No sides here...... but a simple question to all of you..

[busterbrown]

If you were in the middle of this Syrian tragedy and you had a family with three kids right living within 50 miles of Damascus somewhere between rebel control and Syrian military outposts.... Would you be in favor of an American strike??

If you feel you would be better off with a strike I guess you should be for the military intervention.
If not, then I suppose you would be against...Should this not be the question we ask of ourselves.?.

[Mr.Bill]

1. I can tell you how I would feel if my family was killed by American missiles. n/t

[busterbrown]

2. Got it but what if it was from the other side of the coin?

[Mr.Bill]

3. Whoever killed my family

would become my enemy for as long as I lived.

[busterbrown]

5. Does not answer my question..

What if I as the father felt I would be better off with a strike?
I’m not trying to agitate . My head is spinning as I am upset with this situation..
The horrible consequences of strike... All I know is that this whole situation is a direct result of Western
Colonial occupations over the past several centuries.. Everybody should be in this game full tilt..

[Warpy]

4. No, because I'd know all about the drones in Yemen and Pakistan

and I know how shitty the US military's aim is when they're doing remote warfare.

I wouldn't want any more shit flying than there already is.

[busterbrown]

6. A raging scared to death Assad and his military generals trying to save their own lives

against the fear of American drones... It ain’t easy to answer in my opinion..

[bhikkhu]

7. "this Syrian tragedy" is 2 1/2 years old and 100,000 dead so far

I honestly can't imagine what that would be like or what I would be thinking.

Proportionate to populations, the equivalent here would be if 1.5 million had been killed, and 35 million had fled the war as refugees. Its hard to imagine, but I think I might favor whatever path ended the war most quickly.

[busterbrown]

8. If I were Obama... I’m glad I’m not..

Perhaps I would have tried to post pone making a huge international issue out of this situation. Problem is that he has kids of his own..

I think republicans have employed the half and half against Obama.. If he strikes and it turns into a disaster the republican bastards who voted for will let loose with he did it all wrong rhetoric. The ones who voted against will spew, “we told you he was not an effective military leader” bullshit.

[Downwinder]

9. If I were sitting here in Texas and cussing the US Government,

which I do regularly, and Syria bombed Washington I would be pissed, to put it mildly.

[busterbrown]

10. U.S. govt. throwing gas shells toward your home?

Perhaps you wouldn’t be so pissed if the Syrians army ended up protecting you and your family from a Sarin attack..

[Downwinder]

14. I would be more concerned about explosive shells than gas shells.

Gas shells I can protect myself from (gas mask, decontamination chemicals), I would have little protection from explosive armament.

[Demo_Chris]

11. Good question, but how the Syrians feel isn't relevant...

You can point to basically any issue and call for an empathic intervention. For example, how would you feel if you lived in Haiti and your child was starving? The answer might be self-evident, but it does not compel any action on America's part. In regards to Syria, I am not responsible for this civil war, and I want my nation to take no part in fighting it. I want us to focus our attention and wealth on taking care of ourselves.

[busterbrown]

12. The middle east is exploding.. You feel that the U.S has played no part in the complete breakdown

Last edited Thu Sep 5, 2013, 07:32 AM - Edit history (2)

of civility in this area...Our support over the 70 years to Arab Kings who have controlled their populations through fear and threats, no trial sentences, beheadings..etc All the while leading sumptuous lives living off our addiction to their drug..

The Support we have given Israel in their efforts to displace 750,000 Palestinians. Not allowing Arabs who for generations have lived off their land as farmers and now have had their property taken away from them legally because as the I S.C. stated..”you can legally take land from enemies if it has not been cultivated..” a dumb law passed during the period of the Ottomans..

We live in the U.S. so in part we are directly responsible for all the shit which has happened there for
125 years..

[Demo_Chris]

13. All true, but it doesn't address my point...

Some in Syria (and not necessarily our friends) would welcome our intervention, others would not. That's your answer. My answer is that how the various parties feel is irrelevant to me. I don't believe we should be involved in this way. If Obama was proposing eliminating al-Assad I might be interested, but he hasn't done so. He is instead proposing more of exactly the crap you are complaining of in your post.

In any case that's my answer. Good luck with your thread. If I do not respond again it is because I have gone to bed.

[busterbrown]

16. I just reread my post to you.. I should have gone to bed earlier.

Took a sleep aid which I rarely do.. Reread my text and it is written like I was drunk. (I don’t drink)

Anyway thanks for your input.. The whole situation really sucks..Its very frightening..

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. "In the middle" is open to lots of interpretations.

What if I were an Assad supporter who wanted the uprising put down (not unlikely; Syria's Christian minority tend to support Assad and not the rebels)? What if I were a supporter of the rebels who'd rather see meaningful intervention and active support of anti-Assad forces leading to regime change than a few token strikes that'll be symbolic but won't do much? The situation is really too complex to be easily reducible to an appeal to emotion.

[busterbrown]

17. Yep.... Very complex...and frightening too.. n/t

[hobbit709]

18. That's like asking would I rather catch the Plague or smallpox.

[busterbrown]

20. I know!!

Its the odds.... The choices are bad... The whole thing is frightening..

Scary thing is that Asad his Generals and many in his military might be executed if this thing continues to roll out against their interests.. He is a a dangerous man and might decide to wage an all out war against the opposition...or might decide to fire rockets into Israel.. At any rate he is cooked, backed into a corner and thats dangerous for all..

[polly7]

19. I was just reading an article

that dealt with the author replying to statement made by a friend of his living in Syria. I feel so badly for the people in Syria having to struggle with all of this.

Letter to a Syrian Friend Who Said: ‘Your Opposition to the US Attack on Syria Means You Support the Asad Regime’

By Vijay Prashad

Source: Jadaliyya

Thursday, September 05, 2013


"Dear Friend:

You are in Syria, somewhere in Damascus. You have been involved in various protests to fight for more democratic space in Syria, and then, after the early months of 2011, to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Asad. I have learned a great deal from people like you, about your country and about the nature of the struggles that confront you. You have seen the tide go out in your disfavor on two fronts: first, an international environment that seemed to be in harmony with your goals, but then turned out to be as conflicted about “regime change” as you are certain about it; second, an internal opposition that seemed to mimic the early wellsprings of the Arab uprisings in North Africa in its multivalent diversity, but then turned out to be hijacked by imperialist interests and by radical jihadis that you find intolerant and dangerous. As the politics goes against your more secular nationalism and democratic liberalism, and as you feel isolated in every which way, the advent of a US bombing raid seemed to be a deus ex machine—a thundercloud from Zeus himself. Such a clap of lightening on the hardened bases of military power would perhaps knock the wind out of the Asad regime, making it possible for people like you to clamber to the top of a revolutionary dynamic."

Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/letter-to-a-syrian-friend-who-said-your-opposition-to-the-us-attack-on-syria-means-you-support-the-asad-regime-by-vijay-prashad.html

eta: he's obviously against western intervention but brings up some other great points, imho

[busterbrown]

21. Thanks much for the post...The under current of religious tension and hostilities make it so

difficult...There is no simple solution...maybe Obama is being driven by the horrible images of the children who were gassed? He loves his own kids so much he couldn’t possibly stand down and do nothing.. Seems like everything is about to explode in that area.. It’s a dangerous and sad situation..

Boy... historically have we played this thing poorly or what? Should have gotten are asses off the drug right after W.W. 11.....Roosevelt claimed that if it wasn’t for middle east oil we wouldn’t have won the war...Stupid policy to depend on dictators for our survival...It might finally be coming to a head..