Weaponizing Syria

A popular phrase states “turn around is fair play”.  The understanding of that phrase relates to reversing roles to make sense of a situation. In that frame of understanding reverse the roles of Syria and The Republic of the United States of America (RUSA). What would happen if Syria openly talked about supplying weapons to opposition groups inside RUSA?

The main goal for everyone is to build a peaceful world, at least that is how I see it. In most of the reports I have read, peace is the ultimate goal for Syria. Rarely has peace come about through the providing of more weapons. In truth every violent conflict starts and ends with talks. I understand the need for weapons because we have the insane actions of those that ensure violence takes place. The insane actions taking place in Syria has been the supply of weapons to all sides.

Had the world found the courage to enforce a weapons embargo at the outset Syria would not have incurred the physical, mental and social damage it has. Unfortunately the world acted with cowardice and violence followed.

Here we are today with the illegal acts of supplying weapons being openly discussed. Again the insanity of such discussion is counter productive to the entire peace process. Furthermore, such a position destroys the work all of us have done to build a world of equality, peace and justice. How can the RUSA ever stand up and talk about peace and be taken seriously? Their actions do not reflect those of a peaceful country and have not for many years.

With all of that insanity aside, Syria still has to be restored. The damage to the social fabric will become even more known as the violence subsides. In such a war, the social trust held amongst the average citizens will also be a casualty of war. How do we go about rebuilding that social trust amongst the people of Syria?

How do we rebuild the trust that the leaders of the world will do everything possible to ensure peace in the face of hypocrisy? On a global scale, this is the real enemy, not each other. On a personal level the battle is within each of us every day. If each of us can not act peacefully, how can the world be at peace?

G20, peace and the individual

The past decade has been filled with interesting and historical moments. There has been a shift in almost every area that the world sees as vital to peace. Food, environment, economy, military, gender issues, education and politics have all been impacted in the past decade.

For me all of these issues are deeply intertwined, it is similar to a seven musketeer situation. In the coming months these issues will be front and centre during the G20 meetings. Another point to be aware of is the focus of Russia as they lead the meetings this year. Putin has declared that this will be the forum to showcase Russian leadership on the world stage. The outline of the Russian strategy can be viewed here:

http://www.g20.org/docs/g20_russia/outline

Although the G20 is an economic forum, the world has come to understand that economics is a driving force to all other issues. Some believe there should be a G20 Global Education Forum which has the top 20 countries in education setting standards. Either way, these forums are a top down format which has to employ trickle down methodology. Whether or not you believe in that philosophy, the argument for the trickle down framework is easy to defend and understand.

To get a sense of what transpires at such meetings, in the past week discussions of currency valuation hit the news. Currency valuation is the practice of manipulating how much a countries money is worth on the world market. Basically it comes down to the simple question of; why pay $12 when you can pay $9. To stay competitive everyone tries to get below $9 and the spiral downward continues. This is also called the race to the bottom.

Over the past week the member states of the G20 have agreed to not play such a game. In reality the game will be played just not at such a fierce pace. On the surface this is an effort to stabilize global markets. Also the bottom line for corporations will always take top priority over all else. Furthermore the consumer will more than likely purchase the cheaper item regardless of quality. How do we get individual people who act in such a manner to be any different on a global scale? The answer to that question is education, awareness and developing a sense of global citizenship.

For example, the Arab Spring began due to youth seeing no improvement in any area of life. The youth believed that economic opportunities were not meeting social demands. They had witnessed the leadership core of politics, economics and society maintain all the opportunities for themselves. It is the French Revolution all over again. Have a look at the three items Russia has listed as priorities for the G20 in the outline. It is easy to equate those items to the transformation Russia went through during the 90’s as well.

The entire world is going through such a transformation. For the past decade the leadership of the world has failed us. This leaves the responsibility of succeeding to the pressure each individual puts on the leadership to actually do something. Where is the Occupy movement? What has happened to the Arab Spring? This transformation we are going through has no clear path because we are forging through uncharted areas. What will come of it is still to be determined. The only truth is that each of us has a responsibility to act in the manner in which our dreams and hearts know for peace to reign.

Religion, politics and violence

Religion and politics, the two are the same. They both deal with ideology, organization of self and society. Every country deals with the balance of what god will be the focus of political leaders. A major concern is the terrible reputation both have due to the actions of so many idiots.

For example the assasination of Chokri Belaid, a leader of a Tunisian opposition alliance. It appears that he was killed because he was critical of violence in his society.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/in-tunisia-an-assassination-changes-everything/article8313895/

Almost every country that transitions through violent uprisings such as the Jasmine Revolution and the Arab Spring experience assasinations. It is almost a guarantee. What is lost in the minds of those that carried out such violence is that revolutions are started to end such actions by leaders. Religion/god did not tell the criminal to kill, that order came from a person.

Going a step further into violence, religion and politics there is Israel and Palestine. The Jewish religion is not the problem in this region. The problem is the murderous minds of those that act with violence. Such people only create problems for those that are peaceful, as most people are.

Of course there is a strong desire to segregate, label and identify people. I understand the benefits of such tactics but it is over used. Often the violence is shrouded in religion yet stands upon greed, power, revenge, hatred and insanity. These are the real enemies.

Religion should be an ally of peace not an enemy. Those that use religion as a foundation to support acts of violence are fanatical. Such people have lost all hope for a peaceful reality. They have come to the point where no other options are left in their intellect. What remains is the Hobbs state of nature, might makes right.

Hobbs state of nature exist in every war zone such as Syria and can quickly manifest in Tunisia. Such a state has very little to do with religion and everything to do with the weakness of mind. Those that believe their religion is the only path to greatness are ignorant of the joys which variety provides.

Each one of us has a personal path that is different than eveyone elses. There are similarities which cross over and these are the components of culture and group identity. From there we have built religions, political groupings and many other labels.

The end result is that each one of us has their own path. I just wish that those who kill would stop blaming god for supporting such actions. Take responsibility for your actions and balme yourself for the lack of intellect to see other options. Next time just shoot yourself in the head first and do all of us a huge favour. Life will be a great deal more fun when those who use such violence cease to act in such a manner.

Syrian tragedy

The mess in Syria is about as insane as any such situation can be. Three years ago the country of Syria was vastly more peaceful than it is today. If there is anyone that would say life is better today than three years ago, well that person is completley insane. This is just inside the country.

Outside the country of Syria, many support the rebels with equipment, weapons, training, money and other forms of aid. In the base fact of international law such support is an illegal act in which the sovereignty of Syria is being broken. Further to that, the call for the destruction of a government such as in Syria is a borderline point of illegal rhetoric if spouted by other heads of state, such as Israel, RUSA, France and others. What is certainly and with out doubt an act of crime is exactly what Israel has just done - fire a missle across international lines without provocation.

The logic for firing the missle is said to be in protection of future harm that may be caused if chemical weapons were to fall into the wrong hands. Well lets trace the actions that allowed such a future to be possible.

Israel and Syria have been against eachother, if not outright enemies for sometime. When demonstrations took place in Syria to protests government the chance came to strike. Now the exact truth of what took place is a mystery as it pertains to who and how violence erupted at the outset. Niether side can be trusted and as usual both sides would have their faults.

The opposition forces had grown very strong very fast which only points to the aid of international organizations. We know for a fact that western powers have supplied the rebels. These rebels include Al-Qaida, the swarn enemies of western powers. So we have a situation where a sworn enemy is being supplied. This leaves us with the question:

What do you think happens when you supply your enemy? Well in my world, I would expect my enemy to laugh and then try to kill me. Furthermore I would suspect that I deserve to be treated as such for acting so stupid. Yet this is exactly what Israel is experiencing as they fire missles into Syria.

Israel is partly to blame for the weakening of security in the region. No such threat existed three years ago, well not the the extent that is does today. This is the insanity of the world. Some people make a huge mess and then cry foul when it gets beyond their control. The next part of the story is just as pitiful.

The powers that are suppose to ensure peace will do nothing to reprimand Israel. In fact The Republic of the United States supports Israel.

This entire situation is like causing a riot in a prison, arming the inmates, opening the doors and as the criminals wreak havoc, those that let them out complain about the destruction of peace. Well we would not be in this situation if the insane action that were supported in the first place never transpired.

In short it is your fault you opened pandora, you have done nothing but provoke further destruction of peace and really you should have seen the punch in the face coming. Crying about it now is an act of utter stupidity. The actions of western powers shows a complete lack of responsibility. The leadership must have suffered some kind of collective amnesia as to their support for the destruction of Syria as well as the past decade.

The worst part of all is that the ones to pay the price will be average people who only want to live a peaceful life