Mosul

[Bored Of Education]

Mosul

While, of course, everything should be done to relieve the Kurdish Yazidis, the timing of this and their plight being so analogous to that of the Palestinians is almost designed to whip up Muslim reaction.

The US are now ready to start bombing Muslims in order to protect Christians while Muslims are being bombed by Israel. UK and US are rushing humanitarian aid to the Yazidis while Palestine has to rely on NGOs and UNRWA (which I know the US/UK partially funds). The whole deal being a cover for protecting oilfields, of course, shows their real hand as well. Not only that but the persecution of the Yazidis, like that of all Kurds, was ignored for years by the West during Saddam Hussein's reign (as it was ignored in Turkey with regards the Kurds)

Again, of course, the Yazidis should be protected but the hypocrisy and cynicism of doing this and leaving the Palestinians to die and rot is sickening.

[Bored Of Education]

Mosul

kevchenko wrote: Well, the left wing press aren't exactly keen.

Nun convinces youths to take down flag.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Mosul

ad hoc wrote: With reference to the OP of this thread, Steveeeeeeee's "global colleagues" have just been evacuated from Irbil.

That's good to hear. Simply incredible how the situation in Iraq has deteriorated over the past 12 months. When my colleague left my current place of work this time last year, we commented about how Iraq would probably be calmer/safer than where I am now. It was also about 12 months ago that the CIA began arming the rebels in Syria, f*cking idiots.

[Borracho]

Mosul

ISIS have beheaded an American journalist who went missing in Syria the best part of two years ago, and posted a video of it online. Fuck . . .

[ursus arctos]

Mosul

And are getting a huge volume of publicity on Twitter for doing so, which is also sick.

I fully expect the likes of Fox to go full tilt on this, so as to further distract attention from Ferguson, Gaza, etc.

[Borracho]

Mosul

How irredeemably crazy do you have to be to physically cut off another human being's head. You have to really, really, really not give a fuck.

[ursus arctos]

Mosul

They demonstrated that long ago.

[garcia]

Mosul

the IS guy giving the statement to camera has an english accent.

[Bored Of Education]

Mosul

garcia wrote: the IS guy giving the statement to camera has an english accent.

..and, apparently, this is what brought Cameron back from a fish and chip photo-op at Rick Stein's

[Bored Of Education]

Mosul

Is Munster named after Münster or vice versa?

They drive around in "western" 4x4s

They would be Japanese or Korean manufacturers. Does that count as "western" now? I suppose it probably does.

Are Toyota Hi-Luxs still the transport du jour now that they have gone all a/c and roll bars?

[ursus arctos]

Mosul

Münster is German for monastery, derived from the Latin monasterium (itself from the Greek monasterion). "Minster" has a similar lineage.

I don't know enough Irish history to know if there may be a clerical basis to the name of the province, but there doesn't particularly need to be a German connection

[garcia]

Mosul

the place names have nothing to do with each other. munster in irish is "mumhan" which is pronounced (approximately) "MUan". the -ster is derived from a norse suffix meaning "land of". the word mumhan comes from the name of some old goddess.

[Toro Toro]

Mosul

Yeah, "-ster" is basically an etymological cognate of "-shire", I think.

Ulster is "Ulladh", and Leinster is "Laighean" - "Ulla" and "Lion", more or less.

Never sure why Connacht never got a -ster.

[Diable Rouge]

Mosul

Presumably it's purely because it's the only province the Vikings never colonised (they did settle in Antrim and Down).

[Borracho]

Mosul

ISIS have beheaded another American hostage, Steven Sotloff.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Mosul

Let a Daily Mail reader explain the latest Middle East clusterfuck

[E10 Rifle]

Mosul

So, we're gonna bomb ISIS in one country (Iraq) but not another (Syria), even though that's where they're more concentrated, cosying up with some despotic regimes who hate ISIS but shunning others who do in the process. And, presumably, expecting no divisive or bloody unintended consequences.

Nope, can't see anything going wrong here at all.

[Gangster Octopus]

Mosul

Fucking idiots.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Mosul

Hang on, this bombing is to solve a humanitarian crisis. It's the first time it's been tried, so give it a chance.

[Gangster Octopus]

Mosul

Does someone want to link to the This Country's Going to War song from Duck Soup?

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Mosul

"War, HUH, yeah! What is it good for?

- Propping up domestic support in the run up to a general election year.

- Bolstering the flaky image of the PM.

- Justifying the security state’s existence.

- Maintaining the permanent war economy.

- Further pushing the erosion of domestic civil liberties because ISIS war tourists are arriving back home in droves and are currently waiting at the carousels at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham airports to pick up their semtex and scimitars.

- Looking hard in the fight against extremism whilst being in bed with the most extreme of the lot- the Royal House of Saud.

- Oh and oil

Say it again, Say it again."

[Bored Of Education]

Mosul

Galloway wondering why Saudi Arabia and Turkey aren't bombing ISIS is an interesting point.

[Gangster Octopus]

Mosul

George Galloway's just been on PM making some sense. Anne Clwyd (sp) is now talking merde.

[EIM]

Mosul

If it keeps the golf off the news this war can only be a good thing.

[Etienne]

Mosul

Fucking idiots. Another reason not to vote Labour.