Freelance journalist footage from inside Homs

[irishScott]

Definitely worth watching: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/24/world/meast/syria-homs-closeup/index.html

 

[yllus]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

 

[Genx87]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

Why? When was the last time totalitarian regimes treated their populations with respect or humane?

 

[Jaskalas]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." - H.L. Mencken

*cough You already understand now just connect the dots. What is wrong with the urge to rule?

Centralized (powerful) governments view people as property. What do you do with toys that displease you? You smash them and throw them out. Strong governments do not view human rights, they view government rights to do unto you whatever the F' it wants.

Ask Obama what the Bill of Rights should be. Not a protection but a mandate of government action. Not what it cannot do to you, but what it should do to you.

The urge to rule comes with inherent evil. Human history proves this repeatedly and it does not stop today, in this modern era, just because we wish it to. Just because we've some limited experimental governments that attempt to restrain themselves. Those bonds are only as strong as the people who keep them in check. Give a majority dependence and a free society dies.

Those countries are not structured from the bottom-up, but from the top-down. People live and die at the mercy of those on top, just like the Romans did 2,000 years earlier. Yet people still wonder what's wrong with making it top-down here.

 

[Texashiker]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

Like the US government does not have blood on its hands.

Kent state
Waco
Ruby Ridge

Lets not forget about the tens of thousands of men, women and children that died when the two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

 

[dawp]

I don't think the US ever had a hit list of dissidents within our own borders.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/syria-hit-list

 

[Genx87]

Like the US government does not have blood on its hands.

Kent state
Waco
Ruby Ridge

Lets not forget about the tens of thousands of men, women and children that died when the two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

What does nuclear weapons have to do with this? Those were dropped on another nations citizens.

 

[Texashiker]

I don't think the US ever had a hit list of dissidents within our own borders.

I disagree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

 

[Broheim]

Like the US government does not have blood on its hands.

Kent state
Waco
Ruby Ridge

Lets not forget about the tens of thousands of men, women and children that died when the two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

how are those two incidents the fault of the US government?

 

[Texashiker]

how are those two incidents the fault of the US government?

If you have to ask, then those incidents were before your time.

Ruby ridge - shooting an unarmed woman in the head while she was holding an infant.

 

[Karl Agathon]

No moral equivalence found

 

[xj0hnx]

how are those two incidents the fault of the US government?

LOL, seriously?

 

[Broheim]

LOL, seriously?

If you have to ask, then those incidents were before your time.

Ruby ridge - shooting an unarmed woman in the head while she was holding an infant.

as I understand it, the woman was standing behind a door and was not actively targeted...

but in both cases the root cause was that crazy people thought that the law didn't apply to them and killed federal agents trying to execute lawful warrants.
I'm not saying the agents didn't make mistakes, but the majority of the blame definetly lies with the "poor victims".

 

[xj0hnx]

as I understand it, the woman was standing behind a door and was not actively targeted...

but in both cases the root cause was that crazy people thought that the law didn't apply to them and killed federal agents trying to execute lawful warrants.
I'm not saying the agents didn't make mistakes, but the majority of the blame definetly lies with the "poor victims".

Waco is questionable at best, yes they were religious lunatics, BUT the ATF's procedures, and zealotry directly lead to the escalation. Ruby Ridge, you really need to read about the case, and how the ATF escalated the whole situation for their own benefit, and then had it blow up in their faces. There really is no "innocent" party in Ruby Ridge.

 

[amish]

that was a good video. i don't think i'll ever understand how fucked up it is over there.

 

[spacejamz]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

When the earthquake hit Haiti's capital 2 years ago, they showed pictures of the the president's palace surrounded by a shantytown where the citizens lived. How could the government live in such a magnificent building while across the street, their people lived in blocks and blocks of metal shacks??

 

[Mxylplyx]

Trying to compare the US to these shit hole countries is just ridiculous. We have isolated incidents of questionable government behavior just like any country, but it still is a government made up of humans, so mistakes will happen, and they are swiftly dealt with in a very public manner. The truth is that we have constructed a government with so many checks and transparencies that it is almost unthinkable for our government to be capable of widespread, systematic abuses, however us supporting such insane legislation like the Patriot act that erodes all our liberties certainly inches us closer. The 9/11 attacks merely blew up a few buildings. Our response accomplished more to attack our way of life than any of the conspirators could have possibly hoped for.

 

[spacejamz]

Like the US government does not have blood on its hands.

Lets not forget about the tens of thousands of men, women and children that died when the two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

Looks like Texashiker would rather tens or even hundreds of thousands of US troops be killed instead which is what would have happened if atomic bombs weren't used and Japan was invaded.

He is probably not familiar with the high number of causalities that were suffered at places like Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa and would have been repeated on the Japanase home land...

 

[Mxylplyx]

Looks like Texashiker would rather tens or even hundreds of thousands of US troops be killed instead which is what would have happened if atomic bombs weren't used and Japan was invaded.

He is probably not familiar with the high number of causalities that were suffered at places like Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa and would have been repeated on the Japanase home land...

The fact of the matter is that the US dropped the bombs on Japan because anything short of a humiliating and total surrender from Japan would be unacceptable to the US populace who would have seen Japan completely wiped off the map if they had a say. I'm sure Japan would have accepted whatever terms offered short of an occupation if we had offered. I'm certainly not going to condemn our country for dropping the bombs, but I don't pretend it was anything other than what it truly was, which was an outlet for our countries blood lust due to their attack, and a show of force to the Russians. The fact of the matter is war sucks, and attempting to morally justify the death of innocents on either side of a conflict is silly.

 

[spacejamz]

The fact of the matter is that the US dropped the bombs on Japan because anything short of a humiliating and total surrender from Japan would be unacceptable to the US populace who would have seen Japan completely wiped off the map if they had a say. I'm sure Japan would have accepted whatever terms offered short of an occupation if we had offered. I'm certainly not going to condemn our country for dropping the bombs, but I don't pretend it was anything other than what it truly was, which was an outlet for our countries blood lust due to their attack, and a show of force to the Russians. The fact of the matter is war sucks, and attempting to morally justify the death of innocents on either side of a conflict is silly.

Why don't you check out the causality rates where US troops landed during their 'island hopping' campaign in the years before the bomb was dropped? The Japanese were going to fight to last man and their leaders were ingrained with the 'death with honor' mentality that will not allow them to surrender. They were preparing their civilians for battle.

Where are you coming up with the notion that they would have accepted other terms of surrender?

 

[Kadarin]

Where are you coming up with the notion that they would have accepted other terms of surrender?

It's this idiotic namby-pamby revisionist history where somehow the US becomes the bad guy for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These idiots completely ignore the fact that had we gone ahead with a full scale invasion of Japan the death toll would have been far, far higher.

 

[SamurAchzar]

I don't understand how a government could do this to their own people.

It's not a matter of government and people. Syria is made of several factions, and ruled by the Alawites. The Alawites, who make up most of the government and elite units, are a small minority and they know that if Asad lost control of the country, they would all suffer. There will be enormous retribution for the things both the current president and his father have done.

They are fighting for the survival of their people.