dying among many and sundry. It also allows for making more refugees who try to flood into Turkey, where they meet a cool reception. They also flood into Jordan, where they may destabilize the government, which is a replay of what led to Black September back in 1970. Keeping the fighting going seems, on the face of it, a way to spread the instability into neighboring countries. Is that what UK and France want? Here's an out of the box idea; stop the refugee flow. You have to stand and fight. How would that change the course of events? Yes, it sounds heartless, but when one triggers the 'fight or flight' response something profound changes in the behavior. It's an idea, but probalby impossible to implement, and maybe not an idea that would end the fight sooner. |
Why deploy the S-300 to deter western intervention when it appears there is absolutely no prospect of that? Maybe its more to deter the Israelis and, if so, what else will the Syrians be shipping in under this improved AD cover? Was it revealed what weaponry the Israelis went after a few weeks back?
Maybe Iran are trying to truck something in to northern Lebanon... |
Why on earth would you want to prevent the innocent from leaving an area of mass murder and random killings?
:ugh: |
You miss the point, and your presumption of innocence is unwarranted, as refugees arnen't only little children. I also note your inability to think out of the box. Did you bother to read the whole post, which means all of the words, phrases, and sentences? :confused:
If you have to fight to protect your family, and there is no escape, the cornered rat mode may change how things play out. Of course, you may also assume the fetal position and join the long line of dead victims. It depends. |
I fully understood your post however, I satnd by mine.
You are quite correct to assume that not all refugees are innocent however, I would hazard a guess that many of them are. To that end, it would be outrageous to close the door on them and leave them to it. IMHO, the biggest news of the day was Israel's response to the suggestion that S-300 systems are enroute to Syria. It will be interesting to see if they are targetted by Israel in an attempt to maintain the option to over fly the country should they need to. |
The IAF will already have some plans in place to neutralize and take out those missiles on the occasion that they need some room over Syrian airspace. Their other concern is being shot at in Israeli airspace, though at the moment I doubt Assad wants to add to his problems.
EDIT: From here: “They are trying to basically prevent the escalation of the Syrian conflict not only into neighboring countries, but also into a region-wide conflict. This is what we’re talking about today: Is the fire in Syria devouring and consuming other countries in the region?” Also: the Egyptians shut off the attempts and infiltration from Gaza into their land. Funny, genocide didn't happen. Granted, small border, and there were leaks/tunnels. Others have the same right the Egyptians did to refuse those fleeing entry. I empathize with the Turks whose city has been inundated with refugees, and I empathize with the refugees. They are at the mercy of whomever and wherevver. Crap position to be in. Objective comment: if you flee your country, you concede defeat vis a vis whomever it is that you are fleeing, be it government or the local Sunni group or the local jihadis or whatever. |
The IAF should not be flying over Syria in the first place. If any other country in the world simply attacked another sovereign nation because they felt like it then the repercussions would be very harsh indeed.
I have always supported Israel in the past BUT there needs to be a limit on what they are allowed to do. |
Ronald, that's a valid point, and has a valid counter: why should Israel allow Hezbollah access to more weapons if they can prevent it? Syria is aiding and abetting the arming of Hezbollah, and for that matter, Hezbollah is fighting shoulder to shoulder in Western Syria with Assad's forces.
It's not as black and white as you'd like it to be. Civil wars are messy enough, and are even messier when outsiders get involved. See Spanish Civil War of 1036-1939 for a stellar example. |
Interesting development in regards to Russia going ahead with the Syrian S-300 contract. Will they now go ahead with the Iranian S-300 contract? Certainly the Iranians engineer and technicians will be all over the system once delivered to Syria. Will the crafty Russians deploy personnel to jointly man the system to deter Iranian interest and Israeli air strikes? Interesting times ahead?
Various media are quoting apparent tough talk from the Israeli Defence Minister. Israel "will know what to do" if Russia delivers highly advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday. AFP said this was “an apparent allusion to another air strike” on Syria. "The deliveries have not taken place – I can attest to this – and I hope they do not. But if, by some misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do," Yaalon said. |
If any other country in the world simply attacked another sovereign nation because they felt like it then the repercussions would be very harsh indeed. It is intriguing all this fanfare about the S-300 given there is no air threat to the regime at present. Were the Saudis or Qataris, or maybe the Turks, up to something? Not sure if the former has any airbases in the north of their country - if so these would be no more than a few tens of minutes flying time from Syrian airspace. |
The EU idea to arm the Syrian rebels is disgusting and the results unpredictable to say the least. Try this little thought 'Were we pleased when the Libyan government supplied arms to the IRA?'
Someone is bound to say it is not the same sort of thing. :ugh: |
Totally agree Rosevidney1. These terrorists in Syria are terrible. I have just watched two videos of them chopping off people's heads with a machete!
Yet the west supports these people!!!! We ruined Libya and Iraq, now the west wants to ruin Syria!!!! The UK, France and USA are the real axis of evil in the world. Basically if there are any good guys in this its Russia and China yet again trying to stop western warmongers. The stronger those two nations get all the better for world stability. If they can stop the west in its tracks then that's a very good thing. |
Basically if there are any good guys in this its Russia and China yet again trying to stop western warmongers. Aside: Self hating Westerners are a despicable lot. You don't want to be in their company. Rosey: Your points have some merit. Some of the problem with arming the various rebels is that it prolongs the war, ups the body count, and continues with the refugee flow into neighboring nations. None of that is good. |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 17:47. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.