Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
'We are humans, not animals, save our souls,' pleads Houla massacre witness
Dozens of children lie covered with blood, their faces show the fear they felt before death, and their innocent lifeless bodies reveal an unspeakable massacre. These children were slaughtered by men under strict orders to sow terror. Yet all the diplomats have come up with so far is a few UN monitors 'observing' the violence.
There is something we can all do together to stop this.
108 people were killed in the onslaught, 49 of them children under the age of 10, and the youngest was a 2 year old girl. How can we be in silence with such a tragedy.
Let's not forget -- this bloodbath began over a year ago with thousands of people peacefully protesting on the streets -- calling, like their brothers and sisters across the region, for freedom and democracy.
Re: Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
I would like to have some clever words to say, I haven't. I have only this feeling about what we became as the human race.
Killing children that had a all new world, maybe a better one than ours in front of them, it is a very coward act and if we at least don't give our vote, is as we kill them again. All of them.
Where is God? Waitting for us to wake up, I don't think we will afterall Syria has no OIL and our god is OIL, dark as the human souls that the OIL bought to the comfort of some... of many.
Re: Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
It's a mess, and one in which as horrified as some are, China and Russia will block any attempts from the international community to get involved. Personally, I think the motives are in part self serving, as China (which still has fresh memories of the people getting disgusted in 1989 with the Tianimain Sq demonstrations, which also resulted in a brutal crackdown) responded to news from Egypt by among other things blocking Internet searches for anything containing the word Egypt in it, no matter how remote. Even a search on the pyramids, or the time of Hamarabi was a big no-no with the Internet censors there, during the time of the uprising... And Russia, well Putin isn't beyond debate at home, with many in Russia having felt that he himself stole the election. "Not wanting a precedent for international involvement" when things turn as they had in Syria, could have as much to do with protecting their own skin, if the citizens there, have finally decided they've had enough with the status quo at home...
Still, I don't know what, if anything, the policies of this board are wrt to matters that touch upon such subjects. Some don't mind at all, some set aside specific forums for it, and some prefer that topics that can touch upon the political not be brought up. Not sure, the thoughts among the mods here on that....
Re: Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
I never really thought much about that. Freedom of speech is so natural to me as going to the bath room or eat a snack but I understand what you are saying, I really do.
I try always to have the discussion in high standards if I am not personally offended or the opinions don't get to much on a personal level and one thing anyone is entitle is to disagree of others choice.
As Winston Churchill said one day:
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
And for those we must be prepared to fight because life is worthless without them. Those that were born with no freedom sometimes understand better why they should fight for it and why this an issue that is always in first on their agenda. A man without freedom has nothing, not even himself.
I was born under a dictatorship and hope to improve that for my children.
Re: Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
Yeah, it's natural for many in the US to think in terms of freedom's we had come to enjoy (and perhaps at times take for granted also), sometimes perhaps forgetting some of the battles of old that our own fore fathers faced along the way. The Civil War, among other conflicts in history were no easy time, and the whole matter of civil rights that followed...
It's not the same, as for instance in Libya where some were pretty much just wanting the right to live as human beings while under the foot of a dictator who had no regard for the lives of those under his rule, and his boot... We see much the same in Syria, but elsewhere also. Some people have no regard, and unfortunately some of those are the people in positions of authority over another. And as often happens, the first thought on the minds of a politician is self preservation, sometimes at all costs... Even the forefathers who attended to Constitutional convention here, didn't underestimate the rather negative aspect of human nature as it could apply here. Case in point Federalist 51, and their rationale for why checks and balances is necessary to encourage those entrusted with power to govern, to govern themselves, against what otherwise could be unchecked ambition...
Re: Al Houla, Syria, last Friday
