Rayvin

The article mentions that the MSM are being pretty quiet about this issue though, which I find a bit odd - not in any nefarious way or anything, just in the sense that you'd think this would be all over the front pages. 4000 executions..? Is that not a big deal these days?

I know - I thought about writing something facetious but then considered that the scenario was actually quite possible

Possible I guess. No idea what the MSM looks like in the Philippines but doubtless they have their tabloids calling for blood over this issue, which will be entrenching his support. Good point.

Yeah he sounds dangerously unstable. How are these people coming to power all of a sudden ffs...

How fucking long would it take to get that together. Impressive.

Oh god... can you imagine

I can't stand the guy but fucking good speech from Osborne. Totally counter to my line of thought but he's made a good case: George Osborne, the former chancellor, is speaking now, from the backbenches. (Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is responding for the government, but in a debate like this he does not have to speak at the start.) Osborne says the concept of an emergency debate suggests this has taken the Commons by surprise. But the Syrian civil war has been going on since 2011. He says MPs are “deceiving” themselves if they think they have no responsibility for what happened. What is happening came out of a vacuum - a vacuum of Western leadership. He says he takes responsibility as a former leader. And parliament must take responsibility too. He says in 2012 and 2013 there was no majority in the Commons for providing the opposition with lethal arms. And in 2013 the Commons voted against military action, even though Assad had broken a 100-year taboo and used chemical weapons. Labour’s Graham Jones asks if Osborne thinks a war in 2013 would have been winnable. Osborne says a red line had been crossed. And the vote in the Commons had an impact. It encouraged Washington to have cold feet. He says he last spoke from the backbenches in 2003, in favour of the war in Iraq. His generation of politicians knows the price of intervention. Now it has become almost impossible to intervene anywhere. But now the opposite problem has arisen. "We are beginning to learn the price of not intervening." Islamic State has emerged. And Russia has emerged as the dominant player in the region, for the first time since the 1970s, he says. "Let us be clear now. If you don’t shape the world, you will be shaped by it."

Link is broken?

I think it's a proxy war between the US and Russia but who knows.

Where do they get this nonsense from...

Well said.

Look at Syria mate, that's what 'not being friends' seems to deliver to us.

Thanks for that PL. Nice to see some balance. Really sad though...

Timely article suggesting the cold war never really ended. Which certainly seems to be the case: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/13/cold-war-never-ended-west-russia

Not sure about that. I mean, Trump himself may personally be closer to Putin as a personality but I think the bigger issue at stake here is that there is an opportunity to break away from the new cold war that was forming. He is indeed.

Under investigation for what? The Putin bit bothers me less - if the US and Russia become friendly it'll probably do the world a lot of good. Anything has to be better than what we're seeing now ffs.

Just read the reports on this in detail. Sounds utterly horrifying. Assad is a total psychopath who clearly couldn't give a shit about the populace in his country. This US-Russia bollocks is getting fucking old tbh, it's wrought only devastation wherever it rears its head. How is Assad going to unify the country after this ffs. How are the people who carried this out going to live with themselves. I'm half tempted to suggest that Russia may as well absorb the fucking place because anything that Syria once was, it surely no longer is.

Yes, doesn't make sense to lose him even if we're anticipating bringing in better quality in the summer.

I don't want a socialist utopia though, I want a pragmatic and effective state that doesn't put corporate interests and the super wealthy ahead of those at the bottom. I want a return to social mobility, better standards of education and, if I could have everything, greater expenditure in the sciences. Hardly socialism 101. I'm not far left ffs, I just don't believe the centre is in any way interested in achieving these things.

I'm sure the centre will sweep back to power again one day off the back of a compelling vision of mediocrity and general beigeness.

Have you flagged this up to demonstrate that the far left are backing Russia following my discussions with Gloom? If so, thanks - it's useful to see. I take the point.

Fair point actually. I think it spills into the Trump thread because the issue has become global rather than UK only, but sure, happy to continue in here instead.

Good post - the Trump v China thing is going to be fascinating. If he makes friends with Russia, the Chinese are going to feel really isolated.