DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Plane on November 27, 2014, 10:35:37 PM
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“Fighting the Americans made them really experienced, really strong fighters.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nemesis-first-he-fought-america-now-hes-crushing-isis/ar-BBg3dFG
Iraq is a killing competition.
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Practice, wherever gained, makes perfect.
I do not find that mask very scary.
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What does not kill them makes them stronger.
Up to a point I suppose.
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Arabs are not greatly noted for their great prowess in modern warfare. Charging armies on galloping camels while screaming Allahoo Akbar and waving a scimitar used to work, but no longer does.
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The answer to this is to blame all problems on a lack of appropriate technology. They succeed by avoiding modern styles of warfare.
Kidnapping , hit and run raids , placing booby traps and spending a lot of time hiding out works as well as having better rifles and aircraft .
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It works as well perhaps at causing chaos. It is quite unlikely to work as well at establishing a stable government if any sort.
Lebanon had a civil war that lasted a decade and was far worse off after it was over than before. The only good it did was to result in the most violent of Lebanese getting themselves killed.
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Perhaps, but I doubt the theory.
The innocent and peaceful suffer from the proximity of war more than warriors do quite often.
This very thing was a theme for Sun Tsu and General Sherman.
The enemy must bear the cost of the war to the maximum extent .
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Sherman's campaign had a clear plan: restore the South to the authority of the national government.
ISIS has no plan that has any chance of becoming a stable government. Kidnapping and looting banks will not last long: eventually all the rich people will have fled or been made destitute, and all the banks will have been robbed. Perhaps this sort of thing might have worked in Mohammad's time, as there was no media other than that provided by the government. This would be impossible in Syria and Iraq today.
Even before the US invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban had no serious control of the entire country.
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Why does Isis need a stable government or a long term plan?
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Why does anyone?
What would be the point of establishing a temporary Islamic State?
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Loot!
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I think it is more than that.
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It is religious fervor for some of them.
But this doesn't keep them from taking the loot like pirates.
As far as they know only the USA stands between them and generations of domination.
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Religious fundamentalists of all denominations are among the easiest people in the world to bilk, takes advantage of and fanaticize, because they are unable to think logically. Muslims are easier because of the lesser degree of education in Muslim societies, Of course, there are some of the leaders of ISL that are making out like bandits.
The Muslim fundamentalist movement is a reaction to the changes being forced on the traditional societies by Western prosperity and the awareness of it spread by the media.
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This sounds pretty reasonable.
As good as guess as I have heard anyway.
If it is so, how much is Western prosperity a result of Western education, and how much can such prosperity be established with a less Westernised education?
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I would say look to Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea and even China. Each of these is clearly non-Western and proud to be so. They take what works and adapt it to their culture.
The big hangup that Muslims have is the recognition that women are not two legged livestock, but people. Half the smarts of the Muslim world is denied participation in the advancement of the society, which explains why it does not advance.
In 1950, Taiwan and Egypt had the same domestic income per family. Now Taiwan is by any standards a first world country, and has lost very little of its non-Western character. Egypt continues to be ruled by military thugs and the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest political movement, is also a backward-thinking bunch of thugs. Egyptians can be as talented as people from any other place... but they have to leave Egypt to demonstrate this.
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Good post.