Random Politics & Religion #00

Simpleton video for the simple minded. Things as messy as the current state of the world don't just happen. There is history and nuance to it. If you want to be a simpleton that's your choice, but keep out of history and politics because it is anything but simple. That type of thinking and idiocy is what perpetuates it. Its part of the problem, not the solution.

Lets first differentiate between the acts that are all lumped together as acts of terrorism. (call me crazy)

82% of the world's "terrorism" occurs in 5 countries.
Iraq : In a state of Civil war. In the Iraqi/Iranian War, the US armed Sadam Hussein's Bathist regime to serve as a regional counterweight to the growing influence of Iran. They empowered a totalitarian dictatorship and they had no qualms at the time with him putting down any and all legitimate resistance to his seat in power. All minorities other than the Ba'athist party supporters were oppressed and persecuted. This includes Sunni, Shi'ia and ethnic kurds. Iran itself had deposed their dictator, the Shah. Because the Shah was so unpopular, once he was deposed the islamic revolutionists turned their attention on his greatest beneficator and supporter; the US (Ayotollah Khomani gave them the nickname the "great satan". It is because of this that Sadam Hussein was suddenly the month's flavor. Few who know any history at all will argue agains the fact that the Shah's Iran was the US's closest ally in the region - rivaling the US's special relationship with Israel.

Following the end of the Iraqi/Iranian war Sadam, the madman, soon invaded the peaceful nation of Kuwait after receiving a nod from Washington. The US dragged Saudi Arabia into the conflict by showing the Saudi Government what is the equivelant of photoshopped Satelite images, showing a build up of Iraq's military on the Saudi border. Saudi Arabia gave the US military bases in its borders. Iraq was defeated. It is at this time that an American asset known as Al-Qaeda, who had been training "freedom" fighters in Afghanistan to fight off foreign threats (namely the USSR during the 80's invasion of Afghanistan - which was a proxy point of the cold-war) for the past 20 years, went rogue and turned on the US and the Saudi regime. Their leader, Osama Bin Laden, a highly trained(by the US) and elite saudi billionar made threats that the US chose to ignore.

Iraq suffered defeat, had sanctions put on it for a decade. Almost a million people died (more than 500k children) during this decade due to lack of medical supplies and overall crippling sanctions. But they left Sadam in power.

During the same decade, Al Qaeda in Afghanistan went undisturbed and unchallenged due to their hosts, the ruling regime, Taliban's protection - despite many warnings from the Arab Gulf States.

9/11 happens. The US retaliates by attacking 2 countries that either had absolutely nothing to do with it in Iraq's case, or were not the perpetraitors in Afghanistan's case (taliban =/= al qaeda and afghanistan =/= taliban). Afhganistan itself was already in a state of civil war as the taliban and northern alliance had been in a state of impasse for 6 years. Iraq was sent back to the stone ages. No WMDs were ever found, no relation or connection to 9/11. The world quickly forgot the lies that Collin Powel (he admitted it), Rumsfeld and *** Cheney told the world. Better yet, the Taliban in Afghanistan were never defeated and the population that supported the US turned against them after a decade of internal strife.

The US, installed a sectarian Shiaa regime in Iraq and withdrew its troops. The shiaa pro-Iranian regime made quick work of settling old scores and committed many atrocities, first targeting ex-ba'athist party members and military generals/commanders, then all sunni's became easy prey. This continued for 3 years. During which Sunni's became radicalized and started to form local militias to resist the new Sectarian, Iranian puppet regime. They had great success as they were backed by some Arab regimes who have been at a state of cold war with Iran, since the Shiaa revolution (that's when they kicked out the american puppet Shah).
Al Qaeda in Iraq capitalized on this, and joint the fight against the Shiaa. They gained a lot of footing making use of the momentum. The sunni tribes, who felt abandoned by the US and left to suffer the persecution of the Iranian backed Shiaa regime, had no issues with Al Qaeda killing off their enemies. The Ex-ba'athist joined this alliance, further bolstering it with their knowledge of military warfare. They did so well, that Al Qaeda in Iraq hijacked their political war and turned it into a religious one. (it was sectarian to start with, and now it became full on radicalized extremism with "death to america" as their slogan)
Al Qaeda HQ backed this for a while, and Al Qaeda Iraq began to spread beyond the Iraqi borders into Syria, where the Arab spring had left the Ba'athist Syrian party there weakened. They (Al Qaeda in Iraq) gained such a firm foothold in Syria, they changed their name to Al Qaeda in the levant. They wanted to rise to power in Syria so much, that they started killing all other militias who were also at war with the Ba'athist Asaad regime. At this point Al Qaeda HQ denounced them. So Al Qaeda in the levant rebranded to "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - but you know them as ISIS".


Now you can call all of the attacks that occur in Iraq and Syria as "acts of terror" or you can call it what it is, a messy and *** up war with too many powers trying to influence its outcome.

If you define the above as acts of terror, fine. But its not the same as the "terrorists" attacks taking place against foreign/western cities. Those are actual terrorists attacks against a population that is not in the place of war.

82% of the terror attacks you are referring to take place in the countries that have been decimated by war/civil war.

The OVERWHELMING majority of terrorist attacks occuring in the US are not by Islamic extremists/radicals/alqaeda or w/e you want to call it. It is homegrown terrorism, as much as 93% if memory serves correctly.

So you can either continue to watch material that makes your world smaller and simpler, or you can grow up and be a human being and start to learn.

Important to note: Syria and Iraq were SECULAR Arab Nations, not Islamic. Their main rivals and enemies were always Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood. But that's another story. I don't want your brain to explode with all this information. Its much easier to just "ugh urr islam"