Manchester Terrorist Attack

Iran supports Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas. They may be sort of occasionally fighting IS but that’s only to support Assad not to destroy them. They like having Iraq in pieces.

Isn’t that FOUR choices?

The most successful human strategy throughtout history has been to eradicate by means of extermination.
Maybe time to give this a go.

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Extermination of Extremists

(has of certain ring to to it)

It’s easier to give in to emotion than to work hard at finding another way.

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Our 3 weapons are fear and surprise & ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope!

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I think the Rwandan genocide has Srebrenica covered by many orders of magnitude. At almost a million people slaughtered in 3 months, it arguably was even worse than the Holocaust.

Charming what humanity can do, and continues to do, to itself, isn’t it?

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Ultimately, I’m thinking it all comes down to tribal instincts and an inbuilt reflex to assume that “your” tribe - be it delineated on religion, ethnicity, sexual proclivity, football team etc etc - is superior and needs to assert its superiority over others. Then it just revolves around how extreme and unhinged the impact and measures taken. from the oh-so-minor ( Fark Carlton) to the abominable (Aryan race = slaughter all jews and slavs)

There’s no doubt in my mind that the only way to stop ISIS as a physical entity is militarily. It has to happen or you condemn an entire region to barbaric thraldom. Ideally, it has to happen via fellow Muslim forces because Nato/ Russian involvement just fuels the fire. For that to happen, you need solid and stable nation states and right now there appears no-one capable.

But to stop ISIS (and its ilk) as an ideological entity can’t be done with force. It needs to be done psychologically and emotionally and thats going to be no small task. There are generations of hatred and hardship steering too many kids down the same pathway. This really hits home when you see a mother protesting her sons innocence in the murder of three Israeli kids, but then the rider “But if this is true then I will be proud of him until judgement day”. Utterly disturbing in its Implacable ruthlessness.

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Which leads to de-humanising, and desensitising. Once you take away the intimate and personal nature of relationships, it’s not that hard to become dispassionate with your edicts.

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Yep. I presume its a genetic programming to ensure the survival of the fittest or strongest but until we view the species as the tribe i fear that it will never end.

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There is a reason people who embrace diversity, inclusiveness and unity are called progressives.

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I think to ‘be a tribe’, we need to have something that draws us together that supersedes the common delineations - religion, politics, nationalism (as you’ve said). Maybe an alien attack. Or maybe - something a little more honest and true, and the realisation that there are better ways. If you had to count the total resources - total resources - that are expended on aggression, domination, segregation, subjugation, defense, acquisition and general greed as opposed to what is expended on bringing people together, it truly is an astronomical divide. Almost ludicrous to not understand why we are still fighting like wild animals.

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Hello…hello…hello…hello

The echo is strong in here.

Some good posts above.

Fear of “the different” is an inbuilt and evolutionary useful mechanism that has served the survival of the species very well for many millions of years. It’s also a fact: look at the many, many studies that prove even the most liberal and accepting types have an inbuilt, primal, adverse reaction when shown pictures of people that “look different” to them.

It is with us when we are born, it’s controlled by the same part of the brain that causes children to fear spiders and snakes before they have ever encountered them. It’s not going anywhere in the next few million years, either.

The suggestion above that “the tribe” needs to be seen as humanity as a whole is a good theoretical solution, but unfortunately it runs contrary to every fibre of base human instinct. At the core, it would only work if everybody looked the same.

Fortunately we have developed control mechanisms for these instincts (broadly describable as “society”) that subject instinct to external control. For the most part this works incredibly well to prevent murder, rape, theft etc, all of which are actions resulting from a deep-seeded psychological survival mechanism.

The problem is that this external control can be used for good or bad purposes. The holocaust being the prime example. The psych theory of “external locus of control” deals with this in depth and is a great way to understand that people will basically behave in the most reprehensible of ways if they are convinced they must by outside factors.

Humans are flawed and fascinating.

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Ummmmm, you do know, Gnik, that under Obomber the US sold the largest arms deals evuh! Good ol’ Killary helped broker the deal, but hey, she is a lovely woman and would have made the bestest Pressie.

Funny how the people ■■■■■■■■ on here about how we need to change the status quo are those who wanted the status quo to stay exactly as it was.

You mean like those who were desperately hoping for a Sanders victory?

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Martial law has been declared in the Philippines in regard to the Muslim region and perceptions that ISIS is establishing a stronghold there, but Duerte motives are being questioned and there is suspicion that he has provoked the problem. This may have repercussions in the Muslim areas of Thailand and possibly Indonesia with pressure for application of more fundamental Islamism ( although Indonesia has deflected the problem to some extent by granting Aceh greater autonomy, including the right to apply Sharia law).
Re Rwanda, the genocide was horrific, the distinction with the Balkans being that the Serbs sought justification on the grounds of Christianity versus Islam rather than tribe. At the end of the day, it was all about territory.

While there is enough research done and evidence gathered to support the freeze, fight or flight theory, not sure that your comment that we are born with some innate fear of others who look different stands the test.

There have been many studies that conclude children do not see difference in skin colour, until society teaches them, and if you put a group of 2 years old in a room they find their own way of communicate.

We are not born racists, bigots or haters of anyone.

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Disagree. Im damn near certain i was born with an innate revulsion of all things Fark Carlton.

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Yours is the loudest.