The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Once more unto the breach > Comments

Once more unto the breach : Comments

By Bruce Haigh, published 26/9/2014

Abbott imbued with the history and heraldry of mother England, and steeped in the tradition and atmosphere, if not the scholarship, of Oxford, appears inspired by Shakespeare's Henry V.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. ...
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. Page 12
  10. 13
  11. All
Yes, I agree with Bazz. Give up on me, Loudmouth.

I've only stayed in the exchange this long because I like heckling people who believe the West has a sacred and profound duty to save the world one humanitarian bombing at a time.

The West has lots and lots and lots of bombs. So I guess we may as well keep using them.
Posted by Killarney, Thursday, 2 October 2014 12:12:00 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Well Killarny, you still have not explained how we defend ourselves from the Islamists !
Sure we can stand aside and watch them slaughter thousands but when they return their
attention to us, what do we do then ?
I am sure the Serbs and the Greeks, to say nothing of the Spaniards don't want them back.
Meanwhile we have our own fifth column.
Posted by Bazz, Thursday, 2 October 2014 7:59:26 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
"Well Killarny, you still have not explained how we defend ourselves from the Islamists !
Sure we can stand aside and watch them slaughter thousands but when they return their
attention to us, what do we do then ?"

(Thanks Bazz:)

Killarney,

The question is - how do we defend ourselves on OLO from hysterical chappies who bleat ad nauseam the govt's confected "terror hysteria" ?
Posted by Poirot, Thursday, 2 October 2014 9:01:38 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hi Wounded Goose,

I guess, if you don't want to boost hysteria about the government's policy against terrorists, then don't confect it :) I'm assured, relaxed and comfortable, insouciant even, about their competence to handle wannabe terrorists.

Killarney, I never give up on anyone, no matter how simple and uncomprehending they may be. So let's continue:

Read my earlier post first, to refresh your memory. I'm sorry it's so complicated.

Some people who believe very, very strongly in aspects of their religion, which permit - no, Killarney, which require - them to kill anybody who disagrees with them, by shooting or beheading, or by kidnapping their women and turning them into sex slaves (ask your mother), have taken over huge areas in two different countries, one mostly with Sunni Muslims, and the other with mostly Shi'a Muslims, and have driven out and murdered tens of thousands of Christians, Yazidis, Turkmens, Kurds and many other groups from that territory.

They captured huge amounts of weapons, equipment and money when they captured Iraq's second biggest city, called Mosul (it used to be called Nineveh). Now they are using those weapons against a weak Iraqi army, and more specially against the Kurds. The Kurds occupy land in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, and want their own country (there are thirty million Kurds, so why not, you might ask), but none of those governments want to give it to them. That's one Very Big Problem.

In Syria, a dictator named Assad has been fighting against his own people for nearly four years now: he belongs to one Muslim group, but most people in Syria belong to the other main one. As well, some people there just want a democratic government and they don't care so much which Muslim group people belong to. But they are very weak, because everybody is attacking them. That's another Big Problem.

[to be continued below]
Posted by Loudmouth, Thursday, 2 October 2014 9:59:18 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Killarney,

Are you still paying attention ? Good, let's continue.

They are all fighting now against each other, and all against some nasty people, called terrorists, and the most powerful group of terrorists call themselves 'Islamic state', and have appointed their own 'caliph': a 'caliph' is looked on as the religious head of a movement to eventually make all the people in the world Muslims - if they don't agree, they will be beheaded or shot. Sooner or later, that will mean us. That's going to be a Very Big Problem for a long time.

But there's no reason to worry just yet, our government is watching the various situations closely, and we can relax, knowing that we'll be protected from harm.

More next time, Killarney: that's enough to take in for now.

Uncle Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Thursday, 2 October 2014 10:00:37 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Killarney,

Never mind Loudmouth's deprecating style...he finds it impossible to debate without employing it - usually in tandem with great dollops of sarcasm.

Here's a commentary sans Loudmouth's patronising blather.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/thomas-l-friedman-obamas-strategy-for-fighting-isis-isnt-all-about-us.html?_r=0

".....our enemy is barbarous, our regional allies are duplicitous, our European allies are feckless and the Iraqis and Syrians we’re trying to help are fractious. There is not a straight shooter in the bunch.

Consider Saudi Arabia. It’s going to help train Free Syrian Army soldiers, but, at the same time, is one of the biggest sources of volunteer jihadists in Syria. And, according to a secret 2009 U.S. study signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and divulged by WikiLeaks, private “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

"Turkey allowed foreign jihadists to pass into and out of Syria and has been an important market for oil that ISIS is smuggling out of Iraq for cash. Iran built the E.F.P.’s — explosively formed penetrators — that Iraqi Shiite militias used to help drive America out of Iraq and encouraged Iraq’s Shiite leaders to strip Iraqi Sunnis of as much power and money as possible, which helped create the ISIS Sunni counterrevolt..."

"Before we step up the bombing campaign on ISIS, it needs to be absolutely clear on whose behalf we are fighting. ISIS did not emerge by accident and from nowhere. It is the hate-child of two civil wars in which the Sunni Muslims have been crushed. One is the vicious civil war in Syria in which the Iranian-backed Alawite-Shiite regime has killed roughly 200,000 people, many of them Sunni Muslims, with chemical weapons and barrel bombs. And the other is the Iraqi civil war in which the Iranian-backed Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki systematically stripped the Sunnis of Iraq of their power and resources."

"There will be no self-sustained stability unless those civil wars are ended and a foundation is laid for decent governance and citizenship..."
Posted by Poirot, Thursday, 2 October 2014 10:21:48 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. ...
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. Page 12
  10. 13
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy