Syria spins out of control

Posted By David Kenner Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 2:51 PM Share

As the U.N. Security Council meets today to discuss how to halt Syria's descent into civil war, the available statistics show a country more violent than ever -- and increasingly defined by armed conflict.

In mid-November, I charted the rising bloodshed in Syria and found that the country was on pace for its deadliest month yet. Since then, the United Nations has admitted that it can no longer keep track of the country's death. However, the Violations Documenting Center in Syria (VDC), which is affiliated with local activist groups, has continued to keep track of the body count -- and the picture isn't pretty.

The past three months have easily been Syria's bloodiest, resulting in 3,029 deaths. By way of comparison, roughly 3,100 people were killed during the first six months of the revolt -- meaning that violence in the country has doubled since then. And it's only getting worse: 829 Syrians were killed in November, 1,049 were killed in December, and 1,151 were killed in January.

The statistics also bear out the view that the revolt increasingly resembles a guerilla war. According to the VDC's statistics, 312 soldiers were killed in January -- 27 percent of the total death toll, the highest proportion during the entire conflict. By contrast, in December, military members only accounted for 18 percent of the deaths. It is unclear whether the VDC counts the deaths of defected Syrian soldiers as civilian or military, so the actual percentage of combatants killed in Syria could be even higher.

This February also marks the 30th anniversary of the Hama Massacre, when President Hafez al-Assad initiated a brutal crackdown in the western Syrian city in order to put down a rebellion. Since then, Syrians, historians and policymakers have wondered how a regime could be allowed to virtually destroy a city while the international community sat and watched.

The low-end casualty estimates for Hama stand at around 7,000 people. According to the VDC, a total of 7,054 Syrians have been killed in the past year. Three decades later, it seems, we have our answer.

JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST EDITORS BLOG
 

RICK HUNTER

3:06 AM ET

February 1, 2012

That's horrible

And what will the UN do? Nothing.

Well...It'll probably condemn Israel for doing something. It's been awhile since a good old Israel bashing took place at that shithole.

 

THEAZCOWBOY

11:40 AM ET

February 1, 2012

Assassin Israel woking 24/7 in Syria inciting trouble

Well Pilgrim after the Iranian and Dubai assassinations and the kidnapping of Palestinians from Ukraine and elsewhere by the Mossad hooligans you gotta admit Israel is the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to murder, mayhem, racists acts and land/water thefts. I mean, when 400,000 Settlers are allowed to use up more water then 2.4m Palestinians on the West Bank - someones Olympic sized pool in the 'illegal' settlements is running over, dah? Let's hope the US/CIA & Israel/Mossad murder and mayhem and incitements currently being financed by the US Taxpayer in Syria, as Libyan 'rebel's are being flown into the Jordanese/Syrian border where the US/Israeli militaries are arming and training them to do what they did so well in Libya - and continue to do so well, as we speak) will soon be exposed by the (foreign, of course) media justifying Russian and China's threats to veto any UN resolution that allows the US/NATO (AF/PAK baby killers) to do a replay of what they did in Libya in stealing its oil and the people's freedom.

 

THEAZCOWBOY

11:54 AM ET

February 1, 2012

Shit hole?

Seems this 'shit hole' (As you so rudely state) allowed a bunch of blood soaked Zionist killlers and interlopers to become a soverign nation in 1948. Unfortunately, they have never suceeeded - becoming instead, the charter member 1st reich for the ZioNazi's instead. I think that given another chance the UN would boot this apartheidnik pool of racists and zealots out back into the Sinai wilderness to do a little more wandering and deeper thinking about 'burinig bushes, parting seas, locust swarms and practicing Psalm 145:20. Oh well....

 

KBC

2:44 PM ET

February 1, 2012

cowboy

The Assad government says the protesters are popped up Zionists and the Syrian opposition says Assad is Zionist. I guess the best way out is to blame the Zionists.

Zionists are killing Kurd in Turkey, Shia/Sunnis in Iraq, Baloch in Pakistan, supporting Boko Haram in Nigeria, killing in Yemen, Sunnis in Iran, supporting the Taliban. Too bad Zionists. I hope only cowboys know the truth.

 

RICK HUNTER

6:16 PM ET

February 1, 2012

Damn cowboy where did you get all this?

Someone visited 'Veterans Today' one too many times I suppose.

Can you even back all this nonsense with credible sources?

 

SPOOD

12:17 PM ET

February 1, 2012

AZ Cowboy go back to buggering cows, you are useless here

For some of us who do not get our news from Stormfront and KilltheJews.com, it should be noted that Syria, like Iraq before them has been known to use chemical weapons as a counter-insurgency tool. Wiping out entire towns for the sake of keeping political order.

The UN isn't going to do squat because Syria can do too much mayhem to its neighbors in retaliation.

"Since then, Syrians, historians and policymakers have wondered how a regime could be allowed to virtually destroy a city while the international community sat and watched. "

Fairly easily since there is a double standard for the middle East.

An IDF soldier gives a Palestinian a hangnail and the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera are all over it. An Arab leader wipes out tens of thousands of people using poison gas and it doesn't get a sigh.

 

THEAZCOWBOY

1:25 PM ET

February 1, 2012

Hangnail, huh?

I guess the criminal IDF/IAF use of 'hang nail causing' white phosphorus, flechette 'anti-personnel', 120 mm Merkava tank shells, cluster bombs, that were criminally used against Palestinian civilians constitutes a 'hang nail', huh SPOODnick? I guess your wife and kids haven't run into a AGM-114 hellfire anti-tank missile coming in from over the horizon or you wouldn't sound so sassy.

As for 'armies destroying a city while the world community looks on' - again, have you seen the photos of Gaza after the Bible barbarians got finished and since - or Fallujah after the war criminal US military was finished leaving 6,000 dead men, women and children?

Seems the only uniform you're slipped into was your baby sisters 'Brownie' garb.

Stormfront? What's the sites address? Can I tell them you sent me? :)

 

SPOOD

3:02 PM ET

February 1, 2012

And this is relevant, because.. you are just a cowboinking troll

If you were any more of a troll, there would be Norwegian film crews following you around everywhere you went.

Last time I checked, Gaza city is not only still there but that claims of Israeli war crimes were not only greatly exaggerated but the UN report itself was repudiated by its own author.
The same can't be said about the city of Hama and many others wiped out by the Syrian government. More Syrians have been killed in the last month than Palestinians in the last 40 years.

So you have no concern for the people of Syria?

As for cluster bombs and missiles, if your wife and kids are anything like you, they probably deserve to be hit by them.

 

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