SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the when-you-DO-NOT-want-them-to-"think-of-the-children!" dept.
A couple of weeks ago this story was reported by The Daily Beast :
Members of an American-backed rebel group in Syria beheaded a young child in a grisly execution video.
The footage surfaced early Tuesday of members of Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki and a captured child in Handarat, near Aleppo. The young boy, who appears to be prepubescent, is then executed on the back of a pickup truck.
The gruesome videotaped murder of a child drew outrage on social media and the promise of an inquiry from the group's leadership, which has previously received U.S.-made weapons and American funding. The group no longer gets such backing. But it's also renewed questions about which rebels the American government has supported in Syria's ongoing civil war.
[...] State Department spokesperson John Kirby told The Daily Beast. "We strongly condemn this type of barbaric action, no matter what group is responsible. We encourage al-Zenki to investigate the incident and expect all parties to comply with their obligations under the law of armed conflict."
[...] the group's leadership issued a statement condemning the beheading. It said it formed a committee to investigate how such a crime could have happened.
More video from the incident has been released:
The victim is seen among a group of fighters from the US and Turkish backed militant group, in the same red pick-up truck that features in their video of his execution. In a chilling exchange the jihadist militants can be seen taunting the child, taking selfies, and threatening him with 'slaughter'.
When asked about his final wish, the child asks to be shot rather than slaughtered. Their shocking answer? "Slaughter. We are even worse than ISIS"
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 01 2016, @08:16PM
Only a masochist occupies and rebuilds the country he has just defeated.
Afghanistan should have been a punitive campaign. Not even a war, just a punitive campaign. Go in, kick ass, destroy their warmaking capability, maybe some infrastructure (not that they had a whole lot of that), take prisoners, the GTFO. Let them rebuild themselves.
Iraq never should have happened, plain and simple, in which case, we would have had no obligations to them at all. But, if we really HAD TO get Saddam, we should have got him, then GTFO. We stayed around for - what, exactly? To give DAESH reason to get established?
That nation building is some crazy shite. It worked after WW2 because we got meaningful surrenders from a vanquished people. Not to mention, we displayed a ferocity in WW2 which we are not willing to go back to. Firebombing Dresden, and atomic bombs in Japan alike demonstrated that we were willing to kill every last man, woman, and child if we didn't get the surrenders we were lookiing for.
Today, we are emasculated imitations of the warriors who won WW2, strutting about, trying to convince people that we are just as tough as our fathers - or in most cases here, our grandfathers.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday August 01 2016, @08:38PM
Sounds like you agree with me then. Yeah, show them how crazy we can be, and I'd wager you would get the desired results. They will sit down and shut up. But it still requires the Marshall Plan and the occupation if you want longer term results. I am very interested in hearing how the present situation is better. This is a clear case of *shit, or get off the pot*. I mean, aside for the guaranteed profits from the war business. And in case nobody noticed, we are playing both sides, just like with the Iran/Iraq war. These guys aren't answering the call of Allah, it's the good old American dollar [indiatimes.com] that reels them in. Beats the hell of working in the brickyards for virtually nothing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday August 02 2016, @03:04AM
Discussion elsewhere today on this very thing. And I pointed out: Soldiers don't win wars. Collateral damage wins wars. When one side has had enough of collateral damage, that's when they surrender.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday August 02 2016, @10:11AM
Only a masochist occupies and rebuilds the country he has just defeated.
Very true. After all, look at what the allies did in Germany and Japan after the Second World War, only to have these two become their implacable enemy for the second half of the twentieth century, sending suicide bombers to attack them and embarking on terrorist actions for decades.
As always, you display a complete lack of understanding of history. Go and read up on the Treaty of Versailles and the causes of World War II to understand why people more intelligent than you realised that this was a stupid policy before you were born.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 02 2016, @03:00PM
The treaty of Versaille was instrumenal in the ongoing rape of Germany, for years after the war ended. Defeat in WW1 didn't lead to WW2 - instead, the ongoing rape of Germany made it possible for Hitler to appeal to German's sense of justice, on his path to taking power.
France is at least as responsible for WW2 as Germany was.
And, nowhere in my punitive expedition post did I make any mention of decades-long exploitation of a former adversary. Kick ass, don't take any names, go home, and go about your own business. That way, there are no grudges for later generations to settle with our children/grandchildren.