Meanwhile there is always this video clip re the complicated can of toxic cannibalistic worms that are causing the never-ending chaos in the vast lunatic asylum called the Middle East, where everything and everyone is inter-connected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?=oMjXbuj7BPI

The video clip The Geopolitics of World War III is also very interesting.

Hi David G, Rhrosty and Raycom

Airstrikes involve grim theatre that make this style of war more palatable to Western audiences. Be the strikes in Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or earlier Vietnam and WWII.

The most famous airstrike Hollywood has launched: 1 min 20 seconds in : http://youtu.be/IkrhkUeDCdQ .

And the Dambuster Raid of WWII caught the public imagination: http://youtu.be/lCRIsjJFRNo

Enola Gay over Hiroshima: a minute in http://youtu.be/gXit97UP1IY

Pete

Pete, war is more than palatable to most OLO commenters. It is 'finger-lickin' good'!

They must get their jollies watching the news each night, watching the people in foreign lands in the missile and bomb sights, watching them disappear in a cloud of dust, yeah, it really must turn them on.

Of course, they are obviously sick in the head. To get enjoyment from watching people being killed is a clear sign of derangement, of a mind sickness, of a person who desperately needs psychological help.

P.S. But don't tell them I said so. As a peacemaker, my thoughts are off-limits! They make the barbarians feel uncomfortable and they would beat me up if I gave them the chance!

That fact that we were forced into the second world war, to defend freedom and human rights, is just not very entertaining Pete.
The fact that a single plane could drop a single bomb, that within seconds, was able to vaporize 45,000, innocent men, women and children!
Is not something any sane person would be willing to repeat.
But sadly, David G is probably right; someone somewhere will repeat it, and probably in the tortured M.E.!
Before the horrified world decides once and for all, to rid ourselves of these terrible weapons; and by turning this material into peaceful power.
However, if again, we are given no other choice but to fight for our basic freedoms, and a right to follow our own beliefs; and the very lives of millions of innocent non combatant men women and children! Then we should have no other choice but to enter the fray, with a steel willed determination, to prevail against the ultimate intense evil, ever witnessed on the planet.
War is not entertainment, but still needs to be studied, if only to avoid repeating patent mistakes.
Nor is the millions of wasted young lives, cut down in their very prime by mindless war and or, the patent loony tunes who think violence is ever any part of the answer; and who invariably start all wars.
Whereas, self defense is a sane response, and the best place to defend your values, freedoms and birthrights, is on your enemy's territory!
And an enduring air campaign is the best reaction, if only to seriously limit the body bags returning home, the first part of an intense Isil wish list.
What they should receive instead, is what they least want!
Namely, handing the territory and any military advantage, to those who they now make war on.
Soldiers never stand still when under fire, and neither should the west, but particularly against ultimate absolute evil!
Rhrosty.

Actually Peter, the attack on Syria is illegal under international law. There are only three conditions that would permit such an attack:
1. Self defence. This is tightly defined and not applicable anyway.
2. At the invitation of the government being attacked. There is no evidence to support this. Instead we have Washington's mealy mouthed assertion that Syria "acquiesced" in the attacks. Not according to the Syrian government.
3. By resolution of the Security Council. Non-existent and the Americans didn't even try.

Australians participation in this makes us a party to war crimes. Our erstwhile Foreign Minister has tried to lay the groundwork for her defence when she is on trial in The Hague: large parts of Syria are "ungoverned territory". That particular piece of legal fiction was discredited long ago. It was much favoured by imperialist regimes seeking to occupy other people's territory.

As to the 200,000 deaths carried out by the Syrian government. Convenient piece of propaganda. The gross figure is approximately true, but it includes 50,000 Syrian troops (the legal ones) and large numbers of civilians killed by the various "freedom fighter" groups that the US has spent such time and treasure on creating and training.

Our stampede to join this latest war staged by the Empire against the latest bogeymen it has created is frightening, along with the "urgent" need to further erode what few civil liberties remain. More frightening than a few thousand fanatics.

Hi David G

On one side there are the Muslim Jihadis who want the entire world to revert to the values of the 6th century. These include honour killings, punishing women who are raped, killing anybody who criticises Islam, stoning people to death or crucifying them, and total intolerance of everybody, even rival Muslim organisations. They kill anyone who is not their kind of Muslim or expel them from "Muslim" lands. They cut the throats of journalists and aid workers on Youtube because the stupid bastards think that it terrorises us. They are ethnically cleansing the Kurds, Christians and Yazidis, killing the men, and turning the captured young females into sex slaves. They are urging Muslims in Australia to kill innocent Australians by beheading them and filming it. One of them just got shot dead by the police when he attacked two police officers with a knife.

On the other side is the civilised world led by the USA. The USA is the leader of the free world and has done much to defend the free world from military dictatorships. The USA has led the world in many technological marvels, it is the leading contributor to deep space research., and it is one of the most advanced nations in medical research. It has the Centre for Disease Control which identifies and helps to prevent the spread of human pathogens which has saved the lives of hundreds of millions. It is a socially advanced country which millions of people try to enter every year, legally or illegally.

If you can't tell the difference between who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, then you have just confirmed my premise that people like yourself are not very intelligent. Some part of your reasoning capacities are permanently short circuited. The only good thing about you is that any impartial observer would consider that the left wing views you espouse to be self evidently crazy.

I thank you for that.