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[MaxTheFox]

You know the AmeriPol and EuroPol threads? They're nice if you like that sort of thing (endless debates). But they only apply to just two regions: America and Europe. This thread is meant for political discussion regarding either the rest of the world or general political theory that doesn't really fit into the other two threads.

Note: If this descends into a flamewar I will lock the thread for a while until people calm down. Because otherwise Toady might have to step in and then someone gets banned. Please keep some semblance of civility.

[Teneb]

There are actually threads for pretty much every geographical region, so you may want to keep this as a generic political discussion thread.

[misko27]

ok actually not a bad idea sometimes I want to talk about the UN or something like that but then people are too busy with whatever scandals are consuming their local government today.

[Lidku]

Anyone heard about what's happening in the Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

[feelotraveller]

Latest I've heard is this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/nagorno-karabakh-armenia-pm-signs-deal-to-end-war-with-azerbaijan-and-russia

The conflict was mentioned briefly when it started in the non-Europe/Russia thread but quickly got sidetracked into the burning issue of whether Armenia was part of Europe on not.

If you are talking about the six weeks of war a decent summary is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_war

Or was your question more specific?

[Arx]

There are actually threads for pretty much every geographical region, so you may want to keep this as a generic political discussion thread.

Anyone else remember Afripol? And RedKings' Eastasiapol? Me neither. Feels bad man.

[RedKing]

Also worth noting that Ethiopia is on the verge of a serious and potentially bloody civil war.
After the Eritrean Independence War in the 1990s, Ethiopia has actually been a relatively bulwark of stability in East Africa (certainly moreso than Sudan or Somalia or even Kenya).

The short version is that Ethopia's current Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018, has been working to weaken the ethnic federalism that has been the norm in Ethiopia for decades, and as part of this reorganized the military which had previously been dominated by people from the Tigray ethnic group/region. When Abiy postponed September elections in Tigray (ostensibly due to coronavirus), popular outrage erupted and the Tigrayan local government (and ethnic/state militia) began vociferously opposing Abiy's government in Addis Ababa.

Tigray is governed largely by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which was a major factor in overthrowing the Communist government of Haile Mariam in 1991. They were also on the frontlines of the Eritrean war in the 1990s, as Tigray and Eritrea share a considerable border. The fact that Abiy is seen as "friendly" with Eritrea (he won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his work in Ethiopian-Eritrean reconciliation) is another reason for the rift. Further, Abiy is an ethnic Oromo, the first Oromo to be elected head of the ERPDF, a pan-ethnic political coalition of which the TPLF is a member.

It's hard as a non-expert in this region to tell whether this is a crusading reformer running into backlash from an ethnic group afraid of losing its powerbase, or a budding dictator running into popular resistance from within his own ranks. My guess would be, as so often is the case in developing countries, that it's a bit of both. Regardless of who the "good guy" is (or if there even is one), the clashes between the Ethopian military and the TPLF militias (who are well-equipped, well-trained and seasoned) have already killed over 600 and triggered a wave of refugees fleeing into Sudan.

There are actually threads for pretty much every geographical region, so you may want to keep this as a generic political discussion thread.

Anyone else remember Afripol? And RedKings' Eastasiapol? Me neither. Feels bad man.

Asiapol is still out there somewhere, I just hadn't been keeping it current since I took a couple years' hiatus. I really should update it to talk about the Thai situation and the most recent happenings in Hong Kong. :-/

[ArchimedesWojak]

* Seductively Backfilps Into Thread.

[ChairmanPoo]

Azerbajan kind of won. Not a total victory but made significant gains

[Dostoevsky]

Azerbajan kind of won. Not a total victory but made significant gains

Seeing as this may be the closest thread to topics of modern warfare...

The Washington Post had a pretty interesting article over the weekend about this conflict. In short, it attributes Azerbaijan's success to modern drone tactics. Armenia's limited/old anti-air probably was a factor in this, and recent training exercises with Turkey's military. (and possible Turkish mercenaries.)

Azerbaijan used its drone fleet — purchased from Israel and Turkey — to stalk and destroy Armenia’s weapons systems in Nagorno-Karabakh, shattering its defenses and enabling a swift advance. Armenia found that air defense systems in Nagorno-Karabakh, many of them older Soviet systems, were impossible to defend against drone attacks, and losses quickly piled up.

. . . .

“Clearly, the decisive factor in this conflict is Turkey’s intervention on Azerbaijan’s side. They seem to be heavily coordinating the war effort,” [an expert] said, adding that it appeared Turkey had moved Syrian mercenaries into Azerbaijan two weeks before the conflict.

Turkey denies recruiting Syrian mercenaries to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.

And then there were the drones. Their targets included fortified positions from the 1990s.

“There were massive losses,” de Waal said. “Possibly around a third of Armenian tanks have been destroyed. That’s obviously been a critical factor in taking all those territories.”

. . . .

In the early stages of the war, Azerbaijan used 11 slow Soviet-era An-2 aircraft that had been converted into drones and sent them buzzing over Nagorno-Karabakh as bait to Armenian air defense systems — tempting them to fire and reveal their positions, after which they could be hit by drones.

Azerbaijan used surveillance drones to spot targets and sent armed drones or kamikaze drones to destroy them, analysts said.

The drones purchased by Azerbaijan were Turkish Bayraktar TB2s (which look kind of like a budget Predator) and Israeli "loitering munitions" - i.e. kamikaze drones, possibly the Firefly in particular. That's a man-portable (3 kg) missile that can hover about, basically. Supposedly cheaper than an anti-tank missile, yet also allows for both surveillance and strike in one package.

[MaxTheFox]

Possibly-unpopular opinion: people should be forced to vaccinate their children. Because if antivaxxers endanger themselves then they're just idiots but if they endanger their children then they are a danger to society itself.

If they still don't take their children to be vaccinated after some verbal nudging and warnings by the government, they should be arrested and then recorded as abusive parents with all that entails (court case, children put up for adoption).

[ShinQuickMan]

They're not just endangering their own kids, but others as well. There are legitimate, non-stupid reasons certain people can't be completely immunized. Certain people being young children, and rarer, those with allergic reactions to vaccines. Anti-vaxxers are risking all those lives in their senseless crusade.

Incidentally, we face a similar problem with anti-maskers, but we already have a thread for that...

[MaxTheFox]

Well if there's proof they can't be immunized (can that be tested safely?) then they get a pass.

[scriver]

Possibly-unpopular opinion: people should be forced to vaccinate their children.

For old tried-and-true vaccines, yes, possibly. I'm much less certain of newly created vaccines.

There's also the thing that a forced legal must is only neccessary in a culture where a large percentage of people has stopped believing in vaccines. The problem then is that forcing people to vaccinate won't raise belief in vaccines again, in fact it might only lower it further. Meaning that eventually we might end up with so many unbelievers that they can make vaccinations a choice again, or even outlaw them completely. So I don't think forcing them is an option in the long run either.

[MaxTheFox]

Russia is dying.

Dying from the corrupt oligarchs, from the conservative politicians, from the inherently reactionary Orthodox Church.

It can only be saved via a coup-- and while liberal democracy can indeed prevent the inevitable rot, it won't make Russia any stronger. God can't save Russia. Only an unflinching dedication to progress of all kinds can. The best future for us lies not in the chanting of the church choir, nor in the march of the soldiers. It lies in the steam towers of nuclear power plants, in the raging flame of rocket engines, in the cold calculations of supercomputers. We need technocracy. Less resources need to be dedicated on preserving our reactionary culture. It brings nothing to the nation, to progress, and can be left to rot like the beaten carcass it is. Nothing else must guide the government besides science and reason.

Exterminate all species of mosquitoes that bite humans, strip-mine asteroids, make sure the tricolor is waving on the Moon and Mars, invest heavily in AI research. Make sure that Russia is on the path to technological singularity and everything that stands in the way is crushed underfoot.