Police are doing the physical work of locating up-and-coming jihadis in person - which has led to claims of provocation, entrapment and so forth. Online, they're probably just monitoring in third-person: posing as jihadi recruiters online seems more like entrapment to me, since nothing physical (weapons, bombs) is trading hands. (Although the recruits do end up getting on an airplane...) Perhaps some of them are involved in it, but I suspect relatively fewer b/c of the above. Actually, online effort is probably also easier via third-person monitoring, searching keywords, etc., so one might better expend manpower in those areas. One guy with a spider program is probably worth ten setup guys. But maybe not - maybe with enough evidence the recruiters could be taken down. Aren't they usually located in other countries though?
http://ysrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=A2KJywoh...cuaHRtbA--/RS=^ADAEZUcyFOTh_925B_wYsIprLLBllc- So how do you revamp a military that has gone down the drain that was trained by US forces before they left? Pour more time, money and manpower into a military that are cowards?
You bring in the Iraqi special forces. I guess they surrender faster and run faster than Iraqi regulars. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I think you have to divide Iraq up into Sunni, Shia and Kurds.
Yeah, some Democrats voted for the war resolution, but most did not. And that is the point you keep overlooking. Only about 28% of the yeah votes were from Democrats. Two, you forget or overlook the fact, that the Democrats who voted for it were deceived and misled by the Republican leadership - you know all that false and misleading intelligence?
That isn't what should be done at all. What they need to do is have a government that represents ALL of the people who live in Iraq not just one faction or another. That's why Iraq is in the mess it is because all factions are not represented whatsoever. Once real elections can be held that insure all people wanting to vote can do so and all people wanting to run for office also can do so. When that happens things in Iraq will be much better off and if America can't insure that then Iraq will just go down the drain and everyone for themselves with more war and terrorism spreading between the factions who are there.
Well I guess my point was that it was not unanimous that only Republicans should be criticized for their part in voting for it but blame should be spread around as Democrats also did vote for it too. That's all I wanted to point out don't just pick on one party show they both are to blame.
Actually that is a gross oversimplification. You are not going to overcome centuries of hate and distrust with a new government. George Bush had an opportunity when he invaded Iraq, but that opportunity has come and gone. I think the only viable solution is a 3 state solution in which tribal factions each have their own government. Too much water has passed under the bridge, and I just don't see any effective leaders in the Iraqi government.
Well, I think that argument is more than a little thin. While it is true some, but not most Democrats, voted for the war resolution, you cannot discount the fact Republicans led the effort to pass the bill and were responsible for the misinformation they fed to Democrats and the world in order to get backing for the war.
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. They do have their contacts in particular countries, where they even issue money, etc, to people trying to sneak off to them. They have a stupid amount of money. It's kept in banks. And they can still access it and tap into it. Why? How? Why haven't they tried to trace the funds yet? Kids who go to them are meeting contacts who are helping them organise passports, plane tickets and money.. Are they being traced and tracked down and arrested? I am not seeing much evidence of that. Police shouldn't be posing as recruiters. They should be posing as possible recruits. That journalist posed as a teenage girl and made contact within a couple of hours and the speed at which it progressed, had she said yes, she would have had her tickets, passport, money handed to her within a few days. She drew it out as much as she could. Why aren't Federal authorities doing the same thing? Meeting and arresting these contacts or tracing them back when they do the money transfers, and purchase tickets, etc? It needs a lot more funds thrown at it.
I believe online video game recruitment is a high end starting point. As most games are "war" orientated with a high emphasis on virtual esteem building (trophies, medals, skill points etc) children, teens that rely on the virtual environment for most of their self esteem would be very vulnerable to manipulation. Death in these games is virtual and it would be easy to confuse reality with virtual. The recent spate of violent raids on businesses by armed robbers here in Melbourne, has all the hallmarks of online video game training, using the video game platform as a group training vehicle.. In timing, degree of violence and sometimes sheer stupidity. The amounts of money involved ( small change ) do not seem to warrant the risk as well which indicates that they are thrill seeking as well. (just thoughts...) The full impact of the use of video games ( virtual violence ) is, I believe, yet to be discovered. Some games eg. ( Far cry 3 ) offer the player the ability to design their own micro game which would allow someone to build a virtual "target victim" stage set to rehearse their actions before doing them. Invite team members to also rehearse etc... Like most new technologies the provision of a Global networking facility will show it's dark side first before stabilizing as time progresses. ( over view) eg. Nuclear weapons were first developed and used in 1945. Cold war leading to Cuban missile crisis 1960's and now relatively stable compared to those early days. Once the "genie is out of the bottle" the first thing that seems to happens is "negative" use as this has been or is human nature. The birth of Global social media and online networking is one such Genie. Online recruitment for many things is ongoing all the time. some as we know are not beneficial, and an awful lot of fraud is taking place until the world adapts to it's new found ability to communicate most often anonymously, across borders any time they wish to.
The entire effort to launch the Iraq War was the work of people who were all Republicans, and were fully supported by the Republican Party, and identified themselves and their efforts as exclusively Republican - to the point of bragging about that, loudly and effusively, all over the media, until the consequences of their violent folly and abysmal incompetence became as obvious to the general public as they had been from the beginning to the informed Liberals and the Left. The minority of Democrats who voted for that one key piece of legislation had little or no role in drafting it, promoting it, launching the media campaign or political efforts to force it through. They had no role in the warmongering effort otherwise, either. They were deceived, pressured, coerced, bullied, threatened, and otherwise persuaded into voting for a Republican bill abetting a Republican war launching. You are attempting to assign responsibility for the Iraq War to people who were not responsible for it. At all. They were at most willing collaborators in a project launched and managed by others. They deserve only the blame we assign to the victims of a con job, cowards who bow to threat and avoid risk, or bystanders who fail to try to prevent crime happening in front of them. And they do deserve some blame, these Dems who failed to prevent the Republican warmongering success, as we elect our public officials to be wiser and more courageous than they were. But to blame the Dems for the Iraq War because some of them were conned or bullied into voting for the War Powers act is to revise the account of what happened beyond recognition.
