We are directly responsible for the disasters in the Mediterranean. The bombing of Libya into failed state status is now coming back to haunt us. The ludicrous idea, propounded by Blair, Robert Cooper and the Henry Jackson Society, that you could improve dictatorial states by massive bombing campaigns that targeted their basic infrastructure, is now a total bust. Sadly so are Iraq and Libya, to the permanent detriment of many millions of people. We caused both the Islamic State and the Mediterranean boat disasters, and we caused them with bombs.
But the lack of any effective policing is only part of the problem. What makes people so desperate that they are prepared to give all of the small amount they own, to ruthless gangs, in exchange for a dreadful sea crossing with a one in ten chance of drowning? Most of the refugees are sub-Saharan African. We only see the European end of the saga, not the terrible conditions on the cross Saharan journeys that they start with.
There will be no security anywhere if the world does not address the terrible scourge of African poverty and under-development. That is a huge subject on which I have written extensively and worked much of my life, and I do not wish to open it here. But what it does show is the utter stupidity – inhumanity yes, but also stupidity – of UKIP in thinking that cutting development aid will increase the economic security of the UK.
@John Spencer-Davis, re the WW1 commemorations, I think it was in the memoirs of Compton MacKenzie that I read a scathing attack on Churchill’s decision to attack Turkey at Gallipoli, instead of Constantinople, a decision made expressly to deny the Russians and/or Greeks the City after hostilities; again it was the deny the Greeks the City following the end of the war that the Allies (expressly Britain) demanded that the Greeks make the suicidal ill fated attempt to take faraway Ankara rather then the sensible logical march to Constantinople; the resulting rout of the Greek Army by Kemal, who was secretly backed by so-called former “Allies”, resultant in the catastrophe of the burning of Smyrna in 1922, and the exchanges of millions of refugees, uprooting people who have been living in their lands since time inmemorial.
“I wish I’d said that.”
There’s quite an interesting aetiology to the famously-quoted and misquoted put down of Oscar Wilde by Whistler.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/05/oscar-will/
We were all talking peace. We were all opposing war and singing Eric Bogle songs. Along come the trolls to bring a little warmongering back into play. Don’t feed the trolls!
My all means sing your songs Mr Goss – your own words make your stances on warmongering very clear.
Mr Goss
““In fact, they show the opposite.
What is it you don’t understand, Mr Goss?”
Explain please.”
________________
It’s quite simple, Mr Goss. Now pay attention:
your links in fact show that various countries have repatriated some of their gold reserves kept in New York and that some intend to repatriate more in ther future. Therefore, they have not been prevented from doing so by the US.
This is the very opposite of what you asserted, which was that various countries wanted to repatriate their gold reserves but that the US had prevented them from doing so.
I don’t think it can be said any more simply. If you are still unable to understand, I shall be having a word with your Toytown teacher. 🙂
Over and out (anyway, you have been rescued in the nick of time by Craig posting a new thread).
Nebelmind
““Well, they do have something to do with the issues at hand; the inquiries you object to are entirely legitimate when a poster – you in this case – makes various claims of a personal nature in an attempt to lend gravitas, legitimacy and the impression of insider knowledge to the contents of his posts.
They are all the more legitimate when there is reason to suspect the genuineness of your claims.”
Says who?
Go wipe your own nose, before you ask others to reach for the hanky, Habbakuk. You could not make it up, the gall of this cheeky chappie, asking others to reveal their personal circumstances, when he himself is unable to hoist himself up to such petard.
Piss poor performance Habby, no shekels for you. You, as well as your Gauleiter RD should really try better.”
_______________________
I beg to differ, you Teutonic duffer – a rather good performance, I’d say, as evidenced by the fact that the addressee of my observation has remained silent and it is you who have felt it necesssary to intervene. That’s what I call scraping the barrel….
As to substance – if I had attempted to give spurious gravitas, authenticity or authority to any one of my posts BY CLAIMING, for example, that I am/used to be a high ranking diplomat, then it would be entirely legitimate for you or anyone else to demand evidence in order to verify my claim. And, moreover, you would be entitled to press the point if you had grounds for suspecting that my claim was bogus.
Surely even you, in the depths of Norfolk, can understand that, or do you want me to write it in German for you?
Keep on keeping on R2D2 why don’t you.
Macky
25/04/2015 10:21 am
Many thanks for that. I honestly don’t feel myself competent to comment.
Kind regards,
John
” if I had attempted to give spurious gravitas, authenticity or authority to any one of my posts BY CLAIMING, for example, that I am/used to be a high ranking diplomat, ”
Well me ol’ cock, even if you would claim to have been choosen to become a diplomat, which does fit with the calibre of your nebulous responses here, nobody would believe you now after years of trying.
Are you not pissing in the wind and getting rather wet with such paltry explanation?
More Clarkson. Off-topic, but since Craig is such a Clarkson fan I hope he won’t mind me posting this here.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/jeremy-clarkson-and-top-gear-stars-lied-in-row-over-argentina-and-falklands-number-plate/ar-AAbDTB9?ocid=mailsignoutmd
I was actually willing to accept the BBC’s explanation that the H982 FKL number plate was an unfortunate coincidence, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. I now understand that the licence plate on the car in question was changed after the car entered Argentina. Unfortunate coincidence my backside.
What I like least about Clarkson and his Top Gear cohorts (and thank goodness the whole lot seem to be quitting for good) is not so much the nasty-mindedness, but the cowardice and lies and evasion they come up with when confronted about it. “Oh no, we didn’t mean to poke malicious fun at the Argies, it was a MISTAKE.” “Oh, no, we had NO IDEA that “slope” was an offensive word to the Asian community.”
If you’re going to be an ugly swine to people, at least have the courage of your convictions and be an honest ugly swine.
Thank God they’re off of the screen, not that I’ll miss them since I never watched Top Gear anyway.
Kind regards, John
John Goss, 12:47 am:
Please describe the prejudice you accuse me of.
Those German-language links establish unequivocally that German gold is being held in underground vaults on Manhattan. I don’t understand how anyone who can understand German can deny that.
“Those German-language links establish unequivocally that German gold is being held in underground vaults on Manhattan. I don’t understand how anyone who can understand German can deny that.”
___________________
And no one is denying or has denied that, Lysias.
What those links do not establish is the truth of the assertion by Mr Goss that several countries have asked for part of their gold reserves to be repatriated but that the US has refused. In fact they say the opposite.
You have perhaps been too busy reading one of the many books to which you often refer to bother to read the posts on here with sufficient attention.
This is from Mr Goss’s original post which sparked off my challenge:
“It’s all down to dollar-debt. The US has many countries’ gold reserves and won’t give it back.”
All clear, Major?
The articles do say that the German government has abandoned any plans to ask for the immediate repatriation of its gold. They also say that it has done so because of pressure from the U.S. government.
Myself, I suspect the reason the German government backed down is that they were let know is that the gold is no longer there on deposit, that it was misspent or otherwise disappeared, and that, if that was revealed, it would be devastating for both the German and the world economy.
Should be “is that they were let know that”. Oh, for an edit function.
“Humanity and appreciation prevails after all— if not in the hearts and minds of all people— in those who count.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/25/migrant-boat-crisis-the-sergeant-who-did-his-duty-towards-people-struggling-for-their-lives
John Goss I don’t understand what you mean about the content of my links. Are you suggesting I have an anti-Russia agenda? If so, you are wrong. I said what I thought about Nuland and co at the beginning, the push for war, Biden’s son involvement in Ukraine, etc but I never wished, nor had the energy, to participate in the long wrangles here. They solve nothing.