Moaning about Ireland. Hows about Syria?

the keen edge

Lots of us, myself included, like to have an auld piss and moan about life here in recession hit Ireland.
Rising taxes; falling levels of public services. Political corruption, banking crisis. Anger about the flying of a flag, from both sides; which country a pro-golfer will declare for in the coming Olympic games. Yadda yadda.

Anyway for the past few weeks I've been following the unfolding civil war in Syria. It has really put in perspective how safe and secure we are here on our North Atlantic island.
The level of violence is beyond words. Videos posted daily on livelinks are literally the stuff of nightmares. The hatred between to the warring sides is unbelievable, to say no prisoners are taken is a bit of a understatement.
I'm having real difficultly accepting that human beings can treat one another with such shocking brutality.

I doubt that at anytime in the troubled history of this island such barbarism occurred, certainly not in the past 400 years at any rate.

Are the people of AH's aware of events in Syria?
In about 10 years time we(the EU) will likely share a land border with Syria, talk about have neighbours from hell. :pac:

Micky Dolenz

Everything is relative.

If we lived our lives saying "Shur, we don't have it as bad as <insert conflict zone/poorer country here> We'd still be relying on the potato crop and using horse and carts.

My name is URL

Syrians by and large are very friendly and warm people. There are neighbors I have today which I'd happily trade for Syrians!

It has lots of problems at the minute, but then so did most other parts of the world at one point or another.

Son Of A Vidic

Pippa Middleton's Arse wrote: »

Everything is relative.

If we lived our lives saying "Shur, we don't have it as bad as <insert conflict zone/poorer country here> We'd still be relying on the potato crop and using horse and carts.

Was ROFL after I noticed your username change to Pippa Middleton's Arse, fecking priceless.

dd972

Funny when there's no oil there the way it seems to not be the highest agenda ie; as in eye-rak

the keen edge

My name is URL wrote: »

Syrians by and large are very friendly and warm people. There are neighbors I have today which I'd happily trade for Syrians!

Just make it clear this isn't a rant against Syrians, or Islam.

Granted its a war zone, however I'm just really shocked by the inhumanity.

franktheplank

the keen edge wrote: »

Moaning about Ireland. Hows about Syria?

And with that Fine Geal had their new election manifesto.

blackdog2

Sadly, with the support of countries opposing intervention, and some countries supporting intervention don't particularly want to sacrifice their men, it can't be helped. It's a war for their own beliefs, far from us to intervene against the wishes of the world.

To answer the op's q, yes, its a sh1t thing to happen, there is bugger all I can do about it, so I will enjoy my life. Thanks for stopping by

admiralofthefleet

we are a nation of begrudgers, it will never change

Hande hoche!

They also have Japanese tourists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MN8MAsbr9w

franktheplank

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

we are a nation of begrudgers, it will never change

Are you begrudging me my freedom to begrudge now? How dare you!

Debator

It is in the interests of the West that al-Assad remains in power. Better the devil you know. Can't risk a gang of cave dwelling Islamic fundamentalists seizing power, as happened in Iran. Sad to see death and destruction in Syria. I wish the rebels would simply lay down their arms.

Grayson

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

we are a nation of begrudgers, it will never change

Every nation is a nation of begrudgers. I can't think of one nation that isn't.

Hande hoche!

Also seems very unlikely that Turkey will join the EU in the next decade.

franktheplank

Grayson wrote: »

Every nation is a nation of begrudgers. I can't think of one nation that isn't.

So now you're gonna begrudge him, his right to begrudge me, a bit of begrudging. Bloody begrudging, begrudging, begrudger.

pabloh999

Grayson wrote: »

Every nation is a nation of begrudgers. I can't think of one nation that isn't.

America?
Irishman spots some flash git driving his fancy convertible says "look at that wan*er"

Yank spots the same rich git says "maybe if i work hard some day i'll be able to buy a car like that"

gurramok

Debator wrote: »

It is in the interests of the West that al-Assad remains in power. Better the devil you know. Can't risk a gang of cave dwelling Islamic fundamentalists seizing power, as happened in Iran. Sad to see death and destruction in Syria. I wish the rebels would simply lay down their arms.

Not really. Iran is Shia, Syria is run by an Shia religious off shoot and both are connected to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The rebellion is Sunni led. If Assad falls, the likes of Israel lose a strong enemy on one of its borders and the Palestinians lose that ally. Whether Sunni extremists take power once Assad falls is just speculation, they never took power in Tunisia, Libya or Egypt after their revolutions.
By the way, the rebels were created by Assad whose state forces massacred unarmed civilians at demos. Guess state forces can do no wrong in your eyes :rolleyes:

Debator

gurramok wrote: »

..... Guess state forces can do no wrong in your eyes :rolleyes:

I had a reasoned argument typed out in response to your comment but then I deleted it. Why bother debating with someone who is just going to post strawmen and childish emoticons.

gurramok

Debator wrote: »

I had a reasoned argument typed out in response to your comment but then I deleted it. Why bother debating with someone who is just going to post strawmen and childish emoticons.

At least the Gardai and Irish army are not massacring civilians so yes we should be grateful to live here rather than in Syria.

My name is URL

gurramok wrote: »

Not really. Iran is Shia, Syria is run by an Shia religious off shoot and both are connected to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The rebellion is Sunni led. If Assad falls, the likes of Israel lose a strong enemy on one of its borders and the Palestinians lose that ally. Whether Sunni extremists take power once Assad falls is just speculation, they never took power in Tunisia, Libya or Egypt after their revolutions.
By the way, the rebels were created by Assad whose state forces massacred unarmed civilians at demos. Guess state forces can do no wrong in your eyes :rolleyes:

Tbh, I'd take my chances with Assad too rather than roll a dice and end up with a mish-mash of idealistic nutters all vying for more power. That's not to suggest that rebels on the whole are bad guys, but not everyone rebelling against the current regime are doing so for similar reasons. In fact there's only a relative minority that want to see the place liberalised. Those that were silenced under Assad remain silenced under the watch of extremists of all flavors.

Debator

gurramok wrote: »

At least the Gardai and Irish army are not massacring civilians so yes we should be grateful to live here rather than in Syria.

"Hey guys, look over there!"

Your whataboutery is fooling nobody.

gurramok

Debator wrote: »

"Hey guys, look over there!"

Your whataboutery is fooling nobody.

The thread is about comparing life in Ireland to Syria. We have no air strikes against civilians either but hey Syria has better weather.

Debator

gurramok wrote: »

The thread is about comparing life in Ireland to Syria. We have no air strikes against civilians either but hey Syria has better weather.

Why are you even mentioning weather? Complete red herring deliberately brought up to distract from the issue.

Life in South Africa is horrible. But life in Afghanistan is worse. This does not mean I shouldn't complain about life in South Africa or strive to improve conditions there. Do you see my point?

gurramok

Debator wrote: »

Why are you even mentioning weather? Complete red herring deliberately brought up to distract from the issue.

Life in South Africa is horrible. But life in Afghanistan is worse. This does not mean I shouldn't complain about life in South Africa or strive to improve conditions there. Do you see my point?

Weather is a factor in quality of life, we wouldn't like to live in the sub-Sahara or Siberia. The thread is about Syria not South Africa and its right that one should call for Assad a dictator to lay down his arms rather than rebels who seek freedom from oppression.

Debator

gurramok wrote: »

Weather is a factor in quality of life, we wouldn't like to live in the sub-Sahara or Siberia.

That is subjective. You don't speak for me so stop this "we" business.

The thread is about Syria not South Africa

Yes this thread is about Syria and Ireland but I wanted to make a parallel comparison with Afghanistan and South Africa as you appeared to be having difficulty comprehending my point.

its right that one should call for Assad a dictator to lay down his arms rather than rebels who seek freedom from oppression.

"Oppression" is a highly subjective term. At the moment there is huge external pressure to ban guns in the USA. If they were banned, Americans would claim that they are being oppressed and denied their rights as granted by the constitution. Are you in favour of guns being freely available to Americans? You have already stated that you have no problem with Syrian civilians carrying guns and shooting at the authorities (police, army etc)

gurramok

Debator wrote: »

"Oppression" is a highly subjective term. At the moment there is huge external pressure to ban guns in the USA. If they were banned, Americans would claim that they are being oppressed and denied their rights as granted by the constitution. Are you in favour of guns being freely available to Americans? You have already stated that you have no problem with Syrian civilians carrying guns and shooting at the authorities (police, army etc)

Americans have democracy to decide if their citizens wish to amend their constitution or pass laws to restrict certain types of guns.

Syria is a dictatorship where those police and army have slaughtered and tortured unarmed civilians in order to keep said dictator in power. Thats called oppresssion by state terrorists.

Fromthetrees

It's a silly comparison to make really, I (we) have every right to moan and complain about what's going on here in Ireland, we do live here. All Irish people or the Irish government can do to help the Syrian people is donate aid and we already give an enormous amount of aid per capia.

Pilotdude5

3500 killed in "The Troubles" over a 30 year period here. 60000 killed in just under 2 years over there.

But sure, Kim K is pregnant.

PizzamanIRL

It's not our problem and there's nothing we can do about it so never mind Syria and all them other mad countries. I'll worry about them when they start WW3.

Hippies!

the keen edge wrote: »

Anyway for the past few weeks I've been following the unfolding civil war in Syria.

Since the other night on the news when the UN announced that 60,000 have been killed since the uprising....

the keen edge wrote: »

I doubt that at anytime in the troubled history of this island such barbarism occurred, certainly not in the past 400 years at any rate.

Whatever you doubt or don't I don't care. No relevance.

the keen edge wrote: »

Are the people of AH's aware of events in Syria?

Nah, I'm too busy watching xfactor, not no smarts like you OP



Go away OP.

grizzly

Hande hoche! wrote: »

They also have Japanese tourists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MN8MAsbr9w

Nice to have a hobby.