Oh my dear God. Those children in Allepo!

We are where we are with Syria and the truth is nobody knows how different the situation would be had Parliament voted in favour of taking action against Assad in 2013. Cameron passionately told us what was happening but the Libya/Iraq/Afghanistan wars have made the UK naturally cautious. None the less we stood back and did nothing.

Not my favourite politician but Paddy Ashdown amongst the voices of many others said this after the vote against Cameron in 2013.

"50 years trying to serve my country I have never felt so depressed [or] ashamed".

He later told the BBC that by doing nothing President Assad will use chemical weapons more "those weapons will become more commonplace in the Middle East battlefield" and "we will feel the effects of that as well".

How right those voices have proven to be.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23892783

Good post POGS.

I tell you what, why not just do what everyone else wants and bomb them to bits.
We can sslook at lots more photos of kids and say how awful and continue allowing Assad to barrelbomb Aleppo to bits.

A brilliant idea, don't you all think.
He'll kill all the White Helmets as well while he's about it.
Bomb all the hospitals, destroy what houses there are left.

www.iamsyria.org/

Without donations the White Helmets would not exist. Who do you think buys those helmets, buys the food, buys the medical equipment after the hospitals have been bombed yet again?

whoiskillingciviliansinsyria.org/

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

And who the fuck advocated bombing them anyway?

Stupid post.

And stuff your bloody links.

Does getting that angry help the children in Aleppo?
No.
Does this thread?
Not on its own, but the links might help.
So what would, in your opinion?

What does we have an army and yet are doing nothing mean?

At least we're talking about it. It's been pushed to the back of minds too long.
It's never at the back of my mind

But I think the UK cannot go rushing in and attacking - who do you attack? Daesh? Assad? The Russians? Rebel groups?

Perhaps you can remind me why the West celebrated the capture and killings of those other tyrants out there. Did we just run out of steam when ww got round to Syria?
The answer is probably yes and that we should never have meddled in Middle Eastern politics, much of the reasoning based on lies and half-truths.
Where there is a vacuum, it is filled by warring factions and particularly by IS and other extremists.

The Kurds receive air support from U.S., Canada, British and French. However, Turkey is fighting the Kurds.

Russia may be supporting Assad but claims to be against IS.

We could not send in the British Army to sort things out, it is far too complicated.
The United Nations seem to be impotent as far as this is concerned and their peacekeeping efforts elsewhere do not always go to plan.

This is not something new, this has been going on for years but it does seem to be escalating.

If Jingl or anyone else had the answer to that, things would not be as they are.
Your post of 14.40.53 djen was out of line.

This is the only "social media" platform I use. I'm using it for this. That OK with you?

If "boots on ground" had gone in years ago, this wouldn't be happening now. And, yes. I think the armies of the western world should go in and stop this. What's that about 'evil flourishing when good men do nothing'?

Russia may be supporting Assad but claims to be against IS.
That doesn't make sense, sorry.
Russia is supporting Assad, claiming to be against IS but Assad is fighting anyone and everyone he perceives to be against him.

As I said before, he is committing genocide and no-one seems able to stop him, least of all those well-meaning 'useful idiots' in my link above:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/05/british-peers-and-priests-accused-of-chatting-with-mass-murderer/

Best ignored I think.

My heart break every time I see these poor children and then I get very angry when I remember this is all down to power-crazy men.

To be fair I do believe Russia's intention is to wipe out the rebels and put Assad back firmly in power, and then fight IS together with them. Who knows whether that would work? Maybe it would. But this wicked collateral damage is beyond the pale. There has to be another way.

I can't ignore it.
All I can do is help those people who managed to escape in a very little way, nothing compared to people like this:

David Nott:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/david-nott-interview-war-surgeon-reveals-how-healthcare-workers-are-being-targeted-in-syria-a6831646.html
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3647625/The-quiet-hero-humbles-s-NHS-surgeon-risks-life-deadly-zones-Queen-selflessness-taken-heavy-toll.html

davidnottfoundation.com/

politicalscrapbook.net/2016/09/watch-how-mps-are-trying-to-absolve-saudi-arabias-killing-spree-so-we-can-sell-them-more-arms/

Stop selling arms to the middle east, particularly Saudi.
Unfortunately some of our MPs do not want to because it could mean losing jobs.

Saudi now want to side with Assad as Russia is being persuaded to oppose Assad.
We should most definitely stop selling weapons to Saudi.

Jalima I didn't mean ignore the horrible situation. Several posts appeared between mine and the subject of that statement.

It ought to have read 'ignore her'.

Yes, do ignore me. Ignore me saying that selling arms is a bad idea, stopping the supply of arms to Saudi is a good idea, helping the White Helmets is a good idea.
Definitely ignore all that, and just carry on saying how sad it all is, and we should have had soldiers being killed there instead.
Assad doesn't care who he kills. He'll kill British soldiers as well as his own civilians.

And being acid to someone who found the situation unbearable helps a lot, does it, dj? Well, it may help you feel better to castigate other posters for not doing exactly what YOU would have done or posted exactly what YOU would have posted, but all it achieves is to make them feel punished and antagonised as well as despairing in the face of such atrocities - neither does it help the children, or indeed anyone else. It just exhibits your certainty that you are the only person out of thousands on this forum who cares enough to try to take action.

For crying out loud, can't you reply in any other way but critically, carpingly, grumpily, diminishingly, dyspeptically, whatever the subject?

The white helmets were there, jingl.
They do not want us to bomb them any more. What do you think our army should be doing?

Can you explain what was wrong with that comment, Elegran?

I am sure - in fact, I know - that there are others on this forum who have taken action to help. Nowhere have I said that I am the only one to do it, so why do you say that?
What's wrong with putting a link up for others who might want to?

OH NO!!! I can't believe those silly people at HQ have deleted one of my posts on this thread.

This site is impossible. Normal human feelings are not allowed. It's just ridiculous.

It's obviously a forum for infants.

Someone seems to have their finger on the 'report' button quite a lot these days...

@shelteredlives