The Arab Spring

ISIS fighters catch Leishmaniasis, spread it further.

Leishmaniasis is a goddamn flesh-eating virus, which can lead to death if left untreated. It began to spread last year with the collapse of public health during the Syrian civil war. ISIS has driven off the medics and aid workers who were combating the spread of the disease, and are refusing treatment themselves, thus spreading it further.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

I wonder how many hundreds or thousands will die simply due to ISIS' mismanagement of medicine and food supplies.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

It's not mismanagement when its willful denial of medical services. The rebirth of polio in Pakistan has occured for much the same reason.

That should be a war crime, frankly.

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

I completely agree. If a company knew that a dam they maintained was about to break they'd be obliged to warn people about it so that they could evacuate the area that was about to be flooded. A failure to offer essential medical services that a government (or equivalent) was able to provide - let alone a refusal to allow others to provide that service - is at least as bad as that hypothetical dam scenario.

EDIT: Actually, I might go so far as to compare this to the Holodomor; except that the scale, of course, is very different, as far as we know.

edited 5th Apr '15 6:05:32 PM by BestOf

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

On that note, there was a story a few months back regarding how food production in northern Iraq has plummeted in the past year.

One can only hope that starvation and disease bring about ISIS' defeat (at least in terms of their occupations) so that aid and experts can get in there and try save who they can. Though the fighters are certainly getting first pick of medicine and food.

One wonders what impact a famine would have on ISIS' ability to maintain their grip on the local populace; starvation can quickly lead to panic (which can lead to disorganized unrest) and part of their propaganda is the ability to provide an effective welfare state (at least compared to the warzones nearby).

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

On the other hand, the Red Khmers managed to stay around for four blood-soaked years until Vietnam got fed up and stamped them out.

edited 5th Apr '15 6:21:10 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

I think Da'esh will try to murder the starving so that there is more food for their fighters. Stupid move, but I fully expect it.

If a similar situation happens here, I'd be interested to see which nation plays the role of Vietnam...

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

Kind of depressing that just about everyone around Syria is fucked in a similar way (though, again, probably not a similar extent) as the neighbours of Cambodia back then. You know, ravaged by war and used as pawns in the regional (and global) powers' chess...

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

Why the hell are ISIS refusing medical treatments? Wait...

But that... How does... Where the f*** did they even come up with this?! I never heard of a sharia school that actually forbids Caesarian section birth as "un-Islamic" in all cases (as opposed to only forbidding it when there is no medical necessity).

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Their own, I reckon. I'm not sure if I want to get my hands on the complete and unabridged version of their "jurisprudence".

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Nipick, I know, but Leishmania is a protozoan, not a virus.

As for the "unislamic Caesarean section": I remember once throwing a few glimpses into a book about the way the Koran is usually read. One point they make there is that it's a message that is incredibly easy to cherry-pick in favour of whatever stance you want it to support.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

You can say that about a great many scriptures.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

A key talent for any fanatic, regardless of the creed or ideology they are twisting, is the ability to know which parts of your chosen scripture don't really count and which ones are to be taken to the illogical extreme (with all sensible context removed).

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Here's an article about Daesh fining medical practitioners for performing cesareans. The explanation given is... baffling. But certainly par for the course for a group who have an at best tenuous grasp on their own religion and seem to make up shit according to what lets them feel better about the atrocities they are already committing.

” UK-based newspaper the Daily Mail reported

Not the most reliable of sources. Also this

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.

If this conflict in Yemen remains at this level of (or even increases) intensity, I have to wonder what the refugee situation will become if it mimics the Syrian refugee crisis, considering in this case, ones choices are Saudia, Oman, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti....

EDIT-

Djbouti will make Lebanon look like a walk in the park in terms of how they could be affected.

Even GETTING to Saudi Arabia would be difficult because of the Rub Al Khali.

Oman is doable, but at the otherside of a vast battlefield for most.

Somalia and Sudan....need I say more?

edited 6th Apr '15 12:39:34 PM by FFShinra

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

There aren't nearly as many people in Yemen though, are there?

They have about the same population, roughly. Syria's 23m to Yemen's 21m.

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

You know the situation is crazy when fleeing to Somalia becomes even a hypothetically viable possibility...

Than again, people fled to Rwanda just a few years after the genocide when it's neighbors got unstable...

edited 6th Apr '15 1:21:37 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

The north of Somalia is actually pretty stable though, with Somaliland functioning effectively as its own unrecognised state within a state.

Won't stay that way for long, if they get hit with hundreds of thousands of displaced Yemenis....

edited 6th Apr '15 2:32:23 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Precisely.

And Djibouti is a glorified city state. It won't be able to handle more than a few thousand.

Sudan might be able to take them for awhile...as long as Bashir isn't next.

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

They could always try India or Pakistan. I don't advise them to go West. There's enough corpses in the Mediterranean as it is.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

One thing i did know was that Yemen has a sizable refugee population *from* Somalia.

Frontline is doing a story on Yemen today

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.