Posted on 02/04/2012 9:37:02 AM PST by ColdOne
Updated at 12 p.m. ET: Amid fresh bloodshed in the Syrian city of Homs, the U.N. Security Council on Saturday failed to pass a resolution calling on the Syrian president to step down.
Russia and China vetoed the draft resolution endorsing an Arab League call for Bashar Assad to leave power.
The unusual weekend U.N. session came as Syrian forces pummeled the city of Homs with mortars and artillery. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.
Although Western nations were pressing for a vote, there was no guarantee the resolution would pass.
President Barack Obama issued a statement calling the attack on Homs "an unspeakable assault" by Assad's regime on citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.msnbc.msn.com ...
I guess we should all be angry.....but really a UN Resolution has about as much influence as....well, a strongly worded letter from the UN.
Thanks ColdOne.
The first step in further progress in syria is to have the UN taken out of the process.
That is now accomplished and the stage is set for the Arab league to intervene and make Assad an offer he cannot refuse. When he does refuse, they will take action to protect the people from further blood shed.
Assad knows what is happening and is powerless to stop the process. He is in his last days.
We don't have a dog in EITHER hunt.
Assad is in his last months, perhaps, but his demise will have to be brought about by the Syrians themselves, and anyone who wants to supply them with arms (which is a pretty long list). The Arab League already punted the ball.
Assad knows what is happening and is powerless to stop the process. He is in his last days.
And, in the turmoil following, Russia and China are looking for an Arab League supported Islamic state to use a nuclear weapon on any non Arab state (knowing it won't be Russia or China).
Now the fun begins.
There are about 2,000,000 Christians in Syria and they have been treated relatively well by the Assad bunch. Should the bearded ones take power, they will become just like the Christians in Egypt, who are now reduced to waiting for their appointment in the ovens.
I have no love for Assad, especially considering the way he’s treated Israel (especially through proxies), but I challenge anyone to make a case that things will improve for Israel should the bearded ones take power, and NO ONE can make a case that the Christians will be left alone in that scenario.
By the way Mr President, how is that ‘restart’ thingie you and Hillary had going on with Vlad and Russia doing now? Maybe you needed to bow some more or is it that you didn’t apologize enough during your world tour? I know, you thought getting the “Peace Prize” would have had a better effect.
What a shame, but not to worry, once you shear all those sheep for another 4 year term, you can try again. And again.
This is a classical Shiite vs Sunni Muslim conflict. Assad sided with Iran (Shiite) and Saudi Arabia/Gulf Arabs are siding with the rebels (mostly Sunni). The US does not need to interfere. There is enough finance and firepower for each side to fight. Assad’s ethnic group the Alawites are a ruling minority and will succumb to the larger Sunni numbers in a long drawn out fight. Question is what will Iran do if Syria falls and her links to Shiite groups in Lebanon are broker? The US should stay on the sidelines and use the CIA to tweak the process, but let Saudi Arabia/Gulf nations do all the heavy lifting.
Don't bother talking reason and sense to the screaming mob here.
Syria is just the next domino to be toppled in the Jihadist drive to domination supported by Barack HUSSEIN Obama.
We now have a formerly neutral, even friendly country called Egypt ruled by madmen who would not be allowed onto an airplane in the United States. Or maybe they would, considering the sympathies of Napolitano and Obama.
Assad is now the last of the secularists left in the Arab world. Turkey will soon be Islamist, as soon as the military there is eviscerated, and that leaves Syria.
Libya, Egypt, Tunisia...gone. Integral parts of the Greater Umma now, the Caliphate Resurgent. Their orders will come from Teheran now, and the orders will be...crush Israel and terrorize Europe and America into submission.
Christians will be given a choice: convert or die.
The screaming horde of scum calling for Assad's head are merely the descendants of the same filth that flooded into the civilized world 1400 years ago, determined to turn back the clock and take us back to stone age barbarism.
Assad isn't a good guy, but compared to the alternative?
A minority that is well armed can impose its will on a large, unarmed population, for example, Iran is run by a foreign Arab jihadist Shiite paramilitary under control of a dictator and “Guardian Council”.
Assad’s problem of course is that, irrespective of the illegality of owning firearms, there’s scarcely a household in the entire country (and in more and more of the Middle East) that doesn’t have serious firepower that is at least available, if not already in the home.
The Lebanese Shiites back Hizbollah. The Lebanese Sunnis run guns to, and tend wounded from, the Syrian uprising. Once Assad is out, the Hizbollah will be systematically annihilated with outside help from Syria.
An Islamic state is not desired by the Arab League. There is too much money at stake
Money trumps radical wackoism
Interesting, because they already have Islamic states that they are attempting to control by authoritarian monarchies, not altogether successfully. You might get by with "A World Caliphate is not desired by the Arab League", but few realize there is no chance they can control it, and all the rich Arab monarchs will fall to the Caliphate, like Qaddafi, their money and weapons will become weapons in the war to conquer the world for Islam.
Money trumps radical wackoism
Maybe, but it didn't for the Shah of Iran and his intended successors, the Soviet Communists fared no better against the Islamicists.
Most likely the enlightened western intellectuals have badly misunderestimated the Islamicists and Obama, where Russia and China have not. They have realized that if the easy way to the World Caliphate is through Western Europe and the US, they they can watch and grow stronger while their competitors (or enemies, if you wish) fight and divide each other.
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