ScottFromWyoming wrote:
I will not be cowed!

Kittened, maybe.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
You know it really screws up my concept of reality when I agree with you. 

I don't want to trivialize terrorism, but, the generations before us put up with a lot worse for what they believe.

 meower wrote: 

 Lazy8 wrote: 
you've been tagged

 meower wrote:
Be my guest.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
May I repost this?

 Lazy8 wrote: 

The vicious sectarian civil war in Syria is reminiscent of an earlier war, next door in Lebanon. Which was fueled, in large part, by the government of Syria as it sought influence and hegemony over the region. Lebanon burned, bled refugees, and suffered. We looked on that (when we looked at all) with horror. The rulers of Syria had blood on their hands.

It's tempting to look at a country like Syria and try to take it off the world stage by meddling in its internal politics, as Iran, Russia, the gulf oil sheikdoms, Iran, and now the US and Europe have done. To punish its leaders and eliminate them as a threat. Tempting...until dead babies wash up on your shore.

Which they have. And some live ones are coming too.

We have a large, ugly movement gaining momentum to deny entry to the refugees fleeing this conflict. I'd like to take them at their words, that they are simply afraid of bad actors entering with this crowd, that this isn't just bigotry masquerading as cowardice but actual cowardice. How's that for the benefit of the doubt? I'm being more charitable than they are.

But one thing we can't claim is that these refugees aren't our problem. We don't get to meddle and walk away from the wreckage, not and claim to be moral actors. We fed this fire, doing so with the best of intentions, but there is blood on our hands.

It doesn't change anything that there is more blood on other hands. We can't control what Russia and Iran and Saudi Arabia do, we can only control what we do. And we need to face up to our responsibilities.

We can be just another empire treading heavily around the world, or we can be a force for positive change and a refuge for people who seek it. Even if we could bomb Syria into safety for these people (let's cut to the chase: we can't) asylum would be far cheaper, both in blood and treasure. If they come here they will do as previous waves of refugees have done:make us stronger, smarter, more energetic, more creative. We were afraid of them too.

Humans of New York Refugee Stories

White House exempts Syria airstrikes from tight standards on civilian deaths
Amid reports of women and children killed in U.S. air offensive, official says the 'near certainty' policy doesn’t apply

The White House has acknowledged for the first time that strict standards President Obama imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes will not apply to U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq.

A White House statement to Yahoo News confirming the looser policy came in response to questions about reports that as many as a dozen civilians, including women and young children, were killed when a Tomahawk missile struck the village of Kafr Daryan in Syria's Idlib province on the morning of Sept. 23.

The village has been described by Syrian rebel commanders as a reported stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front where U.S officials believed members of the so-called Khorasan group were plotting attacks against international aircraft.

But at a briefing for members and staffers of the House Foreign Affairs Committee late last week, Syrian rebel commanders described women and children being hauled from the rubble after an errant cruise missile destroyed a home for displaced civilians. Images of badly injured children also appeared on YouTube, helping to fuel anti-U.S. protests in a number of Syrian villages last week.

“They were carrying bodies out of the rubble. … I saw seven or eight ambulances coming out of there,” said Abu Abdo Salabman, a political member of one of the Free Syria Army factions, who attended the briefing for Foreign Affairs Committee members and staff. “We believe this was a big mistake.” (...)

U.S.-led air strikes hit grain silos and other targets in Islamic State-controlled territory in northern and eastern Syria overnight, killing civilians and wounding militants, a group monitoring the war said on Monday.

The aircraft may have mistaken the mills and grain storage areas in the northern Syrian town of Manbij for an Islamic State base, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There was no immediate comment from Washington.

The United States has targeted Islamic State and other fighters in Syria since last week with the help of Arab allies, and in Iraq since last month. It aims to damage and destroy the bases, forces and supply lines of the al Qaeda offshoot which has captured large areas of both countries.

The strikes in Manbij appeared to have killed only civilians, not fighters, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory which gathers information from sources in Syria. (...)

 RichardPrins wrote: 

Yep, thats it.

House Votes to Arm Syrian Rebels, But Not to Pay For It - Truthdig

With the help primarily of Republicans, President Obama’s plan to arm Syrian rebels won approval in the House on Wednesday.

Passed as a budget amendment by a vote of 273 to 156, the measure is controversial if only that it reminds one of the United States’ covert war in Afghanistan a few decades ago. In that conflict, the U.S. funded and supported Afghan rebels and foreign holy warriors, some of whom turned out to be the Taliban and al-Qaida. Then as now, Saudi Arabia played a major role.

Raising an alternative example of American adventurism gone awry, California Democrat Barbara Lee, a steadfast dove, was quoted by Reuters as saying, “How will we ensure that the United States weapons we are providing to Syrian rebels will not get into the wrong hands, as they did with the rebels we supported in Libya?”

The bill would supply weapons to the rebels, but not the funds to buy them. That money, which the administration estimated at $500 million, would have to be plucked from elsewhere in the budget.

The Islamic State draws much of its support from Syria, where it is in open conflict with President Bashar al-Assad. President Obama, a fan neither of Assad nor the IS, hopes he can strengthen moderates to fight a ground war with U.S. air support. But moderates may be hard to find.

This is what Dennis Kucinich had to say about it Wednesday:

Historian Alastair Crooke, writing about the connection between Saudi Arabia and ISIS, recently described “moderate” insurgents in Syria as being “rarer than a mythical unicorn.” “Moderates” have a non-aggression pact with ISIS. “Moderates” captured an American journalist and sold him to ISIS, who beheaded him. Saudi Arabia, which, with Qatar funded the jihadists in Syria, is now offering to “train” the rebels. Congress is being asked to swallow this concoction: the sponsors of radical jihadists are going to train “moderate” jihadists.

There has been nothing I have seen to make military invervention in Syria a better idea than it was a year ago.  We have absolutely no allies and no place there and will accomplish nothing but more killling.   We should let Iran, Russia and Assad deal with IS and then go from there.   Iraq on the other hand, we actually have an obligation to clean up the mess we made and help those poor people on the ground with the assistance of the Shia Iraqi forces, Kurds, Christians and Sunnis who reject the wanton violence of IS.  It really disturbs me that our government refuses to see the distinct differences between these 2 countries and wants to roll this up into another round of the utterly failed war on terror.

Life in a Jihadist Capital: Order With a Darker Side

In a Syrian City, ISIS Puts Its Vision Into Practice

Andrew McConnell, who photographed 102-year-old Syrian refugee Saada, says: "Saada is a resilient woman. She lost seven of her 10 children at a young age, her husband 13 years ago and now, her country. Even when the bombing started in her home region, she just continued with her daily routine. 'I was sitting outside, sorting the olives and the plane was above me. They called and yelled from the house for me to come inside, but I told them, ‘Why? The plane doesn’t want anything from me. I am not going to fight it with olives.''"



http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-27925660

 meower wrote: 
wow. i love that.

Syrian artist Tammam Azzam and his personal Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" on war-torn building in Syria >>> http://loves.domusweb.it/freedom-graffiti/

Oh yea this is going to help the Syrian refugees and innocent men, women and children who lives are being destroyed by this conflict.  I suppose all of this money will go to relief for the suffering Syrian non combatants and not weapons for Al Qaeda.

Obama administration offers $27 million in additional help for Syrian rebels