Slashdot Mirror
Possible Chemical Weapons Use In Syria
Hugh Pickens writes "Mike Hoffman reports that Syria's Assad regime has accused the rebels of launching a chemical weapons attack in Aleppo that killed 25 people — an accusation the rebel fighters have strongly rebuked. A Reuters photographer said victims he had visited in Aleppo hospitals were suffering breathing problems and that people had said they could smell chlorine after the attack. The Russian foreign ministry says it has enough information to confirm the rebels launched a chemical attack while U.S. government leaders say they have not found any evidence of a chemical attack. White House spokesman Jay Carney says the accusations made by Assad could be an attempt to cover up his own potential attacks. 'We've seen reports from the Assad regime alleging that the opposition has been responsible for use. Let me just say that we have no reason to believe these allegations represent anything more than the regime's continued attempts to discredit the legitimate opposition and distract from its own atrocities committed against the Syrian people,' said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. 'We don't have any evidence to substantiate the regime's charge that the opposition even has CW (chemical weapons) capability.' President Obama has said the 'red line' to which the U.S. would send forces to Syria would be the use of chemical weapons. However, it was assumed the Assad regime would be the ones using their chemical weapons stockpile, not the rebels."
Finally there is a reason to monetize this otherwise wasted conflict. Don't let their suffering be in vain!
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Britam was hacked recently and some of the emails (that they claim were fake) hinted this was in the works. http://www.infowars.com/hack-reveals-washington-approved-plan-to-stage-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria/
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slashdot has always posted significant political news stories. Now, i'm not sure this is important, but could be if it was used as an excuse for a military intervention in syria by the west.
Nerds like chemistry. In any case, seems like the end game is near. Whoever used the chemical weapons, the regime will be blamed and swiftly removed. What will follow is the usual chaos, fighting between factions, terrorist attacks, etc. Why do we still think that democracy is better for these countries when dictatorships obviously work better. Or maybe we just want to bring democracy whenever some regime doesn't like us. Places like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are great.
First: wtf is this doing on tec.slashdot.org?
Second: this red line was crossed a long time ago: Syria used chemical weapons in Homs, US state department cables reveal It's just that the world won't care unless it was the scary beaded guys that did it, when Assad did it last December the world pretended it didn't happened
Third: don't pretend you care, the death toll is reaching 100.000, Assad launched everything in his arsenal from cluster bombs to SCUDs, about 1.000.000 people were displaced. Unless something spills over the Golan heights nothing will be done except strong worded letters to all parts involved
Bottom line: move along, nothing to see here
Just because we can't fix all the problems at once, doesn't mean we shouldn't try and help with the ones we can.
I think a good place to start is the problems that exist within our own borders. Once we got those figured out, King O and start working on policing the world.
I would agree, but then we need to stop making statements about a red line in the sand. Don't tell the world you're going to be the police and busy yourself up eating doughnuts when someone commits a crime. We shouldn't be the world police, and we should stop pretending that we are when we're not willing to follow through. All it does is build false hope and animosity.
Just because we can't fix all the problems at once, doesn't mean we shouldn't try and help with the ones we can.
I think a good place to start is the problems that exist within our own borders. Once we got those figured out, King O and start working on policing the world.
Unless you want to deploy the US military on US soil to do...something, then it is also worth noting that we can solve more then one problem at a time, and have different types of resources for different tasks.
The US is currently spending 10x the next ten countries on it's military and can intervene to stop the blunt massacre of civilians and rise of a new dictatorship in Syria. If the US defunded most of it's military and put that money into say, trying to address domestic poverty, then that would be laudable too.
We might also recognize that most problems are inter-related and can't be fixed one at a time anyway, and it takes a collective effort on many fronts to make progress on any of them.
The invasion was a success. The cleanup has been a long waste of resources. Unfortunately, if we didn't waste those resources on the cleanup, we would've probably seen Iran invade.
Perhaps we should spend, oh, five times as much as the next ten countries and work on our 17 trillion dollars in debt. I mean, my flag flies proud on my porch and I'm happy to be an American. But what the fuck man.
In all likelihood, this is a maskirovka on the part of al-Assad's regime. There is clearly both a domestic and international motivation behind this: first of all, regime supporters will believe without question that it was undertaken by the rebels, which would in turn only harden even further their support-perhaps this was even an attempt to stem the flow of desertions, as supposedly within the past 2 weeksa brigadier general and several soldiers have defected to the opposition-while discrediting and demonizing the rebels. Internationally, this claim gives them percieved legitimacy for more open use of chemical weapons in a "retaliatory" response. They were probavbly also well aware that Russia would support them, and counter any claim made by the US, UK, and other pro-opposition states. Ultimately, they may be hoping to force unilateral action by the US: as long as al-Assad has Russia in his camp, he has de facto veto power in the UN Security Council. I think this is al-Assad's trump card: he is hoping the US is afraid to get embroiled in another Middle East war, and is bettig that he can keep himself from turning into another Gaddhafi.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I find it convenient to just assume that both sides are lying sacks of shit. This is true whether it be international politics or a bunfight at the local schoolboard level.
I'm rarely wrong, or disappointed, although sometimes I'll admit to being surprised about the kinds of things people are able to say with a straight face.
Log in or piss off.
Why do you think that people in other parts of the world don't desire freedom as Americans do?
Just because we can't fix all the problems at once, doesn't mean we shouldn't try and help with the ones we can.
Piss the world off when the US inserts itself in these sort of conflicts, piss the world off when the US doesn't get involved. Either way it is the fault of the big, bad, USofA. I am not going to be an apologist for the many dumb things the US has done in the world over the years, but the US does not have a corner on that particular market. Not all the bad things that happen in the world are our fault.
Hell, Putin seems hell-bent on restarting the cold war to rebuild the glory of the Soviet Union, I see no need to provide him with an excuse by getting involved in a proxy war in the middle east this time instead of southeast Asia..and asking the Chinese for the money to finance it.
Only 25 people. Chlorine, used for a wide variety of civilian and industry purposes, all legit and reasonable uses.
Guys trusting in allah to let their bullets find their targets are very likely to hit and puncture a lot of stuff that could leak.
That equals ho hum big deal, someone hit a tank of something, or some refrigeration unit, or whatever.
Wake me up when it's several hundred people and there's evidence it was a military deployment of some kind not just hearsay from two sides who are both obviously lying through their teeth about everything and anything.
You could cancel the entire defense department and still be borrowing half a trillion or more a year.
Taxing 100% of the income of the rich won't do it, either. Nor will both together.
Finally, we are some 40 trillion short in unfunded liabilities. Even socking it to the middle class, which will not happen, will not save us from that one.
You see cowardly behabior by politicians who trade off power now for problems future politicians must solve.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The US can easily afford to keep borrowing every single year provided the rate of borrowing over time does not exceed the rate of increase in the GDP. Provided that remains true, the US government will always be able to afford the interest payments on debt and refinancing (that's not to say holding massive debts is not problematic, but it's a problem with volatility to market fluctuations) since tax receipts will increase to offset interest payments.
Keep the rate of borrowing below the increase in GDP, and over time the debt inflates away and reduces as a % of GDP.
There isn't a "we need to somehow eliminate all debt now!" crisis. There is a "stop spending on stupid shit which doesn't produce a return".
Presuming we have to do something in Syria to prevent a big crisis (which might embolden other actors - no matter how you slice it, Israel bombing Iran will be bad for everyone's interests since retaliation will hit the oil companies in the region), then the big thing would be "don't get tied up on the ground" - much like Libya - which worked out pretty well in the end, and was useful in the interests of keeping personnel combat-experienced in real operations.
Paying for that by cutting money from the speculative bullshit projects would be a decent trade.