Gulf War 2 - Electric Boogaloo

[SumFaggotPlayTester]

Not looking forward to the day the petrol dollar collapses. While it will be funny this game of who can suck Saudi cock the best ends, finally, the fuckery that will hit the US will be a massive pain in the ass. Why we decided to rely on oil trade to be done in US dollars during the cold war I have no idea given we where already well off leading the west during it both culturally & economically. But trying to keep insane religious fanatics who run these countries semi-stable to keep this game going is a nightmare.

At the same time I wouldn't be surprised if the Saudis did false flag their own oil refinery to get more US gibs. Israelis do the same shit and the chucklefucks state side bicker to give both groups more money & protection. We should have stayed an isolationist nation and let the world burn. Would have been better to invest all the money we dumped into the mideast & asia into South America instead. Improving the economies & living standards there would have made better trade partners than Europe, Africa, & Asia given how much closer they are. At least the vast majority of them are Catholic & don't suicide bomb you for pissing on Muhammad's grave.

[MagicManICT]

@SumFaggotPlayTester: I definitely agree there is some limits to prosecuting* boisterous speech and even hate speech. I think if people had to take more accountability for what they do say, they'd be less likely to make up bullshit to feed conspiracy theorists and stir the shit pot. It's definitely a slippery slope argument going from examples like in Germany where you almost can't even mention 'Nazi' (sorry, don't know the exact limits on this) to the almost anything goes attitude in the US. I don't really wanting to derail the thread on this, but it does seem important as a lot of our information we get on various things, especially conflicts and foreign policy, get filtered through so many layers it can be hard to get actual truth. (*typically, prosecute would mean criminal action instead of a civil suit, but I think there could be some legal middle ground that has real ramifications that won't land a person under the criminal system, but has more punitive pressure than what civil suits or fines often turn out to be.)

The ultimate problem here is actually distinguishing hate speech with the intention of engendering <insert actual crime here> vs just talking it up or being some for of educational. There are already precedents set on this when it can be proven that a person intentionally convinced someone to commit a crime as a conspiracy.

@Potjeh: if burinn hadn't called you out on that, I would have. It doesn't matter what you back your monetary system on as long as it's a reliable system. Europe certainly hasn't tied any of their currencies to the US Dollar, though their economies are tied together enough they tend to move together most of the time.

Latest news today: more strikes, this time in the Green Zone in Baghdad. According to the couple of articles I saw, nothing concrete had been released other than the strikes hitting the area.

Also, US congress isn't happy with their briefing from the President's staff. Talk from both parties (or at least enough GOP) is of taking away the war powers act that the US has operated under the last 15 years so more of the vague attacks can't be done. If things escalate, I expect a new resolution to pass if this one is removed.

Update from yesterday's news: press releases from various services indicate the crashed airliner was not shot down, but more likely a system failure.

[MightySheep]

u guys r stupid, the largest producer of oil in the world is USA

quit trying to sound like u know shit lmao

[mvgulik]

The largest producer of oil in the world is USA

And being only nr 10 on the "proven oil reserves (per country)" list, they might have a longevity problem with keeping it up.

[shubla]

I read an article late that said of one of the attacks, two missiles were intercepted and destroyed, and a third landed without detonation... highly effective attack

Iran has cruise missiles with 1 meter accuracy that are probably impossible to intercept, so they could have hit anything if they wanted.
I read from a Finnish newspaper that some Finnish troops at the base that was hit were in a "bomb shelter" made of few sandbags, those sandbags protect you against some shrapnel from grenades and such, but not from missiles carrying warheads of hundreds of kilograms.

u guys r stupid, the largest producer of oil in the world is USA

This is only a recent development. And when you add up production of all countries in middle east they far outweigh US production.
USA still is 2nd largest importer of oil in the world, and imports almost the same amount of oil that China imports and more than half of the amount that whole EU uses!
Even if they didn't import any oil from other countries, they may still have interests in middle east because production of oil in there has effects to other countries and world economy.

[Zentetsuken]

at this point I can only assume you are trolling, sheep

you are literally just parroting every fucking tweet you read this week thinking that it's a valid part of this conversation

I'd be willing to bet money that the only reason you even stated this is because trump said it in his speech.

[wonder-ass]

u guys r stupid, the largest producer of oil in the world is USA

quit trying to sound like u know shit lmao

yes they are the largest producer of oil but usa also uses like twice the amount it makes in oil lol. it buys so much fucking oil from canada and the middle east. usa also owns like a big share of oil fields in iraq now.

[MightySheep]

I'd be willing to bet money that the only reason you even stated this is because trump said it in his speech.

no just bored of the same low effort input in every discussion

doesnt matter if its syria, libya, iran, iraq or whatever, half the armchair political pundits on the internet wll chime in about how its "all about the oil" because they heard it on a fucking eminem song or something

its like the ultimate go-to "hurr this is will make me sound like I know what Im talking about" line

[MagicManICT]

its like the ultimate go-to "hurr this is will make me sound like I know what Im talking about" line

If this weren't the most likely of answers to the question "why do we even bother to go there in the first place," I might be accepting of the trolling and chalking such answers to the average "armchair political pundit." The other possible reasons are A) seat of terrorist funding, or B) rattling sabers with neighboring countries that are allies (in this case, Israel). I don't think i'm missing any possibilities here, as we don't wage these sorts of wars in Africa or the Americas. It's really hard to separate out what is being done in financial interests from what is being done to show as a strong ally when most democracies of the major players have been heavily influenced by greed and envy. When the paths cross such as this, it only makes it easier to make a mess of things.

[Burinn]

I think most people forget or don't remember just how bad the misinformation campaign was during the invasion of Iraq. Neither Iran nor the United States has any reason to be truthful to the public about what happens immediately after a military strike. The immediacy with which people were willing to accept "Yup, no one died." moments after the strikes as if there wasn't media blackouts on death tolls during the Iraq War was staggering.

Feels good to be right tbh.

Pentagon Says 34 U.S. Troops Diagnosed with Concussions, Brain Injuries After Iran Missile Strike in Iraq