[roxunreal]

Amnesty International did initially perpetuate the propaganda about mercenaries going house-to-house killing people in Libya. Their later report found no evidence of that.

Yeah because AI actually, yunno, gets its info from other people, surprise surprise. Sometimes this info may be wrong or overblown. When Libya and other arab dictatorships allow AI members to enter the country and do their fact finding independently, they'll have better info. The fact that the other report even exists pushes your theory of AI being exclusively some western government/zionist tool of creating bad press against countries opposing them into the garbage. They could have just not released it, it's not like there're tons of other verifiabe sources disproving the first report anyway, so that they would have to save face or something.

This book on Libya is excellent, it covers AI's role. Here is an article by the writer of the book which covers a bunch about the BS on Libya.

Reading the title is quite enough, thank you If I want balanced content like that I'll just give my critical thinking a break and go to globalreseach.ca or some other such 100% biased, rabidly wannabe "anti-imperialistic" source.

Says the guy who uses Wikipedia.

I'll wear this quote as a badge of honor when it comes from someone oblivious to the fact that Wikipedia lists its sources at the bottom for any article worth anything, which includes the one I posted. Unlike your source which provides no sources and falls into the same bucket as the above-mentioned self-styled anti-imperialistic website.

Of course dictatorships won't give up power, why would you ask such a stupid question?

Dunno, you seem pretty outraged that someone would suggest that dictatorships abduct and kill suspected dissidents in prisons during times of upheaval and threats to the survival of their regimes, for example.

Syrian govt has much more popular support than the MSM will share, which can be understood by how the majority of the Syrian people chose to live under govt-held areas than under foreign-terrorists' control.

It has more support than "MSM" suggests, but don't be fooled that Assad and Ba'athism have support because of Assad and Ba'athism, instead of the fact that in the beginning, the fall of the government for many people meant a very uncertain future, and later it basically means jihadists. Assad's regime isn't loved by most Syrians, it's just less hated and feared than the other groups holding power in the country currently.

The vast majority of Assad's front line fighters are Alawites, who make up only 10% of the population + Iraqi/Iranian/Hezbollah fighters. The phantom "Sunnis that make up most of the armed forces" either defected to FSA in the beginning, deserted or have been held back in "safe" areas and barracks away from war and weapons because the government mistrusts them. I can dig up the sources for all of this if you don't believe it, sadly too busy atm to do that.

I don't doubt the initial student protests were legit, but it wasn't those kids shooting at Syrian cops and starting the civil war, that was the work of invading terrorists who were working for the US/NATO/GCC who had plans to destroy Syria.

"invading terrorists who were working for the US/NATO/GCC who had plans to destroy Syria"

Haha, you're naive, misinformed and quite obviously drank the pro-Russian/Chia/Iran kool-aid rhetoric without actually giving it a second thought. Foreign fighter influx in any noticeable numbers started occurring around early summer 2012, when the war was already well under way. These are the let's-say-"terrorists"-even-though-they-don't-fit-the-definition you refer to. The first FSA fighters in summer 2011 were defected SAA soldiers and civilians, many of who were quite likely ordinary protesters who lost friends in the crackdowns.

That report was total dogshit.

Because you say so, ok lol

And spare me the "ask Syrians blah blah" as if all Syrians think the same, even though the majority support their govt; something else that could be understood when the people who are fighting the foreign terrorists are themselves Syrians in the SAA. If the govt. didn't have the popular support it does, it would've fallen years ago.

We're back at the misinformed part again. If you had a deeper understanding of the war and had followed evens beyond the selective recaps of the websites you likely frequent and get 100% of your SCW info from, you'd have noticed in 2015 when Assad admitted to a manpower shortage, or that Hezbollah turned the tide of the war in his favor in 2013, or that from late 2015 onward most of the front line fighters in Aleppo province, particularly south Aleppo, have been Iraqi militias and Afghan militants brought in by Iran.

You many have also not have noticed that a very large number of young male refugees from Syria fled from government areas for fear of being drafted. Or that the mighty SAA so full of Syrians that can't wait to support their government has been barely surviving and slowly advancing the past years despite the help from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Russian air power and their own highly superior military inventory, against what are mostly ragtag militants without heavy weapons, despite all the help they get from abroad (which really wasn't game changing at all apart from TOWs which they haven't been getting for a while now anyway).

[white pork]

The truth about war in Syria

[skinster]

Yeah because AI actually, yunno, gets its info from other people, surprise surprise. Sometimes this info may be wrong or overblown. When Libya and other arab dictatorships allow AI members to enter the country and do their fact finding independently, they'll have better info. The fact that the other report even exists pushes your theory of AI being exclusively some western government/zionist tool of creating bad press against countries opposing them into the garbage. They could have just not released it, it's not like there're tons of other verifiabe sources disproving the first report anyway, so that they would have to save face or something.

AI gets its info from "other people", like anonymous people outside of the country who might be trying to promote regime change perhaps? You think we should trust AI reports even though there's no evidence? And I don't suppose you noted the timing of the report at all? It came out a few days after the US state dept was considering sending its troops to the country. But this could all just be some weird coincidence...

As for "the other report", first there was no initial report but a regurgitation by AI of what a lot of politicians were stating/lying about at the time re: rapist mercenaries going door-to-door in Libya. When AI looked for evidence, they found none, because it was bullshit, as is what's come from there most recent report, because that NGO lies to support empire, but I suppose some folks can be repeatedly fooled and continue eating up shit.

Reading the title is quite enough, thank you If I want balanced content like that I'll just give my critical thinking a break and go to globalreseach.ca or some other such 100% biased, rabidly wannabe "anti-imperialistic" source.

I'll wear this quote as a badge of honor when it comes from someone oblivious to the fact that Wikipedia lists its sources at the bottom for any article worth anything

Dunno, you seem pretty outraged that someone would suggest that dictatorships abduct and kill suspected dissidents in prisons during times of upheaval and threats to the survival of their regimes, for example.

Firstly, to call out a phony report as being phony is not outrage, it was you who was outraged at me doing that. Secondly, of course dictators kill people, because...DUH. All governments do. In related news, water is often wet.

It has more support than "MSM" suggests, but don't be fooled that Assad and Ba'athism have support because of Assad and Ba'athism, instead of the fact that in the beginning, the fall of the government for many people meant a very uncertain future, and later it basically means jihadists. Assad's regime isn't loved by most Syrians, it's just less hated and feared than the other groups holding power in the country currently.

And the end result remains the same: Assad has a lot of popular support because Syrians don't want head-chopping sectarian terrorists ruling them.

The vast majority of Assad's front line fighters are Alawites, who make up only 10% of the population + Iraqi/Iranian/Hezbollah fighters. The phantom "Sunnis that make up most of the armed forces" either defected to FSA in the beginning, deserted or have been held back in "safe" areas and barracks away from war and weapons because the government mistrusts them. I can dig up the sources for all of this if you don't believe it, sadly too busy atm to do that.

You're busy enough to not share evidence to back up your claim but are comfortable writing this paragraph of nonsense? Sorry, but I'm calling bullshit. Even your first line is hilariously contradictory, re: the number of Syrians in the SAA. Share sources next time you expect me to trust your word for something like this, because at this stage I don't. At all.

Haha, you're naive, misinformed and quite obviously drank the pro-Russian/Chia/Iran kool-aid rhetoric without actually giving it a second thought. Foreign fighter influx in any noticeable numbers started occurring around early summer 2012, when the war was already well under way. These are the let's-say-"terrorists"-even-though-they-don't-fit-the-definition you refer to. The first FSA fighters in summer 2011 were defected SAA soldiers and civilians, many of who were quite likely ordinary protesters who lost friends in the crackdowns.

Haha, you're naive, misinformed and full of shit and quite obviously drank the pro-regime-change-states kool-aid. See how that works?

Here you can read Wikileaks revealing the US govt's plans for regime change in Syria as far back as 2006. I don't doubt there were initial legit protests by Syrians themselves, as I've already said, but there is plenty of info out there (now) that shows there were plenty of foreign fighters with foreign funded weapons inside of the country before and during those initial protests.

Because you say so, ok lol

The report wasn't dogshit just because I say so, but particularly because there wasn't anything remotely like evidence for the claims; anonymous testimonies, no photos, no evidence. It even sourced that one-man clown-show based in Coventry, England in this report, who goes under the name of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

I'm misinformed because you disagree with me but so far only shared Wikipedia as evidence for....something. Ok.....well now you've convinced me with your almighty knowledge of....stuff. Who'd have thunk this is all it'd take?

[pikachu]

Would you look at that - the Kurds finally carved themselves a trade route to the see. For goods too heavy or too sizable to be inexpensively transported by air, this thing is important. Just leave a small tax for the officers of the S.A.A. , it's still a better alternative to dealing with both ISIS and SAA. Not to mention, there's now the option to transport goods between Kurdish 'cantons' as well, and perhaps even more than goods - if cards are played right.

[white pork]

Would you look at that - the Kurds finally carved themselves a trade route to the see.

Would you look at that - the Kurds finally carved themselves a trade route to the sea.

FTFY

[Rich]

Would you look at that - the Kurds finally carved themselves a trade route to the sea.

FTFY

Or alternatively, if the Kurds will stop dallying with the American traitor establishment and accept their role as a Shia client state, they've finally opened the Iranian road: from Baluchi to the Med.

[Igor Antunov]

Well Turkey just attacked the Kurds in a major way. I'm afraid they are not long for this world. The yellow on that map may not exist in a few months. US special forces in the area are paying lip service to crumbling Kurdish defensive lines. Raqqah offensive has stalled as a direct result.

In other news, Palmyra is back in SAA hands and their new rolling thunder offensive appears vast. I suspect they intend to keep going well past Palmyra.

[roxunreal]

:eh:

AI gets its info from "other people", like anonymous people outside of the country who might be trying to promote regime change perhaps?

So all of their info is from evil western shills and never from yunno, real citizens looking for an outlet to draw attention to their real and legitimate concerns or plight?

You think we should trust AI reports even though there's no evidence?

The Ceasar report is evidence, but you dismiss it in favor of a sourceless blog that reeks of partisanship and then post intellectual emoticons when you are pointed to an article on Wikipedia which sources every statement. I don't doubt that any evidence I or anyone else throws at you would be equally dismissed with an excuse that "we don't know how/where/from when", whereby you're implying that the only evidence you would find acceptable is someone on the ground reporting about these things, which means you're basically setting conditions for the acceptance of evidence that you know are impossible to achieve, because obviously no one can report independently from Syrian government territory about the government's crimes.

And seriously, if I cared to engage in discussion on the level of the book you posted, I could just find some equally one-sided crap from the other side, written by someone like McCain, and present it as evidence of "what's really going on". It would probably read something like "Iranian Aspirations of World Hegemony Backed by the Axis of Evil And the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism"
I could then tell you to read it and that you have all the info there, and automatically win the discussion, because if it's in a bok it must be more true than if it's online and surced, for example!

And I don't suppose you noted the timing of the report at all? It came out a few days after the US state dept was considering sending its troops to the country. But this could all just be some weird coincidence...

Oh wow, I must have missed the US seriously considering going to war with Assad again, which this deployment has absolutely nothing to do with.

As for "the other report", first there was no initial report but a regurgitation by AI of what a lot of politicians were stating/lying about at the time re: rapist mercenaries going door-to-door in Libya. When AI looked for evidence, they found none, because it was bullshit, as is what's come from there most recent report, because that NGO lies to support empire, but I suppose some folks can be repeatedly fooled and continue eating up shit.

So AI is lying for US political agendas but then it's releasing reports contrary to its lying for no reason? Interesting.

because that NGO lies to support empire

Hilarious

Secondly, of course dictators kill people, because...DUH. All governments do. In related news, water is often wet.

Yeah, autocracies where arbitrary arrests and disappearances are commonplace are totally comparable with every other government. Somehow I must have missed this happening in Germany or New Zealand, or in Greece and Spain which have also been rocked by violent protests throughout the last several years.

And the end result remains the same: Assad has a lot of popular support because Syrians don't want head-chopping sectarian terrorists ruling them.

And yet most would still rather not live under the rule of an unaccountable kleptocratic clique that treats the country as their personal fiefdom, it just so happens that the opposition ended u being worse. Luckily we have the SDF as a positive example of opposition

You're busy enough to not share evidence to back up your claim but are comfortable writing this paragraph of nonsense? Sorry, but I'm calling bullshit. Even your first line is hilariously contradictory, re: the number of Syrians in the SAA. Share sources next time you expect me to trust your word for something like this, because at this stage I don't. At all.

You know I actually have life obligations beyond this forum, and beyond digging up 4 year old sources from the depths of the internet. But since it's the weekend:

From 2013:

At least 94,000 people have been killed during Syria's two-year conflict, but the death toll is likely to be as high as 120,000, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The number in this report is vastly higher than one published by the Observatory on Sunday which stated that 82,000 people have died as a result of the conflict with a further 12,500 missing.

The group said that at least 41,000 of those confirmed killed were Alawites, the sect of President Bashar Assad.

http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=313164

Get this, almost half of the overall dead by then were Alawites, who make up 10% of the population, all while the vast majority of fighting happened in non-Alawite areas, thus excluding the possibility of a large number of these dead Alawites being civilians. If we assume that both sides lost a more or less equal number of fighters, and we have no reason not to, since most of the war was a barely-moving stalemate anyway, we get the figure of 45000 dead per side. There are hardly any Alawites on the rebel side, and yet some 40000 were dead by mid 2013. What does that tell you about the numer of Alawites in frontline troops of the SAA?

2014

in statistics published July 12, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 65,803 people from the ranks of the Syrian regime forces and armed groups loyal to it have died. It is likely that the vast majority of the dead are Alawites, especially among the militias fighting alongside regime forces.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... pport.html

Since I can already hear the screeching about omg SOHR even though you'll not provide any viable counter-data to disprove this, it's all backed up in a plethora of other articles about Syria, some of them in depth pieces based on people actually visiting Alawite communities. Some of these are the following:

However, the continued presence of high-ranking Sunnis in the military could be little more than window dressing. Historically, Lund said, “the over-representation of Alawites was tangible, and there was a tendency to favor Sunnis for publicly visible posts, like minister of defense or minister of interior, while the unseen deep security state remained mostly Alawite-run.”

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/05/ass ... ers-syria/

A disproportionate number of those are Alawites: "In battles with Sunni armed groups, the government doesn't trust their Sunni soldiers not to defect," said one Alawite resident, a former soldier, who asked not to be named. "So the Alawites are sent forward."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... Assad.html

In 2015 Assad admitted that the government suffers from a "manpower shortage". Tell me, if the government has 70% of its population under control, most o which are Sunnis that are supposedly loyal and the government is totally not worried about them betraying it, how can it have a manpower shortage? Especially if you look up the pre-war numbers of SAA fighters and of the Syrian reserves. The answer is simple, Alawites do most of the fighting. Sunni fighters are mostly in the NDF, far from fighting, sitting around and occasionally plundering the local population because the NDF is basically local gangsters and thugs with guns policing their towns and villages in the role of a neighborhood watch. The Alawites are mostly the offensive forces, barring a few exceptions.
https://news.vice.com/article/assad-adm ... y-conflict

Exhaustive piece on the intersectatian dynamics within the SAA and why a large number of Sunnis hasn't switched sides:
http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/11/04/assa ... -pub-61449

Here you can read Wikileaks revealing the US govt's plans for regime change in Syria as far back as 2006. I don't doubt there were initial legit protests by Syrians themselves, as I've already said, but there is plenty of info out there (now) that shows there were plenty of foreign fighters with foreign funded weapons inside of the country before and during those initial protests.

There is next to no info that foreign fighters had any notable presence in Syria before spring 2012 when the firstreports started appearing from Homs, though it would take until the summer and the battles of Aleppo and Damascus for the foreign fighters to start coming to prominence.

The jihadists transiting through Syria went to Iraq. They transited with the regime's blessing by the way, to undermine the US position in Iraq. This means that Assad is partially responsible for both the last decade in Iraq and for ISIL btw.

What's new about the US looking for ways to destabilize hostile regimes? That doesn't mean that they instigated anything and everything that happens in those countries, there are plenty of unaddressed grievances that can spark local unrest without the need for any outside help. The US, like mostly everyone else, got involved in Syria after the shitstorm had already started. It didn't cause it, but it did help perpetuate it.

The report wasn't dogshit just because I say so, but particularly because there wasn't anything remotely like evidence for the claims; anonymous testimonies, no photos, no evidence.

As I said what do you expect, AI people to be able to go into Syrian government turf and explore and inquire about government crimes? You really are something And since the above is impossible, we should probably just ignore any reports coming from the country in the only way that they can come, trough anonymous sources. Even if they are in line with what we know from the previous 5+ years. But if AI is the messenger, that automatically means it's fake because they are "in service of empire" , never mind their high profile criticism of the "empire"s number one outpost in the region, which is Israel.

It even sourced that one-man clown-show based in Coventry, England in this report, who goes under the name of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

You mean the one with a ton of sources in Syria who also often reports on rebel crimes as well?
He was a shit source at the start of the war, he's become much more reliable and unbiased over the years though. More reliable than obscure sourceless blogs for example.

[Igor Antunov]

This puts the conflict in context:

[skinster]

So all of their info is from evil western shills and never from yunno, real citizens looking for an outlet to draw attention to their real and legitimate concerns or plight?

That's right. The sources of the AI report are anonymous or one-man organizations from outside of the country. If you want to trust them, that's up to you.

The Ceasar report is evidence, but you dismiss it in favor of a sourceless blog that reeks of partisanship and then post intellectual emoticons when you are pointed to an article on Wikipedia which sources every statement. I don't doubt that any evidence I or anyone else throws at you would be equally dismissed with an excuse that "we don't know how/where/from when", whereby you're implying that the only evidence you would find acceptable is someone on the ground reporting about these things, which means you're basically setting conditions for the acceptance of evidence that you know are impossible to achieve, because obviously no one can report independently from Syrian government territory about the government's crimes.

The Ceasar Report was also lol because it included tons of Syrian army soldiers who were killed, in the pictures. Were they killing themselves?

And seriously, if I cared to engage in discussion on the level of the book you posted, I could just find some equally one-sided crap from the other side, written by someone like McCain...

The book I mentioned sources all the media reports that were coming out the time re: the war on Libya, if you have a problem with all the MSM was reporting at the time re: Libyan intervention and Gaddafi's fake attacks on his own people, then we agree. But really, before talking shit on a book you haven't read, you could try reading it...

Oh wow, I must have missed the US seriously considering going to war with Assad again, which this deployment has absolutely nothing to do with.

Source?

So AI is lying for US political agendas but then it's releasing reports contrary to its lying for no reason? Interesting.

No, AI agreed with Western govts. initially and then after investigating, found no evidence. It's really weird how you can't comprehend this...

From 2013:
http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=313164

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is not a legit source, it's one sectarian guy sat in Coventry i.e. not a legit source. Do you know how to journalism?

He was a shit source at the start of the war...

Agreed.

[white pork]

Syrian peace talks in Astana closed without any substantive negotiations taking place, after rebels boycotted the meeting that took place as a deadly double suicide bombing marked the start of the civil war’s seventh year.

Do you think this work between Turkey, Russia and Iran will help Syrians with new Constitution by discussing it in Geneva?

[GandalfTheGrey]

Man this thread's died... just as things are heating up again. Rebels uniting for an assault on Damascus - apparently. Was hoping to get the low down here. At least was looking forward to Igor explaining how yet again this somehow meant the end of the rebels in about 3 weeks max

[Igor Antunov]

The hama and damascus offensives? Rebels will fail - again. And SAA will see net gains - again. There's nothing to discuss yet, let it play out then analyze.

[pikachu]

There's nothing to discuss yet

There are always things to discuss if you are interested in looking at least slightly beyond the headlines.

For example, do the recent developments indicate resumption of Turkish support for the rebels? Our gracious Jihadi Julian for example believes that the offensive has Turkish backing. If so, what happened to the Russo-Turkish agreement? Has it failed, did someone betray the other, or is it going according to plan?

Indeed, many folks believed that the agreement must include at least some provision for a freedom of maneuver for Turkey in dealing with YPG. Within reasonable limits perhaps, but nobody quite expected Russia to so publicly and unambiguously prevent any Turkish moves against YPG - either in Efrin or in Manbij. I found it a bit surprising - after all, what does Russia have to lose from a confrontation between Turkey and YPG? It seems like a good thing - keeps them both occupied and vulnerable. Yet Putin clearly thought otherwise on this subject, now the question is whether or not it was against the spirit and letter of the agreement that he had with Erdogan. There was no public reaction to this from Turkey - but the developments speak for themselves. We've had the rebels refuse to attend Astana 3, cease fighting one another, and regain offensive capability vis-a-vis Damascus regime. Erdogan also condemned the US air strike that targeted HTS in Idlib but supposedly end up killing a lot of weaponless human shields as always. All this does smell rather suspicious.

If the offensive doesn't actually have Turkish support, then it's doomed to be a disastrous failure, but it had to be done - they had to give it one last try after Aleppo. From there we know what will happen next.
If it does have Turkish support, that probably indicates the collapse of the Russo-Turkish agreement, and thus - even if the rebels don't achieve smashing success in Hama, that means the war is far from over any time soon.

[Igor Antunov]

For example, do the recent developments indicate resumption of Turkish support for the rebels?

It never stopped. It takes time to rebuilt a rebel army once it is utterly destroyed in ill fated offensives.

[pikachu]

Further signs that something's gone off the rails again in the Russo-Turkish relations.

http://www.newsweek.com/turkey-demands- ... ria-572927

http://rbth.com/news/2017/03/20/turkey- ... rts_723371

https://www.rt.com/business/381728-russ ... -food-ban/

If the agreement falls apart, this show will go on for quite some time. It's a drama that just never ends.

[roxunreal]

What an interesting few days it has been.

Fireman Suheil rushed to Hama from east Aleppo and already some villages are back in government hands, it remains to be seen if this was a rebel blitz with not much behind the shock troops, or if they have the backup forces to defend some of their bigger gains. Right now the government only took back some small villages, but there were several of them. What ever the case, this just set the government back another month or two at least, and this was the n-th time the loyalist side was caught with its pants down on another front.

Re:Turkey, I remember reading supposedly that 500 Euphrates Shield fighters from AAS went to Idlib from the ES pocket via Turkey, however I don't think HTS and AAS are cooperating on this, if I'm not mistaking they're still in a tense relationship.

In other news, the SDF has made some really nice progress along the Euphrates and now controls most of the north bank from Raqqa's outskirts to the bend in the east. Also worthy of note, although the banks of the river from the bend to DeZ are dotted with a more or less non-stop line of villages and towns, the desert to the east has not a single settlement between the SDF's lines and DeZ, technically they could just blitz DeZ countryside relatively easily by bypassing the strip of villages along the Euphrates if they were to commit to it fully. But for now I assume Raqqa and Tabqa are a priority.



Speaking of Tabqa, I have been under the impression for several weeks that the loyalists and SDF made an agreement about the SDF not crossing south of the Euphrates, leaving Tabqa and the airbase for the SAA and possibly deciding to jointly administer the dams (Tabqa and Ba'ath) and share their resources. In return the SDF would get civilian/trade right of passage through government territory to Afrin and possibly access to the ports of the coast + the SAA buffer around Manbij. Well, seems at least part of this was wrong because yesterday the SDF landed over the Euphrates west of Tabqa and took over some rural shit + the island near Tabqa. Interestingly, they landed with American helicopters and SOF. Then they took over Tabqa dam from the north. Perhaps they decided that SAA is taking too long, perhaps they both decided that having the dam in ISIL hands for some time to come wasn't a good idea, or perhaps they had no deal whatsoever.

This map is from before Tabqa dam was captured.


Deir Hafir is in government hands too, supposedly most of ISIL pulled out before it became besieged. Hopefully once they deal with Hama they can secure the surroundings of Lake Jaboul entirely.

Last but not least, the rebel push north of Jobar was surprising, not because of its achievements, which weren't much at all since they neither connected with Qaboun nor took a whole lot of territory, but because it's the first time that front moved since 2013. I really wonder what makes the people in these pockets in Damascus going, there's literally a 0% chance of them not getting defeated in the long run. It's not like they'll take over Damascus from East Ghouta or Qaboun, everything they take they'll achieve with the losses that will speed up their final demise when the time for it comes. At least the rebel territory in Idlib and Aleppo has a small possibility of ending up as a frozen conflict or resisting indefinitely because it shares the border with Turkey. Damascus is an entirely different story for the rebels.

[skinster]

The US military bombed a mosque in Syria earlier this week, and yesterday, a school sheltering civilians who were fleeing violence, killing many.

[Ter]

The US military bombed a mosque in Syria earlier this week, and yesterday, a school sheltering civilians who were fleeing violence, killing many.

This might be true, or it might not be true. But that doesn't even matter for what I want to say.
Out of the maybe 450,000 Syrians killed in this civil war, all of them, minus a few dozen, were killed by fellow Muslims.
Yet you are suddenly shocked and offended by what the Americans allegedly did.
Do you think that it is the Muslim's god-given right to conduct massacres?
Your outrage against the Muslim-Muslim violence should be thousand times more, but interestingly, it isn't.

[roxunreal]

re: Pikachu

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... tions.html

On March 18, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement regarding the third anniversary of the Crimean referendum. “Three years have passed since Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on the grounds of an illegitimate referendum held on March 16, 2014. We reiterate that we do not recognize the de facto situation caused by this act, which is a clear violation of international law,” the statement said.

Ankara also confirmed its support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, saying, “Turkey will continue to follow the situation in Crimea closely and to defend the rights and interests of Crimean Tatar Turks, who are among the principal constituents of the peninsula.”