I agree with Abbott: baddies fighting baddies. We want no truck with Syria. As soon as Australia gets involved in backward countries with Islamic problems, we either get another batch of illegal immigrants or the Loony Left calling for us to take in more "refugees" from some camp in Sandsville. No thanks. Let Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis sort out their own problems. Another bombing in Iraq yesterday - after all the money, blood sweat and tears put into that hole by the West.

Yeah ttbn; and made even worse by Turkey's patently duplicitous role here; and just for the purpose of domestic election outcomes?

It's not all bad?

Assard it being driven back into the sea, and given when he is no more many of these problems will evaporate with him?
Rhrosty.

Rhostry,

If Assad falls, there will be one more extreme Islamic state. Whatever happens, I think we should stay well out of it; as we should have stayed out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm all for knocking off Islamic terrorists, but ones that are threatening us, not those operating in their own environment. Our resources should be for protecting Australia. Our interference always ends up with "refugees" unsuited to our culture. We have nothing to do with them normally, and they are not even in our region. And, our interference has achieved nothing so far, anywhere.

The claim that "the US has become a de facto ally of Assad" is idiotic.

Since March 2011 the United States has been supplying arms and money to hordes of foreign terrorists waging a war against the people of Syria, including Syrian Christians (who speak the same language spoken by Jesus Christ) and even the small Syrian Judaic community. So far, as of August 2015, that war has const the lives of more than 220,000 Syrians by one estimate.

On one previous occasion, in July 2014, those attempting to demonise Syria's popularly elected President Bashar al-Assad as well as to portray the terrorist war against his government as some kind of popular uprising, seemed to have lost their voices when confronted with evidence and logic. I don't suppose that anyone here, would care to show other site visitors why BiancaDog is wrong at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=16435#287856?

If you would like an alternate view on the shenanigans going on in Syria and surrounds, try this one for a start: http://www.vineyardsaker.co.nz/2015/08/09/clinton-juppe-erdogan-daesh-and-the-pkk-by-thierry-meyssan/
Geoff

Malthustia,

The U.S has a record of supporting some really rotten people all around the globe; then the the really rotten people, usually victorious, thanks to the Yanks, morph into groups like the Taliban. Given Obama's love of Islam, it is idiotic for people to think he is mates with Assad who, while probably not the finest of men, doesn't kill people in the name of Allah.

Secondly, as Islamic lunatics from Australia are eager to go to fight against the Syrian government, it is not hard to work out which side is the least bad of the two groups of baddies.

One can be a critic of Assad, yet argue that practically all of Prof. Alon Ben-Meir’s judgments are “idiotic”- not just in the case proved by malthusista. This eminent academic/ journalist/ diplomant is a repeat offender( and only one of far too many) in dumping propaganda on On Line Opinion and never responding to challenges. With the purpose of the forum abused in this way, I am on the edge of giving up participating altogether- others I know of have long given up. I can only repeat my proposal to Graham Young (editor) and the editorial board that it be a condition of publication in OLO that the author engage in debate

Thank you, Leslie on Saturday, 15 August 2015 12:57:43 PM for that helpful information. I agree with your proposal that no-one, who, like Professor Alon Ben-Meir, fails to acknowledge and respond when fallacies in his/her articles are pointed out, should be allowed to continue to contribute.

By the way, please feel welcome to post a comment in response to any article posted on the site https://candobetter.net which I help administer. We don't censor anything (except for forum spam or material which is abusive and/or illegal).

Thank you, Geoff of Perth for your post of Saturday, 15 August 2015 1:54:22 AM.

Most of Thierry Meyssan's journalism is published on http://www.voltairenet.org/en . Thierry Meyssan was present in Libya during the NATO invasion of 2011 and has since also travelled to Russia and Syria. Other sites on the Internet which provide truthful information about Syria include the Syrian Arab News Agency's site at http://sana.sy/en , http://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/, https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com .

ttbn wrote on 15 August 2015 11:22:05 AM, "The U.S has a record of supporting some really rotten people all around the globe ...".

This includes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Qatar dictatorship, Israel, and the current rulers of Libya, Turkey and Ukraine.

ttbn continued "... Assad [is] probably not the finest of men [but] doesn't kill people in the name of Allah."

In fact, the evidence shows that President Bashar al-Assad is one of the great political leaders of the 21st century. I would personally rank him alongside JFK. If Australians were to ever learn the truth about Bashar al-Assad, they would much prefer him as Prime Minister to Tony Abbott or even to Bill Shorten.

In one interview lasting 56:28 minutes on CBS in September, President Bashar al-Assad, who speaks fluent English, confronted and refuted each of the allegations put to him by 60 Minutes' Charlie Rose. Only a small cut down version of the interview was featured on 60 Minutes, but fortunately the Syrian Arab News Agency recorded and published the full interview video and transcript. The full video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3G9MIDoa64 . The same interview, but split into Part 1 and Part 2, together with the full transcript, can be found in the article "Syrian President al-Assad interviewed by CBS News" (10/9/13) at https://candobetter.net/node/3445

Could anyone imagine Tony Abbott or Barack Obama lasting over 56 minutes with an informed and hostile interviewer as Bashar al-Assad has been able to do on this and other occasions?

This is surely evidence that their claims against him could not possibly be true.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to add the following video, and now seems as good a time as any.

http://youtu.be/wQdPig6HOZA

I can't reinforce to you guys enough just how important the info in this video is.
I implore you all to watch it and to follow the trail for yourselves.

I can even add links to all the documents and videos spoken of in the video if needed.

Enough said, watch the video for yourselves and then please comment.

Also wanted to add that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was about smuggling weapons to the rebels against Assad, and Hilary was involved and this relates to her current issues about private emails and private server while serving as secretary of state.

There's plenty of bits of info with this whole saga.
Take for example Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch, and Jacob Rothschild stealing a piece of Syria under Afek Oil and Gas.

Political, Banking and Media all in cahoots together...

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-islamist-rebels-engineered-israel-s-oil-grab-syria-740568063

Quote from that article "In March last year, Ha'aretz reported that prominent Syrian rebel leaders were “willing to give up claims to the Golan Heights in return for cash and Israeli military aid against President Bashar Assad”. Kamal al-Labwani, a top rebel leader, said, “Why shouldn’t we be able to sell the Golan Heights because it is better than losing Syria and Golan at once.”

So you have another situation where Israel is doing deals trying to aquire land from people who are yet to conquer it, just like they did with the Balfour Declaration.

They say they are deep drilling into a layer of oil deeper than the Saudi Oil btw, and that it will drain Saudi reserves.

Thank you, Armchair Critic on Sunday, 16 August 2015 1:00:14 PM.

David Icke's video is succinct and informative and confirms my own analysis of the so-called "War on Terror" and, more specifically, of how ISIS was set up by the United States and its allies to be used as a monstrous bogeyman in order to overcome domestic opposition to its plans to wage war aginst the Syrian people.

However, until I am better informed, I will have to reserve my judgement on other videos linked to from
http://youtu.be/wQdPig6HOZA : "David Icke - The Moon Deception" (24/5/15), "MIND CONTROL AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER David Icke LIVE at Oxford 2" (May 2014), etc.

The article you linked to "How Islamist rebels engineered Israel’s oil grab in Syria" (28/1/15) at http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/how-islamist-rebels-engineered-israel-s-oil-grab-syria-740568063 is quite instructive.

These supposed 'extreme' and 'radical' 'Islamist' rebels are quite happy to give away to Israel natural resources which belong to the Arab people of Syria in order to get their help in their war against the Syrian government.

(The following was omitted by mistake from the end of my previous post. My apologies.)

A historic parallel is how during the war by the Zionist settlers to expel Palestinians in 1947, Mossad agents staged acts of terrorism, that seemed to have been committed by local Arab anti-Semites, against Jewish inhabitants of other Arab countries. This was done in order to intimidate members of those local Jewish communities to flee to Palestine.

Dear Malthusista.

In order to get people to take you seriously, you have to be credible. Writing that ISIS is an invention of the USA, and that "Zionists" committed acts of terror on their own people in o0rder to get them to flee to Israel, destroys your credibility right from the get go. People know right away that you are a loony.

My advice to you, is to tone it down a bit. You are probably used to dealing with ignorant Arabs who will believe anything, but western people are more sophisticated.

I have to disagree with ttbn in his premise that we should do a Munich and leave our enemies to get stronger. It is conceivable that even Saudi Arabia could fall to the ISIS extremists who are a lot worse than the Saudi extremists. Think of Adolph Hitler with two thirds of the world's oil reserves and one fifth of the world's population (with many already living in the west) and you get the idea.

At the moment, the Arab world is fighting itself, which is not a bad idea, it keeps them busy. But the problem is, that whoever wins could be a lot worse than the Saudis, Ghadhafi, Saddam Hussein, and Bashir Assad, all put together. At the moment, ISIS is the main problem and I think that killing them anywhere is the main priority. Send the (mostly young male) "refugees" back to where they came from and give them a rifle.

It is their religion and their culture. If we don't send the Muslim "refugees" back, in less than 100 years we will be dropping barrel bombs in Paris and London. Ain't multiculturalism grand?

I've got to stick up for Malthusian on this LEGO, but I don't wish to offend.

Firstly, all you have to do is type a phrase into google and press enter.

I did this and this is what I found.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-23/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-president-assad

It really makes no sense to discredit others without looking.
We may have views different to you, but that doesn't mean that we make the stuff up.

Want more?

You want evidence of Israel's false flag attacks?

Try looking up the USS Liberty or the Lavon affair.

Or this right in an Israeli publication.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/lebanon-army-dismantles-4-rockets-aimed-at-israel-1.5288

If you take this info into account, then suddenly Malthusian becomes informed, and you become ignorant.

Its really not our fault that the general population gets its info from the corporate media.

Don't you realise it tells you what and how to think?

While most people are watching Bruce Jenner's and cute cat videos its people like Malthusian and myself trying to get at the real story, and I for one don't even try that hard.

But I don't support everything Malthusian supports or everything that David Icke supports FYI.

Malthusian's website is big on global warming and I think that's a farce.

And David Icke comes out with some crazy stuff as well, new age type stuff, consciousness and of living in a matrix.

I don't go for all that, but I know David Icke's right about this issue.
I've looked it up.

Its you guys that refuse to take the time to do so, (look at the documents) and then hold an irrational stance against people like us, simply because you're uninformed, and have a belief system given to you by the corporate media.

Even in the process of being called conspiracy theorists or tinfoil hat wearing crazy people, its you guys that have been programmed to think that way. Think about it.

No insult intended, I do value everyone's opinions on this site.

Armchair Critic, here is some more information about the USS Liberty incident of 8 June 1967:

"New Evidence Proves Israel Attacked USS Liberty With Orders to Kill 294 Americans" (14/11/2015) at http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-evidence-proves-israel-attacked-uss-liberty-with-orders-to-kill-294-americans/5413807

...

Navy Admiral Thomas Moorer, who has served this country as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of Naval Operations, once lead an independent commission to investigate what really happened to the USS Liberty. The commission's findings were made public in 2003 (see http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/misslib.html). Here are a few of the shocking conclusions.

* The attack, by a U.S. ally, was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill its entire crew.
* The attack included the machine-gunning of stretcher-bearers and life rafts.
* The White House deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of the USS Liberty. This was the first time in naval history a rescue mission had been cancelled while an American ship was under attack.
* Surviving crew members were later threatened with court-martial, imprisonment, or worse if they talked to anyone about what had happened to them; and were "abandoned by their own government"

...

You can find more information in "Kennedy, the Lobby and the Bomb" (2/5/2013) at http://www.voltairenet.org/article178401.html

Armchair Critic wrote on Monday, 17 August 2015 8:59:13 AM,

"Malthusian's website is big on global warming and I think that's a farce."

(It's 'Malthusista', not 'Malthusian'.)

Armchair Critic, could you cite an example of what on https://candobetter.net you take exception to?

It is some year since I must have written about global warming.

However, it seems highly unlikely to me that digging up so much of the coal and burning coal which was formed over hundreds of millions of years from carbon dioxide which was previously in our atmosphere would not substantially change our atmosphere. My science is not good enough to be able to argue whether it is more likely to make the atmosphere warmer or colder, but it would be folly to presume that the temperature would not change. Given that life, particularly life support systems that can support advanced forms of life as we have on earth, is so extremely rare in the universe, then surely the only sane thing that humanity can do is do as little as possible to change our biosphere, at least such time as until we understand it a whole lot better.

Until such time, humanity should certainly scale back its extraction and consumption of coal, gas and petroleum.

Hey Malthusista,

Sorry, I misspelled your name.

I wouldn't go as far as saying I took exception to your website content, I wasn't offended by it.
I really only took a quick look at your Mission Statement on the 'About' page where you mentioned - "...turn back from the brink of the looming global environmental catastrophe which threatens our survival."
- And it just 'smelled' like one of these 'progressive' websites using climate change to push a globalist agenda.

(But that's just my opinion and probably just as much to do with my own personal preference as much as anything)

Other than that I didn't take a good look at your sites content (sorry) so please do not think I am criticising your efforts.

Some of your articles look interesting enough though and might be worth the read.

To make my position clear on coal though, I don't have a big issue with digging it up and selling it, (as long as locals aren't impacted too much by the mine) but I certainly agree its preferable to see clean coal technology employed to reduce the emissions.

CSG on the other hand - injecting fracking fluid into the ground which can and many times does lead to groundwater contamination is something I will oppose (even though I'll admit that I once hypocritically was invested in an Australian company that uses this method, Eastern Star Gas)

Not sure the benefits outweigh the costs on that one.

If you want my thoughts and questions on climate change please refer to the "Beware - A Crisis is Coming" topic.

I sometimes have a different view to that of others and might seem a little hard to please, so with that in mind please don't ever be offended by my thoughts on anything. I do reserve my right to hold an opinion, but its never my intention to deliberately offend others when expressing it.

I want to admit that my last statement is incorrect before anyone else points out my hypocrisy. I have on several occasions said things which were deliberately offensive, but these instances occurred when I was either attacked first or found the article itself offensive.

Armchair critic wrote on Friday, 21 August 2015 12:18:30 AM :

"[On] your Mission Statement on the 'About' page (https://candobetter.net/about/) where you mentioned - '...turn back from the brink of the looming global environmental catastrophe which threatens our survival.'

"- And it just 'smelled' like one of these 'progressive' websites using climate change to push a globalist agenda."

I take no offence. I myself have been taken in more than once by 'progressives', 'socialists' and 'environmentalists' being quite different what they claimed to be, so of course I don't expect anyone who doesn't know me to accept what I write on trust alone.

Armchair critic,

What you posted to "Beware! The crisis is coming!" at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=17599&page=0#311210 is wrong according to the evidence of which I am aware. For all of Alex Jones' merit (and he has interviewed the Syrian Girl on more than one occasion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI1AAasWNpM ) he is badly mistaken about climate change.

In my previous post, on 19 August 2015 11:56:00 PM, I wrote I was uncertain about whether the earth would warm up, cool down or remain stable if we continued to dig up and burn our fossil fuels at the rate we are now doing.

Having looked at the blog posts of Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists at http://blog.ucsusa.org/author/brenda-ekwurzel I now have little doubt that the world is getting warmer.

Whilst this is cause for alarm it is not cause for despair.

If between 1939 and 1945 humanity was able to defeat the threat posed by Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire, then surely in the 21st century we should be able to prevent global warming for a fraction of the expense and without all the terrible sacrifice?