Steely Dan

FOODLOVER, on Yesterday, 10:49 , said:

I'm no American basher, but there is considerable fear that Al-Qaeda are part of the opposition to the current odious Syrian regime, and should the Muslim brotherhood take over you will get ethnic cleansing of minority groups there as sure as night follows day. Then there is the thorny problem of Iran backing Syria not to mention Russia. I wish something could be done but this is a situation with two dead ends but you still have to choose.

This move though predictable demonstrates that the opinion of the French Muslim population, who voted for Hollande in large numbers is more important to him than any commitments France may have made vis foreign policy. I just hope France don't find they need bailing out by America in the near future or they may well be disappointed.

I remember the night of the Lockerbie bombing very well; I was driving up to Glasgow and got delayed for a while whilst the emergency services cleared debris off the motorway, it was only upon reaching my destination that I learned what happened.

Libya, as has been pointed out has form when it comes to terrorism, there was also the murder of Yvonne Fletcher, a policewoman on duty outside the Libyan embassy. I do concede that BAe Systems did sign a large contract with Libya shortly after  Megrahi was released, but as with all conspiracy theories circumstantial evidence is easy to amass, whereas anything contradicting it is overlooked by the tinfoil hat crowd. Perhaps this is indeed one of the exceptions where there is more to the case than meets the eye, there is likely to be such a case based on the law of averages, but even if this were so I don't think anyone would know for sure for another 30 years or so.

The situation is complicated for sure. Here is AQ, or one of it's affiliates engaging in sectarian violence against the Shiite Houthis in North Yemen. Note also the last paragraph of the link where it observes that Iran is indeed getting more active in Yemeni affairs.

http://www.guardian....ks-school-march

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Here is an interesting read about the actions taken by the POTUS in relation to gay marriage.

http://www.americant...masquerade.html

The future 'evolution' of his views and their implications are of interest.