The Arab Spring

...Not good.

What about in Libya? Have things calmed down a little?

Proud member of the IAA What's the point of being grown up if you can't act childish?

They aren't getting worse, but no, they aren't better as of yet. These things take time, even in todays age of twitter.

I'm more worried about Yemen though. But no one is covering it.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

I think the general consensus about Yemen is "screw it". It has every chance of turning into Somalia Mark II (this, just as Somalia itself is getting better).

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Dangerous consensus that...

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

How is Somalia getting better?

Also, here is news on Yemen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17788086

edited 2nd May '12 8:39:58 PM by stripesthezebra

Al-Shabaab's merger with al-Qaeda is very likely a sign that it's not confident enough to operate by itself. Less speculatively, attacks in Mogadishu against the government-in-place are actually becoming less common than before. There was big bombing a while ago that seemed to be targeting the Prime Minister, but it was no longer seen as a symptom of "business as usual".

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

In addition, Ethiopian and/or Kenyan AU forces have made progress recently by capturing some towns/cities from the Islamists.

(Been a while since I read those news so I don't remember it very well...)

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

Hasn't Kenya's offensive been mostly a masisve case of "lol, epic fail"?

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

All operations against al-Shabaab (hope I got the name right) in the past several years have been failures except the last year or so.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

What changed?

Proud member of the IAA What's the point of being grown up if you can't act childish?

Direct involvement of Kenya. So quite the opposite of fail when you think about it...

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

SUCCEED!

Proud member of the IAA What's the point of being grown up if you can't act childish?

But the Kenyan troops fell hilariously short of their states mission objectives, advancing at a snail's pace or not at all. Mostly, al-Shaabah seems to be able to hold them off easily enough.

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

Mission objectives are to establish a buffer zone. Those were met.

You have to understand, the Kenyan Army is organized as a self-defence force, not like the US or some other great power military, that can launch expeditionary campaigns on a whim. So no, they're doing fine.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

Also, as far as I could tell, al-Shabaab is controlling much smaller areas of the country than before. If Somalia's a mess, it's better than it was in 1993 (which is what most people think of it as), and—for that matter—better than Yemen, where AQIP controls extensive territory.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

One should keep in mind that there are, simply put, three Somalias, not one. The south-eastern third is what you hear about in relation to the civil war and Shabab. The middle third, aka Punt, is the stomping ground of the Pirates of the Indian Ocean, However the northern third, while not a paradise is pretty stable and peaceful. It considers itself an independent notion and calls itself Somaliland but unfortunately has yet to be recognized by anyone.

Trump delenda est

Been poking around Al Jazerra and according to the live blog a group called al-Nusra Front have been claiming responsibility for the suicide bombings. I remember a while back a lot of us were wondering who was carrying them out.

Link: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

Libyan ex-Oil Minister, who defected during the uprising, found dead in Danube in Vienna (where he worked after his defection). I wonder what's the story on that.

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

Rogue pro-Duncedaffy spies/assassins?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

This sounds as much like a suicide as it does a murder that was framed to look like a suicide.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

They should check for poison/drugs in his blood.

Well, sure, if he actually had a history of heart attacks or some such illness.

edited 29th Apr '12 3:37:07 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I'm a bit sceptical about it being an accident, but then again, the guy was 69.

edited 29th Apr '12 3:41:07 PM by BestOf

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

Libya bans religious political parties:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/04/2012425134112668493.html

I still think it would have been best for the west not to have intervened in Libya...

Also, Qaddafi apparently financed sarkozy´s campaing. 50 million dollars.

edited 29th Apr '12 9:32:15 PM by Baff

I will always cherish the chance of a new beggining.

...You condemn intervention, and then you give even more of a reason why Gaddafi's regime should have been ended.

Secularism of the non-punishing kind could be useful in Libya, to prevent it going further to the right.

Proud member of the IAA What's the point of being grown up if you can't act childish?