Civil War in Syria

[Insula Dei]

The 'least expensive option' isn't the one that will prevent the most suffering.

[Insula Dei]

Yeah, that's one of the most disgusting things I've ever read.

[Insula Dei]

One of the more disgusting things about a crisis like this is that you always have people who feel a need to prove just how clever they are at the expense of the actual people living without food or petrol in the bombed remains of their city. The Assad regime is not intent on 'stability' (even the idea of a continuation of the status quo is absurd at this point, really), it just wants to annihilate its opposition or, at the very least, take as many people as possible down with it. From the beginning of this mess Assad has shown himself to be ruthless and ready to employ whatever force necessary to stay in power (and a good deal more if people also need to be taught a lesson).

None of this is news. The Assad family hasn't exactly a very glorious history when it comes to maintaining 'stability' or respecting human rights. Are there tactical considerations behind the West's support for the rebels? Possibly, but that's highly irrelevant. It's not as if Russia and China are being objective observators in this whole mess. Really, arguing in favour of Assad because of what you *think* may happen when he goes down, is beyond the pale. Yeah, I know you know all these cool facts about shi'a and sunni muslims (and alewites! and suriacs!), but the way people throw around religious divides as the be-all and end-all of politics in the region is about as absurd as it would be for a student of the 19th century to look at the relations between the Great Powers exclusively trough the spectre of catholic vs. protestant nations. It is also a good deal less innocent.

[Insula Dei]

1. Yeah, Fisk is a very decent journalist. I'll happily grant you that.

2. A civil war is a civil war. It's a nasty, dirty conflict with atrocities on both sides. Noone is disputing that. What I have a problem with is pretending that there is any outcome of this conflict where Assad stays in place and where there is not a day of reckoning troughout all of the rebel heartlands. Or that Assad is good for 'stability'.

3. Your post wasn't the main trigger for my post, nor was my post directed mainly at you. It's just a certain trend in reporting on the Middle East that I find both tiresome and, as I said, far from innocent.

[Insula Dei]

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.

Alawite is de facto an ethnic identity more than a religious one per se, you cant just convert out of it. Its like the old Ulster joke, "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?". "I am an atheist". "Yes, but are you a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?". Only even more true in Syria.

You might be well-advised to not try and explain this to BRTD.