the guy is acting as if he is safe and syria is some distant random country. i am saying that there will be trouble closer to home soon (there already is, but will be more), then he will be sorry he did not care about other countries.
Syria is some distant country. Unless the "Arab spring" hits Edgeware Road it has no effect really on me. I wish them well and hope liberal democracies flourish but otherwise what of it? We have our own troubles. I am far more concerned about the economy of America and the fallout from the Euro crisis and both those events effect me fr more directly than massacres perpetrated by some third world dictator.
a war in the middle east will be helpful to distract concerned Americans like yourself from your own economic problems it'll be great for politicians because no one will notice the corruption they were involved in over the years that helped destroy the economy in the minds of politicians, war can help reduce youth unemployment both in the short term and the long term it can help reduce the poor population and therefore have less revolting on the streets finally, war can help boost the profits of the military-industrial complex
Sort of like the way Iran and most Arab countries answer every question with the answer "Jews Jews Jews Israel!"
like I said before..... give up on playing the race card no one brought up the word Jew here.......and secondly stop equating Jewish with Israel it's an insult to the many Jews living in Iran who are subjected to the economic sanctions implemented by the so called "jewish" homeland
"Mob attacks women at Egypt anti-sex assault rallyBy SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press – 10 minutes ago CAIRO (AP) — A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment Friday, with the attackers overwhelming the male guardians and groping and molesting several of the female marchers in Cairo's Tahrir Square."http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...zCWN_Q?docId=26eb9d2bdaa043388bae09442cbd4f01FFS Egypt...
Sadly, I don't know that this is unusual in Egypt. Perhaps only in the ferocity of the assault.From the article: "A 2008 report by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights says two-thirds of women in Egypt experienced sexual harassment on a daily basis." IIRC, either this or another report stated that 100% of Egyptian women reported being accosted or sexually harassed in the streets.
It was an anti-sexual assault protest. They should keep doing it, and they should get military protection.
If America took the same attitude, I would be alright with it. Not just about Syria, but the Middle East more generally. Indeed, I have read your views on how America should deal with Iran and while I don't share some of your assumptions, your suggestions are fine. But in the actual world we live in, the US is quite involved in many of these events. In Syria, the US has been trying to force Assad to 'break' with Iran, pushing for all sorts of enticements if he agreed to do so and, conversely, threatening with all sorts of bad consequences if he didn't. When he didn't, the current crisis was unleashed on Syria by outsiders. By Saudi and Qatari money; by arms procured through Saudi and Qatari money; by a safe haven created for these traitors and terrorists in Turkey; through supporting Wahabi extremists on the ground and other mercenaries available to be purchased to rebel against Assad; by all sorts of 'diplomatic', economic, and political pressure through the UN, the Arab League, etc; by sanctions, threats of force and more. The natural consequence of all this has been to plunge Syria into something resembling a civil war: a situation where you have an armed insurrection supported by outsiders, and a government that is trying to quash that uprising. In this process, naturally and regrettably, people die including innocent people who don't deserve to be treated as "collateral damage" in a malevolent scheme that is all about geopolitical greed and has absolutely nothing to do with democracy or human rights. Assad is no saint and Syria is no democracy. I admit that. But no regime will sit idly and let armed mercenaries implementing plans drawn up by outsiders to succeed. The real culprits -- the ones responsible for the deaths in Syria -- are above all the outside forces that have unleashed on that country. The ones who, unlike you, do insist on sticking their nose in places where it doesn't belong and do so in order to achieve malevolent objectives dressed under nauseatingly hypocritical slogans.
A German newspaper is now saying that the victims of the massacre at Houla were mostly Alawites and Shias killed by rebels. I cannot read German but this is a write up in National Review. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/302261/report-rebels-responsible-houla-massacre-john-rosenthal. The rebels also may have tried to set up a British journalist to be killed. This is now in danger of being used as cover for local feuds. We just need to stay out of it.
To those who actually know anything about region, there were tell-tale signs from the beginning that the Wahabis were behind the massacre. I remember reading one of the early reports about a young survivor who described the attackers as "armed men with long beards".
Switzerland has joined the club of saying HELL NO to Iran oil embargo on July 1st: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/07/swiss-sanctions-idINL5E8H77Y020120607 I still anticipate the first of week of july to be a dangerous time.... anything can happen if the EU goes with their plan-- this includes surging inflation, false flag, ...etc. It doesn't make sense to put more economic burdens on their own citizens by limiting oil imports -- backing Israel at a time like now is really not worth it, especially when people are in the streets rioting.
Come on Mani, many of the Alawites have long beards too. Many of the reports describing people with long beards also expressly state that they were Shabiha. To suggest that long beards equates with Salafis is tenuous at best. See the article and the pic here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...1/The-Shabiha-Inside-Assads-death-squads.html And the video here:
What I would like to know is who were the victims. Were they Shia, Sunni, Alawite or Chritsian? If Sunni, were they progovernment? The government was shelling the villiage, so did pro-government militias show up and do it under cover of the shelling? Or did the rebels in anger at the shelling kill pro-regime (or people seen as pro regime). I still think prima facie the pro-regime forces did it, but the latest claim merits review. In any event,it may be local scores being settled under cover of the civil war. We should stay out.
I am not going to make a definitive judgment about the sectarian persuasion of those who were massacred in Syria, since I absolutely don't hold it above the monsters that committed these crimes to kill people who belong to their own sect. Their actions in Iraq and elsewhere show that these scum have no values whatsoever. But, of course, if the victims were shia or Alawite, then I am even more convinced that the perpetuators were the only group with a motive to carry out such a heinous crime to begin with. I can understand blaming the Syrain army for deaths that occur from artillery or tank fire, even if I blame the whole situation and those who have plunged Syria into this chaos in the first place. But the only groups to benefit from the massacre that took place at Huola are those who are trying to use what happened to rally support against Assad's regime and intensify their efforts to topple his regime. And those groups aren't the ones being blamed for the massacres! Incidentally, it troubles me to see you on the wrong side of this fight! There may be no "right sides" to this fight, but there is definitely a wrong side to it.
So there's a military "coup" in Egypt? Not sure coup is the right word since the military would have had to be out of power, but it looks like the military isn't fond of the parliment.
Well, looks more like Egypt's Supreme Court. To paraphrase someone, "How many troops do they command?" Perhaps the Army is behind this, & willing to step in & fill the power vacuum. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18439530 Martial law: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...dential-vote/2012/06/13/gJQAVErbaV_story.html
It is still early in the revolution-- who knows how it will play out. But as an American, I like to remind people how much of an outlier our revolution was. Think about the earthshattering revolutions: France in 1789 shouted "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" and ended up with the Terror and Napoleon. (They shouted again in 1848 and ended up with the Bloody June Days and Napoleon III). The Russians in 1917 cried for "Peace land and bread" and got the terror, famine and Stalin. The Chinese in 1949 acclaimed the "Great Helmsman" who gave them famine and anarchy. The Iranians in 1979 cried for Allah and freedom, and got the Mullahs and the Islamic Guards. Our revolution began with "We hold these truths" and ended with "a more perfect uion" to "secure the blessings of liberty". Our revolution was not perfect. It had to compromise with the slaveowners and eventually lead to the Civil War. But still Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, Jay, Hancock -- they are the outliers.
I recall history profs making a distinction that the American Revolution was essentially different from the other revolutions because it was a war of independence on a different continent than the other power. Still, the American Revolution also got us even more embedded slavery and, arguably, a very bloody civil war.
Regarding Egypt, I have mentioned this before: the minute the US noticed that Mubarak was a goner, they decided that they would push him out of power in order to have the Egyptian military take up the role that Mubarak used to play for them. In this process, the revolutionaries in Egypt were handed what was mostly a Pyrrhic victory, imagining they had gotten rid of the dictator when in fact they had merely gotten rid of one of the agent for the dictatorship in Egypt. Since then, the regime remnants have slowly but surely strengthened their position and have now essentially staged a coup by ousting the Egyptian parliament and declaring themselves the authority that will be enacting laws in the meantime as well as the authority that will be drafting Egypt's future constitution. At the same time, backed by huge sums from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, they have been running a campaign aimed at demonizing Iran (hoping to reduce Iran's popularity in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world) while trying to scare Egyptians away from any fundamental changes in the policies previously pursued by Mubarak. All in all, hopes that the Arab spring might usher a new chapter in the future of the region have certainly dimmed. What were once revolutions against foreign neo-colonial rule and their autocrat agents, has been shifted to a battle between, on the one hand, US/Saudi backed military juantas in places like Egypt, and on the other hand, Saudi financed, sunni extremist groups. In other words, in places like Egypt, it has become a case of heads I win, tails you lose. It ain't over and no amount of unearned Saudi money can ultimately change the fact that they are a bunch glutenous pigs doing the bidding of neo-colonial powers aimed to keeping their unjust control over the region. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mi...luence-frustrated-in-egypt.ashx#axzz1xv8rGZQH
IM I don't think Egyptians really have a choice. They're politically and geographically stuck. They either put up a pro-West, anti-Iran gov or face a NATO attack from the west (libya) and an Israeli attack from the east. Simple as that.
How exactly would NATO strike from libya? There are no NATO forces in country, and certainly no invasion or attack force there either. As for Israel, really? How do you figure Israel is even in a position to invade Egypt?
I don't think mak9 meant that NATO would strike FROM Libya. I think he meant that NATO would conduct an operation similar to Libya. But Egypt is not the prime candidate for that. I think Syria is probably a more pertinent example. But Qaddafi was completely isolated in March 2011. Assad still has Russian and Chinese support. And Assad has significant (though a minority) support within Syria itself. As for Egypt, the only thing the international community really cares about is two things: maintaing the peace between Israel and Egypt and keeping the Suez Canal open.
Ok makes more sense this way. I think everyone will let Egypt figure out their own mess so long as the Suez remains open as you said. syria will continue to be used as a pawn by all interested parties. Sadly more people who only want to live their lives will be killed.