Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

I heard that even in the 1980s the bars used to have a special "lady entrance." :blink:

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

I believe your "here" is not the same as my "here", but that aside, why is that the case?

And given the remark upthread from either caretaker or yourself that airstrikes in Iraq or Syria aren't making and won't make the slightest difference towards the marvellous euphemism of "degrading" the militants, why bother?

If the West (US lead in most instances) stopped behaving like the militants' caricature of them in the Middle East, could they break the eternal cycle of violence? I don't know until it's tried.

But, as usual, nothing is how it's portrayed. Why doesn't anybody ever think about the oil addiction?

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

I thought this was the eighties

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

Country hotel bars here still had the signs up over the doors then but the last place I was in that had the 2 rooms segregated "Gentlemen" and "Ladies & Escorts" and enforced it was the Marina Hotel in Thunder Bay about 40 years ago.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

The pub in Newcastle I drank in most often when I was about 19 or 20 had a men only bar and a ladies' & gentlemen's lounge with a separate entrance.

I think it was still that way well into the eighties.

We (the men & the gentlemen) all shared the same bog though.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

ISIS is hard on drinking.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

Oh, I don't know. After Newcastle I went to Oxford. There was a pub on the Isis river where I used to get blasted every weekend.
It was called the Isis and *shock* it's now on Facebook. Time to get the scimitars out, I'd say.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

It was still that way in Durham in the 70s. You could buy drinks for the lounge though a hole in the wall of the bar. I have only seen it once in Canada. An old hotel in New Westminster, BC still has a "Ladies Entrance" sign over one of the doors.

Back on topic, I think that a good start would be to stop trying to enforce the Sykes-Picot "national" boundaries and allow the Middle East to form new administrations that reflected the shared interests of the various groups of people who live there.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

Well yes. But the real effup started when oil was discovered and later when Israel was created.

You're right though..

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

My "here" was meant as the West: Canada, UK, Texas ;)

Can't speak for Caretaker, but personally I think air strikes will seriously weaken IS military capability and eliminate many of their soldiers.

This one is not about oil it's, about cultural dominance. We (West) are as guilty as IS in asserting our cultural values, but it is a case of defeat or be defeated.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

I don't want to come across as obsessed with oil and the politics and power surrounding it, but ISIS are selling oil to someone to finance their operations.

Do you know who? I don't.

How apocalyptic. Do you remember the domino theory?

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

ISIS is the latest guise of what some politicos are terming death cultists. In their ambition to form a state oil is an invaluable resource. Is that economic threat the only or even main reason the US and others are risking a major war, unlikely. I think a formed IS would be serious existential threat to Israel because unlike Iran they have an expansionist stance. And they are mad/crazy; they are not merely proposing a fundamental interpretation of Islam they are undertaking and propagating jihad. This entire ISIS movement is about jihad.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

If they can't deliver within half an hour you get the pizza for free:thumbup:

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

It's a bit late at night, but you toss the term jihad around a bit lightly.

It means resistance or struggle.

Contrast the word crusade which was used by GWB when his father, GHWB, former Director of the CIA ,told his dummy son in 2001 to go and screw up the middle east and most especially Saddam Hussein in the sweet cause of revenge.

All recent events follow.

Re: US step up war on ISIL
 

Any thoughts on when that will start? The Syrian airforce has been bombing the piss out of them forever and they just keep getting stronger. The US has been bombing oil fields and refineries, banks, grain storage facilities etc trying to deprive them of infrastructure and income but they keep getting stronger. Drone attacks that kill a leader or 2 don't stop an army and carpet bombing kills all the civilians as well. They'll run convoys at night then set up a convoy of refugees to get hit to sway public opinion. Every hard target the US bombs only results in a few ISIS deaths and those positions are re-occupied by ISIS immediately. Syrian air force doesn't care about killing everyone (they're all enemies) so they drop barrel bombs right on them and still can't put down the revolution. It didn't work in Afghanistan or Iraq or for that matter in Vietnam. The last places a bombing campaign resulted in a decisive military victory were Germany and Japan and when ISIS starts shooting down those planes and helicopters (and they will) the plan will have to be re-assessed. The Iraqi army, the Turkish army, and the Kurdish Persmerga working in concert with coalition allies could potentially retake the territory ISIS has occupied but they'd need an unlimited supply of recruits (impossible) and unlimited air and logistical support from the west (unlikely) and success would also be dependant on political stability in all countries involved and even then it could take years or decades. Turkish leader Erdogan says the PPK (Kurdish worker's party) are terrorists no better than ISIS so it's safe to assume their cooperation will be conditional.