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[Guardian G.I.]

Meanwhile, in democratic Libya...

[Helgoland]

Meanwhile, in democratic Libya...

That might actually be better than it seems - the people are showing support for the government, not for the militias, making long-term anarchy unlikely. The violence is bad, of course, but I belive we can reasonably expect the Libyan state to stay/become functional instead of turning into a Somalia on Europe's doorstep.

[Sheb]

I think we all know why Syria went on for so long. It just lacked that little something Libya had to urge their rebels on. And I'm not talking about western jets and bombs here. No, I'm talking about ridiculously sexy/awesome soldiers.

But now, Assad's days are counted, for I present you: Ridiculously Photogenic Syrian Soldier:

[Owlbread]

If only other rebel movements had fighters that were so beautiful. The Tamil Tigers might still be around if they could only have tapped into that.

[Zangi]

Propaganda campaign is a go?

[Jopax]

The Libyans got real lucky with ELM, that dude had both class and bravado, I think I still have some of his pictures lying around on my HDD.

[Sheb]

Let's enjoy some more:






"Tripod? What tripod?"

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sheb confirmed for Adidas viral marketing shrill.

[Digital Hellhound]

Sheb confirmed for Adidas viral marketing shrill.

Relevant:

[Guardian G.I.]

IIRC, Syrian army is apparently on the offensive right now, so photogenic soldiers doesn't seem to help the rebels much. Some humanitarian American air raids would probably tip the balance in their favour, but thanks to Russia, Assad managed to avoided being democratized by the USAF.
 
Suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut today. 22 people have been killed.
Sunni militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. The Iranian government blames "Israeli mercenaries".

[Owlbread]

Dr. David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK and Democrat/Republican politician, speaking about Israel and its attitudes towards racial purity. It can be hard to cut through his bullshit concerns about Jewish conspiracies to rule the USA (as well as his exaggeration where he claims the Kohen are more "extreme" than the SS because they must prove their purity by 1000 years, even though that is true they don't exterminate people) but there are very interesting bits about how apparently Jews in Israel cannot marry "non-Jews" by law. If you're an atheist Jew that's fine, but if you're not a convert you can't marry the person you love.

It is now very clear to me now just how backward and racist the state of Israel is. I mean, we're all aware of the Palestinian issue but the Israeli state is unmistakably Jewish-supremacist due to its laws designed to ensure Jewish "racial" purity. The other thing Dr. Duke fails to mention is how Israeli governments have destroyed European-Jewish (Yiddish) culture and replaced it with a synthetic, neo-Hebrew form, and indeed he fails to mention the plight of "Beta Israelis" from Ethiopia who face institutional racial discrimination, despite being as historically Jewish as any Ashkenazi or Sephardi. Of course they are black after all, they aren't exactly high on Dr. Duke's list of concerns.

There's a lot of states in the world though that we often fail to criticise for their tyrannical purity laws. In Afghanistan for instance (the "state" we've all been building with our taxpayer's money for the last decade) you cannot become an Afghan citizen unless you are of Afghan parentage and unless you are a Muslim. If you are an Afghan citizen and a Muslim and choose to convert to another faith or become an atheist you will be executed.

[Sheb]

Apparently marriage in Israel is entirely in the hands of religious authorities. The result is that one Israeli marriage in ten is done abroad to circumvent Israeli laws.

[LordSlowpoke]

godspeed, owlbread

the sooner people realize that there are no "good guys" in the middle east, just shades of gray instead, the sooner shit will actually get done regarding implementing the lightest shade thereof

[LordSlowpoke]

how about you be kind enough to explain that to the masses of what i will conveniently call idiots who fall for the "israel is the christ of nations" bullshit

the fact that they horribly bastardize a not insignificant part of romanticism by employing it only makes me more annoyed

[XXSockXX]

To be fair though, Israel is not worse in that regard than many other countries and historically it's really not difficult at all to understand how they got that way.
Having citizenship based on ius solis is a relatively new trend in many non-anglosaxon countries, German citizenship was mostly ius sanguinis based until about 15 years ago for example.
Also it's really obvious why Israel is an important ally to the West, for historical reasons (the Holocaust anyone?) and, in the US, for religious reasons. Not saying Israeli governments haven't done a lot of very dubious stuff, but it's funny how left-wing anti-Israel bashing in some circles can end up being basically classic right-wing anti-semitism in disguise.