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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:40 am Post subject: |
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Steelrails wrote: |
Question here- If you were Assad, what would you do? |
^ What an odd question.
If I were a blood-thirsty dictator petrified for my life and the continuation of my ultra-privileged existence...?
I'd call up the local chapter of the most extreme, vicious, my-beard-is-longer-than-your-beard extremists and say, "Let's make a deal!" The basis is that a dictatorship is a dictatorship, and the rationale for it is mostly, maybe entirely, irrelevant.
My second call would be to the emergent anti-democratic forces in the West and say something along the lines of, "Wanna keep the brown-skin camel jockeys outa Europe? I know how to do it. Send me some guns and money."
My third call would be to the Armageddon folks in Israel and the US... "Wanna bring it on? Send me some guns and money." |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:38 am Post subject: |
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The former PM that ran away says Assad only controls 1/3 of Syria. Taking hyperbole into account, that is probably 1/2.
Not bad for a chaotic rebel force with no central organization.
With all the wretched news that says it's turning into a proxy war between Sunnis and Shiites, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this can turn out 'not terrible'. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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Titus wrote: |
The Israeli lobby in the United States is the single source of war propaganda on earth. Argentina is not trying to start wars. Iran is not trying to start wars. |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9059179/Iran-We-will-help-cut-out-the-cancer-of-Israel.html
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Iran: We will help 'cut out the cancer of Israel'
Iran will help anyone willing to "cut out the cancer" of Israel, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today. |
Speaking of Iran and Argentina....
Argentina Pursues Iran in '94 Blast As Neighbors Court Ahmadinejad
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President N�stor Kirchner, left, has ignored critics in strongly supporting the indictments. Former president Carlos Menem, right, had been accused of taking $10 million to cover up any Iranian role in the blast. He denied the allegation and was never charged. (AP)
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 14, 2007
BUENOS AIRES -- As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Latin America this weekend to strengthen economic and political ties with the region, Argentina's N�stor Kirchner will not be in the line of presidents turning out to greet him.
Kirchner's government has reinvigorated attempts to prosecute Iranian figures for their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here, recently issuing arrest warrants for nine former Iranian officials. Among those sought is former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, accused of ordering the attack that killed 85 people and injured more than 200. |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 5:48 am Post subject: |
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Turkey Warns Syria
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�We responded, but if it continues we will respond with greater force,� state television quoted the Turkish chief of staff, Gen. Necdet Ozel, as saying, according to Reuters. |
And NATO has announced its support of Turkey as well:
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On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, emphasized that NATO, of which Turkey is a member and which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on all, had �all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary.� |
Everyone has been so focused on Israel-Iran. Looks like a war (or, if they're like the USA, they'll choose to go with the term "conflcit" or "operation") is more likely to break out between Syria and Turkey. The Syrian government is in quite a bind. If I were the President, I'd try to negotiate a seperate country (the western coastal area where Alawites predominate). Otherwise? I can't see how the government remains in power in the long run. Its supporters are few and I think the only outside power on its side is Iran, which isn't exactly booming these days. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994
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Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:37 am Post subject: |
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bucheon bum wrote: |
Turkey Warns Syria
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�We responded, but if it continues we will respond with greater force,� state television quoted the Turkish chief of staff, Gen. Necdet Ozel, as saying, according to Reuters. |
And NATO has announced its support of Turkey as well:
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On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, emphasized that NATO, of which Turkey is a member and which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on all, had �all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary.� |
Everyone has been so focused on Israel-Iran. Looks like a war (or, if they're like the USA, they'll choose to go with the term "conflcit" or "operation") is more likely to break out between Syria and Turkey. The Syrian government is in quite a bind. If I were the President, I'd try to negotiate a seperate country (the western coastal area where Alawites predominate). Otherwise? I can't see how the government remains in power in the long run. Its supporters are few and I think the only outside power on its side is Iran, which isn't exactly booming these days. |
This whole thing is a mystery to me, I have to admit. If I were dictator of a sand pile and the population finally decided to revolt against me, I have a hard time figuring out why I would try to engage a richer and more powerful neighboring state in a war while I was trying to wipe out the local opposition. 1 + 1 = 6?
Contra McCain: stay the heck out and let the locals work out a solution of their own. (My view might well change if we found out the locals had ties to some Christianist armaggedon type policy.) |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:16 am Post subject: |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/middleeast/syrian-air-raids-increase-as-battle-for-strategic-areas-intensifies-rebels-say.html
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The United States indicated on Wednesday that it was undertaking its most aggressive attempt yet to reshape the Syrian opposition, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton dismissing the current leadership as a bunch of out-of-touch exiles who should be replaced with a group more representative of the fighters on the ground.
�There has to be representation of those who are on the front lines, fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom,� Mrs. Clinton told reporters during a trip to Croatia. �This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes, but have, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years.�
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�We�ve made it clear that the S.N.C. can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition,� Mrs. Clinton said, referring to the Syrian National Council. It can participate, she added, �but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice that needs to be heard.�
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Clinton is going to pick the new opposition because the truth is that the USA is the opposition and always has been. AQ et al are fighting for America! Crazy! |
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GENO123
Joined: 28 Jan 2010
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:17 am Post subject: |
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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2012/October/middleeast_October390.xml§ion=middleeast
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More than 36,000 killed in Syria conflict: watchdog
(AFP) / 31 October 2012
More than 36,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of Syria�s anti-regime revolt in March 2011, with an average of 165 people killed a day since August 1, a watchdog said Wednesday.
Civilians, at 25,667, represented the vast majority of those killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which includes non-military people who have taken up arms against President Bashar Al Assad�s regime in the category.
The rest were from the military � 9,044 government soldiers and 1,296 who defected to join the rebellion. |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 10:31 am Post subject: |
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Syria�s anti-regime revolt |
This is how the Far West describes an ethnic/religious war. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 11:04 am Post subject: |
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Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
bucheon bum wrote: |
Turkey Warns Syria
Quote: |
�We responded, but if it continues we will respond with greater force,� state television quoted the Turkish chief of staff, Gen. Necdet Ozel, as saying, according to Reuters. |
And NATO has announced its support of Turkey as well:
Quote: |
On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, emphasized that NATO, of which Turkey is a member and which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on all, had �all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary.� |
Everyone has been so focused on Israel-Iran. Looks like a war (or, if they're like the USA, they'll choose to go with the term "conflcit" or "operation") is more likely to break out between Syria and Turkey. The Syrian government is in quite a bind. If I were the President, I'd try to negotiate a seperate country (the western coastal area where Alawites predominate). Otherwise? I can't see how the government remains in power in the long run. Its supporters are few and I think the only outside power on its side is Iran, which isn't exactly booming these days. |
This whole thing is a mystery to me, I have to admit. If I were dictator of a sand pile and the population finally decided to revolt against me, I have a hard time figuring out why I would try to engage a richer and more powerful neighboring state in a war while I was trying to wipe out the local opposition. 1 + 1 = 6? |
Its simple, really. Weapons and supplies for rebels come through Turkey. The Turks aren't stopping them. To survive, the Syrian loyalists must attack rebel supply lines. Those are in Turkey. |
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Titus
Joined: 19 May 2012
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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:49 am Post subject: |
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The chaos in the Middle East inspires the following from David Sanger in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/middle-east-challenges-obamas-light-footprint.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Get "more involved". Kill more of them. That'll do it. Robots in the sky ain't enough.
Is the New York Times even slightly aware of the fact that New York exists in the United States and that in this place called the United States are people, who are watching their nation decline and that maybe devoting more money and blood thousands of miles away is counterproductive? |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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Titus wrote: |
There is no end to this. The Israeli lobby in the United States is the single source of war propaganda on earth.
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It is hard to take you seriously when you make statements like this. Even within the US there are many other pro-war faction. A lot of $$$ can be made.
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We have got to talk sense into the Christian Zionists in America. Without them the Israeli lobby is isolated. How the hell to we argue with Christians who think god is a pro-Israeli warmonger? |
True. |
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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:29 am Post subject: |
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Titus wrote: |
Quote: |
Syria�s anti-regime revolt |
This is how the Far West describes an ethnic/religious war. |
No, that's how the West describes terrorism that they're in favor of.
Or was Timothy McVeigh part of an "anti-regime revolt"? |
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