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SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

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Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#41

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ardit33 wrote: post #39
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #9

You can tell that they're well seasoned professional troops by the fact that they were comfortable enough to stop and get pizza.

Albanian here, want to clarify some things: 1. The situation was never that bad as the post makes.... It is similar to the current June events in the US (unrests/protests), but sans looting of random businesses, just burning of the PM office (instead of a police precinct). 2. That politician, was not killed by the government, but it is rumored (never verified) that he was setup by his rival leader of his own party. T…

>The situation was never that bad as the post makes....

That's kinda what I figured. They drove around, realized they had zero chances of getting in any firefight let alone one big enough that having a dude running around trying not to drop the food would be a problem and consequently decided to stop for pizza.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#42

Post by pjc50 »

sushshshsh wrote: post #34

The reason for the "civil disturbance" in Albania in 1997-1998 is very interesting to study: the collapse of nation wide Ponzi schemes. Several different Albanian Ponzi schemes were basically marketing themselves as banks, and they were real legitimate businesses with IT employees and salesmen and everything. Eventually almost every Albanian had money tied up in these schemes in one way or another, and one by one the…

I see things like this as the memetic equivalent of the Columbian Exchange; the population lacks immunity to the schemes that are endemic in capitalism, so as soon as one arrives the whole population is infected very quickly.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#43

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #12
oh_sigh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, an "administrator" I'm sure.

This is his bio: http://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/MikeMarshall.htm

Did want to mention one thing: I had an Amazon link to one of my sisters, who had been an illustrator of children's books, but another woman from England, with the same name, suddenly shoved my not-so-famous sister aside, so I yanked the link from my father's bio page.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#44

Post by bsksksnbsjsnsb »

082349872349872 wrote: post #11
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #9

You can tell that they're well seasoned professional troops by the fact that they were comfortable enough to stop and get pizza.

You can tell they're professionals because they prefer to avoid conflict rather than aggravate it. "Benny told us later that the patrol had been menaced on several occasions by armed men, but a few well aimed shots above the heads of the mob had convinced them to melt away and not to mess with the patrol."

TIL firing a weapon toward others is "avoiding conflict"

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#45

Post by NotSammyHagar »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #12
oh_sigh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, an "administrator" I'm sure.

This is his bio: http://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/MikeMarshall.htm

Thanks for sharing that. In our time of troubles, it's nice to be reminded of a time when many people felt a calling to help others, it wasn't so much about self aggrandizement.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#46

Post by NotSammyHagar »

jack_riminton wrote: post #38
chrisseaton wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow commentators on Hacker News will even dismiss the work of the Special Air Service as 'not being that big a deal when you think about'.

Haha, who knew HN commentators were not only experts in landing rockets at sea, quantum entanglement and esoteric programming languages but also the finer workings of the special forces

We are like jedi knights. We can fly spaceships, fighters, code in c++ or even vb on a bad day.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#47

Post by zokier »

baybal2 wrote: post #36
sushshshsh wrote: post #34

The reason for the "civil disturbance" in Albania in 1997-1998 is very interesting to study: the collapse of nation wide Ponzi schemes. Several different Albanian Ponzi schemes were basically marketing themselves as banks, and they were real legitimate businesses with IT employees and salesmen and everything. Eventually almost every Albanian had money tied up in these schemes in one way or another, and one by one the…

Indeed, a very good case to learn from for people saying "such things can't happen" in a modern civil state country. Albania is of course not the best examples of a "Western" country, but it is far more than, say, what ex-Soviet states were. Imagine a few big banks falling in the same manner in a particularly low point for ones country. In a few breakdowns of civil states so far, since the WW2, the prime majority fel…

> Albania is of course not the best examples of a "Western" country, but it is far more than, say, what ex-Soviet states were

I'm not sure if I'd fully agree with that characterization. Sure, the Balkans as a whole had bit their own thing going on (probably can thank Tito for that), but Albania was still ruled by iron-handed communist regime and at least based on surface reading seemed to be deeper in the (Stalinist/Communist) ideology than many others, including post-Stalin Soviet Union.

I think socialists being still relatively strong during 90s probably contributed in part to the crisis. Overall it's important to remember that the country was still on its first post-communist decade.

Found this contemporary reporting from 1997, while the language is maybe bit excessively colorful it still paints a picture how the country was perceived at the time: https://web.archive.org/web/20190412111815/https://www.balti...

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#48

Post by miohtama »

sushshshsh wrote: post #34

The reason for the "civil disturbance" in Albania in 1997-1998 is very interesting to study: the collapse of nation wide Ponzi schemes. Several different Albanian Ponzi schemes were basically marketing themselves as banks, and they were real legitimate businesses with IT employees and salesmen and everything. Eventually almost every Albanian had money tied up in these schemes in one way or another, and one by one the…

This might happen in Western countries, especially in the US where people have guns, in the case COVID-19 pushes the real economy over the edge.

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#49

Post by ardit33 »

Albanian here, want to clarify some things:

1. The situation was never that bad as the post makes....

It is similar to the current June events in the US (unrests/protests), but sans looting of random businesses, just burning of the PM office (instead of a police precinct).

2. That politician, was not killed by the government, but it is rumored (never verified) that he was setup by his rival leader of his own party. The same guy who very conveniently then went to the streets and demand the government step down. His own bodyguard was somehow intermingled in this thing.

3. Also, 0 foreigners were harmed during these protests, or past ones... I know Embassies have to take precautions, in Albania foreigners are treat as 'guests' of the house, and treated well. (even during protests). Sounds weird, but that's how it is. It is like the whole nation has the 'responsibility' that the foreign guests have a good time when they visit.

It is from old traditions/customs, dating back to ancient times...

4. This is an example of good American intervention, by then Bill Clinton's cabinet, which was very competent. They basically called the 'bad guy', and told him that the US would not recognize this government, as it was not democratically elected, and you will be considered an outlawed gov. and isolated from the rest of the world. That was enough, for the 'bad politician', to step down, and let a provisory government with members from all major parties to take over until the next elections. The coup-de-ta was over in two days with just one phone call, and probably spared the country from further unrests.

I know for some reason American involvement gets a lot of flack, but great examples of 'just/correct' and successful intervention almost never make the news. It is always the failures that do, unfortunately.

Ps. Also, Albania is a very beautiful Mediterranean country... while it is lacking in infrastructure, It is just as beautiful as neighbors (southern Italy, Greece or Croatia, which most americans are familiar with).

https://pixabay.com/images/search/albania/

https://www.thetravel.com/20-breathtaking-photos-that-will-m...

Re: SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania

#50

Post by zokier »

aunty_helen wrote: post #40
EForEndeavour wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty comical to compare your tourist visit to Albania last year against a Special Air Service operation during a civil war 23 years ago.

mm I get what you mean, but it was more like: Today Albania is a great country to explore and you'd be missing out if you were in the region and skipped over it. Another thing is their reputation within Europe is... well to put it as one Albanian said to me laughingly: "They're scared of us. They think we're all gangsters" Most people don't know a lot about the country so if they just read the article or go from what…

> Another thing is their reputation within Europe is... well to put it as one Albanian said to me laughingly: "They're scared of us. They think we're all gangsters"

As an fellow European, I think most people around here would just lump it together with the rest of Balkans; so nothing personal against Albania specifically :) And having couple of (internal-ish) wars does tend to leave memory, especially if they happen on your back yard (from global viewpoint)

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