Let’s have a war!

[ousdahl]

To be fair, any of us may react similarly if someone tried to drop that much K-pop on our heads

[TDub]

K-poop I think is what you're going for there.

[ousdahl]

lol

also...ah fuck it...just...lol

Biden admin openly hammering Israel’s military strategy in Gaza

The Biden administration fears Israel is disastrously squandering its opportunity for victory against Hamas, losing its best chance to eliminate the group’s hold on Gaza and threat to the Israeli people.

Top officials are publicly calling Israel’s strategy in Gaza self-defeating and likely to open the door to Hamas’ return — a level of criticism of the Middle East ally not seen since the war began in October.

The officials say Israel’s government has failed to hold parts of Gaza after clearing them, has turned the civilian population and the rest of the world against it with widespread bombing and inadequate humanitarian aid, and enabled Hamas to recruit more fighters.
...
Although Hamas’ communications and military abilities have been degraded, only 30 to 35 percent of its fighters — those who were a part of Hamas before the Oct. 7 attack — have been killed and about 65 percent of its tunnels are still intact, U.S. intelligence indicates.

Biden officials have also become increasingly concerned that Hamas has been able to recruit during wartime — thousands over the last several months. That has allowed the group to withstand months of Israeli offensives, according to a person familiar with U.S. intelligence.

Dana Stroul, a former top Middle East official in the Pentagon who stepped down in January, recently wrote that the U.S. shared lessons of its failures in Iraq with Israel — namely how an insurgency grew out of the botched American occupation — but that Israel has not heeded those warnings.

“Not only has Israel declined to learn from this body of knowledge and experience on the sequencing of activities to prevent worst outcomes for postconflict societies, but it also appears that Israel is on track to repeat the same mistakes,” she lamented in a Foreign Affairs essay published Monday.
...
“Israel has a right and responsibility to defeat Hamas, but its current strategy of large-scale, conventional military operations will backfire and undermine that goal,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in an interview. “The U.S. learned over decades that unless you center humanitarian needs and the protection of civilians in conflict that your military goals will fail. We are seeing this first hand as Hamas rapidly resurfaces after IDF operations and retains capabilities despite months of fighting.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/2 ... a-00159262

[Shirley]

What an ignorant way to begin your post.

[ousdahl]

well, forgive me. I certainly don't mean to be ignorant.

Would you like to discuss the article?

[Shirley]

well, forgive me. I certainly don't mean to be ignorant.

Would you like to discuss the article?

Your lack of appreciation for the history and context renders you unable to appreciate what a huge step it is for the US to publicly criticize Israel, so instead, you mock and make light of it.

Educating you so I can argue with you is too high a wall to climb.

[Sparko]

Hobson's choice. As planned. If there were easy moves, Bibi would have already been jailed and Putin would fall out of a window.

[ousdahl]

Again, forgive me for the "lol."

I did not mean it in a way to mock, nor make light of, what a huge step it is for the US to publicly criticize Israel. The "lol" was more of resignation, a "lolsigh," as I was concerned any response I might get would be less about the article itself, and more just petty condescension.

And yet, despite your petty condensencion, you actually discuss the article itself anyway. OK great!

Cuz, believe it or not, I do appreciate the history and context of what a huge step it is for the US to publicly criticize Israel. That's why I posted an article about precisely that!

So what do you think of, say, the "Iraq 2.0" plot twist?

Cuz, to be honest, I dunno if I saw that coming, either.

[ousdahl]

Hobson's choice. As planned. If there were easy moves, Bibi would have already been jailed and Putin would fall out of a window.

It's kinda wild that Bibi has managed to hold onto power.

There were protests across Israel before 10/7. Now pretty sure he's even more on the hot seat, both domestically and abroad, for all sorts of shit that only keeps getting worse.

And yet, he's not only still in power, but he just got an invite from Speaker Johnson to come give a speech to the House.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

BIG factor and problem I have in regards to Bibi is the increase in anti-Semitism in this country and across the world.
The thing that is mind blowing to me is how the racist ignorant fucks in this country choose to decide if they are going to be strong supporters of Israel or strong supporters of "Palestine". Shouldn't they be hating both, if they truly are the racist fucks they want to be and actually take pride in being?
Yes, I am the one who points out Israel has a lot of citizens who are NOT Jewish and people hate "A-Rabs, and "Mooslums" (as much if not more than "Jooze") but come on man, why do they pick sides and not just say, fuck 'em all!
Right MICH?

[KUTradition]

Survivors say Russia is waging a war of sexual violence in occupied areas of Ukraine. Men are often the victims

uniquely depraved

[Shirley]

Survivors say Russia is waging a war of sexual violence in occupied areas of Ukraine. Men are often the victims

uniquely depraved

BIG factor and problem I have in regards to Bibi is the increase in anti-Semitism in this country and across the world.
The thing that is mind blowing to me is how the racist ignorant fucks in this country choose to decide if they are going to be strong supporters of Israel or strong supporters of "Palestine". Shouldn't they be hating both, if they truly are the racist fucks they want to be and actually take pride in being?
Yes, I am the one who points out Israel has a lot of citizens who are NOT Jewish and people hate "A-Rabs, and "Mooslums" (as much if not more than "Jooze") but come on man, why do they pick sides and not just say, fuck 'em all!
Right MICH?

^^^

If those who have suddenly found themselves aghast at the plight of the Palestinians post Oct. 7th are as virtuously motivated as they would like to have us believe, why weren't/aren't they similarly motivated to come to the aid of the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who've been slaughtered since Russia invaded their country more than two years ago?

They aren't, so they don't.

[jfish26]

Survivors say Russia is waging a war of sexual violence in occupied areas of Ukraine. Men are often the victims

uniquely depraved

I have been told that Ukraine asked for it.

[KUTradition]

Survivors say Russia is waging a war of sexual violence in occupied areas of Ukraine. Men are often the victims

uniquely depraved

I have been told that Ukraine asked for it.

or…NATO’s fault

[ousdahl]

Pretty sure many supporters of a free Palestine realize the plight began long before October 7.

What Russia is doing to Ukraine is horrific. I’m afraid sexual violence may be an issue of war at large, more so than an issue of simply the bad guys doing it. It makes for some powerful propaganda tho.

And what Russia is doing to Ukraine still may pale in comparison to what Israel is and has been doing to Palestine. Thank the fucking lord Russia hasn’t entrapped over 2 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, in an de facto open-air prison for years before anyone suddenly found themselves aghast at the plight of the Ukrainians, right?

And that’s not to condone a thing Russia is doing! Let’s hope it’s not decades down the road and Ukrainians have been pushed to a small couple Gaza/West Bank-type areas, and otherwise violently displaced, or killed, as Russia continues to settle the occupied areas.

One theory I’ve heard about the “racist ignorant fucks” and how they choose to decide who to support is, while many of them may not like “the Jooze,” they DO like the idea of ethno-states.

Also, another thought on the racist ignorant fucks…it’s at the very least quite the curiosity how much of the pro-Palestine crowd shares the middle of the venn diagram with the pro-BLM crowd.

(ducks)

[DeletedUser]

Yikes.

[MICHHAWK]

it doesn't make you rascist if you hate the middle east. it makes you American.

[jfish26]

Yikes.

[jhawks99]

Folks in the Middle East go to malls too.

[ousdahl]

The bigotry exhibited in this thread has hardly been limited to mich. he’s just the only one who owns it, for better or worse.

Soo…

Thought experiment:

If Trump wins in November, and keeps doubling down on the “no matter how long” and reckless proxy war spending, do you think Dems will finally be concerned about genocide then?