Chula Vista

Period?

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Mr. Charlie

Trollheart

Steve Earle! Hermano!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Chula Vista

Ya, very poignant stuff. Rich man's war indeed.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

William_the_Bloody

Domestically:

No it will not make Britain more safe, in fact it could make it less safe in terms of homegrown terrorism, by engaging in airstrikes against the Sunni homeland.

It's not ISIS that the direct threat but rather its ideology of Wahhabism, a potent religious theology that has infected the minds of young Muslim men and women throughout Europe.

It is the same strain that Al-Qaeda practices and it has been exported en mass throughout the Sunni Arab world by Saudi Arabia, so if Syria and Iraq were stabilized today, the ideology would still be there, and will still be pumped in mosques & University fraternities throughout Western Europe.

It is probably the most potent political ideology out there today for Sunni Muslims, far more potent than socialism, anarchism or even multiculturalism. It truly is the Communism of the 21st century except that it is completely intolerant in nature, and at is historically rooted on a convert or die basis.

Which is why Bashar Al Assad & the Shia Muslims in Syria are quite literally, fighting for their lives.

Here's a good historic run down on Wahhabism & its resurrection in the Arab world.

You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia*|*Alastair Crooke

Foreign Policy:

Taking the above into account, you could say that the airstrikes by Hollande & Merkel are largely a smoke screen to divert attention away from the failure of multiculturalism to assimilate citizens to European cultural values in light of criticism of their refugee policies.

Afterall, the radicals for the most part were French citizens not Syrians, as I believe was the young women who decided to blow herself up in a neighborhood in Belgium that the government minister admitted does not "have control of” when they sent in the police raids to clean things up.

Belgian Minister Says Government Lacks Control Over Neighborhood Linked to Terror Plots - The New York Times

The problem with the airstrikes is that you will need troops on the ground to bring stability to the region and the European Union does not have the military power to do it.

In short, they are self reliant on the United States to solve their foreign policy problems, so unless America decides to step in, the overall impact off the airstrikes will most likely be negligible, ISIS will just get shuffled around.

In fairness to Cameron, his hands are tied, if he wants to get concessions from Merkel & Hollande that will support his bid to keep the UK in the EU, he has to saddled up.

Trollheart

Thanks for that, both of you. I understand politicians will say anything to get what they want, I'm just a little disappointed the UK public swallowed it. I guess that will change when (not if) there's a Paris-style attack there. I hope it never happens, but you just know it will.

Slightly OT: "Hollande & Merkel" --- sounds like a huge pharmaceutical company!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

William_the_Bloody

Well the firm may be filing for bankruptcy in a few years. Hollande is the least popular French President in the republics history...

François Hollande can’t shake his status as the least popular president in French history - Quartz

Merkel industries however might survivor despite collapsing opinion polls, she's a Wiley one.

William_the_Bloody

I have to agree with Bashar Al Sad on this one.

32 IS fighters killed in US-led raids on Syria; Assad slams UK’s participation - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

Continually bombing the area without the ground forces in an attempt to crush ISIS is only going to wind up creating a lot of collateral damage of innocent civilians ,who are going to hate the West. ISIS isn't stupid, they know that merging with the civilian population is there best option.

I'm sort of tired of the moral hubris & dishonest liberal line of the media as to why were not supporting Assad:

(Mass murderer, war criminal. 10 years ago CNN ran a piece on him proclaiming him to be the Arab world's hope of progressive reformer, how they've changed their tune)

The real reason we are not supporting Assad is because we are allied with the Sunni world (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait ect) so to be siding with the Shia's in their sectarian civil war would not go down well with the Saudi Princes who are hellbent on ousting the Shia grip on power in Syria.

Nertheless, if you want to crush ISIS you need troops on the ground that co-ordinate their forces with Assad's Iranian and Lebanese Shia backed army in Syria & the Shia militias in Iran.

As we've seen with the increased Russian military presence in Syria over the years, backed by China, Putin will not allow NATO to take Assad out & Hollande refuses to join work with him.

In other news, Marine Le Pen's National Front just one a historic victory in France tonight.

Failed foreign policy abroad, failed domestic policy at home, its time for Hollande and the French socialists to pass the keys back over to Sarkozy, and ride off into the sunset.

The Batlord

You're gonna have to educate me on the French National Front, but otherwise, I am totally on board with keeping Assad in power. ******* or not, he's at least rational and malleable. It's just a shame that Russia has courted him before us, as a tin pot dictator in our pocket would be preferable to a tin pot dictator in Russia's pocket.

As far as human rights goes, obviously that **** is not good, but considering the alternative, I could give a ****. I just want someone who is not going to be in league with ISIS. I imagine even Saudi Arabia doesn't want ISIS to have power, as regardless of their shared beliefs, they are a competing power, and in general, people don't like competing powers,

Democracy in the Middle East is a pipe dream, so we might as well have some civil rights abusers who will be friendly to us, and if the West could get their heads out of their asses, then I imagine the civil rights violators would rather have us as allies than the dictators from Russia and China. It's just easier to deal with democratic pansies who pretend to give a **** about human rights from America and the European Union than it is with Putin and China. Those dudes are just ****ed to mess with since they just plain don't give a ****. At least we're pussies.

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William_the_Bloody

(I bold things just to make it easier to read for you, not to come off as some pompous no it all. I can't seem to write about politics without going into paragraphs. I do love politics though)

Foreign Policy:

I agree with you on Assad, he's seems like the best option of a bad lot, but the problem is that the west is allied with the Sunni Arab world, (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey) and we've already pissed them off by invading Iraq and putting the Shia's in charge, who now take their marching orders from Iran.

Look at it this way, the two major religious groups in the Middle East are the Sunni's and the Shia's and right now they are at each others throats (think of it like Protestants & Catholics going to war with each other)

At present they are fighting each other for supremacy in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, with the war trickling over into Lebanon.

The Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE) who are not taking in any refugees are the ones who providing the majority of the financial arms funding to the rebels in Syria, including ISIS because they desperately want Assad and the Shia's out of power.

The United States is also providing arms funding to rebels in the South, under the liberal pretense that we are helping the "moderate democratic Sunni's" which is pretty much a bull$hit smokescreen. Unless you include the guy who is eating the heart of the enemy as a progressive forward thinking moderate, there is no real moderate resistance group, the west is supplying arms to keep the Gulf states happy.

PS: Our arms supplies are minor on scale to that of the Gulf States, so please do not buy any of Noam Chomsky's anti western bull$****.

Assad on the other hand is being backed by the Shia world, so Iran, with aid from Shia militias in Iraq who are literaly exterminating ISIS where they find them, and Hezbollah out of Lebanon. That friendly Shia organization that lives next door to Israel.

Plus he has the aid of Russia and the financial backing of China which is why he's survived so long. When Obama gave NATO (The EU in this case) the green light to take out Gaddafi in Libya, Russia's immediate response was to send naval vessels to the coast of Syria to protect Assad from NATO intervention.

So in other words the whole thing is a big clusterf)ck! but if we can find as you say "some civil rights abuser" lol that we can control, that would be option number one. You are right though, there is no democratic option!

Domestic Policy:

As for the National Front there rise to power is not a good thing.

They are the far right party in France (Fascists) who have been on the rise in light of the failed policies of the left, both economically and socially.

I say the left because the National Front's votes come primarily from white working class neighborhoods, who are frustrated with loss of manufacturing jobs, and mass immigration under the pretext of multiculturalism.

We are seeing this happen all over Western Europe now, native working class communities are dumping socialist parties in favour of right wing populist parties that are advocating for restrictions on immigration.

They are not all rooted in fascism though, Britain's UKIP party under the charismatic leadership of Nigel Farage is rooted in libertarianism, still they are taking more votes from Labour's stronghold in the North than they are from the Tories.

All in all the National Front is not a threat to democracy. The far right in western Europe has pretty much become democratized. If the National Front were to win the elections in 2017 they would operate much like the Freedom Party in Austria did, or some of the current hard right parties in power in Eastern Europe.

There big threat is that they will create a more divisive and intolerant France that will in turn create more terrorism, but I don't think they will win, I have faith in Sarkozy.

It should be noted Marine Le Pen's daughter who I believe is the youngest person ever to be elected to the assembly in France is fu(kin hot!!!! though

Mmmm, mmm, mmm, fascism has never been so attractive, I would definitely let her smack me with her black leather glove, and trample me with her jackboots lol.