I have have a few twitter accounts with news on very narrow topics, for example, machine learning news, and other niche technical topics. I just went through them all and anyone who mentions the Paris attacks gets unfollowed. If I ever want news about shocking violence going on on the other side of the planet with my Machine learning news I'll resubscribe. I get inundated every day with too much information. Getting…
Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
651–660 of 672 posts
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#652Earlier quoted context omitted.
Citation needed. The US and Israel are 2 rather successful examples of countries born out of terrorism.
If you're referring to attacks against Britain I don't recall any cases of Americans or Israelis randomly killing civilians in the UK. I don't see any parallel whatsoever to the events of today. No one can predict the outcome of today's events so by definition they are irrational. I would bet that no good would come out of this to anyone.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#653Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we didn't need to secure their oil by supporting/deposing despots in the region, and didn't want to provide the Israelis with military/political/financial support then we would not be dealing with any of this carnage. Their attempts to fight back will only escalate the situation, and the carnage will continue. Edit: I'm not advocating that we not support Israel. I'm simply stating a hard truth regarding "why they…
One of the attackers was heard saying it was about Syria. This isn't about Israel at all.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#654Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last I heard, they were doing this to avenge their countrymen. In fact, we don't really know all the whos and the whys , we just know the whats . And what happened was a horrible thing that needs to be investigated, pored over, and responded to in a measured, rational way that doesn't become a nationstate-enabled revenge plot.
When you avenge your countrymen, you avenge by killing the people at fault... not innocent folks enjoying a concert.
Please think what would happen if the tables were turned - your country is invaded by a much bigger nation with a technological advantage. Would you organize a peaceful protest for your enemy to ignore?
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#655Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're referring to attacks against Britain I don't recall any cases of Americans or Israelis randomly killing civilians in the UK. I don't see any parallel whatsoever to the events of today. No one can predict the outcome of today's events so by definition they are irrational. I would bet that no good would come out of this to anyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
- The King David hotel is in Jerusalem. Not in the UK.
- Warnings were given before the explosion.
- The hotel was housing the occupying British government, military and police. This isn't blindly targeting civilians in an attempt to terrorize the population.
There are a lot more details that make this very different. This is not to say that the outcome was not terrible in cost of human lives or that the perpetrators aren't responsible. It's just very different.
From the article: "American author Thurston Clarke's analysis of the bombing gave timings for calls and for the explosion, which he said took place at 12:37. He stated that as part of the Irgun plan, a sixteen-year-old recruit, Adina Hay (alias Tehia), was to make three warning calls before the attack. At 12:22 the first call was made, in both Hebrew and English, to a telephone operator on the hotel's switchboard (the Secretariat and the military each had their own, separate, telephone exchanges). It was ignored.[5] At 12:27, the second warning call was made to the French Consulate adjacent to the hotel to the north-east. This second call was taken seriously, and staff went through the building opening windows and closing curtains to lessen the impact of the blast. At 12:31 a third and final warning call to the Palestine Post newspaper was made. The telephone operator called the Palestine Police CID to report the message. She then called the hotel switchboard. The hotel operator reported the threat to one of the hotel managers. This warning resulted in the discovery of the milk cans in the basement, but by then it was too late.[5]"
...
"Security analyst Bruce Hoffman has written that the hotel "housed the nerve centre of British rule in Palestine".[13]"
...
Security analyst Bruce Hoffman wrote of the bombing in his book Inside Terrorism that: "Unlike many terrorist groups today, the Irgun's strategy was not deliberately to target or wantonly harm civilians. At the same time, though, the claim of Begin and other apologists that warnings were issued cannot absolve either the group or its commander for the ninety-one people killed and forty-five others injured ... Indeed, whatever nonlethal intentions the Irgun might or might not have had, the fact remains that a tragedy of almost unparalleled magnitude was inflicted ... so that to this day the bombing remains one of the world's single most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century."[13]
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#656Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But it doesn't change the fact that general population will say these things, and it's them, not HN crowd What about thought leadership ? I know its a cliche beaten to death perhaps, but still I think people are able to see a raised level of discourse, than theirs, while they may not always leave their hard positions and immediately agree. But there's also this balancing act, that we need to do, of not wanting to g…
> But there's also this balancing act, that we need to do, of not wanting to get into an argument of certain kinds. Well, ok. It took me a while after I posted my responses to (sort-of) understand where 'mikeash was going. I initially thought he was disputing the existence or possibility of those comments, so me and others were providing proofs and arguments that they in fact exist. I think now that 'mikeash wanted u…
You raise a good point, though. I would ask, where do you have reasonable public discussions? I want to see reasonable discussions here, but it's purely selfish, and I don't think it matters much in the bigger picture. Popular media is full of idiots, because they're pandering to the loudest idiots in the population. What alternative venues could there be?
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#657Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious, under what logic would this stop or get any better if we allow the cancer to grow?
By the same logic that a wound heals when you stop poking the scab. If there's any lesson from the past 15 years, it is this: state engineering does not work. Period. You cannot control it. You don't "allow" anything. You cannot stop anything. The forces are beyond your control. Americans and Europeans have to step out of the colonial mindset of trying to control the world. Then we'll have peace.
> By the same logic that a wound heals when you stop poking the scab.
Except that our governments see themselves as providing first aid to an infected wound. Infected wounds only get worse without treatment.
> If there's any lesson from the past 15 years, it is this: state engineering does not work. Period.
Their intention was (probably) good, execution on the other hand was less then stellar.
> You cannot control it. You don't "allow" anything. You cannot stop anything. The forces are beyond your control.
1940's France would beg to disagree. The Allies in WW2 clearly stopped the Axis powers and controlled their aggression.
> Americans and Europeans have to step out of the colonial mindset of trying to control the world.
Agreed.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#658Earlier quoted context omitted.
The world is full of a mean average of people who, believe it or not, do not run statistical analysis before deciding if they should care for their loved ones. The world is full of real people, with real understandable concerns for their families and friends. Not only that, but it isn't about the number who were killed anyway. It is about the probability of your friend being in that location at the time of the disast…
Did you read the post to which my reply was directed? I'm not addressing these questions to you or to one of the "people who do not run statistical analysis before deciding if they should care for their loved ones". I'm addressing these questions to someone who apparently does run statistical analysis.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#659Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think our significantly decreasing reliance on foreign energy has put the writing on the wall. Middle East countries used to pushing hundreds of billions in oil welfare and running surpluses will be in serious deficit and facing a decimated budget which will tank their economies. Perhaps the thinking is to revolt now before the money is all gone? With such a strikingly oil-centric economy, oil crashed from its high…
Whether you believe it personally or not, the US involvement in the Middle East - namely, support for Israel, funding of the Saudi regime since 1945 and the arming of Wahhabis during the first gulf war - is the reason ISIS and similar groups have flourished.
The reality, I believe, is much closer to the same reason it always comes down to when men commit acts of brutality in order to subjugate or terrorize a population. They do it because of ego, pride, opportunity, and a desire for establishing their own power, not because someone else made them do it or in seeking justice in face of tyranny.
If anything, I think it's more likely the premature US withdraw from the Middle East and a lack of stronger support for Israel which has contributed to ISIS flourishing. A perceived faltering of support between two allies is the best invitation for increased pressure and targeted attacks (physical, political, clandestine, and otherwise) against the bonds between those allies. It doesn't surprise me at all that countries and religious fanatics with the stated goal of the destruction of Israel would work tirelessly to popularize the notion that if only not for the US "supporting Israel" the Middle East would somehow be more stable.
Mostly I pin the blame for the flourishing of ISIS collectively on the Middle Eastern countries which themselves have epically failed to confront the rising threat of ISIS on their own turf, while doing seemingly everything possible in their own domestic policies to in fact encourage ISIS recruitment. Assad'd deployment of chemical weapons is mirrored in Egypt's own treatment of citizens in Sinai, and over and over again throughout the Middle East, we see effectively a ceaseless and brutal civil war stretching back, what, 1400 years, only interrupted by periods of apparent calm when one tyrant or another manages to temporarily cement themselves so far above reproach that their own raping and plundering goes uncontested for a relatively short while.
The Middle East has been facing endemic war between Islamic sects basically for the entire history of Islam itself. The "holy wars" (call it barbarism or medievalism) being carried out in the name of Islam (by so-called "Islamic terrorists") is evidence enough that this is not actually problem of foreign policy, but a deep seated and historically pervasive domestic problem.
The inescapable "defunding" of the Middle East over the next few decades is unsurprisingly leading to a surge of sound and fury, signifying little, and ultimately will disappear in a whimper. These are countries which by and large by their own actions and circumstances have squandered a most incredible glut of natural resources (as is human nature) and as that era comes to a close in relatively short order, will bring with it a humanitarian crisis throughout the region, which frankly, neither the US or any other World power, is either responsible for, nor has the political will, nor even the available resources, systems, or infrastructure to adequately address.
The massacre in France is abhorrently evil and sensationally shocking. Statistically, it is a drop in the bucket. I can't even comprehend, for example, the scale of horror and violence which is being inflicted daily against disenfranchised Muslim women and girls who are married into bondage, raped, and brutalized, as a token reward / enticement for ISIS recruits, even wrapping this torture in a veil of propriety and calling it Sharia.... A sickness like that, to me, can only be understood, explained, spread, and ultimately eradicated domestically.
Re: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
#660Earlier quoted context omitted.
>You are trying to rationalize with people who are irrational. In my opinion, this is the most dangerous statement in this thread. Saying the actions of these people is irrational loses any ability to understand why they're doing what they're doing and how we can stop them. It turns them into a faceless enemy who are doing things because of hate, which is easy and makes my ego feel better, but doesn't really explain…
Oh lordy, no wonder this thread got partially shut down. Calling a pack of murdering religious extremists irrational now classifies as the most dangerous thing that can be said about the situation - yikes. Did I invade your safe space? They did not terrorize citizens, they murdered them in the name of their non-existent god. Life will go on in Paris just as it did in New York. There is no goal other than blood lust a…