Ok here's my twopenneth on this and I don't know what it contributes to the discussion but it gets it off my chest....
As I see it the situation is incredibly complex in Syria and the whole region and I doubt anyone really knows exactly what the truth of it is - least of all me. The main issue is the whole Sunni and Shi'ite thing on which is one of the main cancers that rots the middle East and will never be resolved. The Iranians and Saudis use Syria as a proxy battleground for this conflict. Then you got all the other myriad of factions with their agendas that are using the chaos to carve out their own areas. As happened in Iraq and Afghanistan the countries are only united when they have a mental fcker like Saddam, Ghadafi or the Taliban in charge and/or an external enemy to fight like the Soviets, the USA etc. Otherwise they'll fight each other and that's fact - look at the history of these countries. As someone else posted the countries in the region are doing little from a humanitarian aspect although they'll be supporting their chosen fighters. Russia will do fck all from a humanitarian aspect - they've literally made a killing in supporting Assad's regime so they want it to last as long as possible and ship as much weaponry as possible.
I can't help but wonder on the irony of Germany and Austria being so welcoming to all the refugees and pointing the finger at the UK. I kind of find that hard to swallow when the activities of the Greater German Reich v3 led to the worst genocide in history and ultimately to the foundation of Israel which of course has futher added to the poison in the region. But at least they've learnt I suppose. I really feel for the Hungarians and Balkans countries who are having to cope with the migrants on their way to Germany and Austria. They are screwed whatever they do - condemned as cruel and uncaring just for trying to retain some control in their own countries
However, maybe I've gone off the point. Of course when you see the pictures of these poor people then who can blame them for wanting to get out and have a life elsewhere. The numbers involved are bewildering and hand on heart does any country want to take in hundreds of thousands of a people and all the potential issues that's storing up for the future? What about the longer term issues when these people want housing, health care, schooling, work, state support till they die etc. But then get back to it's people's lives then and what can we do but help - although of course if we had wanted to take out Assad's regime we'd be bombing the beJesus out of the same people and not giving it a thought. Bombs in one plan and food in the other, it's a mental world it really is.
Ok that's enough. I really think that this crisis is a turning point in world history. The EU's attitude to the UK will only give more voice to those who wish to pull out of the EU. And I believe that right wing and nationalistic groups throughout Europe will gain from this as they will capitalise on the fears (possibly well founded) of an Islamification of Europe. These are the events that make Americans want to follow more isolationist policies and although the USA has done plenty of things of regret I truly believe that the world is a better place with American engagement than without. Interesting and possibly frightening times. I suppose this is where I end with a JS quote - but that's a bit obvious. Sweet dreams everyone.
These are very good points. To which I'd add, Islam is a thoroughly abhorrent religion, a point only emphasised by the behaviour of Mohammed himself, political Islamists and the brutal sectarian divisions within Islam itself commanded on behalf of Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shia).
Syria is in many ways special in the context of Arab nations, simply because the sectarian divisions are/were better managed and it has a large minority of various Christian denominations. Most importantly perhaps is the fact that it is a secular state which never tolerated political forms of Islam.
Syria and Iraq have been targeted by ISIS/ISIL, the Shia Iranians, full of hatred for secularism yet fuelled even more by hatred for Sunni Islam, and the Saudis (themselves full of hatred for Shias) who unapologetically fund and arm most Islamist movements under the even worse Islamic ideology of Wahhabism.
With nothing less than exuberant joy at the prospect of an ‘impending’ Armageddon and doing Allah’s work of killing the Infidels, ISIS/ISIL and some of their important backers must be rubbing their hands with untold glee at the chaos, anarchy and destruction of the Shia and Christian communities across the entire Arab World, Iran excepted. To add to that, it's Europe that is bearing the brunt along with Lebanon and Turkey, neither of which are considered to be properly Muslim at any rate in ISIS doctrine.
The flood of genuine refugees, asylum seekers and some outright chancers, some of whom may well have direct contacts with ISIS/ISIL and unquestionably have their hands in the well for people smuggling, is not going to stop just because The West wants it to. It simply isn’t going to stop (right) now.
Europe taking in millions of people is not the answer. Merkle has already shit herself after throwing open the German borders and demanding that everyone else should do likewise. The Balkans certainly don't need such upheaval in light of trying to come to terms with its own wars only 20 years earlier. Eastern Europe simply doesn’t want to know about refugees. The EU, as usual, cannot find agreement on anything – yet it’s supposed to be a political union. No, thanks.
Most other Arab countries wouldn’t even consider taking in fellow Syrian Arabs, Muslim or otherwise. The refugees, particularly the Arabs, themselves only want Europe, and mostly selected Western European countries at that.
Arab Christians, by now an absolute minority everywhere in the region, know that the game is up in The Middle East and they can’t go back. It’s been in the making for decades – just ask the Jews, many of whom have been driven out of the entire region. It also can’t always be up to Lebanon and Israel to be the only countries to offer Arab Christians refuge. Maybe the home of Christianity (Europe) has to step up and be counted, least the entire Eastern half of its historic congregation slips into planned extinction.
Knowing what is really behind Islam, the ensuing civil wars in Syria and Iraq and bringing an end to the continual denial, for lack of a better word shall we say, that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have its royal hands drenched in blood over this and beyond it would be a start. The problem is that The West now realises rather late that secular dictators who ruled with an iron fist, however repulsive and brutal, are a much better alternative to Islamic fundamentalist Jihadists. Didn’t we already learn this back in the 1980s?
Anyway, we could begin to correct ourselves now by doing what should have been the case initially: support al-Assad. The problem is that Hezbollah, Russia and Iran are already doing so. Either way you slice it: each belligerent has rather unsavoury elements supporting it, so it may not be such a leap now to back al-Assad after all. Waving at the devil that we know…
This crisis is a turning point, a very significant one, but it has been too long in the making.
PS Another very important point here is the role of the Kurds who have proven to be very effective in fighting ISIS. The 'problem' with that is the potential reward of statehood to one of the world's largest groups of people without a state. It comes at the expense of Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and the latter under Erdogen has shown that it might be more willing to let ISIS get the upper hand over a potential Kurdish homeland.
