Tags
assad, cruise ships, fly zone, italy france, ninepins, religious references, templar knights, turke, turkey and the eu
Syria has been on the itinerary of most cruise ships that ply that end of the Med. It is loaded with ‘romantic’ and religious references. And anything with Templar Knights is like catnip to a section of the Europe’s population. You get a relatively wealthy tourist corralled and herded with a military level of control. Ideal for all the governments in that area; be that Lebanon, Israel or Syria. None of them really like foreigners wandering about freely, or their own population for that matter.
Since last year the governments supported by either sides of the cold war protagonists fell like ninepins. And frankly, they are getting on with things. Leastwise, there isn’t the blow-up I was expecting. Since the the fall of Gaddafi in Libya things have shifted dramatically to Syria and the Assad regime. A place that was remarkably similar structurally to those that fell last year. Starting, they were all part of the Ottoman sphere. All ejected the next Power that took control. And all slaughtered those that took over from the second power. And all reverted to a tribal form of control once a ism had allowed a small section to assume power.
In theory Syria is a republic. Whatever the hell that means these days. You may as well pick a colour and run it up a pole for the word republic has become so general and meaningless. I suspect were one to validly call the method of social control anything one would name it, Mafia. Where a relatively small cohort smothers a far larger population. Well, I suppose you could call it Republic, but by dickens you’d be back to Sparta to find anything comparable.
In all this a few things I don’t get. Why have China and Russia deployed veto at Security Council. I don’t see any dog they have in this hunt at all. None what-so-ever. And I certainly don’t see why Spain, Italy, France, UK, Turkey and the EU generally haven’t established a no fly zone over Syria. I see no good reason safe areas haven’t been established. And none of your Srebrenica in 1995 turkey shoot crap this time either. Nor do I see any good reason we haven’t shipped arms.
I wish I had something even remotely intelligent to say on this matter. The issues going on over there are so beyond my comprehension. What a scary place it must be for the average citizen amidst all the violence. As crazy as I think the US government is, we are so lucky that our power hungry politicians aren’t resorting to actual bloodshed against those who oppose them. I can’t even imagine waking up to that kind of fear every day.
For now I’m going to go back up and look at your header picture, because it makes me smile!
We’re going to end up doing something sooner or later. If they haven’t been slaughtered beforehand.
Just because they made a hames of Iraq doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prevent genocide. This really is a situation of the Serbian army having all the hardware systematically exterminating the Bosnians, of whatever stamp. Remember Bosnia and Serbia was at the outer limits of the Ottoman power. They established the very same system everywhere. So Syria WILL react like the rest of them and begin using stranger danger to justify murder.
I’ m with Kimberly, it is way beyond me. It does seem that those countries are in turmoil of some sort.
One of my dear friends was engaged to a Syrian then all this started up. They ended up breaking it off because they couldn’t see a way to make it work. She couldn’t go over there and if he was over here he would want and need to be over there to protect his family and property. It wasn’t an easy decision to make.
It’s hard to say anything about your friend. Suffice hopefully to say it’s tragic.
Yes, they are in turmoil. But I’d be far far happier if it was all of their own making. But it isn’t.
The inconsistency is really troubling to me. It’s ok to oust Ghadaffi, but not Hussein in Iraq or Assad in Syria, but OK with bombing the Serbs at the behest of the Albanian minority. Frankly, the latest European dance craze makes more sense.
BTW, I’ve been to Israel a couple of times and traveled around on my own without a problem or governmental interference. I was only told to avoid certain (not all) areas of the West Bank, but not absolutely forbidden to go there. The one time I was in Syria, I had to stay on the plane on the tarmac for two hours with an army squad stationed outside. Beirut in 1980 was just beginning it’s protracted civil war and I had no desire to leave the airport. I was very glad to get the hell out of there.
Cheers.
Ahhh Randall. I can absolutely guarantee that your whereabouts were known from the instant you set foot on the ground. Frankly, it is certain they knew of the stop over in Beirut. And very possible had you given the once over.
While I worked as a landscape designer in London I needed police clearance because I sometimes did contracts for a fellow that had the grounds maintenance for the Israeli residence and embassy. They make getting into Ft Knox a walk in the park. The clearance was handy for other reasons. But it wasn’t a necessity elsewhere.
Yes, that inconsistency is a bit hard to swallow. But what I truly don’t understand is the lack of decent analysis from any government quarter. It takes the Economist and the Financial Times to cut through the fog of decades of bullshit propaganda.
Wish it didn’t make my brain want to bleed, trying to wrap my mind around why the hell we are standing around picking the fluff out of our navels, as we sit safely on our sofa’s, watching as this mass murder unfolds on our telly’s.
‘Course, we are going to go in there, much too late..
Eventually.
While that clan/family remains in power the entire region will be off balance. For to remain in power they have to find outside focus for hate. Even more off than it naturally is, I mean.
And yes I do believe there will be intervention. Hopefully swiftly. And equally hopefully the latter day anti-colonial Muslim brotherhood won’t turnout to be another incarnation of scum.
I had no idea that Syria had been a popular tourist destination. Israel and Lebanon, yes. Inconsistency in action taken is perhaps partly related to how much the outside forces can muster in energy to deal with so many wonderful anti-dictator rebellions in one short span. That doesn’t make inaction right, however. All I know is that as long as that country continues is uproar, I am uneasy, and will be glad when our leaders take action. We’re damned if we do, but somehow, it would be far worse if we didn’t.
Oh I don’t know about that now. Inaction has been the cause of more hell that any action has ever done. And then when we react with blatant self interest rather than with clean hands we compound the hell.
Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia and pre-war Afghanistan were all places where international interference should have happened far sooner. But the utilitarian of self interest just couldn’t be defined or divined soon enough.
Yeah, ‘tiz a tourist spot right enough. I’ve kinda always known about it in the back of my mind. But it’s for those that get to a point in the
civil service where in retirement they have a income above the average industrial.