On the Austrian moving of the Goal Posts re Turkey.

This is from American Future:

It turns out that the Austrians don’t come off well in regard to the 1915 Armenian massacres, either. The German Reich and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were allied with the Ottoman Empire and fully aware of Turkey’s actions against the Armenian minority. But they didn’t try to stop it.

And from Ireland
In my own humble opinion Europe needs Turkey

And frome One Ring to rule them all...
We must not turn our back on our best Muslim ally

Politics
Turkey
Turkey-EU
European Union

Europe without Turkey aint Europe

Turkey was one of the historical Great Powers of Europe. To write the history of Europe without Turkey would be absurd. A lot of that history has been one of conflict but then the whole European ideal has been as much about remembering past differences to move beyond them.

The irony is that the opponents to Turkey often go on about European values while at the same time displaying a very un-European intolerance.


Politics
Turkey
Turkey-EU
European Union

Sir Ian Blair's letter

"This is clearly a fast-time decision-making process, in which officers cannot risk the kind of containment and negotiation tactics which would normally be the case."

In other words, you kill one possibly innocent person to prevent the possibility that a larger number of innocent people will die.

What Sir Ian Blair is unable to grasp is that most important thing is to prevent people falling into the grip of those who organize terrorist actions. Killing an innocent person and then on top of that refusing to have an independent investigation is the best help the terror recruiters could get.

Sir Ian Blair is incapable of seeing the wider picture - that's why he should resign.

Politics
Police
Sir Ian Blair
Britain

Balad – yet more Iraqi victims of the Iraqi “resistance”.

The depressing thing is 50 people murdered in Iraq is hardly news anymore. And the why?:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the most feared militant groups, has pledged to wage “all out war” on the Shi’ite community, an apparent effort to provoke sectarian civil war and drive the country further into chaos.

This is not about anti imperialism nor about religion but an extremely brutal method of securing power. Polarized communities can be controlled and controlled communities are the means that the ilk of al-Zarqawi have a chance of getting a taste of power.

For a good map showing where Balad is check out The Word Unheard.

Iraq
terroism