So we are now bombing Syria

[cromwell]

How utterly depressing. Lets sling a few bombs in there, let our politicians all feel noble and self righteous.

The biggest source of fundamentalist Islamic ideas and the biggest sponsor of groups like ISIS is Saudi Arabia - our supposed ally. They won't rest until we are dropping bombs on Iran as well. It will be interesting to see the contortions our beloved politicians get themselves into in order to justify the next round of this rolling war.

[Workingman]

The claim is that key infrastructure has been damaged with the potential to cut Daesh (I like that word) oil revenue by 10%.

So, only 90% more to go, nine days, say, then it will all be over.......

If the politicians believe that they are on another planet, possibly in another Universe.

[pederito1]

I suspect that Cameron`s real motive is to get Assad bumped off so he can create a nice stable, peaceful democracy just like he did in Libya..... Ha So will we be fighting Russia then?

[Workingman]

4th October 2015 Cameron said:

"Russia bombing Syria will lead to further radicalisation and increased terrorism"

Our bombs are so different, eh?

[cromwell]

I suspect that Cameron`s real motive is to get Assad bumped off so he can create a nice stable, peaceful democracy just like he did in Libya..... Ha So will we be fighting Russia then?

The more I think about it Ped, the more I believe that the strategy of the US and the West is to just deliberately wreck these countries and leave them weak. Having no plan for Iraq, Libya and Syria after the fighting is over? Making the same mistake three times on the trot is a bit much to believe.

The long term plan imo has always been to fight Iran, and to get to Iran you have to go through Syria. This is a rolling war and it isn't over yet, even after Assad has been removed.

The Russians are the unknown quantity because they have lined up on the Syrian side.

[Rodo]

Could it be that the real aim is to protect our country and our citizens from further terrorist attacks as far as possible?

[Suff]

You can pretty much guarantee this bombing campaign will not be protracted. We don't have the spare parts available.

Going after the oil is a smart move. There is no point in hammering the front lone troops of an organisation with billions of $ in funding and an unlimited pool of human "resources" (read cannon fodder), to support their regime.

First cut off the food. Then cut off the head, then burn the body...

Cameron can do this without having to coordinate too heavily with the other groups out there. Nobody is really going after the money yet. So he has an area which can add value without being an also ran. Russia, to date, has flown more than 2,600 sorties. Half a dozen UK planes will not add too much to that. But going after highly specified money related targets gives an added value beyond the numbers of planes.

[cromwell]

Could it be that the real aim is to protect our country and our citizens from further terrorist attacks as far as possible?

It could be Rodo but the 7/7 bombers were from Yorkshire, not Syria. (Maybe we should bomb Dewsbury?)

The people who murdered Lee Rigby weren't from Syria, they were British too. So are the people in just about every terrorist plot in the UK.

The people in the Charlie Hebdo massacre were French citizens, so was the Jewish bakery attacker, so were most of the attackers in the recent Paris massacre.

I am not any sort of supporter for Islamist terror groups but what we are doing is more likely to increase than decrease their numbers, imo.

[cromwell]

Going after the oil is a smart move. There is no point in hammering the front lone troops of an organisation with billions of $ in funding and an unlimited pool of human "resources" (read cannon fodder), to support their regime.

Indeed. ISIS doesn't have an air force so far as I'm aware - so I wonder why the US's air force have left ISIS controlled refineries untouched for so long?

[Workingman]

Won't the money generated by those refineries be needed to rebuild Iraq and Syria some day? It would be an expensive business to knock them down only to have to rebuild them. Saddam knew this, which is why his retreating troops torched the Kuwaiti oil wells.