Like even the old janajanaweed

The Janjaweed were/are involved? Foreign media hasn't reported that.

place has lost it's moral compass.

Last edited Sun Dec 8, 2024, 01:58 PM - Edit history (1)

are so many gun crime victims, like 2 children this week who never hurt a flea. 5 & 6 years old shot at school. In ICU. That requires a lot of empathy. Man who scams people out of their health care, not so much. He was in a different bubble than the rest of us. Why should people care when he doesn't care about those outside his own bubble of wealth and privilege.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/school-shooting-california-kindergarteners.html

But those two innocent children have sucked up all of my empathy for victims of gun violence this week.

Once again - children woke up and went to school . . .

Why have there been non-stop posts about it? Not caring would mean ignoring it.

Law and order. But only that. I'm not one who thinks the assasin is hot either. I'm against murder.

JFC

he was hot. I think Weekend update on SNL was one place that made a joke on it. But it was also real people on the internet.

It also belies the claim that you just didn't care.

And in two posts tried to provide evidence the feeling was widespread.

which has been out there for two days.

I don’t think anyone really knows what they stand for, other than getting rid of Assad, which is a good thing.

Because Democrats fancy the idea of overthrowing authoritarian fascist regimes – here and abroad.

We're in a revolutionary mood.

But yes, it’s likely that whatever takes control of Syria will be some sort of authoritarian Islamist government hostile to the West, democracy, and individual liberty.

Or, perhaps more accurately, torture chambers. They were celebrating, seemingly unaware that they were simply going from one form of grotesque oppression to another.

I'll hold out hope that a secular government can happen there, but the chances are slim.

But what will come next will most likely not be much better. Perhaps for the Kurds, if Turkey doesn't try to annex that territory for security reasons, ethnic cleansing.

is to be expected. What is coming for Syria will not be better. Maybe good can prevail.

Assad is/was a bad guy and I won’t lose any sleep over him, but I don’t know enough about the rebels to think they’ll be an improvement.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Biden administration does, and what the incoming administration does as well.

Don’t forget, please, that we have troops in Syria. I hope this doesn’t put them at greater risk.

Multi-generational bad guys. Family bad guys (including at least one brother who was actively brutal).



https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/08/middleeast/bashar-al-assad-syria-profile-intl-hnk/index.html

I think we have a couple (informal) bases of operation there that were established to thwart ISIL/ISIS so I expect temporarily retreating from there might be in order.

During his first term, 45 did actually order military ops there in 2018 - Trump announces strikes on Syria following suspected chemical weapons attack by Assad forces

Over the demise of anyone like that. But I’m still concerned that the new government is not going to be any better than the old one.

you'll have jockeying for "power" and about the only approach that might delay a completely new upheaval is having some kind of "coalition" power-sharing.

You also have the issue of Kurds there (and in Iraq and Turkey), with their own dynamic.

I have no sympathy for the Assads.

Hezbollah is also a murdering Islamist group and they’ve now lost another base of operations.

It’s going to be a challenging time - perhaps for years as an odd mix of Sunni groups supplant an odd mix of Shia groups… but that still likely to be better than a puppet for Iran/Russia

We can’t help it if Putin is an autocrat who believes in his own genius. If Putin hadn’t made the colossal mistake of trying to annex Ukraine and its people, Assad would have survived. Russia hurt itself by being murderous invaders.

But I always rejoice when tyrants are overthrown and Assad was steeped in blood.

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
And hear their death-knell ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near,
How can I keep from singing?

I pray the beleaguered Syrian people have a respite of peace because they have suffered enough. The odds are not good for this but are not zero.