Chaos in Iraq.
Do you really think Bush and Blair were right to invade Iraq? If they had left the despot Hussein in place Iraq wouldn't be in this mess now?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27800319
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>> Chaos in Iraq.
>>
>> Do you really think Bush and Blair were right to invade Iraq? If they had
>> left the despot Hussein in place Iraq wouldn't be in this mess now?
>>
>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27800319
What's happening now was utterly predictable. Iraq is a mix of cultures and clans that Saddam kept the lid on. The Assads performed a similar trick in neighbouring Syria.
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Given the borders of Iraq are something of a historical curiosity and much of our making I suppose someone has to rule the place... for years since the war I've been saying, as Cliff, a strong if flawed leader was needed and Saddam was the ideal guy.
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The Caliphate marches on.
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Like many conflicts around the world, arbitrary drawing of borders (often by the British) is to blame. For the sake of the rest of the world Saddam kept a lid on it in Iraq. But for the Iraqis I am not sure he was any good for them. And the problem is they aren't just Iraqi, they are from many different tribes and don't get along too well.
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I've just had this idea - stop me if someone's tried it before - but why don't we invade Iraq and sort it out for good?
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>> I've just had this idea - stop me if someone's tried it before - but
>> why don't we invade Iraq and sort it out for good?
>>
Yes and we can find those WMD the US told us about - and failed to find.
Mine's a Scud missile.
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I wonder where our unvaunted Middle East Special Envoy is? Probably in his Mayfair mansion counting his money!
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One reason for rapid advance now my be that Ramadan begins on 29 June (UK time) and they will need to be dug in for a pause during the month of fasting.
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Low flying military in my part of the world just now. Purely coincidental I would think, although it's been several months since Biggles tried to take my roof off.
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pat condell for home Secretary!! - he tells it like it should be told.
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>> pat condell for home Secretary!! - he tells it like it should be told.
He's the Man on the Clapham Omnibus - ignorant, rather coarse, sounding off. Frightful fellow.
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"He's the Man on the Clapham Omnibus"
The Man on the Clapham Omnibus is probably also asking himself why the 'religion of peace' is knocking seven-bells out of itself again in Iraq and how it's ever going to learn to live alongside other religions.
Last edited by: Haywain on Fri 13 Jun 14 at 18:12
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>> He's probably also asking himself why the 'religion of peace' is knocking seven-bells out of
>> itself again in Iraq and how it's ever going to learn to live alongside other
>> religions.
It's knocking bells out of itself in Iraq for reasons of history and the fact that the al-Maliki government is seen by a substantial segment of the population as ignoring the needs/wants of the Sunni segment of the population.
If you want to dwell in a simplistic paradigm of a 'religion of peace' v rest feel free. But you're problem not solution.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 13 Jun 14 at 18:20
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"history"
Yes, we shouldn't ignore history, should we?
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>> Yes, we shouldn't ignore history, should we?
The history in Iraq is a bit* more complex than Islam bad/rest good.
* bit = several orders of magnitude.
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>> the al-Maliki government is seen by a substantial segment of the population as ignoring the needs/wants of the Sunni segment of the population.
Worse than that, it actually has ignored them. Not that there aren't mischievous outsiders stirring up the other lot. It's horribly complicated.
Con Coughlin was all right in the comic today. There was another decent piece too.
Earlier on, the box said that ISIS (essentially, Al Qaeda) ideology is 'anathema to the West'.
Just the West eh? My impression is that stuff like that is anathema to all sane human beings.
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>> he tells it like it should be told.
I agree.
I mostly support everything he says, although there's a couple of bits where for me he's a bit harsh.
I do however, have a slight misgiving, in that if he's an out and out bigot, who carefully choreographs his rants to have people like me support him... then I'd be annoyed with myself for being had over by him.
If though, that's how he is and what he says at face value is his true point, then I have similar views.
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I see that we are considering sending in SAS "advisers" to help the Iraqi government fight the rebels.
Apparently the last time we did that was to help the rebels against the Libyan government.
Funny that in the Libyan case we found ourselves on the same side as al Qaeda, whereas now we would be opposed.
We would now find ourselves on the same side as Iran.
It's a tangled world - I'm so relieved the Foreign Office experts have all this under control and know exactly where Britain's interests lie.
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Where's Lawrence of Arabia when he's needed? And his secret camp: tinyurl.com/l2gua67
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Here are some more:
Taken by my Grandfather who served with Lawrence
s1335.photobucket.com/user/Fullchat/slideshow/Lawrence%20of%20Arabia
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sat 14 Jun 14 at 13:34
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Precious old shots Fc. I like the one of the demolished bridge with the railway lines hanging across the gaps.
Glubb Pasha, who was later knighted, did something of a Lawrence later on forming the (Jordanian) Arab Legion. His son Godfrey, who took the Arab name Faris, went through a scapegrace period in youth and was a friend of mine. He died in Kuwait in a car crash a few years ago, but we lost touch way back.
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>> a friend of mine. He died in Kuwait in a car crash a few years ago, but we lost touch way back.
Faris was a very engaging cat. He once drew and brandished a swordstick he was carrying, a fine triangular Toledo rapier, in St Charles's Square just round the corner from my old gaff in the Grove. I didn't live there yet but both Faris and I were living elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
'Hey, man,' I said mildly, ever the wimp. 'That's an offensive weapon. Put it away before someone notices.' He was too drunk or stoned - very likely both - to pay any attention other than grinning, and displaying the vulgar gold tooth acquired in the course of a youth as the mascot of Bedouin troops...
He suddenly went very serious quite early on, and vanished out of my ken. I met him after that, just once, on an otherwise empty platform at the little-used Trafalgar Square tube station. Gone was the greasy Middle Eastern slept-in suit, replaced by something much more Whitehall, and a briefcase. We were both embarrassed and did runners in opposite directions. I googled him extensively after his reported death, and all sites were spectacularly and unusually shtum. Geddit? I think I do but one can never be sure. Nice cat in youth, endearing.
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He could be a mixed blessing though. He once got me into trouble in Whitrchapel by giving a false name when we were pulled by tube fuzz for trying something dodgy with tickets or fares. That bit was my own fault but the false name gave us a taste of the cells in Leman St. nick, no joke for gently raised youths.
Needless to say there was a bit of scheiss in the tabloids.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 14 Jun 14 at 20:29
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>> no joke for gently
>> raised youths.
Who are you kidding?
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>> Who are you kidding?
What do you mean? We were a bit naughty and juvenile, but not seriously wicked or toeraggy.
Best not to go into what we were doing at that end of town of course. Least said soonest mended. Anyway Leman St nick put paid to that expedition.
:o}
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I thought Isis was a river in Oxford:
"May you, my Cam and Isis, preach it long, The right divine of kings to govern wrong."
as my namesake said.
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Come Back Saddam Hussein! - Bromptonaut
