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[palsch]

Yes of course, groups like Al-Nusra are doing most of the fighting and the FSA are allied with them. That doesn't change the fact that the FSA are the lightest shade of gray though.

Interestingly I was just linked an article claiming the opposite.


Obama currently speaking. He has said he has decided to use military action and has authority to use military action, but is going to go to Congress for authorisation anyway.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Sure wish people were as cautious before Iraq.

[Dutchling]

I am under the impression the FSA isn't much without Al-Nusra.

Yes of course, groups like Al-Nusra are doing most of the fighting and the FSA are allied with them. That doesn't change the fact that the FSA are the lightest shade of gray though.

Ehh, no. If you side with Islamists you are not the lightest shade of grey.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Unsupported rebellions will accept support from the first to offer if noone will.

[Helgoland]

I am under the impression the FSA isn't much without Al-Nusra.

Yes of course, groups like Al-Nusra are doing most of the fighting and the FSA are allied with them. That doesn't change the fact that the FSA are the lightest shade of gray though.

Ehh, no. If you side with Islamists you are not the lightest shade of grey.

As there is a finite number of people in Syria, there must be a finite number of shades of grey. Logic dictates there must be a lightest shade - which is it, then, if not the FSA?

[Dutchling]

I am under the impression the FSA isn't much without Al-Nusra.

Yes of course, groups like Al-Nusra are doing most of the fighting and the FSA are allied with them. That doesn't change the fact that the FSA are the lightest shade of gray though.

Ehh, no. If you side with Islamists you are not the lightest shade of grey.

As there is a finite number of people in Syria, there must be a finite number of shades of grey. Logic dictates there must be a lightest shade - which is it, then, if not the FSA?

I've heard Assad is lovely round this time of the year...

[GlyphGryph]

Sure wish people were as cautious before Iraq.

People were too busy panicking and rushing around insisting SOMETHING no matter HOW STUPID had to be done.

If Cuba were to launch some missiles at us tomorrow, I'm sure the nation would immediately demand that we invade Syria with the full force of our armies.

[LordSlowpoke]

Sure wish people were as cautious before Iraq.

People were too busy panicking and rushing around insisting SOMETHING no matter HOW STUPID had to be done.

If Cube were to launch some missiles at us tomorrow, I'm sure the nation would immediately demand that we invade Syria with the full force of our armies.

who is this cube you speak of? do you know something we don't? are you going to be the target of a tactical missile strike orchestrated by six-faced solid objects unless you invade syria? are the shapes holding you hostage

[GlyphGryph]

*Cuba

[Owlbread]

Ehh, no. If you side with Islamists you are not the lightest shade of grey.

Now that's not very pragmatic at all, is it? Sometimes we have to make compromises, and in the Middle East sometimes moderate Islamists are better than psychopathic dictators. Al-Nusra are not moderate, but the FSA are, at least in an official capacity. Before you show me the heart eating gentleman - he represents a particular brigade, not the whole army. The FSA operate rather like the international brigades did back in the Spanish Civil War, so each brigade can have a lot of autonomy and abstract views.

Excuse the violation of Godwin's law here, but if Nazi Germany invade a Muslim country (as they did), imagine the people rebelling are split into two - moderately Islamic pro-democracy rebels, radical Islamists. You side with the Nazis I take it? Or do you accept that, depending on how extreme the situation is, in some circumstances those who side with Islamists can represent a lighter shade of grey?

I've heard Assad is lovely round this time of the year...

So you support a man who killed at least 2000 of his own people in the space of 4 months over the most secular/democratic of the rebels (who were formed originally in an attempt to defend themselves against the brutality being meted out at them), simply because they side with radical Islamists in a marriage of convenience? And by "side" I mean "don't fight them until the war is over"?

[MonkeyHead]

So, what way will congress jump? From what I gather, the USA is as usual polarized between staying out and jumping in with both feet in terms of some form of air war at the minimum... though the craziest voices do shout the loudest at times like these.

[Helgoland]

Obligatory Orwell link. Strange that nobody appears to have mentioned him yet.

[Owlbread]

When you consider George Orwell's position on armed intervention in wars, it's quite sad really that Christopher Hitchens would be called a "neo-con".

[GlyphGryph]

Obligatory Orwell link. Strange that nobody appears to have mentioned him yet.

Well no one has really argued anything approaching an argument of pacifism. The arguments against war are pragmatic, not idealistic. Orwell's arguments apply, certainly, to a war where victory is important (at the minimum).

But the people arguing for war with Syria are not arguing for victory.

If they were, this would be a very, very different discussion (and the American people would be even more opposed to it, because of the inherent costs).

We are arguing the value of symbolic escalation - of blowing things up to send a "warning" that we'll be hard pressed to back up, against someone who's made it clear he intends to our ignore our warnings.

[Scoops Novel]

Has anyone heard about how Egypt is doing? Anyone attempting to explain the army's behavior?