Migration: we broke it and therefore we bought it

If the environment where people live is destroyed or degraded then the people who live there will move elsewhere. The most important factor in destruction or degradation of the environment is humanity. By greed humanity destroys the environment in particular places; it cuts down forests, it creates vast quantities of carbon dioxide as a by-product of the things it does to satisfy its greed and it makes war for reasons of fear and greed.

Limited and Fastidious Intervention in Iraq and Syria

It is an odd war that is being fought in Syria and Iraq. It seems that the intervention of foreign powers in the war, albeit limited and fastidious, has one aim of wishing to expunge the soi disant Islamic State (which is neither Islamic nor a state) but other aims of supporting or toppling President Assad, depending on which intervention you are thinking about. There are other subsidiary aims – a home land for the Kurds, expansion of neighbouring states, political ideology and philosophical and religious dogma. War makes death; if you fight for principles those principles must be stronger than life and must support life.

How to Defeat Isis

I am not a pacifist but I do abhor war. History teaches that we must defend ourselves from aggression and nations are entitled to do that and when they do that they must pursue their defence with all possible means that accord to the rules of war and are consistent with accepted civilised conduct. The activities of ISIS in Syria and Iraq are considered by many world leaders to be a threat to many nations and those leaders believe that threat extends to acts of terrorism carried out in places other than Syria and Iraq. 

…And the Whole World Goes Blind

There has been so much killing, caused as a punishment for other killing, there have been so many murders. that the cause of all these deaths is now hard to discern. We can know the immediate cause of the deaths of nearly 300 Russians who were blown up when returning from holiday in Egypt, or the immediate cause of the 126 people who were murdered in Paris, but not the root causes of these events which are shrouded in the thick fog of history and as such open to misinterpretation or complete misunderstanding.

Jaw Jaw is Better than War War

Churchill said “Jaw Jaw is better than war war” and he was right about that. Today we see, amongst all the war and killing that is being perpetrated on a global scale, green shoots of possible peace springing up in nations that have been traditional enemies for many years.

Why Don’t you stay in your own country and fight for it?

“Why Don’t you stay in your own country and fight for it?” was the cry of a very old Greek woman on the island of Kos to Syrian emigrants; the population of Kos is 33,000 and there are some 10,000 emigrants who have arrived there. Most have come from Syria through nearby Turkey.

The Trump View of War

The great thing about the United States of America is that anyone who has enough money and can garner enough in donations can become President of that great nation. The money has to come first; political thinking, principles,  and suitability of the office of President come a poor second; money is the key to the system of electing a President.

Gaza

One new war takes the world’s focus away from old wars. One new misery makes folk forget old miseries. One new disease makes people forget old diseases. A new sorrow pushes out some of the sadness of old sorrows.

We Should Be Ashamed

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, it is said. However there are more evil intentions in hell’s pathway than there are good intentions. Outcomes may be not what have been intended, and this may cause misery and suffering, but this is a result of lesser sins, a such as pride, arrogance and the belief that the person upon whose intent the policy has been formed is cleverer and more perceptive than that person really is.

All’s Fair in Love and War?

The saying that all is fair in love and war is simply wrong. I cannot morally claim that every act that someone does to win love or win a law is fair because there is no area of human existence where morality should not prevail over everything else.