Civil War in Syria

[Omega21]

Assad has won. It's about over. 

Huzzah!

I mean, look at the map.  Most is controlled by Assad.  And the entire situation is depressing, there's not any real reason to celebrate.

Why not? The terrorists have been defeated, and any further intervention by any foreign power (Russia, America, Turkey etc.) is not warranted, as it is up to Syrians to chose who leads their own country, not anyone else.

[Omega21]

Assad has won. It's about over.  

Huzzah!

I mean, look at the map.  Most is controlled by Assad.  And the entire situation is depressing, there's not any real reason to celebrate.

Why not? The terrorists have been defeated, and any further intervention by any foreign power (Russia, America, Turkey etc.) is not warranted, as it is up to Syrians to chose who leads their own country, not anyone else.

Except Russians won't leave Syria, neither will the U.S., Saudis and Turks cease their involvement. The game between the powers will continue in some other form, at the expense of the Syrians, pawns in their proxy wars.

I know, that's the sad reality...

[Omega21]

Assad has won. It's about over. 

Huzzah!

I mean, look at the map.  Most is controlled by Assad.  And the entire situation is depressing, there's not any real reason to celebrate.

Why not? The terrorists have been defeated, and any further intervention by any foreign power (Russia, America, Turkey etc.) is not warranted, as it is up to Syrians to chose who leads their own country, not anyone else.

How, exactly, would Syrians choose who leads their country? They can't do so at the ballot box and they couldn't do so by taking up arms.

It's their job to figure that out, not yours or anyone else's, plain and simple.

[Omega21]

Copying from the Trump/Kurd thread in USGD - major ISIL attack appears to be underway in Raqqa.

https://twitter.com/SirwanKajjo/status/1181706355704500224

https://twitter.com/cmoc_sdf/status/1181707512577441792

Honestly, Bashar taking back all of Syria and giving the Kurds wide autonomy would be best for everyone.

[Omega21]

Disgusting.

The invading Turks need to be thrown back to where they belong and contained in their own territory.

Trump is throwing the Kurds under the bus.

Does not really matter, Putin and Assad will team up with them, and this has probably helped solve the Kurd situation faster.

They will probably get some kind of autonomy and fight together against Turkey.

[Omega21]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

Turkey has already opened its border, and they have started flooding the Greek border.

Hope the Greek roll out their military/border force to prevent any massive illegal crossings.

[Omega21]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

Turkey has already opened its border, and they have started flooding the Greek border.

Hope the Greek roll out their military/border force to prevent any massive illegal crossings.

I know, my post was slightly ironic. I assume your only concern is to prevent the ''flooding'' and not the terrible humanitarian crisis. Likewise our 'war correspondents' only report the advances of the 'liberating' forces of the Syrian regime and Putin's Russia. Not a big fan of Erdogan's Turkey either. Not to mention the Trump administration that betrayed the brave Kurdish militias which liberated NE Syria from ISIS. Have you ever heard about a thing called ''civil population''? Have you ever cared?

Women and children are fine, families (father, mother, children) are fine, fit for military service single males are not.

Turkey is a country currently not at war on its own territory, thus any argument against them being in grave danger is null and void.

I do, however, support a very large and comprehensive humanitarian effort to build proper shelter and housing, hygiene, healthcare etc., and I don't mind some of our taxes going to it.

I also hope for a fast and decisive Assad victory, so that the people can start rebuilding their home in peace.

I am a "3rd country" immigrant in the EU. The difference is, I needed to prove I don't have anything more than a parking ticket. I expect the same from everyone else, whether that's someone from my home country or any other place.

Greek authorities said 73 migrants had been arrested, but added that they "weren't from Idlib, but from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia".

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/greece-blocks-nearly-10000-migrants-turkey-border-doc-1ph40c3

Those are countries currently not at war, and they should be held to the same rules as I was.

[Omega21]

The killing of the Turkish soldiers might lead to a dangerous escalation. Meanwhile the situation in Idlib province is still one of "humanitarian emergency" and Erdogan is threatening the EU with "open borders".

No updates from our war correspondents?

Turkey has already opened its border, and they have started flooding the Greek border.

Hope the Greek roll out their military/border force to prevent any massive illegal crossings.

I know, my post was slightly ironic. I assume your only concern is to prevent the ''flooding'' and not the terrible humanitarian crisis. Likewise our 'war correspondents' only report the advances of the 'liberating' forces of the Syrian regime and Putin's Russia. Not a big fan of Erdogan's Turkey either. Not to mention the Trump administration that betrayed the brave Kurdish militias which liberated NE Syria from ISIS. Have you ever heard about a thing called ''civil population''? Have you ever cared?

Women and children are fine, families (father, mother, children) are fine, fit for military service single males are not.

Turkey is a country currently not at war on its own territory, thus any argument against them being in grave danger is null and void.

I do, however, support a very large and comprehensive humanitarian effort to build proper shelter and housing, hygiene, healthcare etc., and I don't mind some of our taxes going to it.

I also hope for a fast and decisive Assad victory, so that the people can start rebuilding their home in peace.

I am a "3rd country" immigrant in the EU. The difference is, I needed to prove I don't have anything more than a parking ticket. I expect the same from everyone else, whether that's someone from my home country or any other place.

I am afraid that you are ignorant about the brutal nature of the Assad regime, otherwise you would understand that many Syrians 'flooding' EU borders are unwilling to return because there's no way to rebuild their lives in 'peace''. What peace,are you talking about? Wishful thinking, perhaps?

I am also afraid that you are ignorant -or unwilling to know- about the brutal methods of the Greek army and patrol borders, hailed by xenophobes and Nazi sympathizers (Golden Shower).

I am afraid too that you are ignorant -or unwilling to know- about the terrible and desperate situation of Syrian refugees trapped in Lesbos island and other camps. It's like living dead, according to reports from humanitarian organizations.

It's like you were living in a parallel reality, just because you wear some strange glasses or turn your head to see what you want to see...

Did you read about the nationalities of the arrested people?

Pakistan is not at war, neither is Morocco (just watched an interview with a Morrocan at the border), neither is Afghanistan, and neither is Somalia.

And why did you write Golden Shower lol

We can't really talk about this until we establish that the majority of immigrants are not from Syria:



https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_statistics#Citizenship_of_first-time_applicants:_largest_shares_from_Syria.2C_Afghanistan_and_Iraq

[Omega21]

Sorry but Afghanistan and Somalia are suffering endless civil conflicts and extreme poverty, as well as certain tribal areas of Pakistan (not to mention the Kashmir border with India). Morocco is not in a situation of civil war, but it's sustaining a long lasting low key conflict in Western Sahara. All these countries have great levels of poverty, as well as corrupt and/or authoritarian regimes. I wonder what kind of world do you think we are sharing with all these peoples...
S

Extreme poverty =/ Refugee status

Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.

If we want to maintain our standard of living and the great things we provide for all classes of our society, including but not limited to: free education, 5 weeks off, medical care, maternity leave etc. we cannot accept people who are not likely to be a net benefit, otherwise, our own people (citizens not ethnic) will have their standards degraded.

As I said, I do support temporary shelter for females, children and families fleeing war. For the rest, I support giving them aid, which is very generous considering I don't mind a % of my income going to others with no strings or repayment attached.

The argument that someone who has no high school, speaks no German and will need integration classes for the most basic types of activities will be a net benefit is absurd.

As an example, there are plenty of well-educated Bosniaks, Serbs and Croatians who require far less and are ready to work and chip in from day 1, provided only such people are let in.

[Omega21]

It's not only a matter of extreme poverty, although that's enough to leave a country in search for a better life. Why do you overlook the existence of civil conflicts in some cases (particularly in Syria),  or the corrupt and authoritarian regimes?

Obviously the Syrians fall into the refugee category, why do you try to divert the attention from them?

The issue with Syria is that thousands or millions are fleeing the country, escaping from a civil war and a brutal dictatorship. They can't return in safe conditions, even in the eventuality of a wuick end of the ongoing military operations.

Even though the number of refugees is huge, the EU is large enough to absorb them without compromising its living standards. The issue here is the lack of political will of national governments. In the 2015 wave of refugees, countries like Germany and Sweden were generous and took their share. However, many others refused or failed to fulfill their quotas. The result is that nobody is willing to give a safe har bour to refugees now, because of the lack of solidarity and the electoral costs. But the oroblem does not dissapear, just because you want to close your eyes. What is the alternative to those thousands of refugees at the border and the thousands or millions to come? Repression and tear gas against the children at the border?, cronified internment in refugee camps? Do you know anything about the situation in Lesbos, which is a small island with thousands of refugees that nobody wants? The issue is that the solidarity of the local population has been pushed to the limit, because those thousands that threaten to collapse the tiny island could have been easily absorbed by the whole EU. Border countries and localities are also victims of the lack of coordinated efforts and solidarity within the EU

I already explicitly said I support temporarily accepting families, women and children, so you're barking up the wrong tree, I don't need convincing for those 3.

And no, we cannot accept a few million people with no consequences. Greece, a country of few million that is fairly wealthy and educated still destabilized the EU financially, so importing a few million poor uneducated people definitely can and would have a consequence. Not to mention the disproportionate crime statistics in such uneducated groups who come from vastly different, less developed cultures (women's rights, secularism etc.).

And no, they are not the main concern. I linked you official EU data, and Syrians make up only a small part of the total number, 13.9 %. In other words, 6 out of 7 asylum seekers are not Syrian.

And you are starting to sound like an authoritarian yourself.

The issue here is the lack of political will of national governments. In the 2015 wave of refugees, countries like Germany and Sweden were generous and took their share. However, many others refused or failed to fulfill their quotas. The result is that nobody is willing to give a safe har bour to refugees now, because of the lack of solidarity and the electoral costs.

Yes, if people don't want something, you don't do it, it is the definition of a beautiful democratic system.

[Omega21]

It's just me, or the comments about ''uneducated'' Syrians sound... er... racist? How about the uneducated hooligans, or the uneducated far right voters? Would you call me elitist if I say their uneducated condition is disgusting? But insulting these uneducated fellow Europeans is wrong, isn't it? We the educated people in the western world must be empathhetic and address the concerns of uneducated people, don't we? We have to explain that high criminality  is usually related to low socioeconomic levels (yes, immigrants use to be below average income) and not to cultural particularities, that brown people is not genetically inclined to commit crimes and that whites are capable of rape and other terrible offenses. It's only that certain platitudes and common places are tiresome and fake news based on them feed the racist attitudes of our uneducated fellow countrymen and that's sad, don't you think?

No, I wouldn't. They should be thrown in jail if they break the law or call on others to go after any group. The only difference between them and the asylum seekers is they got their right to live here by birth (or however they got citizenship) and we can't just deport them or not let them in, they're already here, and they're here to stay and we're stuck with them, because that's what the Law says.

And of course not. Indians are "brown people" as you put it, and AFAIK they're statistically very unlikely to commit violent crimes, meanwhile, more than 40-50% of them don't even have a working toilet at home, so they're definitely extremely poor, and uneducated in a lot of cases.

The difference is that some people do not believe in secularism and the fundamentals of democracy and freedom. This is not absolute and can come from a mix of religion, culture, the type of rule prevalent in that country etc. Example, Bosniaks being Muslims, but generally you will have a very easy time integrating them in Western European Societies, and the difference between integrating them and Croatians let's say (Catholic) is extremely small or non-existent.

So as said, it's definitely not genetics, it doesn't have to be Religion (unless practised in an extreme form), but it most definitely can be culture. 

If your Dad, Uncle, Religious teacher and School teacher teaches you women need to be covered up when outside, you are very likely to accept that if it's done from an early age, and if you're views are "kept in check".

You really shouldn't argue this. All peoples, races and ideologies have done this type of brainwashing at some point. Christians, Communists, Muslims, you name it. I am lucky to live in a place that has grown out of most of those disgusting things, and that's why I am not opposed to funding other nations to (mostly ME and Africa) eventually go through that as well.

If you don't accept there is a deep problem with the current culture of some nations, you can not solve it if you think it does not exist in the first place.

In 2017, immigrants (defined as asylum seekers) represented 2% of the population and 15.9% of suspects in rape and sexual assault cases.

This is official BAMF info, so no, it is not fake news.

https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article175907770/Kriminalstatistik-Bayern-ist-das-sicherste-Bundesland.html?wtrid=onsite.onsitesearch

[Omega21]

Yes, the West must address the issue of Islamic fundamentalism. One way of doing that might be reconsidering their close relationship with Saudi Arabia - WHERE MOST OF IT COMES FROM.

PREACH!

Need to clarify I'm no Russia/Iran/Syria shill, but they are ants compared to the fundamentalist giant SA is.

On another note:

After the most recent refugee wave, pics are coming in from the Greek island of Lesvos, showing a desecrated Greek Orthodox Church, which was allegedly destroyed by refugees. (Perpetrators not confirmed)







https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/03/02/greek-orthodox-church-in-lesvos-vandalised-by-refugees/

Being Orthodox myself and having spent a fair amount of time in Greece, I can confirm this is a typical small Greek Orthodox Church, although we will need to wait for more official sources to confirm anything.

This would not be the first time, as less than 2 years ago a large concrete cross was torn down on the same island as well.

Update:

Attack was confirmed by more mainstream media. (No perpetrators have been identified yet) On the outside there seem to be graffiti in what I assume is Arabic, so someone can translate if you recognize the writing.



https://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/980442/lesvos-kataggelies-katoikon-oti-metanastes-vandalisan-ekklisakii