Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Fair. I mean, I'm sure we're not understanding their circumstances and to judge them is wrong -- especially as white males -- and that judgment surely risks sooooo much racist attacks. Just like when you couldn't point out that China is committing genocide or that Covid came from a lab.

There's no question that Progs see American exceptionalism and Iran/China/etc and choose the latter.

[THE_WIZARD_]

To the left/progs they think America is just as evil if not more so...America must pay for it's plundering of the world...

[THE_WIZARD_]

As the Middle East is burning and suffering....The Chairman is taking Columbus Day (an evil white man who was the root cause of the plundering by white men of North America and thus the world) off at a BBQ...Biden BBQ.jpg

[Dr. Strangelove]

900 casualties now...not sure if that's including military but civilians are the overwhelming majority of them

[Dr. Strangelove]

There's a report circulating that Egypt's Intelligence Minister called Netanyahu about 2 weeks ago and warned him something bad would happen in Gaza soon. Netanyahu's office denying this is true. But both Israeli and US intelligence clearly dropped the ball here.

[Tom W]

. But both Israeli and US intelligence clearly dropped the ball here.

If you have to blame someone..

[Hannibal]

There's a report circulating that Egypt's Intelligence Minister called Netanyahu about 2 weeks ago and warned him something bad would happen in Gaza soon. Netanyahu's office denying this is true. But both Israeli and US intelligence clearly dropped the ball here.

Maybe they thought it was Russian disinformation.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah that’s probably gonna be a “no”, fellas.

[Mike]

The barbarity of the attack rightfully overshadows everything but, man, how can something that large in scale go completely undetected? The tally at the music festival alone was 260 as of this afternoon. You have to figure numbers will still increase in the near term as they account for everyone. I think it's safe to say the Gaza experiment didn't work out as hoped. Doze that fucking place.

[Mike]

OK, the Spectator Index tweet made me chuckle.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's not just Biden responsible for the declining power and influence the US has enjoyed since the end of WWII - and that power and relevance bestowed on the US after soundly defeating the Axis nations is a distant memory.

US power has been on the decline since the catastrophic conclusion of US involvement in Vietnam under the Nixon and Johnson admirations. The Ford admiration did little to build or reduce American power but Jimmy Carter made grave FP initiative errors that weakened US stature. Regan restored a good deal of it when he presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union "wining" the Cold War. Then, the two Bush presidencies with a Clinton presidency between the two, engaged in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, both with outcomes that further weakened American power internationally. Obama got behind two many progressive initiatives for globalism, Trump, unabashedly an isolationist, proposed withdrawing from NATO among other power and prestige reducing policies. I'd put Biden's embracing the policies of the extremist left in Congress right up there as one of the main culprits of diminishing US power and influence - recency bias notwithstanding.

Anyway, "if you have to blame someone" well, then there is a lot of failed US FP and failed leadership to share the blame going back over the last 50 years or so. The point is we are at one of those unique times in the history of mankind where a few more FP mistakes, the most relevant being not recognizing the threats the emerging Axis of authoritarian nations and their polices represents and instead putting the readiness of our armed forces to fight on the back burner while trying to be nice to them, will end up in the creation of a chaotic world. It's citizens will be ruled by governments that reject the concepts of liberal democracy and freedoms that America was founded on and the allies embrace. I'm not optimistic that western powers can prevent the coming end of Pax Americana and the chaos that will ensue.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The barbarity of the attack rightfully overshadows everything but, man, how can something that large in scale go completely undetected? The tally at the music festival alone was 260 as of this afternoon. You have to figure numbers will still increase in the near term as they account for everyone. I think it's safe to say the Gaza experiment didn't work out as hoped. Doze that fucking place.

Yeah most of the finger-pointing can come later but it HAS to be addressed at some point. This was obviously in the works for MONTHS and neither us or Israel caught a whiff of it. And secondly, why was security on the Gaza border so incredibly light? I've seen possible explanations for that but it starts to get political so I'll leave it there.

Based on accounts from survivors I also don't think the festival was pure happenstance. It sounds like it was explicitly targeted IMO. They had a plan to panic the crowd and herd them into an ambush.

[Jeff Buchanan]

One cannot really ignore the politics of this. Netanyahu has tried to ignore the Palestinian question and contain it. At the same time the extreme right within Israel has embarked, unrestrained by multiple Israeli governments over the last decade, of expanding housing into disputed territory as a way of edging out Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Iran has embarked on efforts to surround Israel with proxy governments that have armies equipped with Iranian kit. IMO, among others who write about this, western powers that support Israel's right to exist have ignored what amounts to a carefully crafted effort by Fundamental Islamists to plan for the destruction of Israel. Meanwhile, the US in particular, has ignored Iran's contribution to these proxy governments existence and the myriad Jihadist groups they support. Instead, Biden makes deals with them - the last one for a hostage exchange with Iran that provided the funding of what will be a slow strangulation of Israel and western influence in the ME.

It may be too late to counter the Iranian strategy with the only hope of doing so, a strong political and probably military effort by the Saudis. They're in a tough spot however as "brothers" with Islamists whose moderate elements are diminished by violent extremist practitioners of Islam. This crowd unabashedly declare that Israel should not exist and was wrongly bestowed lands belonging to the Palestinians by the US following the end of WWII. They have a point and it forms a rallying cry for Palestinians.

[Whitley]

Yeah most of the finger-pointing can come later but it HAS to be addressed at some point. This was obviously in the works for MONTHS and neither us or Israel caught a whiff of it. And secondly, why was security on the Gaza border so incredibly light? I've seen possible explanations for that but it starts to get political so I'll leave it there.

Based on accounts from survivors I also don't think the festival was pure happenstance. It sounds like it was explicitly targeted IMO. They had a plan to panic the crowd and herd them into an ambush.

Wasn't it an Israeli holiday?

[lineygoblue]

BREAKING: Hamas says it is open to truce talks with Israel

If Israel has their way, there will be no more Hamas in about 2-3 weeks. Maybe less.

And, if anyone has ever wondered how a "palestinian state" would look alongside Israel, Gaza and Hamas just showed you.

Once again, when 'palestinians' talk about 'the liberation of palestine', they are not talking about getting Israeli troops to leave the West Bank, and Old Jerusalem. They are not talking about an independent palestinan state alongside Israel. They are talking about the destruction of the state of Israel, and the elimination of the Jewish people. I don't know why anyone would have trouble understanding this. Just listen to them. They're telling you what they want.