Israel launches airstrikes in Syria violating international law; May be planning more

[Tearloch7]

The US has not given the people you are talking about weapons for many decades now. The rebels in Syria are using almost exclusively Soviet made small arms. The majority have been taken from the Syrian army themselves.

http://www.guardian....ebels-rivalries

http://www.reuters.c...E8BG0FK20121217

The main supporters of Jihadists, currently, are the Saudis, not America. The Saudis have a vested intereste in exporting Wahhabism to the entire world.

http://www.nytimes.c...wanted=all&_r=0

[taxi]

way to completely change the subject and leave an important point unanswered.. Who cares the rebels are not united? shall i repeat why its important not to have islamic salafi gangs running around mass looting/mass killing? having someone like assad around is far far more desirable.

the syrian government is not a 1 man regime. thats one of the reasons it has stayed intact through all this pressure. Assad to go would solve absolutely nothing. the only thing it would do is demoralize his very large support base who genuinely support him and want him to defeat this terrorist invasion. and satisfy israel.

in light of these facts, Assad should abandon his country, abandon his people and let the jihadi's who are commiting mass atrocities and have threatened and are active commiting ethnic cleansing against allawi's and certain christians/druze to continue?

Assad stepping down does not end the war. It makes it 100x times more brutal. It will no longer be a war, but a massacre.

omg...............................................................................

THE SINGLE BIGGEST REASON THE SYRIAN REGIME IS STANDING IS BECAUSE THE SYRIAN OFFICER CORPS FOR THE MOST PART ARE MADE UP OF ALLAWITE OFFICERS FIERCELY LOYAL TO ASSAD. AND ARE FIERCELY FIGHTING FOR THEIR OWN LIVES, HOMES, FAMILIES BECAUSE THE JIHADI's DO NOT TAKE ALLAWITE PRISONERS AND HAVE THREATENED THEM WITH EXTERMINATION.

there are examples of a few sunni officers defecting, and for the most part foot soldier conscripts. The defections came in a large chunk in the early stages when people were picking sides. people have now picked their sides. There might be a few opportunistic people sensing greener pastures who might jump ship now, but for the most part the defections have stopped, and syrian soldiers have become extremely radicilized as a result of the rebel no prisoner policy and are far more inclined to fight to the death.

its amazing just how you make strong opinions on an issue you seem to be absolutely clueless about

but please, do try and continue to take focuse away from the actual subject of the thread: Blatant israeli aggression against a sovereign state.

[taxi]

My point exactly .. but I said the Neo-cons want to arm them NOT the US Government .. McCain has been whining and howling like a blue tick hound ..

[Scott Hartnell's Mane]

I wonder if Israel feels just a tad guilty about dragging the US or any other country into their war for their own preemptive and unauthorized attacks. Or do all ethical considerations go completely down the crapper in time of war?

[sam13371337]

I agree it is amazing how people can have strong opinions on an issue that they no nothing about.

[taxi]

perhaps it's time to look in the mirror

not true, latakia province is the alawite's historic homeland and the majority of them live there. But there are signigicant numbers in virtually every major syrian city. Especially damascus.

except for the occaisional car bombing from wahabi terrorists; in comparison latakia has been quieter

The syrian army doesnt pick the battlefields. It hunts down the the al qaeda terrorists in whatever territory they happen to impose themselves on

yet again more proof of you absolute ignorance regarding this issue. Alawis have been by far the most hard hit ethnic group. The majority of losses in the syrian army have been alawite, and the rebels generally go out of their way to target allawite civilians as they consider all of them government stooges. The christians,druze killed happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when a jihadi came about and decided syria is better off without this infidel.

two completely different groups who for the most part are on different sides. again just mixing random things together and passing them off as facts.

Christians (for the most part) support the government, and alot of secular,liberal, nationalist sunni;s support the government as well. conservative religious sunni's, gulf arab monarchies, and al qaeda militants are the rebels core support group. if there are christians dying, 19 times out of 20 a rebel killed them, 1 time out of 20 a misfired government shell hit them. The syrian government is only delibrately targeting armed insurgents. there is no specific order by assad to kill sunnis christians, allawis or any other "undesirable" groups of people. The only people that are singeling groups out for extermination are the jihadi animals running the show on the rebel side.

are you serious man? homs has significant allawi populations. and again i repeat, the syrian government is not choosing the battlefields, and the allawis are bearing the brunt of this war. Just about everything you say is contrary to established facts.

[Tearloch7]

The Alawi government has a strong history of taking a scorched Earth policy to its Sunni population:

http://en.wikipedia....i/Hama_massacre

I never said the rebels were angels either. The difference is they don't have the power to end this conflict that Assad has. He should just call an election and step down.

[sam13371337]

The Alawi government has a strong history of taking a scorched Earth policy to its Sunni population:

http://en.wikipedia....i/Hama_massacre [/quote]

[DonLever]

We live in a global lawless society. There is no "international law" that applies to Israel or any other country with it's hand in a majority of pies.

"Law" applies only to those without the political or economic clout to deter prosecution.

[taxi]

perhaps you should read the history of the muslim brotherhood in syria. A violent salafi organization that one day started an insurrection in 1 city. Imagine a country wakes up one day, and sees armed salafi islamists (syria's version of the taliban) take an entire city over. Attack police stations and massacre ordinary cops.

drag government employees out of their houses in the middle of the night, and literally mass lynch them to death, and call for an islamic caliphate and invite the rest of the country to join in. Their actions were so brutal, and their ideology so extreme absolutely no one joined in or supported them.

So when a government has one city filled with salafi terrorists hell bent on an extreme al qaeda type hardcore islamist ideology. Do you go in and give them flowers?? The syrian government rightfully went in, and smashed them so hard, an entire generation of wannabe jihadi's felt it, and did not cause trouble for 2 decades.

the syrian government military action was no way rougher then the policy the american military took on the same islamist militants hiding out in fallujah

they are not angels, they are not normal human beings either. They are the most vile, one dimensional brainwashed jihadi trash to have existed. they blow up massive car bombs in civilian populations with little regard, They kill alawites, christians, and druze because they see them as infidels, they are hell bent on creating an islamic state, and forcing sharia. They routinely commit mass executions, ethnic cleansings, and are openly threatning to wipe syria clean of certain ethnic groups.

lets not minimize the type of animals the jihadi scum are.

yes they do. get the hell out of syria, and go back to whatever country you came from. All these feeder states are loving the fact that they can export their scum to syria.

When that happens, the syrians themselves can sort out their future. Assad has already said he will negotiate with non-jihadi syrians and even invite them to government, and has opened the door to elections that could see him toppled.

The jihadi's have flat out refused. They want no scenario where democracy happens. They want no scenario where any non-religious jihadi male has any type of power. and they want no scenario where syria doesnt become an islamic state with strict sharia free of undesirable infidels.

assad has already called for elections. how can you physically have elections when you do not fully control all parts of the country, and there are tens of thousands of jihadi;s who control vast territory, and have outright rejected the notion of democracy and are seeking the complete transformation of syria on their terms???

election officials should just ignore the gunmen who will kill them, and calmly set up their polling stations in jihadi territory?

Assad has 2 realistic options:

Fight to protect his country from disintegration, absolute destruction, and genocide at the hands of jihadi's

or run away (step down)

for assad to step down, the war doesnt end. it can even be argued that the jihadi;s would be emboldened and it would probably heat up. The jihadi's want to destroy the syrian state, and the syrian state will resist. With or without assad. Assad stepping down would just be betraying his own people, branding himself a coward, and demoralizing his base.

1 last thing i want to add.

for 2 years now syria has been under complete embargo, many gulf arab monarchies have poured billions into their favorite islamists, turkey has opened its borders and territory to rebel training camps. Rebels get massive amounts of fighters, money, arms, training, and support from those countries. yet, they still have not been able to topple assad as everyone has been predicting for so long.

if assad didnt have genuine/large amounts support, he would not have lasted a month. at this critical junction when their national survival is at stake, its greatly in syria's national interest if their president, and head of their country, doesnt run away and abandon them.

in the middle of a war for your survival, priority should be given to eradicate the enemy, before political makeovers.

[sam13371337]

It's one thing to criticize the rebels for their actions or point out that there are many jihadist elements within them or even to say that Syria might be worse off under their rule.

You, however, are totally delusional. You are making the case that Assad has offered to step down and given elections. Meanwhile the rebels are just attacking innnocent people in their homes. To portray Assad as some innocent in all of this is just baffling.

[DarthNinja]

perhaps you should read the history of the muslim brotherhood in syria. A violent salafi organization that one day started an insurrection in 1 city. Imagine a country wakes up one day, and sees armed salafi islamists (syria's version of the taliban) take an entire city over. Attack police stations and massacre ordinary cops....

[sam13371337]

The Muslim Brotherhood is not a 'Salafi" organization. It is an organization of mixed methodologies and has developed primarily upon the methodology and ideals of Sayyid Qutub, who most Salafi scholars actually warn against.

[Dittohead]

I'm going to agree to an extent with sam.. There's a radical element there that is very dangerous to everybody i think. Who knows what's going on,but in the beginning Assad was defiant and I believe inflamed all of this to where it is now. He is responsible for the state of Syria

[MoneypuckOverlord]

I kinda agree with Sam except for the elections thing.

Because the West is siding with the opposition group, everything major thing that happens, is blamed on goverment troops.

LIke like how people are getting massacred in their home, the Universaty bombing, and car / suicide bombs.

These bombings are probably not done by Rebels or the Government forces, but the Jihads themselves, who is using this oppurtunity to join forces with the rebels. They will blend in as Rebels and try to take down the government. Once thats done, they will try to control the country, and establish an Islamic state. All out war will continue, with constant suicide bombings, car bombs etc etc etc. The United States and the rest of the F in probably fully aware of this. Syria will be in more of a mess if the Rebels win . They need to realize that their are taliban. Who the hell sets off car bombs! Why the hell would the army do that? Why the hell will the Rebels do that? Going to be disaster for Syria if they fall.

[hudson bay rules]

Nuke the hell outa them and turn the whole place into a god forsaken desert that only fanatics will fight over.

Wait................

[kurtis]

Isreal is a joke. Not as big of a joke as the so called FSA.( true the FSA has become infected with extremist) Every day I see new videos of them executing SAA and civilians... If people actually new what was happening they wouldn't be supporting the so called "FSA" Not to mention a huge amount of the FSA aren't even Syrian. They are coming from all over the middle East. Now the West backs them.. But at the same time fight the exact same people in Afghanistan and previously Iraq....

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Isreal is a joke. Not as big of a joke as the so called FSA.( true the FSA has become infected with extremist) Every day I see new videos of them executing SAA and civilians... If people actually new what was happening they wouldn't be supporting the so called "FSA" Not to mention a huge amount of the FSA aren't even Syrian. They are coming from all over the middle East. Now the West backs them.. But at the same time fight the exact same people in Afghanistan and previously Iraq....

[kurtis]

Yup. Sieze the oppurtunity. Cause right now, Syria does not have a "western presence" in the country unlike Iraq and Afghanistan. Cause as far as I know, the "original FSA" is absolutley no match for the Syrian Army. They our out gunned, and out numbered, and have far more power then the FSA. I was shocked as hell, to hear that they've been losing their bases. This is not FSA army, these are fearless Al Qaeda fighters are or Talibans, wanting to establish a Muslim Country. If Syria falls, that country is screwed. As least Iraq and Afghanistan have their own army. Syria wouldn't have any, army, and they wouldn't even have a damn government.

I really don't want to see Syria fall, because of that reason. The people there will suffer more, then before. Just like Lybia. They are a worst country now then they were before.

[Dittohead]

Well said. Libya was only started because the west wanted it started. Libya was one of the most advanced countries before the west backed uprising was even started. The country is now screwed.... Same can be said for Iraq. The country was fine before the Americans went in... They had 24/7 power in most areas, clean water, high employment ect ect. Now over 100 000 civilians deaths later and the country is now having daily bombings even after the Americans have left. It's become a claster fak.... All for the control of Oil and footholds in the middle east.