Scottish Nationalism

[jebus197]

I of course think we should keep some of our regiments, for ceremonial/tourism and other purposes and that we will need some small military forces to patrol our fishing grounds, oil reserves and coastguard duties etc.

But there will be no point at all in having such a vast military. We will be on a similar scale with countries like Belgium and Norway etc, so we will simply have to trim our ambitions accordingly.

We certainly won't be going to war with England again any time soon!

[THEMADFIFER]

Brilliant! Proper responses without Mickolass and also great as one thinks they may be going out on a limb when stating an opinion but for the most part we seem to agree. The military can be cut back.

The trouble with leasing or U.S ownership of Scottish soil is you have the potential for creating Guantanamo bay type installations.
Short term yes, I would keep the US bases here. For the long term however I would wish to see them relocated so that Scotland is not a target either.

I agree about the coments made about the former Yugoslavia and we do forget that labour did a lot for this U.K as a whole but between Iraq, Afganistan and the under handed dealings I feel we really need to distance ourselves from the British and American ideology.

I mean lets be honest why have we still not done anything about Mugabe if we are truly to believe that we are acting in a humanitarian way. As for Bin Laden. I do not believe for one second he is dead. Not when you can interogate the man at the top for intel by any means you wish and apparently blow his face off so his body could not be recognised, let alone before dumping the body at sea. Absolute nonsense!

Sorry but I believe it is imperative that we distance ourselves from these types of regimes. Sit on the U.N council and lobby to address humanitarian issues, but stear clear of oppressors, allied or otherwise.

[jebus197]

This isn't a debate about Bin Laden. But even the (remaining) Al-Quada leadership admitted he was dead and promised 'terrible revenge' for his killing, stating that we would 'long for the days of Osama, when we understood the full terribleness of the revenge that was coming our way.' That sounds pretty much like an admission that he's dead to me.

Like him or feel indifferent towards him, Obama clearly stated that "we would never see Bin Laden walk this earth again." If he can say this so emphatically (and publicly), I'm inclined to believe him, otherwise Al-Quada would respond by producing him. They know they got their guy. They can listen in to a lot of these guys chatting on the wire between each other, and as the news filtered through there was general acceptance amongst most terrorist groups (and on many well known Jihadist web sites, of which I saw a few) that he was dead. Also it's not so unusual to shoot someone in the head (or face area) if you are trying to kill them and you want them to die quickly. In fact shooting in the head is the quickest and most effective way to do this. But the problem is it really isn't pretty. I've seen guys with their heads and faces blown off and it's not something most people would want to look at. Our news agencies in the West don't tend to release photos like this anyway.

So yeah I think he's dead. I'd be willing to bet that we don't hear from again, just as Obama said. The only thing I don't agree with is how he was killed. They could have and probably did have the opportunity to take him back alive. But instead they used 'targeted assassination' , which is illegal under international law. The reason they did this is because there was literally nowhere in America they could take him. He would face a huge (and probably heavily armed) lynch mob wherever he went.

But yeah maybe eventually get rid of the Yanks. But it isn't so bad. There has never been a successful terrorist campaign in Scotland anyway. We are hardly much of a target. So having the Yanks around for now, works out quite well for a lot of people.

[Tocasaid]

Not sure what the fuss re. Independence Lite is all about? Are the Unionist dinosaurs trying to force some cracks in the SNP already? Its just another step in the process. Better a step in the right direction than none at all.

Tocasaid: Those leadership canditates for the Unionist parties.