ISIS on the offensive in Iraq

[HoreTore]

Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jugashvili attended an Orthodox priesthood school and later the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary.

Are you trying to say that Stalin was a christian....??


COMRADES, BURN THIS HERETIC

[Beskar]

Are you trying to say that Stalin was a christian....??


COMRADES, BURN THIS HERETIC

Hah, no. I realised it came across like that after you replied. I was more suggesting that Christianity would have played a big impact in his life, so it isn't a case of blank-slate atheism with no spiritual influence in the slightest. Raised from a strong religious environment myself, I am aware of how this would have affected him and shaped him as a person.

Unfortunately, he picked up the wrong lessons, seeing the churches influence on control and how to replicate it opposed to seeing the wrongs then overcoming them. He is an egomaniac afterall.

In many ways, I think he simply converted his faith into a new framework.

[HoreTore]

Hah, no. I realised it came across like that after you replied. I was more suggesting that Christianity would have played a big impact in his life, so it isn't a case of blank-slate atheism with no spiritual influence in the slightest. Raised from a strong religious environment myself, I am aware of how this would have affected him and shaped him as a person.

Stalin was raised in Tsarist Russia, a religious country like most of Europe at the time. However, like most of Europe, Tsarist Russia had pockets of radicalism. Most of these pockets were not pure, but roughly 50/50 religious/radical. Stalin grew up in one such pocket.

If anything, Stalins childhood was shaped by the tensions created between conservatives and radicals. He ultimately fell down on the radical side. That he went to a seminary isn't very important; educational choices were largely determined by the father of the household, who sent their kids off somewhere.

Lenin didn't really want to become a lawyer either.

[Beskar]

That he went to a seminary isn't very important; educational choices were largely determined by the father of the household, who sent their kids off somewhere.

Interesting you raise that. He was kicked out of his household for attending against his fathers wishes, because his mother encouraged him too. He could have experienced the divide as you stated it within his own household. His father being an alcoholic could have played in his dominant streak and the initial signing up could have been his wish, seeing the 'faithless' father being as abusive as he was.

[Crandar]

Stalin was raised in Tsarist Russia, a religious country like most of Europe at the time. However, like most of Europe, Tsarist Russia had pockets of radicalism. Most of these pockets were not pure, but roughly 50/50 religious/radical. Stalin grew up in one such pocket.

If anything, Stalins childhood was shaped by the tensions created between conservatives and radicals. He ultimately fell down on the radical side. That he went to a seminary isn't very important; educational choices were largely determined by the father of the household, who sent their kids off somewhere.

Lenin didn't really want to become a lawyer either.

In one of Allies' conferences, Stalin said to the rest of the leaders, that he has become a conservative, reasoning his unwillingness to openly support communist movements outside Russia.
I supposed he meant a conservative between communists.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

If the Kurds become "our" (USA or NATO or Europe) boots on the ground in this conflict -- and by that I mean taking the fight to ISIS and pushing them from Iraq etc. -- the Kurds have one well known price. Like many, I have received some PM missives from our Kurdish voice -- have any of you detected a lessening of his desire from an independent Kurdish homeland? I haven't

[Pannonian]

If the Kurds become "our" (USA or NATO or Europe) boots on the ground in this conflict -- and by that I mean taking the fight to ISIS and pushing them from Iraq etc. -- the Kurds have one well known price. Like many, I have received some PM missives from our Kurdish voice -- have any of you detected a lessening of his desire from an independent Kurdish homeland? I haven't

You can do what we Brits did and promise them what they want, only to offer the land to an outside people as a romantic gesture just after the war is won. A Clinton declaration could declare that Iraq is to be the Babylonian homeland. Then you should stick around for a few decades while everyone fights everyone else, until you call it quits and leave, with a legacy of absolutely everyone in the region hating your guts.

[rvg]

You can do what we Brits did and promise them what they want...

The ISIS want martyrdom, paradise and 72 virgins. We can promise to arrange the martyrdom part. Kurds already have their independence within their grasp.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

You can do what we Brits did and promise them what they want, only to offer the land to an outside people as a romantic gesture just after the war is won. A Clinton declaration could declare that Iraq is to be the Babylonian homeland. Then you should stick around for a few decades while everyone fights everyone else, until you call it quits and leave, with a legacy of absolutely everyone in the region hating your guts.

We have managed to enact such a legacy without the efforts of a Balfour or a Lawrence.

[Fragony]

If the Kurds become "our" (USA or NATO or Europe) boots on the ground in this conflict -- and by that I mean taking the fight to ISIS and pushing them from Iraq etc. -- the Kurds have one well known price. Like many, I have received some PM missives from our Kurdish voice -- have any of you detected a lessening of his desire from an independent Kurdish homeland? I haven't

What do they say? Color me interested

[rvg]

For the record, I still think its very cool that we even have a Kurd in the backroom.

With a bonus "German" imaginary friend.

[Kadagar_AV]

For the record, I still think its very cool that we even have a Kurd in the backroom.

I remember when I thought it was cool to have a Kurd point of view... But then I moved back to Sweden, and I just have to get into a cab or go buy pizza.

As a sidenote: The Kurds in Sweden have totally got monopoly on the suburb pizza market... Maybe I wouldn't be so racist if it was actually Italians. I blame crappy pizza with a compelled political rant as side order.

[HoreTore]

In one of Allies' conferences, Stalin said to the rest of the leaders, that he has become a conservative, reasoning his unwillingness to openly support communist movements outside Russia.
I supposed he meant a conservative between communists.

He referred to his rejection of Trotskijs permanent revolution.

It has nothing to do with 'conservatism' as a non-marxist knows the term.