Do you have any sympathy for Assad loyalists executed by Syrian rebels?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Of course not. I mean yes these prisoner killings without any real trials even are quite dubious (because we all know Assad NEVER does anything like that either), but the way some right wing and True Leftist sites try to rally sympathy for the victims is just absurd. It's like neo-Nazi groups throwing a fit over what Allied forces did at Dachau.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You're above this, BRTD. Please think over what you're saying here. Whether you support or oppose intervention should not determine how you feel about the execution of POWs.

I said in the OP it's not OK (just as its not OK for US states to execute murderers.) However trying to drum sympathy for the victims is something completely different.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Of course not. I mean yes these prisoner killings without any real trials even are quite dubious (because we all know Assad NEVER does anything like that either), but the way some right wing and True Leftist sites try to rally sympathy for the victims is just absurd. It's like neo-Nazi groups throwing a fit over what Allied forces did at Dachau.

Can you please for once try to a just a little bit of perspective? Not everything fits into a cozy black and white dichotomy of "good guys and bad guys".

Kind of like HIV patients, right?

You're above this, BRTD. Please think over what you're saying here. Whether you support or oppose intervention should not determine how you feel about the execution of POWs.

I said in the OP it's not OK (just as its not OK for US states to execute murderers.) However trying to drum sympathy for the victims is something completely different.

That doesn't make the way in which you're expressing the sentiment any less disgusting. Graphic videos like this are not in themselves an argument against intervention, but the behavior that they show is much worse than, as you so mildly put it, "dubious."

The comments to that video (which by the way I would hardly call graphic, you can't even see any real gunfire, just hear it) are a great example of what I'm referring to. Plenty of "why don't we bomb these guys instead, ra ra Assad" type garbage. Even though there's probably ten times as many killings of this style by Assad's forces. Legitimate human rights organizations (like Human Rights Watch) are doing a great job calling out such crimes by both sides, but the useful idiot left and teabaggers are basically forming a pro-Assad alliance and acting like the victims of these were such innocent people.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It strikes me as if Neo-Nazis tried to argue "OMG look at how all American soldiers were such evil barbarians!" by bringing up incidents they did to SS troops (and of course American and British troops were often quite brutal to captured SS, especially when they found exactly what they were doing and what those camps were for.)

What do you think of the idiots on DU saying we should bomb the rebels instead?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I do have a sympathy for those being murdered, regardless whether I support or oppose their side. I guess I'm just a bigger Christian than you, Zack.

Antonio made a very good point about the ordinary people being drown to the horrors of war. That's the real tragedy of war, but I guess when the "good guys" are committing crimes, that's fine for your single brain cell.

I'm starting to think that Gramps is right. The assumption that innocence should be a precondition for sympathy is among the most un-Christian attitudes I've ever encountered. Only a simpleton would equate sympathy for soldiers caught up in mass executions with support for the Assad regime or even opposition to intervention.

The problem is people are using it to literally drum up support for Assad. Not oppose intervention, but support Assad. I've seen people post about how we should bomb the rebels instead because they all are obviously soooo horrible, just look at these executions. Even on this forum seatown seems to actually support Assad. Just read the very comments in the video you linked to. It's not really a strawman argument.

Overall I agree with what Peter the Lefty said. It's possible for something to still be wrong and me see it as that way even if the victim is not sympathetic. Like him, I oppose the death penalty but that's not out of feeling sorry or sympathy for the murderers executed under it. I don't think that's the case with most death penalty opponents either, you can't say that most people who'd state in polls they are opposed to capital punishment do so out of personal sympathy for those executed. When the last murder that occurred in my neighborhood did (gang member shot up by a rival gang), you didn't hear any of the talk about how he was such a wonderful person with his life tragically cut short like is about victims of accidents or innocent victims of murders, but you also didn't see anyone saying it was right or that the perpetrator should just get off. If I was actually endorsing these killings yeah that'd be quite un-Christian, but I'm not saying that they are OK. But it's just the flip to take crimes against some literal Horrible People who've done plenty of terrible and disgusting things and use that as proof their side is in the right.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also if you look at Kucinich's statements and actions, it's pretty clear that he is actually pro-Assad and not simply anti-intervention.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It depends. Even though I don't support capital punishment, vicious murderers that are executed get no sympathy from me. If one did not kill or otherwise order a killing, I'd say yes to this question. With that said, I have a big problem where due process and the rule of law isn't being observed.

Well said.

To use an analogy for the yes voters, did you have any personal sympathy for Gaddafi when he was killed? You could argue it was inappropriate and a war crime, but that's quite different from personally caring about Gaddafi himself. You could even say the same thing about the unambiguously illegal killing of Osama bin Laden.