How do you solve a problem like Syria?

[Trausti]

The Syrian civil war, and Islamic warfare, keeps popping up in other threads. So why not give it a thread of its own?



What intervention, if any, should there be in Syria?



I think the West should intervene to stop religious, ethnic, and cultural genocide.



But there are no "good guys," just different shades of evil.



While the Assad regime has certainly committed atrocities and human rights abuses, I think the West should swallow its pride and aid the regime in eradicating the Islamists.



What say you?

 

[TSwizzle]

A complex problem. I would let Putin try to sort it out for now. The USA couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery so they ought to stop messing about in there.

 

[Harry Bosch]

The Syrian civil war, and Islamic warfare, keeps popping up in other threads. So why not give it a thread of its own?

View attachment 4277

What intervention, if any, should there be in Syria?

View attachment 4278

I think the West should intervene to stop religious, ethnic, and cultural genocide.

View attachment 4279

But there are no "good guys," just different shades of evil.

View attachment 4280

While the Assad regime has certainly committed atrocities and human rights abuses, I think the West should swallow its pride and aid the regime in eradicating the Islamists.

View attachment 4281

What say you?

What makes you think that we can fix the ME?

 

[untermensche]

The problem is complex.

Just as the invasion of Iraq has led us here, we of course must consider the use of force and what it achieves.

 

[laughing dog]

The Syrian civil war, and Islamic warfare, keeps popping up in other threads. So why not give it a thread of its own?

View attachment 4277

What intervention, if any, should there be in Syria?

View attachment 4278

I think the West should intervene to stop religious, ethnic, and cultural genocide.

View attachment 4279

But there are no "good guys," just different shades of evil.

View attachment 4280

While the Assad regime has certainly committed atrocities and human rights abuses, I think the West should swallow its pride and aid the regime in eradicating the Islamists.

View attachment 4281

What say you?

What makes you think that we can fix the ME?

Nothing. The reality is they have to fix it themselves.

 

[Ford]

I think we should talk about it on the internet. Probably post some shocking pictures, a link or two, and have the thread go on for a day or so until it devolves into two or three participants making the same points over and over again and basically talking past each other.

This method has the advantage of making us feel better about being "involved in the solution" without having to actually get involved.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I don't think there is a good solution.

I'm afraid it's going to end up settled with the big bangs.

 

[Trausti]

I think we should talk about it on the internet. Probably post some shocking pictures, a link or two, and have the thread go on for a day or so until it devolves into two or three participants making the same points over and over again and basically talking past each other.

This method has the advantage of making us feel better about being "involved in the solution" without having to actually get involved.

You could say that about every thread on this forum. If you don't want to participate, then don't. Not hard, really.

- - - Updated - - -

What makes you think that we can fix the ME?

Oh, that can't be fixed. But the Syrian civil war and ISIS won't go away if we just ignore them.

 

[Ford]

You could say that about every thread on this forum. If you don't want to participate, then don't. Not hard, really.

Oh, but I enjoy participating.

You submitted a photo essay of sorts which paints a picture of Syria as a place where nobody but murderous Islamist fighters live. A simple picture of a diverse country with a long history reduced to a few images of savagery and an appeal to "fix" it somehow.

As others have already said - but it bears repeating - the problem is incredibly complex. Finding a solution begins with accepting the fact that the problem is more complicated than can be expressed in a few photos.

 

[Cycad]

BEFORE destabilizing Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lybia (and few decades ago Iran), the US should wonder what would happen once the social fabric was destroyed. Or maybe some people did just that and what we see now is the successful result of a well planned strategy. Not a failure at all.

To me it looks like textbook example of divide et impera.

All countries Iraq, Iran, Lybia, Syria, Afghanistan are worse off than before. A corrupt elite is made billionaire and the 99 percent of the country fell into abject poverty fighting to stay alive.

The countries became unstable, religious warlords rule locally with terror in the name of their flavor deity fighting over tribal lines. Human rights, not very strong before western intervention, are now completely ignored, torture is SOP.

Mission accomplished I believe.

 

[Cycad]

Oh and how to stop it ?

What about immediately stopping our support to so called opposition who AND sell their US donated ammo and weapons to to ISIS AND divert a considerable percentage of the support to private accounts.

Maybe team up with Russia and force Bashar into a victory with immediate amnesty and without reprisals ?

Wasnt Syria stable and relatively prosperous BEFORE the US decided a change of regime was needed ?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Oh and how to stop it ?

What about immediately stopping our support to so called opposition who AND sell their US donated ammo and weapons to to ISIS AND divert a considerable percentage of the support to private accounts.

Maybe team up with Russia and force Bashar into a victory with immediate amnesty and without reprisals ?

Wasnt Syria stable and relatively prosperous BEFORE the US decided a change of regime was needed ?

Holy crap! Do you read the new much? Or maybe you live in a cave??!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

How do you fix Syria? Elect Donald Trump. He will fuck everything up so badly that a war zone where you're stuck between a genocidal dictator and a group of murderous religious fanatics will seem like fucking Disney World.

Sure, making the rest of the world worse isn't really fixing a place, but it's better than everyone else's ideas.

 

[skepticalbip]

We only need to show something like this on Syrian TV 24-7... Of course the last few seconds needs to be clipped.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPMmC0UAnj0

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I think we should talk about it on the internet. Probably post some shocking pictures, a link or two, and have the thread go on for a day or so until it devolves into two or three participants making the same points over and over again and basically talking past each other.

This method has the advantage of making us feel better about being "involved in the solution" without having to actually get involved.

Suppose I don't actually WANT to be involved? In fact, suppose I believe the best thing the United States can do is mind its own fucking business and let the middle-eastern governments try to seal up the shit-flavored can of worms that is the Syrian Civil War?

A complex problem. I would let Putin try to sort it out for now. The USA couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery so they ought to stop messing about in there.

[/thread]

 

[Cycad]

Holy crap! Do you read the new much? Or maybe you live in a cave??!

Actually I live in the Middle East.

I rely on BBC news, Le Monde and 3 arabic newspapers.

And you sir ?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Hmm... so how do we fix a millennia old problem? The solution that was working was 'allow authoritarian people to rule over the people'. That has worked in multiple places for a long while. Iran it stopped working because we put him and kept him in power and the Iranians got a little uppity. It was working in Iraq with good success, minus the torture and killings, and Syria not so bad until the destabilization in Iraq led to ISIS splintering off of al Qaeda.

If we try to get involved, things go badly. If we don't get involved, things get ugly for gas prices. Geesh, playing God is hard. I know Obama doesn't have the solution... or at least the right-wing is pretty certain he doesn't. Light handed tactics with Iran were criticized. Getting involved in the quick coup in Libya was criticized. Not arming the Syrian opposition was criticized. Arming the Syrian opposition was criticized.

All I can come to conclusion wise is that the right-wing is more interested in fucking over a Democrat President than actually developing a sustainable foreign policy direction with the Middle East.

 

[funinspace]

Oh and how to stop it ?

What about immediately stopping our support to so called opposition who AND sell their US donated ammo and weapons to to ISIS AND divert a considerable percentage of the support to private accounts.

Maybe team up with Russia and force Bashar into a victory with immediate amnesty and without reprisals ?

Wasnt Syria stable and relatively prosperous BEFORE the US decided a change of regime was needed ?

Though I generally agree, it was hardly just the US deciding Assad had to go. And if anything, the US was at least initially only helping with logistics and such. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar were probably the biggest initial donors to the mayhem. But today it is certainly a big party with seemingly half the world helping blow Syria apart...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Oh and how to stop it ?

What about immediately stopping our support to so called opposition who AND sell their US donated ammo and weapons to to ISIS AND divert a considerable percentage of the support to private accounts.

Maybe team up with Russia and force Bashar into a victory with immediate amnesty and without reprisals ?

Wasnt Syria stable and relatively prosperous BEFORE the US decided a change of regime was needed ?

Though I generally agree, it was hardly just the US deciding Assad had to go. And if anything, the US was at least initially only helping with logistics and such. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar were probably the biggest initial donors to the mayhem. But today it is certainly a big party with seemingly half the world helping blow Syria apart...

Or more that it seemed like a good idea in the beginning and then the consequences started showing up and the whole "Oh crap" moment occurred making people think "Oh crap." Kind of like when you've lined up your opponent in a chess match only to be found in checkmate yourself the next move.

In the end, the WMDs in Syria are being dealt with, which I believe was the biggest threat to international security. That'd be a win for Putin and Obama.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

There is no real world solution to the Syrian situation. What's happening there has been happening there for thousands of years and will likely happen for a thousand more. The best US policy would be to keep collecting good intelligence and know everything it can. We just don't want another 911 or Pearl Harbor anywhere but Syria.

The problem is that there is no legacy of law - western law. Even by our western standards, look at Europe and the US, both have had their shitstorms of warfare, especially Europe.