That genocide that happened in the Yugoslavia wars of the 1990s ....well according to the UN ,it really didn't happen.

U.N. court: Serbs' actions in Croatia not considered genocide - CNN.com

You see ,ethnic cleansing isn't really genocide. Tell that to the 100,000 victims of the ethnic cleasning . Tell that to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ,who in 2001 was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 46 years in prison.Slobodan Milosevic would've been sentenced too if he didn't have to courtesy of being found dead during his trial.


I'm sure the Islamic State is comforted over this decision.

Well Tom one man's ethnic cleansing is another man's genocide or is that the other way around, and it is all wrapped up in the question of terrorism and freedom fighting. I find the issue both disturbing and confusing but there can be no doubt this sort of thing is happening in other parts of the world today

It really is no consolation to see other governments wimping out like ours does.

What would you have them do Cats? The world tried twice to create a better method of conflict resolution and failed both times. The UN is a toothless tiger held in check by a security council veto and even if it decides to act it needs nations to contribute forces at their own cost. There are a lot of bankrupt nations in the world when it comes to military action

I don't think rushing in like fools while everybody sits back, and waits, is the way for us to deal with ISIS at all.

As for the UN, they have a way to go.

The "Useless Nations" they sure live up to that name. They are a waste of real estate and nothing but a den of spies. Need to move them out to Hawaii where they are limited in the damage they can do to the US.

Ok tal so you want to gather splinters from sitting on the fence watching others get Killed! No one suggested rushing in and the pace has certainly been leasurely, but given the size of the Daesh force a concerted effort from NATO and other allies could resolve it quickly. Quick, is of course a relative term, but not the 13 years of Afghanistan where a quick effort defeated an enemy and then let him get away. What has to be recognised is that a hands off approach brought us to where we are today. Syria was allowed to smolder and burn for three years and now we have Daesh who is a threat to everyone, and this threat isn't going to go away by doing nothing because the arabs don't have the will to deal with this. This was made plain in Iraq, which is why large parts of Iraq have to be retaken. That cannot be done with aircraft and ragtag militia who will go home as soon as they have achieved a local objective. Can you see the Peshmerga pushing beyond Mosul? Shiite forces liberating Sunni areas? What we seem to forget is that this tiny force has faced some large well armed "professional" forces and come out ahead. Their tactics are bold and intuitive and opposition needs to be equally bold and intuitive. There is no political solution available. If Assard were to resign there is still Daesh to deal with. This is an "Apocolypse Now" scenario

Well Clete, give up your seat on the fence, and send in those bad a$$ Aussies to prevent the Apocalypse. You don't have to wait for US do you?

Take care of Assard and AQ while you are at it!

Show everyone how its done.

Well tal we might if we thought it was of some real benefit to us, but we don't do the US dirty work for them. We are not mercenaries or the world police. We made a considerable impact in the opening days of the Gulf War, which gives you an idea of capability. That same capabilty hasn't got the go ahead from Iraq. I have not sat on the fence on this, I have said from the start there needs to be concerted action and I have to bring the hard truth back to you. Your nation had a hand in creating this situation and I think you should fix it but instead you walked away and placed it in incompetent hands

I was thinking Mogadishu. Turtle Bay Manhattan is indeed prime real estate area ,and the UN building would easily convert to office space or condos.

so tal ,are you saying you opposed the Clintoon intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo ,especially the humanitarian bombing campaign in Belgrade that destroyed a large part of that city(and we also 'accidently ' bombed the Chinese embassy ) ? We almost ended up in a full scale war with the Russians during that adventure ( British lieutenant general Mike Clark refused to obey the orders of US General Wesley Clarke and that prevented a shootout for the Pristina Airport)

Really I was think it was time to give Putin a go, he could fund the UN out of oil revenue and find how difficult it is to accommodate diplomats, maybe he would have less veto's when he is footing the bill, but wait someone is sanctioning him you can't do that to your host can you, some very remote space, Kerluean Island, I'm sure France wouldn't mind

But an even better idea Ashmore Island they could gain first hand experience in dealing with refugees

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Ah, yes. Nation-building: The reason we lost 3 of our last 5 wars and tied another one. (No Championship ring for D.C.)

I'm not sure losing wars is nation building although my own nation is built on a sad wartime experence in a far away place, we have had many losing experiences since and some successes however we have never initiated a war. Now please remind me which of those wars did you win? Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Iraq II Afghanistan, oh I know, Granada because Iraq II was an extension of Iraq I. The Cold War doesn't count although it could be said you won that one. What is the point of winning a war if bankruptcy is the outcome?

Reality is none of us have won the important ones, The war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terror. These go on and on and have become generational

yup ,the West was getting bored with beheading videos so they adopted and did an immolation murder and tossed a homosexual 7 stories off a building . When he didn't die immediately ,the crowd finished him off with your boiler plate stoning . We love a good Grand Guignol.

Vietnam and Korea were both proxy wars in the greater cold war . Yes there was a heavy price and neither were executed very well. However ,the policy goal was containment . South Korea is still a free and independent nation Vietnam was lost only when the Democrat Congress grew tired of the effort . We did to our South Vietnam allies the same thing the emperor tried to do to the free Iraqi government . The emergence of the Islamic State from the former AQ in Iraq was predictable .

We can't do both because Assad is backed by the emperor's gumbas ;the 12ers in Tehran. The emperor has decided that once we finally bug out , a logical hegemon to fill the vacuum is the Persian empire.

A resurrected Persian empire to your ressurrected Roman empire, how quaint

I'm not kidding

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...er-iraq-s-army

The win I was referring to was Bosnia.