Sometimes I still get amazed by the latest attempts by the left to ignore the facts and to use their ideology to explain everything. Today brought another example. I came across an article at Breitbart about the upcoming panel discussion at the Center for American Progress on "Climate Change and the Arab Spring." Supposedly, the unrest in the Middle East over the last two years is the result of climate change, CLIMATE CHANGE!!!! No, I am not kidding. The unrest was due to CLIMATE CHANGE!!!
Here's what they have to say about Syria: for a number of decades the Assad regime “had ignored water conservation issues and agriculture in general.” As a result, "When the drought destroyed farming communities, it sent new migrants to the cities – most of which were not from the ruling Alawite minority. This placed great strain on urban populations, and exacerbated ethnic and religious strife. This strain is evident in the ongoing conflict within Syria."
This can only be described as pure garbage. If the authors of the study in question had bothered to look at the Syrian population, they would have discovered that only 12% of the Syrians are Alawaites; 76% are Sunnis. Whenever there is movement of people in Syria, most of them are not Alawaites. Further, the conflict in Syria did not have an ethnic background; it began because of the attempt by the Assad regime to use terror against civilians to prevent any opposition. Specifically, almost two years ago, there were some protest rallies in Syria in which the marchers sought a relaxation of the martial law restrictions under which Syrians had lived for decades. To stop the marches, Assad brought in army snipers to fire randomly into the crowds. That is lunacy, not ethnic unrest caused by warm temperatures. The use of snipers caused anger which led to more demonstrations against Assad. In turn, the snipers were given machine guns to kill larger numbers of marchers. It was the slaughter of innocent Syrians that then caused the civil war, not global warming. At that point, the Alawaites did side predominantly with Assad. That is not surprising since the Alawaites have been ruling the country for nearly 50 years; the rest of the Syrians were very much second class citizens. The Alawaites sided with Assad to protect their privileges, not because of the temperature.
Just as a note: one of the speakers at the upcoming panel on climate change and the Arab Spring is Tom Friedman of the New York Times. The fact that Friedman would lend his name to such a ridiculous discussion should tell you all you ever need to know about the insight that Friedman brings to all of his columns.
Here's what they have to say about Syria: for a number of decades the Assad regime “had ignored water conservation issues and agriculture in general.” As a result, "When the drought destroyed farming communities, it sent new migrants to the cities – most of which were not from the ruling Alawite minority. This placed great strain on urban populations, and exacerbated ethnic and religious strife. This strain is evident in the ongoing conflict within Syria."
This can only be described as pure garbage. If the authors of the study in question had bothered to look at the Syrian population, they would have discovered that only 12% of the Syrians are Alawaites; 76% are Sunnis. Whenever there is movement of people in Syria, most of them are not Alawaites. Further, the conflict in Syria did not have an ethnic background; it began because of the attempt by the Assad regime to use terror against civilians to prevent any opposition. Specifically, almost two years ago, there were some protest rallies in Syria in which the marchers sought a relaxation of the martial law restrictions under which Syrians had lived for decades. To stop the marches, Assad brought in army snipers to fire randomly into the crowds. That is lunacy, not ethnic unrest caused by warm temperatures. The use of snipers caused anger which led to more demonstrations against Assad. In turn, the snipers were given machine guns to kill larger numbers of marchers. It was the slaughter of innocent Syrians that then caused the civil war, not global warming. At that point, the Alawaites did side predominantly with Assad. That is not surprising since the Alawaites have been ruling the country for nearly 50 years; the rest of the Syrians were very much second class citizens. The Alawaites sided with Assad to protect their privileges, not because of the temperature.
Just as a note: one of the speakers at the upcoming panel on climate change and the Arab Spring is Tom Friedman of the New York Times. The fact that Friedman would lend his name to such a ridiculous discussion should tell you all you ever need to know about the insight that Friedman brings to all of his columns.
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