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Syria

Assad on the shape of Syria

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Bashar Assad, President of Syria sat down in an exclusive interview with Dennis Kusinich and Greg Palkot that aired on Fox News.

Syrian President Bashar Assad during an interview
Syrian President Bashar Assad gesturing during an interview with Fox News in Damascus | SANA via AFP – Getty Images

The interview was interesting to say the least. And, there was a lot that was covered.

Everything from the allegations of him using chemical weapons on his own people, to the future of Syria.

Other news outlets are painting him as defiant in saying he didn’t use them. But, you be the judge. Watch the interview for yourself!

Here are some of the takeaways:

  • Admits Syria has chemical weapons and that they want to ‘fully’ cooperate with the weapons agreement
  • Says that he didn’t use chemical weapons on his own people
  • The act of using chemical weapons is ‘deplorable’
  • While many view this as a civil war, Assad points to outside interests
  • People want to come to Syria to wage their Jihad
  • Assad says that casualties happen when fighting terrorists who have infiltrated villages
  • Advises Obama to ‘Listen to the common sense of your people’
  • Reform in Syria is a social process and that the president and government can only lead it
  • While trying to reform the country they are in a fight with terrorists
  • Too many other countries are trying to influence Syria; only the voice of the people matters
  • Syria cannot be a safe-haven for terrorists

If you wish to watch the interview, please do! Share your thoughts also.

Watch here:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5

Is Backpedaling the New Strategy with Syria for Obama?

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Putin to the rescue

 

Obama and his administration have taken a new approach to Syria! Backpedaling, and they are doing it in a hurry.

If you are among the majority of people that want the US to stay out of Syria, John Kerry might have just blundered his way to a resolution.

And if that’s not enough, Putin jumped all over it!

John Kerry said something to the effect that Assad could avoid American air strikes by giving up all his chemical weapons within a week.

Putin is calling on Syria to accept the offer, and they just might be warming up to the idea.

ABC News is reporting that Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who met earlier in the day with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responded with:

“The Syrian Arab Republic welcomed the Russian initiative, based on the concerns of the Russian leadership for the lives of our citizens and the security of our country.”

If it isn’t enough for Kerry to have seemingly screwed this all up for Obama, Syria is viewing this whole thing as a Russian lead initiative.

And is seems that Obama is okay with the whole thing. He sees this as a ‘potentially positive development,’ which could be a ‘significant breakthrough.’

President Obama said today that if Assad gives up his chemical weapons, a military strike would “absolutely” be on pause.

Classic presidential backpedaling to save face!

Surge of Opposition to Syrian Airstrikes

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There is no questioning the fact the the majority of the people are opposed to airstrikes against Syria.

Pew Research recently put out a report detailing this very topic. Take a look at how much opposition increased in just a week:

Most Oppose U.S. Airstrikes against Syria

In just a week those who strongly oppose are almost equal to how many were opposed. And that’s just in the US. Would it not be interesting to take a global poll?

Now, dig a little deeper at those numbers and you will see in increase in opposition across the board. Take a real hard look at the Democrat column:

Democrats Continue to Oppose Airstrikes

For so many people, it isn’t that hard to see what they want done. They want Obama to stay out of Syria. Plain and simple.

Are they saying to just let them handle it themselves? No. They want to see something done, just not military action.

View the report HERE

Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication

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A post-Assad Islamist regime threatens to re-enact the Armenian genocide.

Valerie Shanin / Shutterstock.com

U.S. policy towards Syria is bafflingly inconsistent. If U.S. leaders are so concerned about regimes slaughtering thousands of their own people, did they notice what just happened in Egypt? If they are so exercised over about weapons of mass destruction, are they aware that Israel has two hundred nuclear warheads, with delivery systems? Will American warships in the region be making those other stops on their liberating mission?

Most puzzling of all, though, is why the United States seems so determined to eradicate Christianity in one of its oldest heartlands, at such an agonizingly sensitive historical moment.

Syria has always been a complex place religiously. Although the country has a substantial Sunni Muslim majority, it also has large minority communities—Christians, Alawites, and others—who together make up over a quarter of the population. Those communities have survived very successfully in Syria for centuries, but the present revolution is a threat to their continued existence.

Read entire article at The American Conservative

Russia to aid Syria over possible US strike

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obama-putin-g20-580.jpeg

As he touched down in St. Petersburg on Thursday morning, President Obama greeted his host Vladimir Putin with a handshake and a smile.

But the cordial greeting belies the tinderbox the two leaders are sitting on, as they posture and deliberate over a potential U.S. strike on Syria — one of Russia’s closest Mideast allies.

Putin escalated concerns about the fallout from any strike when he indicated in an interview published Wednesday that his country could send Syria and its neighbors in the region the components of a missile shield if the U.S. attacks.

U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified this week that the Russians might even replace any military assets the U.S. destroys in a strike.

The warnings raise the possibility of a supposedly “limited” strike on Syria turning into a proxy tit-for-tat between Russia and the U.S.

Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., went further during a hearing on Syria on Wednesday, pressing military officials on what the U.S. would do “if Russia decided to strike at us in that theater.”

“We can certainly say that Russia would have options to strike us in that theater in retaliation for us striking their ally,” he warned.

Dempsey declined to engage in that discussion, saying only that “Russia has capabilities that range from the asymmetric, including cyber, all the way up through strategic nuclear weapons. And again, it wouldn’t be helpful in this setting to speculate about that.”

Read more at Fox News