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Please guys, stay on topic.
This thread is about the situation in Iraq and Syria. |
What the US/UK/France threatened in case a a usage of chemical weapons was not to overthrow the regime but to disable the syrian army to do it again. Only in France there were a few voices demandings Assads removal. (Well, in the US there were such voices too, but not from relevant ppl in charge of more then a microphone)
Following this original intention, the way of disarming Syrias chemical weaponry is as good as a series of strategical strikes against their chemical weapons arsenal. One may argue, that Syria may keep some secret stashes, but on the other hand it would be highly unlikely to target down all their chemical potential by airstrikes as well. Unless you want to level whole Syria or overthrow the entire regime, but that wasn't the intention of those threatened attack.
And we aren't even talking about the risks of that limited strike idea, that could spiral out of control in a messed up region of the world. (well, what country would accept "limited strikes" against itself?)
Also in the case of failure of the current way (e.g. Syria not handing out their chemical weaponry) the western powers have a much more powerful reason to "enforce the will of the UN". And 2 or 3 more month of a civil war, you don't want any side to win, who could care less in the western governments? By now we should have enough examples, that forced regimechanges are not the solution to all problems in the world.
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I'd guess it's not that easy to blow up gas containers and shells without the gas getting out. And one of the major problems with chemical weapons is that you never know where they'll go due to wind.
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They were never going to target chemical weapon facilities directly in the first place, the strike would have been against military infrastructure in general: command & control, barracks, airfields that type of thing and it's likely they would have brought down the Assad regime entirely. At least those were the targets that were leaked by the pentagon, no mention of striking chemical weapon sites at all because it was deemed too risky.
Situation between Turkey and Syria is escalating rapidly now.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/09/2013918182757847937.html
Fighters linked to al-Qaeda have overrun a Syrian town near the border with Turkey after fighting broke out with units of the anti-government Free Syrian Army, opposition activists say.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Wednesday stormed the town of Azaz, 5km from the Syrian-Turkish border, and killed at least five FSA members, the activists said, adding 100 people were taken captive.
Reports in the late evening said that fighting was continuing and getting closer to a border crossing at Bab Al Salama, which is controlled by the FSA.
The fighting is the most severe since tensions mounted earlier this year between the rebel factions fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The fighting could pose a dilemma for the Turkish government, which has been allowing fighters to cross into Syria from its territory, but may not be keen to see al-Qaeda so close to its border.
Abu Ahmad, an activist inside Azaz, told the AFP news agency: "The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has seized complete control of Azaz. They are in control of the town's entrances."
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So according to German media, Assad needs one billion (dollar?) in order to cope with the cost of disassembling and neutralizing the weapons of mass destruction in his country. If that were to come, then that has been the most well spend one billion I've seen for quite some time.
Though I do hope Assad asked for noncash benefits of one billion, giving him a billion in cash just seems... so silly.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
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On September 19 2013 17:41 JustPassingBy wrote:
So according to German media, Assad needs one billion (dollar?) in order to cope with the cost of disassembling and neutralizing the weapons of mass destruction in his country. If that were to come, then that has been the most well spend one billion I've seen for quite some time.
Though I do hope Assad asked for noncash benefits of one billion, giving him a billion in cash just seems... so silly.
Why not? The EU did that for the Egyptian dictatorship and around half just vanished.
LONDON — A €1 billion European Union aid program to promote good governance and human rights in Egypt has been “well-intentioned but ineffective,” according to a critical report by the alliance’s auditors.
Around half the aid, which is worth about $1.35 billion, which went directly to the Egyptian treasury in the form of budget support, was largely unaccounted for, according to the report.
Source
Of course money never really just vanishes. I think it's safe to assume a great deal of it ended up back in Europe via secrecy jurisdictions
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The Syrian civil war has reached a stalemate and President Bashar al-Assad's government will call for a ceasefire at a long-delayed conference in Geneva on the state's future, the country's deputy prime minister has said in an interview with the Guardian.
Speaking on behalf of the government, Qadri Jamil said that neither side was strong enough to win the conflict, which has lasted two years and caused the death of more than 100,000 people. Jamil, who is in charge of country's finances, also said that the Syrian economy had suffered catastrophic losses.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/19/syrian-government-civil-war-stalemate
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I KNEW IT!!!!!
I dont have any proof, but I strongly suspect that Israel and american intelligence is behind the attacks.
Assad was winning the war with russian support, he didnt need to kill people with chemical weapons because normal weapons were working just fine, he was winning the war.
Syria is right next door to israel, with a simple CIA-Mossad joint operation, I believe they got within Assads army infrastructure long enough to launch the chemical weapons and try to provoke international intervention.
Few countries have been as quiet as Israel in this mess, I believe 90% of the blame for us getting to this point lies on them.
At least we still have heros like Puttin in the world championing for peace.
We created the UN for a reason, the US ignoring the UN just because its opinion is not unanimous makes the whole planet skeptical of democracy.
Also, where was all this american moral superiority and exceptionalism in the many genocides that happened over africa, and still happen (such as in DR Congo, where the UN is sending its FIRST military takeover mission).
At the end of the day, the US makes the UN weak because its constantly ignoring whatever people decide like they are better.
User was warned for this post
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I don't see why all the factions don't realise that al-Quada is the real enemy, instead of fighting amongst themselves, al-qaeda is targeting civilians, especially Christians
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Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil was quoted Thursday suggesting that neither side in the country's civil war is capable of military victory and that the government of Bashar al-Assad may seek a cease-fire.
"Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side," Jamil told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published Thursday.
"This zero balance of forces will not change for a while," he added.
He also indicated that the regime may call for a cease-fire if proposed peace talks, known as Geneva 2, come to fruition.
While both the U.S. and Russia have agreed to the talks in principle, it is uncertain which of the groups currently fighting in Syria would attend and under what terms.
Source
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Syria's deputy prime minister Qadri Jamil has appeared on Russia Today's Arabic channel to deny telling the Guardian that Syria would call for a ceasefire at the planned Geneva 2 peace conference (thanks to Ramil al-Lolah for spotting the interview).
He pointed out that a date had yet to be set for the conference.
He also accused the Guardian of failing to respond to a complaint about the interview. The response of Jonathan Steele who stands by his report of the interview, was published almost two hours ago.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/syria-suggests-ceasefire-to-end-stalemate-live
Apparantly he claims he was speaking as leader of his own party and not as foreign minister.
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I haven't been keeping up with history , but why is Iran Israel's arch-foe ?
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On September 21 2013 03:08 raga4ka wrote:I haven't been keeping up with history , but why is Iran Israel's arch-foe ?
The British mandate after WW2, how they essentially kicked out Palestinians from their land, the shit that's happening now with walls and constant UN violations, Zionism, etc.
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United States43989 Posts
On September 21 2013 03:15 Bayyne wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2013 03:08 raga4ka wrote:I haven't been keeping up with history , but why is Iran Israel's arch-foe ? The British mandate after WW2, how they essentially kicked out Palestinians from their land, the shit that's happening now with walls and constant UN violations, Zionism, etc.
Iran funding and arming terrorists bent on killing Israeli civilians. Iran is to Israel what the Taliban were to America on September 11th 2001, only for decades and openly hostile.
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But Iran has never been a part of any military conflict with Israel, right?
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On September 21 2013 03:23 Warlock40 wrote:
But Iran has never been a part of any military conflict with Israel, right?
its part of their ideological stance. Its like, gay people havent done anything to Republicans but Republicans hate them because it gets them support among their political base and its cheap to hate them. Its the same thing for Iran. Advocating for Palestinians is a cheap way, politically, to garner support among its own people.
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EPT
