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Five myths about Syria [op-ed]
Washington Post ^ | Roger Owen

Posted on 03/17/2012 9:31:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

  1. President Bashar al-Assad's departure would end the violence.
  2. It's hard for outsiders to really know what's going on in Syria.
  3. Syria is headed for civil war.
    The Assad regime, the Obama administration and the West are constantly predicting a civil war. But the country is already in one. Cities such as Homs and Hama have split into regime-friendly and regime-hostile quarters, with their residents often forced to move from one to the other in search of protection. Meanwhile, on a larger scale, there is plenty of evidence of sharp divisions, some of them militarized, within the larger sectarian communities such as the Alawites, the Christians and the Kurds. Many families are split between regime critics and supporters, each heavily invested in rival discourses about who is to blame. The result, as seen in other major civil wars such as in Lebanon or Bosnia, is violence and hatred between fellow citizens, an atmosphere of kill or be killed -- with an intensity that often surpasses that in conventional wars between nations.
  4. Libya's regime change is a model for Syria.
  5. The international community has to intervene to stop the violence.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: iran; jordan; lebonan; syria; turkey
Death toll rises amid continuing attacks by government forces.

Five myths about Syria [op-ed]

1 posted on 03/17/2012 9:32:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

2 posted on 03/17/2012 9:36:06 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: SunkenCiv

Number 6: Islam does not want to enslave or kill anyone here.


3 posted on 03/17/2012 9:37:26 AM PDT by jimpick
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To: SunkenCiv

http://www.libyaherald.com/clashes-in-benghazi-over-federalism/


4 posted on 03/17/2012 9:42:30 AM PDT by org.whodat
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To: SunkenCiv

Well, the Leftist ComPost takes its usual position, on the wrong side.

Assad is a murderous thug. The Muslim Brotherhood is even worse.

I know the leftist MSM, the leftist UN, and the Muslim Obama would like to enter this war on the wrong side, but it would be another horrible mistake—like clinton’s war in Yugoslavia, and Obama’s war in Libya.

Assad is murdering rebels? Well, the rebels are busy murdering people, too, as this article admits. Innocents on both sides are fleeing. But the rebels started it—and they would be worse than Assad. That’s Muslims for you: there’s always someone worse waiting in the wings.


5 posted on 03/17/2012 9:45:50 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: SunkenCiv

Great post, my 2 cents to add:

1. Assad’s departure will greatly increase the inevitable fighting. The Alawites are a Shia sect, they and all shia’s will be hunted down by the sunni’s whom are fueled by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi’s, Qatari’s and Jordanians.

It will be a bloodbath.

Our problem is that we want the Assad’s and Iranian influence gone but don’t want to be associated with the ethnic cleansing to come.

Our UAV patrols are not their for “humanitarian monitoring” as we have said, but for terrain mapping. Whatever fighting is to come, we want to prevent large scale attacks by any side using armor, artillery, or the very elusive rocket launchers.

Lots of weapons and trained insurgents are going in and massing on the borders. Gonna be a ruckus, soon, 2-3 months or less.

2. We know very well what’s going on but will be hard pressed to influence a peaceful outcome. The media is being kept away by all sides.

3. Well said.

4. There is no relationship between the Libyan events and Syria except that hundreds of Libyans have made their way to Syria to join the fight.

5. Much of the international community is driving the violence. Syria’s “friends” Russia and Iran are starting to back away. Once the Assad’s are gone, Turkey and Jordan will lead an Arab coalition to stabilize Syria from infighting.


6 posted on 03/17/2012 9:54:52 AM PDT by gandalftb (11th MEU, 2/4 Echo, TRAP Force)
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To: SunkenCiv

BTW, no one has mentioned the Kurds of NE Syria whom hate the Assad’s.

They are being very quiet. Rumor has it that the Kurds are waiting for the Assad’s to go and when the chaos and ethnic infighting is the worst, they plan to break away and form their own republic.

Syrian Kurds were only granted Syrian citizenship last April and do not consider themselves or their land to be Syrian.


7 posted on 03/17/2012 10:03:09 AM PDT by gandalftb (11th MEU, 2/4 Echo, TRAP Force)
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To: SunkenCiv
5.The international community has to intervene to stop the violence

I'm not willing to spend blood or money to do this.

No matter what you do for or to a muslim, at the end of the day, you will still be the infidel and the muslim will still hate you.

I have no desire to save them.

8 posted on 03/17/2012 10:15:42 AM PDT by umgud (No Rats, No Rino's)
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To: gandalftb

Thanks gandalftb. The Alawites won’t go quietly, they are (currently) much better trained, better armed, and until the international community does the asset freeze number as it did with Gaddafy, better financed. And it’s already a bloodbath. :’) Lebanon has been the source of rebel arms, and along with Turkey and Jordan has been the destination of choice for Syrians either fleeing as refugees, or seeking medical attention.


9 posted on 03/17/2012 11:12:37 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: umgud

Perhaps that’s one reason he listed it as one of the five myths.


10 posted on 03/17/2012 11:27:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: jimpick

/bingo


11 posted on 03/17/2012 11:27:23 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: org.whodat

Thanks org.whodat. That's entertainment. :')
12 posted on 03/17/2012 12:10:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: SunkenCiv
I really liked the story about the brotherhood in Libya.
13 posted on 03/17/2012 12:34:51 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: gandalftb

It’ll be a wild-west-style shootout when they do. Kurds have been participating in the committees and so forth discussing post-Assad Syria, but discussion doesn’t really work when the shells are coming in.

Kurdistan certainly should be an independent state, made up of Kurdish areas in four countries (Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran).


14 posted on 03/17/2012 12:38:47 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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To: SunkenCiv

Agreed on Kurdistan, they need to be united.

The problem is they are sitting on a lot of oil that they should be drilling for and selling.

Iraq just forced Exxon Mobil to put its new direct leases with the Kurds on hold.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-exxon-iraq-kurdsbre82g08f-20120317,0,2713424.story


15 posted on 03/17/2012 1:07:58 PM PDT by gandalftb (11th MEU, 2/4 Echo, TRAP Force)
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To: gandalftb

That’s another good reason for Iraq’s civil war to resume.


16 posted on 03/17/2012 10:10:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him)
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