Syria: will the West attack?

September 2024 Forums General discussion Syria: will the West attack?

Viewing 15 posts - 91 through 105 (of 367 total)
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  • #96022
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Former UK Ambassador to Syria state that David Cameron's policy on Syria is wrong and that Russia's is right.https://youtu.be/CAAb4ItRuNE

    #96024

    http://www.juancole.com/2015/10/russias-strategy-approve.htmlThis is very informative. 

    Quote:
    Al-Qaeda and its allies took the northern province of Idlib away from more moderate rebels last November, and then this spring took the key cities of Idlib (the provincial capital) and Jisr al-Shughour, the town that serves as a gateway to Latakia to the West.Latakia is Syria’s major port and is sort of like its mouth. The digestive track goes down to Hama, then Homs, then Damascus. If al-Qaeda and its allies can effectively move west to Latakia port, they can massacre the Alawites supporting the al-Assad regime, who predominate in that province, and then cut the capital of Damascus in the south off from resupply by port. Likely then the regime will fall. Jisr al-Shughour was taken by al-Qaeda and other groups, including a Chechen unit of hard line fundamentalists, which would have alarmed the Russians. Vladimir Putin made his bones by crushing the second Chechen uprising, which was led by fundamentalists seeking an emirate. He wouldn’t want another such emirate with Chechen high officials to grow up so close to Russia as Latakia.

    Apparently, Egypt is backing the Russian intervention, but, as Cole notes, they've managed to crush their Arab Spring, and will want to see its sister revolt go the same way.

    #96025
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I happened to notice in the Daily Express that they now use capital letters when writing about the "Syrian Moderate Opposition".Keep saying moderate and moderate over and over again and just perhaps possibly they believe the leopard will change its spots. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/595439/SAS-ISIS-fighter-Jihadis

    #96026
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I wouldn't believe a word you read about Syria in the Daily Express. They just make things up and then add 'according to reports' or 'reportedly'. Here 's two recent examples:http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/611157/Russia-Turkey-jet-plane-shot-down-airspace-Syria-ISIS-Islamic-Statehttp://www.express.co.uk/news/world/609757/Putin-ISIS-Islamic-State-Syria-Raqqa-troops-soldiers-air-strike-jets-militaryIt's like the Daily Star.

    #96027
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    No, ALB, i'm not using the Express as a source of information, but citing it as a way language, even as simple as lower and upper case letters, is used for propaganda purposes.For the numerous times i have read the word moderate being used in regard to Assad's opposition, i have yet to read a clear definition of what a moderate is? Perhaps the nationalist YPG of the Kurds may be described as one, but al-Nusra? There are dozens of factions involved within this civil war and yet the media seems indifferent to their different positions. They class only ISIS as non-moderate. For the media, it is simplified to Pro-Assad, Anti-Assad and ISIS. Which is simply not an accurate reflection. Even the Pro-Assad has more than the government troops on it but also unofficial militias.http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/overview-of-some-pro-assad-militias/Nor is the Anti-Assad the only forces with foreign fighters. Hezbullah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards are involved. It is a fucking mess….and to paraphrase what YMS quoted GB Shaw on the Irish Question, in the end it will be resolved with the moral equivalancy of a pack of dogs fighting over a bone. 

    #96028
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    And now read Amnesty Internation condeming moderate YPG for war crimes !http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34511134

    #96029
    ALB
    Keymaster

    "Moderate" leader calls for sectarian war against the Alawite minority in Syria:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/201792#.Vhy1pG6ebTQ

    #96030
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Another statement from the "moderates":

    Quote:
    Al- Fateh Army said, “we call all the mujahedeen in Hama to inflame the fronts within their areas in order to make the Muslims legions meet in Hama liberating it InshaAllah, and that al- Fateh Army declares the charter of this blessed battle as follows:“Any fighting group, whether it is of Nusayri (Alawites) or Rafedah (Shiites) or Daesh (Islamic State) encounters al- Fateh Army is going to be fought until we liberate the whole land of al- Sham God willing, we ask out Ummah to help us by your faithful prayers that Allah grants us a clear victory and that Allah assists us with his own soldiers.”
    #96031
    Ozymandias
    Participant

    Imagine trying to explain the case for Socialism to these bastards. 1.5 Billion Muslims in the World with their heads stuck in the Middle Ages. What a fuckin mess.

    #96032
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    We can add to that 1.5 billion, the millions of Christian fundamentalists who believe in Creation and the literal truth of the Bible, the billions of Hindus and Buddhists who believe their lot in this life was determined by their behaviour in a past life – so it is simply Karma that they are poor and suffering while others are rich and powerful , millions of superstitious such as those who believe in the witchcraft and sorcery in Africa who murder albinos for a talisman. My point is why single out Muslims as bastards. Ask a Burmese Rohingya or Hindu Tamil if Buddhism treated them with enlightenment.And we should not look too far afield …Northern Ireland demonstrated the same sort of religious sectarianism as the Sunni and the Shia. The Butchers of Shankill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankill_Butchers

    #96033
    Ozymandias
    Participant

    I see what you're trying to do smart arse. I hate all of these cunts no matter which "faith" they adhere to. But I especially hate the most heinous disgrace to humanity…Islam. The word itself means "submission" and it causes these crazy mad fucks to throw acid in their own children's faces, to cut out the clitori of their daughters without so much as an aspirin to ease the pain, to blow themselves up to fuck in the hope they'll shag all the virgins they can get their hands on in paradise, to play "Bacha Bazi" with wee boys, to force their own kids into abusive marriages for dowry points, to truss their women up in horrible Darth Vader costumes whilst raping and battering fuck of them. Muslims are bastards as well as Orangemen and the KKK, the dirty whoremaisters and kiddy fiddlers in the Vatican and the mad Jew Nazi's who are running Israel. I HATE ALL OF THESE CUNTS! CAPISCE?

    #96034
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    What i am trying to do, is to stop the singling out of only one religion as somehow much more reactionary than another. This is, of course, true…No-one i think would class a Quaker alongside a racist lynching Southern Baptist. (btw, Quakers welcome SPGB meetings at their halls)

    Quote:
    I especially hate the most heinous disgrace to humanity…Islam.

    You are treating a billion adherents to this faith as one indistiguishable whole. There are many versions of Islam as there are christian sects. When i return to Edinburgh, i frequently lunch at the Central Mosque for a cheap priced curry (i'm so easily bribed)Clitoral circumcision is not universal but predominantly an African practice, practiced by numerous Christian communities and where even the Jews of Ethiopia practiced it. Honour killings and punishment are cross-religion and in many diverse cultures. Hinduism sanctifies casteism and if you wish to know about acid throwing and rape just look at how the Dalits  have been treated by higher castes. It was only a few decades ago that a Dalit woman in Kerala had to bare her breasts for any passing high-caste Brahmim as a mark of "respect" Dowryism is widely practiced by Hindus, as is child betrothal. Dowry killings of wives (failure to pay the promised dowry) are common and disguised as "accidental" cooking oil deaths or "unexplained" poisonings. Dowry payment , although illegal, is one of the main causes of debt-bondage. No, as socialists we should not join in any Islamophobic scare-mongering and as you suggest, try to present an overview, condemning religion generally and singling out particular religious practices as criminal acts and social injustices but not necessary reflective of all the practioners of those religions.  Call it cultural relativism if you must but we should always place customs and traditions in their context. If it comes to stoning to death in Iran, head chopping in Saudi Arabia or botched up state executions by injection in the USA, or a bullet in the head in China (the cost of the bullet billed to the next-of-kin) we condemn equally all capital punishment regardless of method. 

    #96035
    Ozymandias
    Participant

    Well I take it back. From what I've read clearly the most heinous disgrace to humanity isn't Islam. It's "humanity".

    #96036
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Oh, now you sound like a misanthrope, Ozy….Mankind isn't all bad just some of us…

    #96037
    ALB
    Keymaster

    The CPB is against bombing Syria … except by Russia:http://www.communist-party.org.uk/britain/peace/2170-communist-position-on-government-threat-to-bomb-syria.htmlHaven't been able to work out the position on this of the "Stop the War Coalition".

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