ID:1981845
 
Thoughts and hope go out to Paris today. If you live around there, please be careful. It's scary how the world is steadily becoming more and more volatile.
What happened in Paris?
Apparently some terrorist attack is going down as we speak, and the media is insinuating Islamic influence.
Great, French Toast.
Terrorist attack in Paris. Few explosions and about 60 confirmed dead so far. There's a handful of gunmen held up inside of a theatre with around 100 hostages. The situation is ongoing.

Contrary to what FKI said, from the coverage I've seen nobody is really jumping to blame anybody yet although I think it's safe to assume it's related to a bigger organization given how well everything has been orchestrated so far.
Update: Hollande has issued a state of emergency, effectively closing France's borders for the time being.
Kumorii wrote:
It's scary how the world is steadily becoming more and more volatile.

The world has always been volatile; all that changes is where, how, and why. The past few decades have been the west getting our shares earned for investments made and kept up for a very long time.
In response to Popisfizzy
I know it always has and there's no reason to expect otherwise. However, blatant attacks on humanity targeting civilians en mass have been steadily rising over the last decade. There are many global conflicts that are loosely tied together that are all steadily coming to a head.

Unfortunately, I do believe we will see a catastrophic event in our lifetimes. Be it terror or war related, it's a gut feeling.
In response to Kumorii
Kumorii wrote:
Unfortunately, I do believe we will see a catastrophic event in our lifetimes. Be it terror or war related, it's a gut feeling.

Ugh, I hope not. x_x
The crisis is over and the gunmen are dead.
rip gunmen.
Surely what you meant was rip to all the innocent people killed, right?
In response to GreatPirateEra
GreatPirateEra wrote:
Surely what you meant was rip to all the innocent people killed, right?

Sure lets go with that.
In response to Ghost of ET
Ghost of ET wrote:
rip gunmen.

Lol.

And also, as Pop pointed out, the world has always been bloody. It's just that it's easier and faster to share information now than ever before, so as soon as something happens across the world, we learn about it. The Islamic State is not the first band of thugs to gain significant momentum. This has occurred multiple times throughout history: some guy is fed up with the way the world is, amasses an army through indoctrination ( usually convincing everyone that they are chosen by some god and that their mission is a divine one ), and then conquest ensues.

Funnily enough, it sort of seems like these people are usually provoked into this life. For example, if I recall history correctly, before the Roman empire rose to power, they were invaded by Gauls and got rekt pretty hard, and were like "Yo, we gotta make sure this never, EVER happens again", which would explain why they became so successful since they were determined to create the strongest, most fearsome military of their time. Their training was strenuous, they made extensive use of slavery, they had efficient travel strategies where they'd set up these massive camps wherever they went, and most of all: they kicked ass in battle with innovative weaponry and tactics. The pain they suffered during their defeat drove them to be obsessed with conquering.

I guess the question I'm asking here is, is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the same? I read a book about ISIS, and people's account of him were that he was a quiet and peaceful boy who read books and prayed a lot. There were no signs or expectations of this guy wanting to join an army and lead a band of killers. So then, how did he make the transition? What caused him to snap into a monster? I find it hard to believe that some peaceful guy just woke up one day and was like "I'm going to embark on a mission to kill everyone who opposes me". Somebody or something pushed this guy over the edge to the point where he believed the only way to ensure peace in his life was to deny it from everyone else, which is essentially the same mindset of the Romans. "Kill them before they kill us."

I read the book about a month or two ago so I'm probably not recalling it perfectly, but I think he had gotten detained in a US facility somehow, and the account of him there was also the same. Like, the officers saw no warning signs or anything that would make them think that HE was going to be the vile leader he is today. I feel like he saw or suffered something in that camp that was the "last straw" for him. Those camps they hold suspected extremists in are no playground, I can easily see someone going from quiet and peaceful to batshit crazy after being there.

Anyway, I don't agree with his methods either way. If you were wronged by the U.S. government, then your war is with the U.S. government, not innocent people eating in a restaurant in Paris.
ISIS didn't orchestrate the attacks in Paris. They've already issued statements applauding the attacks, but denied involvement.
In response to Kumorii
Kumorii wrote:
ISIS didn't orchestrate the attacks in Paris. They've already issued statements applauding the attacks, but denied involvement.

Ah, ok. I thought I read some news story today about ISIS claiming responsibility for an attack and getting it mixed up with this one.

[Edit] Found out what the problem is. Whatever dumbass wrote the article interpreted the praises as "accepting responsibility" for the attack. Or maybe I'm the dumbass for not noticing that. Either way, not reading news from this Windows app thing anymore.
But yeah, the point you were making is still valid.
In response to EmpirezTeam
EmpirezTeam wrote:
And also, as Pop pointed out, the world has always been bloody. It's just that it's easier and faster to share information now than ever before, so as soon as something happens across the world, we learn about it.

I think this is the reason why people don't believe the science when it states that we are living in the most peaceful era in the history of humanity. Because people learn about the bad things that happen so quickly, it seems far more chaotic than it actually is. Can you believe the headlines if the WWII generation had mass social media?
I read that ISIS applauded, but nothing about either denying nor confirming responsibility. No one's claimed responsibility yet.

According to witnesses one of the attackers in Bataclan said 'this is for Syria', and there was another account of 'Allahu akbar'.

If anyone's interested, here's an article I found quite astute about this whole matter: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/13/ paris-proves-we-ll-never-kill-enough-jihadists-to-stop-terro r.html

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