While the issues of the County are important the World issues are critical.

We live in unsettling times and who knows when the fight will come to us.

The killing of the hostage/ hostages is awful.

The things that are being done in the name of ISIS are truly horrendous but how do we solve the crisis.

Drones and bombs can kill innocent civilians.

To end a conflict needs some degree of negotiation but how can that happen.

Bush and Blair attacked the 'Axis of Evil' and that does not seem to have made the World a safer place.

Most of us remember where we were on 9/11 and the dreadful consequences .

What we did not expect to happen was potentially another huge war involving so many innocent people soldiers and civilians

Maggie the only thing you can do is pray for a solution I have son son from my first marriage who lives in widdrington,he's in

The army serving in Afghanistan I prey he's safe...I know this sounds awful it may sound selfish but I do hope he fires the first bullet

At somebody who's trying to kill him....

The worlds' gone mad!  

... and the 'maddest' of the lot?  Some might suggest it's the Yankees and their GOP*.  I wrote here a while ago that once the Yankees get all their energy ducks in a row and after a few more members of their armed forces suffer, one of their options will be to nuke the whole of the Middle East and be done with it

 

*note to the watching NSA & GCHQ ... this is meant as satire and should not trigger my abduction at 4am for an extended holiday in your Cuban resort.

Over the summer we went to a place near Madrid called El Escorial.

Near by is a valley which has a basilica dedicated to the war dead of the Spanish Civil War.

In reality it is the tomb of Franco and Jose Antonio it is scary but magnificent..

The whole mountain has been tunnelled out.

Monastery on the other side to the Basillica.

Funicular railway up to the cross you can see from the main road..

Basically it is testament to the powerful.

In the end, who remembers the deaths.

Who wins the propaganda war?

Possibly the people who win.

One son joined the armed forces Tonyp, my input was trying to persuade him not to take ' The Kings Shilling'

There is a record track which says ' A heros grave is only six foot deep, not big enough for all his friends'

It did not work.

So much has been written about war and the poetry of the First World War haunts me.

I am not against fighting but all too often it does not end well.

He says the hero's who are up in heaven are looking down on him & his comrades the day lee rigby died I was picking my missus

Up in woolwich absolute pandemonium happened that day I'll never forget that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire I'm not going to

Comment on this again but I will say what happened when chamberlain came back with a piece of paper in his hand.....

,

I used to mock the service men, including my brother, in the 1960-70s. Join up for 11 years and play around the world.

I have to take my hat off to anyone who has joined up, including the TA, in the 21st century as they know whats in store for them. I salute them.

 

As for any country -  USA  - England & the rest of Europe etc - getting involved in any world crisis weather it's to benefit their own trade and economy or not, regardless of your political view, what choice dose the world have. Lie down and be dictated to or stand up and dictate your own rules. Just the same as when we were growing up and at school, fight back or submit!

True words. Eggy

the words of Theodore Roosevelt... speak softly ...but carry a big stick ,....he led the rough riders to victory

The soldiers are without doubt brave.

I just wish it was simple.

Love your quote mickypotts.

At the moment there's only one power in the region that can halt/roll back those 7th Century madmen and that Turkey.  They've a huge well equipped, well trained army, many units of which are sitting along the entire Syrian border facing IS.  What's stopping them from engaging the IS barbarians?  Local politics, that's what!  They want IS to exterminate the Kurds - remember the Turks have been warring with the Kurds for decades;  IS can save them a job then the Turks will move in and engage IS.  The Turks are capable of defeating IS, unlike the regions answer to the pre-WW1 & WW2 Frogs (Iraq). 

The Area has a history of instability.

With Turkey the Armenians have a tale to tell.

Not to mention the Cyprus situation which still rumbles on.

1974/2014

40 years since The Coup .

Then the Turkish invasion / they refer to it as The Peace Keeping Force.

Have to remember the the Greeks introduced napalm against the Turks followed by the yanks in Vietnam let us get real here war is terrible but sometimes **** happens remember David & Goliath ??. No I'm not a Jehovah .....

A question? What would the Jews do if 4 of there people got decapatated would they condemn there actions no they would act

They said after the 2nd war that none of there people would be persecuted again... Good on them

I am not for anyone being persecuted.

War often cannot be solved by violence alone.

What's the answer a white feather

Very interesting comment tonyp.

Did that policy ever work!

The White Feathers that were handed out in the First World War caused a lot of controversy.

Cowardice or being shot at dawn, is now seen in a different light.

Do you not negotiate within your job.

Fight or flight maybe the first response but somewhere sometime people have to try to live and work in peace.

When negotiations fail in the workplace you 2 choices agree with people you know who are sh******g you or go on strike the choice is

Yours it's done in a democratic way... When somebody is chopping your fellow country men's heads of for no reason except

There barbaric means do you call that democracy I call that cowardice. I think they only understand one thing "death". So they should

Feel the force of what we can do to them.... Blitzkrieg ,carpet bomb them of coarse innocent people get killed but that's war remember

Our boys are there for you...

tonyp the group ISIS are a group of deluded thugs.

The people who organise any terror activity are deluded.

Fighting the so called Axis of Evil ended up with a lot of our brave soldiers dying.

These acts are designed to provoke.

Actions we take may inflame an already difficult if not impossible situation in the Middle East.

At some point we have to trust our government to do the right thing.

They have the knowledge that we do not possess.

The two choices you mention in a negotiated settlement, seem a little over stated.

However as you say it is all done in a democratic way.

We will have to hope things change and the people funding Isis stop.

We also have to ask ourselves why so many people are seeming to support this group of thugs.

Differences of religion or race should not prevent a humanitarian response .

Maggie all I'm saying they seem oblivious to reason I do agree with most of the things you say,honestly but I believe in a group of who

Rule on fear without negotiations should be brought to justice by what every means possible..

With any negotiation the only imperative is that BOTH sides are open to compromise.  Clearly, IS doesn't want to do this as their objective is the creation of a caliphate AT ANY COST.  So what are we left with?  War, that's what.

Symptoms,exactly

And just in time for the General Election...Didn't Maggie pull that stunt with the Falklands!!!

Kieth the argy's didn't cut your head off but I know we're your coming from..

How do we know that Tony?  They chucked plenty of folks, opponents of the Junta, out of helicopters into the South Atlantic, raped men and women, snatched kiddies off their parents and gave them away to supporters, tortured 1000s.  Maybe they did do more extreme stuff but they couldn't broadcast it live back then.

 

All humans are capable of some astonishingly cruel and barbaric behaviour.