A 10 minute scooter ride through Homs, Syria

[Lars77]

A guy strapped a camera on himself and drove through Homs risking his life to show people what's going on.

First published on an anti-Assad page called http://www.sawtbeirut.com/

It's pretty intense, as shooting can be heard throughout the video.

[PotatoChip]

1. You were not overstating. This is intense.

And sad to witness all of that destruction.

Too bad there are no English subtitles, but the video speaks for itself.

[leveymg]

2. Thanks for posting. Proof that Homs has NOT been flattened by indiscriminate artillery.

Video: "A Ten Minute Scooter Ride Through Homs, Syria." http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=36381

That looks like there has been some street fighting and targeted shelling of individual buildings. Not a wasteland of destruction of entire blocks or neighborhoods, as described by the opposition and captive western media.

You want to see what a city really looks like after massed artillery or aerial bombardment?

Beirut, Lebanon (2006)



Grozny, Chechnya (1995)



Beirut, Lebanon (1982)



Beirut, Lebanon (1975)(car bombing)

[Lars77]

4. All things are relative.

Noone should have to endure this kind of terror.

[leveymg]

5. It's simply not the mass bombardment the opposition and some of the western media have described.

Last edited Sat Jun 23, 2012, 11:04 AM - Edit history (3)

I agree that none should have to endure civil wars, particularly those fueled by foreign intervention.

Here's how it's been (mis)described (nyt):

UN Relief Official Tells of Destruction in Syria - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/.../syria-rebels-said-to-reject-peace-talks.html?...all
Mar 9, 2012 – U.N. Relief Chief Tells of Horrific Destruction in Syria and Official ... Amr, a neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs that was subjected to a ...

As Diplomats Visit Damascus, Video Shows Bombardment in Homs ...
thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/.../as-diplomats-visit-damascus-video-sho...
Feb 7, 2012 – The Lede - The New York Times News Blog ... said that many saw in the scale of the destruction in Homs an echo of the the devastating siege ...



Search Results

Filming Homs's horrors | FP Passport
blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/10/filming_homss_horrors
Feb 10, 2012 – President Bashar al-Assad's assault on Homs continues, and the world has ... a ground-level view of the destruction of Syria's third-largest city.
Syria - Destruction in Homs by Assad Artillery Assault - Update by ...
► 4:48► 4:48

13, 2012 - 5 min - Uploaded by Souria2011archives
Kharm Alzeitoun, Homs City -- The inhuman fascist siege of the City of Homs and the Baba Amr District is ...
Syria - Destruction in Homs as Dictator Assad Army Attacks - YouTube
► 0:30► 0:30

24, 2012 - 30 sec - Uploaded by Souria2011archives
Human Carnage and Mass Destruction in Homs as Syria Dictator Bashar Assad Attack the besieged City of ...
4 days ago – Media: 958. More info... Walking around seeing all the destroyed stuff, ghost town on the street level. and some yingyang graffiti at the end?
Satellite images from space showing the destruction in Homs ...
www.democraticunderground.com/1002291872
3 posts - 2 authors - Feb 10
Satellite images from space showing the destruction in Homs. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/02/10/exp-jk-syria-wall-segment.
Syria's Homs Destruction: Shelling Shatters Northern City (PHOTOS)
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../syrias-homs-destruction_n_1431781.ht...
Apr 17, 2012 – After months of shelling by security forces parts of Syria's city of Homs are left in ruins.
After the Destruction of Homs
www.free-lebanon.net/syria/after-the-destruction-of-homs/
Mar 9, 2012 – WHY ARE EHUD BARAK & KOFI ANAN GIVING ASSAD A GREEN LIGHT TO DO MORE KILLINGS? THE US SHOULDN'T BE LISTENING TO ...

[Lars77]

7. So what's your point?

[leveymg]

8. 1) The video you posted is evidence that Homs has not been heavily bombarded, as reported.

2) In fact, it's apparent from that video that a false narrative of indiscriminate, mass destruction of that city has been constructed.
3)That propaganda narrative of the destruction of Homs by Syrian Army artillery has been broadcast in, among many major news media sources, the NYT.
4) We've been lied to, again.
5) Iraqi WMD, redux.
6) There's a training corps of Judith Miller-Lites here on DU.

I'm making a half-dozen points, really.

[Lars77]

9. Well, it's not like he drove through the whole town. Only the part where he deared go.

Still, since it's only partially destroyed with its inhabitants hiding in their houses for fear of snipers you are upset that you've been lied to?

I really don't see the drumroll for going to war, certainly not like Iraq. It's more like Libya, where intervention was warranted and the right thing to do in my opinion. Ghadaffi had to go. Also the US did not hold a prominent role in that intervention, it was mostly European NATO countries.

The worry i suppose is that the Iranians will turn Syria into another theocracy but i don't know how long the paramilitaries can be allowed to run rampant.

I think this is a case of choosing ones poison. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Too bad the other arab countries are sitting on their fat asses doing nothing. That is what upsets me more than anything. Instead of waiting for the west to come in they should clean up their own shit.

[PotatoChip]

10. I agree.

It's about time that other countries, allies or not, stop using us as their personal police force, weapon supplier, and arbiter. A thankless, usually fruitless, and expensive endeavor.

We need to stop enabling aggressive BS behavior on all fronts, friend or foe, while focusing more on regaining economic and political strength.

I am neither a pacifist or isolationist, however militarily speaking, far more common sense needs to be applied to our policies regarding foreign affairs. We've made some really bad calls in the years following WWI, w/the obvious exception of WWII- and a few other instances.

Ok, I delved much deeper into this then I had intended. But the poster you responded to sort of got to me... Just for the record, I was never a Judith Miller 'fan' and highly doubt that you were either Lars, based on the things I've seen you post.

Ugh! -Just sayin

Btw- Re: the original OP, not sure what, if anything we should/can do there. But I trust our current POTUS to fully weigh all options.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Is your main point

the media is exaggerating the situation in order to try to get the public to support US Military intervention in the name of humanitarian reasons?

I watched the video with English subtitles. The main ones who they plea to is fellow Arabs. There's an overall resentment that the people suffering is just a TV show for the population elsewhere.

[leveymg]

13. Yes, but the US has veto power it hasn't used to stop the flow of arms thru Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon

and Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) as financed by the Saudis/GCC countries with some role by Israel with the Kurds. The FSA wants the US to step up the flow of money and arms. Some in US are concerned this will blowback, and that it will resurrect al-Qaeda and force a regional conflict that we're in no position to control at this point.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. That's the answer to EVERYTHING

in the Middle East as far as the US is concerned. They keep saying "al Qaeda" to keep the fiction alive that it's a powerful force behind ALL the problems in the Middle East. It's like when the Neocons under Reagan tried to claim the Soviet Union was behind ALL terrorism, even the Real IRA. (As opposed to the fake IRA that was committing terrorist acts to make the British turn lose sympathy for Irish independence. That IRA was a psyops run by the British government itself.)

The whole "We can't let al Qaeda gain a foothold" nonsense is being used to justify the suppression of Liberal ideas in the Middle East. Just look at Egypt. They split the Liberal vote into like 50 different candidates and the conservatives were able to get two of theirs to the finals. That's also how we ended up with Ahnold in California. Conservatives all voted one way while Liberals watered down their vote because we had EVERYBODY running. Hell, we even had a porn star and Gary Coleman running.

When the Conservatives pulled that in Egypt the Right Wing Media ran to Neocons here so they could strut around saying how right they are.

Bottom line, the whole "al Qaeda" thing is an exaggerated fiction. The young people in the Middle East are not rising up against these Dictators because they're thrilled at the thought of being an Islamic State. Obama knows this but he's up against Republicans who NEED the boogieman of al Qaeda to keep their narrative alive.

[leveymg]

15. Al-Qaeda is real. Someone hijacked 4 US airliners on 9/11. Who was that?

Last edited Mon Jun 25, 2012, 08:16 AM - Edit history (1)

Let's not confuse the fact we and our "allies" created al-Qaeda with the fact that they became real and for whatever reason, succeeded at killing a lot of Americans on 9/11. Why did that operation happen? That's another question.

Is al-Qaeda exploited for many reasons unrelated to al-Qaeda? Absolutely. Start with the invasion of Iraq. Has its reality been used to justify the suppression of, as you put it, "liberal ideas"? Just look at the Patriot Act and the NDAA. Should we be looking at the misuse of the fact of al-Qaeda, and be demanding accountability for those who have misused that threat during the last decade as a pretext for unjust wars, self-enrichment, and destruction of American constitutional liberties? Absolutely. But, is it a fiction?

Sadly, no. Al Qaeda exists, and it is now carrying out bombings in Syria as part of the Saudi/GCC war against the Shi'ia regime.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. Did you miss "The Power of Nightmaress"?

Part 3 says it all:

[NoMoreWarNow]

16. yes, no doubt this is true.

though at the same time, I think the rebels are pretty nasty themselves, and it's really hard to separate the propaganda from reality. Neither side seems good here.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. Libya protests started out peaceful too

Then the government decided to crush the protests and it caused the people to go from asking for a resignation to settling for nothing less than the death of Gaddafi.

Syrian forces actually opened fire on funeral processions for people killed before with the idea that everyone at that funeral was a traitor.

They must really regret all the street signs they used to put up honoring martyrs because that mindset is biting them in the ass now.

[rug]

3. Incredible.

I read the history of Homs while watching this. How did it come to this?

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

[april]

6. this is so horrid that this is going on .

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Found the original video with english subtitles