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Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

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Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#181
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Sure, it can always be worse" Yes, I would argue the islamic state was indeed worse. And so far I see nothing preventing them or a similar force taking hold again. I mean turkey is the moderating factor here and turkey under Erdogan has gone the authorian islamic way since a while.

Drawing analogies between Erdogan and the IS is wild.

Where did I do that?

I said I am sceptical for the outcome, if Erdogan is the moderating factor. Or do you think, he cares much for human rights and democracy?

That is far from saying he is like IS.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#182
post #152
post #6

Much though I want to view this as good news I keep finding myself steelmanning that it's actually bad news * destabilising a region already in flames * replacing a secular evil government by.. jihadists in a loose coalition. WCGW? * Russia used port and airfields to maintain a presence in the Med and for nefarious purposes in Africa. What do they do now, to replace them because I doubt "nothing" is the answer. * doe…

> replacing a secular evil government by.. jihadists in a loose coalition. WCGW? that's what strikes me the most. All the newspapers have rebranded "ISIS" "the rebels". The headline would be otherwise "ISIS milicia takes over Syria" and somehow that's good news. I don't know who coordonates the rebranding, but clearly there is coordination, almost every newspaper in every country I checked followed it. It's a spectac…

Does this sound like ISIS to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psg2MYoN1FU

Yes, we should be cautious and skeptical, but the views currently being expressed by HTS are fairly moderate.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#183

I'm not really aware of what's going on in Syria, and not really sure who's worse - Assad or the rebels, but it seems clear that Iran & Russia, which were main backers of Assad regime, appears extremely weak. That's understandable for Iran which may want to avoid to overextend itself following the recent events, but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all. In any case, it seems like there…

Nothing ever happens. In this case other than maybe an advancement of a greater Isreal in the middle east.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * how will Turkey negotiate with this facing the pkk and Kurdish nationalism? Hopefully Turkey does the honorable thing, recognizes an independent Kurdish state and apologizes for decades of oppression, murder and state-sanction terror? Unlikely though.

It's surprising to me that many here in HN see Turkey as the state terrorists over the Kurds, when the main party of Kurdish independence from Turkey is a literal terrorist group who committed a terrorist attack killing innocent civilians in Turkey just over one month ago! It feels to me that when HNers agree that a people should be sovereign (the Kurds), they ignore the terrorism. When they don't agree (the Palestin…

The difference between freedom fighters and terrorists is often a matter of whether you favor them or not.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#187
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of a thing called, Islamic State? They had a thing for creative murder. Aside from the usual behadings, they came up with things like pushing homosexuals from buildings in the public and alike. They are also now free again.

How is this an answer to the op's statement?. Assad was a war criminal just like his father. Remember the Hama 1982. Son followed dad by killing thousands, torturing and displaced millions. West will support and try a rosy picture of so called secular totalitarians as long as it fits to their agenda.

It is an answer to the claim, that freeing everyone is always to be considered a good thing.

Freeing all the political prisoners, yes, I support that. I am not a fan of Assad.

But also all the IS militants who while being free, made a competition, of who can be the most cruel?

I am sceptical. And also about where those people will end up. And they are more than a handful.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#189
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, technical IS supporters (who did not participated in killings themself) are political imprisoned citizens as well. The point is, that no matter what they did, they are all free now.

What are you trying to state? There's a small number of citizen IS supporters and they're now free, along with all others who showed opposition to the regime. Ok. So what? Please don't use a general understanding of the patterns in the region to extrapolate wild takes when you don't know the specifics of each country and their people. Syrians are not Afghans are not Libyans are not whatever, as much as the west would…

"There's a small number of citizen IS supporters and they're now free"

If their numbers are so small, why was the IS a global problem then, a couple of years ago?

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#190
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> replacing a secular evil government by.. jihadists in a loose coalition. WCGW? that's what strikes me the most. All the newspapers have rebranded "ISIS" "the rebels". The headline would be otherwise "ISIS milicia takes over Syria" and somehow that's good news. I don't know who coordonates the rebranding, but clearly there is coordination, almost every newspaper in every country I checked followed it. It's a spectac…

Does this sound like ISIS to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psg2MYoN1FU Yes, we should be cautious and skeptical, but the views currently being expressed by HTS are fairly moderate.

There is nothing in his wiki bio that suggests moderation.
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