Trouble in Mosul

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I agree, let the cluster munitions rain down.

I also think of the Christian murders and think those communities need to be re-established as city states. Let their worst nightmare come to pass, defended non-sunni regions.

[LongBlade]

The decapitation of reporter James Foley by ISIS, or whatever the F they call themselves has me pissed off in case it is not apparent. I think it is pretty clear what has to happen to that group.

I know there are mitigating reasons why it won't happen, but "extermination" was a word that crossed my mind. Am I going down a bad spiral? :o

They seem to be begging us to give them that outcome.

We're not there yet. But there will probably come a time when they'll do something to convince us we have no other choice.

[Gusington]

I hope not. As a jew I have a distaste towards extermination and I do not want to become like my worst enemies.

[LongBlade]

I hope not. As a jew I have a distaste towards extermination and I do not want to become like my worst enemies.

I know. I'm just not sure how to otherwise deter them.

Don't get me wrong - no one is rushing to do anything like this.

But they seem like the kind of people who are not too interested in reason.

[GDS_Starfury]

and I have no interest in using reason when dealing with them.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

If they are militant fighters I see no ethical problem. It's not like targeting civis.

[Gusington]

I doubt ISIS has any qualms hiding behind civilians, like Hamas. They will throw every civilian they can find between themselves and us.At the same time we are not animals like them and must hold ourselves to a bigher authority. It's really way past time for moderate Muslims to rise up and say 'enough' and rein in the militants slaughtering everyone in their path in thr name of all Muslims.

[Anguille]

It's really way past time for moderate Muslims to rise up and say 'enough' and rein in the militants slaughtering everyone in their path in the name of all Muslims.

They do but get killed in the process...and then the rest shuts up. It was the same in Nazi Germany...people who fought the regime were killed and the rest prefered to keep quiet and stay alive. It's not that easy.

[Centurion40]

One generation would not be enough.  My guess would be 3 to 5 generations.  If 20 years equals one generation, that would mean 60 to 100 years.

Could be. Germany was denazified in less than a generation. Difficult to say whether the same could be said of Iraq.

One could argue the "denazification" of Germany took less than a generation because the "Nazification" of Germany also took less than a generation.

Whereas the decapitating lunacy of middle east has been going on for thousands of years.

IMHO, there is no fix that we can impose.  They need to sort the shit out themselves.  We shouldn't be there.  They need an enlightened tyrant who might cultivate a degree of semi-secular sanity whilst ruthlessly crushing the violent radicals.

Or the Starfury Plan ^TM could be put into effect.

[Gusington]

^It's worked in the past...people like Saladin.

[Anguille]

^It's worked in the past...people like Saladin.

Don't think you can compare then and now.

The other problem is that there's a lot of Europeans who are fighting with IS....the ones who murdered James Foley are british...

[Gusington]

If a strongman suddenly appears in the mideast to raise the masses I can see many rallying to him, regardless of the differnces between now and Saladin's time. He would have to strike the right chord of fundamentalsim and moderation with adash of modernity to make him palatable and thus supported by the west.

[JasonPratt]

^^ Which is how we got Saddam, iirc...

[Anguille]

^^ Which is how we got Saddam, iirc...

Indeed...

[Gusington]

Right now Saddam is a poster boy for.the good old days of "law and order Iraq."