Syria

[mids2019]

Has Syria been forgotten and who is to blame for civilian deaths in this region. It is Assad or rebel groups?

(Its a conflict in the middle East with huge civilian casualties but doesn't involve Israel so I guess this thread will for a death)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war#:~:text=The%20Syrian%20civil%20war%20(Arabic,sponsored%20and%20non%2Dstate%20actors.

@User37482 yes, BBC now reporting that US has made 75 air strikes today on IS in Syria.

A 2015 poem about Bashir Assad’s wife:

Asma Unpacks Her Pretty Clothes

Wherever her main residence is now,
Asma unpacks her pretty clothes.
It takes forever: so much silk and cashmere
To be unpeeled from clinging leaves of tissue
By her ladies. With her perfect hands, she helps.

Out there in Syria, the torturers
Arrive by bus at every change of shift
While victims dangle from their cracking wrists.
Beaten with iron bars, young people pray
To die soon. This is the middle ages
Brought back to living death. Her husband’s doing.
The screams will never reach her where she is.

Asma’s uncovered hair had promised progress
For all her nation’s women. They believed her.
We who looked on believed the promise too.
But now, as she unpacks her pretty clothes,
The dream at home dissolves in agony.

Bashar, her husband, does as he sees fit
To cripple every enemy with pain.
We sort of knew, but he had seemed so modern
With Asma alongside him. His big talk
About destroying Israel: standard stuff.
A culture-changing wife offset all that.

She did, she did. I doted as Vogue did
On her sheer style. Dear God, it fooled me too,
So now my blood is curdled by the shrieks
Of people mad with grief. My own wrists hurt

As Asma, with her lustrous fingertips –
She must have thought such things could never happen –
Unpacks her pretty clothes.

– Clive James

You didn't answer my question @UnsympatheticCharacter

Jeez thats a lot, really kicking their butts I hope.

First photo of the Assads in exile

Fine don't bother

Why did you thank me for this post @UnsympatheticCharacter? Weird

More from the BBC:

Neutralising chemical weapons in Syria a ‘top tier priority’, US official sayspublished at 20:54
20:54
Rebecca Hartmann
Reporting from the White House
A senior US administration official has said that they are not currently contemplating US boots on the ground in Syria in order to neutralise any chemical weapons.
According to the senior official, neutralising chemical weapons in Syria is a ‘top tier priority’ and something that the expertise in the US government is focused on right now. But they are exploring other options in order to neutralise that threat.
The senior official added that they are doing everything they can, including working with ‘partners’ in the region to ensure that the material is either not available to anyone or ‘taken care of’.

Strong suggestion in that last sentence that Israel and US are in fact working together to combat the chemical weapons threat.

I hope so. I hope any new regime gives additional rights to women, more than under Assad and much else but I am not hopeful - both sides seem pretty awful so the principal aim once the chemical weapons are gone are to leave the Syrians to deal with their own country.

@User37482

I keep seeing claims that some in the west are upset about the fall of assad, I assume these are Iran/Hezbollah axis of resisters type supporters?

I'm not sure who you are talking about exactly. But It's a moment of uncertainty and chaos. Although the west will be happy that Assad has fallen, the rebels consist of terrorist group with their roots in Jihadist ideas. Also with the chaos ISIS could take hold again.

So it's not all out good news. We don't know whether it will mean peace and how the rebel groups be will towards the west.

@DifferentNameForThisBoard

Yes it does. Sure it is this type of thing that ensures the continued support of Israel by western governments and the lack of severe action when they break international law.

This latest prison release video is a good one because you see the moment the cell doors open:

x.com/qalaatalmudiq/status/1865871347848528090?s=46

Maybe Israel and the US take out the chemical weapons then leave it safer for everyone.

I've reported you for that @UnsympatheticCharacter

No need to thank me

@User37482

"I keep seeing claims that some in the west are upset about the fall of assad, I assume these are Iran/Hezbollah axis of resisters type supporters?

If anyone could explain this to me I would appreciate it"

Because firstly HTS is a more extreme Islamic group than the Taliban so don't expect women's rights or different religions etc to fare too well under their control.

Secondly the opposition fighters are far more fragmented than even in Libya and they are currently only in agreement on removing Assad. Now that he has gone we can expect a protracted civil war.

In the absence of a single Government there will be a civil breakdown and lack of law and order even away from the conflict zones that will make Somalia seem orderly.

So in short you will be creating a more extreme version of what's happening in Afghanistan with a more extreme version of the civil war in Libya and a more extreme version of the lack of law and order than in Somalia.

Assad for all his evil doings was the lesser of two evils.

It’s easy to say what comes after Assad will be worse, but it’s unlikely to be worse than the past 13 years and 500,000 dead.

Also:

“I want to address politically engaged Brits on here who seem to all be saying the same thing. What comes next is worse.

We don't know what will come next, or how it will emerge. Yes it could be HTS...it might also not be. We don't know. But it's for Syrians to chose NOT US.

After 13 years of death, bombardment, gassing, barrel bombs, torture, displacement and exile, none of which any Brit has experienced, maybe just sit this out, let the Syrians work it out for themselves. And accept that perhaps they want something different than what you want.”

• MikeRStephens on X

The Syrian refugees in my city were celebrating today. They hope they can go home soon.

It is not attack on Kurds. YPG is a terrorist organisation, it is Syria branch of PKK terrorist organisation in Turkey. It is a known fact that PKK kidnaps youth from Kurdish families and force them to join PKK, taking hostage all these families to support PKK otherwise they kill the kidnapped person. Of course, after enough brainwashing these kidnapped people become one of their (PKK) own. PKK is responsible from many civilian deaths through their terror attacks. Syrians say the territories YPG has captured in northern Syria is not even majority Kurdish population.

I don't think "the west" is that concerned. Someone helped the rebels and at our house we think it was the western push. Alongside Assad's own government officials. 13 years of civil war and then relatively suddenly compared to overall timescale... It happened. Yes, his allies were weakend, but still. Iran was behind Assad, unless they absolutely outright betrayed him and funded rebels for a while, it would probably be "the west".
Especially since the leader said that he has no interest in fighting "the west" but all their interest lies in rebuilding Syria.

Really hoping it will work out for them and the group really has severed the is and al qaeda ties and ideas and will prove it. The lives of refugees in surrounding countries have been tough (to say it nicely) and it would be amazing if they could return and rebuild.

Excellent Clive James poem @UnsympatheticCharacter

I think there were people who were genuinely pro-assad which is fucking bewildering to me. I have the same reservations about the rebels tbh. But I can’t say I’m not sad to see Assad gone. A woman was released from prison, she went in at 19 and came out in her 30’s with multiple children. Fucking monsters. There are people who don’t even know their own names anymore.

You keep saying that but they are sitting tight. When you attack a town like Manbij or a convoy of refugees from Aleppo (there were beheadings!) which is what the SNA have been doing you are attacking Kurds. They kidnapped arab women from Manbij who were working for the police. These people are definitely attacking kurds.

Whatever you say.. In the greater context, you are trying to hide Israel's land grab in Syria by casting a positive light on whatever it does including bombing the capital. That's why you keep mentioning about Turkey and label YPG as 'Kurdish' forces.