***That website I referenced that was recommended by Helena Cobban***
who is a clueless spouter of personal opinion and propaganda...
I have to point out Sherri,
That the analysis I have provided about why Syria is keeping press out... directly conflicts with and trumps their points of view concerning this...
I do not assume Assad is accidently creating enemy propaganda by foolish actions.
Assad knows exactly what he is doing...
and yet again by bringing in a piece that ignores... and deflects from what Assad is doing in Syria I have to ask:
What exactly do you really think Assad is playing at?
Not America... nor Israel... nor some silly "western" press conspiracy that includes NGOs and formerly anti-American press... and the Muslim brotherhood...
Amin, that *blogspot* that Cobban 'recommends' seems to be 99% contributed by ONE individual - and much of it is simply OPINION.
It's a great way to get the OPINION of this one particular Arab INDIVIDUAL. But it has got very little to do with anything resembling NEWS or FACTS.
And then of course there's the obvious problem that Helena Cobban is not exactly someone who's reliable for even attempting to present unbiased reporting.
"As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC, Berkeley"
That website I referenced that was recommended by Helena Cobban, the above addresses the person who maintains that site. He certainly seems to be someone qualified to discuss the matters he discusses. And mostly what he actually does is collect news pieces, that he briefly comments on. Helena Cobban maintains a website, Just World News, that she has maintained for years, but she is mostly tied up these days with a book publishing business (publishing books about the Middle East), and her posts are infrequent. I expect that is why she referenced that website.
"As I agree, too, with As'ad Abou Khalil's broad view of events in Syria that, though the government is highly repressive and often criminally stupid, in the ranks of the opposition there are also many very anti-democratic and violence-loving elements and others who are working hard to trigger a western intervention in the country. (Hence my judgment that if you want to follow what's happening in and toward Syria, Asad's Angry Arab blog is one of the very best, and best-informed, sources to do that.)"
She thinks, as I do, that intervention of the type undertaken in Libya would only contribute to more suffering for civilians in Syria.
Thanks Sherri, she sums it up nicely.
The same scenario the same lies. Libya is a disaster.
I feel sorry for people of Libya and now Syria who are tricked into believing their life will be better off with western meddling/intervention. Perhaps bit slow, but some African countries are waking up to the game in front of them.
Dos,
The best advice she gives us is recommending her readers find the truth about what is happening in Syria from the website she addresses. I just went to this website, and a whole bunch of false propaganda coming out of Syria is discussed.
"As I agree, too, with As'ad Abou Khalil's broad view of events in Syria that, though the government is highly repressive and often criminally stupid, in the ranks of the opposition there are also many very anti-democratic and violence-loving elements and others who are working hard to trigger a western intervention in the country. (Hence my judgment that if you want to follow what's happening in and toward Syria, Asad's Angry Arab blog is one of the very best, and best-informed, sources to do that.)"
She thinks, as I do, that intervention of the type undertaken in Libya would only contribute to more suffering for civilians in Syria.
Thanks Sherri, she sums it up nicely.
The same scenario the same lies. Libya is a disaster.
I feel sorry for people of Libya and now Syria who are tricked into believing their life will be better off with western meddling/intervention. Perhaps bit slow, but some African countries are waking up to the game in front of them.
No... not really the page is an opinion piece from a batty propaganda advocacy page. It simply spouts off more of the same regime apologism... and buts into the situation that they regime deliberately engineered for morons exactly like the author.
The people of Libya ARE better off thanks to what has happened in Libya. Thanks to Western intervention, just as Kosovo and Bosnia are today.
"As I agree, too, with As'ad Abou Khalil's broad view of events in Syria that, though the government is highly repressive and often criminally stupid, in the ranks of the opposition there are also many very anti-democratic and violence-loving elements and others who are working hard to trigger a western intervention in the country. (Hence my judgment that if you want to follow what's happening in and toward Syria, Asad's Angry Arab blog is one of the very best, and best-informed, sources to do that.)"
She thinks, as I do, that intervention of the type undertaken in Libya would only contribute to more suffering for civilians in Syria.
Thanks Sherri, she sums it up nicely.
The same scenario the same lies. Libya is a disaster.
I feel sorry for people of Libya and now Syria who are tricked into believing their life will be better off with western meddling/intervention. Perhaps bit slow, but some African countries are waking up to the game in front of them.
Dos,
The best advice she gives us is recommending her readers find the truth about what is happening in Syria from the website she addresses. I just went to this website, and a whole bunch of false propaganda coming out of Syria is discussed.
"As I agree, too, with As'ad Abou Khalil's broad view of events in Syria that, though the government is highly repressive and often criminally stupid, in the ranks of the opposition there are also many very anti-democratic and violence-loving elements and others who are working hard to trigger a western intervention in the country. (Hence my judgment that if you want to follow what's happening in and toward Syria, Asad's Angry Arab blog is one of the very best, and best-informed, sources to do that.)"
She thinks, as I do, that intervention of the type undertaken in Libya would only contribute to more suffering for civilians in Syria.
Thanks Sherri, she sums it up nicely.
The same scenario the same lies. Libya is a disaster.
I feel sorry for people of Libya and now Syria who are tricked into believing their life will be better off with western meddling/intervention. Perhaps bit slow, but some African countries are waking up to the game in front of them.
Civilian deaths in the Normandy and Manila liberations were quite large...
Syrians are already dying in mass. The number of civilian deaths by the US this year of those who died in Afghanistan... was 75% from the Taliban... 15% from NATO coalition forces... Presstv reported this number as well.
of 150,000 or so of Iraqi casualties... a majority were killed by Iranian and Syrian backed terrorist and militia groups... to include death squads and market place bombings... Syria facilitated a large number of terrorists who perpetuated market place bombings... many of whom were sent from Libya in a program sponsored by the Gaddafi regime and allowed to enter Iraq by Syrian authorities.
In the case of Iran and Syria... the rebels are most definitely right... and the governments wrong this is not a case of assumption as the OPINION editorial claims but based on a variety of info to include reports by BANNED human rights groups... top level government defectors... refugees... who the Syrian government diligently works to keep from leaving so that they cannot act as victims.
I know that arrests of innocents are occurring... as well as beatings... the NGOs rely on those who actually have the ability to report.
It is clear that the discontent in Iran and Syria are far reaching. Further these articles and opinions (my dad had a phrase about opinions if you want to hear it) highlight the reality only briefly that it is the regimes themselves that are causing the vacuum by banning press. They know well the hole they are making is allowing for unverified information.
Their reason to do so is to try to control the dialogue... something they cannot do entirely, due to the modern miracle of technology.... you tube and face book, but that is not their sole concern. Detractors from the current situation are invariably linked to apologists for these regimes with poorly veiled anti-western focuses, trying to make a justification of the brutality of these horrid regimes by hiding behind the shields the regimes have themselves engineered to discredit the bravery of the international media to report despite these limitations. AL Jazeera has been at the forefront of this brave movement to make the information available despite the regimes efforts. I don't see how considering the regimes tactics we can do anything other than to take Jazeera and the international medias view at face value. Quite frankly we have been able to personally confirm on a limited basis that things are occurring in exactly that way... but... an OPED with no knowledge of Syria... who has never visited the country and who doesn't dialogue regularly with common people on the ground, without agendas other than trying to get by, who feel the need to speak in code... certainly knows more than me and mine... about what is propaganda and what is not.
But let us be frank... these regimes are not stupid... Pat Cockburn foolishly misses this entire point: The reason the governments prefer youtube as a source of what is going on... is because it cannot be verified, not accidentally, or foolishly providing foreign governments with a propaganda tool... rather they are creating a propaganda situation for themselves to exploit by making it easier for these regimes to cry foul and claim false propaganda is being used against them.
Cockburn foolishly assumes that Assad and the Iranians are accidently making themselves more subject to propaganda. This is as far from the truth as it could be in fact. It is all intentional... to the point that some of these videos are likely being posted by the regimes themselves... why? To shape the dialogue. To shape it for who though? Well it is simple to shape it for Syrians. The regime doesn't care what Sherri, or Matt or George in New York thinks... any more than Ahmad and Mohamed from Egypt... but by forcing the international media to rely on "unconfirmed" sources... they then can make the very accusation that is being made here in front of the Syrian people.
Further by keeping it unconfirmed the regime ensures that there crimes are questionable to their more tentative support basis... relying on years of propaganda the regime has used to discredit the foreign outlets... they now may use the accusation that these outlets are so biased that they are willing to "use anything" to stick it to the regime... a situation that they intentionally manufactured.
In fact the Western media could be argued to be engaged to an extent in propaganda FOR the regime in Syria.
How can I say this? There are scores and scores of videos... protests... invariably... however in both Syria and Egypt the Western media chooses to focus on videos right in the regimes line of double speak: videos with religious speak... allahu akbars and the like. There are pictures involving dancing and other activities... but this isn't what ends up on the air.... so in this way the regime is using youtube to shape the discourse to their own benefit.
The "articles" try to make a case for "western propaganda" but really all they do is confirm that Assad's tactic has fooled them entirely. In reality the articles themselves are opinion pieces and even less confirmed than the media reports we are getting from Jazeera and Arabiya and others out of Syria. The world is united against Syria not because of propaganda... but because of the preponderance of the evidence. The actions of Iran and Syria... and not the actions of innocent regimes. Political cartoonists don't have their hands broken and get thrown out of moving vehicles by regimes that are innocent... towns aren't surrounded by snipers and tanks for protesting and mass murdered... by innocent victims of propaganda.
The truth is, however that while Syrians may be split about outside intervention... that the number that would vote for Assad in a free and fair election is miniscule at best. Further that no such elections... and any "reforms" claimed by the butcher of Homs can never be trusted as anything other than subterfuge.
In the end what has happened in Libya was a great thing in comparison to the alternative... In Libya the suffering of civilians HAS been minimized thanks to international action, thank God, and the same would be true in Syria... and if the only thing that will take out Assad is Western or outside intervention... I have no doubt that the Syrian opposition would find it quite palatable...
It is the ultimate in doublespeak... btw... to make comments about "suffering of civilians" about doing what may eventually become the only way to put Assad's head on a pike... or cause him to flee at the least. In the end civilians are suffering right now. It is ridiculous to talk about the suffering of civilians being the concern for letting Assad stay in power!?
A government that has a single Assad or Makhlouf family member in it is unacceptable to the WHOLE of the resistance... opposition and the protestors.
This more than anything is what people are willing to die for.
