What has AQ been up to lately? And, on an unrelated matter, Hezbollah?

Are the Saud still bombing the shit out of Yemen, and is the US still assisting them?

edited 18th Oct '17 3:39:53 PM by TheHandle

As I recall, AQ stopped being relevant as a Cobra-esque supervillain organization around 2008. Taking out Bin Laden a few years later was more of a Mercy Kill than anything else because he never stuck his head out of his hole far enough to do any leading, and all of his lieutenants who did actual leading tended to live short careers due to the ongoing efforts of the US armed forces and intelligence community.

Hez are busy fighting for Assad in Syri and trying to get their pay (which is often weapons) back into Lebanon.

And yeah the Saudi’s are still bombing Yeman last I heard.

The initial rise of IS also had the ironic effect of causing huge numbers of AQ's most hardline members to defect, allowing for The Remnant of them to focus more closely on biding time and laying low instead of dramatically provoking fights with half of every organized army in the Middle East.

They're still very much active mind you, but now their activities seem to be focused on gaining regional fiefdoms instead of launching any attacks on Europe.

Air Force combat controller, AC-130 crew honored for valor in Afghanistan

So, how many more years or even just months before a new terrorist organization comes along?

@Handle - Saudia is still bombing (and invading) Yemen and also still losing.

As for the Syrian Civil War, this is merely the closing of one chapter. The Kurds and Assad seem intent on not leaving each other alone. And the Turks have quietly entered Idlib.

edited 18th Oct '17 9:52:08 PM by FFShinra

They already exist. More networked and more urbanised.

The one thing it might change is a stop to the number of second-generation Muslim Europeans who went to fight for IS in Syria. Many of the ones who did were Kurds and Palestinians, stateless peoples looking for a chance to do nation building. Without any territory, that will start losing its appeal.

That's kind of ironic, given many of my conservative acquaintances singing the praises of the Kurdish women's militias. Granted, they were mostly doing it to try and shame refugees fleeing the area, and it was already pretty ironic given that the YPJ is what you'd call a Socialist militia (in the US, I think they'd be placed somewhere left of Antifa, and rather better armed and more violent).

Let me guess, your conservative acquaintances are the types who go "Look at these cowardly Middle Eastern men flee for Europe while their women stay and fight" right?

Ask them if they think women make just as capable soldiers as them.

X3 I’m having trouble understanding your sentence, are you saying that European Kurds were going to Syria to fight FOR ISIS? Because that’s simply not accurate, a number will have gone to fight for the Kurdish groups against ISIS, but the Kurds have plenty of enemies still so that flow won’t stop. If there was a big flow of Palestinians from Europe to ISIS than that may dry up but I’m not aware of such a thing existing, mainly we saw 2nd or 3rd generation Muslims (often with a North African, Somali or Turkish background) going to join ISIS.

A Danish journalist accessed government records stating that second-generation Kurdish men had indeed traveled to Syria to fight on either side. I believe he even interviewed a few.

His hypothesis is that some may have been attracted to the 'constructive' nature of IS at the time, i.e the propagandic image of nation-building before the real picture emerged.

The numbers may have been different elsewhere, but the three largest groups who left Denmark to fight were Kurds, Palestinians and Danes. Granted, only about 130 people in total left, so the sample size is not great.

edited 19th Oct '17 5:26:19 PM by math792d

Sure I can buy Kurds leaving to fight, but going to fight on behalf of ISIS? ISIS are trying to wipe the Kurds out, that just doesn’t make sense. If you’ve got a source on there being Kurdish ISIS members I’d love to read more on it.

Also with Palestinians I wonder if it’s less that they’re wanting to build a state and more that Palestinians are more prone to radicalisation due to already suffering from factors that often lead to radicalisation.

See them as the Jews and Slavs that fought for Nazi Germany.

Unfortunately the only source I have is in Danish, but this article discusses part of it. The essence of it is a conflict between salafist Kurds choosing religion over tribe, which has its roots in divisions among the Kurdish people going back 30-40 years.

I also need to correct my above quote - Palestinians were the fifth largest ethnic grouping. Danish 'natives' were #2.

edited 19th Oct '17 5:39:14 PM by math792d

As N. Korea threatens nuclear missile test, are US ballistic defenses ready?

DAMN. At least THAAD allowed some in ADA to escape Korea..not anymore...

Shit, Tomi Lahren was right.... (I need a shower after just typing that)

One wonders if this is just a lack of fitness, or improved testing and profiling weeding out huge portions of unfit recruits that would have been accepted only to wash out or become consistent problems a couple of decades ago.

edited 20th Oct '17 9:06:18 PM by ViperMagnum357

Its not like that is a lack of recruits either, 1.7-9.7 million are the last number there that isn't just an arbitary reduction.

Especialy since collage doesn't stop army enrolment, it just makes them officers.

edited 20th Oct '17 9:26:21 PM by Imca

One of my AIT instructors pointed this out: You have a generation that sits at home playing vidya games, eating junk food. Many have never played outside or played on team sports. Those that did stopped working out. Those that are fit are either too high or have a criminal record.

College does give people the change to become an officer, but again they have to be fit and have no criminal record.

When I was undergoing an Army class offered to civilians, two civies had to bow out. One had his clearance on hold, the other had it yanked because he didn't disclose an arrest five years prior.

edited 20th Oct '17 9:59:30 PM by TairaMai

What about the GI Bill? Most of the military roles have nothing to do with combat or even strategy. Having an education program could be really helpful.

As for the bad physical condition, that's just more time and money spent on training and conditioning. You could go the Swiss way and space it out over time. Hell, you could even make a Federal Health Programme that people could sign up for: "if you train with us, within one year/two years, you will be fit enough to apply to be a soldier!" I can see lots of people who would love a military-themed, government-sanctioned training, but don't want to join the military proper for whatever reason.

Hell, going one step further, what about military-themed extracurriculars for teenagers? I mean, you already have them play highly tactical, physically dangerous sports such as US Football and NBA-rules Basketball and Soccer. For the parents' entertainment, since apparently selling tickets for Sunday matches is a necessary part of school funding. Why not have them play various wargames instead? Chess, paintball, obstacle races, capture the flag,.. In fact, did you know that the original Olympics were entirely based on stuff you would do in the battlefield? The Javelin and the Disk were actual weapons. Jumping over walls and across ditches. Sprinting in a charge. Marching quickly over long distances. And so on.

My point is that if the US military is short on qualified volunteers, there's a bunch of easy, not-so-expensive ways to increase the pool.

Oh, also, are they taking women into account?

The problem is that there is no "front line". So every servicemember has to be fit.

The problem is that too many people (men and women) are not fit enough: broken bones, sprained joints, torn muscles. The shock of going from unfit flabby civilian to soldier/marine/airmen/sailor has been too much for a lot of people.

The problem with extra training is that it costs money. The goal of basic training is to get a civilian up to speed and ready for military life. The problem is that many are just not ready.

Turns out it's difficult for people on the lower end of the income scale (let's not mince words about the people the armed forces generally attract) to stay in shape when dieting properly and working out is expensive, and a system whereby physical injuries are often aggravated because of lack of treatment.

Gee, if only there was some way to remedy these problems instead of spending more money on a huge unwieldy war dick...

Nope, can't think of anything. Let's just ban video games, that'll solve it.