If bombing a country really made it better, we would have made a paradise of Iraq by now. Instead it is a total disaster, with access to electricity, drinking water, education and health services all far worse than they were before we started bombing it. That is even without the growth of the Caliphate, or ISIS, a direct result first of our deposing Saddam and conniving in the intolerant Shia rule of Maliki, and then of our connivance in arming and funding anyone willing to fight Assad.
So now we are told we have to bomb Iraq yet again, and this time, finally, that will make it all better. There are two extraordinary contradictions in the British position.
1) The justification in international law given by the neo-cons for the current bombing of Iraq is that it is at the invitation of the government of Iraq. But simultaneously they propose to bomb Syria to attack the government of Syria. This is the most astonishing hypocrisy.
2) The Caliphate forces were encouraged and trained by the CIA initially. They continue to be massively financed from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. In fact, the Caliphate is still funded to a massive degree from the very states who are currently bombing them alongside the United States – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. It is the ruling families of those states which are attacking ISIS in an official capacity, who are financing ISIS in a private capacity. The BBC manages to avoid any mention of Saudi funding for ISIS. The interests of the City of London are, as always, the most important factor for the British establishment.
The security state here in the UK needs the “War on Terror” to justify its continued existence and the power and jobs of those who administer it. One thing that is certain to keep the conflict going, and thus keep the security state going, is for us to start bombing the Middle East again.
The right wing old crawler Menzies Campbell just came on the BBC to support British bombing. Stand by to see the Unionist parties united in neo-imperialist brotherhood.
I wasn’t being serious Ben. It is just the tactic of trolls to take one isolated point out of the main context to detract from the important part, in this case the fact that ISIS is as bad as NATO and NATO countries that created and funded it. Yep. It always backfires.
BOMB – BOMB – BOMB Iran OK Syria first then Iran.
As predicted here on Craig Murray one year ago, the hell-fire drones and Tomahawk missiles rain on Aleppo, the largest city in Syria and just 310 kilometres from Damascus and President Assad.
United States of America thugs, assassins and downright disgusting criminals pounce on the IS booby trap to unleash fire and pain on innocent civilians already smashed, weakened and demoralized by an ISIS/ISIL/IS synthesised chameleons ensnared by a Zionist/neo-liberal pineal gland whose monocular depth perception identifies completely with death and darkness as a means to make the cut, a last attempt to avoid the end of the unilateral hegemony of the American empire in the world.
We remember Assad and the Syrian army defeated 20,000 extremists led by Prince Bandar bin Sultan and trained for months by U.S. French and British Special Forces.
Unlike Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Syria is at heart a regional axis that recorded successive victories over Israel since 1982 in four major wars, in addition to dozens of other military and politico-diplomatic confrontations. This axis is now supported by a great power, Russia, long humiliated by the United States, and now determined to regain its central position on the international scene.
I hope and prey enough of us can pull together in Britain; accepting a multi-polar world must lead necessarily to a revolution in international relations and to a change in the structure of the United Nations, manipulated all these years by Washington to serve his interests.
Sadly that change will lead us close to nuclear war before reality bites in the many whose pineal gland has petrified.
The Three Amigos are beside themselves in ecstasy over Obomber’s bombing.
Neocons, Republicans and Democrats are united in their praise.
The majority is always wrong.
The US plan to bomb Syria was foiled last year, so they’ve had to go about it in a different way. Simple as that.
Craig makes the mistake of thinking that the politicians who order the bombing are motivated by a misplaced wish to improve anything. The fact is, it’s just how the bastards make their living.
Quite, Gutter, with the proviso that some of them are genuinely duped.
Craig probably knows the status quo but wouldn’t want to say it publicly.
Refusing to watch BBC news so watching Sky instead (already had RT so just Al Jazeera to go). Debate about bombing ISIS had three participants clearly strong advocates of Washington policy… and said most Brits were in favour as well and if Miliband even hinted at preferring a UN route he’d better watch out(!) Where do they get them from?
Jeez what craziness.
I’m a mix of ‘races’, we all are. I’d say the restriction when it come to ‘race’ (witch is in fact not anything real) is just a crazy fantasy. Are people really suggesting that people who intermarry, who think it’s not an issue, or maybe even a good thing for society are genocidal ?
What kind of crazy disgusting twisted thinking is this?
What I said was also actually not a big serous idea, like perhaps it was for some who go for deliberate social engineering, Ie as they did in Scotland. It was a joke.
Get this idea into your head, and fix it. I’m not a politician, I never will be, I advocate freedom and individual choice. I have absolutely no desire to be part of central power or social engineering of any kind. That’s for the record.
Now please stop twisting my minor remarks and reflecting them though your own obvious domination of others mindset.
Canspeccy
The day i need lessons from you in morality,wit or race relations the world will have ended.
Youre an ugly racist dipstick Canspeccy and your hollow attempts at wit and logic fools only yourself.
I can hardly wait for your ‘Hitler was much misunderstood’ guff…
Israel, Turkey & the US/Sunni States are destroying all anti-ISIS forces – Israel in Golan region, Turkey in North Syria. US/Sunni coalitiion are really bombing Iranian-connected anti-ISIS Khorasan, not ISIS. to add to the narrative, Khorasan is depicted as AQ with foreknowledge of 9/11! unbelievable.
Ghitis: 5 biggest surprises in Syria bombing
The U.S. reported that Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — all Sunni states — “participated in or supported” strikes against ISIS, which is also Sunni and violently anti-Shiite…
The United States didn’t just hit ISIS, it targeted al Qaeda’s Khorasan Group’s “imminent” attack on America.
This news bombshell was hidden in the Pentagon’s press release, which said the U.S. “took action to disrupt an imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests.” Until now, the debate over whether or not the United States should strike in Syria has referred specifically to the threat posed by ISIS, but outside the United States, there has been growing concern about the rise of Khorasan, a group made up of highly experienced al Qaeda fighters….
http://www.kesq.com/news/ghitis-5-biggest-surprises-in-syria-bombing/28206408
Turkey under pressure as Syrian Kurds battle ISIS
Syrian Kurds battled to defend a key border town from an ISIS advance Monday as Kurdish youths from neighboring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents…
In Turkey, struggling to manage an influx of more than 130,000 Syrian Kurdish refugees since last week, security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at Kurdish protesters who accuse Ankara of favoring ISIS against the Kurds…
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Sep-23/271624-turkey-under-pressure-as-syrian-kurds-battle-isis.ashx
Carnegie: What Is the “Khorasan Group” and Why Is the U.S. Bombing It in Syria?
The “Khorasan Group” is a term that gained currency only in the past two weeks…
What this seems to be about is a jihadi cell consisting of veteran al-Qaeda members who have arrived to the Nusra Front in Syria from abroad, mainly via Iran, and who are in direct contact with al-Qaeda’s international leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, himself believed to be based in Pakistan…
The sudden flurry of revelations about the “Khorasan Group” in the past two weeks smacks of strategic leaks and political spin. Even if the information provided is entirely correct, which it may well be, the timing can hardly be coincidental—within two weeks of the first press reports, attacks had started against Fadhli and his allies in Syria…
http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=56707
According to Sky News (happily), the bombing could/would last several years. According to Max Keiser and guest, its another ruse to cover the dollar
According to me only one beneficiary… arms manufacturers
According to me Sky again “US intelligence” presented as fact. Is this what they did in 2002 about Saddam having anthrax, nukes, etc.?? Why do they think we’ll believe “uncorroborated intelligence findings” this time?
It is well known that Saudi Arabia funded ISIS, and now they are bombing them. If that’s not the behaviour of a rogue state I don’t know what is. Why aren’t they answering questions in the UNSC… or are they the new Israel?
“I can hardly wait for your ‘Hitler was much misunderstood’ guff”
Agree, I’d be happy to not here it.
It stikes me thoes on the way to power are the only ones aiming to contoll such levers of genocide, it being quite hard for an indavidual to cause.
Though maybe who knows, if I choose to chat up that forign girl? The end, god fobid shes irish and Darwin followers find out, id be shot “lest evolution march backward into the swirling mists of the dawnless past”.
.
Strictly speaking, the ‘invitation’ wheeze is not hypocrisy, it’s a cut-and-dried instance of an internationally wrongful act subject to restitution, compensation with interest, or satisfaction under customary international law assessed by the ICJ or arbitral panels under these rules,
http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft%20articles/9_6_2001.pdf
in particular, Chapter III and Article 59. The UK can avoid its responsibilities and hold its head up high while the liabilities mount, just like any other defaulting banana republic, while R2P negates its sovereignty and makes it easier for Scotland to walk away.
In the meantime it would be great fun to write Rome Statute Article 8 bis and 15 bis and ter verbatim into Scottish law.
It’s almost laughable. They are both ‘aiding’ Assad, and invading Syria without Assad’s consent, and nobody is admitting this is very strange indeed. The Guardian accepts the basic premise, as usual, whilst feigning constructive criticism. What is with this ‘constructive criticism’. Invading Syria is a terrible idea, say it out loud. How do we deal with ISIS? Easy, follow the money.
I don’t know who to despise more. Authoritarian pricks like Abbott, or the handwringing left-liberals who meekly offer up a slightly different option, but accept the basic premise of invasion. Armchair Generals to a man and woman. They have nothing to say, but take a long time saying it.
War planners have gone insane. And Putin might have his own red lines.
Bit off topic, but as the subjact came up here is a very short video. It borders on ‘conspiracy’ but has lot’s of interesting info/history. I think people shold make of what they will.
It certianly not your average guff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCuc-2tfgk
The Jives meme-bot seems to be a round-the-clock phenomenon.
Then there’s Ishmael:
Quote: Agree, I’d be happy to not here [sic]it.
It stikes [sic] me thoes [sic] on the way to power are the only ones aiming to contoll [sic]such levers of genocide, it being quite hard for an indavidual [sic] to cause.
Even allowing for the possibility he’s typing with gloves on, what possible meaning could underlie such remarks?
I like CM’s first four paragraphs, but his conclusion; namely that
The security state here in the UK needs the “War on Terror” to justify its continued existence and the power and jobs of those who administer it.
seems inadequate as an explanation.
I think the truth is rather more horrific. The US needs a world war now. The pro-Nazi Ukraine intervention was one attempt to get things going, but Russia declined to take the bait.
Bombing everybody everywhere in the ME may achieve the desired flare-up and spread of violence.
But in any case, the US needs a war to smash all rivals as WW1 knocked the stuffing out of the British Empire and neutered Germany, as WW2 sucked the marrow from the bones of the British empire and re-gelded Germany and dished Japan, while accidentally raising Russia to great power standing, and as the Cold War drained the life from the Soviet super power. Now it’s time to do Germany again, crush resurgent Russia, and prick the China bubble before it’t too late.
That’s the context in which I’d put Russia’s giant military maneuvers, mentioned by Ben.
Given the ugly hate-filled faces and minds of the forces of British state oppression who ran amok with the tacit approval of TPTB, attacking disconsolate Independence supporters in George Square, Glasgow, just the other day, I would would wonder if these particular elements of our indigenous culture are worthy or deserving of survival.
Mind you with so many having come from Northern Ireland or England, with mayhem and truimphlist supremacism as their express purposes, I would qualify the word indigenous, as it refers as much to British Isles native ‘stock’ after over-long inbreeding, than to that of Scotland alone.
“But simultaneously they propose to bomb Syria to attack the government of Syria”
Can you provide more details about this, Mr Murray? I haven’t seen anything to confirm that attacks on non-ISIS-held areas of Syria are planned.
“It is the ruling families of those states which are attacking ISIS in an official capacity, who are financing ISIS in a private capacity”
Why exactly is this? Why do states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia both fund ISIS and support attacks on it?
5566hh,
“Why do states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia both fund ISIS and support attacks on it?”
Its basically an age old military-political game of carousel fraud where everyone gets what they want out of the loop and-more importantly-the illusion of what their madness,hubris and greed has convinced them all they think they need.
Dont forget to include the US/UK/NATO and Russia in this loop.
Is that clear now?
Good.
CanSpeccy
I rushed. Maybe etiquette isn’t my first concern with people who imply evil intent to me. I think this will be my last post, i’v had enough. But i’ll try and make it clear and spell check this better. It takes me a long time to write and it’s a huge effort. I’m still kicking up against irrational training.
+ I think for this blog it’s OTT, I get ideas across ok. Again this is often something people pick on like it matter’s. Yea, it does not make me want to care much. I’m fine with people who slur writing.
Those on the way to power are the only ones aiming to control such levers of genocide, it being quite hard for an individual to cause.
? OK
It’s self explanatory. How does one person with no power do it? Yet if you actually read above (I assume you did trying to figure out what i’m saying) my individual thoughts where implied as having such power. As if I was advocating like a political person does. A totally perverted representation.
Craig, keep up the good work. I just can’t be here with the intent of some. Obsessed with ‘individuality’ and attacking each other, contoll, fixed views lost from the basic common good of human nature. It’s a very corrosive environment. .
Yes i’m guilty of it also. But I knew that from commenting on the guardian. It rubs off. I guess they can’t find a way to liberate themselves from there own establishment indoctrination. Sod living like that.
I’m up early. Too early but never mind.
I share your concerns, Ishmael. Thankfully we are not alone. There are millions of us, and that was why it was so good to see an awakening in Scotland.
Do you remember what it was like in the UK in 2003, knowing that your leader had lied and your country had invaded another? I’m sure the darkness was reflected in the youth’s choice of No. 1 record for the end of that year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR91Rj1ZN1M
Ishmael,
Thats a good point you make about power.
Dont let the bully crew here get to ya,quite a few of them are paid trolls anyway.
All that matters is the message,the substance…spelling,typos etc dont matter except to some small minded types.
Keep on posting what you feel…:-)
forget ISIS/ISIL/IS – they are passe. US had to attack Syria because Iranian/AQ/9/11/Mahdi/anti-ISIS group, who only want to attack the West, had ripened their plots in Syria! talk about bait and switch! and some of the public fall for this?
Fox News: Al Qaeda-linked target of strikes in Syria obsessed with next 9/11
The U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria put a spotlight on the shady terrorist group known as Khorasan, a small but potent Al Qaeda offshoot whose sole objective is pulling off another 9/11 terror attack…
“Their focus is recruiting those that hold Western passports so they can attack Western airliners,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of homeland security at the Clarion Project…
The group takes its name from a Middle Eastern region that jihadists believe will be host to a final war that brings about the appearance of the Mahdi, the messianic “End Times” figure of Islam,” according to Mauro…
On Tuesday, coalition bombers attacked around Idlib and Aleppo after intelligence showed Khorasan’s plots were ripening…
Al Fadhli is known to have headed up an Iranian Al Qaeda cell…
It’s these repeated attempts to attack the West by this shadowy group that has most alarmed U.S. officials…
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/23/shadowy-al-qaeda-linked-target-strikes-in-syria-obsessed-with-next-11/
The defense industry, and other psychopath stakeholders, had lost hundred of billions a year when the Cold War ended. They swiftly replaced it by a new enemy that thanks God cannot be defeated, because it does not exist.
A glimmer of light in international relations had been James Baker’s peace process. Since it was shelved, we have descended into the hellfire of Neocon madness, corrupting everything on its wake. Symptom of our time: how disfigured the BBC is today!
Who in this blog still remember that things did not use to be like that?
I don’t see how it can be fixed from within the West.
if Westminster is recalled on Friday then surely the hard-working British MP’s need to be fully briefed on the very complex situation.
How can we best help them do that?
(I’m speaking as someone who lived for years in the ME, though I was never batty enough to go near the mildly repressive Syrian regime)
Will the MPs read Craig’s Blog?? nope, confusing opinions – lots of long words
Guido Fawkes??? nope, but the dancing at the Lab Conf seems to be a gas
Maybe they should just look at colorful cartoons, fridge-magnets or this simple one explaining the UK/US military industrial complex
that would be nice, even lawyers & PPE grads can surely grok these?
Thanks for that Craig, MI6 operative Haveabanana has just been cleared of terrorism in a Jordanian court, Israel could not muster enough evidence to get him convicted? whats news.
Just listened to Ed Milliband and his plans, on the issue of Gulf war3, the recall vote on Friday, and on the NHS.
He’sd a dreamer and as dangerous as Cameron. Obama has said that this bombing campaign could last years and Milliband, as well as the BBC who is seemingly doing No 10’s basic PR most of the day, made symathetic noises of support saying that ‘IS is a serious threat that has to be tackled’.
Milliband will commit himself to some serious military expenditure from money that ???? is QE’d, or taken from all his other causes he wants to promote. Once again we are looking at a grand coalition of numpties who will this succeed to bring their fighting home.
Maybe a little war here at home is what is needed to galvanise and focus the publics view on dangerous party politician. Cameron is like a gossip whore forever trying to gain favours with royal stories and tittle tattle, anything that can make him look good, what a prat and Milliband is not different, a low weight.
The plans to spend extra money on the NHS, less than 3% of its annual budget, with more pressures on it from a rising elderly population, is wishful thinking, especially when the bigger boys want you to spend it on war.
So whatever the choice at the next general election, its gonna be war, but
NOT IN MY NAME!
Can you provide more details about this, Mr Murray? I haven’t seen anything to confirm that attacks on non-ISIS-held areas of Syria are planned.
The aim of the US has for a very long time been to take Assad down (Russian sphere-of-influence, Iranian support, backs Hizb’ullah). Use this Wikipedia article as a starting point for the devious background to that justified assertion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm **
Current US spokesmen are talking of eradicating IS (optimists) and then supporting something they call the Free Syrian Army* to get rid of Assad. By which time just about everyone in Syria will be dead or a refugee, but what the hell, they’re brown people. This policy has even been expressed on the BBC: there’s little doubt they’ll try it.
Then on to Iran.
*nice terrorists, that is. Our guys. Sunnis.
** Which realm? Antisemitic even to ask.
I don’t see the CIA helping ISIS to form, since it would be against the American national interest. Bombing looks to help restrain ISIS only if other fighters are doing their bit. For example it appears to have helped in Kurdistan in taking back control of important dams.
Since the Arab royal families are helping to fight ISIS, why would they fund them?