Enlil said:

The whole "The U.S. lied in the past, so they probably lied now" is squarely in the realm of

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schwarg said:

How many times have the Neocons and Neolibs used this type of scenario to justify regime change and profit the big arms manufacturers? I'm beginning to lose count. I was kind of happy Trump campaigned on non-interventionism. So much for that shit though. Deep state taking root.

North Korea is the only dictatorship we should be considering taking action with. You just can't have a madman threatening to nuke other countries like that. China seems to be on board too.

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Falcon91Wolvrn03 said:

Only Russia wants an investigation.

Putin: Russia wants UN to investigate Syrian chemical attack

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Quote:

the failure of the OPCW inspectors to inspect either location meant that the investigation of the Khan Sheikhoun attack had effectively collapsed even before it started.

Needless to say, it is a basic principle of any criminal investigation – which is what this investigation essentially is – that the investigators inspect the crime scene and any other locations related to it.  The fact that the inspectors, in this case, have not even attempted to discharge this basic task shows that they are not really interested in carrying out an investigation at all.

This is the inevitable consequence of the President of the United States and of Western governments making a pronouncement of the Syrian government’s guilt before any investigation of the Khan Sheikhoun incident had taken place.

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Enlil said:

An investigation absolutely will get to the bottom of it, assuming Assad lets one happen.  He wasn't too cooperative with the investigation in 2013, though, so I don't suspect he will be this time.  Still, it won't be hard to identify a chemical warhead, if one was dropped.

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nooneman said:

It's great to see just how many people so easily fall for Russian propaganda. You guys are way more gullible than you seem, despite also believing in conspiracy theories. It's kindof ironic, actually. By being paranoid enough to believe in conspiracy theories, you've unknowingly fallen for real russian propaganda.

Overall, I think it says something very deep and moving about how gullible and easily manipulated by propaganda all of you are.

Finally, fuck Putin who is worthless asshole dictator with a small flaccid dick, and fuck Russia in general which is a weak and worthless country that tries to act tough, but in reality is just a small, weak, incontinent asshole perpetually shitting on the world. Fuck Putin and fuck Russia and fuck Russian propaganda.

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Falcon91Wolvrn03 said:

So is Assad worse than the King of Saudi Arabia (for example)?  I don't recall anyone calling him an angel.

I'm sure there are greatly varying opinions on him from inside his own country, especially since his country is in a civil war.  Are you on his side, or the other side?  There are greatly varying opinions of Trump here in the US.  Some people worship the man, others think he's a heartless buffoon.

Who's right? 

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triphead9428 said:

Falcon91Wolvrn03 said:

So is Assad worse than the King of Saudi Arabia (for example)?  I don't recall anyone calling him an angel.

I'm sure there are greatly varying opinions on him from inside his own country, especially since his country is in a civil war.  Are you on his side, or the other side?  There are greatly varying opinions of Trump here in the US.  Some people worship the man, others think he's a heartless buffoon.

Who's right? 

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Yes, he is a lot worse than the king of Saudi Arabia.

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You're joking, right?  Or do you not knowSaudi Arabia very well?

triphead9428 said:

There were protests in Saudi Arabia during the Arab Spring, and the government responded by basically paying people to stop protesting, Assad's response was to shoot everyone.

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Both countries killed good number of protesters.  Protesters in Syria were more violent, burning down buildings, and and things quickly got out of control.  Once the protests turned into a civil war, a lot more people died in Syria.

triphead9428 said:

Syria's brutality easily surpassed everyone though by killing 1200 protesters before the Syrian people finally took up arms and decided to kick Assad out. The initial protests weren't even about kicking him out of power, they were just asking for reforms but Assad responded so harshly that the people realized he was a tyrant that needed to be forced out of power.

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Actually, the protests were triggered by the arrest of a boy and his friends by the Syrian government for writing in graffiti, "The people want the fall of the government", in the city of Daraa (look it up).  The problem is, those people were the minority.  It was a very different dynamic in Syria.  Again, I'm not saying Assad behavior was good, but the situation wasn't the same as other countries.

triphead9428 said:

After the war began, Assad intentionally allowed Al-Qaeda and ISIS to get out of control by almost never attacking them. Even though ISIS in 2014-2015 had grown to be almost as much of a threat as the other rebel groups were, only 5% of Assad's military operations were directed at fighting ISIS.

That's not all though. In 2011, Al-Qaeda had almost been completely defeated, Osama Bin Laden was dead and the number of operatives working for Al-Qaeda had shrunk to 1,000. In 2012 though, literally in less than a year, the number of operatives in Al-Qaeda had jumped all the way up to 15,000-20,000, nearly all of whom were operating in Syria. The reason why Al-Qaeda had gained members so quickly was because Assad released 13,000 of the most dangerous and violent ex Al-Qaeda members he had previously imprisoned. He tried to pass it off as a humanitarian thing but in reality, he had unleashed a plague of terrorism on Syria as all those members immediately joined Al-Qaeda and later ISIS when they rose up to prominence over Al-Qaeda.

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The US had a significant role in the rise of ISIS in Syria.  Perhaps not intentionally, but we were definitely a factor.  Frontline did a very good documentary on this - I was unable to find a link to it just now, but I'll keep looking if you're genuinely interested in spending an hour to watch it.

triphead9428 said:

Those terrorists then started slaughtering Alawite civilians (Alawites are the ethnic group that Assad belongs to) by the tens of thousands in 2012 and 2013, therefore, legitimizing Assad's claim that he was fighting terrorists and that Syria would just become overrun by terrorists if the rebels or the west disposed of him. It was a ruthless but brilliant strategy that worked. There were so many terrorists in Syria that getting rid of the Assad regime had already become impractical by 2013.

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Interesting story, but there's no way I'm buying it.  You're saying Assad WANTED a huge civil war in his own country?  And that it worked???  No.

triphead9428 said:

And this is a huge part of why Assad is absolutely evil. Not only has he directly slaughtered many thousands of his own people in order to stay in power, but he intentionally empowered terrorist organizations to burn his country to the ground for him. No legitimate leader would ever behave like that. I don't even think Saddam Hussein would've done something like that and he was very ruthless. But Saddam Hussein at least genuinely believed that most of his people loved him, and despite his ruthlessness, I do think he still felt a lot of loyalty towards his country and his people. Assad has no loyalty to anyone but himself, he knows his people hate him and he stayed in power anyway. You said no one claims he is an angel, but that's an understatement. Assad has absolutely no good intentions whatsoever, besides terrorists and drug cartels, he's the worst tyrant that the 21st century has seen so far.

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C'mon, really?  I don't buy it at all.  That defies every ounce of common sense in me, and certainly isn't the only story out there. 


Edit:  I can't believe I forgot to mention what Saudi Arabia is doing to Yemen.  Let me know if you want me to fill you in.

Falcon91Wolvrn03 said:

You're joking, right?  Or do you not knowSaudi Arabia very well?

Both countries killed good number of protesters.  Protesters in Syria were more violent, burning down buildings, and and things quickly got out of control.  Once the protests turned into a civil war, a lot more people died in Syria.

Actually, the protests were triggered by the arrest of a boy and his friends by the Syrian government for writing in graffiti, "The people want the fall of the government", in the city of Daraa (look it up).  The problem is, those people were the minority.  It was a very different dynamic in Syria.  Again, I'm not saying Assad behavior was good, but the situation wasn't the same as other countries.

The US had a significant role in the rise of ISIS in Syria.  Perhaps not intentionally, but we were definitely a factor.  Frontline did a very good documentary on this - I was unable to find a link to it just now, but I'll keep looking if you're genuinely interested in spending an hour to watch it.

Interesting story, but there's no way I'm buying it.  You're saying Assad WANTED a huge civil war in his own country?  And that it worked???  No.

C'mon, really?  I don't buy it at all.  That defies every ounce of common sense in me, and certainly isn't the only story out there. 


Edit:  I can't believe I forgot to mention what Saudi Arabia is doing to Yemen.  Let me know if you want me to fill you in.

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triphead9428 said:

Saudi Arabia's human rights record is terrible, but its pretty well accepted by the international world that Syria's is literally the worst in the world besides maybe North Korea.

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triphead9428 said:

I know what's happening in Yemen. They certainly are showing an extreme disregard for how many people die as a result of their actions, but I still don't think that's nearly as bad as actively ordering your soldiers to shoot thousands of civilians as well as torturing many thousands of people, some of which have been children.

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triphead9428 said:

The opposition isn't the minority. Pro-government rallies in Syria cannot be taken as a sign of genuine support for the regime considering what a stranglehold the regime has in cities like Damascus. Another factor is that Damascus in particular has a large Alawite population, and the Alawite sect has been very privileged under Assad's rule so support for Assad specifically from the Alawite sect is pretty strong. Alawites are only 10% of the population in Syria but they are 70% of the Syrian military. Alawites have also been a target for genocide throughout the Syrian civil war by Al-Qaeda and ISIS which has driven them further into Assad's camp who claims to be their only defense from terrorists.

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Stonehenge said:

I don't think assad is a great leader but if its true his people voted for him, we have no grounds even made up grounds to take him out. Its totally immoral and every administration has done it or at least since carter who was the most honest president I ever heard about, but a few presidents before him did it as well

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Falcon91Wolvrn03 said:

No, I don't think it's pretty well accepted that Syria is worse than Saudi Arabia.  I previously posted some recent photos from Damascus.  There's no way you'd see people drinking in Saudi Arabia, nor women walking around uncovered, and so on.  There's just no comparison.

The civil war had almost come to an end in Syria, if not for the US continuing to stroke the flames of war.  War is hell.

I just posted this, but maybe you missed it.  Support for Assad is greater than 70%.  If you have evidence that contradicts this, please share it - I'm open to other possibilities.  I just don't like make believe.

As for your other topics, there are varying stories depending on which side you choose to believe.  I focused on the topics that I can show to be wrong, and maybe that opens your mind to the fact that you could be wrong about the other areas as well.

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