No, I understand, and it's not my intention to attack straw men - I agree with a lot of what you are saying with regard to foreign policy; I was referring to your comment that the security services were suppressing information. The information and facts are there to be read. Various heads of special forces and intelligence services have vehemently condemned the short-sighted actions of our interventions, too. I don't think you're an Islamist apologist - you've stated quite clearly that you condemn terrorism - I'm just merely suggesting that there's a lot of works out there that you may like to read as it will enhance your understanding. I think you're being attacked here largely because people are talking past one-another, and it does read as though you are skipping over the ideological factors involved which are not related to the West. Obviously it's going to be hard to have reasonable dialogue right now when emotions here are so high. I've been really angered and depressed the past week with what's happened in Manchester and London, so I'm sure others are feeling the same and that's likely why these threads are so highly charged. It's also worth noting that in the Manchester bombing thread, you weren't the one who said that 'you literally didn't care'. Two others did and those comments seemed to have been entirely glossed over.
With regard to your Iraq question: Yes, I do. I fought in a few of these conflicts when I was younger, but I always argued that Iraq would be a disaster and I took part in the marches against it before it happened. The author that I mentioned, William Polk, wrote a brilliant book on the failings of that intervention titled Understanding Iraq. The Chilcot report also vindicated the views of all of those who opposed the war on the grounds that it would lead to severe consequences unless a realistic and feasible political solution was implemented.
giving his intellect a pat on the back
doesn't change the fact that he is basically saying that its our fault they are killing children at a pop concert
guys like conker always try and take the i am so intelligent and you are so stupid line
when basically his argument could be pulled apart by anyone that can count to ten
you cant argue with people that have permanent chips on their shoulder
he is pretending he isn't anti police now when his post history is littered with attacks on them
guy is a prime example of whats wrong with our country
a juiced up angry racist midget that blames everything apart from himself about his life being shit