Do you think now the world has it's eyes opened to the true horror unfolding in Syria, they will now actually do something about ISIS?

[Whoknewitcouldbeso]

I know efforts are being made by some nations to try and counteract ISIS with the aid of drones and counter intelligence but I wonder if the refugee crisis may serve to instigate some direct action by more of the World's heavyweights?

I have just read the story of how Aylan's father has traveled back to Kobane to bury his family and has no intention of leaving the country again. It is his home and he was only leaving to try and save his family after 11 of his extended family were murdered by ISIS. There has been so much talk about migrants and asylum seekers and trying to help those who are fleeing, but most of these people would not be fleeing if it wasn't for the fact that they fear for their lives.

Surely we should be doing more to make their own country safe or do you think that's not possible and the only solution is to allow the ethnic cleansing to carry on taking place.

Being a janitor in a Sovereign Wealth Fund hardly qualifies you to understand what is going on.

Tickle me, tickle me, I forgot to laugh.

You wonder where I get some some knowledge of financial markets from, there was a clue, in a past life.

The Gulf countries have H-U-G-E reserves, some of that money is managed within the Gulf, shed loads more outside with all different types of fund managers - in all sorts of assets - FYI when Kuwait fell to Iraq, even the government in exile had no idea how much Kuwaiti money was being managed from a little office in the City of London, and were pleasantly surprised.

Russia may play Poker very well, but you need a financial stake to stay at the table, so the Gulf countries in financial terms can stay at that table far longer than Russia - hence Putin goes 'all in' at the start.

'You wonder where I get some some knowledge of financial markets from, there was a clue, in a past life.'

Did you go bust? Who employed you and have they learned their lesson? A Lanour luvvie who watched their taxpayer funded grants go down the Swannee? How long did you last before you had to sign on?

' you need a financial stake to stay at the table, so the Gulf countries in financial terms can stay at that table '

Again, you show your naivety of world affairs. America is the global superpower even though it is the largest indebted nation in the history of the world. The reason is because of its military might. Saudi Arabia has lots of money, but even though you say they have better planes than the Russians, their money wouldn't last 5 minutes if someone were to topple their regime.

I read tonight that China might be getting involved. Where is all this heading?

riverwalk, there are lots of reports on blogs etc that China has sent a warship over, but I don't think it is true and China have denied it. What is the latest that you read?

I don't think it is going anywhere (but I may be wrong). I think there is lots of p[osturing and complaining about the Russians not bombing the right kind or Jihadi but I don't think anything will be done to stop the Russians, Hezbollah and the Iranians because I think that secretly everyone knows that this is the way to end the war and the EU refugeee crisis.

I think secretly most leaders in the EU probably agree with what Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian, but no one can admit it in order to save face and explain why this unnecessary Jihadi war has lasted for over 4 years.

"Putin is right. Everyone knows Putin is right, that the only way forward in Syria, if not to eternal slaughter, is via the established government of Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese and Iranian allies."

I really hope you're right. I feel sick with worry tbh.

'I feel sick with worry tbh'

Absolutely no need (I am 99% sure).
Bluff has been called and that is the end of it. All parties have to calculate is it worth it. The backers of the Jihadis have backed them for 4 years and they have still failed to topple Assad, so everybody now knows that their policy failed and Russia will end it and put the EU out of its misery over the refugee crisis which is the real reason that all of a sudden everything will be concluded after 4 years of doing nothing to stop the Jihadis and their backers.

The backers of the Jihadis have backed them for 4 years and they have still failed to topple Assad, so everybody now knows that their policy failed and Russia will end it and put the EU out of its misery over the refugee crisis

Listening to you is EXACTLY like listening to Putin, I wonder why, comrade.

• "The Jihadis" are mainly made of of the 80% Sunni Syrian population the Putin/Iran backed President Assad have been attempting to kill and drive out of their homes since March 2011.

Syria: living under the horrors of barrel bombs in Aleppo
www.channel4.com/news/barrel-bombs-syria-assad-aleppo-deraa-idlib-civilian-deaths

”The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights has said around 7,000 barrel bombs have been dropped by the Syrian regime in the first five months of 2015, killing around 3,000 people - mostly civilians - and these numbers continue to rise.”

• So is there any fecking wonder Sunni Syrians, around 12 million misplaced from their homes, are flooding to the EU???

• So President Assad is not only a major part of the current problem, while he remains in power the 80% moderate Sunni Syrian population will have two choices; live under a proven Shia tyrant of a Presidential dynasty as they have done for 40-years, or JOIN the real Jihadist Sunni ISIS forces, wherever they are in Syria or neighbouring States, looking to come back home when Assad does go.

It is not in the Russia/Iran leadership DNA to understand citizens dare to have a real voice in their own future, so the prospects of those 80% of the Syrian population NOT coming back to their homes and worshipping President Assad in peace after all he has done to them - just does not occur to them.

• How many Sunni Syrians families will have at least ONE tragic story/loss at the hands of Assad?

• To a desperate many of fighting age, even joining ISIS to fight back, will be better than living under Assad again.

Well, let's wait and see what happens when it is all over and refugees return.

Amidst your face-saving, I expect an apology.You have had 40 years of studying Middle East affairs apparently and have managed tp get everything arse about face, and you say you picked up your "financial market" knowledge whilst working as a janitor in Abu Dhabi, but returned home broke after too many deals gone bad based on woeful political analysis.

"The Jihadis" are mainly made of of the 80% Sunni Syrian population"

"If it looks like a Jihadi, walks like a Jihadi, talks like a Jihadi, then it's a Jihadi"

The backers of the Jihadis have lost their 4 year war and the Jihadis are now going to be defeated and the refugees will be able to return home, and EU leaders will breathe a sigh of relief.

claig .... quoting some stupid Russia Foreign Minister's bastardisation on 'the Duck Test' can not hide the truth - and you keep quoting your, (so their) propaganda just proves Russia wants to control Syria come what may - the Sunni people of Syria had not lost their war despite huge supplies of men and weapons from Russia and Iran.

Maybe Putin can explain HOW you get 12 million displaced Syrian snuggled back up in their homes under an Assad regime, who is still trying to kill them, directly and through indiscriminate bombing of Syrian civilians.

Typical Putin lies, while denying that he was initially bombing non ISIS targets, Russian film clips back home to show what their leader is showing Russian superiority - shows that the Russians are use huge fragmentation bombs and cluster bomblets - both designed to take out whatever they are dropped on, over a very wide area.

This is very different to targeting ISIS military hardware and command and control centres.

So your Russia Daffy Duck saying he is doing exactly what the Americans/allies are doing, is yet another lie.

'Maybe Putin can explain HOW you get 12 million displaced Syrian snuggled back up in their homes under an Assad regime,'

He doesn't need to expalin the bleeding obvious because it is going to happen just as Merkel knows and wants.

'Typical Putin lies, while denying that he was initially bombing non ISIS targets'

This is media spin to save face because Putin is going to solve what the coalition was unable to solve for a year with bombing of Isis that led to Isis growing stronger and taking more territory. Now it's over and the Jihadis are going to lose. So face-saving is in order. Putin never denied he is not only bombing Isis. He is bombing Jihadis because if it walks like a Jihadi and talks like a Jihadi then it is a Jihadi backed by its backers.

'This is very different to targeting ISIS military hardware

Putin is targetting all Jihadis, all of the backed and funded ones, not just Isis.

'So your Russia Daffy Duck saying he is doing exactly what the Americans/allies are doing, is yet another lie.'

Putin is targetting all of the Jihaids, including all of the funded and backed ones, not just the ones that the US doesn't like.

Crispin Blunt, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, now saying that Assad will be part of teh longterm solution. Tory Party splits that make Corbyn's splits seem like a tea party? What happened to Cameron's "hard military force" to remove Assad "on occasion"?

Crispin Blunt, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, now saying that Assad will be part of teh longterm solution.

He is "now" saying it, after Russia started bombing, please show me the quote.

What happened to Cameron's "hard military force" to remove Assad "on occasion"?

I showed that 9 September PMQT Cameron quote/answer to Mrs Harman on the previous page, he was talking about options against ISIS and Assad in the brief terms required at PMQT - is that the best you have?

Putin tried his Ukrainian lies in Syria 'I am bombing ISIS'; who says that women don't know their left from their right.

Looking at a map of Syria, ISIS in a huge mass of Syria on the right side of the country (or West, as we say in the west, when sending in bombers) and Putin was sending ALL his bombers to the left of Syria (or East).

How dumb was that, initially pretending it could be a mistake, when they were dropping cluster and fragmentation bombs in the totally opposite direction to ISIS positions - and then saying having dropped those types of bombs - there were no civilian casualties.

That tells us , if every we needed to be reminded, what sort of person Putin is.

I would not trust anything a Russian would say, as they are all weird ducks, lying through their teeth.

'He is "now" saying it, after Russia started bombing, please show me the quote.'

He has just been on Radio 4's Today programme talking about the situation.

Putin is first helping Assad clear Jihadis out of all the areas closest to Assad and then will branch out to the desert areas where Isis are holed up. Assad and the Iranians and Hezbollah will get to Isis in the desert once they have cleared the Jihadis, Al Nusra and Al Qaeda out of the towns near Assad's current positions. Give it time, they will get all the Jihadis, all of the funded and backed ones.

Claig ... And tell me again, why you feel you need to be Putin's mouthpiece on here, when you know full well the 80% of Syrian population (Sunnis) have been at personal risk from Assad since March 2011, when they dared protest about lack of basics/40-years of oppression - and he fired on unarmed citizens?

I'm not Putin's mouthpiece. I believe in morals and ethical foreign policy. I think it is immoral to have allowed a 4 year war of assorted terrorists, Jihadis, beheading fundamentalists (who amputate the limbs of children because they refuse to joing their beheading death cult) and anti-Western religious fundamentalists to have created such destruction and devastation against a country's people, historical monuments and infrastructure that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees and which has been funded by rich Sunni backers in external countries for their own gain.

I am glad it is coming to an end and so are the EU leaders like Merkel because it will solve the refugee crisis when all the funded and backed Jihadis have been eliminated.

I think it is the beheading butchers and Jihadis who are the threat to the whole world, not Assad's UN represented government.

Only a few years back, Tony Blair wanted to recommend Assad for a knighthood. Assad is not the problem - Al Qaeda, the anti-Western Jihadis and the barbaric, butchering, beheading Isis death cult are, and they are finally going to wiped out before they can spread to Europe and elsewhere across the region.

Crispin Blunt as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has always been that Syria should not end up like Libya and Iraq, there had to be a plan to replace him and 'frank discussions' needed to take place about that - while worrying of certain legalities, I presume as that is his job to remind government of that - he does not speak for the people of Syria getting murdered by their President and his Russian/Iranian henchmen.

If Crispin Blunt has a copper bottomed solution how we shoe horn the 12 million displaced Sunni Syrians back into their homes who will never trust the Assad regime again - BEST HE SPEAKS UP - as his words carry very little weight with 80% oof the Syrian population.

Many of those fleeing Syria though are fleeing Assad not ISIS. Plenty have been interviewedo n the news saying so. As Cameron has said we are caught between a rock and a hard place and may have to do a deal with the devil Assad in order to avoid the worse of two evils ISIS.

Or we could do what I prefer and just keep out of the Middle East entirely.

I'm not Putin's mouthpiece. I believe in morals and ethical foreign policy.

So does the champion of 'the people' and democracy in the UK against a Tory government, condone indiscriminate bombing of Syrians by the president and now Russia, as I fail how to see that if you drop bombs on the populations homes - especially the types of bombs Assad and Putin have been dropping - it is anything but indiscriminate?

As Cameron has said we are caught between a rock and a hard place and may have to do a deal with the devil Assad in order to avoid the worse of two evils ISIS.

Jez, how many times, it is not UP TO US; 80% of the Syrian population either know someone who has been killed, or have been affected, by what Assad has done to them since March 2011.

If they are not happy bunnies, how can ANYONE expect them to go back just because it is both convenient, and now affecting us, via mass migration.

'he does not speak for the people of Syria getting murdered by their President and his Russian/Iranian henchmen'

No, he speaks for the British people and is a British MP who speaks common sense which is an all too rare commodity among modernisers.

'If Crispin Blunt has a copper bottomed solution how we shoe horn the 12 million displaced Sunni Syrians back into their homes who will never trust the Assad regime again - BEST HE SPEAKS UP'

Fortunately, he and Farage, are not as naive as you about foreign affairs and politics and understand that the only solution is to end the war and that means eliminating all of the beheading, butchering Jihadi fanatics. That is why he gains his knowledge from top Middle East advisers, while you picked up what little you know about the Middle East while working for 40 years as a janitor in Abu Dhabi who dabbled in "financial markets" and got handed a P45 on a plate.

'Many of those fleeing Syria though are fleeing Assad not ISIS'

They are flleing war, bombing of their neighbourhoods, no economy, no jobs, no food supplies due to the funded, backed Jihadi war against a secular government, and one whose leader Tony Blair wanted to give a knighthood to just a few years before.

'As Cameron has said we are caught between a rock and a hard place and may have to do a deal with the devil Assad'

Has he changed his tune? Just a few weeks ago he was saying "Assad has to go" and said it would need "hard military force" to remove him "on occasion". If he now says we should do a deal with Assad, then he is right.

'Or we could do what I prefer and just keep out of the Middle East entirely.'

Fortunately, no one with all their marbles listens to you. The last person who did lost their life savings listening to your "financial market" knowledge picked up in Abu Dhabi while working as a janitor in a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Many of those fleeing Syria though are fleeing Assad not ISIS.

"Many", try most, as how many aircraft and helicopters has ISIS had over the past 4-years to DROP bombs on Syrian civilians? None.

'If they are not happy bunnies, how can ANYONE expect them to go back just because it is both convenient, and now affecting us, via mass migration.'

How naive can you get. Do you think that millions of refugees in camps tell the Lebanes, Jordanian, Turkish and EU governments what they would like to do and where tey would like to live. They will do as the world leaders decide when a deal is done to end the backed and funded Jihadi war on a secular government. That is how the world works. That is whu there is a UN and why there are leaders and politicians who make decisions that influence the lives of ordinary people.

I haven't posted on these threads for a while as I was getting quite anxious about WW3 starting.

I'm even more concerned now Putin has started bombing the moderate opposition to Assad.

I think the West needs to start pumping aid into Lebanon and to take refugees from the camps. I think there is a real threat of an escalation of bad relations between Israel and Iran if Lebanon destabilises.

With regards to Yemen I don't think the Houthis are our enemies they have been fighting Al Quaeda for several years. We maybe have to accept that reunification hasn't worked and look at a two state solution.

I do wonder what Putins actions will do to Russian- Turkish relations with both countries vying for influence in the Caucasus ( Turkish backed Azerbijan and Russian backed Armenian)

I'm also concerned about the wider region with Saudi influenced Pakistan and Iranian influences in Afghanistan and increasing good relations between Iran and India.

I do wonder how different the situation would have been if Bush had engaged in diplomacy with Khatami rather than including Iran in "the axis of evil".

Claig I have always enjoyed reading your posts and your sense of humour but don't let your antipathy toward Isitmebut cloud you from the fact they are talking sense