The "Capital of the Revolution", Homs, Syria, has fallen to Assad; +/-700 rebels evacuate under ceas
63 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Cinnamonbun;49312418]He seems to be the only person that kept Syria together. Kinda like Saddam Hussein, ever since these dictators are taken out(as bad as people they are) they did keep the peace, now we have ISIS and multitudes of other extremist groups chopping peoples heads off and committing genocide.[/QUOTE]
It's by no coincidence that this civil war happened. Assad has done more to destabilize his country than to keep it together. Anyone can form a battle line and fight the enemy. It takes a special kind of stupid to deliberately release hundreds of jihadis from political prisons so that they can fight against you and you can take credit for killing them.
The belief that Assad is the only one who has kept Syria together is an illusion. He is the only one who has ever ruled Syria since 2000 and his father is the ONLY one who has ever ruled syria since 1969. It was under his rule that the civil war started and by his actions that it escalated. How can you say he's the best leader for Syria when there has literally been no one else? These men only keep the peace because they are military hardliners posing as elected officials who violently suppress any opposition. It's easy to keep the peace when you black bag anyone who shows a hint of opposing the status quo.
The issue that plagues places like Iraq is not that these places are inherently impossible to implement democracy in, the issue is that the democracies that we, the west (and not they themselves) implement for them are inherently weak institutions and run by inexperienced, often radical politicians who have no real passion for their job. It is precisely because of a weak republican system that coups and dictatorships are allowed to spring from democracies. If the politicians in Baghdad really had the interests of the nation as a whole at heart, Iraq would still retain control of Mosul.
So there's no real justification for saying dictators keep the peace. any other government leader could do the same, if the government were a strong institution.
[QUOTE=wraithcat;49311883]While the Assad regime was brutal, I'd like to point out, that it was actually cooperating with non syrian powers on destroying chemical weapons lest they fall into rebel hands. The US had a navy ship where this was done.
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Syria%27s_chemical_weapons[/url]
On top of that, no one has ever proven that the regime did in fact use chemical weapons.[/QUOTE]
I somehow doubt rebels without any kind of training or know-how managed to successfully use chemical weapons, knowing exactly what it was and how to use it.
No, there's no hard evidence. But ration and reason are enough to tell you who did it.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;49313413]I somehow doubt rebels without any kind of training or know-how managed to successfully use chemical weapons, knowing exactly what it was and how to use it.
No, there's no hard evidence. But ration and reason are enough to tell you who did it.[/QUOTE]
Saying that the fighters of a nation-wide rebellion that caused a 5 year long civil war (that keeps going on strong, with no such thing as an end in sight in the short run) don't have training or know-how is a bit of a long shot.
They had the time to set up training camps, some of them are former military members, and on top of that, either setting up an IED with chemical shels or firing one from a piece doesn't require any special training besides the one they recieved to do their usual job, the biggest hurdle to overcome is getting hold of the ammo or the precursors to manufacture a device, and since there were multiple loyalist military bases captured, and even a sect like Aum Shinrikyō was able to manufacture an impure version of Sarin in Japan, I wouldn't consider it too far fetched that the rebels could have some chemical attack capabilities in their hands, maybe they're just not using them so that they don't catch flak from the international community. Not pointing fingers, just that it doesn't seem OK to outright dismiss it.
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