Several Syria threads are dead, so figured I'd start a new one with everything going on.

Interenet was down for a few days, I think it's back up.
Supposedly the Syrian regime has been seeing moving chemical weapons, U.S. has warned they better not use them.
The government is claiming that a rebel mortar killed 30 9th-graders.
http://www.wral.com/syria-says-30-killed-in-mortar-attack-on-school/11841655/

Seems to be getting worse and worse. Should the U.S. or U.N. do more?

12/4/2012 1:06:28 PM

And supposedly, NATO just approved sending a Patriot Missle System to Turkey for "defense against Syria". Shit's getting real.

12/4/2012 1:24:39 PM

I wonder if those WMDs have "PROPERTY OF IRAQ" stamped on them?

12/4/2012 1:47:31 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8AJ1FK20121204

12/4/2012 1:55:55 PM

The regime won't use chemical weapons until the bitter end; the moment they deploy those, not even the Russians will be able to politically stand behind them any longer. They still have international allies, so they'll probably hold back for as long as possible.

12/4/2012 3:39:38 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-syria-damascus-mood-idUSBRE8B30RF20121204

12/4/2012 7:49:04 PM

Who would have thought a young ophthalmologist dictator with no prior political experience would last longer in a massive revolt by his people than military rulers who had been ruling for 30 something years and even had prior experience of severely brutalizing and killing their people?

12/5/2012 1:09:40 AM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/05/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8AJ1FK20121205

Rebels supposedly surrounding an airbase in Damascus

12/5/2012 10:28:57 AM

So are we rooting for Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker in this fight?

12/5/2012 10:57:29 AM

I always pull for the ewoks.

12/5/2012 10:58:13 AM

Are they like the Kurds?

12/5/2012 11:00:21 AM

yeah, the good kurds.

12/5/2012 11:01:47 AM

Cool.

12/5/2012 11:02:50 AM

Is there any possibility that activity at the chemical weapon facilities is because they are destroying their stockpiles or mixing them so the degrade and expire and don't end up in the hands of rebels?

12/6/2012 1:24:19 PM

A senior u.s. official" is saying that they're loading sarin into bombs, and clinton is reaching out to russia to prevent syria from using them.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/06/syria-mixes-chemical-weapons-into-bombs/

12/6/2012 1:36:02 PM

Interesting video: http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2#/video/world/2012/12/06/damon-syria-aleppo-old-city.cnn

12/7/2012 2:23:19 PM

Rebels Pushing On
http://www.wral.com/syrian-rebels-press-in-battle-for-damascus-airport/11855579/

12/7/2012 4:33:41 PM

they are just using the chemical as a bargaining chip for asylum. They won't actually use them but they have more to bring to the table if they are ready to be used. We'd be willing to let assad walk to prevent the use of chemical weapons

12/8/2012 2:35:16 AM

he was already given the option to leave last month, but he declined.

he said he is syrian, was born in syria, and will die in syria.

12/8/2012 4:46:23 AM

http://www.wral.com/syrian-rebels-capture-parts-of-army-base-in-north/11861399/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/world/middleeast/syrian-rebels-tied-to-al-qaeda-play-key-role-in-war.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

12/10/2012 10:49:53 AM

Quote :

"A former top general in Syria's chemical weapons program says he doesn't doubt for a moment that President Bashar al-Assad will deploy his chemical weapons arsenal as he tries to hold onto power and crush the uprising that started almost two years ago."

http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-chemicals-ex-general-says-185035343--abc-news-topstories.html

12/10/2012 4:52:05 PM

http://www.wral.com/us-set-to-boost-ties-with-syrian-opposition/11865538/

12/11/2012 3:49:51 PM

Quote :

"I wonder if those WMDs have "PROPERTY OF IRAQ" stamped on them?"

I doubt it. They're sarin, from what I hear, and sarin goes bad after a few months unless you have the facilities to redistill it, which are basically the same as the facilities to produce it in the first place.

This is aside from the fact that this old conservative conspiracy makes no fucking sense at all, given relations between Syria and Saddam, and the whole question of why you'd export weapons as you're being invaded.

[Edited on December 13, 2012 at 10:30 AM. Reason : .]

12/13/2012 10:29:58 AM

Assad's regime is denying the US and NATO's claim that they've been firing Scud missiles into population Centers.

Russia is now saying that the rebels are probably gonna "win".

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8AJ1FK20121213

12/13/2012 11:42:17 AM

This is still going on. Almost two years later, it seems that the war is about to go-down in downtown Damascus.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/17/us-syria-crisis-damascus-idUSBRE8BG16W20121217

12/17/2012 8:25:38 PM

http://www.wral.com/nbc-s-engel-tv-crew-escape-abduction-in-syria/11892882/

12/18/2012 4:54:41 PM

syriasly?

12/18/2012 11:11:32 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/us-syria-crisis-displaced-idUSBRE8BI0R320121219

12/19/2012 3:28:32 PM

Still going... UN putting the number of dead around 60,000.

Govt. warplanes bombed a Damascan gas station killing a bunch of people trying to get gas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8AJ1FK20130102

1/2/2013 1:03:17 PM

70,000+ dead

This is interesting, as are the coverups and denials:

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/03/25/this_is_the_secret_airline_flooding_syria_with_weapons

3/26/2013 10:21:15 AM

^ Yeah, though I'm not completely surprised that the United States, through the CIA, is trying to influence where arms are going.

3/26/2013 4:47:35 PM

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/syria-behind-the-lines/

4/10/2013 1:28:26 AM

^good video

4/10/2013 2:33:59 AM

Sheesh, everyone's ready to be a martyr.

4/10/2013 8:56:38 AM

New report from UN investigation points to Syrian rebels for chemical weapons attacks

Quote :

""According to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas," del Ponte, a former war crimes prosecutor, said in an interview with Swiss radio late on Sunday."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10039672/UN-accuses-Syrian-rebels-of-chemical-weapons-use.html

nothing is concrete yet, but with all of the war hawks calling for us to get involved with airstrikes and supplying weapons to the "right people", how exactly do we know who the "right people" are?

5/6/2013 8:10:23 AM

The "right people" are the ones most likely to be your political ally in the future. I don't think it's going to be the rebels. If we thought Syria had a hand in aiding terrorism, wait till these people get in charge.

5/6/2013 8:31:49 AM

From most accounts, the people most active in fighting Asad are the same type of people who would suppress women and minorities were they to come to power, i.e., hardcore Sunni Muslims.

Many countries are helping them just because they are fighting the demonic Asad, without thinking of what would happen when the chickens come home to roost. See the example of OBL vs. Russians.

I don't know, they might turn out to be nice people, but I don't think so. See Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. The 'Islamists' have come to power using words like freedom and democracy, and then they use their power to suppress those very concepts.

5/6/2013 8:35:17 AM

Exactly.

I don't know how bad Mubarak and Gadhafi really were to their people, but I think these Islamists will end up being just as bad, and even worse to women.

At least Mubarak and Gadhafi left us alone.

We just need to mind our own business and get our domestic affairs in order. Stop spending billions in the Middle East. If its oil we need, get it out of our own ground.

5/6/2013 8:39:09 AM

(getting oil out of our own ground won't to anything to change our involvement with middle east oil, since oil from US soil would all go into the same global market. nationalizing our oil would be the only thing that could do that, and i doubt anyone wants that. but that's another topic)

5/6/2013 8:44:49 AM

Israel should go in and set up a government in Syria.

[Edited on May 6, 2013 at 8:45 AM. Reason : ]

5/6/2013 8:45:03 AM

^^Ok oil was just an example...I'm just saying, whatever our foreign interests are in the Middle East, are they worth all the money we're pumping into it.

5/6/2013 8:49:12 AM

Quote :

"Israel should go in and set up a government in Syria."

... is this serious?

5/6/2013 8:54:35 AM

Quote :

"I don't know how bad Mubarak and Gadhafi really were to their people, but I think these Islamists will end up being just as bad, and even worse to women."

Not supporting intervention here, but you have to remember that "just as bad" could very well include "murdering them with a host of military means, including but not limited to sarin gas"

Quote :

"I'm just saying, whatever our foreign interests are in the Middle East, are they worth all the money we're pumping into it."

There wouldn't be a dime spent towards it if they weren't. The only thing more influential in our foreign policy than economic interests is delusion (W)

[Edited on May 6, 2013 at 9:01 AM. Reason : .]

5/6/2013 9:00:22 AM

^^well, the government they have is shitty and the rebels are shitty. I don't really think Israel has the right to unilaterally set up a government, but there isn't really a good choice here.

5/6/2013 9:32:28 AM

there aren't many worse choices than having Israel try to setup a government in Syria

5/6/2013 9:40:20 AM

the private companies that have the economic interests are the ones influencing the government to do this shit. they aren't spending a dime (except buying the politicians) but make huge profits off the government wasting billions on dumb shit.

5/6/2013 9:41:06 AM

Video of probably Israel bombing a supposed Syrian military facility, supposedly killing 42 Syrian soldiers, as a supposed preventive attack on weapons headed to Hezbollah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f_j8ID-m1pU#!

5/6/2013 11:18:04 AM

WTF is Obama waiting for??? Let's beat the shit out of Syria and tell Iran to bring it. They're fucking with our boys in Turkey, they're fucking with our boys in Israel. They're using chemical weapons. They've killed god knows how many innocent people by now. Leader saying fuck you all I ain't giving up and hasn't for a long time so far.

Like it or not we are the defenders of the free world. I'm fine with it because that's how I know we're the best. Enough is enough.

5/11/2013 12:40:40 PM

There have been reports that the rebels have also used chemical weapons.

5/11/2013 1:25:08 PM

set em up

5/11/2013 1:40:15 PM