Glad to see this is happening, but not sure how clever it is of the BBC to announce that a British military aircraft is currently on its way to Iraq. It wouldn't take a genius to work out the aircraft's approximate ETA and destination.

I remember during the Libyan intervention being asked by the MoD not to publish 'spotter's' reports of Tornados leaving Marham for the exact same reason that it wouldn't be too hard to set up a nasty 'surprise' for them at the other end, which seemed a sensible and reasonable enough request to myself and my publication.

PS; Welcome back Ronald, you were worryingly quiet for a while....

Sykes-Picot, 1916. QED!

We need to steer well clear of this mess.
We tried before and look what happened! Am not against a bit of aid but, any kind of offensive action should be avoided at all cost. Let the buggers get on with it.

Let the buggers get on with it.


By 'it' do you mean shoot, crucify, and behead innocent men, women and children?

Shame the west is on the same side as ISIL in Syria while being against them in Iraq. Luckily Assad has been fighting these terrible terrorists all along.

Yes horrific as it is. Why is it our business? We tried before remember and that didn't work too well.
It's about time we realised our place in the world and stopped meddling in the Middle East.

Well said Jayand. Just look at the disaster that is modern Libya!
Everything we do there makes things worse.

Ourpoliticians do not get it, do they?

1. "save" money by reducing armed forces to a gendarmerie with many essential components for war-fighting missing.

2. Suck up to USA by poking noses into other people's business at no risk to the politicians.

3. Have huge problems extricating which cost more lives and money.

4. return to 1.

THERE IS NO APPETITE WHATSOEVER FOR ADVENTURISM.

BBC News are reporting that a second C-130 has left BZN carrying more humanitarian aid. May well be a busy few weeks for the crews (air & ground).

Ronald, you truly are priceless. If the West intervenes in a potentially massive humanitarian crisis in Iraq, it's aggression and making things worse. When your hero Putin illegally sends troops into Ukraine it's all fair game and Kiev's fault - I think is was June when you stated that Russia was only there to protect the people of East Ukraine. No, the West trying to stop genocide and air dropping food and water is trying to protect people.

:=

This may be a slight thread drift but yesterday I watched General Sir Peter Wall defend the current status of the Army and how it will look in 2020. This was on BBC Parliament, chaired by Margaret Hodge,I'm not sure if it was the Public Accounts or Defence Committee. But either way, Margaret Hodge seemed to me to be cross at Sir Peter for not managing to pour a pint out of a wine glass.

FB:)

At last
 

A chance to off-load all those 12x12s that we have been keeping for so long ;-)
Yes - I do appreciate the seriousness of the situation but for eff sake why can't we ever learn to "play within our own league and stop having to import an overseas player to heighten our league-position chances" - to use a phrase oft said around the local cricket league..........

The West is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. But to be clear, if it doesn't right now innocent people will be massacred in their thousands.

Of course, not every country factors such humanitarian considerations into their thinking, do they Ronald?

Oh, and 'we' is fooling no one either old chum.

Where exactly would we launch air strikes from? We could fly from our carrier strike wing. Oh hang on lol.

Just change the name of the organisation, the gullible and naive won't know any different. Worked for Afghanistan.

Couldn't figure out how to post a poll, so my questions are these

Who thinks that this "humanitarian mission" by US forces, along with associated airstrikes, could morph into a larger scale combat action ? Mission creep ? We already had Obama in June say "no troops in Iraq" (I guess Iraq airspace doesn't count ?) and now we have US F-18's bombing targets on Iraq soil.

What happens when a US plane goes down and pilot kidnapped ? Etc ? Or ISIL gets really pissed and pick-your-terrorist-breading ground Syria/Iran/Pakistan/Libya sends ISIL some surface to air missiles or etc heavy grade equipment ?

Hodge annoys me with a passion, I can deal with clueless, I can deal with opinionated, but not both together,

UK parliament not recalled. SAMCAM on holiday with hubby,POTUS in Marthas.
 

POTUS is on holiday in Marthas Vinyard. Our MP's are all on holiday. It says it all. And yet they've despatched, yet again, servicemen on both sides of the pond into harms way. This is yet another grade "A " reaction to media reports. I wish everyone safe operations, but we should not intervene.
Incidentally, why cant the Iraq people make a decent fist and fight back themselves against ISIS? Thought we had set the country up for this very thing a few years ago?

Satpak77,

What happens when a US plane goes down and pilot kidnapped ?

Head on stick, no mercy shown I expect. If our blokes are going to operate over them, I really think that there should be no "Marquess of Queensbury" rules. Lets just hope the buggers don't get hold of any of our people. Perhaps the situation justifies a real push on the ground to annihilate these Neanderthals. Because, air strikes are not enough to exterminate them (sorry for the Dalek impression).


Smudge

Meanwhile a crowd reported to be 'in tens of thousands' has been listening to all the usual troublemakers (Tariq Ali anyone?) whipping up support for the poor 'Palestinians' (sic). Not the Hamas led Gazans obviously! I understand they managed to get £4.5 million of which our glorious government chipped in with £2 million. There was a time when I was as patriotic as anyone but now I'm increasingly disgusted with my own country.