Comments on: Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad email leak

By: George Kafantaris

George Kafantaris — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Sarkozy is right, Assad is a murderer. What else would you call him after he killed hundreds of people with snipers on rooftops?
Indeed, Assad and his henchmen have so much blood on their hands that they are no longer concerned with saving Syria, but with saving their own hide.
As a world community governed by universal principals of fairness and empathy for our fellow men we cannot avert our eyes from the crimes against humanity these monsters are committing. Assad has gone beyond the point of any return to civilized governance. He knows it, and we know it.
It is time, therefore, that we deal with him as the criminal he has become.
We had acted with resolve against a similar criminal in Libya and we should act with resolve against this one in Syria now. Russia and China would be prudent to again stay out of the way.
Enough is enough.
Once more, the world has to do what simply needs to be done.

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Well, I’m glad to see they’re at least shopping at sales. Way to be frugal with your people’s money!

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:29:00 +0000

First off – unlike Libya – Syria still has control of most of its army etc. Second you are assuming these people think rationally. They are delusional narcissists with a god like image of themselves. They think they are untouchable.

By: Nicholas Robinson

Nicholas Robinson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:29:00 +0000

Hey, don’t look at me — I’m only a petty dictator. And she shops at Mondo.

By: Nicholas Robinson

Nicholas Robinson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:26:00 +0000

What’s interesting to me is that they can’t seem to see what the rest of the world sees — the same mistakes Gaddafi, Saddam, Mussolini and others made time and again: the picture of their palace blown to bits as the rebels close in, all their yes-men long gone, Iran long-”dashed off for a smoke — be right back”, and the final, horrible end as the rebels enter the room where they’re cowering and a bullet to the eye ends Bashar’s optometrist’s dreams forever. Or the part where they escape only to be found dirty, wounded and shivering in a sewer line under the palace. To be dragged out by a triumphant mob of non-descript rebels and beaten within an inch of their Gucci-sheltered lives — or dragged dead through the streets, take your pick.

Hey, I bet Nero would have also been online shopping for violins while Rome burned if he’d had a computer. (www.caligulasmusic.rome)

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:06:00 +0000

I wonder what her current preoccupations with the bombing and fighting in full swing.

“Assad said we will crush the rebels, but I told him not to shell the new mall. The Gucci store is having a sale on Tuesday.”

By: Feargus Stewart

Feargus Stewart — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:05:00 +0000

I’m more incensed that while coordinating the destruction of the uprising, most of the ruling family’s time is taken up with shopping.

This is a family completely unhooked from reality–

I expect to see “Let them eat cake” in the emails.

By: LinkMan

LinkMan — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:56:00 +0000

Three 6 Mafia (or maybe Weird Al) should do a song called “It’s Hard Out Here for an Ophthalmologist/Dictator.”

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:31:00 +0000

You know, I bet when HE gets an offer from a foreign royal offering him a cut of untold millions of dollars if he does something shady, it’s NOT spam, it’s an actual offer. :P

By: Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:29:00 +0000

As these e-mails were leaked by Syrian activists and not our government, or indeed anyone in the west, perhaps the question is better addressed to Bahraini, Saudi, and Yemeni activists. The Arab spring has been done by and will continue to be done by the locals, as it should be. We in the west have been playing catch up to events there since the beginning. Our foreign policy goals in the region have never been and will never be the same as the goals of the people living there. We want regional stability, whatever that looks like, and they want and are acting to get a future that doesn’t include dictators, or at least these dictators. It will be interesting to see what the region looks like in 5 years, but whatever it looks like won’t be up to us.

By: shadow04

shadow04 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:33:00 +0000

Where are the e-mails from the Bahrein, Saudi Arabia and Yemen leaders? Oops, forgot, they are our allies in our War on Terra so they get a pass. Carry on then.

By: Snig

Snig — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:14:00 +0000

It’s going to be on the final exam. I don’t know why some of you people think you can ignore a post that doesn’t interest you on BB. You must study all posts.

Or not. You don’t have to read it. The story of Nero fiddling has lasted 2000 years, though his music was less important than what was going on around in Rome. It’s interesting to many what’s going on in the minds of those supporting the Syrian regime. If you’re rather be somewhere else on the internet, or on BB, go there.

By: Gag Halfrunt

Gag Halfrunt — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:27:00 +0000

You must have missed the part about

advice from the Iranian government on putting down the uprising; a personal spy network that Assad employed to report direct to him, bypassing the nation’s own security services; an offer of asylum in Doha, Qatar, should the family flee Syria; and a detailed media strategy for portraying the ruling clan in the best light (he is also advised to stop blaming Al Quaeda for his nation’s troubles).

By: GyroMagician

GyroMagician — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:11:00 +0000

I don’t understand what I should do with this information. Should I be outraged that the Assad family have such a large carbon footprint, or that they are so much richer than I am? How is any of this important, when we also know Assad is running a brutal military campaign against the people of Syria? Am I supposed to rank the evil of spending the average Syrian annual salary on a pair of shoes against the evil of forcing doctors to torture their patients?

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:07:00 +0000

Sen. Paul Wellstone, R.I.P.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:51:00 +0000

Most of the 1% live and die with Game Theory.

By: EH

EH — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Dick Cheney was rumored to have a private intelligence and tactical teams, I doubt it’s that rare.

By: nick15

nick15 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:12:00 +0000

Eh, well, last time I checked, Bank of America didn’t bomb my town just because a few of us didn’t pay our mortgages…

(inb4 “they don’t have to”)

By: frozenintime

frozenintime — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:44:00 +0000

How the 1% live.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:39:00 +0000

What is it with dictator’s wives and the shoes?