• barsoap
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    5 months ago

    Two, how the fuck are rural Afghanis supposed to know who’s on the CIA kill list?

    The fuck does the CIA have to do with anything. And you don’t need to be a genius to infer that hanging out with insurgent commanders is not a safe thing to do.

    How stupid do you think Afghans are. Do you think that they are capable of language, of exchanging observations and experiences and drawing collective conclusions from them.

    Motherfucker.

    If you kill civilians with an air force, that’s “collateral damage”. If you kill them with a truck bomb, that’s “terrorism”.

    Bullshit. In both cases, collateral damage is if alongside with the enemy commander or whatever, any legitimate target, you take out civilians. It’s in the world “collateral”. Look it up. If you’re targeting civilians directly that’s not collateral.

    • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      The CIA is often in charge of designating drone targets.

      Not everyone who is targeted is an “insurgent commander”

      Even “insurgent commanders” have families who might not have much choice about their proximity.

      US military prisons like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo were famously filled with victims of grudges and bounties. Basically the US pays informants for targets, and informants just point at whoever they want. Military “intelligence” has a lot of holes in it to rely on it as an authority on who lives or dies-- and that’s before we even get into “collateral”.

      Speaking of “collateral”, yes that is a weasel word, much like “terrorist”. Don’t allow the perpetrator to define the terms for you. If there was one US general in the twin towers, would that have made the other 3k victims “collateral damage”?

      • barsoap
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        5 months ago

        Military “intelligence” has a lot of holes in it to rely on it as an authority on who lives or dies-- and that’s before we even get into “collateral”.

        And that is why Germany’s kill lists had juridical oversight, and collateral damage was not measured in civilians but “people who at least look like they’re probably fighters”. The Taliban also once sent the Bundeswehr an apology letter, saying “Some idiots of ours thought your convoy was a US one hope you’re not mad”.

        You seem to be under the impression that I’m defending the US approach, I’m not. What I am doing is contrasting it to the IDF while you’re engaged in trivialising IDF actions by insinuating the US is even half as bad. Even in Vietnam it wasn’t as bad as the IDF is right now. US military intelligence blindly believing random accusations? The IDF doesn’t even need those accusations to target you. Stochastic terrorism is part of their strategy.

        Can you get it into your head that this isn’t a simple, binary, “good” and “bad” thing, that there’s degrees to everything?

        • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          I’m not saying they are all “just as bad” as one another. I’m trying to move us beyond the word “terrorism”. IDF is worse than Hamas because of the context. IDF is an occupying force.

          • barsoap
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            5 months ago

            IDF is worse than Hamas because of the context.

            Hamas very much is an occupying force, too. They’ve been brutalising Gaza for quite a while and are very very happy with the result of October 7th. It got the exact response they wanted it to have, what’s luckily missing is the reaction among Palestinians they wanted it to have, those accelerationist fucks. “Make Israel crack down harder to make the population madder”.

            Can you please stop that campism it’s brainrot. Just because fascists happen to be on the underdog side doesn’t make them in any way worthy of supporting, fascists love fighting other fascists as they can reinforce their respective holds over their own population.

            • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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              5 months ago

              Hamas and the variety of militias comprise the Palestinian armed resistance to Israeli occupation. They are made up mostly of orphans. They are not “the big bad”, they are Palestinians. I’m not going to justify everything they do, but neither will I condemn them. What is Palestine’s alternative?

              • barsoap
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                5 months ago

                Hamas and the variety of militias comprise the Palestinian armed resistance to Israeli occupation.

                No. Generally speaking, that’s the role of the PLO, a bunch of secular lefties and also Palestine’s representative to the UN, which Hamas very much is not a part of. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, rabidly Islamist, very much more interested in martyrdom than liberation, more interested in making sure that male hair dressers don’t serve female customers for whatever fucked-up reason, and also very much funded with the at least aid of Israel. Because the PLO has too much foreign goodwill.

                Note that I’m saying here “Hamas” as in the organisation. Individual fighters might indeed have better motives, and individual paramedics definitely have better motives. But the middle to upper levels of the organisation, the strategists, the mullahs? Islamofascist, the lot of them. Not a single bit better than the Kahanites on the other side. They love each other, as the existence of the other means their war indeed can be eternal (see Umberto Eco). There can be no Israeli security without Palestinian freedom, and there also can’t be Palestinian freedom without Israeli safety. The rest of Palestinians generally understand that, Hamas refuses to acknowledge it.

                You know what you’re doing right now? You’re applauding the Mujahideen because they can be used to fight against the Soviets, blind to the Taliban you’re creating. You’re using the same fucked-up US doctrine that you slammed a few comments earlier. As said: Stop that “enemy of my enemy” campist bullshit.

                • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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                  5 months ago

                  Is the PLO offering any armed resistance to the genocide occurring right now? Does it offer any armed resistance to Israeli occupation generally? I cannot find any evidence that it is, but I would be happy to read anything that says otherwise.

                  • barsoap
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                    5 months ago

                    They are following their strategy, not yours. Your bloodlust doesn’t matter.