Thursday 3rd November

Aleppo and Mosul are two cities, not that far apart, in two countries created by the West in the aftermath of the First World War and the collapse of the Turkish Empire.  They were and are still a mix of differing tribal and religious groups.  Both countries were once thriving with Hospitals and Schools and Universities and Industries, and by and large different Religions were tolerated, though both were ruled by single party dictators.

Oh how things have changed.  The War on Terror (read that as War on Muslims) and the greed for Oil has ruined these two beautiful countries.  And now both cities, Mosul and Aleppo are being attacked and bombed and brought to ruins.  But how our wonderful Media are reporting these two battles is so differently.  Aleppo is being attacked by a tyrant and his merciless protector Russia, children are being massacred and the daily numbers recorded.  The fact that the West armed and financed and trained and encouraged the Rebel forces to try to depose the legitimate Government is somehow forgotten; the attacks of that Government and accompanying ‘atrocities’ is all that is recorded.  In Mosul, a particularly nasty group calling itself ISIS or Islamic State is holding on to its last remaining stronghold in Iraq.  The forces attacking this city are made up of the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga (hated by the Iraqi’s) and are being assisted from the air by America and France and us.  This is being portrayed as liberation, almost a humanitarian mission and armchair strategists are reporting on every inch of ground regained.  Nobody is counting the dead.

In both cities innocent civilians are being bombed and killed.  Both battles are being fought with weapons supplied by the West.  Both situations are the direct result of interference by the West in their respective countries and attempts, one successful, in deposing Dictators we disagreed with.  Welcome to the Twenty-first Century, this is how we do things these days…