Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/15/want-to-help-syrians-trapped-i.html
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Please, only donate to well known organisations with a track record in humanitarian aid. The Red Cross https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/syria-crisis-appeal and UNICEF https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/help-syrian-children/16078 for example work with the people in the countries and take care where the money is going, they are audited and you can read their official reports. Both are on the list, but unfortunately far down at the bottom.
Be very carful of new organisations like the “White Helmets” that seem to put all their money into public relations (I wanted to put a link here but I am only allowed 2) and where no info is given at all who is behind that and where the money is going to! Try to find the info on their website - where are they based? Organisation? Board of directors? Who audits them? Where does the money actually go? Nothing. I do not understand why they are on top of the list.
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I’m sick and tired to argue with idiotic “left” baboons that the “liberation” of Aleppo is not something to celebrate - basically the same argument Owen Jones gave for it and got thousands of cretins to insult him.
The less stupid argue that at least “the life they had before” will return. Which of course is easy to say from here when you are not one of the many people, not all then jihadist, that are going to end forcibly conscripted, jailed, tortured or killed. Will they be less than with another faction? Dunno. But tell that to them. Tell them hey, you have to die or suffer cause is “better” for your country.
But of course saying that marks you as a tool of the imperialist West and supporter of terrorist and…
According to this statement of a British priest who is now in Aleppo, the Red Cross is the only (!) NGO right now in Aleppo actually doing something to help: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1683203141697250&id=100000227403674#=
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The only faction in Syria who seem to be offering a place where I would want to live in is the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava, and they never claimed Aleppo as their territory. I don’t think they have the number of troops needed to be able to hold on to it even if they did.
I don’t think there is a good outcome that is possible
Looking at the maps on Wikipedia, there are forces from Rojava in Aleppo, but they haven’t really moved anywhere in the last few weeks.
Sounds good on paper, but I dont know how it is on the ground. But add another group of people that are going to be “very happy” by al-Assad winning the civil war.as those earnest cheerleaders want…
Nothing more than Putin’s bloodthirsty tactics in Grozny all over again.
Perhaps try to convince your politicians to take in (more) refugees fleeing from Syria - especially when you’re from a country that is in part responsible for this mess (i.e. disbanding the Iraq Army).
Putin and Assad will be allowed to do as they please, because the anti-war movement in the West has pretty much captured the loyalties of the population. No one in Europe or the Americas has any stomach for war. And that’s not really a bad thing.
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I agree with that assessment except to say that there are no good political solutions left in Syria, anti-war or not. Which leads me to one of the biggest problems I foresee in international politics: How does liberalism confront authoritarians?
From what I have read it’s not perfect, but generally positive.
It’s pragmatism. They won’t be happy about al-Assad winning, but Turkey doesn’t like the idea of Rojava as an independent state or autonomous region and have already been caught bombing them. Turkey doesn’t want Turkish Kurdistan trying the same thing. The last thing Rojava needs is a war with both Turkey and Syria after Daesh are beaten.
Al-Assad has a history of repressing the Kurds though, so another “civil” war may happen anyway. Let’s hope it doesn’t.
By making polite requests.
Remember, it was “#bringbackourgirls” not “#takebackourgirls”
Now mind you, I’m NOT in favor of sending Americans to war all over the world.
But I know that if I decide not to kill a mad dog, I have to learn to live with the fact that some are going to be bitten.
And I have learned that.
Liberals need to stop flogging a dead, corporatist Hillaryesque horse for one.
Taking corporatist authoritarianism out of the pretense of liberalism would be a good start. If one is to claim to be a liberal, it’s a good idea to fight for liberal policies instead making excuse after excuse to push for one neoliberal agenda after another.
If liberals don’t learn from past mistakes and clean house at the DNC, there’s not much that can happen. Democrats need to have a much better leg to stand on when they call out conservative, GOP policies and the like.
If liberals still haven’t learned this from this past primary and election, they are likely doomed to repeat history.
There’s a real difference between responding to an attack on the United States, versus getting involved in a bloodbath between two gangs of bad guys half a world away.
Obama was the one who drew the “red line” and reiterated that “Assad must go” and then spent three years doing essentially nothing.
I don’t think even Trump is dumb enough to make public threats which he has no intention of carrying out.
A gross mischaracterization of the situation that I don’t need to expand upon. This is exactly the sort of thing the international community should get involved in, as horrible as it is. What hasn’t changed is how badly that same community fucks things up in getting involved despite their best intentions. Sometimes that is a support role for local actors, sometimes it’s warfare.
“…doing essentially nothing…” is another mischaracterization. The choices Obama made weren’t great, but they were the best choices among the bag of trash available other than doing absolutely nothing. His “red line” comment is arguably the worst statement/move of his presidency, but that mattered in an age where stuff–and especially the specifics of the stuff–the POTUS said, mattered. That’s passing quickly, now.
The international community is welcome to get involved to its heart’s content, and god bless 'em. But the day the first American body bag comes home from Syria, I jump ship.
I assume you mean the US government.
US volunteers are already fighting and dying for the People’s Protection Units
Six Western volunteers were killed in the battle for the town of Manbij from June to August 2016… Levi Jonathan “Jack” Shirley, from Colorado, US, was killed on July 14… Jordan MacTaggart, from Colorado, U.S., was killed on 3 August and William Savage, from Maryland, U.S., was killed on 10 August.
A fair point. I agree. I meant those sent there by our government.
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