4 ms·
"At this point" being the key phrase here. That wasn't their goal when they came in to back Syria: the goal was to clamp down on the uprising and its armed resi
by Cyph0n 9y ago
"At this point" being the key phrase here. That wasn't their goal when they came in to back Syria: the goal was to clamp down on the uprising and its armed resistance. Of course, things are more complicated now.
Oh definitely, Assad is liberal and secular, to the point where he operates countless secret torture prisons and has forcibly disappeared tens of thousands of his citizens. Use the term "lesser of evils" if you must. But relatively liberal? Absolutely not.
- toyg 9y ago"Relatively" implies "to something ", in this case (I would assume) either to middle-age-style religious warlords (Daesh et al) or absolutist monarchies built around religious rule (Iran, Saudi). So yeah, I'd say Assad is "relatively liberal" by Middle-Eastern standards - a place where almost every state has some secret police, an absolutist ruler, and no separation of church and state.
- Cyph0n 9y agoI'm from (arguably) the only Arab Spring success story, so I'm quite familiar with how Middle Eastern dictatorships operate. We have a truth commission that has gone through how people have suffered at the hands of the deposed regime. Even when compared to similar Middle Eastern autocrats, Assad is simply on a whole other level in my opinion. One might argue it's because of the war, but I really don't see why war crimes and torture prisons are required to "win" the civil war. On the contrary, his people will never forget. Good luck building a stable and successful country with so much blood on your hands.
- X86BSD 9y agoCitations on these secret prisons and dissapearing of people by the tens of thousands please?
- Cyph0n 9y agohttps://www.hrw.org/report/2015/12/16/if-dead-could-speak/mass-deaths-and-torture-syrias-detention-facilities https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/12/16/if-dead-could-speak/ma... There are a few other good sources. I'll try to find them.
- ionised 9y agohttps://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/08/syria-torture-prisons/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/08/syria-to... https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/21/syrias-disappeared-the-case-against-assad-channel-4 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/21/syrias-... https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/aug/30/tortured-abused-hidden-horror-disappeared-women-syria-prisons-international-day-of-the-disappeared https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/aug/30/t... http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-03-23/it-was-my-duty-to-get-the-names-out-the-brutal-stories-of-assads-victims-told-in-c4s-syrias-disappeared/ http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-03-23/it-was-my-duty-to-...