The Shoreham Air Crash.

On July 24th (24/7/15) Turkey began conducting air-strikes against what it claimed were Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in the Dohuk region of northern Iraq.

These strikes came to an end after a frantic week of diplomacy that saw members of Osama bin Laden's family being killed in a plane crash just outside London, UK and another air crash at the Carfest car show in Cheshire, UK the following day (1/8/15). During this period the US also sent a formal diplomatic communique to Turkey informing them that the strikes in Dohuk had endangered US troops who were in the area training Kurdish forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

On Thursday (20/8/15) Turkey again launched air-strikes in Dohuk. Two days later, on the Saturday (22/8/15) there was another significant air-crash in the UK this time at the Shoreham air-show in Sussex, South-East England. At present it has been confirmed that 7 people were killed in the crash but as wreckage is cleared from the crash site there are worries that the death toll to rise as high as 21.

In the first instance this crash created scenes that gave everyone in the UK a small taste of what we mean when we talk about an air-strike. I'm sorry if I sound heartless when talking about those killed but in the day since the crash I've heard of at least 110 people being killed in the war against ISIL and already I'm thinking about taking some time off again.

Obviously the crash also gave everyone ample opportunity to express their shock, horror and outrage at the incident.

In the immediate moments after the story broke reporters were keen to stress that the crash had taken place "beyond the bounds of the air-show." In part this was a way to emphasise that the aircraft hadn't crashed into the large crowd attending the show which undoubtedly would have resulted in a far higher death toll. Also within the UK incidents that occur within the bounds of the air-show are handled by the Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) while incidents outside are handled by the Department of Transport (DoT).

Mainly though when English speakers talk about a person's behaviour being wrong they sometimes describe it as being "beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour" or "beyond the bounds of the law."

The aircraft actually crashed into the A27 which is one of the main roads in the area that runs alongside Shoreham airport where the air-show was taking place. This obviously led to the route being immediately closed. If a course of action is no longer available to someone an English speaker may refer to it as "that route being closed off to them."

Beyond those headlines though there were also a lot of incredibly specific references contained in the incident;

Although the fireball created by the crash gave many people a small taste of what an air-strike looks like an expert would describe it as a very ineffective explosion. What everyone saw was diesel, gasoline and kerosene catching fire creating lots of smoke and flames rather then then type of invisible but highly destructive shockwave created when a bomb goes off. The scene did though very closely resemble a Napalm bomb exploding. Napalm essentially just being diesel.

On Friday (21/8/15) the US finally admitted that ISIL had used chemical weapons - specifically Sulphur Mustard Gas - against Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces on August 11th (11/8/15). While the US were doing that ISIL were actually again using Mustard Gas against the Peshmerga - this time on the Teleskof front-line just outside the city of Mosul.

Along with Friday's (21/8/15) terror attack on a train on the France/Belgium border the use of chemical weapons obviously provides a further example of why this war needs to be won sooner rather then later. However in terms of altering current battlefield tactics it shouldn't make much difference beyond making sure that troops on the ground have appropriate protective equipment such as chemical suits and gas-masks.

If the attacks continue though the US-led coalition could take the extreme approach of using incendiary bombs such as Thermite or Napalm against ISIL's chemical weapon units. This would utterly incinerate any dangerous chemicals rendering them harmless. However creating temperatures in excess of 1,400C anything within the bombed area would also be completely incinerated. If there is a single miss hitting a civilian area the propaganda victory to ISIL would be immense.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash the commentator on the air-display - in footage that has been widely repeated on various news channels - can be heard reassuring the assembled crowd to remain calm because there was nothing they can do and they should just standby and watch. In relation to the incident itself that is incredibly sound advice. However you wonder whether the international community such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should remain so passive in the face of Turkey's aggression towards it's neighbours.

On August 20th (20/8/15) BBC News broadcast globally a short report on female PKK fighters in northern Iraq. Turkey was absolutely furious about this with the Foreign Ministry lodging a formal protest at the report showing the PKK fighters as protectors of human rights and women's rights against ISIL rather then as the brutal terrorists Turkey labels them.

I can only imagine what would have happened if Turkey had seen a similar France24 report that pointed out that there are only around 800 PKK fighters in northern Iraq and there's a lot of tension between them and the roughly 8000 Peshmerga. Not least because Turkey claims that it has already killed 771 PKK fighters.

On the day the BBC News report went out 8 Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK roadside bomb. As a result a lot of the Turkish protests against the BBC took the form of demanding to know how the UK would react if 8 of it's citizens were killed in fiery explosion on a tarmacked road.

While the Shoreham air-crash was unfolding the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) still existed although with a radically different purpose.

As I've mentioned before the PKK form part of a sort of arc of resistance with groups such as the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Palestine and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Northern Ireland. However I think the differences between the INLA, the IRA and the PIRA is a rather niche area of knowledge. For example I don't think that even most people in the UK understand that what they think of as the IRA is actually the PIRA.

The UK responding to the Shoreham air-crash by launching air-strikes against County Meath in the Republic of Ireland makes about as much sense as Turkey conducting air-strikes against Dohuk in Iraq in response to the ISIL bombing of Kurds in Suruc, Turkey on July 20th (20/7/15).

The specific type of aircraft that crashed in Shoreham was the Hawker Hunter. This was introduced by Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1950 and has been used by roughly 20 other nations including Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However in remained in active service with the Lebanese air force until 2014 - last year.

I think that - in the west at least - Lebanon is probably most famous for Hezbollah. Amongst right-wing Israelis and Americans Hezbollah are thought of as simply a terrorist group. This may be true but within Lebanon they are much more then that accounting for 11% of MP's in Parliament and in many neighbourhoods take on the role of the state providing essential services such as electricity, refuse collection and medical care. Recently Hezbollah have sided with the Syrian government joining the fight in Lebanon's neighbour.

Due to the allegiance with Hezbollah and the historical distribution of religious minorities Syria's border with Lebanon has become of massive strategic importance to the Syrian government. The Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition that the US and Turkey amongst others have been backing to fight ISIL have instead been focused on fighting the Syrian government and Hezbollah in an effort to push down from Syria's Aleppo and Idlib provinces into the Latakia province which borders Lebanon.

US President Barack Obama still seems to be labouring under the delusion that the Syria conflict is an oppressed people rising up against an evil dictator. However anyone who follows the conflict in any level of detail can see quite clearly that it is a sectarian conflict with Sunni Muslims trying to wipe out Shia Muslims along with any other religious group such as Christians, Yazidi and Druze. These sectarian tensions have already begun to spill over into Lebanon with periodic outbreaks of fighting between Sunni and Shia groups.

Due to the increased sectarian tensions and the pressures created by the some 1 million refugees that have flooded into Lebanon from Syria the Lebanese Parliament has been unable to elect a President for the past year. Although the Lebanese people have a remarkable ability to seemingly muddle through any adversity people are now starting to get very annoyed as shown by this weekend's mass, violent protests.

At this point those protests are being driven by angry people who simply want their bins collected rather then by any wider political or sectarian issue. However given the history within Lebanon of religious groups taking over vital services they could soon morph into something much more serious.

If the Lebanese government falls or if the international support continues allowing JAF to take Latakia province it is unlikely they will stop there. Instead the border with Lebanon will simply disappear as the battle between Sunnis and Shias engulfs the country. If this happens it will immediately leave Lebanon's roughly 5 million people at the mercy of ISIL's violence. In response it is likely that many Lebanese will try and flee the country joining the flood of refugees across the Mediterranean making the current refugee crisis much worse and really leaving nothing between ISIL and the European Union (EU).

Shoreham is actually very close to my old stomping ground of Brighton. There are a vast number of contentious stories I can tell about my time in Brighton but the one that seems most relevant at the moment relates to my time working as a traffic warden. My training officer previously worked as a custody officer at the police's regional custody centre (jail, basically). This is a better paid job then traffic warden so one day I asked him why he quit and he told me the story.

It begins with the police being called to a car crashing into something stationary like a lamp-post. I would love to claim that this occurred on the Old Shoreham Road that crosses the A27 at the site of the plane crash. However it actually occurred where the Western Road becomes New Church road which runs parallel to the Old Shoreham Road. Arriving at the scene the police suspected the foreign driver was drunk so asked him to take a roadside breath test. He refused which is a separate offence that he was promptly arrest for.

Back at the custody centre the driver refused to give his name or indeed speak at all. So his fingerprints were taken and he was placed in a cell until his identity could be established. After a short while the police computer came back identifying him not only as a Turkish national but also as someone who was wanted in Turkey for deserting the Turkish Army. As a result regardless of what he'd done in the UK he was going to be deported back to Turkey for them to deal with.

The custody officers then went to the guy's cell to inform him of this. By the sounds of things it was at this point he decided that he was going to escape by fighting absolutely everybody in the jail. The way I was told the story it took not only all the custody officers and police officers in the building but also all of the police officers on duty in the county to restrain him and put him back in his cell. It was during this my training officer suffered a broken arm.

A short while later the police computer came back with another message. The guy had actually deserted from a Turkish Special Forces unit and therefore should only be approached with extreme caution. It was at that point my training officer decided that he could probably live with taking a pay cut.

At around 17:35 on 24/8/15 (UK date) I'll be back later to discuss Sunday's incidents.

Edited at around 19:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date) to tidy up and add;

On Sunday (23/8/15) there was another air-crash at an air-show - this time in the Swiss town of Dittengen near Basel - that involved the German civilian air-display team the "Grasshoppers." They are not to be mistaken with the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) air-display team of the same name.

In this incident two of the three performing aircraft flew too close together and plunged into a lake killing one of the pilots. The type of aircraft involved was the C42 Ikarus which is small German made machine that takes its name from Icarus - a character from Greek mythology.

In the story of Icarus his father Daedalus is imprisoned in the Labyrinth he'd built for King Minos on the island of Crete as punishment for helping Theseus defeat the Minotaur. Being a master craftsman in order to escape Daedalus builds himself and his son each a set of wings made out of wax and feathers allowing them to fly away.

Despite warnings from Daedalus in his youthful arrogance Icarus flies too close to the sun, his wings melt and he plunges into either the Mediterranean or Aegean Sea depending of which side of Crete he fell. In the legend FRONTEX - the EU's border force - is not on hand to rescue the drowning refugee.

The legend of Icarus functions as an allegory warning of the dangers of arrogance and hubris - both things that US President Obama and Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be accused of in the fight against ISIL. The American psychiatrist Henry Murray even proposed the disorder of "Icarus Syndrome" in which sufferers display a narcissistic personality disorder accompanied by wild delusions and an obsession with fire.

In my bulletin board days I used to talk regularly with a keen skydiver with the screen-name "Icarus." Then of course there is absolutely everything and anything that has been said or written about the story since its inception some 3000 years ago.

In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus triggering a rivalry with Greece that has become one of the bitterest and longest running disputes in European politics. Invoking the Legend of Icarus and therefore Greece's perceived cultural superiority is a spectacular way to point out that you are not at all happy with Turkey.

Unfortunately it seems that the US has gone in a different direction to the European nations. On Monday (24/8/15 local) there was an explosion at a US Military base in Japan. This invoked memories of the recent chemical explosions in Tianjin, China and Shangdong, China on Saturday (22/8/15) and was tangled up in tensions over US military bases in Japan, the Japanese anti-nuclear movement following the Fukushima disaster and the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

That last one in particular is an complex issue that I will have to deal with separately but in the immediate aftermath of the explosion there were worries that radioactive material may have been released. This was the US signalling to China in particular that the US views ISIL's use of chemical weapons as a radioactive issue and as such not one they're in any rush to go anywhere near.

Shortly afterwards there was a security alert at Terminal 2 of San Francisco airport in the US. It soon emerged that this had been caused by a toy hand grenade in someone's luggage. Rather like Brighton in the UK San Francisco is famous for being America's gay capital. Incidents like the Shoreham air crash can be described as metaphorical grenades that send diplomatic shrapnel off in all directions. The US' description of a toy grenade seems to indicate that the US childishly and militantly intends to defend Erdogan at all costs.

Hopefully now the marking's in it will reconsider that position because Obama is currently falling very far short of a passing grade.

20:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date).