Syria watch...

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 13 Feb 2015, 13:18

The BBC has ever been thus.

It has always followed the establishment agenda. It is run by card carrying members of the establishment and always has been.

It is only the establishment's agenda that has changed. It is now the agenda of the supranational neoliberal elite.

The chair of the BBC board of trustees is being investigated for role in the HSBC tax fraud scandal.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... subsidiary

It is increasingly obvious that this covered up in 2010 by people in government/civil service who were themselves involved in the fraud.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 13 Feb 2015, 14:10

The phrase "power corrupts" has never been truer than in our recent lifetimes; the trite truth of the phrase highlights and predicts that the current neoliberalist ponzi scheme we now call the economy has only limited time left to run - and too much time at that.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 03 Mar 2015, 12:48

Not news on this forum:

Climate Change is Likely Factor in Syria's Conflict

“We’re not saying the drought caused the war,” says Richard Seager, one of the co-authors. “We’re saying that, added to all the other stressors, it helped kick things over the threshold into open conflict.

“And a drought of that severity was made much more likely by the ongoing human-driven drying of that region.”

Scientists discuss the role of climate change in the Syrian civil war

The Syrian civil war clearly has a very specific set of circumstances that surrounds it. But if climate change is contributing in some way, these links need further research, says Gleick:

"We can no longer ignore the influence of climate change on a wide range of issues of societal concern, including peace and security."

Murf · Post by **Murf** » 21 Apr 2015, 16:20

Here is a long but informative interview with Assad in a Swedish news outlet (in English):

http://www.sana.sy/en/?p=36449

He talks some good sense there.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 01 Jun 2015, 12:19

Interesting analysis at resilience.org ( ! ) on the middle east situation.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015- ... iew-june-1

It reports that Assad's regime is finally at risk of collapse, and Russia is doing a cut and run. My guess is that Assad has basically run out of money, it has always seemed strange to me that then when regimes are in life and death battles, the end is often controlled by the men in suits.

Has anybody noticed the recent run of bombings in Saudi Arabia? This is the one bombing campaign in the Muslim world that the MSM don't attribute directly to ISIL.

ISIL do give the huge impression of being in the ascendant, and it is hard to see how they can have so much success without major powers backing them, which begs the question, which ones? Or do they have the one thing none of the other despotic regimes have, ie. deep rooted grass roots support ?

The US is in the weird situation of attacking Iranian backed forces in Yemen, whilst providing air cover for Iranian forces in Iraq. The US wants
Assad out, but less than they fear ISIL taking control.

The US has completely and utterly lost the plot.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 01 Jun 2015, 12:41

The world is reaping what the USA and its lackeys have sown. This was always a fragile part of the world due to historical tensions between Sunnis and Shias. But, to the extent that those tensions have exploded right now and have spread far far beyond the borders of the countries from which they originate is entirely a Western driven phenomena. A phenomena whose origins go right back to Lawrence.

jonny2mad · Post by **jonny2mad** » 01 Jun 2015, 14:54

http://www.breitbart.com/national-secur ... port-isis/ 81 percent arabs back isis in al-jazeera poll .

So they may well have widespread support, but so did the third reich .

It's funny when I went to school I read about the nazis burning books and at the time thought what barbarians, what they dont mention is that we burned millions of nazi books to stamp out their point of view in germany .

How this applys to the middle east is you have several imperialisms, you have western imperialism and you have islamic imperialism, it wont be a matter of leaving the middle east and north africa be, they want europe especially and eventually the world and are well on the way to getting them.

So leave isis be and you will have a situation where they have a base to fight europe the traitors have given them a massive fifth column in europe .

We have serious problems

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 01 Jun 2015, 15:17

As an example of all this

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... rlin-gildo

Terror trial collapses at Old Bailey because it would reveal that the British secret service had committed exactly the same 'crimes' that the defendant was accused of.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 02 Jun 2015, 05:01

Little John wrote:The world is reaping what the USA and its lackeys have sown. ... A phenomena whose origins go right back to Lawrence.

Have you forgotten The British imperialism in the middle east going back to the battle of the Nile under Lord Nelson in 1798 and not ending until well after WW2?

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 02 Jun 2015, 05:22

Perhaps LJ was referring to the UK when he mentioned the lackeys of the US. It was France and the UK which divided up the Middle East into individual countries after WW1 and, as a result has fractured Sunni, Shia and Kurdish peoples between a number of countries, three in the case of the Kurds, so we must bear at least some of the blame for current unrest.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 02 Jun 2015, 08:58

vtsnowedin wrote:
Little John wrote:The world is reaping what the USA and its lackeys have sown.... A phenomena whose origins go right back to Lawrence.
Have you forgotten The British imperialism in the middle east going back to the battle of the Nile under Lord Nelson in 1798 and not ending until well after WW2?

No I have not forgotten. The modern troubles have deep origins in at least as far back as the days of Lawrence and before. But, there are far older enmities that go right back to the crusades. These days. however, the British establishment must content themselves to be merely the schoolyard bully's sidekick, though you'd never guess it from the noise that is still made in our media.

jonny2mad · Post by **jonny2mad** » 02 Jun 2015, 21:24

The crusades were a reaction to hundreds of years of jihad which had destroyed most of the christian world, thats why I say you have two imperialism .

you have the islamic imperialism which has invaded europe before and been driven out before the same thing is happening again look at robert spencers the politically incorrect guide to islam and the crusades .

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 02 Jun 2015, 21:38

jonny2mad wrote:The crusades were a reaction to hundreds of years of jihad which had destroyed most of the christian world, thats why I say you have two imperialism .

you have the islamic imperialism which has invaded europe before and been driven out before the same thing is happening again look at robert spencers the politically incorrect guide to islam and the crusades .

I am not necessarily disagreeing about the Muslim advances being a precursor to the crusades. I am simply point out that these enmities go back a long way,

3rdRock · Post by **3rdRock** » 19 Jul 2015, 11:43

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ir-strikes

David Cameron: UK should 'step up and do more' against Isis in Syria

Prime minister signals to American audience he is committed to sending UK forces to join US-led air strikes in Syria.

Here we go again.

Let's hope the call for any military action is met with a resounding defeat in the HoP.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 19 Jul 2015, 12:05

Labour have been dropping big hints that they will not oppose bombing ISIS in Syria.

The vote was only delayed because Labour wanted to elect a new leader first.