buctootim

Thats not really true - its got far more to do with local tradition and culture than religion. Muslims and Christians in say, Bangladesh or Nigeria will be more similar to each other than to third generation Bangladeshi or Nigerian immigrants to Europe

Its still weird though. Work somewhere for five years with environmental health colleagues, go to a party and only kill them once you've had a row? Why not just pick on random 'sinners' listening to music and drinking ans the Paris lot did.

Verbal, child massacring bombing apologist. Easy this juvenile and pretty trite name calling stuff isnt it? What the **** happened to you? you used to be sharp and insightful. Sorry shadow of that now.

The thing is though, Corbyn was right. We did have to talk to Sinn Fein / the IRA in order to bring peace. It just took the others longer to get around to it.

Basically congress and the President can veto each other - so if the majority of Congress is of the opposite party to the President, as it is atm, then pretty much neither side can do anything. Thats why for example they never get round to dealing with their debt. Obviously if the majority of congress is from the same party as the Prseident then things can change easily. https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/teacher_lessons/3branches/5.htm

He really cant. Its a Republican dominated Congress, highly partisan. The US system was deliberately set up to avoid either congress or the President having too much power, so unless they work together you just have stasis.

Thats real oratory. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tony-benn-s-anti-war-speech-about-british-policy-in-the-middle-east-from-the-first-gulf-war-a6755571.html

He can do very little, his hands are tied by Congress.

Good post, thats exactly what I felt about it. The speech majored on justifying going to war with IS by citing Labour opposition to Franco and Hitler and praising a long and tedious list of previous speakers. Where was the compelling rationale and persuasive logic? Looked more like a sales pitch for a job to me.

I didnt say there was no intelligence, I said there was a lack. There is. There are plenty of planes already, lots of strikes in Iraq, relatively few in Syria. Increasing the number of sorties has got nothing to do with getting more planes and everything to do with finding more targets. Then the coalition is left with a choice if it wants to ramp up activity - either continue to bomb empty buildings for domestic political consumption - or area bomb like the Russians and kill civilians. "Rear Admiral John Kirby said: 'We do take extreme caution and care in the conduct of these missions. But there's risk in any military operation. There's a special kind of risk when you do air operations". Military officials acknowledge that they are relying mainly on satellites, drones and surveillance flights to pinpoint targets, assess the damage afterward and determine whether civilians were killed. That stands in sharp contrast to the networks of bases, spies and ground-based technology the US had in place during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials say. As a result, 'it's much harder for us to be able to know for sure what it is we're hitting, what it is we're killing and what it is collateral damage,' said Tom Lynch, a retired colonel and former adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is now a fellow at the National Defense University. In Iraq, the US is relying for ground reports on the Iraqi military and intelligence services, whose insights into ISIS controlled territory are limited. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776282/US-tell-effective-airstrikes-against-ISIS-huge-gaps-intelligence-officials-claim.html http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/lack-of-targets-not-russians-seen-affecting-number-of-us-airstrikes-in-syria-1.371376 http://sputniknews.com/military/20151127/1030881026/coalition-us-strikes-deployment.html http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/16/middleeast/france-raqqa-airstrikes-on-isis/

Turkey has 2.2 million Syrian refugees. The EU is trying to bribe them to clamp down on the people smugglers who ferry them into the EU via Greece. Turkey is just haggling over the price. £2bn is eff all for hosting 2.2 million people.

Thats just parroting the line ministers have agreed on. The difference is that Iraq has a legitimate government and ground army. They have active informants and spotters on the ground to target airstrikes. The airstrikes there are in support of Iraqi troops retaking Iraqi territory. When IS are forced out their place is retaken by elected Iraqi authorities. Bomb in IS controlled areas of Syria, mostly blind without good target information, and all you will do is kill many civilians and perhaps allow the Assad regime back in - which was the cause of the bitterness and civil war long before IS became involved.

milkman

Even with extra time you'd have over an hour to get to the station. Should be plenty.

"officials are keen not to be seen to ‘crumble’ under pressure from the Fratton faithful". Refs should be grown up enough to cope with the silent sulk.

Great line. So true

He is a left wing leader who has inherited a parliamentary party of centrist career politicians. I'd be happy to see many cleared out and replaced with more free thinkers and diversity of opinion. Like many of the electorate Ive been gung ho in the past but the experiences of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have changed that perspective. Im much more sceptical of the 'surgical strike, no civilians get hurt, quick in and get the boys home' than previously. I've never before really questioned the value of the independent nuclear deterrent, and now I am. What is the point of bombing Raqqa if Turkey is buying their oil and shipping them arms? I suspect Corbyn is more in tune with many voters than you believe. Miliband is plan B. It would always have been too awkward for Miliband D to replace Miliband E. Give Corbyn a chance, see what kind of fist he makes of it, knowing Miliband is ready to take over, if necessary, well before the election.

Despite all the hoohah and drama in the media actual polling figures for Labour are barely changed, slightly up under Corbyn in fact. The Tory lead has extended a bit, but thats because of a drop in support for the LDs and UKIP, not Labour. Corbyn is presenting a an alternative vision to that of the Conservatives. Surely that is just as effective opposition as cheese paring 1 degree differences on policy.

I agree doing nothing is not an option but I don't know what the solution is. I'd be interested to hear more from within Syria. What I do know is that more bombing in the absence of a meaningful plan for starving IS of funds, weapons and recruits is not the answer. Bombs are bombs. They may get more precise when properly programmed but unless you have spotters on the ground giving good intelligence on targets and accurate GPS locations its largely meaningless. In any event IS seem to be moving into a network of tunnels below ground. That means bigger bombs with bigger blast radius. Even if they are spot on target the blast doesn't stop at the intended targets perimeter - so you will still the kill the boys unfortunate to be near the empty IS car.

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Good article here. Voices from Raqqa, tell MPs to vote 'no'. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/29/raqqa-exiles-bashar-al-assad-isis-bombing “Can someone really be happy if his city is bombed by everyone? No,” Abu Ahmad said, with the bleak humour that many exiles share. “Everybody bombed Raqqa. Anyone who was just annoyed by their wife decided to come and bomb Raqqa. Jordan, UAE, US, Russia, France.” They fear that more bombs will cost more innocent lives in a city where the civilian population is now held prisoner by Isis to serve as a human shield. Many are baffled and frustrated that the city’s fate is being decided in distant capitals and conference rooms where the people of Raqqa have no presence, in debates where they have no voice. They worry there is only a slim chance of dislodging Isis without ground troops but no obvious options to march on the city, because the opposition is a jumble of weak local militias and Kurds unwelcome in a mostly Arab city. “People don’t like Isis at all, but if Kurdish forces come with the coalition to displace them they are both bad, and maybe some will think the least bad is Isis, so you are pushing them to join Isis,” said a nurse who reluctantly left Raqqa this autumn after the group tried to arrest him, although he still doesn’t really know why he came under suspicion. They see hypocrisy from an international community that ignored the deaths of tens of thousands of Syrians at the hands of their own government for years, then was apparently spurred into action by Isis killings of Europeans and Americans. “Why is this just in response to Isis? Why was no one moved when the regime was bombing us in Syria? Is it just because [terror] came to western countries? For us, it doesn’t matter which bombs are killing us,” said Mona, a teacher and activist who fled from Isis James Bond-style over the rooftops of her neighbourhood.

I like it when you're hysterical. It amuses me. I suggest you check the polls, Labour support has actually increased since Corbyn's election as leader. http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

Why do you make programmes? Would you still make them if you felt they influenced nobody? $600 billion spent every year on advertising, to no effect eh? what a waste.