Hamas strike on Israel - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

Just imagine If western Europe had listened to him when he was complaining about the failure to meet Nato spending targets, that was about 7 years ago.

Instead we all listened to Merkel, who if not a Russian asset did incredible good for Putin, her legacy is Germany facing a very prolonged stagnation and a continent that hasn't the arms to defend itself, never mind Ukraine.

If countries in Western Europe had listened, Ukraine would not be so desperately short of ammunition.

Hard to argue against America leaving Nato, force western Europe to pay to defend itself. Force Western Europe to take foreign policy, politics etc seriously. What a change that would be.

Whatever about the practicality of us having a nato quality military we should have an army that is resourced to a reasonable standard, and writing cheques for weapons goes a long way, and it was fence sitting by the govt to talk about neutrality in that regard.

Well our entire prosperity is based on American FDI so that's a completely understandable stance...

That was hardly done for Ukraines benefit though.

Money to support their domestic economy etc and their war effort will help a very large multiple of what we would currently.

Tldr. It's a very messed up situation that many armies in Western Europe are hard pressed to hold a large training excersie never mind fight or peacekeep. Germany in reality doesn't have an army even fit for a dnon violent domestic crisis.

Wow. Irish MAGA.

lol. Nice one.

IF they were shot "for **** and giggles" then that is a war crime and the shooter deserves to be court martialled and severely punished.

IF that's what happened. You can't possibly tell all that from carefully edited clips. Remember all those people who were so sure that Israel had fired missiles at a hospital when it was a misfiring rocket from PIJ?

There's been plenty more of that too.

But for those crimes that Israeli soldiers have committed, then yes of course they're responsible for them.

...

No, people wonder why the Palestinians keep starting fights. With a much stronger neighbour. It seems crazy and suicidal.

And genocidal since their aim is to destroy Israel. At any cost, even the cost of endless Palestinians deaths. Yes we do wonder why they would not prefer to live in peace?

while the Americans were sitting down to watch the shite that is the Super Bowl with their children. People in Rafah were plucking the remains of blown up children from walls. I believe Israel ran some adds during the game as well.

More hostages freed - Super result!!!

Are you not happy that hostages have been freed? Wow!

You clearly have no idea about Northern Ireland - and think how much closer that is to you than Israel and Gaza! Still, we've had Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland who harboured similar misunderstandings about the Northern Ireland conflict, so you're doing better than that anyway. Seeing as you're not actually trying to run the place.

(In case it's not clear, the comparison with Karen Bradley is because she had no idea that even with transferable voting, Loyalists would NEVER vote for the nationalist candidate and vice versa. Because they don't think about which candidate is the best, but only about which one is the best among "their" candidates. And that hasn't really changed, despite the peace. The divisions are still there.)

Anyway, Northern Ireland is not poor, in global terms. Parts of Dublin are poorer and more dangerous than anywhere in Northern Ireland - and plenty of countries that are far poorer than both have no civil conflict. You make it sound like you think it was a civil war between catholics and protestants. It wasn't - and it was never really amenable to being bought off with money either, so the divisions don't "dissipate" by throwing money at them.

Anyway that's all a bit off topic and would be far too long to put you right here - but just to say that your conviction that Northern Ireland is a good parallel to Israel-Gaza, and that the same solutions apply is down to your lack of understanding of both.