Western media

That Baath party explanation makes motives so much more clearer. I assume Saddam was an Ally to the Arab states. Toppling him toppled the Arab's majority presence in the Middle East.

Good post, Gez. USA's insistence on irrationally villifying Iran, because CIA still feels butthurt over their failed coup, just makes everything so much more complicated. One would think battling IS would be a perfect opportunity to make baby steps towards reconciling their affairs. Israel would be unhappy, I guess. Btw, I've read about the "Daesh" monicker recently and it was described as fairly French-centric, so perhaps you should've explained explicitly that Daesh = IS.

Assad is definitely quite secular, although some of the minorities support him more or less because the alternative is death by the sword of Jihad. The Shia immediatelly started counter-oppressing Sunnis in Iraq when Maliki got into power, you can bet Sunnis would do the same in "Free" Syria.

Oh and to complete the picture - not even the Sunnis (sans Turkey) are as monolithic as you broadly described them. I've read a surprisingly good article on Qatar's fall from grace on, if you'd believe it, Eurosport. It circles around the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but the author goes on lengthy tangents about current relations in the Arabic world. What fascinated me the most was the described sheer hate towards al-Jazeera as Qatar's propaganda tool in Egypt. I also didn't know Saudis and UAE have severed diplomatic contacts with Qatar over Qatar's consistent meddling in their domestic affairs. The Middle East is definitely a most fascinating place for a diplomat, heh.

I think what disturbs me most about American Television is how a major portion of the commercials are for insurance and random pills to ask my doctor about.

Technician said:

That Baath party explanation makes motives so much more clearer. I assume Saddam was an Ally to the Arab states. Toppling him toppled the Arab's majority presence in the Middle East.

What.

dew said:

Btw, I've read about the "Daesh" monicker recently and it was described as fairly French-centric, so perhaps you should've explained explicitly that Daesh = IS.

"Daesh" is the acronym of the Arabic for "Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham", "State of Islam in Iraq and the Levant".

When the acronym appeared, they immediately hated it. They'd rather Arabic speakers call them just "ad-Dawlah" if they want to shorten the name. They consider "Daesh" to be an insult.

Which is why I think it's a good idea to use it.

ISIS makes me think of the Egyptian goddess. It's also a name given to some women, for example this actress and plenty of other things.

It's really not French-centric. It's true that the French government decided to refer to them as Daesh, but that was mostly because they didn't want to have to call them 'Islamic State' since they aren't a state and don't deserve to be called that.

Yeah, I've read about all that, but the name is not exactly widespread yet, so I thought a post like this should be here. :)

Gez said:

What.

I should have clarified that toppling Saddam gave another country to the Arab's enemy, Iran. Saddam was, unless you can correct me, Arab state friendly. Without Saddam, Iran now has Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, the whole of near Asia under their influence. Minus Turkey, of course.

dew said:

Also trying to paint me as a Bandera-celebrating, Jew-hating neofascist is quite a bit insulting, are you trying to insult me?

I'm sorry that you feel this way. Other people would consider this a mark of being good upstanding burgeois euro-citizens or whatever and take pride in it.

But as recently history has proven, being such a good citizen might require allying yourself (at least morally) with the devil, as long as they are fighting against whatever makes you tick, and as long as they are not directly "your" people (even neofascists are ok as long as they are NIMBY).

dew said:

So, have you heard about the 40+ children killed in a school bombing in Homs, Syria yesterday?

It rated a mention on ABC radio and TV news down here in OZ.

Maes said:

Speaking of that, noticed how everybody stopped talking about the shot-down Malaysian plane, once it was discovered that it was riddled with holes from 30 mm bullets which could have only come from a fighter aircraft flying at its own altitude? Ooops....

Going by the few photos of punctured wreckage I've seen (Russian paramilitaries seem to have made off with most of the incriminating bits), the more-or-less perpendicular angle of entry would rule out fighter aircraft, unless it's cannon are mounted in a Schräge Musik configuration.

dew said (to Maes):
The Su-25 theory... are you being contrarian just to have a fight with us?

Is the Pope catholic?

Gez said:

"Daesh" is the acronym of the Arabic for "Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham", "State of Islam in Iraq and the Levant".

When the acronym appeared, they immediately hated it. They'd rather Arabic speakers call them just "ad-Dawlah" if they want to shorten the name. They consider "Daesh" to be an insult.

Thanks for the explanation, I must make a point of using that acronym.

Gez said:

"Daesh" is the acronym of the Arabic for "Ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham", "State of Islam in Iraq and the Levant".

The sad thing is that I understand the word "Dawlah", which has made it into Greek somewhat distorted as Dovleti, meaning "state", or "state's power".