Monitoring the War on Terror in Countries that aren't Iraq/Afghanistan

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this thread is for discussion of War on Terror-related actions in countries that aren't Iraq or Afghanistan. Like US anti-terror taskforces in the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Georgia, etc. Or perhaps the Russians in Chechneya (maybe a stretch). Also future action should be debated (Iran? Syria? when the fuck will this farce end?). Compile data, talk policy, bitch, etc.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

If GWB goes into Iraq before November, and he loses the election, how hogtied will Kerry be?

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

er, meant to write IraN. See, it happens.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

there's no possible way that will happen before the election. Perhaps not even after, in the hopefully-never chance that Dubya wins.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

my friends just got back from Iran, i'll be seeing her at the weekend probably, i'll ask what the mood there is, as far as she can tell (which, may be a limited perspective, i don't know)

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

of the two major rivals, Iran would be the far more difficult country to invade and subjugate than Iraq. So given our difficulties in the latter (with the subjugation part, at least), I don't see the former getting fucked with anytime soon.

Syria's a different story, though.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

From what I understand, Iran is on a rather stable course of change right now. The Ayatollahs are still in power, but there really is quite a bit of reform getting through over dere. I will be extremely disappointed in an American or other administration that decides to attack them and probably in that attack ruin the direction towards an actual rights movement that much of their population (a population approx. %66 of is under 30) is pushing.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

It's twisted that we actually have to have a thread remind us there is more suffering out going on there than this Iraqi bollocks

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd read the sabre rattling against iran as being merely pre-election bluster, and keeping 'terror' (and proactivity in regard to) at top of agenda?

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

actually nick the reform movement in Iran has kinda stalled. But I hope it will eventually win out (perhaps some covert aid on the part of the US would help?).

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I will be extremely disappointed in an American or other administration that decides to attack them and probably in that attack ruin the direction towards an actual rights movement that much of their population

Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The way the last four years have gone with American foreign policy, I had almost forgotten the word "covert" entirely.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, if our intention truly was to git Saddam, surely with our technology as it is we could have done some covert shit and get to him down dere in that whole and not have to have crippled almost %100 of the nation's infrastructure, no?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost - I'd garner that excluding Iraq most of the US action in the War on Terror is "covert." Including Afghanistan. Plus we had dudes on the ground in Iraq long before we invaded.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

...surely with our technology as it is we could have done some covert shit and get to him down dere in that whole and not have to have crippled almost %100 of the nation's infrastructure, no?

most of our covert shit was actually dudes coordinating timing and targets for that, ie. special ops on the ground sending in coordinates for bombs to hit at a specific time.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Little of the covert action seemed to entail finding out that iraq had no WMDs - funny that

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

why the assumption that covert action is all-powerful?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I've watched too many action films.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

You and Rumsfeld both

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

think back to the last time the US tried a covert military action in Iran.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess the fault lies on me for expecting My America to be able to send in like a specially trained Samuel L. Jackson and Owen Wilson to go in and take down the entire Republican National Guard armed with only the most modern state-of-the-art equipment packed into neat little black suits and end with them riding away from the ashes of Baghdad on a helicopter with two bomb diggitty Iraqi hotties they rescued from Saddam's dungeons or some shit.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post oh holy shit good point stence

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i think an interesting situation is, what countries have benefited from the war on terror? lets, for now, leave aside the 2 countries in the title, and also israel/america, as there are a hundred other threads for discussing that.

who are the beneficiaries? or, perhaps, who managed to play this whole thing to their advantage?

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

uh, maybe Libya?

― Whiskeytown Littlecock (ex machina), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Pakistan too.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Libya definitely. Uzbekistan. Probably various other unpleasant dictatorships. What a triumph for freedom.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

who are the beneficiaries? or, perhaps, who managed to play this whole thing to their advantage?

Turkey. Certainly w.r.t. the Kurd situation in northern Iraq

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

how exactly did turkey benefit¿ wouldn't the kurd situation complicate matters for them¿

― dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Pakistan came up huge. Pakistan harbors terrorists on its fringes, pakistan is a military dictatorship and a nuclear power as well. however, instead of putting the screws to them in our response to 9/11 we buddied up with them to get military bases against afghanistan. pakistan is also responsible for a shitload of nuclear proliferation and that guy (whose name escapes me) who has setup nuclear programs in north korea, etc got busted awhile back and the pakistanis PARDONED him w/ no response whatsoever from the US.

uzbekistan recently got their aid withdrawn by the us. perhaps someone showed gwb the memo about their dictator boiling dissidents alive.

― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

great New Yorker piece on the Madrid bombings: The Terror Web.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

perhaps someone showed gwb the memo about their dictator boiling dissidents alive.

You mean this didn't endear him to Bush further?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

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