Syria - what the fuck is it like?

http://homepage2.nifty.com/charlie-exorcist/EXORCIST_pazuzu800x600.jpg

food, not so good. only so many kebabs and fatoosh and flatbreads and olives one can eat.

beirut is easy 3 hour bus from damascus and is pretty cosmopolitan, and lots of hot lebanese guys if your friend gets horny.

there's no cocacola or mcdonalds in syria.

it's really really safe. unless you wander towards the iraqi border to like deir-ez-zur, but there's not much to do there, except maybe check out hot soldiers in tanks. but on the way to deir-ez-zur, there's this desert castle in the middle of nowhere which is so so cool - i cant remember who built it. its called rasafa, i think.

and syria is dirt-ass cheap, so your friend assuming she gets paid in british pounds will end up saving a ton of money, because really there's not much to spend your money on.

i probably sound like a retard. but tell your pal to email me if she has any questions! i mean i was only there for 3 weeks in early 2001 and as a tourist, but i can try to help.

I LOVEW YOU!!@!

Nope. But I'd go.

speaking of which, a friend of mine is working on a film about iraqi kurdish musicians, looking forward to seeing that.

Off the top of my head, the two really great architectural things to see in Syria are:

i) Palmyra - some flash Roman place.

ii) Krak des Chevaliers - monster castle built by the Knights Hospitaller, largest, flashest, and best preserved Crusader castle in the Middle East.

There's also some water wheels in Hama (or Homs, I keep mixing them up) which are meant to be the flash.

If someone offered me a year long job in Syria, I'd go like a flash.

nightlife - it's no Beirut in terms of clubing but there are supposed to be lots of places to go out to, one of my friends told me she routinely came home in the wee hours after dancing so there seems to be a few options.

"only so many kebabs and fatoosh and flatbreads and olives one can eat."

are opart of the reason why. btw the above quote appears to be absurd.

Muslims in Syria torched the Danish Embassy a few weeks ago, burning it to the ground. According to everyone, the Syrian government was behind the attack — the prime minister of Denmark, Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Scott McClellan. I think even the gals on "The View" have acknowledged that Damascus was behind this one.

McClellan said: "We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support."

We are signatories to a treaty that requires us to do more than "hold Syria responsible" for this attack. Syria has staged a state-sponsored attack on our NATO partner on Danish soil, the Danish embassy. According to the terms of the NATO treaty, the United States and most of Europe have an obligation to go to war with Syria.

Or is NATO — like the conventions of civilized behavior, personal hygiene and grooming — inapplicable when Muslims are involved? Liberals complain about "unilateral action," but under the terms of a treaty created by Dean Acheson and the Democrats, France, Germany, Spain and Greece are all obliged to go to war with us against Syria. Why, it's almost like a coalition! OK, Mr. Commie: Saddle up!

http://www.anncoulter.org/cgi-local/printer_friendly.cgi?article=100

Ann Coulter isn't real, right? This is all performance art, surely.

A friend of mine spent a couple years in Syria and enjoyed them. She was on occasion weirded out by the repressive presence of the government (in terms of things like no one says anything bad about the king), but she wants to go back at some point.

Maybe, if you really peg it. actually no, it's not enough. In Lebanon alone you would want to see Beirut, Baalbek, Tyre, Tripoli, the Qadisha valley and the Cedars, Beitzedine (sp?), Anjar, etc.. Without having ever gone to Syria, you would probably want to see Damascus, Aleppo, that city with the wheels, all the other cities, Palmyra, Krak Des Chevaliers, and so on.

How far is Alep from Damascus? Has anyone been recently? I keep hearing about Lebanese trucks being stuck at the Syrian border. Would it be a problem for tourists in taxis to cross it too?

you probably do it Israel-Palestine style - taxi to border, walk across border, other taxi on other side. No problem.

banality of evil

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/14/reading_assads_emails

In response to one e-mail from Asma about a pair of $4,000 Christian Louboutin heels, one friend replied: "I don't think they're going 2 b useful any time soon unfortunately."

I feel bad for saying this, but Asma Assad = hawt.

In terms of linking important world events to my own petty concerns, it really saddens me that Assad's reign of terror looks like meaning that I never will get to visit Syria; even if I do, it will no longer be the Syria I wanted to visit.

i talked w a syrian journalist for two hours today on the train. it was v depressing :(

i hadn't quite realized how many people are committed to assad staying in power. one example he gave was to look at the tone of obama's comments about syria prior to meeting with netanyahu (about 4 months ago) (i.e. "assad must step down now") and after ("the legitimate demands of the syrian people must be met")

what would netanyahu gain from assad being in power? i can't imagine syria w/out assad could be significantly worse for israel than syria w/ assad

Martin Fletcher devastating in the Times today.

The children of Houla were not killed by random shelling. The UN yesterday revealed that they were murdered one by one. The militia came in the night armed with knives and guns, and the young victims were executed with a bullet to the head or a knife to the throat.

One photograph shows a cherubic baby girl, no older than 2, with a tiny gold ear-stud. She is wrapped in a white shroud. Half her skull has been hacked or blown away. A saucer of bone juts from a bloody gash in what remains of her head.

Another shows what appears to be a boy of perhaps 6 or 7. The blanket in which he is wrapped has fallen away to expose a bare white shoulder. He looks as if he is sleeping, but the back of his head has been lopped off like the top of a boiled egg. His brain lies on the blanket behind him.

A third shows a pretty young girl staring upwards, her mouth slightly open as if smiling. Above her right eye there is a large, bloody bullet hole surrounded by a mess of flesh and bone.

The pictures go on, some mercifully out of focus, most far too shocking to print in The Times though our failure to do so spares the Assad regime.

There is a baby wearing nothing but a nappy, seemingly untouched except that it lacks an arm. Another young girl wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt with the word “Baby” or “Dolly” written on it has had her jaw shot away. A man carries the body of a child with only half a head remaining.

There are children — brothers, sisters, cousins? — wearing blood-drenched shorts and T-shirts with their eyes gouged out, with their faces slashed by knives or with neat bullet holes in their torsos. One girl has had her nose and cheek sliced off. A couple of the children lying on the floor of a makeshift mortuary appear to have had their hands bound.

These are some of the 49 children killed in the Houla massacre, not by random shelling but knifed to death or shot at close range by President Assad’s Shabiha thugs. They were summarily executed, the United Nations said yesterday.

At least 108 civilians were killed in total, 34 of them women, in a slaughter of infants and innocents with few modern precedents. Only 20 of the deaths could be attributed to artillery or tank fire, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

“What is very clear is that this was an absolutely abominable event that took place in Houla, and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians, women and children. At this point it looks like entire families were shot in their houses,” he added.

http://barnesbreezers.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/smart-bomb-6.jpg

yeah well... if the US gets involved, iran supposedly has an agreement to attack qatar

this would have repercussions which no one wants (i.e. saudi arabia getting involved against iran, russia backing up its partners in syria and iran, etc etc etc -- and the US involved already, right in the middle of it)

which is why nothing will happen

this is the card assad and his despotic brethren play: it's me, or uncontrollable chaos

it was explained to me like this: before the uprising, syrians had no democracy, no freedom, a corrupt government and a very high cost of living. now, after the uprising, they have no democracy, no freedom, a corrupt government, a very high cost of living, and blood running in the street. if they started at minus 10, they are now at minus 15. which is why even though the vast majority of syrians hate assad, the vast majority of syrians want nothing to do with this uprising.

russia clears things up, just in case anyone had gotten the wrong impression over the last few days -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/30/moscow-pledges-block-intervention-syria

and by "unpredictable consequences" they mainly mean "totally predictable consequences which no one wants but which everyone is locked into" which worst-case means WWIII

yeah but there are like ten million sunnis and two million alawites, bashar and family are going to be fucked by the tide of history, china and russia or no

in the long-term, sure, but how long have alawis been the ruling military elite there? decades?

"in the long-term we're ALL dead" etc

Sheherazad Jaafari appears to have a close relationship with the Syrian president, according to e-mails obtained by CNN. In e-mails from Jaafari to al-Assad, she writes "hey handsome" and adds "I love u." ... In other e-mails from Jaafari to al-Assad, she strikes a more personal tone. "I miss ur voice already," she wrote him in late December. "Give me a call whenever u can so I could get some energy from you and tell you how much I misss u." "I am coming today. I will arrive there tomorrow," she wrote in January, telling him she wanted to see him, "no excuses ... miss uuu, please please please. "Hey handsome," she began an e-mail to the president three days later, including a suggestive story about a relative. "I love u," she added. "I hope ur doing well in school and at the gym. Be nicer."

poor asma

fuuuuck

US: Russia Sending Syria Attack Helicopters

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Tuesday that Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and warned that the Arab country's 15-month conflict could become even deadlier.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was "concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria."

russia to homs: drop dead

Did anyone see this Charlie Skelton blog…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking

and response from the Guardian's diplomatic editor…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/13/us-manipulation-news-syria-red-herring

I don't think Skelton's facts are wrong but his argument mirrors the current Infowars/Truther/Webster Tarpley line on Syria so closely that I suspect the theory came first and he found the facts to fit. Conspiracy theorists seem to be hot for Syria at the moment. Obviously cock-ups like Clinton's premature statement re: Tremseh don't help.

Charlie's a friend, tho' his politics aren't really my politics. I think his facts are solid, but yes, I can see that he takes it too much towards an infowars line for my comfort. I don't doubt that various governmental & para-governmental bodies are nudging and cajoling the syrian opposition, nor that there are some shady sorts setting themselves up as sources, but I just don't think that means mega-conspiracy, discard all as propaganda, long live Assad enemy of the imperialists (which isn't exactly his line, but). Still, on info alone a useful contribution/perspective maybe? (like, ha, i don't know, i know jack about syria)

On the theory-first thing, his primary political interest is bilderberg watching - Bassma Kodmani turning up there is how he got onto this topic in particular. So yeah, he comes from that sort of background.

OTM. I think it is useful research and I wonder why a less conspiracy-obsessed journalist didn't do that important work first without linking to Webster bloody Tarpley. On the one hand I think it's vital not to lionise the opposition or take their accounts at face value. On the other I'm queasy about efforts by Infowars and Russia Today to utterly discredit the rebels utterly and blame them for false-flag massacres.

A good piece on Syria and "blanket thinking" about the Middle East:

http://qunfuz.com/2012/07/16/blanket-thinkers/

Above linked piece is good.

today's news summary opening paragraph from Washington Post:

Syrian forces shelled neighborhoods in Damascus on Thursday, and anti-government rebels claimed to have taken control of a checkpoint on the Turkish border, a day after the bombing deaths of three senior military figures with close ties to President Bashar al-Assad.

always a good sign when army is shelling it's own capital

Syrians involved in the uprising say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well fighters from Al Qaeda, are demanding a say in running the resistance.

from the NY Times.

Recent news reports from the region have suggested that the influence and numbers of Islamist militants, some of them connected to al Qaeda or its affiliates, have been growing among Assad's opponents.

U.S. and European officials say that, so far, intelligence agencies do not believe the militants' role in the anti-Assad opposition is dominant.

While U.S. and allied government experts believe that the Syrian rebels have been making some progress against Assad's forces lately, most believe the conflict is nowhere near resolution, and could go on for years.

years!

Annan resigning

the fact that five nations have veto power, in perpetuity, on the UN Sec Council has always seemed amazingly stupid to me

why?

sad to see the rebels dragging people out of their houses and shooting them in the streets yesterday, not sure why, should've seen this phase coming i guess

do you know what the job of the security council is?

the job of the security council is to stop member nations from fighting

the five countries w/ veto power have effective veto power over life on earth

that's why they have veto powers in perpetuity

it's just an accident of history that it's those five particular nations have that role. the countries assumed that position through political expediency, payback for putting down a singular threat. (but, y'know, Japan and Germany aren't really threats anymore, in case anyone noticed...) That these five particular nations would represent a balance of the world's interests and be able to maintain peace FOREVER is a pipe dream.

well japan and germany don't have nuclear arsenals either

but more importantly *everything* is an accident of history, and if somebody told you the UN was going to maintain peace forever with our without a security council, well that's an even bigger pipe dream

not to be a pedant but i think the security council proper includes all the rotating members, not just the p5. the p5 each have a full veto tho which is an interesting and p bizarre system. you can see why it was built that way tho.

yeah the security council is all 15

like "getting things done" is not really the job of the UN, it's not actually a world gov't or the germ of the united federation of planets

it is an open international diplomatic forum, and it's the first one of its kind in the history of the world

so personally the veto thing never bothered me, because imo it's much more valuable as a diplomatic forum than as a parliament of the planet earth

it's not bizarre at all!

it's a detente built in to keep the UN from creating WWIII

late great there are some handpainted billboards up on I35 near rush city i think you should read

sure but I mean... France? how is France a significant geopolitical player in anything, at this point? okay I guess they have nukes. so does India.

and yeah I referred specifically to the veto power, I know the UNSC is all 15 thx for reading

there's always noise in foreign relations bod circles to add india and brazil, maybe an african nation (though the pick gets dicier there -- if ZA why not japan or germany, at that point?)

ok whatever i'm not yr civic teacher

pls direct yr brilliant ideas for improving the UN here

http://www.un.org/en/contactus/

man ease up

i've been in bed for like 36 hours w/ food poisoning, i'm cranky

oh, shitty.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/menWsLA0Bdk/0.jpg

stay cool man

anyway i feel like this is just going to turn into "how much realpolitik is enough realpolitik" rather than anything substantive

maybe we should just REALLY start getting into conspiracy theory here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentarchy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_of_Europe

pentagon.jpg

Shakey, by that logic anything and everything are 'accidents of history'. The very legimacy of the UN, a voluntary organization, stemmed from WWII and the nations represented permanently are the ones most necessary for peace globally. That China (for ideological reasons) and Russia (for local nat'l security reasons) choose to stymie progress in Syria out of self-interest is deplorable (as Annan has just done) but it's hardly as if the other permanent members don't act in self-interest most of the time, too. I'm not entirely convinced that the UN could really do much to pacify Syria, anyway.

ha, is there an eco in here?

xp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/02/obama-order-supporting-syria-rebels?newsfeed=true

excerpts from International Crisis Group Report in Time article

http://world.time.com/2012/08/02/syrian-paradox-the-regime-gets-stronger-even-as-it-loses-its-grip/?iid=tsmodule

The regime] is mutating in ways that make it impervious to political and military setbacks, indifferent to pressure and unable to negotiate. Opposition gains terrify Alawites, who stand more firmly by the regime’s side. Defections solidify the ranks of those who remain loyal. Territorial losses can be dismissed for the sake of concentrating on “useful” geographic areas. Sanctions give rise to an economy of violence wherein pillaging, looting and smuggling ensure self-sufficiency and over which punitive measures have virtually no bearing. That the regime has been weakened is incontrovertible. But it has been weakened in ways that strengthen its staying power.

Shakey, by that logic anything and everything are 'accidents of history'.

sure but not all accidents of history are enshrined for time immememorial in the rules and regulations of governing bodies. but the way the UNSC was setup, it will always be those five particular nations, and none of those five nations will ever voluntarily give up that power. I understand why it was set up that way, but that it was set up to be permanent was not very wise, imho.

well it's only been 70 years and in that time i can't think of anyone who really needs a set w/ the us, the eu, china and russia

a seat, not a set

Separately, Iranian state television reported gunmen snatched a bus filled with 48 Iranian pilgrims from a Damascus suburb Saturday as they headed to visit a shrine holy to Shiites.

why are there iranian pilgrims in damascus right now?

it's Ramadan season and Damascus is holy

yeah i get that. but there's a civil war going on in syria, you're exempt from pilgrimage if it's going to get you killed, and even though iran and syria have a strategic alliance i can't imagine shi'ites making a point of going to damascus during ramadan as a show of support for an alawite regime.

we canceled a pilgrimage to israel for similar reasons several years ago and while we're extraordinarily good-looking and intelligent for iranians, we are not particularly cowardly or irreligious

In the video, a commander of the Free Syrian Army says the 48 people abducted are revolutionary guards and not pilgrims ... Kazem Jalali, a member of the country's national security commission, said Sunday that the abducted pilgrims had traveled to Syria individually and not through official channels

hezbollah contacts trying to get out of syria imo

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/11/11000-syrians-fled-countrys-bloody-stalmate-civil-war-last-24-hours/58867/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/opinion/al-qaeda-in-syria.html

just in case you thought this wasn't enough of a clusterfuck

Gawker blowin' covers:

http://gawker.com/5969029/richard-engel-is-missing-in-syria-nbc-news-enforces-news-blackout

so ... game changed?

Struggling to see any possible solution to this whatsoever. I suspect some on the left want some kind of heavy US/UK intervention just so they can be firmly against it because at the moment everyone's equally confused and impotent.

The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and the number of people needing urgent help has reached 10.8 million - almost half of Syria's population of 22 million, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

http://www.fox19.com/story/25834755/un-says-108-million-syrians-need-humanitarian-aid

Syria versus Israel again

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-teen-killed-in-cross-border-attack-from-syria/2014/06/22/614607fe-fa1d-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html

w/ a twist:

Israeli news media identified the teenager as Mohammed Karaka, 13, from the Galilee village of Arraba. His father, a worker contracted by Israel’s Defense Ministry, had been delivering water to a construction site near the border fence when their vehicle was struck, the army said.

https://searchingforsyria.org/en/what-was-syria-like-before-the-war/

Antiochian orthodox church hit by suicide bombing during divine liturgy this morning. Horrible

Ugh. The Islamic State group is still committing violence there.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c307n9p43z9o