Syria ….. and surrounding countries!

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest.

A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, it is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Turks, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shias and Arab Sunnis. The latter make up the majority of the population.

In English, the name “Syria” was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham) while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC.

In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

The modern Syrian state was established after the First World War as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic.

The post-independence period was tumultuous and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by a military coup.

Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic.

Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.

Syria is a member of one International organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it is currently suspended from the Arab League[9] and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and self suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.

Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in civil war in the wake of uprisings (considered an extension of the Arab Spring, the mass movement of revolutions and protests in the Arab world) against Assad and the neo-Ba’athist government.

An alternative government was formed by the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, in March 2012. Representatives of this government were subsequently invited to take up Syria’s seat at the Arab League.

The opposition coalition has been recognized as the “sole representative of the Syrian people” by several nations including the United States, United Kingdom and France.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria

****As we can see, Syria is not a stranger to civil unrest, havoc, upheaval, instability and multiple types of governments and rulers. Many governments have come and gone.

As per a fellow blogger:
“The Tunisian workers, who drove away “their” Ben Ali dictatorship with peaceful mass action, know that al-Qaedaism, weapons from the CIA, the Qatar dictatorship or the Saudi dictatorship, or NATO cruise missiles killing Syrian civilians are not the way to bring human rights and democracy.”

Please, tell me again …… why does the USA has to be involved there again?

This region is a cauldron of instability and issues. It also sits in the middle of many other countries that aren’t stable themselves ….. Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan ……

So …. airstrikes are under consideration? Troops on the ground in terrible terrain? Obvious involvement of the policeman of the world where “he’s” not wanted?

Haven’t we learned a thing?? History repeats itself …

What is the definition of insanity?
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
–Albert Einstein

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#PrHOlSmczDpMOAxI.99

We ALL are ONE!! We ALL fight the fight!!