The Middle-East / Radical Islam

[Space Tycoon]

Fission? Seismic events? Some unholy congruence of the two?

[Space Tycoon]

Actually that's not funny.

[Dalty]

Maybe Godzilla could go to the Middle East and take on ISIS.

[Space Tycoon]

While we're on the subject of IS, this was a pretty interesting article. The comments section is an exercise in self-abuse...

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/arc ... ts/384980/

[Dalty]

That looks like a really interesting article from the skim read I had. Going to take a lot longer to take in properly. Looks like it's probably more in depth than just about every briefing pack our intelligence services have access to!

[Space Tycoon]

Dumbass:

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.681544

[Dalty]

"Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews...."

Very un-German inefficiency then. What was it then? Clerical error?

[Space Tycoon]

Yeah, he just wanted to "expel" them. I can see why Bibi would be cool with that...

[Dalty]

My limited knowledge of Jewish plight in WW2 disagrees. If expulsion was the only penalty then Anne Frank didn't need to lay off the drum practice.

[Mal Shot First]

[Space Tycoon]

Yeah, he just wanted to "expel" them. I can see why Bibi would be cool with that...

That was intended as a shot at Israel's expulsion of you-know-who, 70 years ago.

Not that anyone asked.

[Dalty]

Arafat?

[Space Tycoon]

More like a bunch of people who had the misfortune of, you know, living there for hundreds of years.

[Dalty]

The Palestenians were treated far worse by the Arabs before the Israelis came along. Wonderful Arab/Muslim projectionism makes people forget that.

[Space Tycoon]

And yet, it is a fact of human nature that people would rather be misruled by their own, than ruled by others.

With so much of our foreign policy coming as a result of Israel's needs, there is nothing wrong with us taking a good hard look at the actual facts.

[Dalty]

Even with the Israeli's being there to be the focus of the Orwellian 'daily hate' the Muslims still attempt to devour each other like starving rats in a sack.

[Mal Shot First]

I don't know if such bickering is exclusive to the Muslim states of the Middle East (which is what it seemed like you were suggesting). A common religion didn't stop Europeans from killing each other century after century.

The "daily hate" against Israel doesn't even stem from the Israelis' religion. Muslims and Jews aren't simply natural enemies. Sure, over time religion has become an easy rhetorical tool to rile up the masses on both sides, but even without the religious component, Israel's political actions would be at the core of the hatred directed against it. I can assure you that there would be about as much hate against it if it were a Muslim state and acted the way it did.

[Dalty]

We weren't fighting over our version of the same imaginary friend having a different punchline in the way we tell the same joke. We were just absolute bastards!

[Space Tycoon]

The conflict is as much territorial and racial as it is religulous. In fact, as I've said before, religion was never the main focus between Israel and the Arabs unfil the 70's and 80's.

[Mal Shot First]

We weren't fighting over our version of the same imaginary friend having a different punchline in the way we tell the same joke. We were just absolute bastards!

*ahem*
German Peasants' War
Eighty Years' War
French Wars of Religion
The Huguenot rebellions
Thirty Years' War
Wars of the Three Kingdoms

[Dalty]

Yeah, you are absolutely correct. I was thinking of more recent history and hoping that we had left that further behind us.

[Mal Shot First]

Well, Islam was about 600 years late to the monotheism party, so the Muslims have some catching up to do.

[Dalty]

When can we start the no-theism party?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

The greens are pretty much already that.

[Dalty]

No, that's the no-fuckingcredibility party.