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Another top quality report from the Middle East

This excellent report from what used to be Iraq and Syria highlights the very strange bedfellows that conflict in the Middle East can produce:

It is great to see reportage like this as watching CNN or the BBC is often like watching a weird Disney version of reality. Highly recommended.

13 comments to Another top quality report from the Middle East

  • Error 404 World Not Found

    Holy shit, anyone who thinks the Middle East is easy really needs to watch this, hahaha. Its not like than in the movies!

  • Paul Marks

    Most of England has not known internal war since the 1640s.

    And even then it was nothing like this – no “give us your women or your heads”.

    When old Jim (the cook in the café we used to run) heard my boyhood defence of King Charles (40 years ago now) he replied.

    “I do not hold with that – Braybrooke [his native village] stood with Parliament!”.

    But he did not torture me death whilst making mocking comments.

    And his ancestors (back in the 1640s) would not have done that either.

    Although they might have cut down some Welsh women after the battle of Nasby – and then apologised (explaining that they mistook them for Irish Papists).

  • Samizdata Illuminatus

    This really is excellent, good old fashioned journalism.

    Also this: https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-part-1

    Everything else seems so watered down in comparison.

  • We linked to that excellent documentary the other day here (the entire series) 😉

    Highly recommended.

  • Phil

    He’s travelling through a bona fide war zone in an SUV wearing a tee-shirt…

    Meanwhile the US and UK MSM reporters are in flak-jackets and helmets standing in the patio of their hotels giving breathless accounts of the day’s meetings by heads of government…

    I think I’ve found my new homepage for news…

  • LOL, I know what you mean Phil. I had that experience in Bosnia and Croatia and the 1990’s, reading ‘accounts’ in the western media of what had happened the day before from journalists who I knew for a fact had not never been more than 1 kilometre away from the Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb.

    This guy on VICE is the Real Deal.

  • William O. B'Livion

    He’s travelling through a bona fide war zone in an SUV wearing a tee-shirt…

    Meanwhile the US and UK MSM reporters are in flak-jackets and helmets

    Different objectives.

    He’s trying to tell a story. They’re trying to show how brave they are and win some BS award.

    Plus it’s MUCH safer to wander around that area in a beat up old toyota/suburban wearing a t shirt and thin stubble when you’ve got a dark complexion and dark hair than it is when you’re blonde haired and blue eyed, or riding in an up-armored ford explorer.

  • lucklucky

    “Holy shit, anyone who thinks the Middle East is easy really needs to watch this, hahaha. Its not like than in the movies!”

    It is easy: No culture to respect for other people choices.

    The strong horse gets the support. Then a new strong horse appears.

    We do that here also at lower level of intolerance, and we have the Governement to forbid conscience objection. Try to not share the ethics or morals of socialists right or left regarding taxes.

  • Russ in TX

    Also, they tend to speak the local languages. I *still* remember the supposedly hard-hitting Amanpour breathlessly telling us that Serbian t.v. wouldn’t disclose or allow to be disclosed the location of our downed F-111, when *on Serbian TV* in the upper right hand corner, was clearly labelled (in cyrillic that even I who speak barely enough Serbo-Croat to get ice cream and definitely *not* enough to get laid) in bright white lettering, “Novi Sad.”

    Thanks, I’ll go with VICE in a heartbeat, and if they’re occasionally zany, that beats contemptuously insipid every day of the week.

  • lucklucky

    F117.

    Anyway. Is it just me thinking that if the Islamic State didn’t used the word “State” to define themselves the politicians wouldn’t be in a frenzy?

  • veryretired

    The greater part of the msm is characterized by timidity, superficiality, banal triviality, and a virulent form of pretentious ignorance.

    It is refreshing to see there is some actual journalism out there somewhere. Who knows, maybe it could start a trend.

  • Alan Little

    > Most of England has not known internal war since the 1640s.
    > And even then it was nothing like this – no “give us your women or your heads”.

    You sure? Central Europe was in the process of losing around 30% of its population in religious wars at the time. The British part was at least mercifully shorter and England and Scotland got off lighter (Ireland didn’t) but still I suspect it didn’t involve all that much kid-glove handling of civilian populations.