China-Russia blocking the Resolution is no surprise given their Libya UN experience. Let's be clear here, none of these powers US, China, Russia care about Syrian civilians (or Libyan, Yemen, etc. civilians). It just another "Great Game" being played out in the Middle East. For the US, the goal is to: 1. Install a puppet leadership in Syria. 2. Remove the Russia's only military base in the Mediterranean, turning it into another "American Lake" 3. Cut off China from independent energy sources (Libya, Iran) China 1. Wishes to peserve its supply of independent energy sources (Iran). 2. Syria is a factor in the region and an ally of Iran. Changes in Syria could lead to changes in the Iran situation. Russia 1. Wishes to keep its military base in the Mediterranean. 2. Still fears US encirclement and anti-missile systems being installed in Europe. Given the above its no surprise China/Russia has blocked the UN resolution. On the human side of things: It would obviously be better if the killing is stopped and both sides are able to work out a deal peacefully. Although I found it surprising at the lack of reporting on Assad's offers for elections, a new constitution and political amnesty to opponents. Also like in Libya, attrocities commited by rebel Syrians seem to be under reported. Reading CNN/BBC would have you believe the Syrian govt is cracking down on OWS protesters not armed rebels with AK47s. Reading any other news source (India, China, etc.) gives a much more uniform view. PS. For those of you who are interested, I'm posting from China here. Doing some business in the region and so far the so-call "Great Firewall of China" has been no big deal. I can access and search for all terms, Tibet, Tiananmen, etc.
The way I hear, the Syrian government is cracking down on random civilians too. I'm not surprised you are getting a distorted view if your news is coming from China.
Which is why I verify it with news from India as well as other countries as stated in the post =.= btw. I've only been here (in China) for the past week or so. I'm not living here and getting all my news here, although I do come and go frequently.
Then you obviously don't read any papers or watch the news. But I forget. You are of the 'it's only bad if its the West that kills Arabs' school of thought.
How's about Russia worry about regaining its status as "an actual country" before worrying about their ability to bully the Mediterranean? The Maoists these days seem to go wherever the money is. Hopefully their support for dictatorships worldwide will lead to a giant cutoff in their resource deals as the populations revolt. Their ability to bully other countries that don't actually belong to them would be reduced. Oh noes! Maybe they should spend more time worrying about where they (along with China) send their nuclear and military tech in the first place, that would reduce the need for missile defenses and thus leave the door wide-open for them to one day lower standards of living wherever there are standards.
Yeah, I think it will probably take awhile for populations in in these countries to reach 1st world level standards of living. In the meantime, their leaders will do whatever the hell they want. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ah, I see. I was referring to the fact that Gadhafi like Saddam owes much of his power to US foreign policy as do the Libyan "rebels" who are currently torturing his associates. So like the mujahideen who were supplied Russian arms by the CIA and are now being targeted by drone attacks against Afghan civilians, we see the same pattern being repeated in Libya Not surprisingly, like the Afghan dead, the Libyan dead are also relevant only in theory and to posture about certain policy goals. Right and we all know how they have held NATO accountable for their war crimes in the very near past Right. Feel free to share the NATO figures when you like. You know, so we can see their selfless strafing of Libyans for the generous act it was Indeed. They are just being tortured to death, very quietly. This dictator? It proves that the conflict got escalated when NATO got involved. Which is supposedly what they got involved to prevent. roflmao Do Americans know that the cold war is over?
I don't think foreign policy in the US has ever been representative of the people's opinion. The United States has been at war for 200 years and most Americans would be surprised to hear that - many don't even recall that they have been in Iraq since 1990 and that the Awakening which is paraded as representative of American success is nothing else but the Sunni Baathists who supported Saddam. As to why, its easy to figure out if you consider the principle of cui bono. Who benefits from low oil production in Iraq? Applying the law of demand and supply and following the money its not hard to figure out who the war profiteers are and track back to the role they played in pushing for war
Anywho.. Libya aside, since this thread is not about Libya or Afghanistan for that matter (I know, that horse must be flogged some more when justifying Assad cannot be supported anymore), how about we turn the discussion back to Syria and Assad? Yes? Excellent! The Syrian government is holding a referendum on a new constitution as violence continues around the country, killing at least 20 people. The new constitution calls for a multi-party parliamentary election within three months. ___________________________________________ The Syrian government has pressed ahead with organising the referendum despite the unrest, setting up more than 13,000 polling stations for 14.6m voters. Voting began at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) and polling stations are due to stay open for 12 hours. State television showed people voting in Damascus and various other places, and it all looked fairly normal, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon. But, he added, in many other parts of the country, it is far from normal, with explosions and shooting reported from the east, west, north and south - in areas where violence has been going on for months. [Source] So only Assad's supporters really get to vote in this? Since the opposition is being shelled to death and anyone who protested against him are currently being attacked by Assad's forces, one has to wonder how fair this referendum will actually be. Muneira, a housewife, says she voted "yes". She hasn't read the constitution but she supports the president. In a central square, a pro-Assad rally is taking place in support of the constitution. Nearby, a group of young men and women were handing out booklets to encourage people to vote. One of them, Husein Saqer, said:"People don't want to vote because they see no difference between this one and the other constitution, but we are here to tell them to vote". Ah.. Have to adore those show referendums... As for Homs and the Red Cross evacuation that was being touted by the Syrian media yesterday... The Red Cross has been trying to evacuate more people trapped in Homs's Baba Amr suburb but admitted it had made no progress on Saturday. Among those it is trying to help are two injured Western journalists, Edith Bouvier and Paul Conroy. It also wants to retrieve the bodies of another two journalists, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, who were killed last week. The reality of this referendum for the people being shelled and bombed: No one is going to vote," Omar, an activist, said via Skype in advance of the referendum from the flashpoint Bab Amr district of the central city of Homs. "This was a constitution made to Bashar's tastes and meanwhile we are getting shelled and killed," he said. "More than 40 people were killed today and you want us to vote in a referendum? ... No one is going to vote." "What should we be voting for, whether to die by bombardment or by bullets? This is the only choice we have," said Waleed Fares, an activist in the Khalidiyah district of Homs. [Source] Well it is a good way to hold onto power. Murder the opposition and anyone who opposes your regime and then hold a referendum where the only people voting are your supporters who will vote for exactly the same thing so they won't bother seeking a change...
A report from Peter Lee on Syria and al Jazeera: (Not sure where he is getting his info from, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt. In any case, you can email him for sources. He leaves his email at the bottom of the article). http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/05/in-syria-al-jazeeras-credibility-implodes/ Excerpts:
I would be interested to see his sources. I sent him an email. I don't hold out much hope. The latest from Syria, however: People fleeing the central Syrian city of Homs have told the BBC that security forces are committing atrocities there. One woman told the BBC's Paul Wood on the outskirts of Homs that soldiers had slit the throat of her 12-year-old son on Friday - a day after rebel fighters withdrew from the Baba Amr district. She said 35 other men and boys from her area had also been detained and killed. The government has denied the Red Cross access to Baba Amr for four consecutive days, citing security concerns. __________________________________________________ Opposition and human rights activists have said security forces and pro-government militia have been rounding up men and boys over the age of 14 who are still in Baba Amr, and then torturing and killing them. The claims cannot be substantiated, but people fleeing Homs also told our correspondent that security forces had been committing atrocities, including summary executions and cutting the throats of prisoners. One woman, who had walked for three days to escape, said that on Friday troops had taken 36 men and boys from one area and killed them. "My son's throat was cut," she said. "He was 12." Her husband said he was hiding about 50m away and saw one soldier hold down their son's head with his boot while another killed him. "I could hear their screams," he added. Another woman said: "They took our husbands. They took them at a checkpoint. They will slaughter them like sheep." __________________________________________________________ The UK's Channel 4 News broadcast secretly shot footage on Monday that it said shows hospital patients in Homs being tortured by medical staff. Pictures showed wards full of wounded men, shackled to their beds and blindfolded and some showing the marks of severe beatings. The authorities have not commented and the video cannot be independently verified. The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told Channel 4 that the images accorded with other evidence gathered by a UN-backed commission of inquiry of torture in Syrian hospitals, particularly military hospitals. She said there was evidence of similar occurrences in hospitals in Hama and Deraa. The independent commission of inquiry said in February that Syrian security forces had "committed widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations, amounting to crimes against humanity, with the apparent knowledge and consent of the highest levels of the state". [Source] Of course, we can just take Assad's word for it that it was all set up to make him look bad and they aren't doing anything wrong?:shrug: Personally, I've seen enough to know the man needs to be tried and jailed for life for what he has done, along with his family and enablers.
