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Is assasination acceptable?

Should we take out Assad?

  • Oh hell yeah...end this mess

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • No...this makes us no better than he is.

    Votes: 13 68.4%
  • Only if we have the blessing of the Arab League

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • Tough Call...but someones gotta do SOMETHING!

    Votes: 2 10.5%

  • Total voters
    19
My view on war is much like my view in regards to individual combat. If you take things off the board in regards to what you'll do to defend yourself, you're an idiot. If you expect that a real fight is going to be anything similar to a boxing or MMA match, you're an idiot. Sure, if America went to war with Britian then following the general "rules of war" makes sense to a point because there's a reasonable expectation that both sides will actually follow through fully (or mostly fully) with those rules (similar to the expectatoin of people following the rules in a boxing match or MMA match). However if you're talking about interactions with a country who you have no reasonable expectation that they're going to follow the rules then trying to go out of your way to handcuff yourself with rules while they do whatever is akin to trying to go into a fight on the street stating you're not going to draw a weapon, you're not going to hit below the belt, you're not going to bite, you're not going to knee their head if they're on the ground, etc. It's dumb.

In a world where our military is hog-tied by Rules of Engagement, your expectations are unrealistic. Surely even where one's family is concerned there is such a thing as "measured response." I agree totally that when the chips are down, all's fair. But they aren't down with this little countries.
 
The other problem is the culture in Syria as its not one that can support a rational leadership, they are getting the leadership their culture deserves and they will again.

Please elaborate on this.
 
Got it.

:screwy

It's really funny when the whole board knows I'm joking but you pretend I'm not!

Wait... I guess that means you got trolled. :shrug:
With no intentions on my part. :lamo
 
In a world where our military is hog-tied by Rules of Engagement, your expectations are unrealistic.

Oh, I understand they're unrealistic. I dislike our "Rules of Engagement" as well. This was a question whether I think its acceptable. Absolutely, I do (in a general sense. As I said, not studied up enough on Syria to know if it'd be practical or the best solution). Do I think its a practical and realistic expectation to believe it'll happen? Yes and no. To be quite truthful, I believe it DOES happen to certain degrees, but to have it to a full fledged, uncuffed degree that is psuedo-institutionally okay in a wink-wink-nudge-nudge we don't do it but do it sort of way? Yes, I understand that's unrealistic and not going to happen. Doesn't change the fact that I would find it acceptable if it was.

And yes, I absolutely agree with the notion of measured response. I'm not suggesting you go from 0 to Assination (or Nuke) in 3.5 seconds. What I'm suggesting is taking it off the table wholesale as an option however is not good strategy imho. I believe it has worth while use, but at the same time I think the political ramifications and issues with it make it something that would relegate it to an option used rarely and in rather specific scenarios. Suggesting I find its use acceptable in general and suggesting that it should be basically a basic practice agains any threat is two different things.

I'm not going to pull out a gun or even throw a kick, or knee to the groin if I don't need to, in a bar fight with some idiot whose a bit too drunk and I'm by myself or with some friends. However in a different circumstance I may very well do that. Just because I don't take those options off the table doesn't mean I use the mevery time. Similarly, just because I wouldn't take assassination off the table completely doesn't mean I would use it in the national defense equivilent of a drunken bar brawl.
 
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It's really funny when the whole board knows I'm joking but you pretend I'm not!

Wait... I guess that means you got trolled. :shrug:
With no intentions on my part. :lamo

Teh. Your evidence for the "whole board" knowing this?
 
Teh. Your evidence for the "whole board" knowing this?

I have no ill will against you Harshaw... but sometimes
I think your inner dialogue is something like the Diane Rehm's show on NPR.
 
Please elaborate on this.
They expect new leadership to be functionally like Assad's but representing their group. There is only a very small minority that wants and understands a Western democracy type with individual rights for all, regardless of religion etc.
They have the expectation that to win they need someone from their subculture to win the leadership.
An example is Afghanistan, or several African countries where there are competing tribes in one 'country'.

This is a reply to what I posted earlier: ... getting rid of Assad doesn't solve the problem. There are many replacements waiting to assume his position in his criminal organization. The other problem is the culture in Syria as its not one that can support a rational leadership, they are getting the leadership their culture deserves and they will again.

Now I have to add, there is no easy solution for Syria, the culture has to change. War doesn't solve culture problems. We have some recent examples.
 
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They expect new leadership to be functionally like Assad's but representing their group. There is only a very small minority that wants and understands a Western democracy type with individual rights for all, regardless of religion etc.
They have the expectation that to win they need someone from their subculture to win the leadership.
An example is Afghanistan, or several African countries where there are competing tribes in one 'country'.

is there a real democracy in the world??
 
They expect new leadership to be functionally like Assad's but representing their group. There is only a very small minority that wants and understands a Western democracy type with individual rights for all, regardless of religion etc.
They have the expectation that to win they need someone from their subculture to win the leadership.
An example is Afghanistan, or several African countries where there are competing tribes in one 'country'.

I actually don't know much about syria...

The modern Syrian state was established after the First World War as a French mandate
Syria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But how does the issue originate with them in this case?
 
Even though U.S. law states that assassination is not acceptable, our government has been involved in a lot of uncovered clandestined operations over the years to depose and capture democratically elected leaders. What we did to Saddam might not have been assassination, but a kangaroo court was not justice. They should have just been honest about their intentions and shot him in the field.

Assassination is dirty politics. It's a tool we can use I suppose, but we better be prepared for the backlash. Our government talks a lot about terrorism and safety lately, but the things that increase terrorism and security breaches against us the most are torture, terrorism, assassination, and unprovoked war against other sovereign states.

Our karma is catching up to us and because we have cried wolf so many times, no one is going to come to our aid when we need it most.
 
Assassinating one person is better than bombing a building and killing innocent bystanders.
I agree with this in most cases. We can chop off the head of the lead chicken and leave the rest of the coup which is not a problem alone. It isn't always the answer, and we may have to have at it with the entire country in a lot of cases still, but in today's world, it is an increasing scenario than it used to be.
 
is there a real democracy in the world??
By real do you mean perfect? What I'm indicating is that a culture that recognizes that individuals have rights and has a document that supports that and attempts to have a leadership choice base on some kind of 'election' is a democracy that is sufficient. If the majority of Syrians understood this there would be a chance for getting rid of Assad or his ilk.
 
By real do you mean perfect? What I'm indicating is that a culture that recognizes that individuals have rights and has a document that supports that and attempts to have a leadership choice base on some kind of 'election' is a democracy that is sufficient. If the majority of Syrians understood this there would be a chance for getting rid of Assad or his ilk.

is the only criteria of democracy is election? if it were election ,no protestors would be coshed in no part of the world.....
 
What I'm indicating is that a culture that recognizes that individuals have rights and has a document that supports that and attempts to have a leadership choice base on some kind of 'election' is a democracy that is sufficient. If the majority of Syrians understood this...

Weird... how do you suggest we make them understand?
 
is the only criteria of democracy is election? if it were election ,no protestors would be coshed in no part of the world.....

You wouldn't want to live under a pure democracy would you? That could be a pretty bad thing.
 
is the only criteria of democracy is election? if it were election ,no protestors would be coshed in no part of the world.....

No. You can have a election w/o democracy. People have to participate, even the minorities. Peoples rights have to be documented and followed. That requires a culture that supports minority rights.
 
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I have no ill will against you Harshaw... but sometimes
I think your inner dialogue is something like the Diane Rehm's show on NPR.

I can't even imagine what you might mean by that. In any case, if you're going to play the "wounded innocent," at least do it in an instance where it wasn't you who did what you self-describe as "trolling," n'est-ce pas?
 
Y a could... just... leavem alone.
In many cases yes. What this comes down to is essentially Nation Building. It costs too much in many cases and takes more than a decade and can't be done in the current situation in Syria. Note that my position is that even if there is a successful revolution in Syria, the new leadership will soon function as a dictatorship with a subculture bias.
 
I can't even imagine what you might mean by that. In any case, if you're going to play the "wounded innocent," at least do it in an instance where it wasn't you who did what you self-describe as "trolling," n'est-ce pas?

no...no..noo...
Actually if you carefully read my post:

It's really funny when the whole board knows I'm joking but you pretend I'm not!

Wait... I guess that means you got trolled. :shrug:
With no intentions on my part. :lamo

I actually state that I did no trolling.
Yet you were trolled by a non trolling statement.
Thus you were trolled by no intention of my own.

I don't understand by what psychosomatic lapse you came to believe I am playing 'wounded' by any means.

By my post I imply that you 'fell on your own sword' loosely, as it were.

Religious beliefs can get in the way to the point that even their religion has to change.

How do you suppose we change.. say... evangelical americans?
 
no...no..noo...
Actually if you carefully read my post:



I actually state that I did no trolling.
Yet you were trolled by a non trolling statement.
Thus you were trolled by no intention of my own.

I don't understand by what psychosomatic lapse you came to believe I am playing 'wounded' by any means.

By my post I imply that you 'fell on your own sword' loosely, as it were.

As I said:

:screwy
 
So you don't get it... just lay there... play possum dude. It's okay. Don't visit other websites... don't talk to young people either.
 
So you don't get it... just lay there... play possum dude. It's okay. Don't visit other websites... don't talk to young people either.

Awww. Am I not validating you enough? "Young people," indeed. :roll:
 
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