I notice we are talking about Syrian Civil War a lot in thread about Paris Attack, so I wanted to create a specific thread about it. I consider people here smart and ready for a normal discussion. This will be my perspective on current situation and how it effects us, some things of course will be facts. Tell me your opinions and views on this, I'm really interested.
Let's start:
I think it's important to say that president Bashar al-Assad and his family belong to Alawite branch of Shiite. Presidents wife is of Sunni religion, I find this important because he's presented as a tyrant when it comes to religious rights. Syria was a communist state during Cold War, so they didn't care about religion, later on Syria kept its freedom when it comes to religion. I'll repeat myself again but I think it's really important for this part, in capital of Syria it was normal thing to eat pig or drink alcohol, you could buy it normally, like me or you. Girls had tattoos, piercings, didn't need to wear traditional Islamic clothes, women have same rights etc. So I think we can say with safety that there was no religious discrimination from government in Syria.
Moving on to start of demonstrations:
Whenever something like this happens two things are used "peaceful demonstrators being killed" and "chemical weapons". Both of those were used already, in Libya for example, everyone was claiming it was rebels who wanted democracy but Gadaffi was pointing out from the start it was Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, he ended up being right as every "rebel" group went on to free prisoners captured for terrorism. And do we even need to talk about that nonsense about Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction? How are those country's doing today? Libya is a bloodbath, any tribe that captures an airport claims the rule. Iraq is destroyed as well. Let's return back to Syria, same things are being used over and over again, chemical weapons for example, the chemicals that were used (really can't remember the name, I'll look it up for later) can be found at any factory, even at homes, so it's not a military weapon, its a basic chemical that can be turned into weapon by anyone. As Assad pointed out, if he was killing his own people, how did he manage to remain in power for 5 years already? Don't you think he would fall long time ago? About "peaceful" demonstrations, same thing as in Libya. Many police officers have been killed during those "peaceful" demonstrations, I don't deny some soldiers shot, but can you really blame them for shooting back? At peek of demonstrations there were around 200.000 demonstrators, Syria has 22.85 million people. You know how they say "10.000 people protested in Russia!" and then you remember how many people live in Russia. What would Assad's regime in all honesty gain from killing civilians? To point out a big difference, attack is planned only if approved by Assad or his generals, if a soldier goes insane and kills civilians that's a sad side of war. Isn't it also very laughable how Assad's regime is attack by Western Allies for being "dictatorial" and Assad being a "tyrant". Then at the same time they support S.Arabia that is a Kingdom!!! Women can't even drive and I can only imagine what would happen if girl there made a tattoo or wore a mini-skirt... I can't say as a fact that USA supplied ISIS as they did Al Qaeda (witch is also fighting in Syria by the way) but they for sure didn't stop their allies from doing so.
About "moderate" rebels:
They are also religious, they cut heads and kill all other religions as much as ISIS, they are just not in the spotlight so much. Who can say on the ground if someone is "moderate"? They shoot moderate bullets and throw moderate bombs? Isn't it a right of EVERY country to fight against people who raise arms against it? So called "Free Syrian Army" is a traitorous organization, no, not because they are fighting Assad, but by military law, high treason is punishable by death, so if any of their soldier get's captured he by law can be shot. If someone is destroying buildings, government institutions, killing civilians and raising arms against his country, how is he not a terrorist? How is that different from ISIS? One more important thing, Rebels are alliance of lots of different ideas and movements, after Assad is removed they would all fight for power but they are not powerful enough to defeat Assad (especially with help of Iran and Russia), supplying them is just a nonsense and lost time.
Russian interest and airstrikes:
I'll be realistic, of course Russia has its interest in all of this, their last warm ports and only ports on Mediterranean sea are there, they started bombing only when ISIS came to 40km to their port. But Russia has one important thing on its side, by law a country can get involved in someones affairs (military) only when two things happen: UN approves it or a country officials call for it. Assad called for Russians so they have their involvement is legit. Many are arguing how Russia bombs "moderate rebels" as well but we already talked about them, no need to do it again but guided with a simple logic, they rebel against legit government, government calls for Russia, Russia can bomb rebels and be protected by law. Not that anyone cares about law these days... One more interesting thing is that NATO threw more bombs on Yugoslavia in few days then USA did on ISIS in a year. Pentagon even had a report about destroying a guy with bazooka on a bike, a real military target...
Here is the current situation in Syria:
As you can see most of ISIS controlled territory is just a desert, government controls all important cities and most populated regions.
Solution:
Let's remove few things first, Assad already said he will not talk with rebels because to him they are same as terrorists and they just don't have enough power to form a government, plus they are not untied. Kurds would want an independent country so that's a different topic. ISIS, Al Qaeda and other are out of question of course. So who to support? I don't see a lot of options besides Assad. Syria will now more than ever need a strong leader. It's not that complex really, defeat terrorists (and rebels) and there you go, peace. Kurds want independence or at least autonomy but that is a really long topic.
I know I probably didn't mention a lot of stuff, its kinda late here so yea, you guys can add more, I'm really interested in what you think will happen, that do you think about situation in general and so on. Correct me if you think I made any mistakes.
And to make it clear, I'm not some big fan of Assad or Russia, I'm just trying to be objective and see what is the best option.
Let's start:
I think it's important to say that president Bashar al-Assad and his family belong to Alawite branch of Shiite. Presidents wife is of Sunni religion, I find this important because he's presented as a tyrant when it comes to religious rights. Syria was a communist state during Cold War, so they didn't care about religion, later on Syria kept its freedom when it comes to religion. I'll repeat myself again but I think it's really important for this part, in capital of Syria it was normal thing to eat pig or drink alcohol, you could buy it normally, like me or you. Girls had tattoos, piercings, didn't need to wear traditional Islamic clothes, women have same rights etc. So I think we can say with safety that there was no religious discrimination from government in Syria.
Moving on to start of demonstrations:
Whenever something like this happens two things are used "peaceful demonstrators being killed" and "chemical weapons". Both of those were used already, in Libya for example, everyone was claiming it was rebels who wanted democracy but Gadaffi was pointing out from the start it was Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, he ended up being right as every "rebel" group went on to free prisoners captured for terrorism. And do we even need to talk about that nonsense about Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction? How are those country's doing today? Libya is a bloodbath, any tribe that captures an airport claims the rule. Iraq is destroyed as well. Let's return back to Syria, same things are being used over and over again, chemical weapons for example, the chemicals that were used (really can't remember the name, I'll look it up for later) can be found at any factory, even at homes, so it's not a military weapon, its a basic chemical that can be turned into weapon by anyone. As Assad pointed out, if he was killing his own people, how did he manage to remain in power for 5 years already? Don't you think he would fall long time ago? About "peaceful" demonstrations, same thing as in Libya. Many police officers have been killed during those "peaceful" demonstrations, I don't deny some soldiers shot, but can you really blame them for shooting back? At peek of demonstrations there were around 200.000 demonstrators, Syria has 22.85 million people. You know how they say "10.000 people protested in Russia!" and then you remember how many people live in Russia. What would Assad's regime in all honesty gain from killing civilians? To point out a big difference, attack is planned only if approved by Assad or his generals, if a soldier goes insane and kills civilians that's a sad side of war. Isn't it also very laughable how Assad's regime is attack by Western Allies for being "dictatorial" and Assad being a "tyrant". Then at the same time they support S.Arabia that is a Kingdom!!! Women can't even drive and I can only imagine what would happen if girl there made a tattoo or wore a mini-skirt... I can't say as a fact that USA supplied ISIS as they did Al Qaeda (witch is also fighting in Syria by the way) but they for sure didn't stop their allies from doing so.
About "moderate" rebels:
They are also religious, they cut heads and kill all other religions as much as ISIS, they are just not in the spotlight so much. Who can say on the ground if someone is "moderate"? They shoot moderate bullets and throw moderate bombs? Isn't it a right of EVERY country to fight against people who raise arms against it? So called "Free Syrian Army" is a traitorous organization, no, not because they are fighting Assad, but by military law, high treason is punishable by death, so if any of their soldier get's captured he by law can be shot. If someone is destroying buildings, government institutions, killing civilians and raising arms against his country, how is he not a terrorist? How is that different from ISIS? One more important thing, Rebels are alliance of lots of different ideas and movements, after Assad is removed they would all fight for power but they are not powerful enough to defeat Assad (especially with help of Iran and Russia), supplying them is just a nonsense and lost time.
Russian interest and airstrikes:
I'll be realistic, of course Russia has its interest in all of this, their last warm ports and only ports on Mediterranean sea are there, they started bombing only when ISIS came to 40km to their port. But Russia has one important thing on its side, by law a country can get involved in someones affairs (military) only when two things happen: UN approves it or a country officials call for it. Assad called for Russians so they have their involvement is legit. Many are arguing how Russia bombs "moderate rebels" as well but we already talked about them, no need to do it again but guided with a simple logic, they rebel against legit government, government calls for Russia, Russia can bomb rebels and be protected by law. Not that anyone cares about law these days... One more interesting thing is that NATO threw more bombs on Yugoslavia in few days then USA did on ISIS in a year. Pentagon even had a report about destroying a guy with bazooka on a bike, a real military target...
Here is the current situation in Syria:
As you can see most of ISIS controlled territory is just a desert, government controls all important cities and most populated regions.
Solution:
Let's remove few things first, Assad already said he will not talk with rebels because to him they are same as terrorists and they just don't have enough power to form a government, plus they are not untied. Kurds would want an independent country so that's a different topic. ISIS, Al Qaeda and other are out of question of course. So who to support? I don't see a lot of options besides Assad. Syria will now more than ever need a strong leader. It's not that complex really, defeat terrorists (and rebels) and there you go, peace. Kurds want independence or at least autonomy but that is a really long topic.
I know I probably didn't mention a lot of stuff, its kinda late here so yea, you guys can add more, I'm really interested in what you think will happen, that do you think about situation in general and so on. Correct me if you think I made any mistakes.
And to make it clear, I'm not some big fan of Assad or Russia, I'm just trying to be objective and see what is the best option.
__________________
“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”
“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”