Don't say anything bad about Syria ...or Iran.

.

You REALLY think so ?

Iran (like many other countries) can make the situation in Syria better or worse but it cannot dictate or block a solution to the violence there. In addition to Assad's military and the Syrian opposition, we all know which countries are the real 'players' in resolving the violence there. Iran is way down the list.

Likewise Syria will have little impact on the resolution of Iran's pursuit of nuclear power/weapons.

ask yourself why 'Western' countries are willing to arm the opposition in Syria which is said to have links to Al-Qaeda with just enough weaponry and support to keep it going, but not quite enough for anything decisive to happen? Now ask yourself what country is threatening to bomb Iran and does that country sit on Syria's whose government is an ally of Iran's border?

Khalid, 15, said he was hung by his arms from the ceiling of his own school building in Syria and beaten senseless. Wael said he saw a 6-year-old starved and beaten to death, "tortured more than anyone else in the room".

The first-person accounts come from interviews with refugees who have fled the Syrian conflict conducted by the British-based charity Save the Children and published Tuesday.

The report did not say who had abused the children, but a spokesman for Save the Children said some had heard their parents blaming government forces for the attacks.

UN investigators say Syrian government forces have committed human rights violations "on an alarming scale", but have also listed multiple killings and kidnappings by armed rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad.

more

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=523496

They are using civilians as human shields wherever they go. There is a reason that people flock to the government-controlled, secure zones! The terrorists seize homes and businesses and torture people without any regard to human life.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/25/syria-civil-war-aleppo-checkpoints-torture

First they made their suspect kneel. "Sir, sir, I made a mistake," the young man pleaded. "Please sir." His voice was quivering. The rebels went silently to work. They didn't speak, but each seemed to know exactly what to do. They made the suspect lie on his stomach as one fighter put his foot on his spine and pulled his arms back until he screamed.

Two more knelt by his feet, pushing his lower legs between a kalashnikov and its sling and twisting the gun until it was tight around his calves. A fourth rebel pinned the young man's shoulder to the ground with his foot, placing the tip of a bayonet on the nape of man's neck. A fifth man tore through the contents of a cabinet until he found a power cable. He sat twisting it and wrapping it in tape until it resembled a nightstick. A sixth young rebel sat with a pen and paper to take notes.

"Sir, sir, it's a mistake! I thought you were soldiers!"


Three days later, I met one of the men who had been torturing the young man. He had a sorry look on his face.

"All the names he gave us were fake. Those people don't exist. Now the Islamists have taken him. They are interrogating him and they are not letting anyone else see him."

...

Sad. Appalling that the West is rooting for these "Islamist" gangs that are betrayers of every humanist principle that has allowed human progress.

Which side has killed more civilians?

Obviously neither side is blameless. Assad is and was smart enough to know that not negotiating with peaceful protesters at the outset of this crisis would lead to violence - not just from his government which has always been the case, but from the opposition as well.

And a violent government-opposition confrontation anywhere in the Middle East is bound to attract nasty characters from both sides - militia from the pro-Assad side and terrorists from the opposition side. Juan Cole has estimated foreign fighters at 10% of opposition fighters. He states that they are not welcomed enthusiastically by the Syrian opposition but they need all the help they can get and no one else if offering.

Assad is a smart man. Either he thought his military and security service would be able to repress the demonstrations quickly (in which case he guessed wrong) or he thought he could win the civil war that would evolve if the opposition to government repression turned violent. He may still be right about that. The government does have a continuing advantage in terms of heavy weapons that may yet wear down a relatively lightly-armed opposition.

It is equally hard to root for Assad is one if one is committed to "every humanist principle that has allowed human progress." His repression is hardly that of a great humanist.

I hope that the Syrian people resolve the internal war with a minimum of further bloodshed and loss. I find the rhetoric of the Western powers at the UN to be strident, dogmatic, and removed from reality. It certainly does nothing to help facilitate a political solution.