0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slat_armor and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_armor
Well post 1990 or so you use diagrams on complex weapons because you never know when you'll want to MANPADS (which are fairly complex as weapons systems go) to a bunch of farmers.
General Population: But, but why ?
Western Governements: Because they want to take away your rights and freedoms, of course !
[Proceed to do exactly that ...]
> "War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judnazi.asp#common
Remember embedded journalists? Remember "Mission Accomplished"? Remember people being accused of "supporting Saddam"?
I'm not excusing ISIS, they are responsible for what they do. It's "just" that plenty others, still welcome in polite company, are responsible, too. Without that war of aggression built on lies, there would be no ISIS, not at this scale. That is how ISIS came to produce a "cruel arsenal", as opposed to, say, a generous arsenal of peace and nation-building, like drones with which to kill "fun-sized terrorists" ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/life-as-a-dron... )
I hate the modern idea that "doing that which is in your best interest is acceptable. That was very true of the average war-age male during Nazi Germany. The radical ideology, as was mentioned above of ISIS's origins, likewise probably played a secondary supporting role to the economics.
Killing people for profit is not OK: https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-...
> The facility would perform a wide variety of overhauls and upgrades on nearly all types of armoured fighting vehicles in use with the Islamic State, ranging everything from installing multi-spectral camouflage on tanks to the up-armouring of AFVs and even constructing modular turrets for installation on four-wheel drive vehicles such as the Toyota Land Cruiser.
http://spioenkop.blogspot.se/2017/08/armour-in-islamic-state...
That blog has several really interesting articles about DIY armour and fighting vehicles.
I'm impressed by the variety of tank modifications!
Beyond that, ISIS was more about power and wealth than it was about ideology. The ideology was just a vehicle.
Then why do I read an article like this in Jerusalem Post, quoting WSJ:
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Israel-treating-al-Q...
They even quote Assad:
“Some in Syria joke: 'How can you say that al-Qaida doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force',” Assad told Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this year. “They are supporting the rebels in Syria. It is very clear.”
> ISIS was more about power and wealth than it was about ideology. The ideology was just a vehicle.
ISIS/AQ/Whatever-name-their-master-gives-them is a project to destabilize Syrian government that didn't want to play along with plans of the US empire for the Middle East. Quick summary of a FOIA document obtained by Judicial Watch:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/05/newly-declassified-u-...
BTW, this document was produced in August 2012 by DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency; basically, Pentagon's Intel Agency). At that moment, guess who was its chief: Gen. Michael Flynn. Yes, that Flynn you now see in the media.
EDIT: A video of Flynn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Y274U7QIs&feature=youtu.be...
Which is and isn't relevant.
According to the prime minister of Iraq's announcement on Twitter a few days ago, "Iraq's armed forces have secured the western desert & the entire Iraq Syria border...this marks the end of the war against Daesh terrorists who have been completely defeated and evicted from Iraq".
Can we have the name Isis back now? Or at least call them Daesh, they hate that name.
