Assad peace prize

[Westside Steve]

Your take:

A. A positive gesture meant to bring Assad and his regime into the world family and encourage Middle Eastern governments to behave and a more civilized manner.

 

B. A slap in the face to the west and particularly the United States from a group who has been embarrassed by their previous recipient Barack Obama.

 

WSS

[Osiris]

It's the OPCW that received the award, not Assad.

[Westside Steve]

Thanks for clarifying. So this is not a victory in any sense for the Assad regime?

That is, this award must have been given for prior work, correct?

 

WSS

[sadbrownsfan]

The victory for Assad is it didn't turn into us bombing them, the group that won the reward is not based in syria but out of the Netherlands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_the_Prohibition_of_Chemical_Weapons

[Westside Steve]

Well then this award must not be basedd on the Syrian conflict or I would consider it to be very premature.

 

I think Assad already got the aforementioned benefit from the promise that any strike would be unbelievably small.

 

 

 

WSS

[sadbrownsfan]

They have been overseeing the destruction of chemical weapons since 97. It's likely with the recent events in syria their work over the years was "rewarded", one of those it got brought to the front after chemical weapons where actually used.

[Westside Steve]

Well that could be the case. I suppose we shall see how good they are with their new assignment. Hopefully better than Hans Blix.

WSS

[sadbrownsfan]

Yeah, they mostly have been overseeing countries who were willing removing chemical weapons and they where never meant to be a group to go into an unwilling country and see if they are really disarming the weapons.

[koalabazooka]

Wait, what did Bloodbath al-Assad win?

[Westside Steve]

Wait, what did Bloodbath al-Assad win?

Well since he was certainly winning this Civil War this action puts more time on the clock and gave him substantially more breathing room.

 

Maybe Osiris could give us a better idea who the good guys and the bad guys are in this struggle.

 

Or if there actually are any.

 

WSS

[The Cysko Kid]

I don't support anyone in the middle east living at all, but if I had to pick I'd throw my hat in the ring for Assad. I'm not interested in the least in letting al-Qaeda and their ilk set up an Islamic state in Syria.

[Westside Steve]

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4097108?ir=World

 

WSS

[The Cysko Kid]

I thought it was kind of amusing. You've got to have some gallows humor in his position. What do you think the head chopping "FSA" will do to him should they ever get their bloody hands on him?

[DieHardBrownsFan]

I agree with Cysko. I hate Assad, but he does keep the radical elements out of power. As you can see on the news, Iraq again is falling into disarray and will probably fall to the radicals within a year or two. You can't force democracy on those people so better to stay out of it unless absolutely necessary.

[Osiris]

Well since he was certainly winning this Civil War this action puts more time on the clock and gave him substantially more breathing room.

Maybe Osiris could give us a better idea who the good guys and the bad guys are in this struggle.

Or if there actually are any.

WSS

Good guy and bad guy is completely subjective, but to most Americans the good guys are the free Syrian army. Unfortunately to what extent they are infiltrated by foreign religious extremists is hard to say. I hope it doesn't end up like Egypt, where the extremists hijacked the revolution from the good guys. In Egypt, the good guys have the least power but make up a lot of the population. The fanatics have the ability to manipulate the poorest to there will, and the secular military has the most power but is most likely to revert Egypt back into its pre-revolution state of abusive dictatorship. Syria is probably similar to an extent.

[Osiris]

I agree with Cysko. I hate Assad, but he does keep the radical elements out of power. As you can see on the news, Iraq again is falling into disarray and will probably fall to the radicals within a year or two. You can't force democracy on those people so better to stay out of it unless absolutely necessary.

I think when people I know in the ME say they want democracy they really mean they want prosperity and think democracy will give them that. I'm sure if Egypt had an economic boom everyone would be happy to tolerate the dictator that helped bring it about.

[The Cysko Kid]

Good guy and bad guy is completely subjective, but to most Americans the good guys are the free Syrian army. Unfortunately to what extent they are infiltrated by foreign religious extremists is hard to say. I hope it doesn't end up like Egypt, where the extremists hijacked the revolution from the good guys. In Egypt, the good guys have the least power but make up a lot of the population. The fanatics have the ability to manipulate the poorest to there will, and the secular military has the most power but is most likely to revert Egypt back into its pre-revolution state of abusive dictatorship. Syria is probably similar to an extent.

I don't believe you are correct. The FSA is nothing more than black hooded head chopping thugs. I don't know a single person who would put "good guys" and

"Fsa" in the same sentance except maybe a politician and they may have, you know, some political reasoning for wanting to see Assad toppled.

[Osiris]

I don't believe you are correct. The FSA is nothing more than black hooded head chopping thugs. I don't know a single person who would put "good guys" and

"Fsa" in the same sentance except maybe a politician and they may have, you know, some political reasoning for wanting to see Assad toppled.

I know Syrians who say otherwise, Syrians who have seen what the Assad regime has done first hand, and it's a lot worse than head chopping (you are confusing the FSA with the radical groups in the opposition). I am exposed to news outlets directly so I get a more detailed and nuanced view. Yeah it's easy to try and simplify things and call them all thugs, but the opposition is composed of many factions that are united only by opposition to Assad. Some are secularists (like the FSA) some are radicals. They opposition has got "good guys" and "bad guys" and all of them are fighting Assad, who is most definitely a bad guy. The real question is who will emerge as the prevailing power if Assad is toppled.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Syrian_Army

[The Cysko Kid]

Radical groups are the opposition. I can't drive a child molester around picking up kids then claim I had nothing to do with their crimes.

 

I think a lot more Americans than you imagine support Assad and his regime. After all, we've seen first-hand what happens when you knock down an effective strong-man over there.

 

Are your Syrian friends willing to live in the next Iraq, where Sunnis destroy life for everyone else? Convert or die. Seems much better than Assad, no?

[Westside Steve]

I think the bottom line, or at least one of the bottom lines, is the fact that people everywhere want prosperity and most likely don't really give a rats ass about the system of government.

Osiris is correct. I think we here in the US would like to pretend that freedom and democracy lead to happiness and wealth. Here even our poorest citizens would be considered wealthy in many third world areas. So we have the luxury to strut around pretending we're free. Free enough I guess, though it doesn't seem like the rest of the civilized world is all that bad.

WSS

[The Cysko Kid]

I know Syrians who say otherwise, Syrians who have seen what the Assad regime has done first hand, and it's a lot worse than head chopping (you are confusing the FSA with the radical groups in the opposition). I am exposed to news outlets directly so I get a more detailed and nuanced view. Yeah it's easy to try and simplify things and call them all thugs, but the opposition is composed of many factions that are united only by opposition to Assad. Some are secularists (like the FSA) some are radicals. They opposition has got "good guys" and "bad guys" and all of them are fighting Assad, who is most definitely a bad guy. The real question is who will emerge as the prevailing power if Assad is toppled.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Syrian_Army

By the way what could Assad do that's worse than cutting a live persons head off on video for the shock effect? Is Assad eating hearts? Oh, you mean the chemical weapons that he allegedly used? There's significant doubt whether his regime or the rebels used them, and even if he did so the fuck what? It's not as if the rebels are NOT guilty of murdering children. Only they do it with guns and knives up close and personal. That's way, way, way better. Right?

 

But oh, right, the UN said he used them. We know they've never been wrong, ever. (ahem, Iraq anyone? Iraq?)

[The Cysko Kid]

How interesting is it that all the peace-niks of ten years ago are now war mongers? Now that their guy wants to depose his own middle eastern dictator all the left is jumping on board the WMD train. Suddenly we're now honor bound to get involved. Funny, funny shit, but really alarming how stupid and easily led by the nose our people are.