Police: At least 35 dead in Paris attacks; hostages taken

Scary times we're living in...RIP to the victims and any future victims, before this whole thing is over.

Prayers for a safe return of the hostages.

Good God.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...-attacks-hostages-taken/ar-BBmYFit?li=AAa0dzB

 

120 victims so far. Evil doesn't quit.

 

C'mon Gorath you always have something interesting to say on this MB, ISIS is driving amerikkkan humvees and Toyota pickups where did they get those from ? c'mon gorath.... there was even an incident where Texas plumber found his work truck with his company name and phone number on the door where ISIS was using near Aleppo, Syria. many Americans were calling the number on the door after the photo went viral on the Internet.

Who illegally invaded Iraq and created the current mess in the middle east and who caused millions of people to lose their lives their homes and everything near and dear to them ? The mayhem and suffering in the middle east will last for a lifetime for many, clearly a war crimes was committed and nobody is facing the music. Iraq never attacked the US there was not one Iraqi in those planes that hit the WTC, there was no WMD found in Iraq after the illegal invasion, what about that evil Gorath or are you looking the other way ? If we are talking about evil let us talk about all evil and not pick and choose like you are doing. If saddam hussein was still in charge ISIS would never exist by now it was as the result of the misguided war by Criminal bush and company that created the vacuum which ISIS came into existence something American public is finding out now cuz in a survey 78% said Iraq should have never been invaded .. that is too late now

 

Western culpability

A little-discussed yet crucial fact is that the vast, vast majority of the victims of Islamic extremism are themselves Muslim, and live in Muslim-majority countries. A 2012 U.S. National Counterterrorism Center report found that between 82 and 97 percent of the victims of religiously motivated terrorist attacks over the previous five years were Muslims.

The West frequently acts as though it is the principal victim, but the exact contrary is true.

Never interrogated is why exactly are so many refugees fleeing the Middle East and North Africa. It is not like millions of people want to leave their homes and families; they are fleeing violence and chaos — violence and chaos that happens to almost always be the result of Western military intervention.

Western countries, particularly the U.S., are directly responsible for the violence and destruction in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen, from which millions of refugees are fleeing:

The illegal U.S.-led invasion of Iraq led to the deaths of at least one million people, destabilized the entire region, and created extreme conditions in which militant groups like al-Qaeda spread like wildfire, eventually leading to the emergence of ISIS.
In Afghanistan, the ongoing U.S.-led war and occupation — which the Obama administration just prolonged for a second time — has led to approximately a quarter of a million deaths and has displaced millions of Afghans.
The disastrous U.S.-led NATO intervention in Libya destroyed the government, turning the country into a hotbed for extremism and allowing militant groups like ISIS to spread west into North Africa. Thousands of Libyans have been killed, and hundreds of thousands made refugees.
In Yemen, the U.S. and other Western nations are arming and backing the Saudi-led coalition that is raining down bombs, including banned cluster munitions, on civilian areas, pulverizing the poorest country in the Middle East. And, once again — the story should now be familiar — thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Syria is a bit more complicated. Many refugees in the country, which has been torn apart by almost five years of bitter war, are fleeing the brutal repression of the Assad government. Western countries and their allies, however, share some of the blame. Allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey have greatly inflamed the conflict by supporting extremist groups like al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra.

And it should go without saying that millions of Syrian refugees are fleeing the very same terror at the hands of ISIS that the group allegedly unleashed upon Paris. By suppressing Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing the ruthlessly violent extremist group, France and other Western countries will only be further adding to the already shocking number of its victims.

Dislocating the blame
When the U.S. and its allies bomb weddings and hospitals in Yemen and Afghanistan, killing hundreds of civilians, “Americans” doesn’t trend globally on Twitter. Yet when Parisians are allegedly killed by Islamic extremists, “Muslims” does.

The imperialist West always try to dislocate the blame. It’s always the foreigner’s, the non-Westerner’s, the Other’s fault; it’s never the fault of the enlightened West.

Islam is the new scapegoat. Western imperial policies of ravaging entire nations, propping up repressive dictators, and supporting extremist groups are conveniently forgotten.

The West is incapable of addressing its own imperial violence. Instead, it points its blood-stained finger accusingly at the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims and tells them they are the inherently violent ones.

Unfortunately, tragedies like the one we see in Paris are daily events in much of the Middle East, no thanks to the policies of the governments of France, the U.S., the U.K., and more. The horrific and unjustifiable yet rare terrorist attacks we in the West experience are the quotidian reality endured by those living in the region our governments brutalize.

This does not mean we should not mourn the Paris attacks; they are abominable, and the victims should and must be mourned. But we should likewise ensure that the victims of our governments’ crimes are mourned as well.



If we truly believe that all lives are equally valuable, if we truly believe that French lives matter no more than any others, we must mourn all deaths equally.

The dangers of habit
We know the responses to attacks like these. Great danger lies in them continuing on the same way.

Governments are going to call for more Western military intervention in the Middle East, more bombs, and more guns. Hard-line right-wing Senator Ted Cruz immediately demanded airstrikes with more “tolerance for civilian casualties.” Naturally, the proposed “solution” to individual acts of terror is to ramp up campaigns of state terror.

At home, they will call for more fences, more police, and more surveillance. Immediately after the Paris attacks, France closed its borders. In the U.S., as soon as the attacks were reported, the NYPD began militarizing parts of New York City.

The hegemonic “solution” is always more militarization, both abroad and here at home. Yet it is in fact militarization that is the cause of the problem in the first place.

At the time of the atrocious 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda was a relatively small and isolated group. It was the U.S.-led war in and occupation of Iraq that created the conditions of extreme violence, desperation, and sectarianism in which al-Qaeda metastasized, spreading worldwide. The West, in its addiction to militarism, played into the hands of the extremists, and today we see the rotten fruit borne of that rotten addiction: ISIS is the Frankenstein’s monster of Western imperialism.

Moreover, Western countries’ propping up of their oil-rich allies in the Gulf, extremist theocratic monarchies like Saudi Arabia, is a principal factor in the spread of Sunni extremism. The Obama administration did more than $100 billion of arms deals with the Saudi monarchy in the past five years, and France has increasingly signed enormous military contracts with theocratic autocracies like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.

If these are the strategies our governments continue to pursue, attacks like those in Paris will only be more frequent.

The far-right will continue to grow. Neo-fascism, the most dangerous development in the world today, will gain traction. People will radicalize.

The incidence of attacks inspired by ethno-nationalism or far-right extremism, already the leading cause of European and American terror, will increase even further.

The pundits will boost anti-Muslim bigotry and feed the anti-refugee fervor. In doing so, they will only make matters worse.

The Paris attacks, as horrific as they are, could be a moment to think critically about what our governments are doing both abroad and here at home. If we do not think critically, if we act capriciously, and violently, the wounds will only continue to fester. The bloodletting will ultimately accelerate.

In short, those who promote militarist policies and anti-Muslim and anti-refugee bigotries in response to the Paris attacks are only going to further propagate violence and hatred.

If the political cycle is not changed, the cycle of violence will continue.

Watch President Obama’s remarks on the situation in Paris


Ben Norton is a politics staff writer at Salon. You can find him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.

 

That is all I can say. I can't elaborate any further. I say this because evil, here, Paris, France or anywhere else, happens. I can only pray for the families of the victims and for a day when human beings can live, learn, work, play and love one another as human beings
I am not looking for someone to blame. I want to find a solution that is wise and just. We can't afford to be the very thing that we are fighting.

 

The right wingers will grow since they view in what in their opinion is Western capitulation to Islamic culture. Wished the Muslims will have tolerence values without flying off the handle of Mohammad art work. Other religions are picked on with the exception of Islam. They should not get a pass. Freedom is a two way street. As for the involvement of war in Muslim lands I wished the rich Islamic nations should foot the bill on invaisions and placement of refugees.

 

What's so unusual about seeing American vehicles anywhere in the world??
That's not a sign of any conspiracy.

And it sure as heck doesn't mean the U.S. government is providing terrorist groups with supplies.

U.S. politicians hate having any kind of foreign policy mess abroad because of the political blowback domestically.

ISIL is the result of invading Iraq, firing the entire Iraqi military and not providing them jobs.

Iraqi soldiers occupied one of the top socioeconomic stratas in that country, and when we disarmed them and took away their pay we were unintentionally creating an army of radical extremists.

There's a dozen or more different factions fighting to overthrow Assad and the Syrian regime.

France was attacked because of their coalition support against ISIL.

 

The USA must accept a certain degree of culpability for the situation in Iraq and Syria today.
And now we all suffer.
And you even dare to get involved in Ukraine as well. Stay out of Europe please.

 

It was done because Iraq invaded Kuwait.
So why doesnt the USA do something against Turkey who invaded Cyprus and which continues to occupy the northern half of the island ?

 

Former French President Chirac warned the USA not to invade Iraq. Remember the criticism we got from Americans. Liberty fries etc.

Maybe you will elect another President Bush...............

 

I know you may have meant that sarcastically, but never under estimate the stupidity of middle America. Jeb is only a few hijacked voting machines away. Plus, they love Trump and that idiot savant, Carson.

If Sandars doesn't win the Democratic nomination a Farris number of liberals will stay home crying over their spilled milk, thereby insuring an blood thirsty, oil hungry, war hawke conservative will get into office.

At this point it does not look good for sound foreign policy and critical clear thinking in our political arena.

 

We are not discussing first gulf war named "desert storm" intended to free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's forces but second war. Daddy bush did not invade Iraq it was Dubya the son who did based on lies, get your facts straight Sarah !!!

Saddam Hussein, had a border dispute with Kuwait many don't know but Kuwait was once a province of Iraq, so Hussein wanted to know what Americans think of the situation as he was massing his forces near Kuwaiti border he met US ambassador in Baghdad a fucking witch by the name of April Catherine Glaspie this was her response to Saddam: " We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America"

In other words if you invade Kuwait we don't care Saddam thanked her and invaded Kuwait and the rest is history . You see how he was setup ...they trapped him something they wanted to do to him all along until they hanged him on Saturday, December 30th 2006.

 

:smt045 :smt038 :smt023

 

The man was ambitious, had a million man army and plenty of oil. I wonder if he knew the US played him during his war with Iran?

 

quelle horreur

 

Americas decisions today are still influenced by the Iranian revolution and the Embassy hostages. Does America ever move on. Why does America se countries like Saudi Arabia as being somehow better than Iran?
A lot of the muslim extremism in Europe comes from Saudi financed mosques. Eg Belgium

 

Why do you keep asking questions that you know the answer to? Lol

This is a chess match that no one can afford to lose. You don't make a move simply because the clock is ticking.

 

It is a way of speaking, writing.
does what I say annoy you?

 

No.

 

Ok cool