War with Syria

Famm_sl said:

Yeah but what if the rogue is fully twinked out and we know they are Verant's pet class anyway and warriors have been gimped for everything but tanking for so long now, I mean its simple justice at that point.

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Yeah, but the rogue also corpse camped the shit out of the 60 shaman for a week. The rogue is an asshole.

I love how everything reverts to EQ references. No salmon.

We really ARE in their world, still. Bitch.

David Cameron is debating in parliament right now to justify ordering military intervention. He needs Labour's support to make it happen but seems like there are going to be lots of hurdles to overcome to get that support.

One wonders if the US with go it ahead without UK support who had always been a main ally if no consensus is met within the British parliament.

Neki_sl said:

David Cameron is debating in parliament right now to justify ordering military intervention. He needs Labour's support to make it happen but seems like there are going to be lots of hurdles to overcome to get that support.

One wonders if the US with go it ahead without UK support who had always been a main ally if no consensus is met within the British parliament.

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I don't think either Cameron or Milliband have been very effective in the debate. Cameron was in "spoiled brat" mode for having to explain himself, while Milliband looked like a ditherer. All in all the MPs will vote on party lines, and it will come down to whether the Libs vote with Cameron (because they are allied with his party in government) or against him (because they hated the Irag invasion and they know the public are 2:1 against doing anything).

But at least we're getting some kind of debate on this.

Looks like action will be delayed for several days.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97K0EL20130829

Grayson Carlyle_sl said:

Also everyone responding to Eomer has replied against things he didn't state at all. It's like Americans have a completely different meaning for intervention than the rest of the world. We're not talking Iraq here. Everyone except the US was initially against Iraq, now it's the opposite. The only thing Eomer, and the Canadian population in general is in support of, is to stop indiscriminately killing thousands of civilians with gas. However, like Eomer, I don't really have any idea how that should be done. Regarldless, you guys need to stop putting words into his mouth.

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*brofist*

Iannis_sl said:

I love how everything reverts to EQ references. No salmon.

We really ARE in their world, still. Bitch.

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I thought Command and Conquer was more appropriate.

Tuco_sl said:

I think we all are just frustrated with the establishment pushing for intervention and want someone to argue with. Eomer has a pretty weak standpoint of ambiguity, so it's much more fun to pretend he wants Syria to be the next Iraq, Afghanistan or even Libya.

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Fair enough, and I understand that. I'm not trying to hide in the ambiguity. It's just a reality of this particular situation and geopolitics in general. Sorry I don't have any simple, concrete answers, but my general feeling is that if the Assad regime can be shown to have conclusively used chemical weapons on civilians, strong words just don't go far enough in deterring future assholes from doing it. That doesn't mean regime change, invasion, or even a no fly zone are necessary or desirable either. Really it's less about Syria in particular and more about future deterrence. And I readily admit that even a limited attack might well make the regional situation much worse. However I also think it's beyond retarded that some people think that Russia might react military to an attack. They'll protest loudly, maybe even turn off some pipelines here or there, but that'll be it. This isn't the fucking missile crisis, nor is it anywhere close to being some sort of precursor to WW3.

Things are starting to get really nasty as the UK parliamentary debate goes on:

"A furious row between Downing Street and the Labour leadership has erupted after No 10 accused Ed Miliband of giving "succour" to the Assad regime after he moved to block an early Commons vote on military action.

...Asked whether Miliband was giving succour to the Assad regime, another Downing Street spokesperson said: "Yes. The fact is that a lot of the arguments over this could give succour to the regime." Labour immediately hit back. A spokesman said: "That is frankly insulting. Language like that demeans Downing Street."

Miliband was already angry after a government source used expletives overnight to criticise Miliband. A government source told the Times on Wednesday night: "No 10 and the Foreign Office think Miliband is a fucking cunt and a copper-bottomed shit."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-succour-assad

BBC has a live twitter feed. It's the best coverage I've seen so far. Look up "Live Text" after going to the bbcnews website.

AP sources: Intelligence on weapons no 'slam dunk'

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-29-03-11-56

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The intelligence linking Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle to an alleged chemical weapons attack is no "slam dunk," with questions remaining about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike, U.S. intelligence officials say.

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Maybe Kerry doesn't know what undeniable means?

I just don't get how anyone could have been against the Iraq war and be for this with a straight face. The evidence for Iraq was considerably stronger than the case for Syria. We were facing a government that was far more openly hostile towards the US than Syria is, we knew Iraq had used gas against its own civilians and other countries in the past and we had higher hopes in the Iraq case of an opposition that wasn't virulently anti-american.

Yet after years of almost universal acknowledgement on the part of many that the Iraq war was a bad idea, many of these same people are all over the Syrian intervention. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

khalid_sl said:

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

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It comes from the belief that military and other punitive action enhances security across the board and therefore enhances the wider interests of a given nation or nations.

The drum beat for Iraq at least made sense at the time. We had been attacked, Iraq was a terrorist state, we cannot allow the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud, ties to 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, etc etc etc. The media was pushing it pretty hard and there was a coherent narrative. Our intel turned out to be a mixture of lies and fabrications and it ended up being a gigantic clusterfuck and it was really all about Bush Jr's daddy issues but at the time the progression was logical.

This shit in Syria is being marketed a zillion times worse. We weren't attacked, there isn't any concern about an imminent threat to the United States, it's a civil war and our involvement is going to require the direct or indirect aiding of Al-Qaeda allied forces, and the region really is chained together in a fashion not entirely dissimilar to pre-WW1 Europe. I don't see any short term gains. The long term gains are an oil pipeline for European interests, weakening an enemy of Israel, and weakening Iran for a possible future conflict. Obama is doing a right shitty job of selling this war. I need to hear more than this is about helping people.

Sell me on this. Make me believe.