Thanks Paul, fair enough.

Toni, if A never seems to condemn B, but both have no trouble condemning C, then it's a fair bet that A and B are at least, willing or not, congenial. I agree that the old Maoist principle of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' is contemptible opportunism, but one needs to carefully differentiate one's position, say, against C, from what seems to be another's position against C, to avoid the false impression that one is on cahoots with the other, even unwittingly.

For example, in the case of Syria, where, broadly, there are three main positions: that of the brutal Assad dictatorship and the Russians, that of ISIS and that of the very weak would-be-democratic forces backed by the West, I would suggest that the Western-backed forces organise a truce with the Assad forces and work together to defeat ISIS, and plan for some sort of coalition once that has been achieved. i.e. which is the worst enemy of the people: Assad or ISIS ? In my view, ISIS is, with Assad a close second. So we should hold our noses and conditionally support Assad and the Russians, all the while condemning them for barrel-bombing and cluster-bombing civilian areas.

Maybe I've missed something, but I don't see that differentiation from the Greens or the pseudo-Left. Maybe there are some genuine old Left who are trying to maintain some principles and are striving to work out what they should support in very complex situations. I devoutly hope so.

Yes, Toni, water is wet; night is darker than day. But you (and the Greens - and the pseudo-Left generally) need to be a bit more explicit in your unspoken condemnation of vagISIL/ISIS, a bit more analytical than just calling them c&#ts, because they are far more than that, far more of a danger to the world. They and (once they have been defeated) their inevitable descendant bodies will be a problem throughout this century, and until Islam is reformed. Have enough principle to respond to evil ideology with ideological arguments, not just swear-words.

Cheers,

Joe

Paul,

"The worse act a person can commit is to kill a fellow human being."

A worse thing is for a human being to not kill a fellow human being who is about to kill him.
Self defence is a natural right.

Do you not agree, Paul?

Would you not defend you and yours from a killer?

Or would you ring '000' and hope?

Paul1405, "The worse act a person can commit is to kill a fellow human being."

Murder is a horrendous crime.

How would you describe an Australian Senator, or political party if you will, who despite being fully aware of the serious, often brutal crime wave wreaked in Europe by economic migrants is quite prepared to put Australians at the same risk? And promotes a policy of appeasement, where victims must adapt to the perpetrators and women are made responsible for the rape attacks suffered by them?

//But you (and the Greens - and the pseudo-Left generally) need to be a bit more explicit in your unspoken condemnation of vagISIL/ISIS, a bit more analytical than just calling them c&#ts//

Nah, I think c%^ts sums up the situation pretty accurately. Brevity is not a sin and like I said, pointing out the bleeding obvious is a waste of my precious time. Why waste more of it by making a detailed bullet-point list of the precise ways in which they are c%@ts when everybody already knows they're c$&ts?

//Have enough principle to respond to evil ideology with ideological arguments//

The only point I can see in employing an ideological argument against vagISIL would be to try and persuade somebody who doesn't think they're c#*ts that they are. In case you hadn't noticed, there's NOBODY here who believes that. So what's the point?

Hi Toni,

Because such limited characterisation is a bit juvenile, and gives the impression that there is nothing more to ISIS, or to Islamists - and Islamism - than their c&#thood. There is far more ideologically going on, and this will still be the case long after I'm gone. [And I don't think that Amish are burning young women in cages for refusing to be sex slaves, or even pedophilic Catholics are machine-gunning young children and older women.]

Muslims are no better or worse than any other people, but they are victims of an outdated, tribal, desert-oriented ideology. Islamism is probably not the only vile ideology in the world today, but given that it is a danger primarily to the 1.5 billion Muslims, our fellow human beings, then it is a very serious problem which, more or less, only they can resolve.

But there are so many factors militating against that in Muslim countries - high youth unemployment, high professionally-educated unemployment, rising food prices, rapidly falling birth-rates and consequent higher elderly-dependency rates, financial incompetence, corruption, to name a few factors - that it is tempting to be very pessimistic that people in Muslim countries can liberate themselves from the village-idiocy of traditional Islam - and in a rapidly modernising world. I certainly wish them well in the unenviable task of reforming Islam - all religions need reforming - especially the women and the next generations, but the craving to migrate out of those stagnant bogs is quite understandable.

Yes, Toni, ISIS has attracted all manner of psychopaths - c&#ts, if you like - but I'm betting that many recruits are perfectly sane, with above-average education, extremely frustrated, and misguidedly blame the West for all their problems, and not the backwardness of their beliefs. Hmmm, now which Aussie political party would represent such people today ?

Cheers,

Joe

Is Mise, why the morbid fixation with killing? You seem to be obsessed with the subject. In your 100 or so years on the planet haw many times have you had to defend your cave from other cavemen who's intention is to bop you on the head with a club, and take over your precious cave, because it has central heating and theirs don't.

Are you as pleased as much as I am that here in NSW Lee Rhiannon and the Greens have been given a ringing endorsement by the people of the State. The same can't be said about The Shooters and Hooters who received less than 2% of the vote, and that other charlatan David Leyonhjelm has been ass holed from the Senate. Every candidate in every state put up by the phony party has been shot down.