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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (22647)	12/27/2015 11:19:22 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

The video is 12 minutes long. That not too long watch for immediate educational purposes imho. It is in most Internet discussions, coming from someone I don't know, who doesn't seem to be making any sense, and when I think the educational value will be minimal. I'd have to get some argument for the case, before it would be worth me investing 12 minutes. There are millions of arguments and ideas, millions of videos. Why should I think this one is worth more than most of the others? That having been said I figured I might watch some of it, and winded up watching all of it. I also read your Telegraph / Bitter Lake link. - It doesn't make the case for what you've been staying here. Its not even that it makes an unconvincing argument for your points, it doesn't make an argument for them at all. It does not even assert, much less providing a convincing argument for the idea that "it isn't the Taliban" (with "it" being the group that the Afghan army is fighting in and/or around Sangin) It doesn't make the case that the US created the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or ISIS. It does make the case that the situation in Afghanistan and elsewhere (Syria etc.) is more complex then its normally presented at, or then most people understand. That much I can agree with, but that's normally the case. Any news story, or editorial, or comment, or analysis, or explanation is almost always going to be simpler then the reality on the ground. The video tries to make the case that the US armed ISIS, and that without this armament ISIS would not have been significant, but it doesn't make a convincing case for either part of that combination. Again arming the Iraqi army, and having the weapons stolen by ISIS, isn't "arming ISIS". Also ISIS could seize the weaponry precisely because it already existed and had some significance and power (if not as much as it would later). As for the Free Syrian army, the arms that were taken from them by Islamic radicals seem to have been taken more by Al Nusrah, rather than ISIS. The video also conflates the Free Syrian army and ISIS to a degree, without ever really backing up that idea. This direct action started with “the action of creating a power vacuum in Iraq” Creating conditions in which ISIS came to exist, isn't the same as creating ISIS, let alone creating ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban. As for the three facts #1 - Is false, or at least a very extreme and essentially unsupported idea. The US did not create or arm or fund Al Qaeda. The funding came from bin Laden himself, and other wealthy Islamic radicals. #2 - No evidence or even detail for the claim, is provided about the US putting Saddam in power. If your just going to toss around assertions like that, without any real backing, then we don't get anywhere. As for Chemical weapons Saddam didn't need the US to get them. Iraq did apparently purchase anthrax from a US company, but that wasn't US support of Iraq, but rather sloppy control of biological agents, also there is no evidence that there was any real significant results from this purchase. Some conventional weapons were also supplied, during the Iran-Iraq war, but they were not all that significant either, far less than Iraq got from Western Europe, let alone what they got from the Soviets. #3 The main predecessor group to ISIS, was Al Qaeda in Iraq, not the Free Syrian army. ISIS was able to make large gains in Syria because of all the Chaos, there and the fact that other groups were fighting each other.