DXB-KNIGHT
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Well Egyption Crowds threw Tomatos on Clinton's car and started cheering for Monica,Just like things got better in Egypt!
Probably not.
Well Egyption Crowds threw Tomatos on Clinton's car and started cheering for Monica,Just like things got better in Egypt!
Probably not.
Just like things got better in Egypt!
Probably not.
Probably not? If the rebels grab power, it will be disastrous for the country and the region.Just like things got better in Egypt!
Probably not.
Secular led Syria would be horrible for non wahhabis.
Yes, sorryYou mean NON-secular led Syria.
Probably not? If the rebels grab power, it will be disastrous for the country and the region.
Syria was a non secular entity with a great ethnic cohabitation. Secular led Syria would be horrible for non wahhabis.
1730: Iran's foreign minister has condemned the explosion, in a conversation with his counterpart in Damascus, Walid Muallem, Iranian state TV reports. Ali Akbar Salehi called for "an immediate end... to foreign interference and arms shipments... to Syria and the support of some regional and international parties for terrorist action," Irna news agency said. The minister said dialogue was the only answer to the violence.
Just like things got better in Egypt!
Probably not.
Also Iranian lol's
No wonder I kept getting confused when people kept saying this is a "secular war." Do people have a different definition of "secular" over there?Yes, sorry
No, Syria had a very long history of various religious groups and ethnic groups living together in peace. Be it christians, muslims, jews, armenians and so on. The cohabitation wasn't a fabrication like Tito'sThat's like saying Yugoslavia had a great ethnic cohabitation, yes...but that's because Tito would bring the banhammer down on any ethnic and religious group who got restless, but in a fair and equitable manner. lol
Also Iranian lol's
It's a religious conflict at its core. Sorry for my improper use of the english termNo wonder I kept getting confused when people kept saying this is a "secular war." Do people have a different definition of "secular" over there?
No, Syria had a very long history of various religious groups and ethnic groups living together in peace. Be it christians, muslims, jews, armenians and so on. The cohabitation wasn't a fabrication like Tito's
I don't think this is having the effect they wanted.Lina Sinjab BBC News, Damascus is being taken on an official tour around Damascus. She tweets: "We can hear gunfire close to where we are standing in ‪#babtouma‬ ‪#Syria."
Probably not? If the rebels grab power, it will be disastrous for the country and the region.
Syria was a secular entity with a great ethnic cohabitation. Non secular led Syria would be horrible for non Wahhabis.
Probably not? If the rebels grab power, it will be disastrous for the country and the region.
Syria was a secular entity with a great ethnic cohabitation. Non secular led Syria would be horrible for non Wahhabis.
I haven't really followed this Syria stuff, but is the gist that the rebels are essentially Islamic fundamentalists while the government is more liberal? Is that accurate?
I haven't really followed this Syria stuff, but is the gist that the rebels are essentially Islamic fundamentalists while the government is more liberal? Is that accurate?
Ba'athism is based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, Arab socialism, as well as social progress. It is a secular ideology. A Ba'athist state supports socialist economics to a varying degree; Syria, a Ba'athist state, uses a centrally-planned state socialist economy while Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, followed a policy of capitalist growth led by the state. A Ba'athist state supports public ownership over parts of the economy but opposes the confiscation of private property. Socialism in Ba'athist ideology does not mean state socialism or economic equality, but modernisation; the only way to develop an Arab society which is truly free and united is by creating a socialist society first.
So let me get this straight, the rebels are conservative and will turn Syria into an Islamist state complete with burkas and restrictions on women?
Maybe, maybe not.
Anyone claims to know hasn't got a freakin' clue.
I haven't really followed this Syria stuff, but is the gist that the rebels are essentially Islamic fundamentalists while the government is more liberal? Is that accurate?
The only good thing, is that they seemed to keep the separate religions happy.Its like all these mideast dictators read from the same damn book.
These assholes instead of truly bringing change in their respected countries, chose to kill their people to submission.... not working buddy.
Their narcissistic attitude is whats killing them, they brought it on to themselves.
Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
Two major booms sounded in ‪#Malki‬ ‪#Muhajeren‬ as if artillery is being fired from Qasyoun Mountain. ‪#Syria‬ ‪#Damascus‬
Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
something unusual is happening I don't know yet what it is. ‪#Syria‬ ‪#Damascus
Things are better in Tunisia. but they're not better in Egypt, Libya and Iraq (the previous regime-change target)thats a very shallow way of seeing things. Thats what people said about every Arab regime that fell during the Arab spring.
And I dont care what people say, ultimately Things ARE better in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
things are better in the sense that there's a better or a beginning of a system of accountability. They have SOMETHING to work on now as a nation. It almost dont matter who wins the first couple of elections, what matters is the strengths of the institutions they are building as a nation.
Maybe this also has to do with Ramadan coming up this Friday?
something unusual is happening I don't know yet what it is. ‪#Syria‬ ‪#Damascus
I want to understand how the events of the last 10 years, especially the last 12 months, impacts geopolitical power both globally and regionally. Who gains from this? Who suffers?
something unusual is happening I don't know yet what it is. ‪#Syria‬ ‪#Damascus
Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
It's more & more confirmed that ‪#Assad‬ army fired two artillery rounds from Qasyoun mountain into ‪#Kafarsouseh‬. ‪#Syria‬
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14m Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
Many in ‪#Damascus‬ fears that ‪#Assad‬ will bombard the city from Qasyoun mountain. We can't verify that yet. ‪#Syria‬
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16m Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
Two major booms sounded in ‪#Malki‬ ‪#Muhajeren‬ as if artillery is being fired from Qasyoun Mountain. ‪#Syria‬ ‪#Damascus‬
Can someone bring up some maps of the area?Majd Arar ‏@MajdArar
For years, bombarding ‪#Damascus‬ from Qasyoun mountain is the nightmare that everyone fears, we hope it won't happen. ‪#Syria‬
Okay this is actually bad.
Can someone bring up some maps of the area?
Okay this is actually bad.
Can someone bring up some maps of the area?
Okay this is actually bad.
Can someone bring up some maps of the area?
It's the mountain to the immediate nw of the city
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=jabal...ent=firefox-a&hnear=Mt+Qasioun&gl=us&t=p&z=12
The view:
http://www.ketangajria.com/MENA/Syria-Damascus/15455762_tmL3p2#!i=1155339622&k=ywxvn
CHEEZMO™;40005188 said:Not a map, but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDqQFHsJ39s
I want to understand how the events of the last 10 years, especially the last 12 months, impacts geopolitical power both globally and regionally. Who gains from this? Who suffers?
This is the real shitty part of losing all sorts of goodwill with the Iraq war. Now the international community will backlash on any leading intervention from the US. We could have had that stroke in the faces of batshit Russia and China if not for the Iraq rep.
Are you talking about Bulgaria? Israel and Iran have been having a series of small bombings. They've usually gone after scientists or diplomats though.Fuck and a bus bomb went off in Israel and they're blaming Iran. Shit is about to get nuts.
Things are better in Tunisia. but they're not better in Egypt, Libya and Iraq (the previous regime-change target)
The biggest global movement since the fall of communism.
Nobody know who has won or lost. That's what makes those the corridors of power so nervous, the outcome is still up in air. This hasn't been lead or directed and the traditional power states aren't always in control like they were during the cold war. The US isn't "losing" but their not really winning. If anything I think Turkey is winning the most in these events.
Libya?
Russia and China abstained from voting in the UN I believe on Libya. They outright are voting against this one.
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/18/the_damascus_suicide_bombing/In Damascus today, a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of high level Syrian officials and killed several of them, including the nations Defense Minister Daoud Rajha and the Syrian militarys Deputy Chief of Staff, Asef Shawkat, who is also the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Several reporters covering the region, such as Omar Waraich of Time and The Independent, have deduced that the suicide bomber was Islamist.
Needless to say, if such an attack perpetrated by an Islamist suicide bomber were aimed at a Western government or those of their allies in the region, it would immediately be branded Terrorism and vehemently denounced. One need not speculate about that, as it has already happened. It was called the Pentagon part of the 9/11 attack, where a plane was flown into Americas military headquarters. More analogous was Nidal Hasans 2009 assault on the U.S. military base at Fort Hood, which was instantly branded Terrorism by American media outlets, Washington officials, and a majority of Americans.
Indeed, even if this kind of attack were directed at Western-supported tyrannies in the region such as, say, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain the Terrorism label would be widely applied by mainstream Western outlets. In fact, the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador not civilians, but just this single official from a repellently oppressive regime was instantly denounced as Terrorism.
But its extremely doubtful that the term will be applied by Western media outlets to todays Damascus attack. The New York Times story uses the term only once, with scare quotes attributing it to the Assad regime: SANA, the official news agency, described the assault as a suicide terrorist attack. The BBC did the same, referring to the anti-Assad forces as rebels and mentioning terrorism only when quoting the statements of the Assad government. Its actually inconceivable that any mainstream Western outlet or commentator will call this attack Terrorism.
Beyond the semantics, one already sees, on Twitter and elsewhere, substantial approval being expressed for the attack. Foreign Policy Editor Blake Hounshell referred this morning to #thatawkwardmoment‬ [that awkward moment] when Westerners and secular Arabs cheer a suicide bombing. U.N. analyst Hayes Brown similarly described that awkward moment in the UN Security Council where Western govts have to stop to think about whether to condemn a suicide bombing. What makes it even more uncomfortable is that the U.S. Government itself has said that Syrian rebel forces have been infiltrated at least by Al Qaeda, meaning that the U.S. once again finds itself on the same side as its arch enemy, a side that is now using suicide bombs to kill government officials.
Im not arguing here that this is an act of Terrorism (in general, to the extent the term has any meaning at all, I think attacks on military targets do not qualify), nor am I addressing whether the bombing is justifiable. Im certainly not calling into question the heinous violence and oppression of the Syrian regime (though I think Western Manichean reporting on the nature of the fighting and the identity of the rebels has been typically and substantially oversimplified). The point here is that we pretend Terrorism has some sort of objective meaning and that it is the personification of pure evil which all decent people (and Good Western nations) by definition categorically despise, when neither of those claims is remotely true.
UPDATE: Just now, Donald Rumsfelds former Chief of Staff at the Pentagon, Keith Urbahn, wrote this:
If someone told me that I could close my eyes and conjure up the most persuasive piece of evidence in support of the point I made this morning, I never would have been able to imagine anything this potent.
UPDATE II: Since this morning, The New York Times article on this attack states definitively in the first paragraph that it was carried out by a suicide bomber:
The BBC says the same (died in a suicide bombing). Other reports are apparently suggesting the bomb was detonated remotely. For extremely obvious reasons, whether the attack was carried out by suicide bomb or remote activation has no bearing on the point being made here.
Which meant they consented to it. They could have voted against it.
The Country Singer?
Glenn is such a wank.The Damascus suicide bombing
Today's killing of Assad officials raises uncomfortable questions about the meaning and justifiability of Terrorism
By Glenn Greenwald
He sent totally innocent people to their deaths in more depressing ways.CNN said it was a suicide bomber that killed the defense minister.
Depressing way to go
The Damascus suicide bombing
Today's killing of Assad officials raises uncomfortable questions about the meaning and justifiability of Terrorism
By Glenn Greenwald
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/18/the_damascus_suicide_bombing/