Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against military intervention in Syria or an attack on Iran on February 27, 2012. Putin said the West had backed the Arab Spring to advance its interests in the region, and that instead of promoting democracy the revolts had given rise to religious extremism. "The Americans are obsessed with the idea of ensuring absolute invulnerability for themselves, which is utopian and unfeasible from both technological and geopolitical points of view," he said. "An absolute invulnerability for one means an absolute vulnerability for all the others. It's impossible to accept such a prospect." http://www.mail.com/int/news/europe/1087664-putin-warns-west-syria-iran.html#.1258-stage-subhero1-0
I think Russia and china will stay resolute on this position. A war with Syria or iran will invoke far more opposition than the war with iraq
Journalist wounded covering the Syrian uprising saved by rebels... Rebels whisk injured British reporter out of Syria 28 Feb.`12 Syrian rebels smuggled a wounded British journalist out of the besieged central city of Homs Tuesday and whisked him to safety in neighboring Lebanon, activist groups said. They did not manage to evacuate a wounded French journalist or the bodies of two other Western reporters killed last week. See also: Wounded photographer out of Syria February 28, 2012 -- Journalist Edith Bouvier refuses to leave without certain guarantees, the LCC says; Three activists are killed trying to get Western journalists out of Homs, Avaaz says; Syrian activists risk their lives to smuggle Paul Conroy to Lebanon, Avaaz says; There is no word on where the bodies of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik are
I effectively Posted on this very topic in the World News section . Not one response -- no great surprise . The mainstream media are muzzled every time the US launches into Destroy mode and a huge PR machine goes to war . The Americans are in flat denial and quite happy to indulge in internal US chatter , because without Fox and CNN they haven't got a clue . Just have a look at the World News section --- it's a joke , and testimony to the ignorance the Americans have ( most . not all ) about anything happening outside the 70 states ( depends how many conquered countries you count!! ) They still think they have not invaded Libya and go beserk if you laugh at their naivety .
The threads on the situation in Syria have been...interesting in who has been supporting what. Even if you support some kind of "fighting external forces" version of events, a lot of the people who seem to be fans of Syria shelling a town are the sort who would call it a massacre or maybe even a collective punishment type war crime if the US were to do something similar somewhere. Ditto for a lot of the methods and actions syria has taking in crushing its rebellion. Though Putin may be at least half right with the religious extremism. But it is that democracy in many of the nations means violent religious extremism. They're the worst case scenario for democracy, and it is possible we'd all be better off with dictators in control in some of these states.
Sunny , Frankly I am not sure what action I support re Syria . Probably the elitist -- take them out by almost any means . But that is Off Topic and a very complex position to justify and probably totally unpopular here . My interest is in the deceptions used by both sides , but principally by what I shall call the NATO side , to keep matters simple . Russia's position is also very duplicitous and in his own way Putin's rhetoric is as disingenuous -- different ways and reasons . In general terms , Russians living in Russia have few if any ways of finding out best truth , because so little of their media is independent . To all intents , all news there is inspected and edited , redacted and falsified as deemed necessary . Literally . But Americans do not have the same excuses for letting FOX and CNN shape their world views . Their opportunities are hugely greater . Yet you still have a large number of very narrow minded Americans refuse to accept the legitimacy of sources like Al Jazeera and Debka and even UmmaNews . That is ignorance of a disturbing order .imo
Well this is front page CNN at the moment: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/29/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 do you have any particular issues with that news?
At a literal level , No . But I doubt it tells all , by a long way . Until proved wrong , I believe NATO will fight to get Basher removed and the next step will be to establish a Humanitarian Corridor ( and then others) backed by the Red Cross and Humanitarian Groups . That will be the start of the long slippery slope and somewhere down the line we could even see a No Fly Zone mooted . A great deal hangs on how Russia can be side lined or wrong footed . Clever Dude who can achieve that .
Or the Americans really think that they are doing good launching cruise missiles and bomb randomly into cities. Hard to believe.
I think the west in rather unsure what to do here, except offer words of encouragment for protest, not killing civilians, and democracy in generally. However democracy in general and democracy in practice over there are horribly different things, and I think our administrating is grudgingly becoming aware of that. Also unlike Gaddafi Basher hasn't, to my knowledge, really ticked off any western governments. So you won't have a Libya like situation where Britain and France are aggressive and the US goes along with it.
Despite the incredulity shown by insular Americans to this , NATO has had elite teams on the ground for several months . My take is that NATO know exactly what they want to do . Their problem is finding the solution that hoodwinks the largest number of people the longest possible time ,so that eventuality goal realisation becomes effectively fait accompli . Exactly as per Libya effectively .
There is one of the sort I referred to . Can't see the poo even when you stick their nose in it . Myopic and tunnel visioned . ( If it has not been in the NYT or on CNN , it does not exist ) and God Bless America ( sound of people farting off stage) .
I know BenGhazi pretty well and there are LOTS of Americans working there.. If 12,000 US soldiers had shown up.. they would be on facebook, twitter, the internet and writing home to their families.
Is that how you think Elite Forces and Special Mission Forces attached to AFRICOM work? God help us .
I see your dedication toward Iraq . How do you react to Iran forcing a divide in Iraq and increasingly using the south for training camps for future AlQaeda freedom fighters ?
