Originally Posted by
Roland Pulfrew
Syria was a secular society before this "uprising" by a small minority - how can you be so sure that a majority of Syrians aren't/weren't happy with the status quo.
The protests suggest they were not. The demonstrations preceded the civil war. Civil war seems to have been a sequel to government overreaction to the protests over a variety of domestic issues, to include water allocation.
After all they had freedom of religion, education, healthcare and a reasonable standard of living under Assad. Maybe they look at what happened in Iraq and Libya and decided that the devil you know.
One wonders: who was behind the protests, and the follow up, and were they foreign agitators from, say, Saudi or Qatar?
No idea, but it's not as though intrigue and dirty dealing in that part of the world is rare.
Originally Posted by
Roland Pulfrew
The west have backed the wrong side on this one, just as we did in Egypt and Libya, and all based on the illusion of democracy. Maybe democracy, like most creeds/cultures/empires, has had its day.
If so, I weep for the world. Recall what Churchill said about democracy:
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." (from a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947) So he lost the election and made the following observation: "They have a perfect right to kick me out. That is democracy".
Until the leaders of the Arab World, and idiots like Hugo Chavez (may he rot in the grave) take that same attitude, a lot of the world won't have democracy.
Eclectic:
From the UN summary
A political solution founded upon tenets of the Geneva communiqué is the only path to peace.
No, it's not the only path to peace. If Assad finally puts down the rebellion, I suspect that peace will return. In Syrian terms, a Peace like the infamous Hama peace edict of his father.
glojo:
And American forces TRAINING THEM
glojo, there is no evidence that American forces are training the Al Q nuts, nor the liver eating bastidges. Some of the FSA factions are not quite as extreme as the ones who make headlines.
YOU are leaping to a conclusion there.
That said, I suspect that some of the Gulf Allies (Saudis, Qatar) America has are arming and funding no few of the unsavory scumbags in Syria. Turkey may also be doing the same.
Old news, really. Saudi Arabia has been a source of Islamist / Mujahadeen funding for decades.