Oh dear, you are in a tizzy, aren't you.
By the way,while you were typing, a pot boiled over on your stove- clearly the work of the wicked Russians.
-
-
-
The Americans under the 8 years of Obama - you remember him of the Nobel Peace Prize- are now thought to have killed approximately 1.2-1.3 million people around the world , mainly by droning and bombing - ever thought of applying your clearly easily guidable intelligence - to that topic ?

No, of course not.

Despite your feverish ravings, there is no evidence at all that the incident at Salisbury was anything other than contrived rubbish - probably with the active assistance of the US embassy in London - as part of their current anti Russian mania . This sort of thing has happened before in the US most notably with the Mcarthyite Red Scare of 1947 to 1954. At that time we were much more distant and mature about our "allies". We just smiled and murmured that "well that's the Americans for you".
It is disappointing to see you obviously duped by their current Red Scare and actually repeating their bilge - and without a smile.
Do try and be more discerning with media reports/propaganda and treat them with the benign contempt that most of them deserve.

Reading this article, one can only assume that Mr Seely is pitifully naive. Either that or something much more sinister.He uncritically regurgitates a whole catalogue of pre-prepared stories which are now the staple of much - not all - of the western media, now largely penetrated by the American "security" agencies, replete with first names and fanciful connections of events - selective events. Stripped if its emotional overlay, it amounts to the usual refrain of "wicked Assad" and "the Russians did it". He carefully ignores all mention of ISIS, Alqaeda, Jabhat Al Nusra/HTS and their devilish fanatical acts.

The fact is that the hitherto fairly happy multi religious and multi racial country of Syria has been the victim of a conspiracy which is far more apparent to most of the rest of world other than the west. The conspiracy essentially consisted of an unholy alliance between the US , Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel and Turkey for the violent overthrow of Syrian society - using vast amounts of of American, Soviet and Israeli weaponry and munitions, along with hordes of fanatics whose passage to Syria was facilitated by those same states. Yes, including the US which has thrown in billions of dollars of funding to ISIS et al and underwritten their vile acts all the while pretending to fight them.
There is ample documentary evidence of the determination of the US to overthrow "seven countries in five years "-
eg Wesley Clarke in 2002- one of those countries is Syria.

The fact is that the US seriously underestimated the capacity of the Syrians to resist , just as they did with the Vietnamese.

It worries me that Seely is in the foreign affairs select committee and an MP. We shall just have to put him in the Walshe category.

This is a good read ------- https://fas.org/irp/budget/

The collective spend on "intelligence" in the US - insofar as it can be identified - is about $79.87 billion for financial year 2018. Probably most of that is wasted - there are at least 16 American intelligence agencies, all with their own private armies and hoards of beaurocrats , buildings etc - they all need to be paid and have pensions. There must be vast overlap within that space. Probably multiple layers. Vast numbers of foreign paid operatives too. Just think of the pointless heat generated by the interdepartmental rivalry. A George Orwell , a Voltaire , a Jonathan Swift or even a Mark Twain would have had such wonderful fun depicting their antics.

It is not simply a matter of indoor relief within the United Sates however. The preamble includes the following words -

The intelligence budget funds intelligence and intelligence-related activities—defined in this
report to include the following:
 The collection, analysis, production, dissemination, or use of information that
relates to a foreign country, or a government, political group, party, military
force, movement, or other association in a foreign country, and that relates to the
defense, foreign policy, national security, or related policies of the United States
and other activity in support of the collection, analysis, production,
dissemination, or use of such information;
---
 Covert or clandestine activities affecting the relations of the United States with a
foreign government, political group, party, military force, movement, or other
association.

We all have bills to pay and doubtless the Walshe family ,similarly, are burdened with mortgages, holidays ,outings to Tesco etc.
Perhaps you shouldn't make it quite so obvious though.

The Germans have plenty of money. They just won't spend it. Their armed forces are looking pretty deprived right now but they are not minded to open the taps. It stems in part from a malaise about the whole point of NATO which has degenerated into being a mouth piece for whatever the latest ridiculousness emanates from Washington. At present, there are the twin American feuds with Russia and Iran, neither of which has much sympathy in Germany or, indeed, anywhere in western and central Europe.
It would not surprise me if Germany and Russia were to announce a rapprochement and an end to US bases in Germany. They have done it before -witness the Treaty of Rapallo 1922.
Both sides have a lot to gain from such a move. and even the US might see advantage here.
After all, it is now 73 years since the end of the 11WW and 27 years since the end of the USSR and President Trump has begun to notice the horrendous cost to the US of all those foreign bases.

High time to close all American bases in Europe, to everyone's advantage.

oh, and by the way, the city of Mosul is an essentially Assyrian city as are also are the Dahok area and the Nineveh plains in north west of Iraq. They are NOT Kurdish no matter what some devious Kurd might try to fob you off with.

"--- the KRG is a haven for all religions and none. Wherever you go, you find a nation – unlike most of those in the Middle East – which rejects fundamentalism, and provides a sanctuary for Jews, Christians, Yazidis and many others, persecuted in the name of extremist Islam. Religious tolerance is one of the KRG’s best virtues, and an example of what can be achieved by a progressive Muslim nation---"
- so nice and tolerant -- unless you are Arab, in which the Kurds are likely to drive you off your land and confiscate it. They are quite likely to murder you too as they have in Al Hasakah.

Enough of the unctuous drooling,Halfon.
The reality is that the Kurds are both latently and actually anti Arab and anti Christian and have been involved in many massacres of both. It dosesn't take much to get them going on an anti Christian pogrom - eg the Simele massacre of 1933 - directed by a Kurd and largely enacted by them.Not to mention the extermination by the Kurds of the Armenians (Christian).

Quite so Malcom. I see that you are learning there is a world other than the BBC/Reader's Digest.

re Iran. The Islamic revolution was 39 years ago (entirely a result of the US sponsored coup of 1953 when the democratically elected prime minister Dr Mossadeq was deposed and a CIA approved thug (the Shah) was imposed instea) and the country is now much more mature and moderate. It remains steadfastly opposed to American control however, as do just about all Iranians. They will not be intimidated by American aggression and one has to admire them for that. Of note is that the years of sanctions have actually been rather good for parts of their economy . They have had to grow a home arms and tech sector and it is pretty good.
Bearing in mind that most of world economic growth is in the east and in countries which are happy to deal with Iran eg China , the impact of US sanctions is probably lessening anyway.

Despite the endless assertions of the BBC , I cannot see that Iran is a terrorist state. They support their friends in Syria although it took them several years to do so. Ditto Iraq which has become a friend of Iran mainly as a result of the US invasion of 2003. In The Lebanon, Hezbollah, initially Iranian sponsored in 1980, arose also because of the US invasion of the The Lebanon then. It has now taken on a life of its own and composes a major part of the Lebanese government. Whilst it is now militarily competent, moderate ,careful and steadfast , despite endless Natanyahoid denunciations, I cannot see that it is terrorist. It is respected for its good government.Looked at from the point of view of a large part of the world it is not they who are the terrorists.

From the British point of view , we have every reason for having good relations with Iran.

As with those 480 Treaties signed with the North American Indians - every single one of which was broken and ignored- thus also with the JCPOA, solemnly signed in Lausanne by six countries including the US. This time, the US gave it three years before they reneged upon their oath.

US credibility evaporating fast. Consider, the Iranians stuck to their side of the bargain. Who is the more reliable ?

Nato used to be a defensive alliance with its core and only mission being to defend against Soviet aggression. After the end of the USSR in 1991 it lost its central raison d'etre and should have been disbanded. Nevertheless,it carries on and has expanded is now exactly the thing that it was formed to oppose . It has become an offensive alliance.

There are no British interests in being part of such an alliance. In fact, it is profoundly unBritish to be a part. We have absolutely no interest in being dragged, once again, into the travails of eastern Europe.
We should withdraw the few token British troops deployed in eastern Europe : they are there precisely to embroil us in the stale enmities of that part of the world.

I used to have quite a lot of sympathy with the Baltic states and Poland. Not any more. They are obsessed with the empty and contrived threat of "Russia". In reality, there is none.

Ditto the European army.