The post you are reporting:
Ian, what about Irak? How many people have been killed there since the war supposedly ended? Al Queda slipped in, in the mean-time, and then there was the resistence of the Sunite military groups anyway, and the Sciite army of the Mhedi, and no-one really knew which bombs went off according to whose plans.
The Mhedi's army didn't seem to be involved in setting bombs off, but they did at some point confront tha American army in a full-pitch battle that lasted for days in the Sciite areas of Baghdad.
The Sunite guerillas were fighting American soldiers, remember Faludjah? That battle that lasted days, with house to house fighting?
Never heard of it, I assume. But everyone has heard of Bengazi, Misratah and Zawihah.
Only what you want to hear and remember, Ian!
As for all those darned bombs going off in crowded streets in Irak, no-one really knows who's behind them, insurgents, may-be some insurgents but not others, or Al Quaeda fighting a private war. Who knows.
I have seen where it all can lead to, Ian, and I sincerely hope that in a few weeks or months time no Al Quaeda terrorists are going about in Libya detonating bombs among crowds of people if the Libyan government is overthrown by some Clinton style invasion.
In Libya, dear Ian, there was peace and tranquility until a bunch of rebels sounded off, probably counting on British and Americam forces, and others too, to get involved.
We should have told them there and then to buzz off!
I know a lot about people being blown up by bombs in the streets, Ian, I've seen it on TV for years in Irak! And hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their own country, Irak, because of never-ending terror!
Yes, all after a Tony Blair invasion of Irak!
Ian, the best military commanders are those who know what the consequences of their strategy will be. The UN resolution with Libya is a gamble. If it ends there, and no more fighting takes place, then that's one thing.
But if it does not, and some leader in the West (for example Mrs Clinton), tries pursuing some private policy of overthrowing Col. Gedaffi, in pure Bill Clinton style, while abusing a UN resolution (I'm saying IF), this would be illegal according to international law and an abuse of UN mandate.
It has already happened in Crajina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo.
I really and dearly hope that PM Cameron knows where the borders of international law are, and that he does not overstep the mark, because the potential outcome is anything between all ending peacefully now with
1) an agreement between Libyan forces to stop the war,
2) to an end to the war through one side defeating the other,
3) to a regional war, with God knows what for physical and economic consequences for all of us!
Ian, being aware of dangers and being cautious, and with an eye open to national and international law, does not equiperate me to being cynical and to sitting back "watching thousands of people being killed".
