Syrian PM defects
August 7th, 2012 at 4:51 pm by David FarrarStuff reports:
As Aleppo shudders under a barrage of shellfire, the desertion of Syria’s PM marks one of the most high-profile defections from President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Syria’s prime minister began planning his break from the regime two months ago when Bashar Assad offered him the post and an ultimatum: Take the job or die.
The full scope of Riad Hijab’s carefully executed flight to the rebel side – described by an aide who escaped with him to Jordan – reverberated Monday through Syria’s leadership.
Hijab became the highest-ranking government official to defect, emboldening the opposition and raising fresh questions about the regime’s ability to survive the civil war.
If Assad is eventually toppled, and jailed (or killed), it will send out a very strong signal to Middle East regimes that if your citizens demand democracy, responding by killing them will end badly for you. Qaddafi found this out also.
August 7th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
What planet are you from? Do you really think democracy is going to break out in Syria when Assad falls?
Nope it will be a succession of massacres – in particular the Christians of Syria will suffer greatly
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
Read the dom post article today? Sadly I cant find it online. It was about free syria rebels who have become very disheartened by the extremist, thuggish groups that are taking over the ‘rebel’ side.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Assads a dead man walking..bye bye despot.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Where have we seen a demand for democracy. Dust hasn’t settled on any of these so called Springs.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/08/20128614638314677.html
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Only the really credulous believe the MSM when it come to news about Syria. And that’s most people, I suspect. Democracy there in our lifetimes? Did you know that the tooth fairy turns kiddies’ teeth into tiny little piano keys?
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
It has been recently reported in the New York Times that Obama has sent the CIA Ops guys over to Turkey to try and stop Qatar and Saudi supplied weapons getting to wrong hands (Al Qaeda), although I strongly suspect that is precisely why those countries are arming “rebels” – to install a Sunni regime of the Wahhabi persuasion.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
maxvp>Obama has sent the CIA Ops guys over to Turkey to try and stop Qatar and Saudi supplied weapons getting to wrong hands
A photo last week showed a rebel with a SAM7 (hand held anti-aircraft missile). It was believed to have come from Libyan stocks. If these are out and about in the wild then it is only a matter of time before someone shoots down an airliner.
Also worrying are IEDs. They’re the weapons of choice in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now they’ve essentially kept the Syrian army bottled up in their garrisons for much of the time. Which is karma. But apparently they’re staring to appear in Mexico where they’re being used by the drug gangs. I think we’re going to start seeing these used in western countries before long. Maybe that isn’t going to be a worry… The IRA and the Basques never had any issue blowing things up and the mafia have blown up Italian police before, but I think the shaped charge variety and smaller and easier to deploy and you wouldn’t want Islamic nutbars to be running around with them.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Meanwhile what actually happened was…
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.nz/
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
This is the wider background
http://tarpley.net/2011/03/15/behind-the-2011-orgy-of-destabilizations/
I read this article way back when it was first published and I’ve watched the media circus on Syria play itself out for 18 months now. It’s incredible how manipulated we all are by exceedingly clever orchestrations between western media and western politicians and western intelligence which taken all together give a totally false impression of what actually has been going on.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
So, to summaries
Andrei (1,363) Says:
What planet are you from? Do you really think democracy is going to break out in Syria when Assad falls?
Nope it will be a succession of massacres – in particular the Christians of Syria will suffer greatly
Translated: Won’t somebody please think of the christians? Fuck the rest of the Syrians.
kowtow (2,478) Says:
August 7th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Where have we seen a demand for democracy. Dust hasn’t settled on any of these so called Springs.
Translated: It’s not happening fast enough for my short attention span. Move on to the next something. And fuck the Syrians, what have they ever done for us?
mara (420) Says:
August 7th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Only the really credulous believe the MSM when it come to news about Syria.
Translated: I have a direct line to Assad’s arsehole, so listen to me
roarfart.Reid (11,288) Says:
August 7th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
This is the wider background
translated: It’s a conspiwacy between Obwama, Petwaeus and that other bloke.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
To summarise Luke
Fuck ,fuck,fuck.
Gee thanks for the great contribution,luke,fuke,fuck.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Well, kowtow, its a better contribution than you have ever made, mate. So, back to s****** B******* c***.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
UN to help Syria? Not likely: As Syrians continue to be slaughtered, the U.N. is once again too busy condemning Israel to respond to those pleading for help in Aleppo and elsewhere
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
luke ,you’re very humble wtih your high opinion of yourself.
why all the stars ? you’ve never held back before. knock yourself out
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
kk
the UN in it’s current format is nothing short of a disgusting waste of money.
The other day they were here telling us to up our game on gender inequality!!!!
Kofi annan and Syria,good one, he presisded over the Rwanda genocide. And that train wreck is on going in Congo to this day.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Luke Mutton, why the use of ####s, or whatever they were? Make a proper argument or fuck off.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Steady on. If that was the threshold for participation, there wouldn’t be anyone here.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Well at least you managed to release a bit of pressure on GD today davinci. It’s always dangerous to bottle these things up.
After all when we are relying on death bed confessions we must always be aware that our Confessor will be reviewing our lifestyles carefully for infractions such as pent up anger, Buddhism and cross-dressing.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Reid, you give the US too much credit.
OTOH, that photo of Hijab makes it pretty clear that he does not pass the “would you buy used car from this man” test. A “slim” customer indeed.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
The ‘proper’ argument is that it is absurd to suggest or believe that this (the end game between one regime and another in Syria) is a signal to despots about the message of democracy in the middle east. Each leader will make their own choices of whether they will surrender to people power. So far we’ve seen that bloodshed and domestic upheaval is the result, of course all new or current leaders will see their progress as either more enlightened and strong compared to those deposed, or accept the death wish against a life time of power.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
nasska
At the risk of compounding your breach of protocol in going off thread, I must say that after today I am more confident than ever that both of us, being pure in heart and spirit, will fare better with the cunning deathbed confession ploy than those who have devoted their lives to spiritual hypocrisy. When Andrei gets up there, it will be a re-run off the scene in Thunderball when No. 1 pushes the red button.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
thedavincimode
Your perception knows no bounds…..I’ll happily share my harp, cloud & virgins with you.
Vote:August 7th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Reid, if that you read that Tarpley article again, nothing predicted has come true.
Vote:None of the Middle Eastern countries that have overthrown governments have turned out as disasters yet.
Sure some countries may regress, but it is better to shake thing up a bit.
August 8th, 2012 at 6:48 am
And Heeelloooo Freedom. Yeah right. Oppression of everyone who is not a sunni of the wahhabi cult more like. Luke Mutton is obviously unaware that the “rebels” in Syria are already taking time out from fighting the Assad regime to get in a little persecution of Christians. Once they have more time on their hands it will be open season.
Vote:August 8th, 2012 at 9:49 am
Ahh the Middle East.
Always brings out the best in us all…
Vote:August 8th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Key word that one – “yet”. While I fully agree that all these countries need democracy and an end to the thugs who’ve ruled them for decades, I’m also under no illusion that democracy will also bring all the problems of those societies to the surface. That’s okay because these things have to be seen in order to be dealt with – even if the dealing is ultimately violent.
Having said that, here’s another example of how “yet” plays out, with small events that are easily dismissed: the frog-in-boiling-water syndrome. In this case, just last Sunday, heavily armed jihadis stormed an Egyptian army outpost, killed 16 Egyptian solders, and headed toward the Israeli border, where the Israeli Army stopped them. Note that The Independent states that:
Well, that sounds fine – except that spokesmen for the Muslim Brotherhood blamed the attack on Israel, claiming that it was an attempt to undermine Egyptian President Morsi, and also used the story to challenge aspects of Egypt’s agreement with “the Zionist entity”.
But the real story is that the Israelis, who claim they had warnings about an impending attack, apparently shared that information with the Egyptian government – who did nothing with it. The border troops were apparently completely taken by suprise. It would seem that Morsi’s new government is so unwilling to cooperate with Israel that it won’t even act on Israeli information about threats to its own security.
In some respects the Israelis may one day come to prefer the days when they were surrounded by hostile nation states with traditional military forces, compared to the anarchist war of all-against-all that seems to be on the ME horizon.
Vote:August 8th, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Ok – so lets have some real UN GA181 RoR democracy in the “only Middle East democracy”
Vote:Or maybe just a little support for the Spring in Saud (Bahrain too) and the Emirates?