McCain calls for US Air Strike On Syria

[carltonplace]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mccain-calls-u-led-airstrikes-syria-203424110.html

Saying "the time has come for a new policy" in Syria, veteran Republican Senator John McCain called Monday for U.S.-led airstrikes on President Bashar al-Assad's forces in an effort to protect civilians from a bloody year-long crackdown by the regime.

"The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad's forces," McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor.

"To be clear: This will require the United States to suppress enemy air defense in at least part of the country," said McCain, who has repeatedly called in recent weeks and months for a stepped-up U.S. effort to protect Syrian civilians.

I don't disagree with him, this is in my opinion a humanitarian crisis.

[we vs us]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mccain-calls-u-led-airstrikes-syria-203424110.html

I don't disagree with him, this is in my opinion a humanitarian crisis.

Also agree, though it's definitely a doubling down on involvement in the Arab spring.  We'll start to look like the savior of liberation movements across the ME, if we don't already.

[swake]

It’s not that simple at all. This is not a general uprising against an isolated dictator like in Libya. The military is not going to switch sides like in Eqypt. This is much closer to Iraq.  Assad is an Alawite Muslim which is a long persecuted sect of Islam. Assad has a real and loyal power base in the 15% of Libya that is Alawite and they dominate the power structure and military in Syria.

He’s also supported by the 10% or so of the country that is Christian and by the local Kurds. All fear the Sunni majority uprising that is trying to topple him. This is a civil war and we have no business getting in middle of it. No good can come from that. It’s highly likely that were Assad to fall violently and Sunni’s take power in the vacuum of war that the massacres that are happening now would continue but the victims will just be reversed. They might well even be worse. It’s a horrible situation with little that we can do and no good answers.

The only way there is a remotely good outcome here is sanctions work and Assad steps down willingly and there is a peaceful and orderly transition of power in a framework that allows for majority rule and minority rights. That does not seem to be the path that Assad is taking.

[Ed W]

I don't disagree with him, this is in my opinion a humanitarian crisis.

I agree too.  There hasn't been a humanitarian crisis yet that couldn't be solved with tons of high explosives.

HEY YOU KIDS!  GET OFF MY LAWN!

(Sorry, was channeling John McGrumpy there for a moment.)

[AquaMan]

Its a trap.

[shadows]

McCain jumps the fence from day to day.  His dream of being president is vanishing as the one in charge will remain.  McCain is depending on the present day changers of money in our temple to start bombing the civilians of Syria in order to maintain our paper economy.  He wants to lash with fury the mounted four horsemen of the apocalypse.  911 should have proven that the horsemen have immigrated past our own shores.  He should spend his efforts as being appointed military advisor on looking under our own bed before it becomes too late.         

[Townsend]

Syria Has Disappeared From the Internet

http://allthingsd.com/20121129/syria-has-disappeared-from-the-internet/

A few hours ago, Syria, the Middle Eastern country in the middle of an especially bloody civil war, disappeared from the Internet.

The research firm Renesys, which keeps track of the status and health of the technical underpinnings of the Internet around the world, just reported that at 10:26 UTC this morning — which, by my watch, would have been 5:26 am ET — effectively all of Syria’s international Internet connectivity shut down.

More technically, what happened was that within the global routing table, all 84 blocks of IP addresses assigned to Syria have gone unreachable. That means that Internet traffic destined for that country is going undelivered, and also that traffic coming from within it cannot get out to the world.

Renesys is still investigating what’s going on, but, as we’ve seen in other countries, cutting off the Internet is usually meant to try and control the flow of information to the world. It’s also a pretty sure sign that the regime of Bashar al-Assad is either getting nervous about how it is being perceived in the world, or that it is planning something unspeakably harsh in the coming days and wants as little information emerging from that country as possible.

There's much more to the story on the site if you're interested.

[Hoss]

Syria Has Disappeared From the Internet

http://allthingsd.com/20121129/syria-has-disappeared-from-the-internet/

There's much more to the story on the site if you're interested.

I saw that earlier today.  Usually a precursor to nastiness.  That's probably a 'captain obvious' moment, but there you have it.

[Teatownclown]

I saw that earlier today.  Usually a precursor to nastiness.  That's probably a 'captain obvious' moment, but there you have it.

They were saying some old lady cut the main line near Belarus. Weird. If it's not enough we got McCain getting loonier by the day we now find ourselves with severed communication lines to the Syrian underground. Those Ruskies are evil.

[nathanm]

http://blog.cloudflare.com/how-syria-turned-off-the-internet