Syria's Assad Visits Recaptured Christian Village

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's president marked Easter with a tour Sunday of an ancient Christian village recently recaptured by his forces, state media said, as the country's Greek Orthodox Patriarch vowed that country's Christians "will not submit and yield" to extremists.

Syrian state TV and the country's official SANA news agency said President Bashar Assad visited the hilltop hamlet of Maaloula, inspecting the damage done in recent fighting to its monasteries and churches.

Rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, seized Maaloula several times late last year, most recently in December. Government troops swept through the village on Monday, sending rebel fighters fleeing to nearby hills.

Maaloula is located some 40 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Damascus and is home to a large Christian population. The army's triumph in the village was an important symbolic prize for the government in its quest to be seen as protector of religious minorities, including Syria's Christians, who have largely supported the Assad family's decades of rule.

During his visit to the village Sunday, Assad promised to defend Christians — who make up about 10 percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million — and protect churches that he said were part of the country's cultural heritage.

It shows that our country can withstand the incompetence you describe for 8 years.

What is ironic is if he truly believed in what he was doing he would totally try to change things. Bring all US troops home, terminate our meddling over seas, cut taxes, concentrate on our country and its people.

BUt no. He didn’t even ring true to his own conviction. Cause he has none.

We open the paper on Good Friday, and hear that he’s delaying a decision on the Keystone Pipeline.

I mean, the man is a coward in every inch of his body.

In short, I would respect the man, maybe, if he was consistent and forthright. Instead he’s sneaky and dishonest.

Make know mistake. THe IRS stole the election for this guy.

Christians are a minority by absolutely HUGE numbers. That is why so many are leaving their homeland. It’s no place for Christians. I don’t think it ever was.~
Why and where should they go? For your information, Middle East is a place where Christianity came from. Our European ancestors were still eating each other for dinner, worshipped fire and water at the time the Christians were already in place in Syria. Why should they leave and where?? To Britain or France there they doesn’t consider Christians an eligible for asylump rotected minority, but no-go sharia zones in inner cities are immediate reality?
There MUST be someone on the planet who DOESN'T know that Christianity started in the middle east. LOL. Try NOT to to assume that everyone is like you. Being an OLD civilization isn't a prediction of a better society. Not at all. But you wouldn't have written such foolishness to be if you knew that.

We visited Syria when when we were there. I still use the damask tablecloths that I bought in the world's largest indoor market in Damascus. So I know all about the Syrians too. Have you been there? :o) I doubt it or you wouldn't have written such foolishness.

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As for the U.K., we've been there many, many times and we saw the Saudis (by their long white thobes) and therefore I know all about Arabs in London.
MAYBE you'll cease preaching about things you don't really know. I hope so.

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~Al-Qaeda: there is no “non-thuggish” way to deal with it because it is a thug of the first order. Shoot to kill. Send our SEAL teams. No mercy.~
Isn’t a “thuggish way” all about that? What not to like regarding our topic?
This makes no sense as I have been writing continuously on this thread...or didn't you notice?

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~Protect minorities: it isn’t our business. Really it isn’t. Those countries have their own governments and it is VERY, VERY presumptuous and arrogant of us to think that we have the right to superimpose our values on foreign governments.~
True, that is why Christians won’t survive without Assad and Putin. You may question their motives but they are the forces of good, not evil there. It is that simple.

If you had the ability to COMPREHEND what I have written you wouldn't have blustered on and on and on about the OBVIOUS. I never said that any of those governments were bad. But, trying to get through the wool in your brain is a Herculian task.

I was in Syria when HAFIZ Assad was president. Were YOU ever there? NO, of course not.
I lived in Saudi Arabia and traveled to all the middle east countries except Israel. We didn't want to risk an Israeli stamp on our passports NOT knowing what the Saudis would do.
Did YOU ever live in the middle east?
NO, of course not.
You bluster and blow about it as if YOU lived there. My husband and I lived in Ras Tanura for five years. We traveled THROUGHOUT Saudi Arabia and we visited the countries around there. We visited Egypt TWICE because it was so very wonderful

Christians left the middle east for a reason. I can't read their minds...though YOU may think you can. My guesses were based on my LIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA five years, not the guesses YOU have from NOT living beyond the boundaries of your own closed mind.

As for being under Putin, the folks in the middle east are NOT under Putin. The Saudis and middle easterners HATE communism and all it stood for, so even now, with the vestiges of communism still around Putin has NO say in what happens in the middle east.

By the way, my husband and I visited RUSSIA as well. Have you? I doubt it or you wouldn't be spouting off about Putin either.

I didn't condemn Putin or Russia either, but then, YOU just don't "get" it so it's kind of useless to try and talk to you about this.

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Fi iman illah OR Maa salaama.
That is Arabic. But you wouldn't know that either, let alone know what it means.
GOOGLE it. It will do you good to work that brain of yours beyond the blather-mode.

And that is why individual thought processes make each of us unique and there is nothing wrong with individual thought and independent thinking unless independent thought portrays itself, in a manner, which violates my independent thought or my independent thought violates your independent thought. There sometimes is something called a meeting of the minds, where the parties agree and come to terms of an agreement with each party or individual signing off to enact terms of a contract ... and in other situations there maybe is such a thing as the Vulcan mind melt. Scary, but my thoughts to your thoughts and your thoughts to mine which might also be termed a meeting of the minds. Other times there is full disagreement or dissent causing other issues where the meeting of the minds is full blown conflict. Individuals attempt to avoid conflict and rightly so but collective thought normally precedes individual thought whereby the collective in most all cases supersedes the individual thereby leaving the individual little to no voice. The systems (plural) of thought processes amongst individuals is the most complex and complicated known to humans. Both individuals and collectives attain great and destructive goals. The past always finds its way into the present. The devil I know is better than the devil I do not know but in either instance I may be dealing with the devil for most humans are something less than human. My humble opinion cloud.

Interesting opinion, n-t-i.

I empathize with your frustration for I too have similar frustrations. I too understand it is a no win situation. Our thought processes maybe are quite similar if not nearly full aligned. I do not have the solutions but if did have the solutions I would share. I believe you to be the same. I am mocked sometimes but I do continue to pray to a God that I believe is greater than all of us and just maybe holds some of the solutions so much needed by mankind or men and women that attempt to be human instead of demons.

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It's so nice to be able to sound off!

I count my blessings from our good Lord, EVERY single day of my life.

Human nature won't change. Abraham Lincoln said something to the effect of "We can modify human action to some extent but we can't change human nature."

Original sin + free will = Mostly good but sinful too much!

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