I don't know where I sit with Syria

Syria is fast becoming a hotbed of Islamic extremism and another country al Qaeda is starting to infiltrate. Fighters from Iraq Afghanistan Somalia and Yemen are entering the country to fight. If the West does nothing Syria will merely become like Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan another country that al Qaeda can train and gather terrorists. People who say this does not affect us may feel differently when in a few years time terrorist attacks are being planned and launched from another failed state. The Middle East is one of the most strategically important areas of the world, everything that happens there affects us.

Syria is fast becoming a hotbed of Islamic extremism and another country al Qaeda is starting to infiltrate. Fighters from Iraq Afghanistan Somalia and Yemen are entering the country to fight. If the West does nothing Syria will merely become like Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan another country that al Qaeda can train and gather terrorists. People who say this does not affect us may feel differently when in a few years time terrorist attacks are being planned and launched from another failed state. The Middle East is one of the most strategically important areas of the world, everything that happens there affects us.

Its not that .....

The country is run by alawi's and like 90% of Syria is alawi so most of them support bashar coz he's alawi too. That's even why Hezbollah supports them coz he's shia too. However the Sunnis living there get treated like crap so they started protesting. That's when the army weren't having any. If only you see the stuff they do to the people they catch (torture , castration, electrocution even little kids). There are other stories I heard from 2 uni students I know that went there with a charity ..

All in all bashar won't stop till he secures his country again and the protesters won't stop either coz most of them have lost their homes and families . N there won't be a huge revolution coz there's only a small amount of them. And the west is only jumping in so that they can place a new ruler in charge , one they can control , coz if they really gave a **** about the dying ppl they'd would've stepped in long ago

There are just so many sources and conflicting reports with syria, I hear all over various forums that most syrians actually support assad, but a minority of Syrian extremists have aligned themselves with mercenaries, syrian exiles, Lebanese terrorists, Egyptian terrorists, Iraqi mercenaries. But then we hear stories from opposition groups ... and our media, that Assad's army killed X amount of people, and that he has led the brutal crack down on the protests last year, but a Syrian Friend of mine on palchat tells me that destabalisation of syria is exactly what the US, Israel and the Arab League want.

As a disclaimer, the western media is clearly against Assad, and on a massive scale, this just SCREAMS to me that intervention is a-foot, it reminds me of the Iraq intervetion and "Weapons Of Mass Destruction".

I don't want to write a great tome on two sides of the story, so (because I'm often accused of not providing enough sources) I just seperate into this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSjGLhTyF9o - Pro Assad University Students in Aleppo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJK34FDnUVU - Syrian Pro Assad "reformation" doctors in the UK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Ueb8g34rA - German-Syrians Pro Assad rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6Snf__nxY - Christians attacked by rebels (I know its RT, so there is a Bias)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1StSFCdZ7_4 - Pro assad syrian citizens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EWre9mRgcQ - Syrian-Turks, pro assad rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7zFUaDOPCE - Huge pro-assad rally in capital
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wLfxgMPKYA - Triploi, Lebannon, pro assad rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRgvI7VFNzM - Pro Assad, anti-arab league demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOBfZT-Z69I - Pro Assad demo in Holland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwjgatyzN5w - Pro Assad Supporter on a plane!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9dQkUFnEMw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL75F56A4D10AB788E
- Syrian-Australians, Pro assad march - sydney

Have a channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/ProBasharRallysWorld/videos, pro assad rally's and marhes from Denmark, Sweden, France, South America, Cyprus and various other Countries/cities.

There are hundreds and hundreds of videos of pro-assad rallies in Aleppo and
Damascus where tens of thousands attend.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SyriaTruthNetworkEN/videos, channel exposing Rebels faking deaths, killing civilians, killing alleged pro-assad civilians,

http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToFightBack1 the "Free Syrian army", terrorists, Lebanese Militants and Mercenaries killing various civilians and those that are even part of the FSA, who dare to criticise them.

Christians tagetted by Islamist Rebels

http://barnabasfund.org/Christians-in-Syria-targeted-in-series-of-kidnappings-and-killings-100-dead.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2848301/posts
http://www.catholicfreepress.org/international/2012/03/10/christians-in-syria-live-in-fear-of-persecution-say-catholic-officials/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17425759 - Interview with Assad supporters in London

Hell, even Hezbollah is pro Assad http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/17/10722017-why-is-the-resistance-group-hezbollah-standing-beside-syrias-dictator?lite
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelweiss/100134187/hezbollah-launched-rockets-into-syria-says-free-syrian-army/

There are also tens of other sources linking Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups who have joined with the FSA.

Anyway, I get the impression that there are two sides to the story. One is that Syria is/was the most liberal Arabic nation, but Islamist Militants and various extremists groups have used the arab spring as an opportunity to throw a relatively liberal dictatorship over and install an islamist - muslim brotherhood presence in syrian politics/society, ala Egypt and Libya. The US, Israel, Nato and western media portray Assad as an evil boogey man since destabalisting muslims nations approaching liberalism has been a common trait through out the 20th century.

I fear this will be Afghanistan all over again too, Assad is backed by Russia, the rebels are/will be backed by the west, a **** load of **** happens and the nation falls into less than savoury hands.

Its not that .....

The country is run by alawi's and like 90% of Syria is alawi so most of them support bashar coz he's alawi too. That's even why Hezbollah supports them coz he's shia too. However the Sunnis living there get treated like crap so they started protesting. That's when the army weren't having any. If only you see the stuff they do to the people they catch (torture , castration, electrocution even little kids). There are other stories I heard from 2 uni students I know that went there with a charity ..

All in all bashar won't stop till he secures his country again and the protesters won't stop either coz most of them have lost their homes and families . N there won't be a huge revolution coz there's only a small amount of them. And the west is only jumping in so that they can place a new ruler in charge , one they can control , coz if they really gave a **** about the dying ppl they'd would've stepped in long ago

My view of it is that it started off as most peaceful demonstrations that Assad put down with force, which in turn gave birth to the rebel and terrorist groups. There is no doubt in my mind that at this point both sides are as bad as each other.

Syria is fast becoming a hotbed of Islamic extremism and another country al Qaeda is starting to infiltrate. Fighters from Iraq Afghanistan Somalia and Yemen are entering the country to fight. If the West does nothing Syria will merely become like Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan another country that al Qaeda can train and gather terrorists. People who say this does not affect us may feel differently when in a few years time terrorist attacks are being planned and launched from another failed state. The Middle East is one of the most strategically important areas of the world, everything that happens there affects us.

Its not that .....

The country is run by alawi's and like 90% of Syria is alawi so most of them support bashar coz he's alawi too. That's even why Hezbollah supports them coz he's shia too. However the Sunnis living there get treated like crap so they started protesting. That's when the army weren't having any. If only you see the stuff they do to the people they catch (torture , castration, electrocution even little kids). There are other stories I heard from 2 uni students I know that went there with a charity ..

All in all bashar won't stop till he secures his country again and the protesters won't stop either coz most of them have lost their homes and families . N there won't be a huge revolution coz there's only a small amount of them. And the west is only jumping in so that they can place a new ruler in charge , one they can control , coz if they really gave a **** about the dying ppl they'd would've stepped in long ago

I don't know where I sit with Syria

I'm confused as to what an Alawi is, I thought It was just a big family tree in Syria, or is it a sect of Islam? Since you say Hezbollah, who are Shia, support Assad, but I thought they only supported him because he supports them?

Where on earth did you get the idea of 90% of Syria is Alawi?? The Alawites are about 10% of the population, concentrated in Syria's northwest. This is much more even sided than you think. I often see the figure of 30% militantly pro-regime (Alawites and Christians largely I believe), 30% militantly-anti regime and 40% in the middle. Assad really only has the support of the Alawites + Christians who fear Islamism. The majority of Syrians are apathetic or totally opposed.

Syria is fast becoming a hotbed of Islamic extremism and another country al Qaeda is starting to infiltrate. Fighters from Iraq Afghanistan Somalia and Yemen are entering the country to fight. If the West does nothing Syria will merely become like Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan another country that al Qaeda can train and gather terrorists. People who say this does not affect us may feel differently when in a few years time terrorist attacks are being planned and launched from another failed state. The Middle East is one of the most strategically important areas of the world, everything that happens there affects us.

These rebels are the currently the most pro-western militants that have come out of the middle east. Trying to include Al Qaeda into the mix is a bit of Orientalist thinking. The rebels are outright against Al Qaeda, often because their own relatives have been killed by such terrorists. What we will see however, is the influx of jihadis (not Al Qaeda but Islamist fighters) to counter the support coming from Iran. The Arab League hate Assad and are already secretly funnelling weapons to the rebels which is good but more needs to be done. The Western nations are dilly-dallying because they don't think the SNC are truly representative of the rebels/Syrians and want a more authoritative body to negotiate with. That ain't gonna happen when people are getting massacred. These things get sorted after massacres/uprisings not during them.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/02/201221794018300979.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57376121/al-qaeda-urges-muslims-to-help-syria-rebels/

I think its a bit much to claim they are outright against al Qaeda. The rebels are too fragmented to really be for or against anything apart from the Assad regime. There are huge divisions on tactics as well as what each group wants to do with Syria if they are successful

trust me its much more than 10% ... And plus they also rule the country ... And occupy the highest positions in government