1-3. It must’ve been a typo.
I may need to edit this within the next 45 minutes. It’ll be a typo again, not my lack of knowledge about past or future events. Honest.
Edit: Yes, the score.
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This isn’t about Syria directly. It’s about Iraq, but speaks to a problem that has dogged most of the West’s foreign policy interventions.
The reasons for doing so are simply unbelievable, requiring you to suspend your levels of disbelief and live in a world of black and white, good and evil.
Before I introduce the link, recall how the basic assumption and fear about Iran getting the bomb was that it’d press the red button as soon as their death platform was fully armed and operational. It defies common sense and sixty odd years of understanding the term mutually assured destruction.
This is a piece in the Indy, which says that US ideas about Saddam were wrong. This is according to John Nixon, the man that interrogated him.
According to Mr Nixon, writing in the Mail on Sunday, the former dictator’s reply was: “We never thought about using weapons of mass destruction. It was not discussed. Use chemical weapons against the world? Is there anyone with full faculties who would do this? Who would use these weapons when they had not been used against us?”
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The choice in Syria is to support the legitimate government, or to support the opposition who would replace them, ie, Al Qaeda/ Al Nusra head chopping jihadists. It is clear that, shamefully, our governments in the West would prefer the head choppers. The question that Ted and his supporters of the head choppers must answer is this. Because, make no mistake, the only alternative to Assad is head chopping Jihadists. There can be no doubt about this. So come on Ted Maul, why do you support these people? You are either terminally naive, or you are a supporter of head chopping Jihadists. Which is it?
I would argue that there is plenty of doubt given the amounts of misinformation and propaganda there is flying about. Given that most people will get their news from the mainstream media and that they’re reporting things differently to what you’re saying, then there is clearly, very obviously doubt. You posting that Ted (and those who support the rebels) are either in favour of “head chopping jihadists” or are “naive” is not particularly helpful.
Peter Hitchens in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday.
In the past few days we have been bombarded with colourful reports of events in eastern Aleppo, written or transmitted by people in Beirut (180 miles away and in another country), or even London (2,105 miles away and in another world). There have, we are told, been massacres of women and children, people have been burned alive.
The sources for these reports are so-called ‘activists’. Who are they? As far as I know, there was not one single staff reporter for any Western news organisation in eastern Aleppo last week. Not one.
…
When I used to travel a lot in the communist world, I especially hated the fact that almost every official announcement was a conscious lie, taunting the poor subjugated people with their powerlessness to challenge it.
I would spend ages twiddling dials and shifting aerials to pick up the BBC World Service on my short-wave set – ‘the truth, read by gentlemen’ – because it refreshed the soul just to hear it. These days the state-sponsored lies have spread to my own country, and to the BBC, and I tell the truth as loudly as I can, simply because I cannot hear anyone else speaking it. If these lies go unchallenged, they will be the basis of some grave wrong yet to come.
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Turkey, NATO member and alleged beneficiary from ISIS activities, breaks ranks and has trilateral talks with Russia and Iran.
Huge.
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The Mail’s daily checklist -
Slag off migrants.
Insult Muslims.
Admire a celebrity’s clothes.
Attack the BBC.
Peddle some hate.
Abuse benefit cheats.
Something about cancer cures or causes.
It’s not just The Mail. There is a distinct absence of news coming out of Syria since the Western backed “Rebels” defeat in Aleppo. It’s almost as though the whole thing is being swept under the carpet. “Rebels” torch the buses provided for evacuation? Not news. Aleppo residents celebrate the end of fighting? Not news.
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I read the Daily Markle every week when I visit my Mum.
And still nothing in any of the MSM about the US coalition officers captured in Aleppo, a complete news blackout on that. Yet the Syrian Ambassador to the UN read the names and nationalities out. US, Israeli, British, French, Saudi etc, all embedded with the Al Nusra headchoppers. The MSM have lost any credibility they may have had over their coverage of the Syrian regime change attempt.
There are some good journalists on the ground in Syria though, 21st century wire has live updates from Syria, there are others too. Exposing the lies we in the West have been fed over the past few years. The contempt our so called governments, in our so called democracies have, for the people they are supposed to be representing, is staggering.
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I’ve heard both of those reported on the Today programme on Radio 4. Their main reporter, Lyse Doucet, has been pretty good in reporting both sides of the sotry, inasmuch as that is possible.
It does strike me that there is an awful lot of polarisation here. To some Assad’s regime is the embodiment of evil, and all those opposing it are heroic freedom fighters; to others the regime is essentially OK and all those who oppose it are terrorists. The truth, as ever, is somewhere in between. Assad’s regime is and has been brutal towards opponents, but is probably no worse (if any worse) than many other regimes in the region. Some of the opposition fighters are indeed jihadists, but by no means all of them.
A military victory for Assad will not be the end of this; there is far too much opposition within Syria (not all of it head-lopping jihadists) for that to be the case.
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some scary stuff regarding US Congress proposals to curb ‘alternative’ media narratives here.
Hence we should stay well out of anything to do with the Middle East full stop bar business, politics is their business quite rightly.
I have to ask Fowlly to the D, has one weighed the trilateral talks into one’s thinking? I’d have agreed with your last point, but as I said last night, Turkey’s involvement is huge.
The regime has long been alleged to be funneling ISIS money out of the region. If those reports are half accurate, that’s going to give their collective efforts a lot of heft, and that’s before you consider whatever beans Turkey spills on wider Western plans.
And let’s remember the immediate context. A Russian ambassador was assassinated by a Turkish agent of state. He may have been acting on his own, but that takes time to establish. The very next day, these tri-party talks were announced, pretty much the last thing you’d expect.
Originally posted by @Fatso
To those attacking Ted…I’m not sure how useful that really is. None of us really know whats going on. It’s an incredibly confusing situation. I’m listening to all sides and reading all sorts but it’s very hard to know what the full truth is. The problem with the mocking tone of those replying to Ted is that (1) it’s unlikely to make him want to listen to you or the alternative news reports (2) SoS (and this is not a personal attack as I respect you), you cannot believe that woman based on your view that “she seems intelligent and genuine”. I’m not saying I disbelieve her, in fact, I probably do, but there is no guarantee that she is telling the truth,
The organisation that is mentioned in those reports, the US Peace Council, is not an organisation without controversy. Again, difficult to know the full truth, but here is a link that says they were founded by the US communist party and there are others that describe Soviet/Russian influence.
To sum up…I don’t know what the truth is but I’m not prepared to blindly believe anyone, regardless of the angle they take. This is something that I am going to have to hold my hands up to and say “I don’t know”. You don’t always have to be an expert in everything (not aimed at anyone), it is acceptable to just not know.
Thanks mate, I’ll be staying away from anything too poitically contentious. I’m only concerned that now looked down upon Mainstream Media is under threat from a load of bullshit, unsubtantiated and untrue conspiracy theory shit on the internet, it’s lapped up as truth if it fits in with your worldview. You can link to anything. I could create a website proving the Earth was flat, with a few graphics. It means nothing. I’ve worked for 20 years in the mainstream News and that’s what annoys me … sorry. I work with so many people who are just really smart hard working people with no editorial agenda.
God bless your inability to quote and endless promises to stay away from political/controversial threads.
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Originally posted by @Fatso
God bless your inability to quote and endless promises to stay away from political/controversial threads.
I just dislike people criticising the integrity of BBC, ITN and SKY news people. Mainstream media and the fact they all conspire to have a political agenda. Sorry, it’s just wrong
God bless your inability to quote and endless promises to stay away from political/controversial threads.
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I can’t help myself
Why didn’t you like Anomalisa?