If Assad is losing and desperate, why does the Senate insist on "changing the momentum"??

[Junkdrawer]

Or are we now being asked to view the situation one way when assessing Assad's guilt and another way when assessing goals?

[blm]

1. Desperate egoists most likely to use chemical weapons on maximum number

of targets.

[Junkdrawer]

2. So you say he's losing....

then explain "“It is the policy of the United States to change the momentum on the battlefield in Syria as to create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement,”

[JoePhilly]

3. Using Chemical Weapons also changes the momentum on the battle field.

Does it not?

You are losing. You are getting desperate. The momentum is turning against you.

You use Chemical weapons to change the momentum on the battle field. Which works. You gain the momentum.

And then, air strikes are used to reverse the momentum back in the other direction.

[Junkdrawer]

4. One gas attack changes the momentum?

Silly.

[blm]

6. That ONE chemical weapon attack wiped out part of a town.

Katrina was just one storm?

[Junkdrawer]

8. It's a LARGE country and a LARGE civil war.

Everything I read PRIOR to the gas attack was arguing for our aid (indirectly) on the basis that Assad was winning.

THEN, when the fact that he was winning was used to question the assertion that Assad was the one who used the gas, the narrative changed, retroactively, to Assad was losing and desperate.

Example:

What next after the fall of Qusayr?

It has been a week of military gains for the Syrian government whose soldiers won an important battle against the rebels after long and intense fighting.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces regained control of Qusayr - the strategic city near the border with Lebanon. The main opposition coalition conceded defeat but says the uprising will go on.

The city had been under the control of opposition forces since last year but the rebels were pushed out by the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

Thousands had already fled the city, but what has happened to many others is unknown. Qusayr is strategically important because the rebels used it to smuggle weapons into Syria through Lebanon and the Mediterranean.


http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidesyria/2013/06/20136910716700762.html

[blm]

5. Targeting access to chemical weapons blunts the ability of a desperate man

to launch chemical attacks just because he sees an expiration date on his leadership.

Chemical attacks have a way of swinging momentum your way...without access to chemical weapons and airfields, the momentum will swing back to the rebels.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Targeting chemical weapons????

Whoa. Had NOT heard that.

[polly7]

12. Where's your proof he ordered any gas attack? Let's see it. nt.

[delrem]

13. No fair! The proof is classified, and the Pres. knows more than you do about why,

so your opinion is worthless unless you agree that the Pres. knows best.
That's special newspeak logic and it totally kicks your ass, so get used to it.

[polly7]

28. lol! .... well I'm still gonna ask. nt.

[malaise]

9. That's the propaganda

The empirical evidence shows that he has close to 70% support of the population.
The imperialists have decided that he should not rule in his own country.

[polly7]

10. Agree!

And what about all those people who support him and do NOT want U.S. bombs? I haven't heard pro-war people even mention them.

[malaise]

11. THey do not give a flying fugg about human interests or rights

remember the following concepts - national interest, national security and terrorism mean whatever they say they mean at any given time.

[delrem]

14. If the majority support him and don't want to be bombed into the stone age,

then the majority are clearly not "Friends of Syria", so they deserve a bombing.
Hey, I'm starting to like newspeak logic!

[malaise]

15. You sure 'caught on' quickly

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[polly7]

19. Good point.

Even when the peaceful protests first started they were clear they wanted no violence.

1) As protests spread through the Arab world in 2011, the mostly leftist groups who organized the Arab Spring protests in Syria formed the NCB to coordinate peaceful protests and resistance to government repression. They agreed, and they still agree, on three basic principles: non-violence; non-sectarianism; and no foreign military intervention. But the U.S. and its allies marginalized the NCB, formed an unrepresentative "Syrian National Council" in Turkey as a government-in-exile and recruited, armed and trained violent armed groups to pursue regime change in Syria.

2) The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar began flying in fighters, weapons and equipment to turn the Syrian Spring into a bloody civil war. Once they had overthrown the government of Libya, at the cost of 25,000 to 50,000 lives, they began adapting the same strategy to Syria, despite knowing full well that this would be a much more drawn-out, destructive and bloody war.

3) Even as a Qatari-funded YouGov poll in December 2011 found that 55% of Syrians still supported their government, unmarked NATO planes were flying fighters and weapons from Libya to the "Free Syrian Army" base at Iskanderum in Turkey. British and French special forces were training FSA recruits, while the CIA and US special forces provided communications equipment and intelligence, as in Libya. Retired CIA officer Philip Giraldi concluded, "Syrian government claims that it is being assaulted by rebels who are armed, trained and financed by foreign governments are more true than false."

http://www.alternet.org/world/america-has-fueled-bloody-civil-war-syria

[joshcryer]

16. Do you have a credible source for this number?

All I'm finding are racist sites, particularly StormFront...

[malaise]

17. Read it here earlier in the week - with a source

Will look it up

[joshcryer]

18. The source seems to be the right wing WorldTribune.com.

As far as I can tell. That's why I asked for a credible source.

[Junkdrawer]

20. Even Qatar (who funds the AQ rebels) has Assad's support at 55%....

http://www.thedohadebates.com/news/item/index.asp?n=14312

[joshcryer]

21. Jan 2012?

You're suggesting to me that the numbers would be similar or better after 50k dead?

[Junkdrawer]

22. The AQ terrorists are (strangely enough) terrorizing the population driving support FOR Assad....

#t=31

Who Supports Assad in Syria?

Sami Ramadani: Pt 3 The Syrian Civil War and Big Power Rivalry: Assad has a social base of support, but if opposition had not militarized, he would have been pushed out by now

....

RAMADANI: Now, the women sections of these or women members of families of these (and they are a large section of society) who do not wear the hijab have enjoyed relative freedom, socially speaking, in terms of women issues, women in public life. That is why today a lot of these women are dead against the armed opposition. They're frightened. They're frightened because of the Muslim Brotherhood and because of the Salafis and the extreme Muslim organizations and al-Qaeda. They're frightened that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the main backers of the opposition, because, remember, Saudi society is the most brutal and I use my words carefully the most brutal, socially speaking, towards women in the world on planet Earth. And a lot of Syrian women fear that. They don't necessarily love this regime, but they fear the consequences of an opposition that is backed by the Saudis and the Qataris, even Turkey. The Turkish government is a Muslim Brotherhood type government, and they tend to be socially less progressive than in Syria. Okay.

....

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8660

[David__77]

30. It's possible.

The dead are pretty split between the two sides. The tragedies have driven people into two camps. The war has surely firmed up Alawite and Christian support for the government, but many secular Sunnis support it as well. I personally see the "core" on each side as roughly one third, with a bunch of people just trying to live.

[KittyWampus]

24. Sorry you are grossly misinformed. Please read my Journal. It is basic information

[Junkdrawer]

25. Well, German propaganda is a refreshing change from CNN...

Aims at a MUCH higher education level.

[woo me with science]

23. Kinda Orwellian, huh.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

[Junkdrawer]

26. I'll say. "Assad Winning" changes to "Assad Losing", and back, almost mid-sentance....

Everything I read PRIOR to the gas attack was arguing for our aid (indirectly) on the basis that Assad was winning.

THEN, when the fact that he was winning was used to question the assertion that Assad was the one who used the gas, the narrative changed, retroactively, to Assad was losing and desperate.

Example:

What next after the fall of Qusayr?

It has been a week of military gains for the Syrian government whose soldiers won an important battle against the rebels after long and intense fighting.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces regained control of Qusayr - the strategic city near the border with Lebanon. The main opposition coalition conceded defeat but says the uprising will go on.

The city had been under the control of opposition forces since last year but the rebels were pushed out by the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

Thousands had already fled the city, but what has happened to many others is unknown. Qusayr is strategically important because the rebels used it to smuggle weapons into Syria through Lebanon and the Mediterranean.


http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidesyria/2013/06/20136910716700762.html

[Sunlei]

29. Assad is in Geneva? now along with ,friends and family. Maybe he will have a ski

accident, fall off a lift or get covered by avalanche.

[Sunlei]

27. Our Gov moves so slow like its still the 1800s. Pres O was right when he called them

SLOTHS. (or was it slugs?, been a couple years ago)