Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Dead Bodies at the University: Business as Usual in Syria

Several dozen folks were killed in a series of explosions at the University of Aleppo. I doubt that their friends and relatives are comforted by the idea that this sort of thing happens fairly often in Syria.

The explosions were probably:
  • An accident
    • Or not
  • Set off by
    • Rebels
    • The alleged Syrian government
    • Someone else
Syria is a mess, and who did what to who and why is hard to sort out.

From the BBC:
"Syria crisis: Dozens killed by Aleppo university blasts"
BBC News (January 15, 2013)
"More than 50 people have been killed by two blasts in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, activists and officials say.

"The explosions reportedly struck an area between the University of Aleppo's halls of residence and the architecture faculty on the first day of exams.

"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 52, but Aleppo's governor said 82 people had died.

"State TV said 'terrorists' had launched rockets at the campus, but activists blamed missiles fired by warplanes...."
I'm slightly more inclined to believe folks that state TV calls "terrorists" in this case: but I really don't know who's telling how much of the truth. It does occur to me that dead students gave Syrian enforcers a dandy excuse to to attack enemies of the state.

Syria has had the sort of "stable" government that plagued much of the 20th century, and I've been over that before.

The situation in and around Syria is complicated, putting it mildly. At the UN, 50 countries want the Syrian conflict referred to the International Criminal Court; and Russia doesn't. Maybe Russia's government is right: then again, maybe not.

Ideally, Syria's ruler would recognize that some of his subjects have grievances: and deal with issues calmly and sensibly. We don't live in an idea world, and that's not happening.

Worse, from the point of view of folks who want 'stability,' folks in Syria and elsewhere have found out about freedom and the Internet. Quite a few people who aren't running 'stable' countries have gotten tired of reforms that never came.

And that's another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.