Should the West intervene to protect Syrian civilians from the Assad regime?

Weekly Question: Should the West intervene to protect Syrian civilians from the Assad regime?

Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

March 29, 2011

77 Comments → “Should the West intervene to protect Syrian civilians from the Assad regime?”

E.S Lombard

6:44 am

Apr 26, 2011

Most of the old world is composed of provinces and cantons and religious groupings that have had ancient hostilities and wars. Lest we forget, even Germany and Italy didn’t unify until the 1870. Spain is a collection of provinces all quite varied and with petty rivalries that only Franco was able to really unify and since his death, the Catalans and Gallegos not to mention Basques have strong separatist movements. Europe is full of such provinces with impulses to break apart based chiefly on language. Perhaps we should keep this in mind when we try to impose our political notions on nations in Asia and Africa. Maybe we should help them skip nationalism and help them design, if they so wish, a new configuration resembling the Swiss. Throughout history, Roman and Ottoman, empires served for a time, but ultimately fell apart. More recently, powerful nations and leaders have managed, for a time, to package nations such as Yugoslavia, but this is not without tyranny of various degrees and with inevitable corruption. Countries like Syria really require a new conceptual design that will accommodate the various sectarian cultures. It may the height of stupidity to try to patch up and restore governments that history has shown inevitably spin apart. When we intervene with no new wisdom, we are just postponing the inevitable resort to dangerous rivalries, oppression and war. The Swiss represent a model that deserves to be adapted to the purposes of each minority. The nationalistic model is fraught with inevitable dangers. There is a human impulse to quarrel over differences and borders. I can remember that when we were little during the Great Depression, my brother and I shared a bed and inevitably there were quarrels as to who was taking more space than the other.

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David J.

6:06 am

Mar 07, 2012

A Big, NO!!!!!!!!!!!! We don’t know who these People are?…many of same groups uttered antiwestern slogans,ie:death to America,death to England,death to Israel,etc. etc.etc. now they ask the West for assistance!! What kind of assistance could be rendered?? Syria has a very good surface/air missile defense,so! closing their air space,would be costly! on the ground?……they have more than enough Russian made tanks,which are battle worthy!!…and there is absolutely NO! taste for ground troops! Intervention should be limited to,supply drops of BASIC weapons,ie:small arms,very light artillery! and ammunition to suffice!! David J. Vancouver,Canada.

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