I honestly can not say I have a deep knowledge of the Syrian civil war except for a few things.

  1. Multiple groups including Isis and the Syrian army are involved, some of which are US backed

  2. Rojava and the Kurds seem genuinely unproblematic and cool, and are currently being attacked by Syria and Turkey, and their support was withdrawn by trump.

  3. The resulting refugee crisis is a big deal, etc etc. I’ve actually been fortunate enough to talk with several refugees as my mother works in local government helping sponsor them, and one family threw a party and invited us. The food was delicious, but I felt like asking a family who had just been reunited with a family member after years about the civil war would not be a good idea. So I can’t say I learned much from the conversations I’ve had.

I see lots of Assad memes. Is it ironic? Is it unironic? Is it a big critical support deal like Kim Jong un? What’s the consensus? Can someone educate me or?

Thanks.

  • ThisMachinePostsHog [they/them, he/him]
    1·
    4 years ago

    I remember hearing stories somewhere in 2015-2017 about Assad dropping chemical weapon barrel bombs on protestors and civilians. There were a bunch of videos of critically injured women and children and stuff. However, this was back when I was still a lib and more susceptible to western propaganda. Can any comrades help with either validating or debunking this stuff?

    Here's what I'm referring to.

    • LeninsRage [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      All I'm really going to say is that those allegations are questionable. To the point that, in regards to the last attack carried out that was blamed on Assad, the OPCW literally censored dissenting opinions in the report that suggested a plausible alternative that the weapons were planted after the fact rather than dropped from aircraft.

      Source on that. For news on the Syrian War as a whole I've heard the Independent has consistently had better coverage compared to other media outlets.

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      the grayzone did a series of articles on the multiple OPCW whistleblowers (I think there were five) who allege the Douma report was fabricated and were retaliated against

      • SimMs [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        so the grayzone gospel will because of the douma coverage have you believe that there was no chemical gas attacks by the syrian state, and while this instance was a hoax, the un fact finding missions have extensively documented such attacks in a lot of other cases.