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Raqqa has fallen

mlclmtckr

Banned
Turkey are bound to condone it and with the Kurds clashing with US backed Iraqi gov't also it is not hard to see the US dropping the Kurds like a hot turd in order to maintain their other alliances. But maybe it doesn't matter. The US surely isn't going to bomb the Kurds and it was never going to fight with them (against the regime) so perhaps their support doesn't actually make much difference.

I mean I can see Rojava themselves dropping the Iraqi Kurds like that proverbial hot turd. It's not like they're particularly close now or have similar governments / ideologies. And they are more willing (in theory) to cooperate with Syria than Iraqi Kurdistan is willing to cooperate with Iraq.
 
Screen-Shot-2014-06-30-at-5.51.14-PM.png


It was a tad over ambitious in hindsight
Italy's got to feel left out of those sweet plans.
 
I mean I can see Rojava themselves dropping the Iraqi Kurds like that proverbial hot turd. It's not like they're particularly close now or have similar governments / ideologies. And they are more willing (in theory) to cooperate with Syria than Iraqi Kurdistan is willing to cooperate with Iraq.

Interesting perspective. But won't Rojava still have Turkey to deal with, even if Syria permit them to exist?
 

mlclmtckr

Banned
Interesting perspective. But won't Rojava still have Turkey to deal with, even if Syria permit them to exist?

Yeah. I'm not saying that Rojava has a bright future ahead of it, just that they might try to put up a firewall between themselves and Barzani and that doing that might soothe the regional powers a little bit.
 
Part of a deal to stop the fighting. I guess the local fighters didn't care enough about the foreign lads to include them.

It’s a smart thing to do because it recognizes that the local fighters are guys conscripted into fighting or those disenfranchised by the governments and turned to militants for basic security and services. It’s how ISIS spread through Iraq picking up villages that distrusted the Iraqi government.
 
Amazing news BUT...

If Sunni arabs are still treated like second-zone citizen by the Iraqi central government, or worst, like heretics by the sectarians shiites militias, the causes will remain.

We already have a lot of report of killing and abusing from these militias in Raqqa and others cites which were controlled by Daesh. We tend to forget that a lot of those militias are not really better than Daesh in the way they treat civilians.
 

jstripes

Banned
I want to see this as encouraging, but ISIS losing on their home turf will just lead to more terror strikes in Europe and elsewhere.

In its current state, this is an unwinnable situation.
 
Those comments after the article. Sheesh. Trump's victory. Obama would have let ISIS take over the world. Why can't we have any sort of moderation and critical thinking in a comment section of the internet?
 

Temascos

Neo Member
Pleasing to hear that ISIS has been kicked out, but until the fundamental issues behind the conflicts that spur conflict the violence will continue under a different name.

Rebuilding isn't going to happen until the boundaries of the nations are redrawn in a sensible manner, but that's easy for me to say.
 

Madness

Member
Crushing ISIS reaaly doesn't make much of a difference in the long term. The underlying issues that enabled their rise will be as prevalent as ever (probably worse). They will splinter into smaller militant factions, until eventually the cycle repeats itself and they are once again consolidated into a centralized leadership.

Except the rise of ISIS is also linked to the way the US and Iraq handled the post-Saddam era. ISIS sprung up because Sunni-Baathists who long enjoyed power were suddenly stripped of all representation, removed from all positions of power. A lot of early ISIS fighters were remnants of the Saddam regime. They won't be replaced as easily especially as Assad's regime once it regains full control will kill or imprison everyone who participated even in the slightest. ISIS at times was also a symbol rather than an actual group. They tried to take credit for basically every Islamic terror attack. In places like Libya they filled a vaccuum left by Gadhafi's killing and removal.

Will be hard for any major group to gain power like this going forward for a little while. I don't see any major countries being toppled, with SA crushing the Yemen revolt, Assad and his forces with Russian support taking back large swathes of Syria. Iraq and the Kurds taking every last ISIS stronghold, seems doubtful.

Of course terror will resume under a different name, but you won't see this coordination for a while. ISIS basically looted US arms that went to Iraq, captured rich oil fields, etc.
 
Crushing ISIS reaaly doesn't make much of a difference in the long term. The underlying issues that enabled their rise will be as prevalent as ever (probably worse). They will splinter into smaller militant factions, until eventually the cycle repeats itself and they are once again consolidated into a centralized leadership.
I think they'll go underground into small cells and commit terror attacks here and there. The fight is far from over. If only they hadn't been created in the first place by terrible policies and wars of aggression.

A lot more to do. Won't be the last we hear of them albeit probably under different names.
 

Devil

Member
Thanks for dying, Kurds!

Now go back where you came from and give us back the cities our militias ran from and where we left military grade weapons to fall into ISIS hands.

/s

This is overly simplified of course,
but the immediate reaction of the Iraqi army against the kurdish seized territories when Raqqa hadn't even fallen yet felt like an extrem gut punch.
 

Bustanen

Member
The foreign ISIS fighters are not being allowed to leave Raqqa, they get no free pass. Only the local ISIS fighters are allowed to leave Raqqa.

So I doubt the foreigners will find a way back home to Europe, they're as dead as dead right now.
Why are any daesh members allowed to leave alive? Hang those fuckers.
 

Oberon

Banned
I remember when the arab spring was somewhat something hopeful that was suppose to give people more freedom. I really have to wonder if it's too late for such drastic change and revolutions within in a country? Weapons aren't the same as they were a 100 years ago. Not to mention regims getting support from foreign nations like Russia to keep them in power. On top of that nobody wants to deal with that aftermath.
 

zer0das

Banned
Was Italy ever under Muslim control? Those other parts of Europe were.

The Emirate of Sicily lasted from 831-1091 AD, until the Norman conquest of Sicily and southern Italy, so yes. Also it was only under Abbasid calpihate for a brief time, being replaced by the Shiite Fatimid caliphate- but it was ruled by Sunni Aghlabid dynasty.
 
I remember when the arab spring was somewhat something hopeful that was suppose to give people more freedom. I really have to wonder if it's too late for such drastic change and revolutions within in a country? Weapons aren't the same as they were a 100 years ago. Not to mention regims getting support from foreign nations like Russia to keep them in power. On top of that nobody wants to deal with that aftermath.

It would always be latent, Syria is totally ungovernable by Assad except if they give some kind of political autonomy to sunni/kurds regions.
 

Oemenia

Banned
It's so sad to see. That "Everyone is bad now" quote by the UN War Crimes investigator wasn't lying. This twitter thread is a reminder that things will continue to get worse in the middle east even after ISIS:

6cYAc8D.png
Beautifully said, especially the bit about the Kurds who we seem to view as angels in all this.
 

Internets

Member
Let's not pander to those people. Everyone should know where Raqqa is by now.

I disagree, we should always take the time to educate people, even if something is supposed to be obvious. There's no point in turning people away if they are curious about something. It provides a good opportunity to spread awareness to something important
 
I'm surprised these cretins even lasted this long. Unfortunately, their real "caliphate" is the internet and that battle will be much more difficult to overcome. They spread like a disease in any country which is vulnerable due to a lack of a stable central government.
 
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