Civil War in Syria

[njwes]

Sorry if this was addressed earlier in the thread, I only skimmed the first few pages, but for all the people who vehemently support the rebels and believe the West should supply them arms or even intervene militarily: why? Not to say you should like Assad, but how do you see a better outcome if the rebels win? Especially if they win with some extra toys from the West? Does anyone seriously not think the country will descend into sectarian, near-genocidal slaughter if the rebels win?

[njwes]

Surprisingly, Turkey is accusing Israel of "state terrorism" for bombing Syria

Lol. The Turkish government's aware that they've been at war for what, 40 years now, right?

[njwes]

Rebel caught on video eating heart of dead soldier: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22523804 (not a link to the actual video)

Surprised nobody posted it... not.

But I'm SURE he's just a single bad apple sullying the reputation of otherwise noble rebel forces, right? Right??

[njwes]

Apparently we're only going to be supplying the rebels with small arms and ammunition. I'm sure that'll prove useful I've gotta hand it to Brobama on this one, he's really having his cake and eating it too.

[njwes]

Great piece in the NYT today

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-price-of-loyalty-in-syria.html?hp

[njwes]

Trying to portray the people who started this in a sympathetic manner is pretty vile. The article says "The price of loyalty"...yeah loyalty to a murderous brutal dictator.

If I was an Alawite in Syria, I'd just convert out of it. No way I want to be on the side of a brutal murderer like Assad.

What if you were devout and didn't want to convert out of it? There are people out there with sincere religious convictions, though I know it's very hard for many lefties to comprehend

More generally, I'm really not convinced that the religious minorities would have been treated any better had there been a relatively swift and peaceful transfer of power. As the article indicates, sectarianism began to become apparent very very early on, before the situation had even devolved to all-out civil war. I'm also thinking of the Coptic Egyptians' experience as a parallel

[njwes]

And once again, just about all troop estimates show that no more than 20% of the anti-Assad forces are Islamist. Remember in 2011 how we kept hearing how all of the Libyan rebels were radical Islamists with all the "evidence" that the regime was providing to back up its claim? It's amusing how many folks were willing to parrot Gaddafi's propaganda.

But I don't think anyone's claiming that all of the anti-Assad forces are Islamist. 20%, if that figure is true, is quite a lot, and certainly sufficient to cause enormous and even intractable problems in Syria if/when Assad falls.

[njwes]

Can't wait for the blowback from Obama's new half-billion $$$ plan to arm the "moderate" Syrians!