This still belongs here.

You never get tired of white Christian shit. So have some more brown Muslim shit.

★★★★★
Holy shit, take 'em. This is astounding. The first half is about their militancy, the second half about their bureaucracy. Both are far more advanced than I realized.

Michael Ware has a documentary currently on the festival circuit.

DECAPITATION WARNING. Trailer www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSNbm0iV1jE

The interviewer, Richard Fidler, has one of the best jobs in Australia, and was an original member of a little comedy trio, the Doug Anthony All Stars, that blew my little teenage mind back in the day.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-JfIduytVs

Ah, Zarqawi. You know what I always think of when I think of Zarqawi? This old story:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4431601/ns/nbc_nightly_news_with_bri an_williams/t/avoiding-attacking-suspected-terrorist-mastermind/#. VZnSa02oH08

The Bush administration knew where Zarqawi was, they knew what he was up to, and they opted not to take Zarqawi out, because they felt it would undercut their case for invading Iraq.

Clinton would have launched Tomahawk missiles; Obama would have sent a drone. Either way, Zarqawi would have been reduced to a glowing fog of atoms, and there would be no ISIL today; Zarqawi would be nothing more than a vague memory and a trendier alternative to Che Guevara t-shirts.

so true MD even more so today

Out of curiosity, what are your recommendations for the US in the Middle East? All the options are bad in one way or another -- including staying completely out of it -- so which option do you reluctantly support?

None. America wages war for profit and this cannot beat ISIS. If you want an effective American military, start by forcing defense contractors to eat the cost of maintaining our weapons when it extends beyond global average (American weapon systems are the least efficient on Earth, intentionally), cap the amount of profits they can make over the cost of a weapons system, open international bidding for foreign made weapon systems (Europe makes some nice shit, ask China) and, in the mean time, find a country that still knows how to wage non-profit war to intervene.

I know you wanted me to say something you could jump on, so here you go. America is too incompetent/greedy to beat ISIS, and we're straight up malicious enough to keep them around for profit at the cost of allowing anyone else to do anything that undercuts our profit motive. We may as well sell them Lockheed stocks.

On the other hand, there may be a way to monetize ISIS in a way that undermines their power while keeping them around forever for maximum war profiteering. I'm open to suggestions.

"I know you wanted me to say something you could jump on"

Not really, I was probing to see whether your position had softened at all since last we did this. At least you seem to recognize that ISIL is actually bad news rather than a cardboard villain to distract the American sheeple, and that's something.

I tend to be respectful of nuance and the recognition of a lack of really good options over there, and am more than willing to brook disagreement over which option is least bad. What I have little respect for is the typical Leftie stance that is limited to shrieking "AMERICAN MILITARY BAD!" Mind you, the American military has a pretty piss-poor record, but there are a lot of groups over there that are far worse and are perhaps legitimately worth opposing.

Maybe if defense contractors are forced to operate in a way that costs them money when the war goes on for a decade, and you spend more money (instead of constantly cutting the budget on them and giving it to the contractors) on the actual soldiers for their support on the battlefield and at home, you can invade ISIS territory with boots on the ground. I know this is where you're going to go with this, so I will I support a mass boots on the ground invasion of ISIS territory when the goal is to actually beat them. That shit has to be won as fast as possible and they need to be able to to a job towards those goals. Not possible in America's military profit grinder that sees our own soldiers as the cheapest disposable weapon system that has to be supported by charity when they cycle them out over 10+ years of profit generation.

Sorry, was screeding forth and didn't see your post! I EvilHomered.

I've known a lot of soldiers and I hold their lives in very high value. I think America has been fucking them for far too long. I have no problem with war, but I want my country to be supernaturally fucking aggressive with it when it needs to be, and for reasons other than converting life and death to dollar signs. I don't want ISIS to survive, but I also don't trust the lip service we get about beating them. Our recent history shows we don't fight wars to win. This needs to change. I think this country could straight smash them to oblivion if it wanted to.

so true MD even more so today