so this new (old) war in the Middle East

[Ranxerox]

The US has been bombing Iraq off and on for 23 years now.......just saying.

[Section_31]

The Arab Spring eh?

 

 

[stringvest]

Actually Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout was the first Arab Spring.  

[Bjornebye]

 Still can’t get my head round the media banging on about it, and politicians making statements on tv about bombing these people. These ISIS cunts have 2 British hostages (at least) so Cameron saying we will assist with air-strikes basically puts the nail in both their coffins. It’s not like world war 2 when people could look up and see a fucking iron cross on the plane and know it was German. Why come out and say it?

 

“Oh so the SAS are in Syria hunting for these murderers and trying to free hostages”

 

“Oh well in response here is one of their heads oh and we have moved, cheers for the warning.”

 

 There should be a media blackout on terrorism like this because not only will it stop people living on edge, it will sap the will of terrorist organisations who aren’t getting the glory all day everyday on the news and in newspapers all over the fucking world.

 

Cunts like Cameron are more arsed about votes than lives.

 

*waits for Spy-Bee to join the thread and say “It was all a dream , I used to read paranoia magazine…..”

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Is it like Peckham Spring ?

[Jairzinho]

Is it like Peckham Spring ?

 

Less real.

[Bjornebye]

Actually Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout was the first Arab Spring.  

 

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

just been asked why I am laughing and all 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

just been asked why I am laughing and all

 

Wasn't Zebedee at the Battle of the Boing.

[Rick Sanchez C-137]

 Still can’t get my head round the media banging on about it, and politicians making statements on tv about bombing these people. These ISIS cunts have 2 British hostages (at least) so Cameron saying we will assist with air-strikes basically puts the nail in both their coffins. It’s not like world war 2 when people could look up and see a fucking iron cross on the plane and know it was German. Why come out and say it?

 

“Oh so the SAS are in Syria hunting for these murderers and trying to free hostages”

 

“Oh well in response here is one of their heads oh and we have moved, cheers for the warning.”

 

 There should be a media blackout on terrorism like this because not only will it stop people living on edge, it will sap the will of terrorist organisations who aren’t getting the glory all day everyday on the news and in newspapers all over the fucking world.

 

Cunts like Cameron are more arsed about votes than lives.

 

*waits for Spy-Bee to join the thread and say “It was all a dream , I used to read paranoia magazine…..”

 

Its a weapon of mass distraction

[Stu Monty]

People in Iraq cannot perpetrate terrorism on the UK population without the help of a media thirsty for terrorising people.

 

We are a world too cowardly to not sell our freedoms away for pretty much fuck all.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I find it strange how nobody has had any appetite for war, as much as they have tried to drag us into conflicts people have spoken against it, voted against it and then Isis arrive the ultimate bad guys, beheading aid workers doing all kinds of nasty shit imaginable and now the war games get to be played. I'm not in to conspiracys but it's like one giant shit loop. There's always the vast sums of cash there to blow the shit out of people fuck debts the deficit fuck it all I've shares in the arms industry.

[Ranxerox]

I find it strange how nobody has had any appetite for war, as much as they have tried to drag us into conflicts people have spoken against it, voted against it and then Isis arrive the ultimate bad guys, beheading aid workers doing all kinds of nasty shit imaginable and now the war games get to be played. I'm not in to conspiracys but it's like one giant shit loop. There's always the vast sums of cash there to blow the shit out of people fuck debts the deficit fuck it all I've shares in the arms industry.

 

Once again its not going to end well. 23 years of bombing Iraq and they (the US) still don't have a clue how to solve the problem. 

[J-V]

Once again its not going to end well. 23 years of bombing Iraq and they (the US) still don't have a clue how to solve the problem. 

 

[Jairzinho]

Just watched about an hour of these monstrous fucking bellends in Parliament "debating" what we should do with ISIS. Every single one of them that has spoken giving exactly the same speech about what absolute bloody heroes we'll be when we get our bombs out for the lads. Not a huge amount of discussion of the petrodollar, the conditions, and our role in creating them, that helped lead to the rise of ISIS, the hypocrisy of our position now compared to just a few months ago, or any sort of solution for after our latest killing spree.

 

"Are you confused by what is going on in the Middle East? Let me explain. We support the Iraqi government in the fight against Islamic State. We don't like IS, but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia, whom we do like. We don't like President Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but not IS, which is also fighting against him.

"We don't like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government in the fight against IS. So, some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies are our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies, whom we want to lose, but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.

"If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less. And all this started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren't actually there until we went in to drive them out. Do you understand now?"

 

[clangers]

That's still a more coherent and effective policy than anything offered by our so called leaders.

[Jairzinho]

Our best hope of reducing the numbers radicalised would be to champion a foreign policy based on clear principles

 

 

Every vote I cast in Parliament weighs heavily on my mind, especially as, unlike most other MPs, I have no whip telling me what to do – I consider the evidence, reflect on the principles I was elected to stand up for, listen to my constituents in Brighton Pavilion.

 

Never more so than on a day like today, when MPs are deciding whether to carry out air strikes in Iraq against the so called Islamic State (ISIL).

Whatever we decide people will die. Be it directly at the hands of ISIL, whose barbarity seems to know no limits. Or when they are hit by bombs dropped by the US, France or the UK.

 

And, of course, people are dying as a result of the humanitarian crisis engulfing the region – the Refugee Council tell me it’s the first time since the Second World War that the number of people worldwide who are fleeing their homes is more than 50 million, and the conflicts in the Middle East are a key driver of this exodus.

 

The death toll from the crisis in Syria is heading towards 200,000. Getting aid to all Syrians and Iraqis in need must remain one of the UK’s top priorities.

Amongst the questions I have asked myself ahead of today’s vote is how best to help close down the cycles of violence, which are taking so many lives.

There are no easy answers. But there is this certainty: killing people rarely kills their ideas.

 

The hateful ideology of ISIL must be stopped but the risk is that air strikes will be counterproductive: every Western bomb dropped will fuel it anew, providing fertile recruitment, fundraising and propaganda opportunities.

 

I don’t think this is like the last Iraq war. I don’t think that the prime minster is manipulating intelligence or lying to the House.

There is much in the government’s motion with which I agree. It is written in a measured and very reasonable-sounding tone.  But the considered, thoughtful tone cannot get away from the bottom line, which is to give permission for the UK to bomb Iraq. Nor can it mask that what is often called ‘precision bombing’ is rarely precise. We should be under no illusion that we are debating whether to go to war.

 

With virtually everyone on the government and opposition benches looking set to vote for air strikes, there is a real danger too that diplomatic and political solutions are side lined yet further – and possibly even made more difficult.

 

The real question should not be whether to bomb but how we can intensify work politically and diplomatically to address the fundamental hostility between Sunnis and Shias – with regional powers such as Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia centre stage and support for a fledgling new Iraqi government to deal with seemingly intractable problems like the failures of the Iraqi armed forces, sharing of oil revenues, decentralisation demands and territorial disputes a top priority.

 

Also uppermost in my mind, in a week where it’s been revealed that a young man from Brighton has been killed whilst fighting for ISIL in Syria, is that there is nothing Islamic about what this extremist group are doing. That as well as embarking upon a concerted effort to find a political solution to the current crisis, we must also redouble our efforts to tackle the radicalisation of some members of our communities, and redouble our efforts to address deeply worrying levels of anti-Muslim sentiment and incidents.

 

Our best hope of reducing the numbers radicalised would be to champion a new foreign policy doctrine based on clear principles, consistently applied. This should not include selling arms to brutal regimes like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It should not include tolerating war crimes in Gaza.  We must stand up for international law.

 

Being the only Green MP can be lonely at times, especially on days like today. But my inbox this morning is full of messages from constituents urging me to vote against air strikes and I know that when I stand up and oppose the government’s motion, I am representing the views of many.

[stringvest]

someone speaking at least a modicum of sense.  

[Stu Monty]

Seems that we're going to do exactly what IS want, which seems a bit daft. 

 

Be some proper chipper people in the pay of the military industry though; should be some good cash in it in donations too I'd imagine. Might even be a directorship in it for someone if they were seen to put in the hard yards.

[Gnasher]

These Isis fellas are taking the fucking piss.I just heard hundreds could be ready to strike in britain. So not only are they planning terrorist activities they are now prepared to down tools for better working conditions, makes my blood boil.

[Stu Monty]

Also, I'm getting a bit bored of hearing about just how fucking brutal they are. Bollocks. They are fucking amateurs. If you want to see some proper, top level, brutality then go back and see what Saddam's boys were up to whilst we were bezzie mates with him - he was off the fucking hook.

[stringvest]

go and see what we're helping the Israelis to get away with.  

[dennis tooth]

They are only bombing the oil refineries where they are taken, its not about pee pulls at all. Oh and just for a bit of comedy spice, they states that built and funded ISIS, Saudi arabia and Qatar are also now bombing them. The enenemy of my enema is the energetic exzema excrementive enclave.

[G Richards]

Repped for the last sentence, even though I'm not quite sure what it means!

[Strontium]

 

With virtually everyone on the government and opposition benches looking set to vote for air strikes, there is a real danger too that diplomatic and political solutions are side lined yet further – and possibly even made more difficult.

 

 

Caroline has convinced me - let's send her to Iraq to negotiate a diplomatic settlement with Islamic State.

[polymerpunkah]

How many lives will bombing save?

 

How many innocent people will it kill?