Should Obama kill Bashar Assad?

SoulandForm

Be like Nutella wrote: »

not sure where to start with that one. I suppose the honorable thing would be for you to admit that that statement is false... no?

Do you actually know any Syrians or people who lived in Syria? I dont think so.

War is never a nice business.

Lightbulb Sun

cyberhog wrote: »

The statement is NOT false. US diplomats admit that Assad does indeed have massive support.



http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/02/us-diplomat-majority-of-syrians-stand-behind-bashar-assad.html

Just like Milosovic did, Assad enjoys genuine popular support.

Except there's the seemingly minor issue to you of his mass slaughter.

hide2013

let me repeat - stop focusing on Assad. this is not about him. it is a civil war between communities who differ in religion and outlook on what constitutes democracy. i dont think it is reasonable for a community to submit to an election in which a group who will likely wipe them out once in office are going to be elected. an election is a solution only if there is reasonable relations between all communities and a constitution that protects human rights.
dont forget - we read all about Assad crimes in the media mostly because someone wants us to read that and not to read about crimes by the rebels. dont you find the imbalance in reporting a bit odd?

cyberhog

Lightbulb Sun wrote: »

Except there's the seemingly minor issue to you of his mass slaughter.

I didn't say he was a nice guy I just pointed out that he had a lot of support. So I suggest you learn to read what is written, and not twist it into something that was not written.

Lightbulb Sun

cyberhog wrote: »

I didn't say he was a nice guy I just pointed out that he had a lot of support. So I suggest you learn to read what is written, and not twist it into something that was not written.

I actually meant to respond to part of soul and forms quote about Assad not being a brutal dictator so apologies for any confusion.

I wasn't commenting on anything related to Assads popularity.

Be like Nutella

SoulandForm wrote: »

Assad is not a brutal dictator.

Both Assads - father and son have run an Authoritarian system for decades. Assad is a dictator and is a brutal authoritarian leader who has run a security state for 12 years.

wiki

Human Rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have detailed how Bashar's government and secret police routinely tortured, imprisoned, and killed political opponents, and those who speak out against the government.[44][45] Since 2006 it expanded the use of travel bans against dissidents. In that regard, Syria is the worst offender among Arab states.[46]
In an interview with ABC News in 2007 he stated: "We don't have such [things as] political prisoners," yet the New York Times reported the arrest of 30 political prisoners in Syria in December 2007.I][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words"]who?[/URL][/I[47] Foreign Policy magazine editorialized on his position in the wake of the 2011 protests:[48]
"During its decades of rule... the Assad family developed a strong political safety net by firmly integrating the military into the government. In 1970, Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, seized power after rising through the ranks of the Syrian armed forces, during which time he established a network of loyal Alawites by installing them in key posts. In fact, the military, ruling elite, and ruthless secret police are so intertwined that it is now impossible to separate the Assad government from the security establishment.... So... the government and its loyal forces have been able to deter all but the most resolute and fearless oppositional activists. In this respect, the situation in Syria is to a certain degree comparable to Saddam Hussein’s strong Sunni minority rule in Iraq."- Totalitarianism or Totalitarian Dictatorships are the most repressive of regimes, strictly enforce the absence of freedom, and relentlessly apply the power of the press, the courts, the bureaucracy, the army and the police against individual liberties. Totalitarian means total dictatorial control. The state involves itself in all facets of society, including the daily life of its citizens. A totalitarian government seeks to control not only all economic and political matters but the attitudes, values, and beliefs of its population, erasing the distinction between state and society.




Syria under Assad


one party rule

The Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party emerged from a split in the original Ba’ath Party in February 1966. From 1970 until 2000, the party was led by the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. As of 2000, leadership has been shared between his son Bashar Al-Assad (head of the Syrian regional organization) and Abdullah al-Ahmar (head of the pan-Arab national organization) Bashar Al-Assad became the Regional Secretary of the party in Syria after his father’s death in 2000. One Party.



Censorship

The secret Syrian police AKA Mokhabarat have had for forty years some form of neighborhood-block watches, requiring residents to inform on neighbors who exhibit any democratic tendencies. Secret police also watch for anti-dictatorship activity. Religious ceremonies often are not permitted to operate without a government license; dictators fear that worshipers might plot against them during private religious activities.


Social, political and economic oppression

The Syrian citizen is taught to believe that his country is in a state of war with Israel and all economic and political oppressions are caused by this conflict while knowing that for 40 years the Syrian government didn’t fire a single bullet on Israel even with Israel occupying the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime declared the state of emergency for over forty years which was lifted recently after the Syrian revolution started; only to be substituted with the same oppression and injustice.


Executions/Arrests without trial for political offenses

Tadmor prison was closed in 2001 and all remaining political detainees were transferred to other prisons in Syria. Tadmor Prison was reopened on June 15, 2011 and individuals arrested for participation in anti-regime demonstrations were transferred there for interrogation and detainment without trial.


gross abuses of human rights are common
The regime’s media like Dunia TV channel and the Syrian TV channel and all their supporters have a famous sentence: (Is this the freedom you want?) They want us to believe that all the killings and bloodshed are the result of asking for freedom! An average Syrian citizen is not even allowed to question a governmental worker, the citizen has to obey and pay to get his basic paperwork done.

Dictators often hold the top ranking military post; military is a main focus in a dictatorship

Bashar al- Assad is the head of the military force with so many ranks before his name that makes you feel confused! The Syrian Military has been used before in Hama massacre 1982 to silent the Syrian people and give a lesson of how this regime reacts when it is challenged. More than 50,000 people where killed in Hama and now the army is used for the same purpose instead of its basic role of protecting the people and the Syrian land.



_____________________


"..Syria under Hafez al-Assad became the region's most watertight police state, with a mix of civilian and military agencies and spy headquarters. The mukhabarat, as spy bodies are known in the Arab world, became pervasive and omnipotent. It has continued under the 12-year rule of his son, and has so far played a significant role in safeguarding his regime. Bashar al-Assad's use of a network of selected advisers – among them the inner circle who are party to the hidden email accounts – is a tactic straight from his father's playbook...."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/14/dictator-son-assad-grip-power




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separately..


Here's an Interesting viewpoint from Historian Author David Lesch, a professor of Middle East History at Trinity University concerning the nature of the rising



"....

That's something that you mention that originally gave Assad a lot of power: his saying he was the one standing between Syria and sectarian violence.
Absolutely: The Syrian regime under Bashar and his father has consistently put forth this Faustian or Hobbesian bargain of "we will provide stability in a very unstable neighborhood in return for your support and subservience." And most Syrians bought into this, because all they had to do was look across the borders into Lebanon and Iraq to see how sectarian-based countries can implode and fall apart. So they were willing to give the Assads, both father and son, a lot of rope in terms of the security state to maintain that stability. For Assad, the Alawites [a minority Shiite sect], it was in their interest, obviously, to have as secular a state as possible....."

CollardGreens

Faustian or Hobbesian

What? Is that a Hobbit thing? What are you talking about?