Let's have a vote: Should the West intervene in Syria?

[ReindeerThistle]

Why rely on the government for a boots on the ground handout? Plenty of private comapies with access to boots.

Tom's shoes could do a program: for every pair of boots they sell, they'll put one private contractor on the ground in Syria.

Sent via mobile.

 

[Borachio]

Hmm, let's see.

Syria's got an area of 186,475 sq km. That's 186,475,000,000 sq metres. Um. How many boots to the square metre? Say 32?

So, that's 5,967,200,000,000. A little bit under 6 trillion boots should pave Syria out nicely. Making any future chemical attacks extremely difficult. Owing to the tripping over all the boots.

 

[Rashiminos]

Well at least money need not be a problem:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ates/?id=e68f139f-e012-476c-876e-2467ba30e5e3

Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesday’s hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily.

“With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “They have. That offer is on the table.”

...

The US just needs to supply the mercs... er, guardians of the civilized world.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Silly Saudis. Don't they realize they already own the US government along with Israel?

 

[ReindeerThistle]

US troops aren't the only thing Saudi Arabia is funding.

from The Guardian.com 12/5/2010:
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.

"More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said.

Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them.

And this little gem:

from Telegraph.co.uk
Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.


Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria. “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” he said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin. They met at Mr Putin’s dacha outside Moscow three weeks ago.

“We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,” he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.

... As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

Okay, people, the debate is over: who is the terrorist state?

 

[Rashiminos]

Okay, people, the debate is over: who is the terrorist state?

Is this your variant of pick a card?

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Is this your variant of pick a card?

Yes.

Truth squad strikes again....

Boosh!

Sent via mobile.

 

[Borachio]

Take your pick.

But it's interesting (to me at least) how decades* of oil production by the Arab nations (most notably, though there are others) have skewed global geopolitics.

There's simply too much money concentrated in too few hands, atm.

*Ever since the oil crisis of the 70's when sovereign states decided they'd had enough of being ripped off by the likes of BP.

About the only major oil producer that's handled its bonanza sensibly is Norway.

(Other points of view are freely available.)

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I'd wish the West could stay out of it, but if there's solid evidence Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons, a symbolic slap on the fingers is probably needed.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Send doctors to care for the injured and sick; send construction workers to rebuild the wrecked housing; send text books and teaching aids.

That would really show them.

Cruise missiles =/= solution.

Buuuuut the POTUSA is going to launch the attack no matter what.

Sent via mobile.

 

[Borachio]

Let's hope no one attacks anyone.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Send doctors to care for the injured and sick; send construction workers to rebuild the wrecked housing; send text books and teaching aids.

That would really show them.

Cruise missiles =/= solution.

Is it that easy?

 

[DemonicAppleGuY]

Is it that easy?

I doubt it.

Otherwise the Medical-Industrial Complex would certainly be having their way right now and the entirety of the Third World would be free of disease!

 

[Virote_Considon]

Let's hope no one attacks anyone.

Except Saudi Arabia. If there's one country which needs to be Freedomed it's Saudi Arabia.

 

[DemonicAppleGuY]

Except Saudi Arabia. If there's one country which needs to be Freedomed it's Saudi Arabia.

y u b hatin on da Saudis?

 

[ReindeerThistle]

I doubt it.

Otherwise the Medical-Industrial Complex would certainly be having their way right now and the entirety of the Third World would be free of disease!

Doctors and meds can't make it past all the US cruise missile craters ( which used to be hospitals).

200,000 Chinese doctors in 49 nations on humanitarian missions; 30,000 Cuban doctors and educators on 2 dozen nations -- if course it's not easy - that's why only communists do it.

And we b hatin on the Saudis 'cause they b fundin' terrorists, yo.



Sent via mobile.

 

[Rashiminos]

Otherwise the Medical-Industrial Complex would certainly be having their way right now and the entirety of the Third World would be free of disease!

They've been trying to have their way for decades already, and not just in the Third World.

 

[DemonicAppleGuY]

Doctors and meds can't make it past all the US cruise missile craters ( which used to be hospitals).

d00d, you saying the US has destroyed many hospitals in recent wars? Because that's news to me.

200,000 Chinese doctors in 49 nations on humanitarian missions; 30,000 Cuban doctors and educators on 2 dozen nations -- if course it's not easy - that's why only communists do it.

Except the Chinese still aren't really all that red. Found this interesting article about it a bit ago.

I'm not sure how being communist would make it easier for one to send aid to a country in any case.

The capitalists generally have a lot more capital to throw around so I'd wager it's much easier for them. But they don't have to, they have options. The Chinese (still capitalist, but poor because China) and especially the Cubans don't.

And we b hatin on the Saudis 'cause they b fundin' terrorists, yo.

They're not terrorists if they're on your side

 

[Rashiminos]

By way of the British National Party:

http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/national/breaking-news-letter-syrian-speaker-us-house-representatives

BREAKING NEWS: Letter from the Syrian Speaker to the US House of Representatives

 

[Borachio]

Interesting use of non-standard English there, in the pdf file.