Iraq and the Middle East

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12 Aug 2014, 7:30 am

The "Westerners" helping ISIS are "Western" in the same sense that the Boston Marathon Bombers were "Westerners". They are residents of Western countries (USA,UK, France, etc) who are immigrants, or the Children of immigrants, from Islamic countries- and on top of that- they probably are extracted from far flung Islamic countries on different continents ( they could be ex pat Chechens, Nigerians, Indonesians, Pakistanies). So within the Islamic world they may not be locals to that part of the Middle East, but they are not likely many garden variety nonMuslim Americans/Europeans among them. The "Western" component of the fighters are mostly "western residing ethnic non westerners".

Last edited by naturalplastic on 12 Aug 2014, 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

naturalplastic
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12 Aug 2014, 8:02 am

Humanaut wrote:

Diabolikal wrote:

I keep having a voice in the back of my head thinking "Why don't they just nuke the whole region and end it all?"

Apart from the ethical considerations, they don't have enough nukes.

Ethics ARE a consideration.

Supply of nukes is NOT.

The USA has enough nukes to wipe out the Russian Republic a dozen times over ( and Putin has enough nukes to return the favor in kind).

The region in question (the troubled heartland of the middle east consisting of Iraq, Syria,Lebanon, Isreal-Palestine, and lets throw in Jordan for good measure) is only about twice the size of Texas- MUCH smaller than either the Russian Republic or the USA.Wiping it out with nukes would be a piece of cake for the USA. Hardly making a dent in our supply of nukes. Doing it wouldnt accomplish anything positive. But it could easily be done.

Kurgan
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12 Aug 2014, 4:33 pm

While most nuclear warheads have heen destroyed, there are still more than 5,000 left in the US. More than enough to make the entire Middle East uninhabitable for a very long time.

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Humanaut
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12 Aug 2014, 11:08 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

The USA has enough nukes to wipe out the Russian Republic a dozen times over ( and Putin has enough nukes to return the favor in kind).

That's a myth. Both are nonetheless able to harm each other.

Stannis
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12 Aug 2014, 11:23 pm

Yes, let us solve human rights crises by nuking everyone :roll:

Has anyone in this thread considered the possibility that they might be a psychopath?