Louisa probably overlooked the fact that those the Bible was written for to be understood literally lived three millennia or so before this pope. So perhaps the pope should not be using a car or an aeroplane but ride on a mule as they did in those times.

It says in Hebrews that God is the same "yesterday, today and forever" and the Pope condemns homosexual relationships because God said back in the book of Leviticus that they were evil. I just think if he's going to believe in the Bible then he should be consistent.

Louisa,

Different God, the Christian God is a Trinity, three persons in one God, the God of the Old Testament is singular.

Yes, that is, more or less, what I meant by “to be understood literally”.

Sorry, the above was refering to what Louise, not Is Mise, wrote.

Where does one start ?

First off, this is 2014, not 1100 BC.

Secondly, to get back to the realities of the current Middle East, the political situation across Syria and Iraq (and elsewhere) is dauntingly complex. Every player has his (or her) own alliances, interests and priorities.

The Israelis understandably have to watch their own borders and deter any potential aggression from Hezbollah or Hamas, OR ISIS. Their most pressing concerns are to minimise attacks from Hezbollah. Hezbollah is supported by the Assad dictatorship. So Israel destroys what it supposes are supplies from Assad's regime to Hezbollah. Fair enough. Only an idiot would read from that, that Israel supports ISIS. Oh hello, Arjay, didn't see you there :)

The Coalition has the major task of protecting Iraq from ISIS. Tacitly, they are co-ordinating air attacks on ISIS with Iran, Assad's main ally. They can't do it too openly, for fear of immediately losing any support from the Saudis or Turkey. They are supporting the Kurds around Kobane against ISIS, but as for the Assad vs. ISIS struggle, they're leaving that up to Assad. And why not ? I suspect they would rather see Assad win out rather than ISIS, but they are not going to do his work for him.

Nor do they want to seem too supportive of the Kurds, for fear of alienating the Turks.

Sorry Halduell, Arjay, Louisa, it's not an either/or world, it's immensely complicated, more than I can get my head around. Dictatorship vs. Islamo-fascism vs. very weak democratic forces - that's a start. Sunni vs. Shia. Arab vs. Kurd vs. Turk. Wahhabi vs. Salafi. Fascist Islamists vs. Christians/Yazidi/Druse/Alawite. Qatar vs. the Saudis.

Christ, Australia really IS the lucky country. So far.

Joe