• hark@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Your mistake is in thinking that people simply asked for democracy. The movement gained its moment from the “Arab Spring” and as regimes were being toppled, someone spray painted basically “you’re next” to Assad. Tell me, which country would tolerate such a threat? Try doing that in the US and you’ll have the feds up your ass in a hot minute, even though the US is a much more stable country with nowhere near the same threat of the government being forcefully changed.

    Obviously war is horrible, but what Syria had before then was better than what Lebanon had and has now. The war was quickly hijacked (or, perhaps, even started with help) by outside forces and was stretched out to over a decade. You could say that Assad should’ve just stepped down, but you could just as easily say that these outside groups should’ve just stopped as well. A bunch of far-right religious troglodytes don’t necessarily represent the people any better.

    I can understand the momentary feeling of relief as fighting hits something of a lull and a pivotal moment of change occurs, but very soon people will see that the change will not be for the better. I slap a guarantee on it based on what has happened in the past, including the very recent past, with Iraq and Libya. People were saying the same thing when they were liberated and look at them now. I wish things would turn out better, but it seems obvious to anyone paying attention that there is so small a chance of that happening that it may as well be zero.

    • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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      14 days ago

      Your mistake is in thinking that people simply asked for democracy.

      Oh excuse me for listening to what actual Syrians have been saying. You obviously know better.

      The movement gained its moment from the “Arab Spring” and as regimes were being toppled, someone spray painted basically “you’re next” to Assad.

      Yes, that’s called a revolutionary wave. Or are those allowed for white people of previous centuries?

      The rest of your comment is apologia for (brutal) state repression. Not interested.

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Oh excuse me for listening to what actual Syrians have been saying. You obviously know better.

        This is always a funny thing to say because you seem to think a handful of views repeated by media interviews represent the views of an entire country.

        Yes, that’s called a revolutionary wave. Or are those allowed for white people of previous centuries?

        That’s hilarious that you’d make this statement implying that I think only white people can have a “revolutionary wave” which, by the way, plays out much differently in reality than compared with a time-compressed account written after the fact.

        The rest of your comment is apologia for (brutal) state repression. Not interested.

        Cool, revel in your ignorance and then be shocked and amazed when the inevitable happens. Pointing out that Assad, Saddam, and Gaddafi were better than what came after is not apologia, it’s just the reality, just like how pointing out genocide-supporting Biden is better than Trump is not genocide apologia.

        • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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          14 days ago

          Media interviews? You know that for a decade now there are about 6 million refugees living outside Syria, right? It’s not exactly difficult to meet them and hear what they have to say.

          • hark@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            Yeah, gee, I wonder why people who fled a war would say it’s bad where the war is. Keep in mind that the majority of voters in the US voted for Trump because they thought Biden was the reason for the price of eggs.

            • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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              14 days ago

              Tell me you don’t interact with political exiles without telling me you don’t interact with political exiles. And I’m not just talking about Syrians here.

              • hark@lemmy.world
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                14 days ago

                Plenty of them have expressed concern over who has taken over, so you’re not even correct on this point you’re trying to focus on. You’re painting a much more optimistic picture than what the reality warrants. Recent history backs me up, but we’ll see what happens within the next year or so. Until then, we’re just squabbling over what some random Syrians have said.