65 replies to this topic

[Post To The Left]

Throughout the 90s Syria sponsored a brutal proxy-war in Lebanon tearing that nation apart now what goes around comes around as Syria is the site of another proxy battle being fought my the local regional powers. Iran has ordered its Shiite miltias to help prop up the Assad regime while Assad is pulling in favors and enlisting Hezbollah death squads to help out him. On the otherside Sunni Iraqis thankful for the Syrian support offered in fighting the American occupation force are sending guns and ammunition over the border for the opposition rebels.

Meanwhile Iraq itself is benefiting as guns and Jihadists are leaving Iraq to fight the Syrian government. The Americans if they are supporting the revolution are finding themselves with strange bedfellows as Al Queda in Iraq has started to support the uprising.

So Lebanon is split between pro and anti Syrian groups (even fighting each other in Lebanon), Turkey is anti-Assad, Iraqi Sunnis support the rebels while the Shiites take their orders from Iran and support the regime and Jordan's Brotherhood is calling for volunteers to fight the Syrian regime

During the Lebanese Civil-War the Isrealis supported the Maronites and Phalanges who will they support this time?

[Post To The Left]

Some info:

Jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria, as are weapons being sent to opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Iraq's deputy interior minister told AFP on Saturday.

"The weapons are transported from Baghdad to Nineveh [Province], and the prices of weapons in Mosul [the province's capital] are higher now because they are being sent to the opposition in Syria," Assadi said.

He said that the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has risen from between $100 and $200 to between $1000 and $1500.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=363612

And this interesting quote from a Syrian rebel:

"I'm just waiting for a gun," Omar says. "We will today accept weapons from [former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, should he wake from his coma and offer them to us. When you see children killed, that's what you do."

"We are prepared to become human bombs," Jihad says. "You know we did not have this idea of suicide bombing in Syria before." He turns to the captain, "I'm ready. Just tell me what to do."

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2106648,00.html

[bud]

good thread. there is certainly a lot riding for many sides concerning assad's future.

russia is also a player in this as most of syria's high-tech weapons come from russia. it's not going to be easy for u.s. and israel to pressure russia to give up on syria.

cannot forget china and its relation with syria. they have trade agreements worth over $2 billion. china would also not like to see one of iran's important allies in the middle east to be taken over.

[August1991]

Throughout the 90s Syria sponsored a brutal proxy-war in Lebanon tearing that nation apart now what goes around comes around as Syria is the site of another proxy battle being fought my the local regional powers.and Phalanges who will they support this time?

Utter nonsense. At most, Syria is the Barrie/Kingston of a Lebanese Toronto. IOW, Syria is to Lebanon what Ontario is to Toronto.

Syria is a dictatorial regime, like so much of the Islamic world, and ordinary Syrians want better. Sadly, when a mob revolts, the end result may be worse.

----

I happen to think that the Middle Eastern status quo, "stability" and the so-called "peace process" was bad for all. Anything else will likely be better.

Let's see.

Edited by August1991, 14 February 2012 - 02:16 AM.

[Post To The Left]

Good article looking which way Israel should go:

officials in Tel Aviv kept a low profile in relation to their northern neighbour. In conventional wisdom, they pursued what has been termed as a policy of "better the devil we know" - that supporting the status quo was better than not knowing what came next.

Although the Israeli government has been no friend of the Assad administration, policymakers in Tel Aviv maintained a "strategy of silence" towards the Syrian opposition....

Some Israeli officials say the plight of the Assad government would not only threaten to break ties between Iran and Syria, which has been a long-term goal of both Israel and the US, but would also cut Iran’s lifeline to the rest of the Middle East (excluding Iraq). Tehran would lose its channel for providing military, financial and logistical aid to Hamas in Gaza and to Hezbollah in Lebanon, they maintain.

"[Israel] should look at Syria and see Syria as the Achilles heel of Iran. It is a great opportunity, an enormous opportunity, and this is where the strategy of the Israeli government should be," former Mossad Chief Ephraim Halevy

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/2012298108853411.html

[August1991]

In conventional wisdom, they pursued what has been termed as a policy of "better the devil we know" - that supporting the status quo was better than not knowing what came next.

Key quote.

Once upon a time, Mark Steyn claimed that "peace process" or "stability" were key words used by foreign bureaucrats.

Well, the Middle East is now "unstable".

[GostHacked]

Something people are overlooking here. The mention of Al-Queda supporting the rebels. We've seen this before. I knew it would happen again and there it is. Creating the problem to provide the solution. We've seen several examples of Al-queda being armed by the west in counties that went through, and are still going through this Arab Spring.

Because arming rebels NEVER backfired before .... right?? Now where did those two tall buildings go??

[Post To The Left]

Something people are overlooking here. The mention of Al-Queda supporting the rebels. We've seen this before. I knew it would happen again and there it is. Creating the problem to provide the solution. We've seen several examples of Al-queda being armed by the west in counties that went through, and are still going through this Arab Spring.

Because arming rebels NEVER backfired before .... right?? Now where did those two tall buildings go??

McCain who has been around forever should know better but he's calling for supporting the rebels.

McCain calls for military aid to Syria opposition

CAIRO — Top Republican US Senator John McCain called on Monday for Syria's opposition to be given weapons to help "defend themselves" against President Bashar al-Assad's forces...

"We have seen in Libya and we have seen in previous conflicts there are ways to get weapons to people so they can defend themselves."
"There are ways to get weapons into Syria. It is time we gave the (opposition) the wherewithal to fight back and stop the slaughter," he said, while underlining that Iran and Russia were supplying military aid to the Syrian regime.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iNKreuaQjvrJWZVaVXEJHneAXPLw?docId=CNG.867e9e040c1d14599a007a13463b11b3.201

[Post To The Left]

McCain had to be around when the funding was to approve Hekmatyar revolution in Afghanistan:

But one prominent visiting commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, refused to see the US president, despite reportedly receiving a hefty share of the roughly $200m that the CIA funnelled annually to Afghan guerrillas for defeating the invading Red Army.

Hekmatyar's war never ended, as today, almost four decades later, he fights the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, probably with some of the same weapons that US tax dollars paid for. To many, he epitomises the short-sighted alliances of the US, siding with unreliable figures who, even during their cooperation, openly expressed their dislike for the US world view.

Hekmatyar's never-ending Afghan war

[Smallc]

Apparently, a column of tanks has left Damascus and is headed in the direction of Hims. Why are we (by we, I mean the western world, and powerful neighbours Israel, Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, etc) allowing this to continue?

[olpfan1]

Apparently, a column of tanks has left Damascus and is headed in the direction of Hims. Why are we (by we, I mean the western world, and powerful neighbours Israel, Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, etc) allowing this to continue?

Because no matter what we do its still going to be a disaster there and we don't belong in a countrys civil wars

Let the U.N and the Arab League take care of it

[Smallc]

So we should collectively do nothing then? That said, I'm not sure what you think the UN can do on their own. It is the member countries that carry out the resolutions.

Edited by Smallc, 22 February 2012 - 04:34 PM.

[olpfan1]

So we should collectively do nothing then? That said, I'm not sure what you think the UN can do on their own. It is the member countries that carry out the resolutions.

We do nothing. If we did something we'd be on the same side as Al Qaedia sp and we'd chase Assad or kill him
and AQ would put someone they support in power and that will eventually come back to bite us in the ass

Those people don't want democracy they want their religion to dictate their laws
why get involved?

It does more harm than good, there will never be peace there

[Smallc]

Attitudes are changing in some middle eastern countries. This senseless death can't be allowed to continue.

[dre]

Apparently, a column of tanks has left Damascus and is headed in the direction of Hims. Why are we (by we, I mean the western world, and powerful neighbours Israel, Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, etc) allowing this to continue?

Because we know that we would basically do the same thing. Theres not a government on earth that wouldnt use violence against an uprising that threatened to topple it. This is a civil war, and theres no reason to think either side we might back is better than the other.

We have no national interest here.