Really? I see precisely one point which, according to you, is a factual error.
Legolas Send a noteboard - 26/05/2017 11:41:00 PM
View original post2. Every single person whom I know who has spent appreciable time in that region agrees that there are no ties to artificial nations. One of my friends spent over a year training Iraqi Special Forces. These were people largely from urban backgrounds and they had no sense of national identity but strong ties to clan. It was to clan leaders that we appealed to create the "Sunni Awakening" because going to government officials would be a waste of time. These were people living in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul and other large cities where you wrongly assert that clan structures haven't played a role in centuries.
Fallujah and Ramadi were hardly the kind of places I had in mind. Baghdad, yes. It's possible I underestimated how much of a role clans still play there, which is the only 'error' I can find that isn't just a different interpretation.
View original post3. The term "Arab world" IS a misnomer. These people speak various languages that we call "Arabic" because they are descended from the Classical Arabic spoken by the tiny numbers of invaders who were demographically swallowed up into existing Egyptian, Berber, Assyrian, Syrian, Phoenician, Babylonian and Yemeni populations. However, you know well that a Moroccan would have problems communicating with an Iraqi, and although Egyptians tend to understand other dialects, people from other dialects often have problems with Egyptian Arabic.
... so? If you're just trying to point out that calling Arabic a single language is debatable, and to some extent a politically motivated fiction, or that the notion of pan-Arabism hasn't been all that successful politically, I'd agree with both of those. But the term 'Arab world', by analogy with other 'worlds' that are often discussed, doesn't imply more than a shared dominant culture and/or language group, which is obviously accurate. It might be a different story if we talked about a term implying a greater degree of unity, like 'Pan-Arabia' or something. On the demographics, see below.
And as for the old civilizations you mention - some of their cultures survive in a way through minority groups in the 'Arab world', but today, whatever the genetic numbers say, in terms of identity, culture, language, religion, the Berbers are the only ones who even come close to having the numbers to contest the Arabic cultural and linguistic dominance over their respective countries.
View original postIt's nothing like the situation in Russia, either. Ethnic Russians ended up colonizing Siberia and over 90% of the population of Siberia is ethnically Russian or Ukrainian. There are hardly any indigenous peoples because they were never populous to begin with and have historically low birth rates, so Russians completely overwhelmed them demographically. There are perhaps 2 million indigenous peoples out of a population in excess of 30 million. It's the exact OPPOSITE of the Arab invasions - Russia would be like the so-called "Arab world" if the indigenous peoples of Siberia had conquered Russia and imposed their language and religion on a huge majority.
Sure, the relative numbers of the conquerors and the conquered are very different. Which is no doubt very important when you're talking about genetics, but I believe we were talking about topics relating to national feeling, to language, to identity. Those aren't necessarily linked much to genetics; a comparatively small group of conquerors can impose its language and culture and identity on a much larger genetically different conquered group, if given enough time, with the final result looking pretty much the same as if it had been a huge number of conquerors imposing themselves.
Terrible thing in Manchester last night.
23/05/2017 03:34:11 PM
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You can't stop psychos from doing psychopathic things.
23/05/2017 05:40:15 PM
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That's a quite obtuse answer
23/05/2017 08:34:20 PM
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Hiding?
23/05/2017 08:58:11 PM
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What do you mean, exactly, by "stop making ourselves targets" then?
23/05/2017 09:47:43 PM
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First off, we agree completely on one thing
23/05/2017 10:51:22 PM
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What hasn't been consistent about our foreign policy in that region?
23/05/2017 11:13:57 PM
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I thought it was obvious that I didn't mean consistently shit.
23/05/2017 11:36:58 PM
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Don't forget getting an education if you are female *NM*
23/05/2017 09:38:26 PM
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They might have a point with that one. I haven't seen much value from it.
23/05/2017 09:53:19 PM
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You are going to get rocks thrown at you *NM*
23/05/2017 10:29:45 PM
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There aren't very many ways to stop making ourselves a target for the Islamic State.
23/05/2017 09:04:56 PM
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I am not willing to give up the kill them all options until we give it a better try *NM*
23/05/2017 09:39:38 PM
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All DAESH acts of provocation have the same goal
23/05/2017 06:57:00 PM
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That reasoning only works if you view Daesh as a monolithic entity, though.
23/05/2017 10:02:01 PM
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The so-called lone wolf attacks are often performed by those unable to go to Syria
23/05/2017 10:06:08 PM
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Once again with the monolithic view.
23/05/2017 10:21:20 PM
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Is it possible that rather than me overestimating the depth of devotion...
23/05/2017 10:33:18 PM
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I don't say you overestimate it, no doubt for some that's true. But they're not all the same. *NM*
23/05/2017 11:12:26 PM
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Also, didn't they disavow the whole Dabiq thing when they lost control of the village? *NM*
23/05/2017 10:29:23 PM
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I must have missed that, but that sounds about like what I'd expect. *NM*
23/05/2017 10:31:03 PM
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I mean if that would end it once and for all then we should absolutely do that but...
24/05/2017 05:22:29 PM
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There are lots of things we can do. There are few we will do.
23/05/2017 08:46:50 PM
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Aren't there significant differences between the Salafis and the Islamic State?
23/05/2017 08:58:35 PM
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All extremists are Salafis, not every Salafi is an extremist
23/05/2017 09:54:26 PM
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Yeah, I get that.
23/05/2017 10:12:45 PM
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Advocating non-terrorist Salafism is like advocating sexual abstinence in college
23/05/2017 10:27:22 PM
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I was going to ask when I saw your post above...
23/05/2017 11:26:33 PM
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The Saudi royals like us, the people hate us. The Iranian people like us, the Ayatollah hates us.
24/05/2017 02:56:57 AM
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See this seems like some common sense stuff to me. How do we get politicians to make good on it? *NM*
24/05/2017 05:20:15 PM
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Trump is trying to do some. The 9th Circuit seems to think it can upend all precedent to stop him.
24/05/2017 09:46:30 PM
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Picking a concert that would be mostly teenage girls makes it extra disgusting *NM*
23/05/2017 09:37:25 PM
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Not really. It's a logical extension of the whole rationale.
23/05/2017 09:50:30 PM
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Yes. Also they believe the more outrageous the attack, the sooner the final war will occur. *NM*
23/05/2017 10:08:09 PM
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It makes me wonder about the attacker
23/05/2017 11:00:40 PM
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I wonder about what these people sea in a good who wants this kind of thing
24/05/2017 05:58:25 PM
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Isis Shmisis. Daesh is just the end result of the radicalization of many Muslims.
23/05/2017 11:58:42 PM
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Blaming the Ottomans, while largely correct, is less satisfying to them.
24/05/2017 03:21:14 AM
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Not to mention, the Ottomans are relative latecomers to the Muslims of the region
24/05/2017 11:31:06 AM
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There's lots of nationalist feeling, surely.
24/05/2017 06:48:59 PM
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Your errors are legion here.
24/05/2017 10:03:53 PM
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Really? I see precisely one point which, according to you, is a factual error.
26/05/2017 11:41:00 PM
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You're not looking very hard, then
27/05/2017 03:23:36 PM
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At this point we're just arguing about perspective, seems to me.
28/05/2017 07:11:55 PM
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Oh, and now, according to the headlines, the son of Libyan immigrants is a "homegrown" terrorist
24/05/2017 11:33:42 AM
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You can't do anything
24/05/2017 05:00:31 PM
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Be honest. We both know I am a major hardass and you like it. *NM*
24/05/2017 05:19:21 PM
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My opinion? We (USA) should either bomb ISIS into oblivion or back off and let them kill each other *NM*
24/05/2017 05:38:37 PM
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When I see those girl's faces and think about how easily it could be my 11 year old daughter
24/05/2017 05:53:01 PM
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I would prefer to annihilate them, if possible, without boots on the ground.
24/05/2017 06:03:49 PM
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I admit my reaction is as much emotional as rational but boots may be needed
24/05/2017 06:37:51 PM
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Are you serious?
28/05/2017 09:56:07 PM
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There is no tool for not allowing citizens back in the country
29/05/2017 10:11:42 PM
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Re: There is no tool for not allowing citizens back in the country *NM*
29/05/2017 10:11:52 PM
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Wow, talk about mission creep hitting after just one (incoherent) message
30/05/2017 03:07:46 PM
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Speak for yourself.
30/05/2017 06:57:16 PM
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You have thus argued for the death of education.
31/05/2017 02:51:11 PM
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No, I've argued for substance over form.
31/05/2017 07:07:28 PM
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Well, fuck you too then
02/06/2017 01:43:47 AM
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