Symbolic gestures
cannot save us from real slaughter. Words of sympathy do not shield us from
mortar rounds. Sanctions do not stop marauding gangs of thugs and killers. In Syria,
our sense of abandonment is as areal as the war being waged against us.
Wednesday May 30, 2012
Death toll: 39.
News
Op-Eds & Special Reports
What
the Hell Should We Do About Syria? FP asked five smart
observers to offer their solutions for the quagmire in Damascus.
Obama &
the Russians
… the Syrian
revolution is as much about ending an apartheid-patronage system as it is about
creating democratic state, yet Russia relies for its own commercial and
military interests on preserving the former. Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid,
freshly returned from Moscow, smartly observes:
What the “regime” means to the
Russians is Alawite control of security and military apparatuses. If regime
survival under this formula is not possible, than the powers-that-be in Russia
would not be too opposed to the fragmentation of Syria so long as coastal areas
remain under Alawite control, which is the likely outcome in this case. To
ensure getting their desired outcome, the Russians will continue propping up
the regime by supplying it
with arms, which they claim are not meant to be used against
protesters but against future western intervention, and by continuing to be
a stumbling block in
the way of any meaningful UN-led
action or condemnation.
So Russia will, in the end, accept nothing less than the
balkanization of Syria. So much for the insistence of countless Security
Council statements that the country’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity”
be preserved.
The administration hopes that it
is possible to appeal to the better angels of Moscow’s nature and that Houla
compels them to change their position on Assad. Instead, the Russians are
sending more arms to the regime. It’s hardly surprising, then, the Russians
won’t even admit that Assad is behind the massacre. Russian deputy U.N.
ambassador Alexander Pankin “rejected the idea that the evidence clearly showed
Damascus was guilty.” ... Moscow is simply playing the spoiler and thereby
enjoying the sort of international prestige that it has not been afforded since
the end of the Cold War. The Russians are not going to engineer a coup against
Assad, or in any way work to resolve the issue, because it is precisely the
conflict that has given them influence in Syria—the conflict, that is, and
Obama, who for no good reason has handed Moscow the reins.
Video Highlights
In Houla,
pounding by pro-Assad troops resumes after departure of UN monitors leaving
many dead and wounded: treating the injured http://youtu.be/jBPjhJnjuMs , http://youtu.be/7evsmN41-YQ Martyrs http://youtu.be/eb5D7Z3XzQo Crops catch
fire http://youtu.be/C3pWlKx9d9I The
pounding http://youtu.be/2AUE2io4tbw ,
http://youtu.be/2AUE2io4tbw The
gunfire http://youtu.be/PnsxuLJ1vp8 ,
http://youtu.be/vsjp5WIJ9ko Locals
running away from town across the fields http://youtu.be/Z3Z7mCYuphM
Earlier in the day, UN monitors visited some of the local houses where entire
families were slaughtered http://youtu.be/c1txS0LPPq8
Assad
officials keep insisting that no condemnation should be made until their
investigation of the events is concluded, but their methods of investigations,
which involve random pounding of the town, are a bit… unorthodox.
Some of
those Russians anti-aircraft missiles, not intended for use in the current crackdown,
if we go by the assertions of Russian officials, get used in the pounding of
the Old Homs neighborhoods, setting entire buildings on fire: Hamidiyeh http://youtu.be/OmeexzSs1aE Local
activist is almost killed while filming http://youtu.be/JZI-C-1zY9g
Bab Al-Sibaa: pulling the bodies of the dead from the streets while under
fire from snipers http://youtu.be/AK1i4jnG1sg
Khaldiyeh http://youtu.be/3275Rb8nrbg
The pounding http://youtu.be/P5YE7A8Lygk
, http://youtu.be/QurkSJrrnj0 , http://youtu.be/wMmOHpVkubA , http://youtu.be/wBc0IAGqrvY , http://youtu.be/qJB6FoVLrZo
In Rastan,
the pounding resumes at night http://youtu.be/RKW7NuJb8TQ
In Idlib
Province, chopper fires rockets on the village of Mar Shammareen http://youtu.be/5Y8ZBI32QMs
In Anadan,
Aleppo Province, chopper fires rockets on the town http://youtu.be/pVhC15D8Fm0
In
Damascus, the pounding of the town of Douma continues http://youtu.be/pnZqu73h5ps
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