Arab spring

[Gandahar]

Sounds very good doesn't it ...

Spring.

Roses.

In hindsight though have the western powers helped in completely fecking it all up for everyone?

Meanwhile in despised Iran things are now becoming more spring like

Being a dumbwit I'm not sure who is my enemy this week, I'm guessing islamic state council for the popular peoples front of Babylon.

Or ISCFTPPFOB as we call them in sleepy Kent.

[HD Adam]

Splitters

[FredClogs]

CIA innit, sponsored by the military industrial complex, we'll always be at war with Oceania.

[Smollet]

Spring is when things come alive having been dormant. Oh for an Arab winter if this is what spring has brought upon us.

[MartG]

Arab Spring..... Nuclear IS Winter

[Blaster72]

Gandahar said:

Being a dumbwit I'm not sure who is my enemy this week

The USA, it's always the USA.

[Derek Smith]

Wasn't there a big inquiry into the war some time ago? I must have missed its report.

We managed to render an area which was about as stable as it had been for some time (which wasn't that stable I know) and then change it in a few years to a complete mess.

Russia couldn't do anything with Afganistan but we thought we could. When we couldn't we carried on not doing anything with it and also went somewhere else to fail again.

I blame Thatcher for being successful. She went to war when she was the most unpopular PM for years and came out of it one of the most popular. Major wasn't stupid enough to try and follow her example, but Blair and Cameron were made of more conceited stuff. They have wasted lives, money and our safety and for those in the countries we destabilised, it is worse. Nice jobs, lads.

[Smollet]

Derek Smith said:

I blame Thatcher for being successful. She went to war when she was the most unpopular PM for years and came out of it one of the most popular. Major wasn't stupid enough to try and follow her example, but Blair and Cameron were made of more conceited stuff. They have wasted lives, money and our safety and for those in the countries we destabilised, it is worse. Nice jobs, lads.

The difference with the war Thatcher got involved in was that she was ousting a hostile element that had invaded a country and the Bush/ Blair fiasco was pure regime change. Thatcher had no choice the other two did.

[Asterix]

Smollet said:

Derek Smith said:

I blame Thatcher for being successful. She went to war when she was the most unpopular PM for years and came out of it one of the most popular. Major wasn't stupid enough to try and follow her example, but Blair and Cameron were made of more conceited stuff. They have wasted lives, money and our safety and for those in the countries we destabilised, it is worse. Nice jobs, lads.

The difference with the war Thatcher got involved in was that she was ousting a hostile element that had invaded a country and the Bush/ Blair fiasco was pure regime change. Thatcher had no choice the other two did.

Indeed - and it's insulting to Thatcher to have Blair & Cameron mentioned in the same breath.

[IroningMan]

Am I alone in thinking it a little conceited to believe that 'we' were responsible for the Arab Sping?

Certainly we intervened in Libya, but if you're impressed by the media coverage of one three-year-old Syrian boy you'd have been completely blown away by the pictures of what was going to happen in Benghazi.

[Countdown]

IroningMan said:

Am I alone in thinking it a little conceited to believe that 'we' were responsible for the Arab Sping?

Certainly we intervened in Libya, but if you're impressed by the media coverage of one three-year-old Syrian boy you'd have been completely blown away by the pictures of what was going to happen in Benghazi.

I think, in the case of Libya, "we" were the tipping influence. Without the impact of air power I doubt Gaddafi would have been overthrown. In Egypt it was genuine people power combined with a lack of vocal support for Mubarak which caused his overthrow. Conversely there was a LOT of support for Al-Sissi, especially from the Gulf Nations,which resulted in a dictatorship (sorry, "democracy") being reimposed.

Strange how the "Arab Spring" has only happened in those countries that aren't pro-western...

[HD Adam]

Countdown said:

Strange how the "Arab Spring" has only happened in those countries that aren't pro-western...

Perhaps it's because the non pro-western countries are recognized by their inhabitants as the backwards medieval st holes they really are?

[Countdown]

HD Adam said:

Countdown said:

Strange how the "Arab Spring" has only happened in those countries that aren't pro-western...

Perhaps it's because the non pro-western countries are recognized by their inhabitants as the backwards medieval st holes they really are?

Which makes less than no sense at all.

There is little or no difference in governance between the pro-western and anti-western regimes. And yet somehow in some (such as Libya or Syria) we need to get involved and in others (Bahrain,KSA) we don't.

It's not hypocritical at all.

[Asterix]

HD Adam said:

Countdown said:

Strange how the "Arab Spring" has only happened in those countries that aren't pro-western...

Perhaps it's because the non pro-western countries are recognized by their inhabitants as the backwards medieval st holes they really are?

The Gulf countries have been throwing money and benefits at their people to ensure there's no dissent. In the UAE they've also cracked down hard on anyone who has even thought about greater democracy or questioning the rulers.

http://www.economist.com/node/18898137

[Zigster]

I thought the Arab Spring just kind of fizzled out because there wasn't really that much popular support for it. The Western press reported it as a bigger deal than it was - in reality, it was just some young, urban liberals with the majority of the population not actively supporting it.