Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zangi]

I'm willing to bet that the West will not intervene on behalf of the Syrian rebels now.

[justinlee999]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20584573

Man, the fundies are at it again.

[Another]

It becomes really gloomy when you make a connection between those last 2 articles.

[Scoops Novel]

Zangi, last i heard they're forcing them to get a cohesive front together, and if they like it they'll give further support.

[Scoops Novel]

Can someone nail down for me the amount of support groups trying to enact sharia law have? As far as i can tell, not as much as they used too, but whether that's because of their ideals or their actions I'm unclear on.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Their support is growing in Syria. Unfortunately, the effects of protracted civil war against a secular but evil dictator have allowed Islamists to frame the conflict as a kind of "return to traditional (see:Islamic) values by the will of the people" thing.

[scriver]

The one's in Libya have a lot less support. They're practically armed outlaws forcing their rule upon the citizens, and there isn't enough structure for the goverment to get to them. But then again there is still "Islamists" in the goverment too, I believe, but I use the term hesistantly as I do not know how extreme and/or violent in their views those are. As I understand it, the outlaw militias are still generally independant operations, anyway.

[DJ]

It seems to me that the Libyan ones are doing a damn good job turning the general population against radical Islamists, including the ones in the government. I expect the next elections to go more in favour of secular parties.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Libya's Islamists ruined themselves with the embassy attacks. It is one thing to commit violence against representatives of the West when the West is causing you suffering, it is quite another to murder someone who was a critical ally during the revolution and then try to blame it on the general public. I doubt the Libyans will soon forget that.

[GlyphGryph]

And from what I understood, the guy they killed was one of the most well-liked Americans in Libya.

[Zangi]

Zangi, last i heard they're forcing them to get a cohesive front together, and if they like it they'll give further support.

You mean stop associating with the Islamic rebels fighting alongside them? 
That is a possibility... won't hold my breath.  Gotta wonder what the make up of the rebel forces are... how much of it is made up of the hardline Islamist types versus the moderates.  How similar or different is it to Libya?

Dictatorial secular governments in the Middle East seem to have a recurring theme of suppressing the Islamists... so they do have a pretty good reason to fight.

(Is there a difference between Islamic and Muslim?  Or do they mean the same thing?)

[scriver]

Islamic technically isn't correct. It's a bit like calling something "Usanic/Usaian" instead of American just because it's closer to USA.

If you meant Islamist then the difference is that the Islamists are fundamentalist extremist Muslims, as opposed to all the Muslims who aren't.

[Helgoland]

Going at the terminology again, ehh?

But that's a big reason why the west should have intervened in Syria much sooner: The longer the war drags on, the deeper the rifts in society get, and the harder it will be for society in general to return back to normal.
Originally these were peaceful, (semi-)secular protests.
Then Assad started firing.
And they continued protesting peacefully.
And Assad continued firing.
And they continued protesting peacefully.
And Assad continued firing.
And of course at some point they got fed up with it and started firing back.

Any war crimes committed by the rebels, any religious or ethnic hate, any illiberalism in future Syria is at least partly Assad's fault.

[Urist_McDrowner]

Breaking News: The Syrian military has chemical weapons loaded on planes, awaiting Bashar's order

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/05/15706380-syria-loads-chemical-weapons-into-bombs-military-awaits-assads-order?lite

[PTTG??]

I really, really, really don't want to get involved in annother pointless Islamic feud. For a while there last year, I was really rooting for the secularists, but now it's pretty clear that the whole Arabic Spring was more about radical Islamists and more differenter radical Islamists.