the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Damascus is the capital of syria, as i'm sure you know china. Therefore it puzzles me why you should suggest assad is trying "seize" his own capital? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 Are you simply playing word games Stinky? I said suburb of Damascus. Are you trying to make an issue out of the word seize - well Assad was driven out of Ghouta, he wasn't welcome and the population drove his henchmen out. That Assad's handling of the polity he claims to control lead to such a situation is tragic but he lost control of this part of the country (and many other parts) and he now wants it back and thousands of people are paying for it with death and injury. Assad is using harsh deliberate violence to seize territory he doesn't control. Do you understand the concept of the consent of the governed - it is a centre piece of liberal political thought. Assad lost that decades ago and has rather used violence to maintain his power. I am perfectly happy to say he has seized political power via violence - and violence has bred violence in response. That is a tragedy, but it doesn't puzzle me on little bit that he is seizing territory violently - dictators have been seizing power and capitals since the year dot. Personally I'd like him to accept a cease-fire rather than seizing anything, but it looks very unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 1 hour ago, Chinahand said: Stinky, what do you think about the video you posted up? It isn't someone secretly recording the White Helmets faking a rescue - it is someone deliberately creating a fake, filmed as a fake with a 30 second "everyone freeze" intro-shot. Do you think the White Helmets, or anyone supporting them, made this film? Please answer this question? Oh and do you fancy answering this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 The film is like watching a making off. Where the actors ask themselves " what's my motivation" before the director calls action. The first bit was not meant to be seen. Only the bit after "aaaand action" was called Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 There were no word games intended china. You think the suburb of damascus was held by the people after a popular uprising? I think it was held by jihadists in a secular country. Jihadists supported and supplied by us. That's probably one area where we differ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 https://www.mintpressnews.com/investigation-white-helmets-committing-acts-terror-across-syria/231597/ About as credible as the SOHR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.globalresearch.ca/syria-and-the-white-helmets-fake-humanitarian-entity-supported-by-us-nato-a-politically-motivated-hoax/5552246/amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 21 minutes ago, Chinahand said: ... Assad lost that decades ago and has rather used violence to maintain his power... As did his old fella before him. It's always the same with tribal and sectarian dictators. 8 minutes ago, the stinking enigma said: I think it was held by jihadists in a secular country. Nothing secular about Syria. Agree with most of the rest of what you said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 I suppose relative to nusra and jaysh - al islam groups that we are supporting and passing off as heroic freedom fighters then the syrian army could be considered secular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stinking enigma Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 We love dictatorships. Far easier to deal with one person over a long period than many. That's why we install them in the first place. Syria have tortured quite a lot of people over the years at the wests behest. Just like gadaffi et al used to as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 1 hour ago, the stinking enigma said: There were no word games intended china. You think the suburb of damascus was held by the people after a popular uprising? I think it was held by jihadists in a secular country. Jihadists supported and supplied by us. That's probably one area where we differ. I think I'm saying something more nuanced than that. I've no idea when Ghouta rebelled against Assad, but the initial protests in Syria weren't Islamist in nature - they were about corruption & state violence and were centred around calls for elections. It was only after Assad's goons tortured and killed that words like Martyr got spread around. As Quilp says it is a god soaked society so I'm not surprised that Islam is a major part of the identity of those in rebellion. It is sad fundamentalist religions have such a hold on such large societies. Assad has insisted anyone who is against him is an Islamist terrorist, and has tortured and killed on a vast scale. Not everyone who holds a gun against Assad is that, but he reap what he sows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIchard Britten Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Chinahand said: Assad has insisted anyone who is against him is an Islamist terrorist, and has tortured and killed on a vast scale. Not everyone who holds a gun against Assad is that, but he reap what he sows. And I suppose we will reap what "we" (The West) have sown by arming and training the "so-called" moderates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 I'd rather live under the YPG than ISIS or Assad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 Though to be honest I'd rather not do that either - these are seriously dysfunctional societies, but that isn't all a product of western guilt, it has other sources too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Assad and his dad, and his dad before them, were Ba'athists, the Alawi sect of shia islam. Arab 'socialists' Much like Saddam. Before them, Ottoman rule. They were hardly "installed" by Western powers, similar regime's have existed for hundreds of years in all those arab states, before the modern frontiers were recognised the supremacists of one tribe or another murdered and subjugated other sects. There is also the far greater influence of shia Iran on the ground, in Syria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.