Civil War in Syria

[Velasco]

And when the Refugees start increasing again, a certain Poster is going to be raging "WHY DONT THE KILLFUGEES JUST STAY WHERE THEY CAME FROM" on one Megathread, while cheering Assad on as throws barrel bombs on them, on this one.

Indeed, but meanwhile he's enjoying the show very much and... who cares about human suffering or the future consequences?

[Velasco]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

[Velasco]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

Turkey has already opened its border, and they have started flooding the Greek border.

Hope the Greek roll out their military/border force to prevent any massive illegal crossings.

I know, my post was slightly ironic. I assume your only concern is to prevent the ''flooding'' and not the terrible humanitarian crisis. Likewise our 'war correspondents' only report the advances of the 'liberating' forces of the Syrian regime and Putin's Russia. Not a big fan of Erdogan's Turkey either. Not to mention the Trump administration that betrayed the brave Kurdish militias which liberated NE Syria from ISIS. Have you ever heard about a thing called ''civil population''? Have you ever cared?

[Velasco]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

Turkey has already opened its border, and they have started flooding the Greek border.

Hope the Greek roll out their military/border force to prevent any massive illegal crossings.

I know, my post was slightly ironic. I assume your only concern is to prevent the ''flooding'' and not the terrible humanitarian crisis. Likewise our 'war correspondents' only report the advances of the 'liberating' forces of the Syrian regime and Putin's Russia. Not a big fan of Erdogan's Turkey either. Not to mention the Trump administration that betrayed the brave Kurdish militias which liberated NE Syria from ISIS. Have you ever heard about a thing called ''civil population''? Have you ever cared?

Women and children are fine, families (father, mother, children) are fine, fit for military service single males are not.

Turkey is a country currently not at war on its own territory, thus any argument against them being in grave danger is null and void.

I do, however, support a very large and comprehensive humanitarian effort to build proper shelter and housing, hygiene, healthcare etc., and I don't mind some of our taxes going to it.

I also hope for a fast and decisive Assad victory, so that the people can start rebuilding their home in peace.

I am a "3rd country" immigrant in the EU. The difference is, I needed to prove I don't have anything more than a parking ticket. I expect the same from everyone else, whether that's someone from my home country or any other place.

I am afraid that you are ignorant about the brutal nature of the Assad regime, otherwise you would understand that many Syrians 'flooding' EU borders are unwilling to return because there's no way to rebuild their lives in 'peace''. What peace,are you talking about? Wishful thinking, perhaps?

I am also afraid that you are ignorant -or unwilling to know- about the brutal methods of the Greek army and patrol borders, hailed by xenophobes and Nazi sympathizers (Golden Shower).

I am afraid too that you are ignorant -or unwilling to know- about the terrible and desperate situation of Syrian refugees trapped in Lesbos island and other camps. It's like living dead, according to reports from humanitarian organizations.

It's like you were living in a parallel reality, just because you wear some strange glasses or turn your head to see what you want to see...

[Velasco]

Sorry but Afghanistan and Somalia are suffering endless civil conflicts and extreme poverty, as well as certain tribal areas of Pakistan (not to mention the Kashmir border with India). Morocco is not in a situation of civil war, but it's sustaining a long lasting low key conflict in Western Sahara. All these countries have high levels of poverty, as well as corrupt and/or authoritarian regimes. I wonder what kind of world do you think we are sharing with all these peoples...

Anyway the issue is how to handle with the Syrian emergency. I am afraid there is neither a plan nor a clear leadership to impmement it. Good for xenophobes and demagogus

[Velasco]

It's not only a matter of extreme poverty, although that's enough to leave a country in search for a better life. Why do you overlook the existence of civil conflicts in some cases (particularly in Syria),  or the corrupt and authoritarian regimes?

Obviously the Syrians fall into the refugee category, why do you try to divert the attention from them?

The issue with Syria is that thousands or millions are fleeing the country, escaping from a civil war and a brutal dictatorship. They can't return in safe conditions, even in the eventuality of a wuick end of the ongoing military operations.

Even though the number of refugees is huge, the EU is large enough to absorb them without compromising its living standards. The issue here is the lack of political will of national governments. In the 2015 wave of refugees, countries like Germany and Sweden were generous and took their share. However, many others refused or failed to fulfill their quotas. The result is that nobody is willing to give a safe har bour to refugees now, because of the lack of solidarity and the electoral costs. But the oroblem does not dissapear, just because you want to close your eyes. What is the alternative to those thousands of refugees at the border and the thousands or millions to come? Repression and tear gas against the children at the border?, cronified internment in refugee camps? Do you know anything about the situation in Lesbos, which is a small island with thousands of refugees that nobody wants? The issue is that the solidarity of the local population has been pushed to the limit, because those thousands that threaten to collapse the tiny island could have been easily absorbed by the whole EU. Border countries and localities are also victims of the lack of coordinated efforts and solidarity within the EU

[Velasco]

It's just me, or the comments about ''uneducated'' Syrians sound... er... racist? How about the uneducated hooligans, or the uneducated far right voters? Would you call me elitist if I say their uneducated condition is disgusting? But insulting these uneducated fellow Europeans is wrong, isn't it? We the educated people in the western world must be empathhetic and address the concerns of uneducated people, don't we? We have to explain that high criminality  is usually related to low socioeconomic levels (yes, immigrants use to be below average income) and not to cultural particularities, that brown people is not genetically inclined to commit crimes and that whites are capable of rape and other terrible offenses. It's only that certain platitudes and common places are tiresome and fake news based on them feed the racist attitudes of our uneducated fellow countrymen and that's sad, don't you think?

[Velasco]

No, I wouldn't. They should be thrown in jail if they break the law or call on others to go after any group. The only difference between them and the asylum seekers is they got their right to live here by birth (or however they got citizenship) and we can't just deport them or not let them in, they're already here, and they're here to stay and we're stuck with them, because that's what the Law says

Sorry. but asylum seekers are subjects of rights covered by international law. Those seekers who are granted asylum have the same right to live here as the native population. Another question is that you oppose to grant asylum, or you want the conditions to grant asylum become harsher to the point that nearly all seekers are rejected. That desire is quite common and is often related to racist attitudes and prejudice

And of course not. Indians are "brown people" as you put it, and AFAIK they're statistically very unlikely to commit violent crimes, meanwhile, more than 40-50% of them don't even have a working toilet at home, so they're definitely extremely poor, and uneducated in a lot of cases.  

The difference is that some people do not believe in secularism and the fundamentals of democracy and freedom. This is not absolute and can come from a mix of religion, culture, the type of rule prevalent in that country etc. Example, Bosniaks being Muslims, but generally you will have a very easy time integrating them in Western European Societies, and the difference between integrating them and Croatians let's say (Catholic) is extremely small or non-existent.

So as said, it's definitely not genetics, it doesn't have to be Religion (unless practised in an extreme form), but it most definitely can be culture.

If your Dad, Uncle, Religious teacher and School teacher teaches you women need to be covered up when outside, you are very likely to accept that if it's done from an early age, and if you're views are "kept in check".
  

India is a vast country, often called "subcontinent". What kind of "Indians" are you referring to? Which religious or ethnic group from which geographical origin?  Do you mean non Muslim Indians, perhaps? Where cam I find statistics correlating Indians and crime rate?

Religious fundamentalism is not privative of the Muslim wmnations. We have plenty of Christian fundamentalists in the Western World that don't believe in secularism (and I'd say they don't believe in the fundamentals of democracy and freedom very much). As it happens with the Indians, the Muslim World is quite large and diverse. For instance, Bosniaks and Albanians are Europeans regardless their religious faith. It's quite obvious that it'smore easy to integrate Europeans in European societies than people fro other continents (I'd say this belongs to the kingdom of platitude), Syrians are not Europeans, although the Middle East region is historically inked to Europe. This leads me to the sentence in bold letters, which I think is particularly serious.

The claim there is a cultural predisposition to commit crimes or reject democratic values (in case ytou are meaning that) is utterly false and racist.While it's true there exist extremist and fundamentalist versions of Islam that preach intolerance, it's false that all the Muslims follow said practices. The issue of fundamentalism in schools and mosques must be addressed (some European countries try to promote tolerant versions of Islam, while discouraging fundamentalism. However, the existence of intolerant versions of Islam can't be used as a pretext to justify not granting asylum (a human right) to Muslim seekers. Syrians, for instance, are either genetically nor culturally biased against  liberal democratic values. Often the acceptance of secularism is correlated to education level. So its' important to educate the uneducated people, regardless their geographical origin and cultural background. Education is the best ally of democracy, as well the best weapon against cultural and religious prejudice underlying racism and intolerance.