Confirmed humanitarian crisis. Thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered in cilil war. Any similarities with Libya ? Any rush by the west to help ? I suppose cocoa beans are not as important as oil.
First of all the UN is getting involved and trying to stop the killing of civilians. Air strikes have been called in by the UN. Secondly, we do not have a situation where a dictator is using a vast array of modern weaponry to slaughter his own mostly unarmed people.
[cite]Posted By: Red_in_SE8[/cite]First of all the UN is getting involved and trying to stop the killing of civilians. Air strikes have been called in by the UN. Secondly, we do not have a situation where a dictator is using a vast array of modern weaponry to slaughter his own mostly unarmed people.
Correct. We have instead a situation where one dictator and one potential dictator are using a vast array of low tech weaponry to slaughter each others' mostly unarmed people. And no oil.
Don't forget Mugabe and his cleansing of the White farmers. If anyone wants a slap it's him. However there is news being released this morning about our dreadful behaviour in I think it's Kenya. We have not been blameless in the past.
[cite]Posted By: Off_it[/cite]To be fair, the US and the UK have been itching to give Gadaffi a slap for years.
Yeah they've been fixing to take that bitch down for years
Those pictures are funny but the first is slightly unfair.
The picture with Obama was at the UN in New York, not much Obama could do to avoid that one.
The second one you have that utter chunt Blair ingratiating himself with Gaddaffi to oil the wheels for BP to strike a massive deal in Libya. Nothing in it for Tony, of course!
[quote][cite]Posted By: ShootersHillGuru[/cite]Confirmed humanitarian crisis. Thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered in cilil war. Any similarities with Libya ? Any rush by the west to help ? I suppose cocoa beans are not as important as oil.[/quote]
Just been watching a bit about it on the news. The UN already have troops there.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Red_in_SE8[/cite]First of all the UN is getting involved and trying to stop the killing of civilians. Air strikes have been called in by the UN. [/quote]
Not a fan of the last Labour govt but, Libya sponsored (paid for) a lot of terrorism around the world, particularly the IRA in NI (as well as being behind Lockerbie). On the basis that a war in Libya was out of the question diplomacy was the only answer. Gadaffi wanted out of the cold, so deals were struck over oil and the Lockerbie bomber. (I am not comfortable with either of those deals). Non support of terrorism was acheived.
Fast forward and we have the Arab spring, the new govt is very quick to choose sides and back the rebels. Now we have done that we have to continue and hope the rebels win, if not we have a wealthy pariah state on Europes borders, who can very quickly start refunding terrorism. We have to help but not to much because the Middle East is a diplomatic powder keg (probably of our own making).
All of these good/bad decisions are made on the back of good/bad decisions made stretching back years, possibly centuries. Colonialism, thirst for oil (and not developing alternatives), carving up the Middle East perhaps even the crusades. The only certain thing is that we will have to make a number of other decisions in the near future based on the decisions we make now.
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- The Karate Kid (probably)
Whatever the crisis in IC, it is nothing to do with us - either politically or historically.
Leave them to it - we have a crisis of our own here in the UK with families living on the poverty line and pensioners with their heating turned off.
Those pictures are funny but the first is slightly unfair.
The picture with Obama was at the UN in New York, not much Obama could do to avoid that one.
The second one you have that utter chunt Blair ingratiating himself with Gaddaffi to oil the wheels for BP to strike a massive deal in Libya. Nothing in it for Tony, of course!
Just been watching a bit about it on the news. The UN already have troops there.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Red_in_SE8[/cite]First of all the UN is getting involved and trying to stop the killing of civilians. Air strikes have been called in by the UN. [/quote]
This.
Fast forward and we have the Arab spring, the new govt is very quick to choose sides and back the rebels. Now we have done that we have to continue and hope the rebels win, if not we have a wealthy pariah state on Europes borders, who can very quickly start refunding terrorism. We have to help but not to much because the Middle East is a diplomatic powder keg (probably of our own making).
All of these good/bad decisions are made on the back of good/bad decisions made stretching back years, possibly centuries. Colonialism, thirst for oil (and not developing alternatives), carving up the Middle East perhaps even the crusades. The only certain thing is that we will have to make a number of other decisions in the near future based on the decisions we make now.