The Arab Spring

Only goes to show how much they see Syria as a glorified field test

Exactly.

Military-industrial complexes are the same anywhere, it seems.

Saudis launched an airstrike on the funeral procession of the father of the Houthi-appointed Interior Minister. 140 killed, thousands upon thousands are currently protesting in front of the UN to get them to launch an independent investigation.

edited 9th Oct '16 10:32:10 AM by FFShinra

For the fucks sake.

Are the Saudis armed forces that fucking stupid? No wait, they are.

... Wait, what? Attacking a funeral procession?! That's... That's barely less horrible than actually desecrating the guy's grave after he's buried in it!

I'd argue is several basements below that. Desecration of body? Check. Desecration of funeral? Check. Dismemberment of those properly attending to the last rights? Check. Loss of own basic human decency? Check.

edited 9th Oct '16 1:11:36 PM by Euodiachloris

A US warship in the red sea came under fire by missiles from the Yemeni coastline. Thankfully they missed, but coupled with the funeral bombing and the hubbub of US involvement in the Saudi campaign, I feel like Yemen is about to come front and center...........

No bets: they assumed they were firing on Saudi equipment... most of which is bought from where, again?

The Misadventures of Russia and the United States in Syria: Complete Strategy Implosion Edition

edited 11th Oct '16 4:54:21 AM by TerminusEst

I wouldn't call this mess a "strategy implosion," though, since the US never had a functional strategy in the first place and Russia honestly doesn't care about ending this war.

I thought Russia wanted the war to end fairly quickly? Long-term, it's a political liability, not hurting their standing at home now, but that could change so rapidly given the fog of war.

It's a good testing ground for equipment, plus the longer it goes on the more in debt to Russia the Syrian Regime becomes.

That and they are essentially using the British handbook on How to Colonize a Wartorn Nation step by step in Latakia and Tartus provinces. They may not want all of Syria, but they want those two.

Separate thing, I was looking at an antique globe from the 40s and it had a subdivision of French Syria for the Druze, a little east of Damascus.

Jabal al-Druze province roughly corresponds to that I believe.

The Houthi's fired a second anti ship missile salvo at USS Mason. In response the US launched Tomahawks at three radar sights in Yemen.

While nice for the US Navy, Obama really should perhaps extracate the US from the Yemen conflict.

"Perhaps"? Dude needs to back out quickly. I have the impression that Obama tends to slip out when a crisis occurs. His foreign policy is much more successful in non-crisis situations.

I was understating it, but yes.

I think I'd rather the US prosecute the war in Yemen than the Saudis – at least the Americans are likely to stop while there are Shia left alive.

Can't win the war from the air period. Neither side has the ground forces to occupy the other, and the foreign backers on either side won't commit. US being involved or not is immaterial to that except in that there likely won't be as ridiculous headlines as the funeral bombing.

I must admit I saw way less outrage over the funeral bombing than the Kunduz hospital... Spectreing?

The US leading an intervention and telling the coalition to stand down is really unlikely for the reasons mentioned. Probably won't happen next year either regardless of whoever wins in November.

Well, the difference between the Kunduz incident and the Saudis' funeral bombing is that the former was performed by a country that isn't commonly thought of as completely psychotic and just as stupid.

There are reports that Dabiq is poised to fall. It's not much of a stronghold, but anyone reading this thread will recall just why it is important to Daesh.

Are their social media accounts ranting and raving about how the end is nigh/their final victory is imminent?