Live data from Hacker News

Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

nytimes.com

11–20 of 54 posts

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#11
post #2

They are obviously not isolated wars, and the reasons they give are transparently fake. Look at a map. https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=RfCSdfNZ0LFPrHSm0ublXdzh... Yemen is a choke point. Syria is in an extremely strategically important position both in terms of territory and it is an ally to Iran. Iraq and Afghanistan are on each side of Iran. Egypt was blocking the Libya invasion. That was a cyber-intelligence c…

I'm totally willing to believe it's Cold War continued, with casual roots going back to pre-WW 2. But I'm not buying the "extended military campaign" that goes back centuries or millennia. It doesn't make sense (the HN Chief Propaganda Officer told me so, and I believe him :P s/).

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#12
post #4
post #3

Wikipedia on Yemeni war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Civil_War_(2015%E2%80%9... There are three major sides in the war: - Houthi, basically Shia Muslims - Hadi, supported by Saudi Arabia (Sunnis) and the US - al-Qaeda, ISIS etc. "The Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran, since they both follow Shia Islam. (Although the Iranians are Twelve-Imam Shias and the Houthis are Five-Imam Shias.) T…

So its like Syria. Its not a civil war at all. Its part of the larger regional conflict between the US and its allies and its enemies such as Iran and Russia.

It's a civil war just like Syria is civil war.

The larger regional conflict is attached to the regional conflict. The issues Houthis or Syrian Sunni majority had before the war did not come from outside.

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#13
> You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

- The Joker, The Dark Knight

Wars in some backwater country we've never heard of, or in somewhere that we've always thought of as 'one of those bad places that have wars'? That's not news, that's all in the script. Wars in somewhere we care about? Wars in our own back yard? They get attention because they're not in the script.

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#14
post #12
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So its like Syria. Its not a civil war at all. Its part of the larger regional conflict between the US and its allies and its enemies such as Iran and Russia.

It's a civil war just like Syria is civil war. The larger regional conflict is attached to the regional conflict. The issues Houthis or Syrian Sunni majority had before the war did not come from outside.

"a civil war just like Syria is civil war"

Because, as you say, "the issues" "did not come from outside?"

Syria, CNN Dec. 2006:

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571751,00...

"The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad."

The cable of the US ambassador in Syria, December 2006 via Wikileaks:

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html

cryoshon quoted CIA director William Casey recently:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12597168

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."

"said by CIA Director William Casey at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries"

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#15
post #3

Wikipedia on Yemeni war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Civil_War_(2015%E2%80%9... There are three major sides in the war: - Houthi, basically Shia Muslims - Hadi, supported by Saudi Arabia (Sunnis) and the US - al-Qaeda, ISIS etc. "The Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran, since they both follow Shia Islam. (Although the Iranians are Twelve-Imam Shias and the Houthis are Five-Imam Shias.) T…

   Houthis have long been accused of being 
   proxies for Iran
Since when is it illegal to have allies, and to receive weapons from allies?

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#16
post #2

They are obviously not isolated wars, and the reasons they give are transparently fake. Look at a map. https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=RfCSdfNZ0LFPrHSm0ublXdzh... Yemen is a choke point. Syria is in an extremely strategically important position both in terms of territory and it is an ally to Iran. Iraq and Afghanistan are on each side of Iran. Egypt was blocking the Libya invasion. That was a cyber-intelligence c…

this is like three or four levels beyond simply 'ill-informed'

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#17
post #15
post #3

Wikipedia on Yemeni war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Civil_War_(2015%E2%80%9... There are three major sides in the war: - Houthi, basically Shia Muslims - Hadi, supported by Saudi Arabia (Sunnis) and the US - al-Qaeda, ISIS etc. "The Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran, since they both follow Shia Islam. (Although the Iranians are Twelve-Imam Shias and the Houthis are Five-Imam Shias.) T…

Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran Since when is it illegal to have allies, and to receive weapons from allies?

Saudi Arabia might export an extremist and hateful variant of their religion, but they don't advocate terror (you don't rock the boat when you're on top of the world).

Iran is probably the world's largest terror exporter (Pakistan might be worse?) and militarily expansionist. I think they even (internally) argue for their goal of controlling the muslim holy places, etc.

So Iran actively destabilizes Middle East countries. The only good thing with this is that it gave Israel and the Arab countries a common enemy.

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#18
post #17
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran Since when is it illegal to have allies, and to receive weapons from allies?

Saudi Arabia might export an extremist and hateful variant of their religion, but they don't advocate terror (you don't rock the boat when you're on top of the world). Iran is probably the world's largest terror exporter (Pakistan might be worse?) and militarily expansionist. I think they even (internally) argue for their goal of controlling the muslim holy places, etc. So Iran actively destabilizes Middle East count…

   Saudi Arabia might export an extremist [...] 
   but they don't advocate terror 
Some contradiction right there.

   Iran is probably the world's largest [...] 
   militarily expansionist.
Iran has invaded which countries in the last 2000 years, and how does this compare with e.g. the Soviet Union, the US, the UK, the Mongols, the Incas?

   Iran is probably the world's largest terror exporter
Reference needed. Which large scale terror attacks in the last few decades (e.g. 9/11 or the attacks in Paris/Nice) were supported by Iran?

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#19
post #17
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran Since when is it illegal to have allies, and to receive weapons from allies?

Saudi Arabia might export an extremist and hateful variant of their religion, but they don't advocate terror (you don't rock the boat when you're on top of the world). Iran is probably the world's largest terror exporter (Pakistan might be worse?) and militarily expansionist. I think they even (internally) argue for their goal of controlling the muslim holy places, etc. So Iran actively destabilizes Middle East count…

> export an extremist and hateful variant of their religion, but they don't advocate terror

How can this sentence even be written? The content of that extremist and hateful religion includes jihad, a duty of believers, which is an armed struggle against unbelievers, until the whole world is Muslim and governed by Sharia "a body of moral and religious law derived from religious prophecy, as opposed to human legislation."

Activity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrassas_in_Pakistan

1947 there were only 189 madrassas in Pakistan but "over 40,000" by 2008. Mostly financed by Saudis:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses...

"Q: So they were basically recruiting schools? A: They were recruiting, organizing schools which also use Islamic ideology as a way of creating a very efficient guerilla army" "We're dealing with the sort of unintended consequences of that"

Re: Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

#20
post #17
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houthis have long been accused of being proxies for Iran Since when is it illegal to have allies, and to receive weapons from allies?

Saudi Arabia might export an extremist and hateful variant of their religion, but they don't advocate terror (you don't rock the boat when you're on top of the world). Iran is probably the world's largest terror exporter (Pakistan might be worse?) and militarily expansionist. I think they even (internally) argue for their goal of controlling the muslim holy places, etc. So Iran actively destabilizes Middle East count…

Are you sure? Saudi Arabia is the creator of ISIS and its main sponsor. Also Saudi Arabia is the homeland of Bin Laden and the one country a lot of sources say is implicated in the 9/11 terror attack.
Post reply on HN