Sometime Maher is so frustrating. When Tom Rogan, an obviously right wing hack spewed the right
wing talking point that Pelosi's trip to Syria was the same thing that Cotton was doing, Maher didn't point out to him that it wasn't, and that that Syria trip was all with the consent of the bush white house at the time.
This is the biggest problem with Democrats, they have a problem exposing the right wing lies
= new reply since forum marked as read
One of the 99 http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026346448
If someone wants to say something they should give a speech on the floor of Congress or write an op-ed. I agree with you Republicans and some others would like to see a war or some military action with Iran.
But these things are not new. Below is a letter some House Democrats opposed to Reagan's policy in Nicaragua wrote to Ortega in 1984. Newt Gingrich said at the time it was a violation of the Logan Act. Democrats said that was "ludicrous".
I am amused and find it bizarre when people assume that it's his job on HBO to spin for the DEMS and proceed to scold him on DU when he doesn't perform his supposed "assigned task" sufficiently! 
they spent debating the distinction & importance of "Islamic terrorist". Howard Dean won the entire debate with one sentence, (I'll paraphrase but how I understood from my POV) is these cults constantly preach about the Wests war on Islam which they more the Wests makes it more about Islam the more it confirms what they preach, creating this self-perpetuating cycle.
Almost nobody except for Cat Stevens had a very uninformed understanding. Wahabbi was once a very, very rare sect that was always controversial within Islam itself. They opposed the Hajj, if that doesn't highlight their differences than I don't know what does. Of course, they couldn't credibly prevent it but they regulate the shit out of it. Saudi Arabia started with a century long propaganda campaign portraying them in a better light. Now Saudi TV stations dominate the region & they can't even be on the air if they are critical of the 'House of Saud'.
Frustating because no one mentions the things that need to be mentioned. Wahabbism is a big part of it but this directly affects Muslim majority populations & minorities & anyone critical of the oppression. The propaganda starts young, kudos to Cat Stevens, but they use it influence followers. For a French Muslim of Algerian descent, Al-Qaeda or anyone similar would target their propaganda for the resentments & grudges.
The point I'm making is while identity politics & the ultraconservative orthodox sect play a very big role, there are a shit ton of other factors at play and it seems unreasonable to blame reality for responding to reality. Indicting Islam or roughly 1/3 of the world's population is an incredible pointless debate but it encompasses a significant # of people just trying to survive with the poverty, corruption, & oppression around them. Subtract the wealthy financiers & original cult followers that lucked out by sitting on top of all that oil, what you have is a reality based on economic & political policies.
Four years on, civilian deaths continue in Syria
As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year next month, an alarming uptick in violence targeting innocent civilians has once again been unleashed on this devastated nation. The loss of life is not only incidental or a mere side effect of war, but is in many cases a deliberate part of the military strategy of Syria’s major warring camps.
Since a lot of the fighting of Syria’s conflict takes place in heavily populated towns and urban areas, sniper kill zones often dissect neighborhoods and fighters dig in and embed among the civilian population. Effectively, this makes human shields of their inhabitants, and inevitably ensures they suffer disproportionately when those entrenched combatants start to fight and shell each other’s positions. This is made worse by the very nature of this type of urban warfare, which usually produces deadly stalemates, or only excruciatingly slow advances at terribly high cost. This callousness and indifference to the suffering of Syrians by those fighting in their name the Syrian regime and the rebel and jihadist groups opposing it has been a central and dominant theme throughout this messy and brutal war.
Another disturbing aspect in which civilians are caught up in the war is through the heavy indiscriminate bombing of their neighborhoods by the infamous “barrel bombs” dropped by regime helicopters from high altitude on rebel-held areas, the main purpose being to clear out the residents and make the areas easier to capture. Needless to say, the results of such bombing campaigns are catastrophic. This sometimes goes in tandem with crippling sieges that can last for months or even years, causing untold misery and suffering for the people trapped inside, who have to not only contend with a possible quick death from above but also a slow agonizing death from starvation and poverty.
Being in an area that one of the warring camps controls does not necessarily delineate support for that camp, although it is matter-of-factly portrayed as such by the propaganda machine of the other side, seeking to justify its excessive brutality. This divisive “us against them” is a rather peculiar aspect of this conflict, even if not surprising. A terrified populace can easily be polarized against their former friends and neighbors, especially when told that they are now the enemy, with corroboration of that coming in the form of deadly shells and bombs fired from their areas. We have experienced this first hand in Aleppo city, for instance, where rebels shell neighborhoods in the west (the regime-controlled part) on a daily basis, killing and wounding many people, with the justification being that anyone still living there must be “shabiha,” a derogatory term for a regime loyalist.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/syria-war-civilian-casualties-regime-opposition-jihadists.html#ixzz3UMV6nzcG
Syria's satellite images look like North Korea's (images too large to post, easily can find on search)
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Al-monitor, so thankful I found such an incredible source that has many articles from the recent relevant issues at-play, more of what the public there is concerned about but simplistically looking at something with tunnel vision when the entirety of the experience of growing up & living is very different than growing up in America though growing up in concentrated poverty neighborhoods (what we would call other countries "failed states"
is very comparable, especially if the local police department behaves like an oppressive government army.
This article explains it well
Iraq needs justice, not revenge
NAJAF, Iraq — At a conference for dialogue between religions and sects in Baghdad on Jan. 31, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that defending Shiites and Sunnis cannot be achieved by saying “O Shiites” or “O Sunnis,” but through cohesion and dialogue between the various components of the people in the face of terrorism.
In his speech, Abadi talked about how justice in Iraqi society is typically understood. This understanding is incompatible with modern developments in resolving human conflicts. Iraqis generally see justice in the contexts of revenge and reprisals. This is reflected not only in Iraqi public opinion, but also in the country’s legal and judicial systems. In contrast, revenge is no longer part of justice in modern political philosophy nor in a modern country’s legal and judicial practices.
In the past, justice was understood as “eye for an eye” and was achieved by taking revenge against the offender. Justice was focused on harming the criminal like the latter had harmed the victim. Justice was not compensating the victim for his damages.
This understanding of justice has become established in the long years under dictatorial regimes. But the problem was exacerbated by expanding the punishment to include individuals not involved in the crime. After any objection against the government, the former regime would punish whole families, entire clans, and sometimes whole cities. The families of a condemned person would pay for the bullet used to executed him. A fugitive’s wife, mother or sister would be detained to force him to surrender, or to at least harm his morale.
Collective punishment was prevalent during this era. After a failed assassination attempt against his person in 1982, Saddam Hussein executed 143 people, including children, arrested 1,500 others and destroyed nearly 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of agricultural land. After being accused of forming an illegal organization, more than 40 Iraqi army officers were executed in 1995. Most of them were from the city of Ramadi in Anbar province in western Iraq. Many in that city peacefully protested the executions. The regime retaliated by killing dozens and arresting hundreds.
Although Iraq was liberated from Hussein's dictatorial regime after 2003, the former understanding of justice is still alive and active in the laws, regulations and government practices. The current violations by government agencies in Iraq are the result of this mindset. For example, Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization — which is part of the popular mobilization forces fighting IS in Diyala — said in December 2014: “The day of reckoning is drawing near and we warn all families in the area to leave, because we will strike a devastating blow.”
There are dozens of reports and videos showing unjustified revenge acts by government forces and other military forces against civilians or detainees that are supposed to be treated in accordance with international laws. These acts are not officially ordered, and they became a trend to the point that Ali al-Sistani made statements denouncing them.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/03/iraq-restorative-justice-revenge-sects-shiite-sunnis.html#ixzz3UMZTJ3YL
IS or the ideology is separate from this in you can blame their sect on their sect but overall it is a tit-for-tat response, oppression for oppression & Syria -- probably the most dangerous country in the world right now. Especially for journalists and many more than just IS are a threat to them.
