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Current Middle-Eastern tensions

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Posted

The interference of the west has only made things worse there. I think we should cut our losses. People like to say that people have been at war there for hundreds of years, and while that's true, almost all strife there currently is either directly or indirectly a result of the region being carved up into slices by the allies in WW1.

 

Of course the primary problem now is that it may be too late, and our involvement may no longer be a choice. Its hard to say. I guess this post is to get the ball rolling on broader discussion of the area, since prior we were talking about Palestine or IS

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Posted

I wonder how different the region would be if the west hadn't interfered so much directly and just let the Middle East modernize on its own, with only help from actual allies.

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Posted

I think some degree of conflict is what develops an area. But yeah, peace is ideal.

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Posted

Turkey actually westernized of its own accord, when it was ruled by Ataturk "Father of the Turks". The fez was banned there, because he thought it was a symbol of their backwardness. He ended up making Turkey better off.

 

Particularly back then, westernization was pretty much synonymous with modernization. A lot of middle-eastern groups suffered greatly because of their lack of and unwillingness for gun training. But Turkey got better-off on its own, and I think that's cool, even though they abandoned part of their culture that would probably be pretty cool to see around today. Conversely, Iran was very western at a time it was ruled by a guy we put there p. much, and human rights were a lot better, but the leader started being a total dick, so he was overthrown and now westernization and trusting science is all evil 'n stuff according to the mullahs in power.

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Posted

Turkey is a very interesting case. I highly recommend the books Snow and The Bastard of Istanbul, they both tell very interesting stories about Turkey, and its place culturally, west or east, or somewhere in the middle. Especially the latter, its one of the handful of college books I did not sell back, because I enjoyed it so much.

 

One of the aspects of the book goes into how in general, Turks do not identify themselves with the Ottomans before Ataturk. Their cultural identity starts after WW1, so perhaps that's why they had so little trouble secularizing. All that being said, they still have problems. Its just most of them are ethnic rather than religious.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party

pheonix561 likes this

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Posted (edited)

So to derail the thread again:

 

Does anyone else think that ISIS is a badass-sounding organization? I feel like they are COBRA or HYDRA or something. Like, they have three high ranking bosses and they each have like a theme/ideal that they tell you about while you're battling them? Maybe one of the bosses has a scythe and a jackal head and his name is like Armored Anubis or like Jet Jackal. Then there's another guy with like a Hawk head who is a sniper. And then it turns out that ISIS Commander is like this guy who has like a cyborg pharaoh costume and stuff. And like you're fighting them in the Pyramid level, then you feel the whole structure shaking, then the sand around the Pyramids begins to shift and fall away into a pit that opens up, and the Pyramid is just the tip of this big, awesome floating super weapon. And the Pharoah is like "heh, see you in the next world!" then jumps on this helicopter and leaves you to your death, but you somehow find a way to stop the entire Pyramid weapon thing. And like when the Pyramid explodes, Muslims everywhere across the world suddenly snap out of their mind-control (the pyramid was responsible for brainwashing Muslims into being Muslim). Maybe there was like this ancient Egyptian artifact that powered the Pyramid or something. Maybe it was one of those staff/crook/lituus things. Maybe you retrieve it and lock it away. Then after the credits, Obama is meeting with this morally ambiguous guy and gives him the staff so that he can lock it away forever, and then the morally ambiguous character is like "one down, four to go". Obama shakes his hand and says "good work, my brother" in Muslim language. 

 

 

edit: as I was typing this, I knew that I had some image in the back of my mind that I was thinking of. venture-bros-sphinx-rising-destiny.jpg

 

These are all my OCs. Don't steal!

Edited by L.L. Bean's Menswear (see edit history)

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Posted

If only real world terrorism was as fun as cartoon terrorism, we'd just have to deal with the perennial weather machine

LLmao ?✊? likes this

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Posted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ttDMGEme-k

 

ok not really pertinent to this problem but I swear my boiling blood turned my face that shade of furious red when i watched that

 

 

I honestly don't even see FOX's response as a counterargument, it was just a knee-jerk accusation that doesn't even relate to the opinions put forth by those Harvard University students. They heard someone call America "problematic" and all they could do is throw back a non-sequitur  about their lack of involvement in the US military. And to top it all off I dunno if you looked at that Campus Reform site they used as a source, but that was horrible to read; their entire mission is to discredit higher education for reasons I can only guess (with a name like that though you can bet on what they want to do to colleges).

 

There's more to say, but I'll have to talk about it a later time; my stress has been too high lately and the last thing I need are concerns that some sick journalists will try and convince people that the institution I devote my life to working with is in need of government reform. Too much analysis and worry is eating me alive right now.

pheonix561 and Sahaqiel like this

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Posted

lol sorry man, I just thought you would be the most passionate person about that video, didn't mean to bum you out...

 

The woman with glasses also mocked "outlandish" as a pretentious high-brow vocabulary word. Her first "point" against the video was literally just embarrassing ad hominem. And the others laughed in agreement. Meanwhile, the "expert" they've brought in to talk on the subject is a freaking country singer with horribly stereotypical blind patriotism and no other things to say. It was so disgusting. I actually wanted to physically vomit while watching the video. It was worse than 2girls1cup.

 

While listening to NPR I ran across an audio clip from some old white politician (because of course he is) trying to sway the opinion of his votership by saying things like, "Who's in the White House? A bunch of college professors who think they're smarter and know better than you." My eyes almost rolled out of my head. The right wing's mass manipulation gets so disgusting at times.

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Posted

I hate how black and white these people present things as. Like disagreeing with American foreign policy means you hate our troops.

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Posted

I hate how black people present things as. Like disagreeing with American foreign policy.

Okay this is how I read this the first time and I was just really tired and like "wait what" and then I read it again. Sorry I'm not adding anything of value to the conversation I'm just saying.

SilverAlchemic likes this

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Posted

gg

pheonix561 likes this

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Posted

Although our higher education system definitely needs reformation. Just not whatever these guys are selling.

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Posted

ah sorry I didn't mean to put the blame on you or anything I was just being a little exasperated :x

 

Yeah, when I think of reform I want in colleges the thing that comes to mind is "lowering the cost of tuition and ensuring high wages for professors while putting a stopper in ridiculous school enhancement projects and spending on sports programs"

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