To wonder how all the people wearing the French flag on FB feel now they've bombed Syria?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

So..."everyone" popped a French flag on their FB profile in sympathy with Paris.

Now France has shot over there and dropped 20 bombs on ISIS HQ and training centre.

So...people are happily condoning war really.

Why not all change profile pics to a peace sign?

I know ISIS are bad...but as we all say, violence solves nothing. Nothing.

Normally I'm in the give peace a chance camp, but as Mephistopheles says above, I don't fancy being executed because I'm an atheist, or having my gay friends chucked off a building. Or my children being indoctrinated with religious sickness.

There are some moral lines you do not cross. Isis are so far beyond them that it's horrifying.

So my opinion is, unashamedly, Nuke them from orbit.

And the sooner their Saudi bankers /ideological backers go bankrupt, the better. Renewable energy now please, so we're not beholden to wahabi dark age nut jobs any more.

Thankfully, they've pissed Russia off, and Putin seems a little less, shall we say... Wishy washy in dealing with people like this.

I have no problem with it.

Indeed evil: sadly Daish is a death cult. They are a whole order of difference to your average terrorist. And what is particularly frightening is that among these psychopaths are many highly educated, trained and well brainwashed people. Imagine what they could do if they get the capability to produce chemical or biological warfare……

Perhaps the OP would like to send Jeremy Corbyn to meet them and spread some peace and love?

Not sure where you have been lately but in the past few months ISIS are responsible for massacring elderly and teenage people on a beach in Tunisia, blowing an airplane out of the sky and now killing over 130 young people in their city. This, alongside with all the other barbaric things they have done and are still doing. ISIS are actually now as bad as it can get. I would put them on par with the atrocities that the Nazi's did during the 2nd World War.

WRT WWII the Germans ultimately surrendered when they knew they were losing. ISIS won't ever do that as they are more than happy to blow themselves up to take us with them. I don't like war or any kind of violence but I now think that ISIS need to be exterminated.

OP are you coming back to post something other than a pointless quote?

To fundamentally change this situation, Jeremy Corbyn (sent by the OP or otherwise, grimble) would have to go back in time to the point at which we (e.g., UK, US) began to fund, train and promote as strategic "enemies" the people who would later become ISIS. This is all so profoundly depressing, in so many ways. So many people dead. So many bereaved families. So many more on the way. So much greed and self/national justification.

I have no problem with France bombing Daesh (I'm not going to call them IS - they're not a fucking state - and I really wish the leaders of the free world would stop giving them the title they want for themselves).

France was bombing them before Friday and appeasement doesn't work. Bomb the fuckers! Wipe them off the face of the planet! In the past two weeks they've downed a plane full of holiday makers, they've bombed Beirut, and they've used machine guns and suicide bombs on the streets of Paris. Are you really suggesting OP that we all stand around weeping and do nothing? Doing nothing has led to this situation. Now is the time for action.

Anothereffing: for the record I agree about the trouble making the West indulges in in the Middle East. I was bitterly opposed to the Iraq war, for example.

But we are where we are now and hand-wringing over the West's numerous past mistakes won't change that.

"Thankfully, they've pissed Russia off, and Putin seems a little less, shall we say... Wishy washy in dealing with people like this."

Right. That's why Russia bombed 7 hospitals in a part of Syria NOT occupied by ISIS.

Russia haven't started bombing Syria to stop ISIS, but to keep Assad in power, so that Russia can maintain its strategic naval base in Lattakia.

And before anyone claims it's a good thing to try and keep Assad in power, the Assad regime, not only helped to create ISIS, they are also responsible for the majority of civilian deaths and the cause of most people fleeing Syria.

We live in France. I haven't bothered to change my Facebook picture, but I'd say I have never supported Hollande more. Bomb away!

There have been many attacks here in France, whether we bomb them or not. Perhaps we need to show them they cannot continue without retaliation.

You're probably right about hand-wringing, grimble. But we do need to accept that we partly created (and continue to create) these enemies, and we are now perpetuating the killing. What we do with this, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure that ignoring it and getting on board with the retaliation is not the right way to go.

ISIS are actually pretty weak. There was a good piece about this on Australian TV.

As others have said - one effective way to stifle their operations would be to cut off their funding.

Another would be to treat people better in western countries so they don't feel like outsiders. Paris may be very multicultural, but when I stayed there with some Iranians (admittedly a few years ago) it was also very racist.

ISIS are terrorists - this means they fight their battles through fear, not through strength of arms etc. It is pretty unlikely that the Paris attack was part of some masterplan, some extremists blew people up, and ISIS took credit - this is part of their masterplan - to take credit for any attack, however small to make them seem omnipresent and all powerful.

They are also trying to create a black and white, them and us scenario. Bombing Syria may take out a couple of ISIS people but it will also persuade a lot of the "greys" that the West is bad.

Laugh at ISIS - don't take them seriously. They are an incredibly small number of religious extremists that should be denied the oxygen of publicity. They are in no position to take over the world and, unless western governments behave very foolishly, never will be.

Russia has been bombing Assad opposition who is also fighting IS.

It would have been a lot smarter to to bomb IS and deal with the opposition later. What on earth is the point of trying to eradicate IS opposition on the ground?

Laugh at ISIS

Would you be laughing if one of your loved ones had died on Friday night while they were eating dinner, having a drink with friends, attending a rock concert? Because I sure as hell wouldn't be.

TBH I think part of the problem is that the west haven't taken daesh seriously enough. Yes, they're a small group, but just look at the carnage they've created. They've beheaded people and posted the videos online, downed an airliner, bombed cities far from where they're based, and they're inspiring terrorists across the world. I agree that cutting off their funding should be a major part of suppressing them. Doing something about their media presence would be an idea too. But the west has underestimated them enough. Time to shut them down, once and for all.

ISIS are terrorists - this means they fight their battles through fear, not through strength of arms etc. It is pretty unlikely that the Paris attack was part of some masterplan, some extremists blew people up, and ISIS took credit - this is part of their masterplan - to take credit for any attack, however small to make them seem omnipresent and all powerful

Im not sure I understand what you are saying - are you saying the Paris attacks were not carried out by Isis?

Oh and lest we forget, they've murdered and raped their way across Syria and Iraq, including the rape of children. I'm sorry, but I'm not laughing. Maybe if you're in Australia you feel far enough removed to find this funny, but I don't.

I have no problem with it, none at all.

Laugh at ISIS - don't take them seriously

FFS, thats possibly the most offensive thing Ive seen on here in a long time....yes lets all laugh as they rape, torture and murder innocent people....

Our governments don't want to eradicate ISIS. They need ISIS as the "enemy". They helped to create ISIS.
What they want is to bomb Syria (at the moment).

I have only skimmed the thread but why do people persist in laying all the blame for the this on Labour Leader Blairs war in Iraq?

There are so many reasons why ISIS has kicked off and a huge massive one is the Shia and sunni divide! Which has been going on for centuries. A vacuum was created in Iraq and Syria and they exploited that.

We cant negotiate with them, they want all infidels dead. Why is this so hard to understand?

Im not sure I understand what you are saying - are you saying the Paris attacks were not carried out by Isis?

Depends how you define ISIS? It is unljkey that there is somewhere a group of ISIS leaders who planned the Paris attacks. The people carried them out may have identified with ISIS, and ISIS certainly took credit, but the people on the ground in Paris may not have had "orders" etc.

TBH I think part of the problem is that the west haven't taken daesh seriously enough. Yes, they're a small group, but just look at the carnage they've created.

Most of the carnage they have created is in Syria, and they can only do that because it is in a state of such chaos. Yes, terrorist attacks are awful, and horribke, and unforgivable - but if you look at the numbers of.people dying every day they are not actually all that significant.

ISIS is very very good at self-promotion and using social media, but they really arent that significant in the big scheme of things. Yes, they need to be dealt with but they really arent going to take over the world.

Isis wants to spread fear and chaos and they might not be about to take over the world but they have now three days of coverage and have caused fear and chaos - therefore they have succeeded in their mission on friday

'Laugh at Isis'

I'm finding it a bit difficult to say the least, to see anything to laugh at right now.

However, us Brits (and Aussies too) have a great history at poking fun of their enemies. We did it with Hitler, lots of great rude songs about him were sang around the piano during the war. Nobody was laughing at the atrocities he was carrying out, or the victims of the bombings. It's just a mechanism to make the enemy seem less scary.

It was discussed on a R4 programme I caught part of - good for morale.

It's a tactic ISIS particularly hate too - hence the Charlie Hebdo shootings.

Laugh at ISIS - don't take them seriously

Because crap advice on how to deal with school playground bullying is obviously also applicable to a bunch of frothing nihilists who behead journalists with breadknives and kidnap 12-year-olds to use as sex slaves.

no problem at all. hope they took the bastards out.