Syria

starting a thread about Syria... just ranting and adding info as i go ^^

this article (below) really helped open my eyes. i've been wanting to better understand the situation in Syria for a long time and now I feel like I have a better sense of what's really going on:

War With Syria and its Repercussions

Any person using the slightest bit of common sense would not assume the Syrian Government is responsible for the recent chemical weapons attack. For example, the UN is currently in Syria — invited by Assad — investigating a previous chemical weapons attack, since Assad blamed the previous attacks on the US backed rebels. It's possible that the most recent chemical weapons attack also serves to distract from the ongoing UN investigation that would have proved Assad right. 

I also had a really interesting discussion with the local organic food shop owner, who is Syrian.  he says it's obvious that Assad didn't commit the attack... why would he do this right when he invited the UN there to investigate? this reflected the info i read in the above article ^
he also told me some interesting things i did not know... that 60 different nationalities are coming together from all over the world to fight on the extremist rebel side (and in the second vid below, one girl says 150...) and essentially the US gov't is backing al qaeda, who is affiliated with the rebels.

here's an article I just found on that:

Syria accuses West of cooperating with Al Qaeda

http://www.albawaba.com/news/syria-accuses-west-cooperating-al-qaeda-424839


anyways, really appreciate Luke's reporting on this... these two vids contrast each other:


and this one is like a breath of fresh air: 






wow this vid is incredibly touching: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/27/the-first-truly-heartwarming-video-from-syria-in-a-long-time/



I found this vid pretty enlightening... explains the larger geo-political interests involved in destabilizing Syria:



and here Corbett breaks down the hypocrisy of the US gov't in decrying the use of chemical weapons:




oh yea! this is great... politics i can enjoy watching ^^