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Originally posted by LarryLove
And frankly if you are all so ready to believe any rubbish posted/hacked/edited/fabricated then to deny ignorance is a motto this website should remove and change to 'believe anything I can't think critically beyond my a**'. A high court ruling deemed these emails as fake and that is good enough to throw this rubbish into the hoax bin. I am angry and fed up with the way this board has become in regard to Syria. Especially watching a thread like this garner the undeserved attention it has already received.
Ah, but let us maximise page views before doing anything about it. So sick of this rubbish.edit on 28-8-2013 by LarryLove because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Astrocyte
Maybe it's just my education in statistics and logical analysis speaking, but I don't understand why so many people can be so completely committed to one idea without realizing that much of their reasoning is based on selective bias and exclusion of contrary information.
There are narratives. One narrative has it that Saddam's chemical weapon supply made its way into Syria before the invasion of Iraq. If this is true - and there is much evidence to suggest that it is - then that means that Syria possesses a chemical weapons supply of its own.
It's also well known that Syria is inherently despotic. A simple reason for that really. Syria is made up of 85% Sunni Muslims, and 15% Shia Muslims (Al Assad is an Alawi, whose religion wasn't regarded as legitimately Shia until the present Ayotollah made it official). Now, in the democratic west, this arrangement is inherently unjust. For one, Assad's government is continuous; and secondly, he represents the interests of a minority part of the population. 4.5 out of every 5 Syrians is Sunni. That means a Syrian president should be Sunni; which means a Syrian parliament should accurately represent this demographic majority. This is not the case. Sunni Syrians are an oppressed people.
Since this is the status quo in Syria, no one in their right mind could argue that this situation is ideal. We wouldn't tolerate it here, and Syrians shouldn't be asked to tolerate it in their country. So, Israel and America have been offering military support to the rebels not simply because it is in their interest to depose a dictator with special ties to Iran, but also, because it is the morally right thing to do.
This narrative makes more sense to me, inasmuch as it describes a world of real competing interests: intermural conflict between the two Islams; America and Israels desire to weaken Iran by weakening it's liasonesque pal Syria; Al Assads own need to preserve power, which means his feeling compelled to use chemical weapons to gain control over the situation in his country.
The other narrative being spun pretty much ignores all these internal conditions and lays the onus at America's door. Strangely, this position is shared by people on both sides of the political spectrum. The reason I am so iffy about this position is that it is blithe about the details. It doesn't seem to care that the middle east is a maelstrom of conflicting attitudes; old world conservatism and new world liberalism; old world socialism/communism and new world democracy. Syria is the bastard child of French colonialism; its demographic foundations were ineptly thought out. Today's problems are a hodgepodge of consequences that perhaps were inevitable. But in any case, a real youth element in Syria seems aligned with the one in Egypt, and just like the one in Egypt disposed of its fundamentalist elements, so too, it's hoped, will Syrias new government be made up of mostly pro-democratic elements who want to integrate their society into the modern world.
Originally posted by Astrocyte
reply to post by Kurius
it's your kids and wife's job to set you straight.
Must be convenient to just say that. Oh, you're being beaten and are experiencing the emotional trauma of that abuse; you're afraid to even look a certain way at your husband, let alone voice a complaint; your poor nervous system is shot and you have begun to accept the abuse as a natural survival strategy? But DONT WORRY! Intellectuals like Kurius here believes you should "grow some balls" and tell your tormentor (husband) to shape up.
I take it you have never read a book on psychology in your entire life. Not a single psychologist would take such a position seriously; a therapist who has spent years working with victims of PTSD would probably feel tempted to smack you across the face for such woeful ignorance about the human condition.
So, I hope you get that that is not a feasible option for a mother or child who is being abused by the alpha male of the house. They are terrified, weakened - emotionally and psychologically - by the abuse. As such, it is spectacularly immoral to put the onus of responsibility on them, and not on the community, who is in a much more favorable position to help them.
Originally posted by Echtelion
Originally posted by LarryLove
And frankly if you are all so ready to believe any rubbish posted/hacked/edited/fabricated then to deny ignorance is a motto this website should remove and change to 'believe anything I can't think critically beyond my a**'. A high court ruling deemed these emails as fake and that is good enough to throw this rubbish into the hoax bin. I am angry and fed up with the way this board has become in regard to Syria. Especially watching a thread like this garner the undeserved attention it has already received.
Ah, but let us maximise page views before doing anything about it. So sick of this rubbish.edit on 28-8-2013 by LarryLove because: (no reason given)
But where is your link to that court ruling, and how come it PROVES that those emails were hoaxes?
This forum is dedicated to research and speculation on organized disinformation and deflection efforts by governments, covert agencies, and organizations
We now accept that email was fabricated and acknowledge there is no truth in any suggestion that Britam or its directors were willing to consider taking part in such a plot, which may have led to an atrocity.
We apologise to each of them and have agreed to pay substantial damages.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
No matter how the Assad regime is despotic, it's still very far behind the USA, who now holds more than 25% of the world population of prisoners.
Um... no. Your "democratic" and "modern" world is made of PRISONS, of Monsanto mass-contaminating the land and making tons of species disappear, and big oil taking over everything, completely unaccountable for their actions, just like the militarized Police of the new world order.