Assad says Syria in a 'real state of war'

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday his country was in a state of war and ordered his newly appointed government to direct all its efforts towards vanquishing the uprising against him.

"We live in a real state of war from all angles," Assad told a cabinet he appointed on Tuesday in a speech aired on Syrian state television. "When we are in a war, all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war."

Assad dismissed the arguments of Western countries that have been calling for him to step aside. The West "takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage," he said.

"We want good relations with all countries but we must know where our interests lie," he said.


Read more: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=275346

[DFW]

1. Syria is at war?? Whatever gave him that idea?

Just because there is a nationwide armed resistance to his government, his own army is blowing up his own cities, and killing off dozens to hundreds of civilians every day, little stuff like that makes him think his country's at war? Gee, it didn't seem to faze him a few months ago. Wonder what made him change his mind?

[Scootaloo]

2. Things are a little different in that neighborhood.

Look at Lebanon. What we Americans would call "civil war" they call "Tuesday" (or, rather, eth-theletha, I guess...)

[Ghost Dog]

5. Gonna be your country, again, soon,

Bud.

The West "takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage," he said.

[IamK]

3. no shit sherlock... n/t

[clang1]

4. He has to legitimize what he does. Of course he says this

The Netherlands is sort of chilly compared to Syria. I like to think positive about things like this myself.

[roamer65]

6. Big mistake shooting down that Turkish warplane, Assad.

Now you're gonna see all sorts of NATO whoop-ass coming across the Turkish border.

[David__77]

7. I don't think so.

They stated downing of the warplane was "unacceptable." Now it's over...

I certainly don't think that Obama wants to ignite another war in the middle east, and so close to an election.

[Nihil]

8. It all depends on exactly where it happened ...

> Big mistake shooting down that Turkish warplane, Assad.

If it was truly on a repeated loop over Syrian territory then Syria is justified
in defending its territory. If it wasn't, then they aren't.


> Now you're gonna see all sorts of NATO whoop-ass coming across the Turkish border.

Gosh, now where have I heard this sort of warmongering from in the past?
I wonder which "Yee haw! Go get'em!" dorks are cheering the possibility of
yet another bunch of foreign civilians receiving the output from their MIC?




Even Assad (bloodthirsty & power-hungry git that he is) is right at times:
.0> The West "takes and never gives and this has been proven at every stage," he said.

That's because the decision-makers in "The West" are largely driven by the profits
from the arms industry.

[may3rd]

9. Deadly attack on pro-Assad TV channel

Gunmen kill several employees of Al-Ikhbariya, south of capital, a day after president said Syria "in a state of war".

The incident came just hours after Assad told his newly-appointed cabinet on Tuesday evening that the country was "in a state of war".
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/2012627132722216959.html

[maddezmom]

10. In Brazen TV Raid, Syria and Rebels Differ Over Attackers

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria said Wednesday that rebels stormed a pro-government television station in a Damascus suburb, killing employees and blowing up the station in an audacious predawn assault, but rebels said the attackers were defectors from the elite Republican Guard, considered to be the most loyal core defenders of President Bashar al-Assad.

If the rebel claim is confirmed, the attack would constitute a significant breach of security for the inner circle of President Assad, who said on Tuesday that Syria was now in a state of war — a markedly different description of a conflict he had previously characterized as a crime wave by foreign-backed terrorists. The attack on the television station also came against the backdrop of increasingly bold and organized rebel assaults in the Damascus area and an increased pace of high-level military defections.

It also came as Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria from the United Nations and the Arab League whose peace plan has been paralyzed since he announced it more than two months ago, said he would convene a ministerial-level meeting on Saturday in Geneva representing what he has called countries of influence in the conflict, including the five permanent members of the Security Council and representatives from the Arab League and Turkey. But the list of invitees conspicuously omitted Iran, Syria’s most important regional ally, which Mr. Annan had wanted to include. The United States had expressed strong objections to Iran’s participation, contending that it has aided and abetted the Syrian leader’s harsh repression in the 16-month-old conflict.

¬snip¬

The conflicting accounts of who carried out the assault on the television station, the al-Ikhbaria satellite broadcaster, reflected the difficulties that outsiders face in ascertaining the true course of events in the Syrian conflict, from which independent reporters and most international relief and monitoring officials are effectively barred.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/world/middleeast/syrian-pro-government-television-station-attacked.html?pagewanted=all

[may3rd]

11. Disgruntled soldiers switch sides and destroy the station to make a statement

then they put on the civilian clothes to fight the regime from the shadows

[Alamuti Lotus]

12. "audacious"/"bold"/"brazen" -- the NYT is almost glowing with happiness in its description!!

[pampango]

13. Stage 5 of the "Assad strategy" for dealing with peaceful popular protest.

1: When massive peaceful protests occur, repress them as them as violently as you can get away with - snipers, tanks, artillery, arrests, torture, etc.

2. Sometimes repression works to quell the protests. (It's why dictators frequently stay in power so long or inherit their positions from their fathers like in Syria and North Korea.) If repression works, reward your military and security services and go back to being a dictator.

3. If #1 doesn't work right away and massive peaceful protests continue, keep up the repression. (You have to come up with a strategy to keep the international community at bay. If you already have a powerful international patron, you may be OK. If not you had better find one.) Start talking about the presence of "criminal gangs" or "terrorists" among the protestors. There may not be any yet, but it's good to get the talking point out there for future use.

4. If, after many months, your military and security forces continue to prove to be ineffective in suppressing dissent, don't worry. Do not stop the armed repression. (As a dictator, the military and security forces are all you have going for you. Peaceful negotiations are a trap. Your assets - the army and internal security forces - cannot help you there.) Eventually frustration will build up among factions of the protesters and some will become willing to resort to violence given the apparent futility of peaceful protest. (You will also lose some of your soldiers to defection. Many of them will not understand that they signed up to protect you not the country.) Or outside groups will begin to take advantage of these frustrations.

5. At this point you can unleash your military and security forces to the full extent and hope you don't lose the civil war you have created. Keep in mind that civil wars are very messy affairs. Be sure to keep you international patron happy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=607677