Crisis in Syria - WTF are we meant to do about this?

This came in recently... An all time low. Using ambulances and "healing the wounded" as a way to lure protestors in so they can capture or kill them. The question that comes to my mind as a very staunch NON-imperialist is this: Are we supposed to help the people in Syria? Or not? America I mean. We help people all over the world. This is true. Sometimes we "help" when our help has not been asked for or even desired by the people. This is also true. (see Vietnam or Korea or Iraq or Grenada or Chile or Cuba etc etc...) Most of the time it appears to be only for political or strategic gain. True again. Every now and then we've been known to help "just because we should." That's true too. And that's some good feeling stuff. The American government isn't all bad. True again. But of course there are numerous examples of the US Gov not doing a damn thing in these cases because there's just no "benefit" to the current administration's agenda. Rwanda and Somalia and Darfur are all good examples. Not to mention the whole "Blood Diamond" crisis in Northern Africa. Nor Colombia where it appears we actually made things worse. Or Mexico. Or the whole Iran-Contra Affair... (not only did the Reagan Admin command and fund Iraq to attack and take over Iran (killing 200,000 Iranians); but after seeing that Iraq wasn't going to win the war after six years, they then started secretly funding Iran too, figuring that regardless of "who won" we could then befriend that winning country and gain cheap oil in the process AND an additional security foothold in the Middle East to help us "protect Israel" -- which still to this day I just do not understand the logic of... (unless of course these people are hard-core "christian fundamentalists" and actually believe that it's "God's will to protect Israel so Jesus can appear in the sky one day..." That's some scary Shiite if you're more of a humanitarian than a religious nut) -- but of course they also got behind the wrong team in Colombia -- "the wretched Contras" -- in order to oust that country's democratically elected leader, Sandinista). Truth be told, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to America's imperialist history.  My God what a mess poor America has been in since WWII...

But let's forget about all that for a minute and just turn our attention to Syria... I'm not a techy. Nor am I much of a pure-aesthetic's kind of person -- we're all too busy at this point in today's world for that... so I am going to do what my techy-friends consider "the unthinkable". I'm going to copy and paste the content of an email into a blog. Yes it will look messy as all hell and contain tons of code that will fuck up all kinds of search engines. But honestly, compared to getting the word out, I really just couldn't care. So see the below. And let me know what you think we should do about our brothers and sisters in Syria.
Sincerely,
The Ambassador

Dear friends,

Syrian death squads are killing protesters in their hospital beds, whilst Russia arms the regime and blocks international action to end the carnage. But pressure is building in the region, and if enough of us speak out now, we could persuade Turkey and Germany to use their leverage to get Russia to stop propping up this murderous regime. Sign the urgent petition and tell everyone:

The Syrian regime has reached a new low, its death squads have begun using ambulances and hospitals to lure and kill wounded protesters. To end this carnage, we urgently need to bring global pressure on Syria's key backer and arms supplier -- Russia.

German Chancellor Merkel and Turkish President Erdogan both have strong inclinations to global leadership, and a great degree of influence in Russia. If we make a massive and public call to them to act, they will press Russian President Medvedev to stop blocking UN Security Council action on Syria.

Syria's horror hospitals are the latest in a string of unspeakable crimes against peaceful protesters. So far, Russia has faced little condemnation for its complicity in these atrocities, but we can change that. Together let's build a massive public call to Merkel and Erdogan to act and work with the Arab League to press Russian President to stop supporting Syria's brutal repression -- it will be delivered to their Foreign Ministries this week.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_horror_in_syria_a/?vl

At least 5,500 people have been killed in Syria, as many as in the entire Kosovo war. According to hospital staff and witnesses that Avaaz has spoken to, Syrian security forces have been using hospitals and Red Crescent vehicles to arrest, kill and torture dozens of pro-democracy protesters and detain doctors, blatantly defying international law.

Shamefully, two weeks ago, Russia led the United Nations Security Council in blocking global action to stop the Syrian regime's slaughter of innocents. Russia recently delivered high-powered weapons to the butchers and has given no sign it intends to stop.

But, right now, the pressure on Assad is mounting -- economic sanctions have left his army under-resourced and exhausted, and the Arab League has given him two weeks to enter negotiations with the opposition leadership. And there are two countries that can make a difference: Turkey, Syria's neighbour and emerging regional power and Germany, who is Russia's second-largest trading partner and traditional intermediary to Russia.

Both Turkey and Germany are sensitive to global opinion and vocally support the Syrian people -- and a strong push from all of us could get them to pressure Russia to stop propping up the regime. Sign the petition now and forward widely -- it will be delivered it to the Turkish and German Foreign Ministers this week:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_horror_in_syria_a/?vl

While some governments are despairing about what to do, Avaaz members are making a real difference in Syria. We've helped push through tough oil sanctions that funded Assad's crackdown -- Syrian activists have told Avaaz staff how crucial this support has been. We've broken the media blackout and worked tirelessly to document disappearances and other crimes, dismantling the regime's lies. Let's keep the flame of hope burning brightly and light the way to a peaceful, democratic Syria.

With hope,

Wissam, Stephanie, Sam, Ricken, Luis, Benjamin, Diego, Carol, Rewan and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Europeans spar with Russia, China on Syria at UN (Reuters):
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/idINIndia-59902020111014

Turkey Steadfast on Syria Sanctions (Al Jazeera):
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011105134748573461.html

Syria Keeps Pressure On Protesters, Ignores Critics (National Public Radio):
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/16/141240546/syria-keeps-pressure-on-protesters-ignores-critics

Arab League Discusses Suspension of Syria (Wall Street Journal):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204479504576634931272379572.html

Germany Russia's second largest trading partner (German Foreign Ministry website, in German):
http://www.avaaz.org/german_foreign_ministry

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