I don't know if this post is ironic but it's a great example of the sheer arrogance of the British I originally mentioned, not just with regards to football but also international affairs.
Well, you're the one who said the inhabitants are the cause of the Middle East's problems. Western intervention is definitely a major factor in why the Middle East is why it is. The US and UK supply weapons to Saudi Arabia so they can blow Yemen to bits, we support Turkey even though they're currently trying to ethnically cleanse the Kurds and we support Israel and their apartheid policies. If it's an underdeveloped ****hole, the West is just as culpable as the inhabitants, if not more.
Bullshit. No one asks them to use the weapons. Every country in the world has them, but very few ever use them.
We sell weapons to Saudi Arabia knowing full well they're using them to wage a war against Yemen. We could, you know, put a trade embargo on Saudi Arabia considering it has one of the worst human rights records in the world but that would mean the UK government would lose out on millions of pounds. Funny how the West is completely opposed to North Korea and refuses to trade with them (and rightly so) but we still sell weapons, fighter jets and other military hardware to the likes of Saudi Arabia and Turkey whilst they attempt ethnic cleansing on their neighbours.
It's not a war 'against Yemen'. It's a nasty outbreak of factions including ISIL and AL QAEDA. See previous comments about this region. Carling on draught, more fanny and Sky subscriptions needed I'm afraid. .
It's a civil war between the Sunni majority (60%) and Shia minority (40%), the latter being horrendously persecuted and discriminated against by Yemen's regime under Hadi. Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf states and Egypt are all waging war on the Shia insurgents because the Shias dared to rise up and say 'enough is enough, we're sick of being persecuted' and the US and UK are supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons, logistical support and military hardware so they can ethnically cleanse the Shia Yemenis. Do you genuinely believe the problems in the Middle East have nothing to do with us?
We should have done that 100 years ago; 100 years ago exactly since the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Saying we need to keep our noses out now is like going to a party, smashing some poor ****er's house up and leave saying 'Ah well, it's not my house. Nowt to do with me'.
Whilst I agree that it is a worthy campaign, I got the impression that the Celtic fans flew the Palestinian flag in the spirit of allegiance, as if they themselves - Celtic supporting Catholics in Glasgow - believe they are an oppressed minority. Which would make them all ****s.
Newsflash: certain muslim factions want to kill each other, regardless of what we did or didn't do, or what we do or don't do.
I agree with you - except you focus on the US and the UK as being the main source of arms to the Middle East. Actually, Russia and China both supply far more (along with the US), and the UK is about level with France and Germany. I mention this because in an earlier reply you referred to someone elses post as 'a great example of the sheer arrogance of the British'. Go **** yourself.
So that makes it okay to stoke the flames and give murderous regimes weapons so they can carry out their wishes? Great thinking. Can't see anything wrong with it.
Dunno. I have no real strong views or interest in the Middle East. It's a ****hole and most of the people who live there are nuts. I hope they can sort themselves out, but I doubt it will be this millennium.....
I said we, and the French, have a longer history of interfering in the Middle East (Sykes-Picot Agreement). The Russians were fighting their on the Eastern Front and had their own severe domestic problems and the Chinese were not the major power it is today in 1916. I mentioned arrogance of the British because we had the world's largest colonial empire and those imperialist attitudes are still prevalent today, mostly in parliament but also in public opinion. That's why parliament voted to bomb Syria in 2015 because they still have the belief that they have some divine right or obligation to interfere in other countries' affairs. Russia, China and the US are all guilty of imperialism in the 21st century and they supply more weapons simply because they spend more on their military. We're no longer a major superpower and world policeman but a significant amount of British people, particularly politicians, think we should be.
The Kurds are doing a good job of it in Rojava. They're fighting for their existence against Assad's regime, ISIS, al-Nusra and Turkey's forces pretty much on their own but they're also fighting for absolute equality for men and women, direct democracy and secularism. There's a famous saying among the Kurds: 'we have no friends but the mountains'. Turkey spends more time in Syria fighting Kurdish fighters than ISIS and considering their history with the Armenian Genocide, it seems they're attempting the same with the Kurds not just in Turkey but also Northern Syria.
