US Evacuates Embassy As Violence In Syria Escalates

Business Insider ^ | Tuesday, April 26, 2011 | Noah Davis

[SunkenCiv]

As violence escalates in Syria, White House officials are putting pressure on the country's leaders to stop attacking protestors. The threats for sanctions grows steadily louder.

The rhetoric from Washington D.C., however, continues to be that the situation is vastly different from the one in Libya.

That may be true, but the timeline of events looks more and more like the one the Obama administration followed when dealing with North African country.

On Tuesday, the American government instituted a partial evacuation of the embassy in Damascus. The US ambassador will remain in country for the time being.

In February, American officials closed the embassy in Libya, just three days before imposing sanctions on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Al Jazeera's live blog has the latest, including this video of residents in Deraa chanting "the army is with us" before soldiers attempt to disburse the crowd with gunfire.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

In February, American officials closed the embassy in Libya, just three days before imposing sanctions on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

[MinorityRepublican]

Is Syria the next domino to fall?

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

Associated Press (no excerpting):

• UK, US dismiss comparison of Libya, Syrian crises

[SunkenCiv]

Looks like a fairly recent construction. That guardrail around the perim seems like a good idea, but way too close to the building.

[panthermom]

Hello? Am I the only one who sees the sh!t fixin to hit the fan?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Perhaps we should send Pelosi back to Syria to mediate with her friend Assad.

[hinckley buzzard]

I doubt it. We already have sanctions on Syria for all the difference it makes. They are a client state of Iran which will not hesitate to supply it with any weaponry necessary. The army is under direct control of Assad. NATO is out of gas after a brief tussle with Libya. We are broke and in no position to intervene in yet another brushfire conflict with nothing to gain from it. Welcome to ObamaWorld.

[ClearCase_guy]

All good points. Consider also that Turkey shares a border with Syria and would not want to see international conflict. Assad will be allowed to handle this situation as he sees fit. If his people manage to overthrow him (which I doubt) it will be without foreign aid of any kind. And, as you point out, if Assad wants foreign aid, Iran stands ready to deliver.

[SunkenCiv]

Zero doesn't want Syria to fall. The Alawites are a Shiite sect, and they rule Syria as a minority. The Shiite invaders and local proxies in Lebanon are likewise aligned with Iran. Iran's been helping Syria with its crackdown. And there's a new op-ed from Turkey condemning the Bahrain gov't for defending itself against a Shiite coup attempt engineered by Turkeys' new best friend, Iran.

[SunkenCiv]

As long as the ticket is one-way, sure. :’)

[justa-hairyape]

Hello? Am I the only one who sees the sh!t fixin to hit the fan?

Nope. WWIII appears to be unofficially underway. We even have Terminator-like drones (movie) attacking Pakistan and Libya. And we have a big financial storm on the horizon.

[SunkenCiv]

The end result will be a Shiite north balanced against a Sunni south, with Jordan and Israel in the middle of it.

• Netanyahu reaffirms Israel claim to parts of West Bank [1/25/10]

[Joe 6-pack]

[Kakaze]

There is a series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson about colonizing mars.............he uses the term "spiraling down", that is where we are.

He also refers to the term................"Guns under the table", we have those too.