Five Letters, Three the Same, Both Begin With an S.

Started by mongers, September 13, 2013, 03:36:27 PM

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mongers

So the Syrian civil war has been going on for while now, so can we yet compare it to the Spanish Civil War ?

What are the similarities and differences, can the way the first was handled influence 'our' policy the current war ?


If there is some comparison, one problem I have is deciding who are the Fascists in Syria.
Maybe they all are, save for a small number of naive pro-democracy activists and of course probably the vast majority of the civilian population who just want peace ?


edit:
before the pedants get in, I was talking about Syria and Spain, not Syrian and Spanish. 
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Phillip V


garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Phillip V on September 13, 2013, 03:40:10 PM
Where is today's Guernica and Hemingway? :)

Plenty of Guernicas.

Biggest difference is that this one does not split the rest of the world into two competing ideological camps.

Biggest similarity is that both sides are unpleasant.

PRC


mongers

Quote from: Phillip V on September 13, 2013, 03:40:10 PM
Where is today's Guernica and Hemingway? :)

Haven't you been watching the coverage, there are now some pretty thoroughly flattened town in Syria.  Not sure if any have been devastated in one go, but there do appear to have been plenty of bombing/artillery strikes that have killed around a hundred in one go. 
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Brain

God I hope you're talking about different Guernicas.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Viking

I think the analogies are fitting. Al Nusra is Condor, Jobar is Guernica, Allahu Ackbar You Tube vids are Hemingway.

Like Spain he had the west trying to limit the war and getting fascist and radical extremists to be reasonable. We decided to not act and let the war go on without us, while the evil scum supporting the bad guys on both sides had free reign to provide support and aid.

The Spain Paradigm is the one I hit on right from the start.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

mongers

Quote from: Admiral Yi on September 13, 2013, 03:43:53 PM
Quote from: Phillip V on September 13, 2013, 03:40:10 PM
Where is today's Guernica and Hemingway? :)

Plenty of Guernicas.

Biggest difference is that this one does not split the rest of the world into two competing ideological camps.

Biggest similarity is that both sides are unpleasant.

I don't know, much of the 'West' appears fairly neutral to the conflict, as Britain and France were over Spain. And if there isn't a idealogical conflict over or within Syria, to compensate it's certainly has the elements of a a religious civil war. 


edit:
Could I get away with describing the Jihadists as the fascists and the Ba'thists as the socialist/communists in this situation ?
The proviso being at the moment the rump pro-democracy crowd are siding with the 'fascists' rather than with the socialist/communists as in the Spanish war. 



"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

mongers

Quote from: Viking on September 13, 2013, 03:48:02 PM
I think the analogies are fitting. Al Nusra is Condor, Jobar is Guernica, Allahu Ackbar You Tube vids are Hemingway.

Like Spain he had the west trying to limit the war and getting fascist and radical extremists to be reasonable. We decided to not act and let the war go on without us, while the evil scum supporting the bad guys on both sides had free reign to provide support and aid.

The Spain Paradigm is the one I hit on right from the start.

I don't disagree.  Though I've been loath to make it, but as times gone on similarities have built. 

Which begs the question, do we allow it to continue on a broadly similar arc, with one side eventually winning militarily with bloodshed ten or twenty times the current total ?

Me, I want to see an international peace conference, with all parties forcible brought to the table. 
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Phillip V

Quote from: mongers on September 13, 2013, 03:44:58 PM
Haven't you been watching the coverage, there are now some pretty thoroughly flattened town in Syria.  Not sure if any have been devastated in one go, but there do appear to have been plenty of bombing/artillery strikes that have killed around a hundred in one go. 

Someone needs to paint it.

mongers

Quote from: Phillip V on September 13, 2013, 03:55:20 PM
Quote from: mongers on September 13, 2013, 03:44:58 PM
Haven't you been watching the coverage, there are now some pretty thoroughly flattened town in Syria.  Not sure if any have been devastated in one go, but there do appear to have been plenty of bombing/artillery strikes that have killed around a hundred in one go. 

Someone needs to paint it.

You and probably many others, including myself, will hate this, but I think the modern equivalent is the youtube videos.    :blush:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Admiral Yi

Quote from: mongers on September 13, 2013, 03:55:07 PM
Me, I want to see an international peace conference, with all parties forcible brought to the table.

:huh: How do you propose to do that?  And what do you expect it to achieve?