View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Tuesday 2 June 2015

From Moscow to Washington, from Kiev to Ramadi

May I briefly point east? A certain ursine is making rather boastful noises about how good their military strategy is, how powerful they are and that America will start World War III. Well, I fundamentally disagree with US foreign policy on many counts, but I do think we need to get a little more worried about Moscow. Ukraine has fallen below the radar, but they're still shooting the hell out of each other courtesy non-present Russian little green men and their kit. Methinks Putin is probing us to see if he is ready for a fight which he could win. If he thinks he is, we won't be ready. I'm sorry, but Obama is no longer the right man for the job in the White House from that point of view. And was it really such a good idea to get rid of all those horrible dictators? Saddam Hussein, Gadaffi, odious people in their own right. But they kept the cork on a bottle from which a very evil genii, IS, has now emerged. Going back to Putin, he has leverage in the Middle East (Assad of Syria), but it could be in his interest to have more rumblings in the desert - and making out that he is the man to put the cork back in aforementioned bottle.