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Activists: Syrian Rebels take Christian Village

Montecresto

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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning.

The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said Jabhat al-Nusra backed by another group, the Qalamon Liberation Front, moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday. He said around 1,500 rebels are inside the town.

So here we have president Assad's forces fighting to defend a Christian village from the terrorists and the US wants to attack Assad's forces. This is very twisted!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-08-05-37-13
 
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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning.

The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said Jabhat al-Nusra backed by another group, the Qalamon Liberation Front, moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday. He said around 1,500 rebels are inside the town.

So here we have president Assad's forces fighting to defend a Christian village from the terrorists and the US wants to attack Assad's forces. This is very twisted!

News from The Associated Press

Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we take our army and help those guys. Jesus, what have we become?
 
Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we take our army and help those guys. Jesus, what have we become?

That is the big question. And how this is finding support on this board is a big question as well, and disturbing.
 
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Rebels including al-Qaida-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning.

The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said Jabhat al-Nusra backed by another group, the Qalamon Liberation Front, moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday. He said around 1,500 rebels are inside the town.

So here we have president Assad's forces fighting to defend a Christian village from the terrorists and the US wants to attack Assad's forces. This is very twisted!

News from The Associated Press

Oh yes! The fog of war and the vagaries of campaigns! Remember Joe Stalin? We were his ally for a while and we gave Bin Laden low level weapons support when he was starting out.

I think these things quite amusing, but they usually make sense, when we look into the details. Probably we should have intervened earlier. Now there are lots of evil men on both sides of the line. Wars attract that those types, when they run for a while.

Nonetheless, it does not mean the international community should condone the use of WMD against purely civilian populations nor let mass murder persist. It really does not matter, if one side or the other is doing the killing.

And it is not an excuse that it should be the UN or the neighbors to take responsibility. First and foremost the UN would be responsible for enforcing R2P. True they should have done something, when it became obvious that this thing would not stop with the shooting of demonstrators. And it is also true that there was good reason to wait and see if they would face their responsibility or let mass murder develop.

But that does not excuse everyone else. Doing nothing is to let the people die, rather be murdered. If one does not prevent the murder, though, one has the means, one is an accomplice.
 
Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we take our army and help those guys. Jesus, what have we become?

So we invade a country when a Christian village is attacked but not any other village?
 
So we invade a country when a Christian village is attacked but not any other village?

If I haven't been successful with my sarcasm I'll have to put up a little sign or something so that you can understand me.
 
If I haven't been successful with my sarcasm I'll have to put up a little sign or something so that you can understand me.

Poe's Law.
 
Apparently the pro war posters don't know what to think about Assad's forces trying to fight off an attack by the terrorists on a Christian village!
 
One resident said the rebels - many of them wearing beards and shouting, "God is great!" - attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after seizing the village.

"They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village," the resident said by telephone. "So many people fled the village for safety."

Now, he said, Maaloula "is a ghost town."

"Where is President Obama to see what befallen on us?" asked the man, who fled the village on Sunday. He declined to give his name out of fear for his safety.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-08-05-37-13
 
So I guess Obama really is an anti-Christian Muslim.
 
"The Americans can shoot their missiles but they'll get nowhere. Our real enemy is over there, on the ground – Al-Qaeda!" a veteran governmental soldier said.

“How can it be that America is going to fight us, on the side of Al-Qaeda?” a young Syrian army commander wondered. “How can America be against a secular country and for Islamists, who kill their prisoners and dump their bodies in a well?"

http://rt.com/news/syria-crisis-live-updates-047/
 
"The Americans can shoot their missiles but they'll get nowhere. Our real enemy is over there, on the ground – Al-Qaeda!" a veteran governmental soldier said.

“How can it be that America is going to fight us, on the side of Al-Qaeda?” a young Syrian army commander wondered. “How can America be against a secular country and for Islamists, who kill their prisoners and dump their bodies in a well?"

Syria 'chemical weapons' crisis: LIVE UPDATES ? RT News

The US has been fighting on the side of Muslims at least since the Clinton era, going so far as refusing to call a Muslim terrorist a Muslim or a terrorist.

This President will certainly not help Christians.
 
"The Americans can shoot their missiles but they'll get nowhere. Our real enemy is over there, on the ground – Al-Qaeda!" a veteran governmental soldier said.

“How can it be that America is going to fight us, on the side of Al-Qaeda?” a young Syrian army commander wondered. “How can America be against a secular country and for Islamists, who kill their prisoners and dump their bodies in a well?"

Syria 'chemical weapons' crisis: LIVE UPDATES ? RT News

Syria is definately a no win situation no matter what we do. If we take side we either will be supporting a dictator who doesn't give a darn about his people and if we support the rebels, it will be supporting AQ or their backers or some fringe group of them and if not AQ, some who want an Islamic Republic. Yes there are some who want a secular democracy, but they are far from organized and do not have the weapons the others factions do.

This is one time where doing nothing may be the best and probably the only sane option available.
 
Both Pelosi and Kerry have stated in the past that Assad is someone we can work with. At any rate he is a lesser of two evils.
 
he used chemical weapons on his own people

There you go again.

President Bashar al-Assad did not personally order last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus that has triggered calls for US military intervention, and blocked numerous requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons against regime opponents in recent months, a German newspaper has reported , citing unidentified, high-level national security sources.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/08/syria-chemical-weapons-not-assad-bild
 
There you go again.

President Bashar al-Assad did not personally order last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus that has triggered calls for US military intervention, and blocked numerous requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons against regime opponents in recent months, a German newspaper has reported , citing unidentified, high-level national security sources.

Syria chemical weapons attack not ordered by Assad, says German press | World news | theguardian.com

I've always found unidentified, high-level national security sources to be honest.
 
I have a perfect solution! Since we don't like the current regime (Assad) , and since we don't like the alternative (al-Qaeda linked fighters), the US should just go in and wipe everything out and establish an american colony. That will solve everything! I mean that's what we are heading for anyways.
 
Apparently the pro war posters don't know what to think about Assad's forces trying to fight off an attack by the terrorists on a Christian village!

Assad is no different from Sadaam or Mubarak in that they all rule/ruled with an iron fist from a minority base without religious basis in a secular manner and protected religious minorities within their borders provided those religious minorities did not disrupt the regime or target others. It is why America was able to support such terrible people at various times throughout the last half-century and why there's trouble in their countries when America abandons support for them. Without the savage dictator holding down the religious zealots, all hell is breaking loose in these countries as the fanatics slaughter each other in the name of a loving, peaceful god.

For this reason, if for no other, America should keep it's military as far away as possible while they fight it out amongst themselves - you will get no credit for intervening and you will get all of the blame for anything that goes wrong.
 
he used chemical weapons on his own people

He's also trying to fight back against islamic terrorists trying to remove him from power. Context, it's important. Furthermore he didn't order the attack.
 
Assad is no different from Sadaam or Mubarak in that they all rule/ruled with an iron fist from a minority base without religious basis in a secular manner and protected religious minorities within their borders provided those religious minorities did not disrupt the regime or target others. It is why America was able to support such terrible people at various times throughout the last half-century and why there's trouble in their countries when America abandons support for them. Without the savage dictator holding down the religious zealots, all hell is breaking loose in these countries as the fanatics slaughter each other in the name of a loving, peaceful god.

For this reason, if for no other, America should keep it's military as far away as possible while they fight it out amongst themselves - you will get no credit for intervening and you will get all of the blame for anything that goes wrong.

I agree with your assessment essentially, with one caveat, regime change has been a coveted end to the Assad government by many in Washington for two decades or more. Capitalising on the "Arab Spring" and encouraging and facilitating an insurgency in Syria seems to be the opportunity to make that move.
 
He's also trying to fight back against islamic terrorists trying to remove him from power. Context, it's important. Furthermore he didn't order the attack.


Right. He's fighting his own war on terror and the US is interfering with it. This is something Assad and Putin have been clearly expressing for some time, but you have to read it in AP reports and foreign press. American press is often owned outright or in part by defence contractors that have everything to gain by another US military engagement.
 
I agree with your assessment essentially, with one caveat, regime change has been a coveted end to the Assad government by many in Washington for two decades or more. Capitalising on the "Arab Spring" and encouraging and facilitating an insurgency in Syria seems to be the opportunity to make that move.

Syria has no interest in destabilizing their neighbors or the neighborhood and never has - the US would be better served had it coveted the end of the Ayatollah's rule in Iran during the past two decades and taken advantage of their "Persian Spring" about 3-4 years ago when it was ripe for the picking, but Obama still wanted to have a fireside chat with the chaps because he's so persuasive, doh.
 
He's also trying to fight back against islamic terrorists trying to remove him from power. Context, it's important. Furthermore he didn't order the attack.

There's been something said about truth being the first casualty of war, also the Fog of War, etc. Unless the issues are quite straightforward getting involved in Syria, and the Mid East, should be avoided. In fact that goes for much of the world.
 
Syria has no interest in destabilizing their neighbors or the neighborhood and never has - the US would be better served had it coveted the end of the Ayatollah's rule in Iran during the past two decades and taken advantage of their "Persian Spring" about 3-4 years ago when it was ripe for the picking, but Obama still wanted to have a fireside chat with the chaps because he's so persuasive, doh.

But I've never said Syria was interested in destabilising its neighbours or the region, that's a US interest as outlined in another thread by our very own General Wesley Clark and Paul Wolfowitz, and a group known as PNAC (Project for a New American Century). As for Iran, that's no more a problem than Syria is. Americas biggest threat and problems are domestic in nature. We have very big cities going bankrupt and........well I don't need to get into that list anyway here.
 
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