Comments on: If Miliband continues to dither on Syria, he may go down in history as Labour’s John Major

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:29:00 +0000

In reply to FulanoZutano. Fulano Zutano is a nasty little apologist for Radovan Karadžic and Slobodan Milošević, the last person to be accusing others of being demented warmongers.

By: Little Richardjohn

Little Richardjohn — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:07:00 +0000

Millipede showed yesterday that he is a plodder. It seems that these days people want a plodder. He was handed it on a plate yesterday. ll he had to do was ask for the surveyor’s report before signing the lease. People can identify with that.
Cameron came across as the pushy estate agent.

By: Michael Noonan

Michael Noonan — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 22:35:00 +0000

A complication to the Syria crisis is that the rebels don’t speak with one voice.
There is no wider umbrella organisation to connect them, as was the case in
Libya, and some of them seem to be at ideological war with each other, as much
as they are at physical war with the Assad regime. So that it is almost
impossible to predict who would dominate a Post-Assad Syria, and what policies,
internally and externally, they would pursue. And of course there are fanatical
Al Qaeda groups, many of them foreigners, who are involved in this conflict, on
the rebel side. Many commentators now believe that the conflict in Syria is
part of a much wider conflict in the Arab world; and can be viewed almost as a
proxy war, between the Sunnis and Shi-ites, and between Saudi Arabia and Iran,
to determine who will dominate politics in the Arabian Peninsula. Arms and
material assistance have certainly been flooding in to the rebel forces (along
with foreign fighters from all around the world), from neighbouring nations,
which want to see the overthrow of the Assad government and victory for the
rebels, for wider geopolitical reasons. Rather than arming one side or another,
we should be working for negotiations between all the parties involved (excluding
foreigners), to try to resolve this civil war at the negotiating table rather
than on the battlefield – as we did in Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.
http://www.cogitate.blog.com

By: maxime1793

maxime1793 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:20:00 +0000

This is worthy of quick dismissal – Imperialist Trash.

By: FulanoZutano

FulanoZutano — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:44:00 +0000

Has anyone noticed the striking resemblance between the ideology of MAH and the demented old warmonger Crackpot McCain? I wonder, if by any chance, they are related…….

By: humanity

humanity — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:41:00 +0000

A little unfair to condemn Ed Milliband for dithering. In Bosnia we had the backdrop of of a confident US and UK alliance, a more united EU and a USSR on the back foot. Today we have a US that is focused on its own self-interest, trying to reduce its expenditure on defence and to withdraw from two wars. “It’s the economy, stupid” could well be a term coined for today’s US president. At the same time, Russia is acting aggressively to preserve the influence it has in this part of the world, having been, in its view, hemmed in over the years. We have to factor in the possibility of a proxy war in the middle east if we choose to arm the Free Syrian Army. Not only this, but the conflict itself could spread further and intensify the involvement of Iran, Turkey and Israel. Add to this the likelihood of arms leaking into the hands of conservative islamist militias, or even jihadist practitioners of terror tactics, and there is good reason not to rush to a decision.

I can see the neat attraction of the argument which calls for a level fighting field, as there is a real possibility that Assad would negotiate if he felt he might lose militarily. But he has said he will not go without an election and this is what should be worked towards by democratic nations. We should take sanctions against Russia for inflaming the situation and lining its own pockets by selling arms into this bloodied swamp. And if necessary we should contribute troops to a UN force to isolate Syria, preventing all arms traffic, and turning the screw on other items until all parties agree to negotiate.

Lastly I am a Labour party member, and the more I think this through, the more I agree with Ed Miliband’s position. I also agree that his position is of little relevance in the current situation!

By: Ann Feltham - CAAT

Ann Feltham - CAAT — Thu, 30 May 2013 15:42:00 +0000

UK governments’ support for tyrants does not begin when there are uprisings against them, but can continue for decades if the tyrants control oil or can be flogged weaponry. The Economist ranks Saudi Arabia 163 out of 167 (the worst) in its index of authoritarian regimes. However, the appalling rights record of the Saudi regime has not prevented it from being the major recipient of UK weaponry with Thatcher, Blair and Cameron all acting as salesperson-in-chief for BAE Systems and its predecessor companies. Such sales give support and legitimacy to the appalling Saudi regime.

By: Matthew Blott

Matthew Blott — Wed, 29 May 2013 22:45:00 +0000

John Major won an election.

By: Stephen Henderson

Stephen Henderson — Tue, 28 May 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Two points:

1) It’s great to know a bit of history but if you only know one bit of history i.e. the Bosnian War and you monomaniacally recycle this historical analogy for every situation it gets old. Very quickly… Actually to be fair you do mention the Georgian war too but lose credibility when you (seemingly) attribute it to Gordon Brown not staring down Putin. Really???

2) Nobody cares about Ed Millibands “Syrian strategy” – except perhaps you? Neither the future history of Syria nor his own biography will mention his or Labours “Syrian strategy” in opposition. Plus even if he had strong convictions it is inconceivable that he could impose them on a Labour party which I’m pretty sure has no consensus for a “Syrian strategy”. You will have to convince the Labour party and the rest of the British public.

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:59:00 +0000

On the principles being advanced, we should have bought the Woolwich murderers their meat cleavers.

No, it is not in poor taste to say that. It is a fact.

Those whom we are proposing to arm in Syria, if we are not already doing so, are exactly like the followers of Anjem Choudary, and may very well be – indeed, probably are – the followers of the Syrian, Omar Bakri Muhammad.