Wells Hall Off Topic Board

My understanding is that the opposition such as the "Free Syrian Army" is growing but is fragmented.

One would think it would not be that difficult for a government composed primarily of a small religious minority "alawites" (spelling) would be that difficult to eject.

However, the Assad regime has been ruthless and quite efficient at staying in power.

The Syrian armed forces are considered far more formidable than Quaddaffi's were.
They are being aided by both the Russians (supplies) and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

I doubt there will be any U.S. military intervention other than providing arms and other supplies. Too risky. Certainly not until after the election - even for the supplies. Other countries, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are already providing supplies to the Sunni rebels.

Don't tell this Bullwrinkle.

another great Muslim country

look, we need some targets

it's not fun shooting five million dollar missles up a camel's ass

I love when ARPEE ignores me.

I get my info from the major press services. No inside info. There is also some concern that these weapons might end up in the hands of hostile forces. This has been feared in the case of Libya.

The Turks and Saudis are providing weapons to the Syria rebels now. I for one would not advocate providing any sophisticated U.S. weapons to them. So called nonlethal aid would be helpful and could not be used against U.S. troops.

There are plenty of old Russian weapons floating around the Mid-East. Let them use those. They are more familiar with them anyway.

So far nobody can name an organized opposition group.

If the West needed oil from Syria believe me, we'd invent an opposition group if we had to...

Would someone tell this idiot who is "ignoring" me, to read the link I posted which lists the opposition group. Thank you.

But I'm one who considered the oil argument to be a bit over-rated. Here's the problem, Bush II would have had to be the dumbest president ever to spend billions and billions on a war just to save a little bit on oil. I'm not saying oil had no influence, just that the war sure doesn't make a lot of sense from a business perspective. Of course, it didn't make much sense from a WMD perspective either so I'm not sure where that leaves us. And we can't rule out Bush being the dumbest president ever. (sorry, had to throw that in there )

Any or all of your assumptions could be valid. But I'm telling you, if Iraq had no oil, and Kuwait had no oil etc.....Saddam would still be in power today. We just wouldn't have given a crap about him. We would still have implemented the same lame sanctions and basically treated him like we treat North Korea.

Would one of you remind this moron that if he has people on ignore he has no idea what has or hasn't been posted. From the link I posted, it clearly lists the main opposition group and the local coordination committee. Would't the term coordination sort of indicate organized opposition? Otherwise who would Assad know to slaughter?

"The Local Coordination Committees group gave a far higher death toll, saying more than 78 people were killed, including many women and children. It said pro-government militiamen known as shabiha first shelled the farming area and then went in and killed the residents there. It said some of the dead were stabbed to death while other bodies were burned.

Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, also said 78 people were killed. It said 35 of them were from the same Al-Yatim family and more than half of them women and children. It said the militiamen converged on Qubair from neighbouring pro-regime villages. It said some of the dead were killed execution-style, others were slain with knives."