• US Student killed filming violence in Syria. Colleagues killed.
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[QUOTE]Just five months ago, Bassel Shahade, a film student at Syracuse University, was explaining to the hosts of Democracy Now! that he had to speak quietly. He had hunkered down in an apartment in Damascus, Syria and worried that soldiers outside could hear him. “Thousands of detainees are still in the prisons,” Shahade said in a low voice. “Among them are tens of my friends. They are not terrorists. They are filmmakers, journalists, doctors, lawyers. They are very high intellectual people and activists.” In the studio, host Amy Goodman worried for Shahade’s safety. “We can hear you just fine, Bassel, but we want you to be very careful,” Goodman said. “You can tell us you can’t talk. That is fine.” Shahade, 28, was killed Monday while filming the aftermath of attacks by government security forces. The United Nations believes that 9,000 people, mostly civilians have been killed during the 14-month uprising against President Bashar Assad. Amer Mater, a friend of Shahade, told The Associated Press that Shahade was in Houla to film the aftermath of violence over the weekend that killed 108 people, including at least 32 children. The bloodied bodies of children, [B]some with their skulls split open,[/B] were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room. Shahade was filming a documentary, Mater told the AP, and had trained other activists as videographers to document the attacks. [COLOR=#222222]Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor called Shahade's death a tragedy.[/COLOR] “His death is also a tragedy for the Syrian people, who have suffered many months of tragic violence as they seek greater freedom for their nation,” Cantor said. Friends took to Facebook to mourn the loss of their friend. A man named Waheeb wrote that he had cried looking at his friend’s photos. He said that Shahade “loved Syria and the people around him.” “I remember him showing me proudly an article by his uncle ridiculing sectarianism and ideas of religious divisions between Christians and Muslims in Syria,” Waheeb wrote. “He believed that neither sect, ethnicity or religion mattered in relations between people.” Shahade’s interview with Democracy Now! took place on Dec. 29, 2011, four days after Christmas. He told the hosts that tension was rising and violence increasing. A baby cried in the background. “You cannot walk after three-o-clock in the city. You’ll be shot,” Shahade said. “And you don’t know from where it will come—from the army or from the locals. Like, it’s a total chaos there.” He told of a friend, a doctor, who was shot while trying to cross the border into Turkey. “He was providing help for protesters,” Shahade said. “And they followed him, and he tried to cross the borders to Turkey, and they shot him on the border.”[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/29/11943194-us-student-killed-while-filming-violence-in-syria?lite[/url]
Its like Syria is trying to beat the Third Reichs record for most fucked up government or something. There isn't even any logic to anything they do.
Fuck Syria('s military). How in the hell is al-Assad expecting to remain in power when this is over?
[QUOTE=Freakie;36129571]Fuck Syria('s military). How in the hell is al-Assad expecting to remain in power when this is over?[/QUOTE] Pretty sure the general idea is it's hard to be overthrown when anyone against you is dead or too scared.
[QUOTE=markg06;36129583]Pretty sure the general idea is it's hard to be overthrown when anyone against you is dead or too scared.[/QUOTE] Well something's got to happen eventually.
[QUOTE=Squeaken;36129468]Its like Syria is trying to beat the Third Reichs record for most fucked up government or something. There isn't even any logic to anything they do.[/QUOTE] Reich was something entirely else. They were killing out people who were tagged as ideological scrapegoat and slaughtered en masse for nothing but their origin. There was no escaping the massacre, they were surrounded and past some point they just couldn't do anything. The murder of Jews was methodical and calculated, economically and politically, with cold precision. The Nazi regime also obviously got rid of these who opposed it, but these people are not usually the ones you hear about. Meanwhile, what's happening in Syria is attempt to quench the revolt against the leader who refuses to give up his stay. The killings have only very simple purposes, but when it comes to women and children, it's simply to scare. Their government terrorizes it's own people in futile attempt to steer them into obedience. They hope that sowing more and more terror will extinguish the blaze of unrest and hatred towards the dictator, but so far they seem to be vastly unsuccessful. It's purely barbaric and could be taken as a mad violent craze of psychopathic body their government is, at this point. Both events of our history are horrible and detestable, but are not really comparable.
...even I'm starting to ponder kicking the door in unannounced. I'm normally not an advocate of such things, and have even said not to do so about syria in the past, but it's getting to the point where there's no other choice. Roll some Abrahms in there and take care of it.
[QUOTE=TestECull;36129676] Roll some Abrahms in there and take care of it.[/QUOTE] if by take care of it you mean turn it into an international incident and descend Syria into chaos, then sure thing!
[QUOTE=TestECull;36129676]...even I'm starting to ponder kicking the door in unannounced. I'm normally not an advocate of such things, and have even said not to do so about syria in the past, but it's getting to the point where there's no other choice. Roll some Abrahms in there and take care of it.[/QUOTE] Problem is that still might not solve anything. The place is fucked up by principle, pretty much most of the middle east is. Too prone to extremist rule. Fucked over by a century of heavy influence from all of UK, USA, France, Russia... You can kill this one guy but look how Egypt is, and last time I checked Liberia doesn't seem on way to becoming sunshine resort either. I can't say I would be directly against intervention, but, I can't say I would endorse it, either.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;36129709]Problem is that still might not solve anything. The place is fucked up by principle, pretty much most of the middle east is. Too prone to extremist rule. Fucked over by a century of heavy influence from all of UK, USA, France, Russia... You can kill this one guy but look how Egypt is, and last time I checked Liberia doesn't seem on way to becoming sunshine resort either.[/QUOTE] it's because countries can't be suddenly pushed into one direction with military force. you can't force democracy, secularism, or liberalism in a country that has no history of such a thing without turning it into an authoritarian state.
[QUOTE=thisispain;36129727]it's because countries can't be suddenly pushed into one direction with military force. you can't force democracy, secularism, or liberalism in a country that has no history of such a thing without turning it into an authoritarian state.[/QUOTE] Exactly, but what's your idea? I mean that honestly, I just don't know what to even back, because there doesn't seem to be much of solution. Should we just watch them kill eachother out and sometimes poke with a bit of humanitarian aid? Is that all we can do?
These Middle Eastern dictatorships systematically destroy themselves. Why waste a bunch of resources, possibly cause an international incident, and have a substantial addition of people die just to achieve the product of a process that is already hapenning?
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;36129758]Exactly, but what's your idea? I mean that honestly, I just don't know what to even back, because there doesn't seem to be much of solution. Should we just watch them kill eachother out and sometimes poke with a bit of humanitarian aid? Is that all we can do?[/QUOTE] what happens in Syria didn't happen for no reason. it helps to remember that Syria was a French mandate afflicted with revolutions bred by anti-imperial nationalistic ideologies, some of which were funded by western governments. nationalism itself was developed as a western line of thought.
dem be the sound of the US war drums.
Fucking hell, I understand its hard with Russia and China not supporting it but NATO should do something already. Get in there and protect your worlds civillians.
[QUOTE=Milkdairy;36129804]These Middle Eastern dictatorships systematically destroy themselves. Why waste a bunch of resources, possibly cause an international incident, [B]and have a substantial addition of people die[/B] just to achieve the product of a process that is already hapenning?[/QUOTE] Not quite.
We REALLY need to do something.
[QUOTE=IKTM;36130770]We REALLY need to do something.[/QUOTE] Sure, let's bring the US and NATO into this, just like we did in Libya. I am not sure what I think of this idea considering how horrible it looks there.
[QUOTE=usaokay;36130321]There's no oil in Syria.[/QUOTE] And there's more oil in [I]Canada[/I] then there is in Afghanistan
Why the hell would you voluntarily go to what is probably the most dangerous place on Earth right now
[QUOTE=thisispain;36129691]if by take care of it you mean turn it into an international incident and descend Syria into chaos, then sure thing![/QUOTE] Wouldn't want to descend Syria into chaos, people might get hurt, there might be massacres of children
What children? THey're all dead already.
Has anyone seen the National Geographic documentary Restrepo? It's definitely a 10/10 and I recommend it to all audiences. Anyways, I was pretty disappointed when I heard that Tim Hetherington died filming in Libya. [quote="Noble"]Why the hell would you voluntarily go to what is probably the most dangerous place on Earth right now[/quote] I understand exactly what you're talking about; but, these guys are catching the corruption and evil within our world in the lense of a camera. Someone needs to do it. People need to have an idea of what's really happening and what it's really like. It's too bad the photoge of things like this aren't getting the attention they deserve. To me these guys died honorably.
[QUOTE=DrasarSalman;36130963]Sure, let's bring the US and NATO into this, just like we did in Libya. I am not sure what I think of this idea considering how horrible it looks there.[/QUOTE] A night insertion for assassination, ala Bin Laden?
[QUOTE=zombini;36132504]A night insertion for assassination, ala Bin Laden?[/QUOTE] That would be like stealing a lollipop out of the mouth of someone who's got a container of them right beside him. Kill one and a new one assumes the throne.
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