Meanwhile in Iraq & Syria

[TheReal_ND]

PM opposes Syria ceasefire, says it will strengthen Iran

Netanyahu says deal, hammered out by the US and Russia, will create a long-term threat on Israel’s northern border by cementing Tehran’s presence
http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu- ... then-iran/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup in Paris on July 16, 2017. (AFP Photo/Pool/Kamil Zihnioglu)

[Martin Hash]

If anybody doubts who started the Syria conflict, they need look no further.

[TheReal_ND]

Pretty sure we can thank the Arab spring for that.

[Martin Hash]

Pretty sure we can thank the Arab spring for that.

Give me a timeline. I'm thinking the Arab Spring was over by the time Syria started.

[TheReal_ND]

The unrest in Syria, part of a wider wave of 2011 Arab Spring protests, grew out of discontent with the Assad government and escalated to an armed conflict after protests calling for his removal were violently suppressed.[101]
~wiki

Don't doubt that Soros wasn't funding a lot of this along with the CIA though. It was what led to Libya as well.

The Libyan Civil War[1][2] refers to the ongoing conflicts in Libya, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which led to the First Libyan Civil War, foreign military intervention, and the ousting and death of Muammar Gaddafi. The civil war's aftermath and proliferation of armed groups led to violence and instability across the country, which erupted into renewed civil war in 2014.
~wiki

Israel, imo, is simply being opportunistic about the conflicts and seizing more territory like the golan heights. Assad doesn't want to give the disputed territory up which is part of the reason we aid Israel in Syria by arming the "moderate rebels," McCain's "merry band of rebels," the same ones Russia bombs.

[Okeefenokee]

Pretty sure we can thank the Arab spring for that.

Give me a timeline. I'm thinking the Arab Spring was over by the time Syria started.

nope. i already posted a timeline.

[Okeefenokee]

True, but unlike the other governments, Syria's regime directly caused the war.

...That is what started the civil war.

Yeah, that was the immediate issue prompting the protests, and there were other issues in the other nations that prompted their protests.

I think it's probably true that the initial rebellion was prompted by the crack down by the government as well.

You are Assad, and it's March of 2011.

You watched the Tunisian president get toppled in January by protests that started in December.

You saw Mubarak step down on 11 Feb after 18 days of protests led to the US withdrawing support for him staying in power.

Six days later, protests started in Libya, and by the end of the month rebels held numerous cities in eastern Libya.

On the same day the protests in Libya started, the king of Bahrain sent in the army to clear out a protest camp at pearl square.

15 March, protests start in Syria. Crackdown begins.

19 March, NATO intervenes in Libya to overthrow Gaddafi.

You don't have to condone the crackdown to see the reasoning behind it. Bahrain is the only one of those four nations that didn't have their government overthrown or forced to step down. Assad could have given some concessions, the king of Jordan did and ended up still in power, but I don't think anyone can say that it's guaranteed that allowing the protesters to continue wouldn't have led to violence anyway or the Assad regime staying in power.

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=1902&p=71448&hilit=assad#p71448

[Martin Hash]

Got it.

[TheReal_ND]

It was around the same time the US got busted making a twitter clone for Cubans too iirc

Ah yes it is

In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a US government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba's communist government.

McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans. To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the company's ties to the US government.

McSpedon didn't work for the CIA. This was a program paid for and run by the US Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in US humanitarian aid.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/ ... tir-unrest

This is how they think they do what they do

[Ex-California]

If anybody doubts who started the Syria conflict, they need look no further.

Syria really has been a powder keg ready to go since the interbellum period