Maybe they'll realise that gutting the armed forces wasnt the brightest of ideas afterall.

Im hoping parliament votes it down.

I remember the no to war in 2003 before Iraq, surprised it isnt the same with Syria. I saw on the BBC that the mood is crap in the UK.

I would disagree that Syria has nothing to do with fossil fuels, given that it ispart of a proposed route for natural gas from Qatar/SA to Europe. Given that this would lower prices and increase volume in line with the EU intent to diversify awayy from Russian gas I would think this plays a part in Russias position.

I dont think most people want a war but its obvious we feel we need to do something here, and I'm not sure that the WMDs weren't fired for the purpose of dragging outside part ies into the war. Given how Obama said it was the red line, he has to do something or the US is shown as a paper tiger, much how Russia is generally seen but on a larger scale, strongest of the Great Powers as opposed to the Lone Superpower.

If we genuinely want to solve this and start this week, it nessesitates a ground campaign and occupation. Standoff bombardment like in Libya would crush Assasd and strengthen the rebels relatively and I would be disgusted by NATO if thats the plan. Take out the anti air and the known WMD depots, though a smart move would be to keep them kobile at this point. If SA wants Syria fixed beyond that then it would need to commit its own forces. We already know throuh the cable leaks that they lean heavily on the US to strike at Iran, so they are not some innocents pulled into this.

This could in a worst case be the big one that kicks off the Arab/Persian war again like the Iran/Iraq war if this is mismanaged, and something is going on in the background to distort logic to the current conclusions.

I'm sadly resigned to a lot (more) needlessly lost lives whilst various people make hay by wrecking the world.

Unrelated but good to know you're still around Silens, havent seen you on the boards for quite a while.

Heres something hot off the press from Jpost about all this.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Sources-West-tells-opposition-that-Syria-strike-coming-in-days-324411

And the facepalm quote.



Asked by whom? The heart eating jihadis who are slaughering shia, druze, kurd and christian and alawite en masse? Oh and the Sunnis who dont agree with them.

Captain Lawrence Oates may have had it right when he gave up his life for Scott and the others.

To say "im just going outside, i maybe gone sometime" sounds mighty appealing in all this madness.

Aye but we have the bases on Cyprus, well within strike range of the RAF. Hopefully reactivating units wont be so tricky as much of the cuts havent bitten yet and need only scrap them, offer reinstatement and bring assets out of mothballs.

Worst thing is the lack of Harriers, we've been caught with our trousers down, now we pay the price and hopefully rearm, ditching the JSF in favour of Navalised Typhoons or whatever we can operate as a stopgap. We cant rely on Trident as our insurance policy all the time.

The UK military is at rock bottom. Most of the highly experienced squaddies have either left or been sacked. The only airpower our fleet has are sea Lynx, merlins and seakings. We do have the best air defence ships in the world but they cant defend an entire fleet alone. Some of our armoured regiments dont even have any tanks.

We have not been this vulnerable for the last 500 years.

Boots on the ground would result in a 3 way clustershag between NATO forces, Assads armies and those moderate freedom loving rebels who are in no way linked to any terrorist groups, no sir.

Boots on the ground would result in a 3 way clustershag between NATO forces, Assads armies and those moderate freedom loving rebels who are in no way linked to any terrorist groups, no sir.

Last time something like that happened that i can think of is maybe WW1 with Lawrence stirring up the arab tribes that started this whole bloody mess to begin with.

12 years of war will do that to an Army.

Its disgusting that they bailed out the bankers and didnt do f all for the army than a paltry pay raise.

Too much is wasted on "procurement tours" (read massive overfunded bloated defence contracts) by whitehall civvies who are basically on a massive bender.

Absolutely sickening.

I thought governments were meant to represent the people? Not force them down a route of death and retaliation.