Protests in Syria - Discussion Thread

[themacedonian]

OFFICIALS say President Barack Obama has decided to increase US aid, including communication equipment and medical supplies, to the Syrian opposition. They say Mr Obama signed off on the package last week.

Washington had been providing satellite phones, SIM cards and other such equipment already, but the level of assistance will now be increased. Officials say the goods are being sent to Syria's nonviolent, political opposition and not to armed rebels.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

After a year of fighting in Syria, a tenuous truce has taken hold. Tens of thousands of Syrians protested the Government overnight.

Security forces used live fire, tear gas and beat some protesters, but there was no immediate sign of wide-scale shelling or sniper attacks.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...#ixzz1rxmDY2qg


Is Obama going to drop the equipment into protester camps??!! Or will cross the border with the FSA?!

Why I do not believe western media? Because it is an insult to basic intelligence.

[Mordoror]

There were fights between Khadafi's army and the rebels before the non-fly zone was established.

Not to go OT (well it is not in fact) but who were the rebels in Libya ?
Who are they in Syria ??
You are too stuck in a romanticized view of a revolution
ME revolutions are not the French or US revolution (and those ones , especially the first were nasty enough)
ME revolutions have more to do with tribal/clanic/family discontent. Ad on that a pinch of religious zealotry, corruption and greed for ressources/bucks and you'll have the actual situation.
Maybe some of the people in the streets believe that they fight for their freedom. The CV of the Libyan CNT or Syrian revolutionary council speaks otherwise. The egyptian situation should be a clear eye opener too.
And still we meddled here without understanding the alpha and omega of the locals mentality and whatnot

[Laworkerbee]

^ Awesome, two Frenchies about to get into it.

Popcorn, now!!!

[Camera]

Not to go OT (well it is not in fact) but who were the rebels in Libya ?
Who are they in Syria ??
You are too stuck in a romanticized view of a revolution
ME revolutions are not the French or US revolution (and those ones , especially the first were nasty enough)
ME revolutions have more to do with tribal/clanic/family discontent. Ad on that a pinch of religious zealotry, corruption and greed for ressources/bucks and you'll have the actual situation.

I have no romanticized view of the situation. Not just the revolutions, but the present regimes have also more to do with the emboldened words than with modern states of law.

Maybe some of the people in the streets believe that they fight for their freedom. The CV of the Libyan CNT or Syrian revolutionary council speaks otherwise. The egyptian situation should be a clear eye opener too.
And still we meddled here without understanding the alpha and omega of the locals mentality and whatnot

What happened in Libya was expected.
For Egypt, I had doubts despite the predictions of the Israeli officials. Well, they were the only ones to say it and they were right.

[kalerab]

Sorry, C but I disagree, we do not know enough about the Libyan operation to know if what we saw there was truly a revolution of the people or a Western backed (though legal) coup d'etat. I mean as far as popular uprisings go this was a far cry from say the overthrow of Ceausescu - Libya featured a fully mobilized Western media, covert drops of aid and arms and eventually full blown air strikes which were sold by the mentioned media as a no-fly zone.

Actually, we do. What happened in Benghazi on February 17th can be hardly described as western coup. Same goes for events of Derna on Feb 15th or on February 20th in Tripoli. Later foreign sides started intervening what resulted month later into air campaign but Feb 15th or 17th cannot be described as anything close to some western action.

[Camera]

Syrian disinformation about Christian persecution

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Oskar Svadkovsky and Phillip Smyth

Ha'aretz
April 6, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3208/syria-christian-persecution

[Laworkerbee]

Actually, we do. What happened in Benghazi on February 17th can be hardly described as western coup. Same goes for events of Derna on Feb 15th or on February 20th in Tripoli. Later foreign sides started intervening what resulted month later into air campaign but Feb 15th or 17th cannot be described as anything close to some western action.

Perhaps "coup" is too harsh a word but I'm not convinced some government or organization like MPRI didn't give a helping hand. I mean the nature of the whole campaign seemed to shift in like a week! I have a tough time believing the NTC got their shit together than quick.

[Camera]

Syrian forces shell Homs, breaking ceasefire, residents say

By REUTER$
04/14/2012 10:13

In first bombings since tenuous truce takes hold, President Assad's forces attack two central districts in Homs; five activists reportedly killed, several injured in violence since Friday.


http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=265971

[Camera]

Report: German ship carrying Iranian weapons to Syria stopped at sea

According to Der Spiegel, cruiser was carrying ammunition to Syrian port city of Tartus; German government says looking into report.


By Ofer Aderet and The Associated Press

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-e...t-sea-1.424190

[gresh]

Syrian forces shell Homs, breaking ceasefire, residents say

By REUTER$
04/14/2012 10:13

In first bombings since tenuous truce takes hold, President Assad's forces attack two central districts in Homs; five activists reportedly killed, several injured in violence since Friday.


http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=265971

It's been happening. They may have paused for a few hours, but they didn't really "cease" much.

[Camera]

It's been happening. They may have paused for a few hours, but they didn't really "cease" much.

It was expected. Not the first time Arabs pursue shelling after a cease-fire is agreed. (Egyptians and the Syrians at 1973 War…)

[themacedonian]

Syrian disinformation about Christian persecution

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Oskar Svadkovsky and Phillip Smyth

Ha'aretz
April 6, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3208/syria-christian-persecution

oh but it does say this as a fact

Understandably, Christians have fled their homes amid fears of being caught in the crossfire. According to a report in Lebanon's Daily Star, some Christians have been temporarily forced out of their homes by Sunni fighters, but only because they needed space to fight government forces; further, contrary to the claims of the Al-Haqiqa report, the fighters allowed the Christians to take what they needed.

Besides, the claims of straightforward ethnic cleansing by Islamist militants do not add up, because that is not how jihadist groups deal with Christians. For example, the standard practice in Iraq for jihadist groups like Al-Qaida - renowned in Iraq for its brutality - is to first demand jizya, which is a "poll-tax" imposed on Christian and Jewish minorities, in traditional Islamic theology. [2]



And that is what awaits them when the western backed Islamists win in Syria.

[kalerab]

Perhaps "coup" is too harsh a word but I'm not convinced some government or organization like MPRI didn't give a helping hand. I mean the nature of the whole campaign seemed to shift in like a week! I have a tough time believing the NTC got their shit together than quick.

They didnt. Sure, they handled it better than SNC but they had better foothold in country and thus were able to unite all sides of anti-Gaddafi forces into them, but till NATO airstrikes they had no control over anti-Gaddafi militias and every defected officers ran his defected brigade as he saw fit. It took them months to organize, register militiamen and integrate them into NTC-controlled subjectets - something that Nafusa militias and Misratants are not able to do till now. And even now, more than a year after its establishment it is facing harsh criticism (which was overlooked during the war because of the situation). What happened on Feb 15th and 17th were mass riots, no one can just organize in few weeks dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of civilians to go out of their homes and fire their anger on anything and everything associated with Gaddafi. Or to start smashing up Benghazi and Derna barracks with sticks, swords and bulldozers, smashing up Gaddafi green book sculptures in Nalut, defection of whole brigade in Tobruq or looting of Misrata military base (after defection of soldiers), than let Gaddafi tank collum fall into trap in city center and smash them up with RPGs.

[geolocator]

What happened with christians in other contries when radical islamists had come to power? What happened with other religious minorities?
Why Syria should be an exception?

[gresh]

What happened with christians in other contries when radical islamists had come to power? What happened with other religious minorities?
Why Syria should be an exception?

Why should it matter? Whether Alawites subjugating the majority Sunni's, or the Sunni's taking over and subjugating Christian's and Alawite's, it's all fvcked up. One is not preferential to the other, and I really wish people would stop acting like it is.