Hilary Benn, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary’s speech in support of air strikes in Syria reduced MPs to tears and drew applause from members on all sides of the House of Commons.
https://youtu.be/XLYNygoJ8aE
Sen. John McCain on Russia’s airstrikes in Syria
Shades of Churchill in 1938:
Winston Churchill, denouncing the Munich Agreement in the House of Commons, declared:
“We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat … you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude … we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road … we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: “Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting”. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”
On 3 October 1938, Churchill added:
“England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame, and will get war.”
“We should be ashamed”…Isis could have been ‘nipped in the bud’ four years ago
The rise of extremist terror group Islamic State (Isis) could have been avoided if the UK began attacks on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2013, according to two former defence chiefs.
“It’s a great shame, something that we should be ashamed of, that we could have nipped this problem in the bud four years ago, but failed to do so,” said Lord David Richards, a former general and the UK’s chief of defence staff from 2011 to 2013 under Prime Minister David Cameron.
“….if anything encouraged Isis at that point, it was that decision,” said Lord George Robertson, Nato secretary general from 1999 to 2004, and UK defence secretary from 1997 to 1999. “It was that fact of a failure of will on the part of the Western powers,” he added, that also encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Crimea in 2013.
….”We are our own worst enemy. We simply ignore problems,” said Robertson, who urged the UK’s politicians to do more to convince the public why the government needs to take military action. “Unless people are convinced there are things worth fighting for, then we’ll be in trouble….”
Reminds me of:
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” ~ from the film adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Often misattributed to Edmund Burke who wrote: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
Read more at Isis could have been 'nipped in the bud' with attack on Assad in 2013 say ex UK defence chiefs.
What If Everything You Know About Terrorism Is Wrong? | The XX Committee
Great insight into the murky relationship between various government intelligence services and terrorist groups. This goes far beyond provision of weapons and money and includes founding and direction of some terrorist groups which act as covert arms of the intelligence service while providing the sponsoring state with “plausible deniability”.
…One happy by-product of the current American-led war on the Islamic State is that some people are now more willing to state that Iran does in fact possess ties to various terrorist groups, among them AQ and the Islamic State. Yet it’s still a struggle to get many people to see what’s obvious here.
Part of this willful disbelief is due to simple ignorance. Most “terrorism experts,” and virtually all of them possessing academic credentials, have exactly zero personal interaction with operational counterterrorism; therefore they are ignorant of the fact that many intelligence services — and all of them in the Middle East — play a wide range of operational games with terrorist groups, AQ very much included, encompassing everything from placing agents inside terror cells to actually creating terrorist fronts like Tawhid-Salam…..
The appearance of the Islamic State as a major force in Iraq and Syria, with threats of terrorist attacks on the West, has concentrated minds again to a degree. But unwillingness to ask difficult questions persists in many quarters. Despite the fact that we have more than circumstantial evidence that the Islamic State is being manipulated by Syrian intelligence, and Iran’s too, these notions are dismissed out of hand by too many Westerners who study terrorism. Yet if we want to defeat the Islamic State, it would be wise to actually understand it. That Washington, DC, continues its bipartisan blocking of release of the full 9/11 Commission Report, which includes troubling details of Saudi misconduct regarding Al-Qa’ida, is not an encouraging sign.
Read more at What If Everything You Know About Terrorism Is Wrong? | The XX Committee.
Iran Didn’t Create ISIS. We Did | The Diplomat
From Ben Reynolds:
….No one is innocent in the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars, but Iran is not primarily responsible for the current state of affairs. The U.S. and its allies destabilized Iraq and Syria in turn, creating safe havens for extremists that previously did not exist. U.S. allies provided the material support that allowed ISIS and groups like it to become threats to the entire region, despite lacking any substantial popular base in Syria and Iraq. It is not unreasonable for Iran and Hezbollah to fight against these groups, which murder and enslave Shia and other religious minorities. Their actions conceivably fall under one of the West’s favorite principles of international law: the duty to protect.
Read more at Iran Didn’t Create ISIS; We Did | The Diplomat.
Desperately seeking moderate Syrian rebels | Threat Matrix
By Lisa Lundquist:
Following the news that the Obama administration, in a sudden about-face, is asking Congress for $500 million to train and equip “vetted” members of the “moderate” Syrian opposition, The Associated Press yesterday published a list, headlined “Syrian rebels likely to receive US aid.” The list raises more questions than it answers — two of the listed groups have been designated by the US as terrorist organizations….
Read more at Desperately seeking moderate Syrian rebels – Threat Matrix.
Sarah Palin: ‘We’re bombing Syria … and I’m the idiot?’ | Washington Times
Jessica Chasmar at The Washington Times:
“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?” Mrs. Palin asked on Friday. “President Obama wants America involved in Syria’s civil war pitting the antagonistic Assad regime against equally antagonistic Al Qaeda affiliated rebels. But he’s not quite sure which side is doing what, what the ultimate end game is, or even whose side we should be on.”
Read more at Sarah Palin: 'We're bombing Syria … and I'm the idiot?' – Washington Times.
Authoritarian Rulers Get Subtler: Putin, Chavez, China's Chiefs – WSJ.com
WILLIAM J. DOBSON: A handful of retrograde, old-school dictatorships have managed to limp into the 21st century. They are the North Koreas, Turkmenistans and Equatorial Guineas of the world. But they represent dictatorship’s past….
Today’s smarter dictators, by contrast, understand that in a globalized world, the more brutal forms of intimidation—mass arrests, firing squads, violent crackdowns—are best replaced with more subtle forms of coercion.
Rather than arrest members of human-rights groups, Russia’s Vladimir Putin deploys tax collectors or health inspectors to shut down dissident groups. In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez ensures that laws are written broadly and then uses them like a scalpel to target groups that he deems a threat….
via Authoritarian Rulers Get Subtler: Putin, Chavez, China's Chiefs – WSJ.com.
Here’s The Real Reason The Price Of Crude Oil Is So Strong
This month’s decoupling of oil from other risk assets, could be foretelling skittishness over recent events in Iran and Syria (where a growing chorus is calling for action against Assad’s brutality), and even over today’s report from the AFP that thousands of Kuwaitis stormed parliament after demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
Additionally, borderline hostile rhetoric towards Iran after a recent explosion at a missile base is putting more focus on their tensions with Israel…..
via Here’s The Real Reason The Price Of Crude Oil Is So Strong.