This is kind of a throwaway line. Did you have something more to say? Any stats to corroborate that he is a butcher of women and children worse than the scum who sold tens of thousands of Yazidi girls into slavery after butchering (literally) their brothers and fathers?

He should try the same angle on Brexit in a pub in Romford or Shefield.

What other reason could he possibly have to keep propping up the regime, the only result has been condemnation and poor refugees fleeing the place causing huge rows between European governments..

He gets access to the Med in an arc down from the Caspian Sea. Becauase although Ukraine is weak my friend, a sitting duck, he still has to navigate the Bosphorous under the beady eyes of Johnny Turk.

That's a pretty gross misunderstanding, or misrepresentation of what has been going on in Syria.

He does not like to see the good doctor being bullied by the cruel West and her Israeli, Saudi and Turkish allies... He is a true democrat and a fair man...

So you are not even going for an "Assad is also a prick" line, but are a fully paid up member of the "Assad is the good guy" camp.

There isnt even any point sbowing you evidence is there - you will have seen it all before and dismissed it as lies, misinformation and western false flags.

I respect that you put yourself on the line but your political views are pretty clear. You think the thread about Saudi relaxing women's dress codes wasn't transparent? As well as your links to the corrupt Barzani regime? No thanks man. Not interested in what you have to say there.

how long would I have to give them to find Syria on a map ?

https://medium.com/@zacharygeorgenajari ... 200df8909d

"The 51st State".

Ja. Strange things abound on this earth ...

Good grief, what a bizarre response. Your imagination about my supposed political stance is way off base, and even then still utterly irrelevant to your glossing over of the atrocities occurring in Syria. At least you confirmed that you're utterly close minded about this, no point in wasting any more time on you.

You regularly posted Rudaw links, what is anyone supposed to think? I don't think you're a bad guy at all, I have told you in the past how much I admire what you do. But ME political analysis? Sorry, no, it comes from an all too predictable place.

And if I'm wrong TG, tell me how wrong you think Saudi action in Yemen, interference in Lebanon, and antagonism toward Iran is. As well as the lie that Iranian militias were the cause of Kurdistan's independence collapse rather than Barzani's greed.

Give me one indication that you're even remotely openminded about hearing a response, because you're so keen on reading so damn much into Rudaw links (FFS!) that engaging with you on this seems utterly pointless.

FTR: Saudi is a pack of arseholes for what they've done to Yemen. Saudi influence/interference throughout the region is a cancer, and Barzani is a plum. There. Do you believe a word of it? Probably not, but at least we aren't discussing your attempts to whitewash the atrocities committed on Syrian civilians by Assad& Co, are we.

I'm glad you agree they're all shitbags. Which is why their enemy Assad shouldn't go anywhere.

The enemy of my enemy is a f**king appalling foreign policy.

Are you able to at least state that Assad is also a shitbag for his horrendous indiscriminate attacks on civilians, or are you going to continue to attempt to deflect this? C'mon, your turn.

If we could turn back the clock, we shouldn't have deposed Gaddafi and probably Hussein. So while no one is trying to whitewash what Assad has done, he is a more reliable leader in the region than anyone who would fill the vacuum after another "Mission Accomplished" fuckup (Trump actually tweeted that a few days ago ).

I know we agree that Bolton needs to go, and I genuinely hope your job doesn't get any more dangerous as a result of his actions.

We should leave dictators that murder their own populations with chemical weapons just to carry on ?

So no. You can't say anything bad about Assad for slaughtering civilians. At least we know where you're coming from now.

Moving on, it appears that NeoCon Classic - John Bolton wanted to launch a massive bombing raid. Thanfully Mattis (the bloke with actual combat experience) was the voice of reason.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-seek ... 1523651589

if you can't access that one,.. try ... Vox. (Sorry)

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/4/16/172 ... ump-bolton

Libya has been utterly disastrous for Europe (and Libya, and most of all the poor sub-Saharan migrants who end up there). I definitely won't want anyone who disagrees in government.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-liby ... SKBN1GX1JY

Good article. Posted it earlier.

The poor sub Saharan migrants that reach Libya are the middle class and wealthy in the countries they come from.

Agree with this, the amount of garbage for sale over Syria is astounding.

Anyone remember the lesbian blogger in Damascus who went missing with security forces closing in on her home only to turn out to be an American man Tom McMaster in Glasgow. That narrative although complete lies filled the press back in 2011 when the head choppers paid by their gulf Arab sponsors were pouring into Syria to infiltrate the protests, cause riots and onto their real work sending Syria back to the dark ages.

If Qatar couldn't get the gas pipeline to Europe through Syria because of the regime, then the regime had to go. Problem for the gulf Arabs and Turkey was Russia had a naval base there and doubled down because it likes to be able to write its own cheques selling gas into Europe as well as its warm water naval base.

You agree with his gross mischaracterisation of me? fudge, I hope not.
His suspiciously selective memory for anything he could remotely misconstrue as anti-Assad is actually a little concerning. His refusal to say a single word against Assad for killing civilians indiscriminately is more concerning.

I read a good article about Bolton, which may have been posted on this forum. The gist was never served, happy to offer up other peoples children, is all for breaking things with no clue how to fix them. Lacks nuance. Spot on imo.

Sorry man, you do good work.

I agree with Bones the BS the public are supposed to swallow in this quagmire is astounding

The star's didn't align for Bolton's people, looks like Trump played him well. Bolton (who is a lot more dangerous than Trump) will be gone long before Trump.

Ok, go on then...what’s the alternative?

https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulBrandITV ... 48/video/1


Makes sense.

Corbynistas make fantastic telly.

I’m not looking for a fight here but I think it’s fair to say that even a frightful barrow-boy like Bimbo would know more about Syria than the guys who buy freedom-fries.

You're good man. But Syria is on all our radars now, and with smart phones and social media everyone has access to info they didn't necessarily during Iraq 1 & 2. We have seen this movie before.

Fair enough.

I also don’t think this is a uniquely US phenomenon. Guys are sitting bars all over the world doing something similar.

She sounds exactly like the guy from the Life of Brian

Vox Pop is truly the worst type of journalism and is all prevalent nowadays.

Oh for the days when that reporter would have followed up with a question about Harold Shipman or similar.

Is f**king frkightening that people prefer to believe hostile propaganda on FB than their own governemnt. And that they think that fabricated, bullshitting memes somehow give them the 'bigger picture' rather than obfuscating the truth as they are designed to do

Why don't you report him ?

There is a class one from Sky or ITV from Brexit where Vince from Hull starts shiteing on about this and that and then really gets going about Scotland 'we should build a fence and they can get the Euro and all that....I thought Scotland was part of England and they don't want to be.'

He was this tyre fitter and was so self assured wearing these fúcking stupid designer glasses in his big oily outfit. It is exactly how I imagine bimbo only bimbo isn't doing any actual work

FB memes? This is a pretty cliched argument. The people sharing those seem to mostly be Baby Boomers like Taranaki Snapper. I use Twitter to follow some independent media (who probably have better records when fact-checked than some mainstream sources). That's about it. Imagine being a big enough doofus to still trust people like Brian Williams on Syria after all that has transpired in recent years.