Senate Revolution in the Muslim World

Mubarak and Gadhafi did the same thing, but much earlier on. That's why Egyptians started to gather at Tahrir Square in the first place.

Also, the United States governmend has already planned for this and handed out thousands of kits so Syrian rebels could continue using the Internet outside of the Syrian network.

I'm honestly not sure why Assad waited this long to do it, but it shows that he is losing.

I, rather obviously I would add, meant the peaceful ceding of power to a rival party; not flagrantly nepotist hereditary succession plans.

Internet is back in Syria.

But it looks like Syria may be preparing to use its Chemical Weapons. And the Foreign Ministry spokesman who vowed Syria would never use them has resigned and defected to the UK.

Obama and Hillary are warning that the United States is examining all its options, including all its military options, if Assad does use its WMD's.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/03/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

So if Assad is taking the final steps toward deployment of chemical weapons...should we do something to stop him? I can't imagine it would look good for America if we waited until a few thousand people started coughing up their own lungs before we got involved.

Obama has been saying for over a year that the "red line" for him is using those chemical weapons. Obama and Hillary repeated that yesterday. So I'd say some form of military action would be likely.

The USA is over taxed...(With problems, not taxes), The USA isnt going to get involved, being a "Super power" isnt like being a colonial master so you can siphon of other countries and support a huge military. The is too much on the plate. I think we are going to leave Syria to the regional powers that be.

Well there is no regional power that we can leave Syria to. Neither Turkey, Israel nor Jordan have the will or ability to do much about Syria. It's either going to be the U.S. with NATO backing, or nothing happens. I know we say we hate being the world's policeman, but when it's something as serious as genocide or the deployment of chemical weapons, we have to get involved. Not to mention if those chemical weapons end up in the wrong hands, who knows who'll end up on the receiving end of them.

Syria loads sarin nerve gas components into areial bombs.

Ah hell, here we go. We're all going up in a nuclear fireball on Dec 21 thanks to Syria.

Which, sadly, is probably what Assad is planning: A Scorched Earth policy.

Assad can't seriously be stupid enough to use chemical weapons. Doing so would provoke an intervention by America and NATO, and whatever allies he has remaining would likely desert him rather than face the wrath of vengeful rebels when the foreign intervention destroys his ability to resist. If Assad wants to save his own skin he ought to leave those weapons in storage.

Why not? By all reports his father was. You know what they say? Like father, like son.

Here we go...

We should have intervened a long time ago, before it got this bad.

Russia is now saying that Assad is looking like he'll lose. Russia putting together evacuation plans from Syria as we speak.


For background, Russia is Syria's strongest ally. And Syria, believe it or not, is Russia's closest ally.

It is the only country, outside of the former USSR, where Russia still has a military base.

Also, the United States has only gone into DEFCON-3 three times in its history... once on 9/11/01, once during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the other time in 1973 in the middle of Watergate because Russia threatened to get involved in the Yom Kippur War on behalf of its ally Syria.


Yeah, Russia came close to nuclear war with us during the Cold War, over Syria. So if they're saying the rebels are winning, even with them still supporting the regime at the same time, I think we can say Assad's doom is close.

Various outlets also reported yesterday that Assad has started firing SCUDS against his own people.

The United States is sending 400 U.S troops to Turkey sometime in January, to operate the PATRIOT missiles near the Turkey/Syria border. Syria fired scud missiles near the border upon hearing the news.

Syria's VP is also saying that they can't win... so the rebels should just negotiate with the Assad government now or something.

I really don't want to mention this on Christmas Eve, but it needs to be mentioned... some Syrians are claiming that Assad has used chemical weapons, and that many people have died from poisonous gases. Not verified yet, hope it isn't true.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...ces-use-poisonous-gases?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2

Yeah, given how closed off Syria is at the moment, unless there's signs of chemical weapons being used along Syria's boarders (which would really make the situation go from bad to so much worse), it's going to be really hard to verify those claims. I really really hope it's not true either for the sake of the Syrian people.

Its old, but I found this http://shebapost.com/content/ethiopias-giant-dam-muddies-waters-downstream-egypt

I was thinking a dam might help Ethiopia's environmental problems but it is also scaring Egypt and Sudan.

Its a tricky situation cause everyone is right, the area of the world is just really water starved, but since the article was dates so long ago has anyone heard any news about Nile river bason countries?

Isn't the Global Hawk somewhat less-than-operational at this point in time? Though yeah I guess chemical weapons detectors could be put on other aircraft.

US troops have arrived on the border of Turkey and Syria, with the Patriot Missiles.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-troops-arrive-turkey-patriot-missiles-160854499.html