If you are debating intervention in Syria ...

[Borachio]

It's a good point. I don't suppose I can actually point at one.

There are a number of potential jihadist regimes. I suppose Hezbollah, in so far as they're a state within a state, come closest, atm.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Speaking of humanitarian responses to civil wars, Here is the Facebook page for a new film about a Honduran doctor who started the first Garifuna hospital on the North coast. No, I haven't met him yet, but Dr. Castillo frequents our offices a bit.

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[Tahuti]

It's a good point. I don't suppose I can actually point at one.

There are a number of potential jihadist regimes. I suppose Hezbollah, in so far as they're a state within a state, come closest, atm.

Actually, it's a 4 letter word and it starts... with a G!

 

[Borachio]

Gate? Glee? Grit? Gran? Glue?

Nope. Dunno where you mean.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Gaza.

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[Borachio]

You don't say! Well, I never. Who'd have thought it?

 

[AdamCrock]

Obama is sure taking his time after what he declared.

 

[Gucumatz]

There was Ivan the terrible, King Jackson I, Alexander the great - and now Obama the Overly-cautious

 

[AdamCrock]

There was Ivan the terrible, King Jackson I, Alexander the great - and now Obama the Overly-cautious

In the light of world most influential Empires You are correct !

 

[ReindeerThistle]

There was Ivan the terrible, King Jackson I, Alexander the great - and now Obama the Overly-cautious

What about Ethelred the Unready?

So, who's designing the CIV leaderheads for Obama and Putin?


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[AdamCrock]

What about Ethelred the Unready?

So, who's designing the CIV leaderheads for Obama and Putin?


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Brave Brave Sir Robin , Brave Sir Robin ....
He..... He bravely ---- oh You know the rest just google it old boy !

 

[Borachio]

"Unready" is a mistranslation of Old English unræd (meaning bad-counsel)—a twist on his name "Æthelred", meaning noble-counsel. A better translation would be ill-advised.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelred_the_Unready

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think Obama is "Brave sir Robin". Maybe the killer bunny?

The troika is obviously the Knights who say Ni, though.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Thank you, Borachio. I HAD thought "unready" was more "not fit for the throne."

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[Borachio]

Syria is heavily influenced by Iran.

Is it though? Isn't it just a case of any port in a storm? I don't really see that Syria has much in common with Iran. Even the Sunni (is it Sunni, or Shia? I always get them muddled) connection isn't a strong one, since Assad's regime is Alawite if not mainly secular. And, however you look at Iran, I wouldn't describe it as a socialist state by any means.

Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia don't like Iran.

So Syria is guilty by association with Iran?

And why don't Turkey and Saudi Arabia like Iran? Do they feel threatened by it, perhaps? By its influence if anything, not militarily surely?

 

[DemonicAppleGuY]

Is it though? Isn't it just a case of any port in a storm? I don't really see that Syria has much in common with Iran. Even the Sunni (is it Sunni, or Shia? I always get them muddled) connection isn't a strong one, since Assad's regime is Alawite if not mainly secular. And, however you look at Iran, I wouldn't describe it as a socialist state by any means.

As Shia is to Islam, Alawite is to Shia.
The Assad regime is heavily influenced by Iran, more than just friends, you know?

So Syria is guilty by association with Iran?

No. In a perfect world (for either Saudi Arabia or Turkey) a Sunni regime would be installed there that Saudi Arabia or Turkey could control.

And why don't Turkey and Saudi Arabia like Iran? Do they feel threatened by it, perhaps?

Saudi Arabia especially. Turkey less, but still so.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

And why don't Turkey and Saudi Arabia like Iran? Do they feel threatened by it, perhaps? By its influence if anything, not militarily surely?

In a sense, yes. The Straits of Hormuz is where most (maybe 85%, not sure ) of the gulf oil comes out. Iran us one side of the straits, Oman is the other.

Iran has a navy, it could choke off the Strait if backed into a corner. During the 1988 - 89 crises, when the Iran-Iraq war was closing, American warships escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers through the straits. The USS Stark was sunk by a French-made missile (source unknown), and the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner. Very tense times.

43% of that oil goes to East Asia, mainly Japan, and we all know what happened the last time Japan needed oil (c. 1941...)

Tense times.

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[Tahuti]

In a sense, yes. The Straits of Hormuz is where most (maybe 85%, not sure ) of the gulf oil comes out. Iran us one side of the straits, Oman is the other.

I hope for their sake that Iran never closes the straits of Hormuz, even in the event of a war with the US or Israel. Pretty much the entire world would oppose Iran for doing that, and it's doubtful even China would buy the reasoning "that it was necessary cause of war with US".

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Right. But the US and Saudi Arabia and Israel would LOVE that.

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[Cheezy the Wiz]

If Iran closed the Hormuz strait, it would probably not be with warships but with mines.