Paul 1405, "He is a bit like a lighter and slimmer version of Idi Amin, more huff and puff than anything else"

Sometimes you would be better off saying nothing than demonstrating such ignorance and callous insensitivity as to trivialise and scoff at the atrocities of a monster. Here, educate yourself,

http://atrocities-of-amin.blogspot.com.au/

Beach, there was a hit song in Australia which trivialized Amin. Yes Amin was a monster, and a product of the West, was he not? At one time Britain was flying in a plane load of luxury goods monthly into Kampala just to help keep him in power, knowing full well what a monster Amin was. He become an inconvenient embarrassment for the West. When he finally shot through, assisted in his get away by the West, he settled in Saudi Arabia where, Britain and America, allowed him to live out the rest of his life in luxury (died in 2003). Now some people want to take the 'high moral ground', people who at one time were willing to overlook Amin's indiscretions for political reasons. I hope that educates you a little.

SteeleRedux,

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbotts-is-intervention-bluster-muffles-civil-unrest-in-australia-20140905-10cgc3.html

"But of course, we won't be going there. Perhaps Nigeria, in spite of its oil wealth, is not our strategic concern. Where, then, are the battalions of those who should be concerned? The Saudi King warns that IS will be in Europe and America within months. The Saudi King, the closest thing we have to an absolute monarch outside of North Korea these days, has at his convenience an army of 75,000 men, including a 1000-strong tank armada which might even give Vladimir Putin a moment's pause if he found them sitting astride some patch of turf he might like to place within his possession. The Royal Saudi Air Force, deploying from bases somewhat closer to the Islamic State than Williamstown, boasts more than 300 combat aircraft, including F15E Strike Eagles and shiny new Eurofighter Typhoons, barely out of their bubblewrap."

"The world is horror and madness. So why is the horror and madness of the Islamic State our concern? Consider their fanboy coreligionists in Nigeria, Boko Haram, infamous kidnappers/slave traders of 300 school girls. These murderous clowns look good for the sort of stern correction that can only be delivered by a squadron of heavily armed F/A-18F Super Hornets...."

Horror enough, you would think, to justify a tiny bit of bombing. Just a little touch of special forces magic in the night, perhaps?"

"So why are we going to another war? Surely not because the last one went so well? And why is Tony Abbott banging the drum so much louder than his American commander?

You might imagine it has nothing to do with some infantile crusade against mediaeval barbarism. You might think a certain PM sees an opportunity to pull out of the death spiral his government's been in since it handed down the most unpopular budget in living memory. You might think that one blunder after another has forced him to an impasse where nothing is left to him but blood and circuses. You might think that. But I couldn't possibly comment."

Foxy I'm curious. Would you care to make an educated guess at what the people of the Crimea think of "the invasion of Crimea by the Russian troops."? Do you think that matters a damn in your geostrategic scenario? Do you think it should be ascertained before asking Australians to come to conclusions about "Russian aggression"? Do you think it was "Australian aggression" when our troops went into East Timor and enabled a referendum of the people to the fury of the Indos and the Timorese quislings?

Or are you merely peddling the US neocons' Project for a New American Century, PNAC, seeking global "full spectrum dominance"?

Dear Emperor Julian,

The Second World War was an extraordinary event.
It cost not just hundreds of thousands of lives -
it cost millions of lives. After that followed
a time of "cold war," as two super powers confronted
each other with the prospect of mutual destruction.

It was an uneasy peace, but nevertheless it was peace,
a new kind of peace. There were "small wars" which cost
many lives, particularly civilian lives (in the last
Iraq war most casualties were of civilians). But it
was not an ultimate madness of "big wars" and European
nations that had been at each others' throats for
thousands of years enjoyed the unheard of prosperity as
a result of peace, the absence of "big wars."

What happened after the World War II that enabled the
countries of Europe to develop in relative peace?

It was an agreement, often a tacit agreement, to regard
the territories of all independent states as "exempt" from
being taken over by their neighbours in "small wars,"
small wars that often ended up by dragging other
neighbours in even bigger and bigger wars.

What has happened now in Ukraine, breaks that tacit
agreement not to invade neighbours. The tacit agreement
that kept at least Europe in relative peace for nearly
three quarters of a century has been broken. The
"Greater Russia," as the current leaders seem to like
to call the remnants of the Soviet Empire, has invaded
a part of another independent country, Ukraine, and
absorbed that part- the Crimea, in to the "Greater Russia."

What does matter is that this breach of the territorial
integrity of another country has started a new era.
We are returning to the pre-World War II behaviour of
some nations.

It is a start of expansionism, ignoring all norms of
international treaties and agreements.

@Paul1405, Saturday, 6 September 2014 7:28:51 AM

That was a non-answer.

As was stated earlier, you would be better off saying nothing than demonstrating such ignorance and callous insensitivity as to trivialise and scoff at the atrocities of Idi Amin who was a butcher, a monster. You are shameless.