Better start saving for next winters fuel bills

The Islamic theocracy of Iran which is characterised by the fusion of state and religion, restriction of political dissent and enforcement of religious conformity cannot be compared to the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church which emphasises moral and spiritual guidance without political control. There is a defined separation of church and state in most places (Vatican City excluded) and the church engages in reform and dialogue, advocating for human rights and religious freedom. If harm were to come to St Peter’s and the Pope, they would be replaced. The system of structure of the Catholic Church may influence politics through offering moral guidance, but it does not allow despotism.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, expressed concern that “a multipolarism marked by the primacy of power and self-referentiality is dangerously taking hold.”

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-03/cardinal-parolin-interview-middle-east-iran-us-israel-war.html

The chaos of missiles hitting numerous countries was created by the US and Israel choosing to attack. 

TheCatWoman said:

they don't even know why they went to war in the first place and as ever theres no plan for what ahppens when the war ends

They haven’t said. Trump et.al. are offering varying reasons. This may because they don’t have a valid reason that would be acceptable to the world or they haven’t thought about what they want to achieve. 

I was using the Catholic Church as a comparisson for modelling how a religious regime embeds itself into a countries structures rather than making any moral comparisson, I'm sorry if this comparisson offended anyone.

Why on earth start a war if you don;t know what you want out of it? It's not like there aren't enough examples of what happens when countries are bombed by outside forces and then left to rot, become failed states and rrouble the world for decades after.

If there's no reason that the rest of the world would accept, then it's corruption at the highest and worst level, as far as I can see. Do they think we'll accept it after the fact and things will go back to normal? I don't think so.

TheCatWoman said:

Why on earth start a war if you don;t know what you want out of it?

I think it is possible that Trump has a plan with no purpose other than to glorify himself and Netanyahu. He has no regard for the loss of life in Iran and the rest of the world. It is disgusting that some US politicians are so cavalier about the loss of life and are making sneering statements that are intended to humiliate. 

TheCatWoman said:

The other big questions are what will China and Russia do? Russia may well be less of a problem seeing as it's so tied up in Ukraine, but I wouldn't bet on it

It’s difficult to know which way things will go for Russia. All this human life lost needlessly in the world because people like Putin, Trump, the Iranian Islamic regime, Netanyahu and others are so power hungry, greedy and impervious to suffering. The money spent on war could have alleviated the effects of famine and poverty.

Yes, I've heard the same about Gaza too, it seems like they want to make Iran into another Gaza. It's also impacting on Ukraine as resourses are being pulled away from there.

The other big questions are what will China and Russia do? Russia may well be less of a problem seeing as it's so tied up in Ukraine, but I wouldn't bet on it and who knows what China's stance on this is and will it remain seemingly neutral for long? China could well end up being the big winner in all of this chaos?

The Kurds were left without a homeland after the carve up at the end of WW2, many of the countries in the middle east were pretty much created from lines drawn on a map without regard for natural boundaries or tribal ones. We are taught to think of "tribes" as a bad thing, but would we be happy to a foreign power carve up our country? Tribes are really just groupings of people, in other words nations.

Yeah, I was hearing that too about Gaza, more starvation and lives lost. It's like they started another war to cover the genocide there as they were getting criticised. So much loss of life, everywhere, and more will follow with the destabilisation of the region. The price of war is always paid in human lives. :( 

The Kurds, as a repressed people in Iran are an obvious choice for Trump, but he is going to have difficulty getting all the factions on his side. Some commentators think there will be a long war with little prospect of peace, while others think the war will be short but peace in the region will not be attainable for decades. Neither sound like a realistic plan for those with a care for limiting the number of people being killed. Meanwhile, Gaza has almost been forgotten. Food aid is not getting through smoothly, partly because aid workers and their resources are depleted but the border crossing was closed again a few weeks ago. Israel is continuing to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and take over Palestinian land. 

I would think that Trump’s advisers are aware of where many of Iran’s bases are, if not all. Trump may not care and is probably happy to target as many as he can, withdraw, sit back in comfort and observe the chaos he has helped create. It seems that lives don’t matter.

The Kurds, as a repressed people in Iran are an obvious choice for Trump, but he is going to have difficulty getting all the factions on his side. Some commentators think there will be a long war with little prospect of peace, while others think the war will be short but peace in the region will not be attainable for decades. Neither sound like a realistic plan for those with a care for limiting the number of people being killed. Meanwhile, Gaza has almost been forgotten. Food aid is not getting through smoothly, partly because aid workers and their resources are depleted but the border crossing was closed again a few weeks ago. Israel is continuing to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and take over Palestinian land. 

I would think that Trump’s advisers are aware of where many of Iran’s bases are, if not all. Trump may not care and is probably happy to target as many as he can, withdraw, sit back in comfort and observe the chaos he has helped create. It seems that lives don’t matter.

TheCatWoman said:

The other big questions are what will China and Russia do? Russia may well be less of a problem seeing as it's so tied up in Ukraine, but I wouldn't bet on it

It’s difficult to know which way things will go for Russia. All this human life lost needlessly in the world because people like Putin, Trump, the Iranian Islamic regime, Netanyahu and others are so power hungry, greedy and impervious to suffering. The money spent on war could have alleviated the effects of famine and poverty.

Yes, I've heard the same about Gaza too, it seems like they want to make Iran into another Gaza. It's also impacting on Ukraine as resourses are being pulled away from there.

The other big questions are what will China and Russia do? Russia may well be less of a problem seeing as it's so tied up in Ukraine, but I wouldn't bet on it and who knows what China's stance on this is and will it remain seemingly neutral for long? China could well end up being the big winner in all of this chaos?

The Kurds were left without a homeland after the carve up at the end of WW2, many of the countries in the middle east were pretty much created from lines drawn on a map without regard for natural boundaries or tribal ones. We are taught to think of "tribes" as a bad thing, but would we be happy to a foreign power carve up our country? Tribes are really just groupings of people, in other words nations.

Yeah, I was hearing that too about Gaza, more starvation and lives lost. It's like they started another war to cover the genocide there as they were getting criticised. So much loss of life, everywhere, and more will follow with the destabilisation of the region. The price of war is always paid in human lives. :(