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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Details tend to bubble up on various OSINT twitter accounts when they aren't distracted by other events, but you're unlikely to get as much reliable information on this or other contemporary wars in places people don't care about e.g. Burma or Sudan by dint of fewer people putting in the effort to collect and disseminate on-the-ground reports to a foreign audience.

I have not been following this particular round in much detail, but it doesn't seem like too much of an aberration in the grand scheme of things. After the Rwandan genocide, the Tutsis followed the Israeli example and built an organized military machine that has only been prevented from conquering huge swathes of East and Central Africa by an alliance of most of their neighbors and heavy UN pressure to abide by various ceasefire agreements. With the gloves off they could probably steamroll almost all of the Congo by themselves, but that would ruin their international image and probably lead to things like foreign aid being cut off, so they are content to use their proxies for the time being.