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Photos of Mosul 2017

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131–136 of 136 posts

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#131

The recent drone footage from Mosul is some of the most mind blowing, surreal stuff imaginable. God help anyone trapped in that city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_F2ntQOcQ

The one upside is that all those suicide attacks slowly wipe out all young men mentally unstable enough to do this. Will be interesting to see if long term certain psychic diseases (bi-polar, depression, etc.) get less prevalent on the Arabic peninsula.

You're (likely incorrectly) assuming that the rate of extreme radicalization is lower than the rate of annual suicide attacks.

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anti refugee sentiment is so unconscionable, what the hell world do we live in

Please at least make an attempt to try to understand the other side. When any immigrants come, they change the country they immigrate to. With these particular refugees, they're refugees in no small part because of shortcomings their home culture has. It's not evil to want to preserve your own culture in the face of this. You can feel empathy for the people trapped in a hellish warzone just as you can feel empathy fo…

However, it is evil to colonize people, use your economic, military and political might to support corrupt and tyrannical leaders for your economic (and military and political) gain and then be upset that the very people you helped subjugate/oppress and/or create an environment in which life and liberty is impossible shouldn't then be able to seek asylum.

Wake up. The political situation in Northern Africa, the Middle East and the Sub-Continent is DIRECTLY the result of Western actors going back over a hundred years and continuing today.

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#133
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re overdoing it a tad, but let’s just imagine you had a number of that “evil person”. Why would you call him/her and tell he/she did all that? Wouldn’t it be pointless? Seriously though, I’m not saying I have all the answers but let me ask a simple question. Why would the country with the biggest military industrial complex in the world be involved in the regions all over the world, especially on the other half o…

so why are you blaming the US specifically and not any of the disparate partisan groups that directly built ISIS? the islamist militants from MENA, the saudis funding wahhabist madrassas abroad, the gulf monarchies giving arms and funding, the former iraqi ba'athists that make up its officer corps... and instead you choose an entity directly fighting ISIS? why is that? almost as if you have ideological blinders on...

The US deliberately caused a power vacuum and did nothing to fill it.

If I drop an egg on the ground, can I blame the egg for cracking? If I rest an egg on an uneven bench top, and it subsequently rolls off the bench and splatters on the floor, who is to blame: the egg, gravity, or the floor?

If I give a suicidal person a gun when the rest of the community has been actively preventing that person getting a gun, and openly told me not to give the person a gun, who is most directly to blame for them killing themselves using that gun?

If I leave food on the kitchen bench after Mum told me to put it away, who is to blame for the ant infestation in the kitchen: the ants, my Mum or the pest eradicator?

It doesn't matter that we came back and tried cleaning up the mess later.

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#134
post #11

Why would no one buy these amazing photographs? Either OP is bad at finding a buyer or photography is one tough job.

Perhaps these photos do not 'fit the current narrative' or go against the editorial policy of the news outlets. Ownership of traditional mainstream media is cloistered in few hands and those hands have agendas for editorial policy and friends in high places. Chomsky's Manufacturing consent well demonstrates how this is achieved bottom up: i.e. one isn't so much told what to think but hired because of ones views and w…

The correspondence of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and the practice of "culture-fit" in Hiring Practices should be a note of caution to growing companies.

Over constraining your hiring, ( i.e. the aspect of "culture-fit" that is antonymical to diversity ) can lead an organisation to blindness to the true state of things ( i.e. not having diverse perspectives on customers due to a lack of diversity in employee backgrounds ).

This is why diversity is not just about fairness but also highly pragmatic.

Diversity makes for wiser corporations which makes them anti-fragile and gives them new edges in competition.

It is also why the subtle method of subverting democracy outlined in Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent as a practice to create an organisation ( or newspaper ) that outputs a world view concurrent with ones own makes for fragile democracies and administrations.

That it can happen "unconsciously" because it is easier to recognise competence in those who are like you means organisations and democracies must be vigilant against entrenched political and journalistic class evolving.

In short: critics are better friends than an echo chamber.

Or contemporaneously: firing scientists does make climate change less true.

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#135
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the political/ethical discussion here: logistically, how did you arm yourself when abroad as a private citizen in the Middle East? I'm guessing you get blessing from Iraqi and/or American embassies in advance? How do you ship arms without falling afoul of carrier and export issues? Or are there arms corporations that allow for pickup on location (or on US bases)?

In Iraq in 2003-2004 it was "send one of my guards to the market to see what was on offer". I spent the entire time I was there trying to get a Sig or Glock; had a Browning Hi Power pretty early on, then upgraded to a CZ 97B once I found a way to get .45acp ammo. Also spent the entire time trying to get a decent AKM, never found one, ended up with an RPK. I saw some MP5s as well, but they were $3-5k, and 9mm isn't re…

Fascinating stuff, thank you for sharing.

I'm glad you were able to make it out okay. :-)

Re: Photos of Mosul 2017

#136
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps these photos do not 'fit the current narrative' or go against the editorial policy of the news outlets. Ownership of traditional mainstream media is cloistered in few hands and those hands have agendas for editorial policy and friends in high places. Chomsky's Manufacturing consent well demonstrates how this is achieved bottom up: i.e. one isn't so much told what to think but hired because of ones views and w…

The correspondence of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and the practice of "culture-fit" in Hiring Practices should be a note of caution to growing companies. Over constraining your hiring, ( i.e. the aspect of "culture-fit" that is antonymical to diversity ) can lead an organisation to blindness to the true state of things ( i.e. not having diverse perspectives on customers due to a lack of diversity in employee back…

[edit] Or contemporaneously: firing scientists does NOT make climate change less true.
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