What do Syrians think about intervention?

What do Syrians think about intervention?

If the opinion polls are to be believed, the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to back down on trying to win parliament's support for immediate military action in Syria will be broadly welcome in the UK.

The shadow of Iraq looms large still, but what about the people of Syria and how do they regard the prospect of Western powers getting directly involved?

The Today programme's reporter Tom Bateman tries to get some idea of what Syrians think, from an ice cream seller to a student.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 29 August 2013.


Listen to what ordinary Syrians have to say , Looks like those responsible for raising a family are against Western intervention while ones without such responsibilities are more reckless.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23877184

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For millions Life must go on.

The crisis in Syria has deepened following the suspected chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus on 21 August.

While British MPs have voted against military action, other countries, most notably the US, are still considering a military response.

Life in Syria is of course different to what it once was, but some things have remained the same, even with the threat of Western intervention. People still study, work and try to enjoy time with their friends and family.

Here, people in Syria provide us with an insight into their lives - and what has and hasn't changed.
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Safa, Damascus
People shopping in Damascus Prices for everyday goods have risen
Life in Damascus is as normal as it can be, despite threats of an American-led strike.

State-backed bakeries are still open round the clock and the only thing that we suffer from in Damascus at the moment is the high cost of some food products because of the greedy traders.

I work in the public sector and like most people here I still go to work and like most families these days I'm busy with the return-to-school season.


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I'm busy with the return to school season”
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Actually, me and my kids have taken part earlier this week in a campaign to support the schoolchildren of army service members especially those who have lost their lives defending our nation.


My mum and dad arrived two days ago and are staying with me for a short break in Damascus.

They travelled all the way from coastal city Latakia. My friend is actually preparing now for a short break to Latakia. That's how much the major roads are safe. In fact my family travelled between the two cities three times already this month. My brother came over from Dubai recently, visited the family in Latakia and made his way to us also in Damascus.

Logal, Tartus
People are still sitting on the beach until evening time, listening to music and having fun. The threat of military intervention hasn't changed this. No-one seems too worried about it.

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I spend my days reading and sometimes I help my mum around the house with cleaning”End Quote


Since 2011 my day-to-day routine has stayed quite normal in some ways, although it has become a bit sad and boring. I was studying in Damascus, but have come back to Tartus to continue my studies because the capital became too dangerous.


Now, I spend my days reading and sometimes I help my mum around the house with cleaning. We have problems with the electricity though. We had it 24/7 before the revolution but now it goes off for two hours in the morning and one hour in the afternoon.

I write songs sometimes and would love to be a singer. I really like Western music like Lady Gaga and Lana del Rey, but listen to almost anything from around the world. I watch a lot of Western TV too such as the British series Skins or the American series Gossip Girl.

In the early evenings I meet friends in a cafe. We drink the most popular hot drink in Tartus which is called matte and we smoke hookah. We can't easily just go out of this city to another to have fun in the summer like we used to be able to do.

Sometimes I remember the old life and cry because I look at pictures of my country now and it's just damaged and destroyed under the name of democracy. I even lost one of my best friends. He was kidnapped and murdered in Damascus.

Jean-Pierre, Damascus


Traffic in Damascus Roads are still busy except at night
The threat of a military strikes has certainly heightened tensions. Some of my friends that were able to leave have gone to places like Lebanon.

But living and working in Syria as a freelance journalist for the past six years, I can say that Syrians have grown accustomed to death and the sounds of explosions, unfortunately.

They have more pressing problems. Every week I learn of a friend of a friend who has been kidnapped. It's a real problem here in the capital. Almost everyone knows someone who has been kidnapped or killed.

I used to stay out until six in the morning but these days I can be the only one driving a car on the road after 11 in the evening.

Syrians are definitely watching more news but people are mentally drained by the everyday realities and worries. I'm talking simple things like the price of food.

A kilo (2lb) of rice I used to buy for 65 Syrian liras now costs 400. Buying a kilo of chicken, which now costs a whopping 10% of the average salary, has now become just a dream for many here. It's no wonder many work double-shifts or have two jobs to feed their families.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23901330

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People in Damascus say that if you take a walk in the streets, you would never guess this city is about to face a possible US strike.

"It is very bizarre how people are getting on with their lives. We have got used to the war," said Amal, who lives in central Damascus.

"Shops are open, people [are] wandering around [and] eating ice cream, but they are also buying more food and bread, to store," Amal added.

"We are not afraid of death any more, we are awaiting it. We just need an end to all of this."

But despite the sense of normality, there is a lot of concern.

"[Syrian President] Assad can spare the country further violence and leave now," one shopkeeper in Damascus said. "But he will not and he will burn it all out," he added.

Two-and-a-half years since the start of the uprising, and with more than 100,000 Syrians killed, many people in Syria want to see an end to the violence.

With the possibility of imminent action by the United States in response to a suspected chemical attack against civilians on 21 August, many opposition supporters had hoped that Russia - Syria's main ally - would have forced President Bashar al-Assad to leave.

They had hoped Russia might push for a peaceful political solution. But that, for many, now looks like a dream.

UN experts leave a hotel in Damascus, Syria, 30 August, 2013 UN chemical weapons experts are investigating the 21 August attack


Holding one's breath

In the suburbs of Damascus, where the suspected chemical attack took place, people are desperate for any solution to help end their suffering.

'Invaders'

A number of peaceful activists who favour a political solution do not favour an intervention.

"Dictators bring invaders, but invaders never brought freedom," Khaled Khalifeh, a novelist who lives in Damascus, wrote on his Facebook page.


In this Sunday, 25 August, 2013, photo, a Syrian woman who fled her home because of Syria's civil war prepares a meal in the kitchen of the Kertaj Hotel in Damascus, Syria. Thousands of Syrians have taken refuge in the capital

But President Assad's loyalists have a different view. They see intervention as an act of aggression by invaders.

Nada lives in Mezzeh 86 in Damascus - an area loyal to the president and predominantly composed of adherents to his Alawite sect.

She believes there is a conspiracy against her country. "They are coming to bomb us because our president opposes Israel," she said. "They are using the chemical weapons lie to weaken our state, like they did with Iraq with the WMD lie."


Some of President Assad's loyalists said the attack - on rebel-held areas of the Ghouta belt around south Damascus - was needed "to be cleansed of terrorists". They denied any chemical attack had taken place.

There is also great concern among Syrians about the aftermath of the possible strike.

Some in the opposition fear that if the US strike is not strong enough, the regime will get stronger and retaliate with further violence, creating more destruction.

And the loyalists fear that if a strike topples the regime, there will be revenge acts undertaken by the opposition against government supporters.

"If the US attack does take place, we need to have a political process in place immediately afterwards," an opposition activist opposed to military intervention said.


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I fear those who believe US intervention will improve their lives , will be sadly disappointed.

May the current period of madness/ chaos + torment , soon leave that pleasant land + peace and plenty soon return again

- VIVA SOORYA - -

 

It will be impossible to help the Syrian people by bombing them and assisting a pack of wild dogs to tear the survivors to pieces.
The USA is under the Talmudic Noahide Laws that require only 1 perjured witness to convict any goy or goy nation.
That is why the USA insists on war while ignoring all evidence favoring Syria.
Furthermore, it has been US military policy since Lincoln to target civilians: "We are not fighting against enemy armies, but against an enemy people, both young and old, rich and poor, and they must feel the iron hand of war in the same way as organized armies." US General Sherman.
That this policy continues as US military policy to day is proven by our war history to the present.

I only need one example, The United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright confessing to the deliberate starvation to death of over 500,000 children said, "The price was worth it."
[video=youtube;x4PgpbQfxgo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PgpbQfxgo[/video]
[video=youtube;F3_EXqJ8f-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0[/video]

 

They don't want to confuse the issue in the minds of the interested parties.

 

I'm close to the border and all the rich syrians in the city which I have been right now . Poor people in Syria .

 

Syrians better pray to Allah that US intervention does not visit them.

The two side currently operating in Syria: al-qaeda "rebels" and Russo-Iranian stooges are amateurs. Fairly well armed but poorly trained, atrociously led, and logistically hopeless.

None of which can be said of the US armed forces.

Syrians kill retail. Americans kill wholesale.

Pray that Obama remains too lazy to intervene.

 

I think that is grossly over-optimistic. Nothing good can come of a war, even if we win.

Maybe especially if we win.

 

Are you another one of those who support the concept that MIGHT is right , with total disregard of UN Charter + other international conventions. ?

...

 

Believe me they dont care about you , they continue to live their life in an ordinary manner , as usual .

 

Certainly nothing good will come of it for the Syrians. They'll find out the difference between Third World trash can war and the way the big leaguers play the game.

There is no win or lose about it to the US. If brain-dead Obama takes the US military to war, they will wade in and kill Syrians til they get tired of killing Syrians and then (sooner of later) leave.

 

"...with total disregard of UN Charter..."

Taxcutter says:
No it's more like: "Total disregard for anything to do with the corrupt UN."

 

According to it Sounds like the US military is no better than savages. led by a ruthless (albeit elected ) murderous monster .

Do you approve of what your political representatives + President are doing ?

..

 

And go to raise havoc in another country

 

Yes as we have witnessed in Afghan and Iraq . So much tecnology , zero brain .

 

Interesting points made by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. I know the UN is useless but that doesn't mean they are always wrong. If nothing more I agree with the point he made below. After Iraq the US intelligence community has less credibility internationally and if the strike is held off at least until the UN can finish their investigation there is a greater chance of acting as an international community or at least building a larger coalition to take action and share the burden of dealing with consequences of taking action. In war things sometimes don't go as you planned and it's good to not have gone it alone when that happens.

He stressed that an ongoing investigation by U.N. chemical weapons experts "is uniquely placed to independently establish the facts in an objective and impartial manner."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162...moil-u.n-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-warns/

 

And I am pretty cool with the USA way of doing business, to be candid. We disagree in that I actually like Obama; but I think we agree that USA is the big dog and these rinky-dink third world countries have no idea what our military machine is capable of. Not only do we have an unfathomable amount of weapons and military technology, we can make even more of it really quickly if need be. Biggest economy on the planet and can turn an raw materials into weapons in almost no time at all.

 

Why would Assad try to hold back all the inspectors and inspection sites if he was innocent? I think UN is going to definitely come to the conclusion that Assad did this; if for no other reason than his people started wearing gas masks before it happened and his enemies merely died from the gas. If it was Al Qaeda, it would have gone down the exact opposite way. AQ would have been sporting chemical gear and Assad's folks would be dead.

 

Some Syrians wish the united states would lix this mess foe them....some Syrians wish we would stay away.

Regardless, both sides will eventually blame us and hate us for whatever we do.


Truly....a No Win.

 

"...the US military is no better than savages."

Taxcutter says:
Not savages but very, very efficient. The US forces will try to avoid civilian casualties, but since the Moslem style of warfare is to hide behind civilians...sorry about your luck, civilians.


"Do you approve of what your political representatives + President are doing ?"

Taxcutter says:
If you are more than a casual habitué of these forums, you'd know I approve of very little of what Hussein Obama does.

 

"...I think we agree that USA is the big dog and these rinky-dink third world countries have no idea what our military machine is capable of. Not only do we have an unfathomable amount of weapons and military technology, we can make even more of it really quickly if need be. Biggest economy on the planet and can turn an raw materials into weapons in almost no time at all."

Taxcutter says:
Weapons are not the important variable. Saddam had decent weapons but his army looked like cowards because Iraq's culture robbed his soldiers of the ability to win. The US military is now far and away the largest repository of that most precious of resources - combat experience. Every E-4 in the Army and Marines has seen at least some combat. Senior non-com and officers up to O-7, multiple deployments. The US could hit the Sandbox armed with 1945 weapons and would still whip the stuffings out of anything any Moslem territory could put in the field, armed with modern Russian weapons.

 

LoL a few days ago a part of your unfathomable amount of weapons destroyed by 3 person in Pakistan border .

"After five hours of firefight and a series of explosions, the three brave Mujahideen destroyed as many as 154 armored personnel carriers, 12 mine clearing tanks, 85 trailer trucks and 9 container trucks filled with important and advanced military gears and arms. Mujahideen having destroyed the strategic targets oil and arms depots and stores, attacked the residential parts of the base and killed several US-Nato invaders as well as killing and wounding 13 puppets. "

 

The ones in Egypt are saying that they are finding it very difficult.

First they do not want to go to Turkey.

Turkey is a big problem for them because Turkish do not speak Arabic and language is a big problem for refugees.
They say Jordan refugees with money find it impossible to live as it is too expensive for them.

Most do not want to go to Gulf Saudi because of strict lifestyle and culture they are not used to and cannot afford UAE and Qatar and Kuwait have too many restrictions etc.


Americans destroyed Iraq


They then choose Egypt because we are open with no restriction and speak the language they do which is a big help BUT Egypt is in transition and we are at moment trying to deal with our own problems etc.

Very few here would probably ever meet a refugee to talk to them so only get their news from media which is biased.

Here we get to talk to them and see what is real from false.

 

Tell us where were these interviews conducted? What ethnicity were the interviewees? 10-1 they were Alawite.

 

Give 'um some M1 Carbines, BAR's, and Browning .50's and they'd be good to go.

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Lol source? Abject AQ propaganda.

 

and with all that a few hundred old men in sandals with swords and kalashnikovs living on dates and milk in caves continue to kick your American asses