ISIS attacks in Yemen

DrinkingHarp · March 21, 2015, 08:05:30 AM

ISIS claims to kill over 130 and injure 300+. Is this just status quo or more of the same old from this fanatical group? How is the west suppose to work with within the constraints of a group who doesn't care if they kill there own or foreigners?

macdanger2 · March 21, 2015, 08:23:36 AM

Interesting article here on Yemen and the different factions involved (govt, houthi, AQ & IS), it seems to be a lot more complex than you'd imagine

http://m.bbc.com/news/magazine-31907671

seafoid · March 21, 2015, 08:34:28 AM

ISIS seems to be a franchise for nihilism. The yemenis might use the branding but the profits stay in yemen,
In Syria they are having a hard time ruling the areas they captured. Decapitating people is great craic but it gets boring after a while.

LeoMc · March 23, 2015, 10:38:53 AM

Quote from: DrinkingHarp on March 21, 2015, 08:05:30 AM
ISIS claims to kill over 130 and injure 300+. Is this just status quo or more of the same old from this fanatical group? How is the west suppose to work with within the constraints of a group who doesn't care if they kill there own or foreigners?

They dont see the Shia or indeed anyone who does not subscribe to their narrow version of Islam as their own.

seafoid · March 23, 2015, 12:09:56 PM

Quote from: LeoMc on March 23, 2015, 10:38:53 AM
Quote from: DrinkingHarp on March 21, 2015, 08:05:30 AM
ISIS claims to kill over 130 and injure 300+. Is this just status quo or more of the same old from this fanatical group? How is the west suppose to work with within the constraints of a group who doesn't care if they kill there own or foreigners?
They dont see the Shia or indeed anyone who does not subscribe to their narrow version of Islam as their own.

ISIS is very like the Protestant extremists post Reformation who started trashing churches and anything they didn't agree with.
They did a lot of damage in Ireland with Cromwell, for example. Most of the medieval abbeys in Ireland were destroyed by them.

muppet · March 23, 2015, 04:11:23 PM

Quote from: seafoid on March 23, 2015, 12:09:56 PM
Quote from: LeoMc on March 23, 2015, 10:38:53 AM
Quote from: DrinkingHarp on March 21, 2015, 08:05:30 AM
ISIS claims to kill over 130 and injure 300+. Is this just status quo or more of the same old from this fanatical group? How is the west suppose to work with within the constraints of a group who doesn't care if they kill there own or foreigners?
They dont see the Shia or indeed anyone who does not subscribe to their narrow version of Islam as their own.
ISIS is very like the Protestant extremists post Reformation who started trashing churches and anything they didn't agree with.
They did a lot of damage in Ireland with Cromwell, for example. Most of the medieval abbeys in Ireland were destroyed by them.

Tom McGurk had a decent article on ISIS yesterday.

He claimed the beheading are a very deliberate spectacle to encourage the disaffected Muslims everywhere to fight the evil ways of the west.This form of barbarism is very attractive to the desperate, the bitterly racist and the psychopathic. Sadly, in the messed up worlds of North Africa and the Middle East, there are plenty of all of those.

In the excellent book Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks, he tracks the build up to, and early years of the US invasion of Iraq. Senior Military officials are prohibited from discussing anything, but he interviewed then recently retired Generals for his sources. The common theme was that the civilian Neo-Con ideologists ran blindly into a war in Iraq without every bothering to consider their exit strategy. This is a common theme in Syria and now Libya among other places.

Topple the despot, but then what?

Well now we know.

seafoid · March 23, 2015, 04:46:53 PM

Quote from: muppet on March 23, 2015, 04:11:23 PM
Quote from: seafoid on March 23, 2015, 12:09:56 PM
Quote from: LeoMc on March 23, 2015, 10:38:53 AM
Quote from: DrinkingHarp on March 21, 2015, 08:05:30 AM
ISIS claims to kill over 130 and injure 300+. Is this just status quo or more of the same old from this fanatical group? How is the west suppose to work with within the constraints of a group who doesn't care if they kill there own or foreigners?
They dont see the Shia or indeed anyone who does not subscribe to their narrow version of Islam as their own.
ISIS is very like the Protestant extremists post Reformation who started trashing churches and anything they didn't agree with.
They did a lot of damage in Ireland with Cromwell, for example. Most of the medieval abbeys in Ireland were destroyed by them.

Tom McGurk had a decent article on ISIS yesterday.

He claimed the beheading are a very deliberate spectacle to encourage the disaffected Muslims everywhere to fight the evil ways of the west.This form of barbarism is very attractive to the desperate, the bitterly racist and the psychopathic. Sadly, in the messed up worlds of North Africa and the Middle East, there are plenty of all of those.

In the excellent book Fiasco by Thomas E. Risks, he tracks the build up to, and early years of the US invasion of Iraq. Senior Military officials are prohibited from discussing anything, but he interviewed then recently retired Generals for his sources. The common theme was that the civilian Neo-Con ideologists ran blindly into a war in Iraq without every bothering to consider their exit strategy. This is a common theme in Syria and now Libya among other places.

Topple the despot, but then what?

Well know we know.

Yemen is a Water/Climate change war

http://www.irinnews.org/report/96093/yemen-time-running-out-for-solution-to-water-crisis
"The spectre of a country run dry looms over Yemen's nearly 25 million inhabitants.

With its streams and natural aquifers shallower every day, Sana'a itself risks becoming the first capital in the world to run out of a viable water supply. The water table in the city has dropped far beyond sustainable levels, El Shami said, because of an exploding population, lack of water resource management and, most of all, unregulated drilling. Where Sana'a's water table was 30 meters below the surface in the 1970s, he said, it has now dropped to 1,200 meters in some areas.
It will be very painful to the Yemeni people. They will have to make choices about survival, because water is life and water is survival.
The water supply in this largely arid country has been the source of decades-long ethnic conflicts, particularly among nomadic groups. In the northern governorate of Al-Jawf, a blood feud between two prominent local groups has continued unabated for nearly three decades, largely a result of the contested placement of a well on their territorial border."

IS are just helping the process along.

muppet · March 23, 2015, 05:21:36 PM

Plenty of potential desperate people to recruit......

Mike Sheehy · April 03, 2015, 02:30:44 AM

How come none of you lads have mentioned the major backers of the Houthi i.e. the Iranians ?

Why do you always try to control the message in this way ?

muppet · April 22, 2015, 05:47:52 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/state-of-terror

seafoid · April 22, 2015, 08:29:16 PM

Quote from: Mike Sheehy on April 03, 2015, 02:30:44 AM
How come none of you lads have mentioned the major backers of the Houthi i.e. the Iranians ?

Why do you always try to control the message in this way ?

are the houthis shia?

muppet · April 22, 2015, 08:53:20 PM

Quote from: seafoid on April 22, 2015, 08:29:16 PM
Quote from: Mike Sheehy on April 03, 2015, 02:30:44 AM
How come none of you lads have mentioned the major backers of the Houthi i.e. the Iranians ?

Why do you always try to control the message in this way ?
are the houthis shia?

Obama has done great foreign-policy work recently. His low oil price strategy has brought the Iranians to the table and will eventually bring the volatile Putin to heel as well.

He has put an end (hopefully permanently) to the Cuban situation.

All done without shocking and awing anyone.

Hopefully before he goes, he puts manners on the dreadful Netanyahu and gets the locals to sort out ISIS.