Egypt's probably the worst example out of the new "democracies", their military took control, their Parliament's controlled by an overwhelming number of Islamist parties, and the people are in revolt again. Anyone have any more information from Libya? I'm curious to hear how they're handling their strife.
Just read about that now. I knew soccer was big, but my god. Fences to seperate the fans? I swear if the EU doesn't work out and modern Europe crumbles, I think they'll divide into tribes based on soccer fanhood.
Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award on Friday for an image of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46451682/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/#.T0JCkXlm7QU US should help Syria rebels, GOP's John McCain and Lindsey Graham say Senators cite Iran as a major reason for action in Syria KABUL, Afghanistan — With the Syrian government continuing its deadly crackdown on its citizens, two senior American senators who were on their way to the Middle East spoke out strongly on Sunday in favor of arming the Syrian opposition forces. The senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, laid out a series of diplomatic, humanitarian and military aid proposals that would put the United States squarely behind the effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The senators, both of whom are on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that rebel fighters deserved to be armed and that helping them take on the Syrian government would aid Washington’s effort to weaken Iran. Syria relies on Iran for financial and military support, and the governments in Damascus and Tehran have sectarian ties as well: Iran has strongly backed the Syrian Shiite minority and the offshoot Alawite sect that makes up Syria’s ruling class. “I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement,” Mr. McCain said. “The Iranians and the Russians are providing Bashar Assad with weapons. People that are being massacred deserve to have the ability to defend themselves.” “So I am not only not opposed,” he said, “but I am in favor of weapons being obtained by the opposition.” Syria’s crackdown continued on Sunday, including action near the heart of Damascus, in the Mezze neighborhood near the presidential palace. A day after security forces opened fire on a large demonstration there, killing at least one person, residents reported a heavy concentration of troops throughout the city, apparently sent to head off another protest. At least 14 people were reported killed around the country, some by the government and some by armed opposition forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that operates out of Britain. The Syrian state news media said that three people — a senior prosecutor, a judge and their driver — were killed by an “armed terrorist group” in Idlib Province. Idlib has seen heavy fighting between government forces and an armed network of military defectors, Turkish-based opposition forces and local rebels loosely organized under the banner of the Syrian Free Army. Egypt on Sunday became the latest Arab country to withdraw its diplomatic mission to Syria. Egyptian state news media said that the nation’s ambassador would leave in answer to a call by the Arab League for its members to break ties with Damascus. The Syrian Embassy in Cairo has been vacant since it was ransacked by a largely Syrian crowd two weeks ago, leaving it battered and burned. The detail in the American senators’ comments, made at a news conference during their visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, appeared to signal that these were themes they would address when they arrived in Cairo, their next stop. The senators are leading a bipartisan delegation that stopped in Kabul to meet with military officials, diplomats and President Hamid Karzai. The senators’ statements supporting arming the opposition went beyond the Obama administration’s public comments about Syria. After Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States would continue to “support the opposition’s peaceful political plans for change,” but then added: “Many Syrians, under attack from their own government, are moving to defend themselves, which is to be expected.” Still, the administration has made a point of working through the Arab League and the United Nations rather than giving the appearance that the United States is trying to intervene in Syria, in part to avoid giving Iran any excuse to get involved on behalf of its regional ally, analysts say. The senators, on the other hand, cited Iran as a major reason for action in Syria, even if only indirectly. Mr. McCain said the United States would not have to send weapons directly to the opposition but could work through “third-world countries” and the Arab League. Mr. Graham also endorsed arming those who are fighting Mr. Assad, and he suggested that the Arab League, which has called for Mr. Assad’s departure, could be a conduit. A byproduct of a more interventionist policy would be to weaken Iran. “Breaking Syria apart from Iran could be as important to containing a nuclear Iran as sanctions,” Mr. Graham said. “If the Syrian regime is replaced with another form of government that doesn’t tie its future to the Iranians, the world is a better place.”
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2012/02/19/19400721.html China paper blames West for Syrian violence By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan, Reuters AMMAN/BEIRUT - A leading Chinese newspaper accused Western countries on Monday of stirring civil war in Syria, where police and militia patrols clamped down on a district of the capital to prevent new demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad. After almost a year of protests against Assad's 11-year rule, the uprising has moved to his centre of power in Damascus, where the security police surrounded a funeral of a young protester on Sunday to ensure there was no renewal of some of biggest demonstrations in the capital. China's Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, in a front page commentary, said the West's support of the opposition and its demands for Assad to step down could provoke a "large-scale civil war" that might demand foreign intervention. China and Russia angered the West and Arab states this month by blocking a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that backed an Arab plan demanding Assad step aside. If the Security Council had passed the resolution backing the Arab League, that would only have lead to more violence, Qu King, whom the newspaper identified as a foreign affairs expert, wrote in the article. "If Western countries continue to fully support Syria's opposition, then in the end a large-scale civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility of foreign armed intervention," Qu wrote. China has sent envoys to the region, stung by Western criticism that by vetoing the resolutions at the United Nations it was allowing the violence to increase. China and Russia also voted against a non-binding U.N. General Assembly resolution to back the Arab plan last week. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun met Assad on Saturday in Damascus and appealed to all sides to end the violence, which rights groups say has killed thousands. He also expressed Beijing's support for Assad's plan to hold a referendum and a multi-party parliamentary election within four months - a move the West and some in Syria's fragmented opposition have dismissed as a sham. In the capital's Mezze district, Samer al-Khatib, a young protester, was killed on Saturday when security forces fired at a rally. His funeral on Sunday was a quiet affair after 15 pick-up trucks of security police and armed pro-Assad militiamen, know as shabbiha, surrounded it. "Walking in Mezze now carries the risk of arrest. The area is quiet, even popular food shops in Sheikh Saad are empty," activist Moaz al-Shami said, referring to a main street. The Damascus protest indicated the movement against Assad, who has ruled Syria for 11 years after succeeding his father Hafez on his death, has not been cowed and embraces a wide section of Syrian society. Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a majority Sunni country, says he is fighting foreign-backed terrorists. NO INTERVENTION The United States, Europe, Turkey and Gulf-led Arab states have all demanded Assad relinquish power. The foreign ministers of the G20 industrialized and emerging nation were increasingly concerned about whether a peaceful solution could be found, Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, said. "There is grave concern about the fact that existing structures of the United Nations have not delivered an outcome, namely that we have a U.N. security council resolution, albeit a moderate and mild one, that was still vetoed by two members," he told reporters in Los Cabos, Mexico. The West has ruled out any Libya-style military intervention but the Arab League, led by Saudi Arabia, has indicated some of its member states were prepared to arm the opposition. British Foreign Minister William Hague reiterated that view on Sunday, telling the BBC: "We cannot intervene in the way we did in Libya ... we will do many other things." "I am worried that Syria is going to slide into a civil war and that our powers to do something about it are very constrained because, as everyone has seen, we have not been able to pass a resolution at the U.N. Security Council because of Russian and Chinese opposition." In Washington the top U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said intervening in Syria would be "very difficult" because it was not another Libya. Syria's army is "very capable," with a sophisticated, integrated air defense system and chemical and biological weapons, Dempsey said. He also said it was premature to arm the opposition movement in Syria, because "I would challenge anyone to clearly identify for me the opposition movement in Syria at this point." CATCH-22 Leading Syrian businessman Faisal al-Qudsi said the government was slowly disintegrating and sanctions were ruining the economy. He told the BBC in London military action could only last six months but Assad's government would fight to the end. "The army is getting tired and will go nowhere," he said. "They will have to sit and talk or at least they have to stop killing. And the minute they stop killing, more millions of people will be on the streets. So they are in a Catch-22." Qudsi, who was involved in Syria's economic liberalization, told the BBC the apparatus of government was almost non-existent in trouble spots like Homs, Idlib and Deraa. Government forces bombarded Homs on Sunday. The western city, strategically sited on the road between Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, has been under siege for more than two weeks and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding as food and medical supplies are running short. Rockets, artillery and sniper fire have killed several hundred people, according to activists, but security forces have held back from a full assault on opposition-held districts. Residents fear a bloodbath should that take place.
Eastern Libya is declaring itself autonomous. I'm fearful this is going to plunge into a civil war similar to the one in the Balkans.
Arming Syrian rebels seems to me to be a very bad idea. I'd rather they not be massacred and all, but more weapons will only mean more deaths. And, it's not even clear to me that the rebels would have any more legitimacy than Assad's government. There's still a wide difference between not wanting the rebels killed and thinking they should be the ones to dictate the political future of the country.
Leadership isn't my hesitation so much. I'm not clear that the things the rebels stand for are actually popular with the majority of Syrians. I think I'd want Assad out because of the violence he has employed. But that doesn't mean putting rebels in. Giving them guns is not just an effort to get Assad our but to put rebels in.
Middle Eastern media outlet Al Arabiyya reports: Suddenly.. But just days before all this.. My heart aches for Egypt. I hope people have seen enough pain and suffering over the last 18 months to start voicing their opinions in their own countries and demanding their politicians to support the Egyptian PEOPLE's quest for the exact same rights and freedoms that we believe we deserve.
Egypt is going to be in trouble, as the influence of the ass-backwards Islamists Mathloom loves so much is going to increase.
