Friday, 12 August 2016

Benghazi in Crisis

I was planning on doing a lighter post as we've been so serious of late, but I ran across this interesting piece on the PBS Frontline website about Benghazi and thought you all might be interested.  It appears that another front has opened up in the fight against Daesh that may prove just as challenging as that of Syria and Iraq.

The video isn't very long, just shy of 20 minutes or so.



41 comments:

      Lee C.   ―  U.S.A.      said...

 
Won't play on my old system.  I'll probably have to fire up the Windows 10 computer if I wanna watch it.  (Probably an HTML5 video.)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

It worked with my Windows 10 so you should have no problem on that. It's interesting, so worth a look. I don't always get to see these shows on TV, so it's nice to be able to access them on the computer. I thought it important enough to give it a post, anyway.

Marcus said...

What can I say. Khadaffi was a bad hombre but he was not long for this world anyway. Taking him out led to this. And this is no good. Just like in so many other places taking out the bad hombre led to something worse.

Marcus said...

America gets a small taste of what happens daily in Europe:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/04/exclusive-5-year-old-victims-father-saw-video-of-twin-falls-refugee-rape

Cue to Lee C to ride in on his rainbow-colored pony and verbally save any "refugee" from any alledged wrongdoings.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Taking him out led to this."

And, in the preferred Euroweenie telling of the tale, if it hadn't been for the Evil Merkins, Qaddafi would have lived forever and kept Libya stable until the end of time.

Marcus said...

No no, wasn't the Evil Merkins in the drivers seat, it was the French. The Mercins just provided the firepower. You didn't know that?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
And, ya missed the major point, as I might have expected you'd do if I'd thought about it a little more.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Marcus,

That Twin Falls story isn't quite what the article in your link portrayed. Yes, something apparently did happen, but it wasn't a rape.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

The liberation of Manbij, Syria

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Kurdish forces are repositioning around (and closer to) Mosul; seems to be preparatory to an assault on Mosul itself (but maybe not by those Kurdish forces)

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

They seem to be doing a good job of nibbling around the edges.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...



And the loss of Manbij cuts the last supply line from Turkey to Mosul.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Prepping the battlefield.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Kinda looks that way.  The long delayed assault on Mosul may be imminent.  The questions in my mind are:  "Who's gonna go in?  Do they have a Sunni Arab assault force to lead the charge?  And who's gonna control the city and the province afterwards?  They've got an ethnically diverse population in Nineveh Province; who's gonna govern there and do the locals all concur?"

Marcus said...

Lee: "Kinda looks that way. The long delayed assault on Mosul may be imminent. The questions in my mind are: "Who's gonna go in? Do they have a Sunni Arab assault force to lead the charge? And who's gonna control the city and the province afterwards? They've got an ethnically diverse population in Nineveh Province; who's gonna govern there and do the locals all concur?""

Much the same questions I've been asking. One one of them I think I have an answer: "Do they have a Sunni Arab assault force to lead the charge?"

No they don't have that and that's the chief problem.

As far as I see it.

Marcus said...

New migrant rape case:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-austria-rape-idUSKCN10Q1GJ

"Nine Iraqi asylum seekers and refugees have been arrested over the alleged gang rape of a 28-year-old German woman in Vienna on New Year's Day, Austrian police said on Monday, a case likely to fuel public debate over immigration and crime."

My question: has EVER nine white people in either modern Europe or modern america committed such a crime?

My answer would be no, not to my knowledge, and that only in wartime you could find examples of such crimes committed bu white men. So, perhaps we are at war? Or rather perhaps they are at war against us? Perhaps we should fight back then?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "…on New Year's Day…"

Not exactly a new case is it?  In spite of your lead-in.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Still around. I'm reading a rather interesting piece that Lee sent me.

Marcus said...

Lee "Not exactly a new case is it? In spite of your lead-in."

New as it I hadn't seen it reported before, the article is from the day before yesterday and the arrests were made last weekend it says. So a new story, about a crime about 8 1/2 months old.

But she probably had herself to blame anyway, eh Lee? Shouldn't have been drinking too much. Probably had a short skirt on also. Right?

Marcus said...

Those moments when you actually consider an exit plan from the city you've lived your whole life:

http://www.thelocal.se/20160812/malms-wave-of-car-burnings-continues

Not so much because I'm afraid but I might have to relocate before it gets so bad housing prices plummet.

That article is 5 days old and there've been several cars burning every night since then. It's worse in Malmö as usual but a problem in other places too:

http://www.thelocal.se/20160816/cars-burn-across-sweden-as-arsonists-roam-free

Marcus said...

Reuters picking up the story:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-burningcars-idUSKCN10R1QF?il=0

"A wave of car burnings across Sweden that has seen more than 2,000 vehicles damaged or destroyed this year, moved on Monday night to the Stockholm suburb of Husby, where mass riots began three years ago and spread across the capital's poorer suburbs.

[...]

The fires have centred on Stockholm and Malmo - Sweden's third biggest city, and 2,027 vehicles have been set on fire in total between January and July, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention."

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Shouldn't have been drinking too much."

Well, that much is true.  I'm given to understand that she drank to the point of blackout, had to be told she'd engaged in sex during her blackout period; didn't remember.
But that's as far as I'd be willing to go with that; shouldn't have drank so much.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "Well, that much is true."

By the way, this is only relevant because you strongly hinted that this case involved a forcible rape, which it apparently was not.

Marcus said...

No it's perfectly normal for 9 men young and old to gang up on a woman whose blacked out from alkohol and collectively rape her. It's just a little bit of innocent surprise-sex is all it is. Lenient even, they didn't even seem to have beaten her around. Could have been just about anyone who happpened to be involved there. No stranger than speeding in traffic really.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "No it's perfectly normal for 9 men young and old to gang up on a woman
      whose blacked out from alkohol…
"

Not over here it's not; must be a Euroweenie thing I hadn't heard about until now.

Marcus said...

Lee seems unable to understand sarcasm. That's common among low-IQ persons. It seems it does take a certain level of intelligence to understand sarcasm and Lee is below that level, it seems.

Marcus said...

The Dudge Report now the secont most read US "news" outlet:

https://www.similarweb.com/blog/us-media-publishers-july-2016

Speaks volumes about how people view the creditibility of the MSM....

Lynnette In Minnesota said...


Those moments when you actually consider an exit plan from the city you've lived your whole life:

That's very, very sad. You might have more in common with some of the people who are now fleeing to Europe than you realize, Marcus.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Lee,

I finally managed to print out that story/book and have gotten to the Iraq War part. (We've been having serious internet connection problems for the past few days.) Anyway, it's very well written and I like the approach he is taking with the varying people he is following. I am wondering if I can post a link to it in a post, as I think others (Marcus) would find it an interesting read as well.

Marcus said...

Lynnette: "That's very, very sad. You might have more in common with some of the people who are now fleeing to Europe than you realize, Marcus."

Nah, I'm more of the mind to stay and fight. And if that was one day impossible I can't really see myself "fleeing" to another nation and then thanking the folks who took me in by arson and gang rape.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
Couple of times now you've written of fighting or making domestic ‘war’.  When does this start?  For you that is, when do you begin to do more than click aggressively on the keyboard and actually start to do stuff?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "The Dudge Report now the secont most read US 'news' outlet:"

Similar situation to Trump winning the Republican nomination.  There were 16 competitors for that nomination, about 12 of these splitting the ‘not crazy’ vote, and only about 4 competitors for the full-tilt crazies, so it was easier for a plurality to develop among the crazies.  Likewise, FoxNews is the biggest news purveyor on cable because the more liberal side is split up among several competitors and FoxNews has the other side pretty much all to themselves.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Odd turn of events at Rio.

A Brazilian judge has issued a search and seizure warrant for US Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen as questions emerge about their account of being robbed at gunpoint early Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.

Police arrived Wednesday morning at the Olympic Village to take the swimmers' passports and gather further testimony from them about the reported robbery, US Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
That is odd.  It's also possible that the Brazilians are simply offended by the swimmers having reported the robbery in the first place and are punishing them for the embarrassment they caused to Brazil.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "… and FoxNews has the other side pretty much all to themselves."

Recent move by Trump to bring on the head of BreitbartNews as ‘Chief Executive’ of the Trump campaign (among other moves), is fueling speculation that Trump has already given up on the idea he can beat Hillary, and is currently using his still nominally Presidential campaign to establish a "brand" that he intends to use to challenge FoxNews for its audience after the elections.
It may be that the formal schism in the ranks of the Republican Party will be preceded by a schism in the ‘news’ monopoly which has long served that Party.

Marcus said...

Lee: "Couple of times now you've written of fighting or making domestic ‘war’. When does this start?"

Don't know about "war" per se, but serious disturbances for sure. And to fight might mean more than picking up a gun and going out shooting. At the moment I'm very pessimistic about political solutions but I haven't given up on them.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
      "So, perhaps we are at war? Or rather perhaps they are at war against
      us? Perhaps we should fight back then?
"
      Marcus @ Tue Aug 16, 10:34:00 am

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
It appears that Turkey is about to release 38,000 real criminals (supposedly non-violent types) to make room for political prisoners collected since the recent aborted coup attempt.  That's dedication to the Erdoğan if ever there was.

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
From The Spectator; what should be our policy in Syria?  It should be realistic.  Syria's history; the country no longer exists.  (Ditto Iraq, but that's another story for another time.)
We should back the Kurds and oppose the rest.

Marcus said...

Keep backing the Kurds but stop backing sunni terrorist groups, that'd be your preffered way forward Lee. I just have one small question: why then back sunni terrorrist groups for so long? And what has changed?

   Lee C.  ―   U.S.A.     said...

 
I'm not at all clear on which of my posts you could have misinterpreted badly enough to get yourself to the conclusion that I favored ‘backing Sunni terrorist groups’.
You wanna point that one out for us?  And, I'll be glad to clear up whatever it is you so plainly failed to understand.