Shemima Begum

Money should be directed to the citizens to help rebuild that country.
Who is going to be in charge of the country will surely take a long time to decide - unless it is decided already - which means they are back to where they were six years ago but with a devastated country to rebuild. Who will administer the money if it is forthcoming?

The least the international community could do is ensure that the Kurds have their own safe independent homeland.

Totally agree about the Kurdish homeland Jalima. Without the male and female Kurdish fighters ISIS would still be around.

Turkey treats them abominably even bombing their bases.

I will never forget when Saddam Hussein drove Iraqi Kurds out after attacking many of them with chemicals; they were climbing through the mountains - often without shoes. Then driven out by Iran, now persecuted by Turkey and by Assad.

Such a brave people.

That'll be the same Saddam Hussein we installed and supplied with weapons because we wanted him to deal with Iran would it? Then we fell out with him and went into Iraq to displace him. Our record in that area continues to be appalling.
And the first person to use chemical weapons against the Kurds was Winston Churchill. We still oppose an independent Kurdish state.
The UK did not support the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum. In April 2018 the government responded to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s report Kurdish aspirations and the interests of the UK, setting out its support for a united federal Iraq
And we expect them to deal with our home grown terrorists

we interfere at our peril.

Well, who was it who encouraged the Arab Spring?

Yes, that’s the same Saddam. We certainly poke our noses in and so do the US. We are still harking back to the days of the Empire and colonialism.....we know what’s best for everyone.

The Good Guys with Guns versus the Bad Guys with guns?

Too true. We learn from history that we never learn from history.

trisher signed petition. Thanks for posting it. I do think SB should be brought home to face justice and possible even rehabilitation. Brainwashed and groomed young people could still have their lives turned round and it would be far safer having her here, whether in custody or other appropriate detention and care, bearing in mind that this young woman, however abhorrent her statements to date ,has experienced horrors we know little if anything about. It would help our understanding of how grooming happens and maybe prevent others going down the same dangerous route, shattering families and lives. It just makes a lot of sense to me to bring her back.

Absolutely, Grammaretto. Would it were otherwise.

Re bringing SB back to the UK: who will have to put their lives on the line to do that? Just because journalists have gone in to interview her, and several other IS terrorists and their supporters, doesn't mean that it will be just as easy for military personnel to go in and retrieve her. So how do you foresee that being completed?

Couldn't a journalist bring her back? (that might be a stupid question)

No they couldn't Gonegirl. She has no passport, no visa, no travel documents, no consular representative for the UK in that country to assist her. Plus, it means personnel entering a war torn country that remains incredibly dangerous. Right from the start of this, the British government has made it clear that they will not risk any military personnel going in and rescuing those who have defied advice to travel there and are now regretting it. The USA and most other western countries have said the same, not just the UK.

Those who travelled there knew the risks they were taking.

Journalists are often risking their own lives in such situations just to bring out the truth of what is happening.

It is very hard for them as they often get people begging them to help sick children etc. Many of them do what they can, but the sad thing is that if they once interfere and bring out a child to safety or give out what food they have, they are likely to be mobbed by hundreds of other desperate people or, worse, held to have acted against/favoured one faction or the other and putting their own lives in danger which makes it even less likely they'll be trusted with access next time. That won't help anyone.

Around 70 journalists are killed for just doing their jobs every year worldwide - the figure was 93 last year - and there are 350 held in jail at present with four countries - China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - responsible for over half that number.

If the British Government did an about turn, passport and visa could be easily sorted. It would be a heck of a scoop for a newspaper. I can imagine the Sun making heroes out of itself.

Although I guess the Sun's readers wouldn't be too impressed.

But there is no British consulate in Syria to put the process in place with the Syrians any more. There hasn't been for many years; hence people being strongly advised not to go there in the first place because there is no assistance for them if they get into trouble. She's currently in the far northern regions of Syria, almost on the Iraqi border and that's completely and utterly destroyed. Armed military personnel have been, and continue to be, killed by barrel bombs, air strikes, land mines and crazy people with Kalashnikov rifles running amok. So how do you go in, and safely get out, a western woman who is seen as a traitor by all sides and therefore a probable target by insurgents, who has no travel documents and is hundreds of miles from the nearest relatively safe country of Turkey?

Who do you think should run those risks? A son, a brother or a grandson who is in the British army? Not one of mine thank you.

Chewbacca, I agree with you wholeheartedly. All those saying "bring her home" are you willing to go get her, or a relative of yours. I've always agreed if she can get herself to a place where we have consular arrangements then we have a duty to take her back. I do not agree with anyone being ordered to risk their life in order to rescue her from her own actions.

Sorry for the poor punctuation, there should be a question mark after the second sentence. I know some gransnetters are upset by such lapses.

The journalists report that the road is reasonably safe and they travel back and forth unchallenged. It surely wouldn't be beyond our capabilities to ask Syrian forces and /or the people running the camp to establish a system so that she could be passed along to the border where she could be collected. I don't believe it would take British troops to do it. In fact that might be the worst idea.

Bet Kate Adie could have done it.

Gonegirl
I don't think you've thought this one through.

Marie Colvin did it Gonegirl. And look what happened to her.

No, I'm pretty sure I haven't petra.