Terrorists, funsters and all the other nice people

[ewmayer]

Good discussion of the MSM collective flag-waving orgasm on NC today - I liked what reader 'vidimi' said:

Only countries that have played no role in f**king syria up should have a right to deny their refugees. Neither France nor America is one of those.

The thing that depresses me the most in this tragedy, after the 130+ lives senselessly lost, is how the narrative is about them hating us for our wine, our baguettes and our camemberts, as exemplified by that vapid John Oliver video circling the web, and the fact that Islam is once again on trial, despite the fact that France has been bombing one side or the other in Syria since 2012 and the attackers having claimed that it was in retaliation for French actions in Syria. But people hear what they want to hear. Instead of this being recognised as a predictable act of asymmetrical warfare – blowback – it’s treated as a shock attack on French values by muslims. Islam surely gave the attackers the resolve to go through with it, but this never was about muslims hating French lay values, except perhaps that might makes right.

[only_human]

Too far off track to drag in here, but the history of the Philippines springs to my mind as a long, brutal and bloody series of imperial, colonial, economic, strategic and purportedly religiously motivated series of occupations.

[only_human]

Exchange of gunfire in Paris suburb is police raid near targeted soccer stadium

A hail of automatic gunfire near the Stade de France in Paris is an ongoing police operation related to last week’s terrorist attacks, according to reports.

The sporadic exchange of heavy gunshots began at around 4 a.m. local time in the Saint-Denis neighborhood and lasted for about an hour in intervals, witnesses near the raid have said.

Police reinforcements arrived shortly after BFM-TV reported that an unknown number of police officers were shot and wounded in the raid.

[xilman]

Obama says US governors' refusal of refugees 'hysterical'
To be fair, some of the UK people are having second thoughts --- read some way down into that article which is rather more up-beat than the corresponding one I read a couple of days ago.

[ewmayer]

Great 10-minute video installment from RT News on the larger geopolitical game being played, using 'engineered mass migrations' as a strategic destabilization tool:

Political author Gearoid O Colmain discusses the Paris attacks with RT International

[ewmayer]

In the latest global-war-on-terra incident, saw a news blurb this morning to the effect that "In the past hour several video clips have emerged from Mali, showing the tense situation where an estimated 10 gunmen, according to AFP, have taken dozen of hostages and where Mali, French and US special forces are now engaging the hostage takers."

The part of that which I found especially interesting - what are French and US special forces up to there such that they just fortuitously "happen to be nearby" when the hostage-taking occurred? Well, as has been widely reported - mostly outside the official state media (a.k.a. MSM) - the US (along with various of its lapdogs, erm I mean 'allies') has special forces operating in over 100 countries, so it would be more surprising to *not* have them around when bad shit, much of it 'imperialist-operations blowback' goes down:

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/20/...-a-hidden-war/

A continent relatively free of transnational terror threats in 2001 is — after almost 14 years of U.S. military efforts — now rife with them, in the Pentagon’s view. Bolduc said the African continent is “as lethal and dangerous an environment as anywhere else in the world,” and specifically invoked ISIS, which he called “a transnational threat, a transregional threat, as are all threats that we deal with in Africa.” But the Pentagon would not specify whether the threat levels are stable, increasing, or decreasing. “I can’t get into any details regarding threats or future operations,” Lt. Col. Baldanza stated. “I can say that we will continue to work with our African partners to enable them in their counter-terrorism efforts as they further grow security and stability in the region.”

And a good reader comment:

After the infamous “Blackhawk Down” episode in Somalia, and subsequent retreat from military actions (i.e., “boots on the ground”) in and around The Horn, the Americans have since doubled down and extended their writ continent-wide. And, with destruction of Muslim states such as Libya, Iraq, and Syria by “Western” military intervention, the US has virtually guaranteed a constant stream of “jihadis” and “terrorists” flowing into African countries with sizeable Muslim populations, creating yet another “opportunity” – more like make-work – for further entrenching and embedding of its counter-terrorism operatives and ramped-up drone activity. First, create the problem, then bring “solutions” that only expand the original problem, and cycle through repeatedly the same formula. What’s not to like if you’re a military planner and strategist? Huge job opportunities await.

And related, a worthy weekend read - my 'weekend reading' appellation includes time to peruse the comments, many of which (e.g. the one on the Sunni/Shia schism by 'Paper Mac' and the one on the Battle of Chalons) are very good, while the counterfactual/inane ones get swiftly called out:

John Helmer: The Barbarians at the Gate of Civilization, but Which Empire is Falling? | naked capitalism

What is missing from [Niall] Ferguson’s version [of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire] are two large pieces of evidence, one ancient, one contemporary. The first is that in purporting to explain why Rome fell to the barbarians, Ferguson omits to explain why Constantinople succeeded in defeating them. The history of the Byzantine empire is an 1,100-year success story – more than double the length of the Roman empire or the British empire; the longest-running empire in civilized history as Harvard University knows it. And the Byzantine trick had next to nothing to do with Christianity, Islamophobia, sexual continence, or heavy military spending. It had everything to with disbelief in the doctrine of manifest destiny.*

The second piece of evidence missing from Ferguson’s version of history is the 70-year record of the US Government wars which financed and armed the jihadists, and deployed them for regime change from Afghanistan to Bosnia, Kosovo, and Russia, and then to Egypt, Libya, Syria. As each of these wars has been defeated, their mercenary armies, camp followers, and baggage trains have moved on. They are now at the gates of Europe, as Ferguson reports unoriginally. How the failures of Washington warmaking despatched them there is missing from his tale, and so from the lesson he draws.

(Re. the 'Americans think that anything that is said with a British accent must be exceptionally smart' subdiscussion - I do use an occasional 'amongst' and 'amidst', but I draw the line at 'whilst', unless I'm deliberately trying to tweak someone.)

[Xyzzy]

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/25/457270...-its-debatable

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio shot back the day after the Democratic debate that not using the phrase "radical Islam" or "Islamic state" would "be like saying we weren't at war with Nazis, because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party but weren't violent themselves."

[Xyzzy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...linic-killers/

In the 12 years since Hill’s execution, dozens of people have taken up his call, attacking abortion clinics with bombs and bullets, acid and axes.

[R.D. Silverman]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...linic-killers/

Indeed. So much for being "pro-life". They are anything but.

I believe that statistics back up the following claim:

Within the US over the past dozen years or so, domestic terrorists have taken
more lives than "outsiders". Yet it is only the latter that are the targets of hate.
Can you say "tribal mentality"????

The so-called Christians/Evangelicals/White Trash Supremicists/Rednecks.....
in this country do not aim their vitriol at domestic terrorists
because "they may be SOBs but they are OUR SOBs". As long as the
people committing the terrorism are seen as part of one's tribe or belonging
to the same ideology, it is "OK".

Indeed. This last statement/quote is also made very clear by the
"Black Lives Matter" movement. I strongly agree that Black people in the U.S.
are subjected to regular racism by the police. But they seem to focus on
a fairly small number of murders (and yes they are murders) by the police
while ignoring the fact that the VAST majority of Black homicides are committed
by other Black people. This is another example of "tribal mentality, US vs. THEM".
Consider for example, the 9 yr. old who was gunned down in Chicago. Where
is the Black outrage over that incident?

And yes, I count the police among domestic terrorists.

I think anthropologists agree that much of current human behavior is driven by
tribal mentality that we inherited from our (more) primitive ancestors. Which is
not to claim that we ourselves are not primitive.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by R.D. Silverman

Indeed. So much for being "pro-life". They are anything but.

I believe that statistics back up the following claim:

Within the US over the past dozen years or so, domestic terrorists have taken
more lives than "outsiders". Yet it is only the latter that are the targets of hate.
Can you say "tribal mentality"????

The so-called Christians/Evangelicals/White Trash Supremicists/Rednecks.....
in this country do not aim their vitriol at domestic terrorists
because "they may be SOBs but they are OUR SOBs". As long as the
people committing the terrorism are seen as part of one's tribe or belonging
to the same ideology, it is "OK".

Indeed. This last statement/quote is also made very clear by the
"Black Lives Matter" movement. I strongly agree that Black people in the U.S.
are subjected to regular racism by the police. But they seem to focus on
a fairly small number of murders (and yes they are murders) by the police
while ignoring the fact that the VAST majority of Black homicides are committed
by other Black people. This is another example of "tribal mentality, US vs. THEM".
Consider for example, the 9 yr. old who was gunned down in Chicago. Where
is the Black outrage over that incident?

And yes, I count the police among domestic terrorists.

I think anthropologists agree that much of current human behavior is driven by
tribal mentality that we inherited from our (more) primitive ancestors. Which is
not to claim that we ourselves are not primitive.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by xilman

+1.