No, you are thinking of Eid, the Muslim Christmas. Think camels instead of reindeer and for "happy children", think instead "happy boy children".
So you would prefer Sadaam, Gadaffi and Assad to be wreaking their havoc on the people of Iraq, Kurdistan, Libya and Syria would you? Why? Sadaam did gas his own people did he not? Gadaffi was a cruel thug who terrorised his subjects with his sons. And Assad was/is a tyrant too. Would you deny those peoples their right to self determination and their right to call upon the superior firepower of the west to help them achieve it? It was the Iraqis, Libyans and Syrians who rose up against their oppressors before the west got involved. And the Iraqi government wanted the allies to stay when they left. Western morals meant we felt we had to help the oppressed - even though it might not be in our interest, in the short term.of course in the long term we needed to assure the flow of oil. But even that has turned out not to be so crucial, with oil consumption declining. I have a geologist friend who works in the oil industry who has not worked for a year. Until the first half of 2014 he had been six weeks on, six weeks off for thirty-plus years. I accept that the peace was not as well thought-out as the war in Iraq but we did not rush into Syria when perhaps we should have. But to an extent I agree. We should have left them to their own backward devices because they do not understand democracy and need to be told what to do, depressing as that is to contemplate. Who hates us? The Taliban? Al-Qaida? Mediaval thugs who kill and rape? I can live with that. They are the new Nazis and we need to wipe them out. Shouldn't be difficult if the EU and the USA teamed up with other allies. But because the enormous collateral damage that would inevitably ensue we lack the stomach for the fallout. Western morals. Maybe we SHOULD take a lesson from the mullahs ...
i assume that you know where I$I$ came from, ,,,,,,,,,, obviously you have the stomach for the fallout which we are feeling now ???
That's because it is a region full of essentially backward people whose culture is at least 600 years behind our own because it has been contrained by the dead hand of a religion that has never - unlike Christianity - undergone a reformation into a more modern, user-friendly institution restricted to a bit part in secular government.
I was referring to confusion on the forum ... which is almost as formidable as the turmoil in the region itself
We knew the risk was that fundamentalism would fill the void left by regiem change in the Middle East but we went ahead anyway. We could deal with the fallout by using overwhelming firepower and it may come to that. I think ISIS could be wiped out - but obviously the hydra would soon grow new heads. What's your solution? Withdraw and let the funadamentalists run riot?
That's the last thing I need I can assure you! My g/f is twenty years younger than me. I need a rest! That's why I stay up posting here when she goes to bed
This thread needs a shrink. Believe it or not I started it this morning with this: Up to 50 sharks filmed in West Sussex - BBC News
And on that bombshell, having won the debate because so many of my questions remain unanwered, I bid you goodnight gentlemen
