Rue

It is not a valid point at all. Using your argument no one should protect innocent civilians from slaughter if they are not part of a large army that fights all over the world. With due respect its a stupid analogy that shows Trump equates all Kurds as armed. So do you.

American soldiers would not be used as human shields. Kurds will be human targets. Your analogies as usual reflect your Trump can do no wrong bias.

Welcome to the forum Teena. Some of us old folks on the Forum get grumpy from time to time. Laugh us off when it happens. We need more bran in our diet. I think awhile back Wes was making a point that if you apply a law to everyone the same way, i.e., you say all citizens not just some, can not wear visible religious attire, it technically does not discriminate. It would if it singled out only one group. I think in Quebec where I was born, there are complex factors involved. Quebecois puritaines who call themselves purlaines and like to talk of protecting and preserving their culture use code words to justify racism. They claim they are concerned about their "language" but then when people speak French fluently but are Arabic, African or from Haiti then they switch to them not being "culturally" attuned to Quebec culture and then it becomes something else other than simply language. Its always been that way. Quebecois have never liked anyone not from their own town. It can be very inbred that way like the Quebec French language itself. Montreal where I was born I exclude from that category. Montreal was always an international city until the subsequent separatist governments harassed everyone. Rene Levesque himself was not in any way shape or form a bigot but many in his party were especially Parizeau. Luciens Bouchard was not. I would say Quebec passed Bill 21 to imitate France's law which is what they love to do. The irony is when it was passed they left a large cross up in the National Assembly and it remains and none of the members who passed Bill 21 found nothing strange about that religious icon remaining visible while passing a law to make religion invisible. I am like many moderates on this board. I think a full face covering goes too far if you want to testify at trial, drive a motor vehicle, engage in anything requiring serving the public or engaging in operation of machinery. I myself look at that as a functional issue only requiring we see a face. In regards to anything else, I don't wet my pants over how people look or dress. It is their business.l. I can't and won't judge how others dress unless it becomes a safety or danger or security issue. So if you have blue hair and two hundred earings in one ear lobe its your business.

Nice try and distorting and misrepresenting what happened. The Canadian Armed Forces never abandon the Kurds as Trump ordered his soldiers to do. The Canadians did not leave exposing the Kurds. Stop distorting what happened. In fact the Canadian Armed Forces mission ended after ISIS was defeated. Iraqi and Kurdish forces were left. Canada was an equal ally to both and left them talking. The Kurds were never an ally of the Turks ever. They never fought with them ever. The Kurds did not ask Canada to stay neither did the Iraqis. The Kurds asked the US to stay until a better way could be arranged to prevent their exposure to the Turkish forces bent on wiping them out. Canada would have stayed had they been asked. The Kurds were in no imminent danger. Get your facts straight if you are going to defend Trump's cowardly bull shit.

https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/kurdistan-religion/ Hang on. Their version of Sunni Islam is completely different. They do not consider themselves "Muslims" in the same sense as other Sunni Muslims precisely because they have been targeted by other Sunni Muslims. The analogy would be similar to the Amidyah of Pakistan who have been subject to great hardship by other Muslims (except Ismaili). Yes they descendants of the Medes and are said to have moved into the Middle East 4,000 years ago and Salah Ad-Din Yusuf was a Kurd. The Kurds in fact first resisted the Islamic invasion during the seventh century AD .. Most Kurds are now Sunni Muslims with one-fifth Shi'ite. Kurds can also be Sufi , Alawi (the minority sect Assad of Syria is in), Jewish, Christian and Yazidi. Their culture is completely different than the Sunni Muslims of the Arab world or Muslim Sharia law states, Pakistan, Indonesia, African Muslim states, Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, Iran or the Sunnis in Pakistan or Bangladesh. It is that cultural difference that has caused them to be persecuted by both Sunni and Shiite Muslim majorities in countries where they have lived. So do not lump them in with people who persecute them simply because they follow Islamic beliefs. They do not use the word "Muslim" to define their collective identity, they use the word "Kurd". Other Muslims would use the word "Muslim" not them. Just like Amidyah Muslims also the target of persecution by other Muslims refer to themselves as Amidyah in their description. That is what I should have made more clear. Thank you.

He is abandoning Kurds not just leaving Syria. His soldiers could have withdrawn without exposing the Kurds as he did. I doubt anyone of the soldiers he ordered out agreed with him. I do not know a soldier who would deliberately abandon his allies unless he was a coward. Unlike Trump his soldiers are not cowards.

Well Trudeau is very close. Here you go: Prime Minister Celine Dion

China is only going to become more problematic. Its current leader is an old time Commie dictator and the country looks like its swinging back to Maoism.

Did you? I would prefer Canadian soldiers who trained the Kurds and fought with them speak for themselves. I defer to their opinion not my own or yours. I think you and I for the sake of discussion on the forum have our opinions but I defer to those soldiers who fought with them.

Yes but Kurds are neither Muslim nor Communist and are hated equally by both. In that sense they are the closest thing to Jews without being Jews so as a Jew I admit my moral bias in support of them. They face identical problems and it is why even Netanyahu who did not want to alienate Turkey because of NATO had to speak out against Erdogan's treatment of Kurds. There is only so much the West can overlook when a dictator like Erdogan starts massacring innocent civilians, arresting all his journalists and placing thousands in jail for having the nerve to express disagreement with him. He is a dictator pure and simple no different than a Putin or the fat boy in North Korea so if Trump embraces him now and all you Trump groupies look the other way as you have with his alliances with Putin and Fatboy Kim, all I say is, you are in dream land defending this odious demented sob.

They were not Al Quaeda, they were the Mujahadeen. In fact the Mujahadeen hated Al Quaeda and did not ally with them ever and in fact still fight them. Al Quaeda is a Turkish-iUS-Saudi financed mercenary creation formed from a conglomeration of Arab terror cells by recruiting young Muslims from many countries. It was supposed to depose Gaddafi in Libya, then take the confiscated Libyan military weapons and proceed to kill off Assad in Syria. There were supposed to be Muslim Brotherhood leaders placed in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. Morsi did come to power in Egypt and Obama's cousin was the chief financial officer raising money for the Sudanese military regime that sided with the Muslim Brotherhood which Obama was a full supporter and member of to the point he placed 10 Muslim brotherhood officials in his Presidential office and Deputies in the FBI and CIA to rewrite manuals to edit out the word Muslim from any reports on terrorists. Morsi was disposed by the Egyptian military when he tried to incite Muslims to commit mass murder against Coptic Christians and opened the Egyptian border to movement of Muslim terror cells not fighting Assad but bent on destroying Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan. Erdogan does not believe in Arab monarchies. He has always been a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama's allies which want all monarchies replaced. He has had an on and off alliance with Iran and Russia flipping and flopping back and forth and turning on them as fast as he has allied with them depending on his needs in the immediate moment when fighting either Assad or the Kurds who he hates as much as he does Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Israel. He has never ever been an ally of the US. He has openly criticized the US because he considered only Obama his ally.

Excuse me Canada fought side by side the Kurds in Iraq and trained their soldiers. Next you call Turkey a real ally of the US and NATO and refer back to the cold war with JFK really? What planet are you on Mam, here is the one I am on: https://www.inss.org.il/publication/erdogans-threat-on-nuclear-militarization/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/18/recep-tayyip-erdogan-turns-turkey-away-us/ https://nationalinterest.org/feature/erdogans-turkey-no-american-ally-40987 You guys want to use WW2 analogies and equate Kurds with Russians, then its fair to say Trump is appeasing a Hitler in looking the other way with Erdogan-its another US isolationist apology only its not for Hitler this time, its for Erdogan. Isolationism and appeasement is what you want? It fuels dictators and their massacres. https://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/erdogans-anti-western-backlash-strains-ties-with-eu-us-7938605 Here is the world I live in. The US has to decide who its allies are in the Middle East real fast. The cold hard reality is Netanyahu can not stay a loyal ally to Trump if Trump cozies up to Erdogan and neither will Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE all who consider Turkey's leader as dangerous and negative to the area as Iran if not more so. Even Netanyahu was forced to go public and challenge Erdogan as an anti-Semite although he tried to stay quiet. He had no choice. No the Middle East allies of the US will not welcome its turning its back on Erdogan anymore than they would if he turned his back on Iran. Erdogan is an ally of the failed Muslim Brotherhood attempt to take over Egypt, Tunisia, and replace the monarchies loyal to the US in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan. That does not make Erdogan a real ally or any ally any more than Trump's getting into bed with North Korea or Russia has made them allies although no doubt in the minds of you Trump groupies it does.

Thank you I get that, see my other post. You make good points. I do understand the Kurds are not all angels and alliances are fluid but to turn your back on them this fast is wrong. Also the Taliban were called the Mujahadeen. They were just fine being fundamentalist Muslims as long as they fought Russians. Here is the point. They only became enemies not because of their fundamentalist Muslim views about life and women, but when they refused to let the US tell them what to do. Ask Canadian soldiers why they have ptsd. The people raping the boys in broad day light as normal recreational activity the soldiers were told to ignore were not Taliban they were pro US allies. The poppy growers who the Taliban stopped, were put back in by the US and that is why the Taliban resurfaced. The Taliban when they were Mujahadeen were not screwing boys in the ass and raping girls out in the open as it is today in Kabul. Yah our priorities are phacked Wes. The only reason anyone went into Afghanistan was because its full of Lithium. Now no one knows how to get the Lithium out at this time given how impossible it would be to police the rail ways needed to get it out. As for our soldiers, they went in to protect innocent civilians not justify drug lords, pedophiles, fundamentalist Islam, just basic moral decency. They did not fail, our politicians did using them and telling them to look the other way no differently than Koffe Anan and the UN ordered Canadian soldiers to look the other way as a genocide transpired in front of their eyes they felt they could have stopped because of political considerations, the same ones Trump now engages in to justify abandoning Kurds. I do respect your points. I get them.

Irag, Iran, Syria and Turkey, yes, they all have engaged in massacres against Kurds. So what is your point? Do you have one? How does that justify Trump or any leader of a nation that claims to have the moral high road in fighting terror justify abandoning a people that was their ally fighting terrorists? If the Kurds were as you Trump loyalists argue as bad as the Russians why did the US het in bed with them? What you are arguing is-oh sure we knew the Kurds were bad, we just used them...really that is your argument....that is your moral high ground for fighting terrorists, you will use anyone? Is that what has become of the concept of morality for you Trump supporters-its whatever suits your needs at the moment? Isn't that precisely the point-that Trump is immoral precisely because he does what ever he thinks is best for his own self? How is that the vision of a democracy? How is that what nations envision and share others to follow? How does a whore like Trump who has no morals and insults anyone and anything and questions their integrity have any? How does the leader of the free world accuse a people faced with genocide in Turkey of having it easy and that's why they allied with the US as he did? Are you really that blind to what he has done in the last day or so? Do you have any idea what now happens? Erdogan is free now...he has a green light to finish what Iraq, Syria and Iran started. I have always criticized Netanyahu in Israel for being too close to Trump and now I say why. How does the US giving the green light to massacre Kurds bode well for Israel? What makes them think Trump won't do the same thing to Israel? He has no allies. He's turned on everyone and anyone in the name of his ego. There is no distinction between US foreign policy and Trump's delusions as to who is useful to him personally in terms of bolstering his ego. He is out of control and has rendered any vestige of remaining trust in his country gone. I now predict the people propping him, the US Armed Forces network of high command have no choice but to distance themselves. Disgracing their soldiers as he did asking them to abandon a loyal ally will not fly with honourable American soldiers who were in Syria. There will be a closed door backlash on this one. The US Armed Forces do not abandon their allies as Trump has. For anyone who wants to label Kurds terrorists, where were you when the Canadian Armed Forces sent by Trudeau trained them and fought side by side them defeating ISIL? Did you condemn Trudeau for getting into bed with them? Now suddenly you want to turn Kurds into terrorists?

Are you referring to the noise of Turkey massacring Kurds because Trump says finding allies is easy or said the Kurds were not allies of the US in WW2? Canada was an ally of the US in WW2, so was Britain and both support having trained and worked along side Kurdish forces to defeat ISIS as did the US. Do you have a point? How is throwing the Kurds under the bus justified. How does it promote trust in working with the US if it quickly turns on its allies? Why would anyone using the reasoning Trump now does, consider any alliance with the US anything but shallow and temporary and subject to immediate change? Are you guys really that partisan in favour of Trump you justify turning your back on an ally that fought side by side it? Are you really going to tell me the Kurds are Stalinists no better than Isis? You really want to ignore what is happening to them in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and write them all off like Bush has, as Stalinist bad guys? Man oh man you Trump loyalists go to absurd lengths to justify his deranged lunatic thought processes.

What is your point? Are you equating Kurds now to Joseph Stalin? Really? Do you know anything about what Turkey has done to its Kurds and Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran? You really want to call Kurds the equivalent of Russian Commies and defend Erdogan? That is what your Trump partisan position has turned you into? Come on. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10932/turkey-persecution-christians-kurds https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/12/the_kurds_and_president_trump.html https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Turkeys-policies-and-the-Kurds-in-the-Middle-East-578608

Guess so Doggie.

Look at all these violent thugs: So how far do we go with the posts Xul?

Well if its ok for XUL to post pictures I guess we all can.

Other people have been shut down on this forum for using photos as you have. Your use of photos does not prove your point. That is what I am challenging your use of photos. You use photos to troll. You inflame the dialogue by trying to dominate the dialogue with pictures that are selective. That XUl makes you a Chinese Communist Party shrill. It makes you nothing more than a troll if you can't do anything but generalize that every single person in Kong Kong who protests is a criminal which has been your intent from the get go with the pictures. You bet I challenge you on that and using photos to inflame. Its been done on other topics and been shut down for far less photos. If its not now that inconsistency won't surprise me as trying to figure out what is considered trolling on this board has always been a fluid definition but I am saying clearly, showing picture after picture as you have does not prove your point at all, just the opposite and its trolling. What it shows is you are shrilling, i.e., screaming, i.e., calling out over and over again that Hong King protesters are all bad. It proves zero. That does not mean I am playing victim or making you one. I\. It means I challenge you as a one sided Communist sock puppet who can't grasp the concept of someone disagreeing with your beloved Communist Party. Its not a personal attack. Its an attack on your use of photos and smearing of Hong Kong dissidents and your selective one sided view You are not being personally attacked you use of photos and your pro Communist views that render you a sock puppet in favour of brutal force against Kong Kong dissidents that are challenged. I do not know you personally to be able to attack you personally. Further your attempting to excuse brutality by saying others do it is illogical. Since when is brutality excused by other brutality? What kind of brilliant reasoning is that? What that kind of attempt to defend your police's brutality shows is you know what your country does is brutal and try justifying it by saying we do it too. Really. You know what...I have said in this country when the police act excessively what do you think happens Xul? Do you see people put in political prisons? Are they shot in the stomach? Tell me as questionable as our police might be when was the last time they needed to shoot someone in the stomach point blank range at a rally? Thanks I think I have a safer chance in Canada of holding a rally that is non violent than in China. Tell me you really want to compare human rights records in China with any other country? Really? Go on then Explain how you handle your Muslims because your country criticizes Israel for how it handles the West Bank or how other countries handle Muslims so do tell us. How about Tibet.?How are things there these days for its people. Do they love living under Chinese rule? Here let me spell it out-your country engages in brutal totalitarianism and excessive force-the exact things your country accuses other countries of. I support the right of anyone to peacefully protest and your trying to show up all people protesting as criminals is bullshit. Have a nice day comrade.

I do not think myself most of the Canadian Green platform is realistic but I totally respect your reasons for voting Green. I agree with the version in Europe that is less dependent on governments and places more emphasis on initiating changes through non profit organizations, businesses, community initiatives, individual behaviour which is why I agree with Scrib's comments but also support your dismay with current choices and your intent...

Disagree strongly for the reasons I stated but I went back and deleted the personal references to you Y, they were uncalled for. I strongly believe we must contain terror all over the Globe and not think it goes away if it is not in our back yard. I disagree with your isolationist stance.

Yes I did and with due respect equating the domino theory during the cold war to terrorism is not the same. Y I get the hegemony that goes on. If you want to criticize all nations for hegemony and carving up the world for their business interests I get that. Fighting terrorism is another issue. Terrorism and or the genocide of Kurds are different issues. I would argue there is a different moral imperative. That said my answers to you are a tad shrill because I have witnessed terrorism. Sorry. I am arguing the point not you. I went too far and have edited a past post.

Strongly agree.

Wow you like beards do you......me I think Elizabeth May was hot. Wow. Did you see her wave when she came in?