The Politics Thread

[Bruce Rioja]

Can someone explain to me please as to to how come the Russians have been bombing hospitals?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Can someone explain to me please as to to how come the Russians have been bombing hospitals?

Presumably copying the Yanks

[Beefheart]

Can someone explain to me please as to to how come the Russians have been bombing hospitals?

Putin is a c*nt. That's how.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Can someone explain to me please as to to how come the Russians have been bombing hospitals?

Go on then: a long time ago there was a certain gentleman who ran a certain country (Afghanistan) - his name was Mohamed Dauod Khan. He was a usurper and Islamist. The Marxist inspired PDPA led a revolution against Khan and tried to run the country. Because the PDPA was Marxist, and for that reason alone, the CIA started to arm a certain group of people called the mujihadeen. Both America and the Soviet Union were somewhat taken aback by the contemporaneous Islamic Revolution that brought about the creation of the Ayatollahs' Islamic Iran. Because Iran was on Russia's doorstep and not wanting two hostile Islamic countries fomenting much trouble amongst the largest remaining religious 'citizens' of the Soviet Union, the Russians acceded to the PDPAs request for help and sent in the troops. For a while all was calm, but America and the mujihadeen didn't like that and so the start of a campaign to oust the Soviets began, and the Islamic world supplied the foot soldiers in what was probably up until then, after Vietnam, one of the most blood curdling wars ever to take place. The Mujihadeen employed the concept of Total Warfare - anything and everything that could gain them victory was deemed righteous, and edicts to that effect were promulgated across the Islamic world. Virtually no captured Soviet soldiers were ever handed over or kept in conditions similar to the allies in the second world war, for example. and a fair number could look forward to a variety of slow deaths, one favourite of the mujihadeen was to blowtorch a soldier's privates off.
It was the Soviet withdrawal from Aghanistan that, despite Thatcher believing it was all down to her, led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. One of the underlying reasons behind that breakup was the Russians wanting to dump the vast Islamic underbelly of Central Asia and concentrate on the European and Siberian spheres of their 'empire'. During this retrenchment a number of ugly wars took place, most of which have been forgotten, such as Abkhazia, Georgia, North Ossetia, Nagorny Karabakh, Dagestan, and the Transdneister. But everybody remembers the two Chechen wars - that's because the Islamic fomentors of those two wars used the same total warfare strategy as was employed in Afghanistan. But instead of withdrawing, like they did in Afghanistan, the Russians stood their ground and employed all sorts of radical and total warfare strategies themselves and ended up winning.
Since then, with the rise of Putin, the natural inclination of the old Soviet guard in the new 'democratic' Russia is to play the hard card. This they have successfully shown in Moldova, Ukraine, and Crimea, all border territories to Russia itself. Now they are going after bigger fish and helping their allies in the wider world.
One of the reasons for this is because America keeps on interfering in world affairs without much thought for the consequences.
So when Assad, a long standing ally of Russia/the Soviets is facing a civil war fomented by and kept going by outside armaments and money (not just America, but Europe, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Iran, and even fxcking China) the Russians've decided to chuck their lot in with Assad. They've now been bombing on behalf of Assad. The problem with that is that their enemies aren't necessarily the same enemies that everybody else is bombing, because with the rise of the Islamic State all is confusion. America sees the 'simple' solution that IS and Assad are enemies, but the Free Syrian Army are friends. But the Free Syrian Army has some unsavoury allies in the Al-Qaeda offshoot of the Nusra front.
Russia sees an even more simpler (and according to International Law the correct) interpretation of events: i.e Assad is the legitimate force in Syria and all the rest are rebels, some of whom are terrorists.
So, the other week a 'peace conference' was held and all forces should have stopped fighting each other with the exception that everybody else is allowed to bomb the Islamic State.
Russia is going along with that, but it just so happens that they believe that the Nusra Front is part of the Islamic State. So they are still bombing them. The hospitals that have been hit are all in the territory of the Nusra Front. The Russians don't particularly care because the Nusra Front also believes in Total Warfare and would probably weld a captured Russia airman's bollocks to a piece of tin plate rather than hold him in Geneva Convention style POW camps.

I think that fully answers the question as asked.

[Beefheart]

Alright, calm down Kissinger, we've all seen Charlie Wilson's War.

(That's an interesting read though, cheers)

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Alright, calm down Kissinger, we've all seen Charlie Wilson's War.

(That's an interesting read though, cheers)

I had to google 'Charlie Wilson's war'. I'm going to have to watch it now , ta.

[Lord Kangana]

The breakup of the Soviet Union was not precipitated by the war in Afghanistan (nor indeed by Reagan and Thatcher, but kudos to them and their supporters for trying to claim the credit), but by a drastic fall in worldwide oil and gas prices.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

The breakup of the Soviet Union was not precipitated by the war in Afghanistan (nor indeed by Reagan and Thatcher, but kudos to them and their supporters for trying to claim the credit), but by a drastic fall in worldwide oil and gas prices.

I beg to disagree. But whichever, it still remains pertinent to how Russia reacts in foreign affairs right now.

[Lord Kangana]

It wasn't a political but economic collapse. The planned economy had been actually quite effective whilst they were large scale producers (and as I recall net exporters) of fossil fuels. Once production slowed down, and prices fell, the fixed costs of their economies couldn't be met.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

It wasn't a political but economic collapse. The planned economy had been actually quite effective whilst they were large scale producers (and as I recall net exporters) of fossil fuels. Once production slowed down, and prices fell, the fixed costs of their economies couldn't be met.

Perestroika and Glasnost did not arise out of economic conditions but from political chaos arising inside the Communist Party. Perestroika, and Glasnost in particular, were driven by an emerging social awareness just as large as that which Vietnam had had on the body politic of the USA. The soldiery returning from a defeated Soviet Union were instrumental in that change. Economic breakdown may have contributed to the breakup, but the breakup was inevitable once the satellites (East Germany, Romania, etc) realised that the ordinary Soviet soldier was not going to be the invincible machinery it once seemed.

[Harry Genshaw]

Have the Russians really bombed a hospital this time though? The last time this was alleged by John Kerry and repeated several times thereafter it was found to be boll**ks. There's lots of smoke and mirrors around Syria at the moment and I've no idea what to believe.

Kudos to Spotty for the history lesson

[Hoboh]

Thursday’s results, for seats on Young Labour’s national committee and for youth positions on the party’s regional boards, saw candidates that were supported by Momentum elected in every region.

There was a poor turnout with only 3.5% of those eligible to vote taking part in the online ballot. A total of 50,926 party members under the age of 27 were eligible to take part in the election

Evidence of 'mass support' for Corbyn
Typical Trot takeover, mass apathy amongst the people and they take over positions of influence, right out of the book of the brothers.
I hope Pru takes note, his youth galloping in to stay in the EU cannot even be arsed when the vote is online
Maybe we should dumb down to their levels and have a Facebook page?

[bobo the clown]

^^ " LIKE"

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I thought it was LK who advocated the youth revolution, with us old fogeys lagging behind the wavefront of enthusiasm!?

[Lord Kangana]

I'm afraid I can't claim credit for Beefheart's fantastic idea.

[thebish]

Thursday’s results, for seats on Young Labour’s national committee and for youth positions on the party’s regional boards, saw candidates that were supported by Momentum elected in every region.

There was a poor turnout with only 3.5% of those eligible to vote taking part in the online ballot. A total of 50,926 party members under the age of 27 were eligible to take part in the election

Evidence of 'mass support' for Corbyn
Typical Trot takeover, mass apathy amongst the people and they take over positions of influence, right out of the book of the brothers.
I hope Pru takes note, his youth galloping in to stay in the EU cannot even be arsed when the vote is online
Maybe we should dumb down to their levels and have a Facebook page?

it is just a tiny bit extremely thin to offer your evidence for Corbyn being summat bad as an election to Young Labour's national committee!!!

there was a time when just about every seat on that was taken by Blairites... but that wouldn't be out of the Trot manual of electoral manipulation, would it? that'd just be those who can be arsed winning seats - which seems quite obvious and normal wherever apathy reigns.

there have been actual elections, though - I noted one not far above... remember?

this Hoboh/Bobo political alliance is really gaining strength!

[thebish]

An £80 million contract to run cancer scans for the NHS has been given to a private health firm with a Tory MP on their board, despite a rival NHS consortium allegedly offering to carry out the work for £7 million less.

The NHS Trust that runs Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire put together a consortium with other NHS hospitals to enter what they called a "competitive bid" for a 10-year contract to run scans across Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Liverpool, and Lancashire. The scans, known as PET-CT, are mostly used for diagnosing and measuring cancers, and are a vital tool for fighting the disease.

However, NHS England, the "head office" of the health service, rejected the bid from state-run providers and instead awarded the contract to Alliance Medical, a private health firm whose board members include leading Conservative MP Malcolm Rifkind.


total coincidence... nothing to see here....

[Hoboh]

Thursday’s results, for seats on Young Labour’s national committee and for youth positions on the party’s regional boards, saw candidates that were supported by Momentum elected in every region.

There was a poor turnout with only 3.5% of those eligible to vote taking part in the online ballot. A total of 50,926 party members under the age of 27 were eligible to take part in the election

Evidence of 'mass support' for Corbyn
Typical Trot takeover, mass apathy amongst the people and they take over positions of influence, right out of the book of the brothers.
I hope Pru takes note, his youth galloping in to stay in the EU cannot even be arsed when the vote is online
Maybe we should dumb down to their levels and have a Facebook page?

it is just a tiny bit extremely thin to offer your evidence for Corbyn being summat bad as an election to Young Labour's national committee!!!

there was a time when just about every seat on that was taken by Blairites... but that wouldn't be out of the Trot manual of electoral manipulation, would it? that'd just be those who can be arsed winning seats - which seems quite obvious and normal wherever apathy reigns.

there have been actual elections, though - I noted one not far above... remember?

this Hoboh/Bobo political alliance is really gaining strength!

I notice a lack of any mention of the Pru army of youth marching forward like the brown shirts in unity with Merkel to rescue the UK form any notion of independence.
You kind of missed one of the points of the post, so I'll help you.

1. Corbyn is the popular new leader of the labour party backed up by the masses, more so the gobby youths.

Bang they get a vote, one online like they say should be available in General elections and a massive 3.5% of those eligible to vote do so, hardly a ringing endorsement of Corbyn massive support is it?

2. This is a p*ss take on the youth army who are going to come riding over the hill to save Merkel's EU from the embarrassment of a UK exit, the same youth with Trotsky ideals that will vote Corbyn to power,
If they can be arsed to put down their play station and go to a polling station!

[thebish]

I have no idea what the pru army of youth is - and i don't speak for them!

still - you are not worried about the in/out referendum - so why not just chill and polish your chrome until the summer comes?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I have no idea what the pru army of youth is - and i don't speak for them!

still - you are not worried about the in/out referendum - so why not just chill and polish your chrome until the summer comes?

Is that sci-fi innuendo, polish your chrome? Chrome knobs!