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Dr X
Joined: 04 Jul 2016 Posts: 84 Location: Everywhere
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:52 pm Post subject: What Is Aleppo? |
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Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria.
“What is Aleppo?” Mr. Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city.
When pressed as to whether he was serious, Mr. Johnson indicated that he really was not aware of the city, which has been widely covered during the years that Syria has been engulfed in civil war. After Mike Barnicle, an MSNBC commentator who is often part of the “Morning Joe” program panel, explained that Aleppo was the center of Syria’s refugee crisis, Mr. Johnson struggled to recover.
“O.K., got it,” he said, explaining that he thinks that the United States must partner with Russia to diplomatically improve the situation there. “With regard to Syria, I do think that it’s a mess.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/gary-johnson-aleppo.html?_r=0
Well, Gary, you need to go back to school and learn world geography before you nominate yourself for presidential election! |
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plumpy nut
Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Elepo, isn't that one of the places that got gassed by Saddam, or is it the capital of ISIS? I can't quite bring my mind to remember. Maybe Wikipedia can help. A small little town that I've heard of because of all the ridiculous unwanted news coverage. I remember Biafra though, that place was in Nigeria, has anyone heard of Biafra? There was a large outcry for Biafra and quite a bit of empathy for the situation there. |
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adventious
Joined: 23 Nov 2015 Posts: 237 Location: In the wide
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:24 am Post subject: |
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Vonnegut wrote about Biafra in one of his early non-fiction titles. Wikipedia's entries are excellent and a good starting point for both Biafra and Aleppo. The spelling is inconsequential because it's a transliteration. In other words, neither is more correct.
I worked with many Syrians between 2009-13, several of whom were from Aleppo. Casualties impacted our staff from the very beginning. A character of Syrian teachers is how regional a sense of their country is (and unsurprising as the middle east was conquered and carved up). Syrians tended to associate/affiliate by what city they were from, with prejudiced views of each other similar to any and all prejudices: E.g., So-n-so is from X; they're all cheapskates. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:51 am Post subject: |
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The place name in Arabic is "HALAB". Aleppo is the Italian version which made its way into English in the Middle Ages. So the REAL name is unknown to most of us ! |
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santi84
Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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Half my students this term are from Aleppo - doctors, accountants, and teachers. |
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Hod
Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 7:48 am Post subject: |
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plumpy nut wrote: |
Elepo, isn't that one of the places that got gassed by Saddam, or is it the capital of ISIS? I can't quite bring my mind to remember. Maybe Wikipedia can help. A small little town that I've heard of because of all the ridiculous unwanted news coverage. |
I thought I was a bit of a current affairs ignoramus, but I've been outdone here.
A whole country is being destroyed, and it's ridiculous unwanted news. |
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adventious
Joined: 23 Nov 2015 Posts: 237 Location: In the wide
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 8:07 am Post subject: |
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Hod wrote: |
A whole country is being destroyed, and it's ridiculous unwanted news. |
From your post to God's ears, Hod. And I'm not conventionally religious. It's astounding. Stalin's quote about murder and statistics rhymes on. |
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Dr X
Joined: 04 Jul 2016 Posts: 84 Location: Everywhere
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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scot47 wrote: |
The place name in Arabic is "HALAB". Aleppo is the Italian version which made its way into English in the Middle Ages. So the REAL name is unknown to most of us ! |
I spent two weeks in Halab in 2005 and met some very kind, friendly folks. Like Damasq, Halab is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. It's so painful to see what's happening there and in Syria overall. |
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sparks
Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 632
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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the NYT calls it a "stumble" although "drunk guy with absolutely no body control going face-first into a street sign" might be more like it. At any rate, I find these "stumbles" interesting in that they give a little insight into how the brains of our leaders are actually working. I can't help but wonder what his view of the world is. Maybe it's like America in the center and then just a bunch of darkness. Maybe he's never really aware if he's rather in the North of the U.S. or the South. I just wonder how it all fits together up there. |
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wangdaning
Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 3154
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:53 am Post subject: |
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He needed a teleprompter and a doctor to come tell him to keep talking. Everything would have been fine.
Q: What is Aleppo?
A: We're gonna just keep talking. Moving on... |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 3:49 am Post subject: |
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sparks wrote: |
the NYT calls it a "stumble" although "drunk guy with absolutely no body control going face-first into a street sign" might be more like it. |
What I saw was he was being asked about other issues and the interviewer abruptly changed topics. Aleppo was a curve ball thrown at the guy and he goofed. |
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adventious
Joined: 23 Nov 2015 Posts: 237 Location: In the wide
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:10 am Post subject: |
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Goofed a curve ball on a topic that's been a central US foreign policy since casualties increased in 2010.
That's six years, to be clear, and deaths above a quarter and approaching HALF A MILLION human beings...
Despite any softening metaphors.
Libertarians are as splintered as any faction and it is disappointing, but excusable? Not for me.
Just sayin' |
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JoeKing
Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 519
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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adventious wrote: |
Goofed a curve ball on a topic that's been a central US foreign policy since casualties increased in 2010. |
Exactly, it was the complete opposite of a curve ball; in fact, it was, or should have been, the easiest of lobbed slow pitch softball questions - that's the reason it's such a big goof. |
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cartago
Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 283 Location: Iraq
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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The New York Times did a worse job. Their initial article about Gary Johnson said Aleppo was ISIS' de-facto capital in Syria, which it's not, that's Raqqa. Then a subsequent edit changed this to just an ISIS stronghold, which is also not really accurate. What's worse, another correction said Aleppo was the Syrian capital, which is actually Damascus. The article had to be corrected four times.
I think what happened was the event didn't really have anything to do with something actually going on in Syria, it was about US politics, so they probably got someone who doesn't cover international news to do the article. I mean they do often have articles on Syria. It's still surprising this got past an editor and there was no fact checking or anything. |
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