Major General Aviv Kochavi has reported that Syrian troops have been withdrawn from the border along the Golan Heights. Mr. Assad “will not survive the uprising, even if it takes some more time.”
“This is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control,” Panetta told a Pentagon news conference.
the Assad government appears to be shifting some chemical weapons from storage sites, but it is not clear whether the operation is merely a security precaution.
Assad will not hesitate to use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them – Nawaf Fares to BBC (from other article)
I wonder if Hillary is grieving for Assad the Reformer?
Why do I have the feeling that this will not turn out well in the end?
I hear on the news this evening that Obama is begging Putin to act responsibility. Kind of like me begging my cat to sit up and beg–or get off my side of the bed at bed time.
I recall the Shah of Iran got a lot of bad press. SAVAK and all that. Probably deserved. Assad, being an enemy of the US, doesn’t get nearly the bad press he deserves, which is likely considerably more than the Shah got.
That said, as with Iran, the real killing will start when the Bad Guy gets run out and the rebels take over.
And before we mention support from various countries, lets see what the zeitgeist is doing to the youth…
Since I was 12 I’ve had an unappealing, didactic distrust of people with the extreme will to live. My father’s parents were Holocaust survivors, and in grade school I received the de rigueur exposure to the horror–visiting geriatric men and women with numbers tattooed on their arms, completing assigned reading like The Diary of Anne Frank and Night. But the more information I received, the less sympathy the survivors elicited from me. Each time we clapped for the old Hungarian lady who spoke about Dachau, each time Elie Wiesel threw another anonymous anecdote of betrayal onto a page, I eyed it askance, thinking What did you do that you’re not talking about? I had the gut instinct that these were villains masquerading as victims who, solely by virtue of surviving (very likely by any means necessary), felt that they had earned the right to be heroes, their basic, animal self-interest dressed up with glorified phrases like “triumph of the human spirit.”
I wondered if anyone had alerted Hitler that in the event that the final solution didn’t pan out, only the handful of Jews who actually fulfilled the stereotype of the Judenscheisse (because every group has a few) would remain to carry on the Jewish race–conniving, indestructible, taking and taking. My grandparents were not excluded from this suspicion. The same year, during a family dinner conversation about Terri Schiavo, my father made the serious request that should he fall into a vegetative state, he would like for us to keep him on life support indefinitely. Today he and I are estranged for a number of other reasons that are all somehow the same reason.
However, great concern over who replaces him, and how this will affect Israel (which is already living alongside Egypt, which is already taking on Islamist tendencies).
Syria has a lot of different, disparate groups that dont get along: Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, some Jews and Christians too… maybe the best that can happen is for the whole country to be partitioned into little separate enclaves … each one too little to cause trouble outside of that region. Just a thought… maybe the word “Balkanization” has a positive side.
J. L. Some communities can exist next to differing communities by letting each other alone.
See the problem here?
Richard Aubrey– What you say is true.
My thinking simply that a bunch of Balkanized fiefdoms, however contentious, are probably less troublesome than one big unstable Syrian state led by Islamists and antagonistic to Israel.
J. L. Our problem is not with organized or disorganized states, squabbling or not. It’s not with Westphalian model states. It’s with non-state actors based in sovereign states which do not want to control them, can’t control them, or support them.
Unfortunately, squabbling and disorganized states are good places for the non-state guys to set up. See al Q in Astan.
Problem is, going after the non-state guys requires invading a SOVEREIGN STATE, and western wobblies think that’s unacceptable.
better Nate than lever? 🙂
Syrian battles rage in capital, Russia pressed
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/17/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120717
since your link seems jammed (i tried it several times)
Rebel bombing strikes at heart of Syrian regime
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/rebel-bombing-strikes-at-1479919.html
Major General Aviv Kochavi has reported that Syrian troops have been withdrawn from the border along the Golan Heights. Mr. Assad “will not survive the uprising, even if it takes some more time.”
Obama, Putin talk as U.S. says Assad losing grip on Syria
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/us-syria-crisis-usa-idUSBRE86H1ET20120718
“This is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control,” Panetta told a Pentagon news conference.
the Assad government appears to be shifting some chemical weapons from storage sites, but it is not clear whether the operation is merely a security precaution.
Assad will not hesitate to use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them – Nawaf Fares to BBC (from other article)
I wonder if Hillary is grieving for Assad the Reformer?
Why do I have the feeling that this will not turn out well in the end?
I hear on the news this evening that Obama is begging Putin to act responsibility. Kind of like me begging my cat to sit up and beg–or get off my side of the bed at bed time.
I recall the Shah of Iran got a lot of bad press. SAVAK and all that. Probably deserved. Assad, being an enemy of the US, doesn’t get nearly the bad press he deserves, which is likely considerably more than the Shah got.
That said, as with Iran, the real killing will start when the Bad Guy gets run out and the rebels take over.
And before we mention support from various countries, lets see what the zeitgeist is doing to the youth…
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/105853/breaking-bad-karma
want to make bets if she has attended women’s studies, and will vote for Obama?
bet she has lots of kids and teaches them the faith… funny, but if they get all young Jewish girls to think this way Shoa II would be even EASIER..
would you believe that at the link there is more? and no, this is not George Soros granddaughter…
Off topic…Perhaps some good news: LOST appears to be scuttled, at least for now:
See here , and here .
Oh, RE: Assad and Syria….
As for Assad, Good riddance if he is removed…
However, great concern over who replaces him, and how this will affect Israel (which is already living alongside Egypt, which is already taking on Islamist tendencies).
Syria has a lot of different, disparate groups that dont get along: Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, some Jews and Christians too… maybe the best that can happen is for the whole country to be partitioned into little separate enclaves … each one too little to cause trouble outside of that region. Just a thought… maybe the word “Balkanization” has a positive side.
J. L. Some communities can exist next to differing communities by letting each other alone.
See the problem here?
Richard Aubrey– What you say is true.
My thinking simply that a bunch of Balkanized fiefdoms, however contentious, are probably less troublesome than one big unstable Syrian state led by Islamists and antagonistic to Israel.
J. L. Our problem is not with organized or disorganized states, squabbling or not. It’s not with Westphalian model states. It’s with non-state actors based in sovereign states which do not want to control them, can’t control them, or support them.
Unfortunately, squabbling and disorganized states are good places for the non-state guys to set up. See al Q in Astan.
Problem is, going after the non-state guys requires invading a SOVEREIGN STATE, and western wobblies think that’s unacceptable.
http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/
for the latest on Syria.
It’s turning out to be the most videoed war in history.