Charlie Rose

Max83  01/31/2013 05:33 PM Report

From Der Spiegel from the 29th of Jan. 2013:

'' 'Don't Forget Your Photo Albums!': The Flight of Syria's Middle Classes''

Link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-plight-of-syrian-middle-class-refugees-a-880282.html

''They once were affluent, took vacations to Greece, purchased art and designer furniture. Now this Syrian family is on the run and forced to rely on charity. Their fate is typical of the exodus of the country's large middle class.''

Excerpt:

''Farah Schemi* wants to get something off her chest: in the event that readers of her story at some point in their lives have to flee their homeland, she wants them to take to heart her list of what to pack. "Passports, gold, bank records and deeds of property, very important," she says. Almost more important are all the things that keep you warm. "Blankets, warm clothing, sturdy shoes," says the 54-year-old. It's best to wear a heavy coat, even in sweltering summer weather.

One thing Mrs. Schemi has learned: "You never return home as quickly as you'd hoped." The first winter in a foreign land comes inevitably. And when all hope vanishes in those first cold nights and you accept the fact that everything is lost, warm feet are at least a small consolation.

Mrs. Schemi never dreamed she one day would become an expert on the matter of escape luggage -- back when her world was still in order.

Before the start of the revolution in Syria, she packed a suitcase only when the family was headed for a summer vacation on a Greek island or the Turkish coast. In her former life, Farah Schemi worked as a dietician, advising well-paying private patients on nutrition. She specialized in advising cancer patients on what to eat to assist the healing process. *All names have been changed by the editors.''

Max83  01/29/2013 04:33 PM Report

I think this is the right way of action for the USA:

''President Obama Announces $155 Million in Additional Humanitarian Assistance for the Syrian People''

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0Sn02fcls

'' Published on Jan 29, 2013

President Obama announces an additional $155 million in humanitarian aid for those affected by the violence of the Assad regime. This aid from the American people is providing food, clean water, medicine, medical treatment, immunizations for children, clothing, and winter supplies for millions of people in need inside Syria and in neighboring countries. (Arabic Translation)''

ShalomFreedman  01/29/2013 03:33 AM Report

This is an outstanding interview. Ward clearly is a person of real courage. And she also is one of intelligence and feeling. Charlie Rose questions were largely good and important ones. A number of hard truths came out of the interview which were not emphasized. Number one is that the great American ally Saudi Arabia is funding Islamist extremist groups. The US failure to even acknowledge the role Saudi Arabia plays in fomenting and encouraging extremism globally is one of the shameful elements of U.S. foreign policy. The Obama Administration is not alone but they continue a policy many other administrations have had. Another important element in Ward's interview is that she punctured a few myths, one is of the possibility of transforming the Arab states of the Middle East into constitutional democracies. She also punctured the myth of rebel virtue, the myth that Assad's fall is coming soon and is inevitable.

I have one problem with the interview. There was a major omission. A key neighbor of Syria was not mentioned, one that Syria often has proclaimed as its major enemy. Perhaps Ward did not want to say anything about Israel but the omission is a glaring one. Israel is threatened by the possibility of Syrian missiles, but also by the possibility of Syrian non- conventional weapons being transferred to Hizbollah. Charlie did not ask her about the possibility of Assad attacking Israel, or Israel moving in to prevent the chemical weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

One more point. Ward makes it clear that in the major conflict pervading the Middle East, the Sunni Shiite conflict Syria is key. Iran loses its major ally and its bridge to Lebanon and Hizbollah if Syria falls to the Sunnis. So they are putting whatever they feel is needed into it. The US withdrawal from Iraq makes their supplying Syria through Iraq that much easier.

The largely do- nothing policy of the U.S. is in one sense understandable, but I am not sure it is defensible.

How this will play out no one knows now. The connection with Iran's fanatic race to attain nuclear weapons may effect the Syrian story also.

Ward is to be praised for her sympathy with the victims of the conflict. It is horrible that this kind of thing goes on in the world and that there is no nation or group of nations working to really put an end to it.

Max83  01/26/2013 08:55 PM Report

Very good and interesting information. I learned much from the interview. Ms. Ward is very knowledgeable.

I feel the USA is doing the right thing by staying out of Syria and I hope it stays that way. I know it is tough to just stand by when atrocities like this happen.

If I was Syrian I would have probably left the country a while ago, even if I had to leave everything and everyone I loved behind. When I lived back in Germany I had friends that were refugees from Afghanistan and from former Yugoslavia and the conflicts there. Even though they had to start their lives from scratch and lost all of the status they had before I always felt that they felt they had made the right decision by leaving their home countries and rescuing their families, even when they still had a very heavy heart about it at times.

I really liked the point that Efraim Halvey made in the other interview, that the monarchies made it through the Arab Spring better in tact than other regimes in the region.

I am not a monarchist and I am a supporter of democracy, but I really feel that for the Middle East currently and probably for the foreseeable future the best form of government is a monarchy or a constitutional monarchy.

I am glad that the Obama administration is not trying to forcefully democratize the Middle East when that region and its people are culturally not inclined towards democracies, because they are more tribal in Nature.

Whatever form of government and community works best should be tolerated and encouraged, otherwise we become like missionaries and crusaders and have a repeat of the Neo-Con Nightmare of the 2000s.

The word democracy on its own does not mean anything, and its has been abused severely and used to manipulate and trick more often than not, not just abroad, but probably most often here in the USA.

Tolerance, Humility and Wisdom are and will be the most important characteristics to have for the future in dealing with the Middle East, and Secretary John Kerry embodies these values and talents beautifully in my opinion.

I am so glad John Kerry will be our next Secretary of State.

He will be greatly missed in the Senate, but will do much, much good for the world.

Two great articles from last week:

In Mother Jones

''When John Kerry Was a Lone Hero in Congress''

Link: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/when-john-kerry-secretary-of-state-1980s-hero

and

In the Huffington Post

''Neocon Nightmare: The Truth Behind the Attacks on Chuck Hagel''

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/neocon-nightmare-the-trut_b_2478673.html

Procivic  01/26/2013 10:35 AM Report

What a (almost) monologue! Incisive questions were absent last night.

Ms Ward is among a long list of journalists who blame every casualty, death and atrocity occurring in Syria on the government. While she was quite clear on who helps train the Syrian soldiers, advises the army and even who prints Syria's banknotes, we heard not a word on who provides the weapons, money and intelligence to the insurgents. Not a word either that the rebels use the civilian population of Syrian cities as shields.

Further, while we are asked to believe the U.S. only sends humanitarian aid to the rebels, there was no mention of the regimes that bankroll the insurgents' quest for "democracy" -- i.e., those bastions of liberty and democratic principles, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

allancinnes  01/26/2013 04:08 AM Report

I remember seeing an overseas interview, maybe a year ago, with a Syrian (fighter?) on PBS. In the newsroom sat the host and a guest analyst, and over live feed was the young Syrian male. I was shocked by the chasm of emotion between the Syrian, who was practically in tears begging for U.S. intervention, as noncombatants, children, were being slaughtered all around him, and the analyst, who aseptically addressed the potential negatives of a U.S. intervention into Syria.

I am not dismissing the negatives, and I am not outright suggesting unilateral action by the United States, but there is something malfunctioning when people are being indiscriminately butchered while relatively little is being done to help them. It is as though the world just wants this conflict to be over with so that we can say "never again" one more time and forget about it.

My overall point is that there is a vast divide between what Syrians are experiencing and what we are assessing comfortably from home. Governments need pressure from their populations to act, but nothing seems to cut through to us here in postmodern society. Only when something manages to wake our emotions (worldwide) will international law have any executive weight in putting an end to blatant war crimes such as these.

The future is impossible to predict, particularly if you give chaos theory any credence, and intervention may or may not result in some nasty side-effects. But what about intentions? They say the path to hell is paved with them. I say the path to a meaningless, nihilistic society is paved with bystanders who do nothing in the face of suffering.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/26/2013 02:49 AM Report

"According to the flight records, eight round-trip flights between Damascus International Airport and Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport each carried 30 tons of bank notes back to Syria."

http://www.propublica.org/article/flight-records-list-russia-sending-tons-of-cash-to-syria

Someone is letting Russia get away with murder--literally.

(Follow the money--sanctions only work if Russia is with us.)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/25/2013 04:45 PM Report

Charlie asks, rebels are they organized?

Clarissa responds, no, not organized. Lots of chiefs and everyone wants to be the leader.

Indeed! Let's go to Fareed . . .

ZAKARIA: What should President Obama do with Syria as it continues its slow motion drift in to chaos?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER UNDER JIMMY CARTER: I don't know. And I'm not being evasive. I literally don't know. We have to have better intelligence. Who's really fighting Assad? Who started the fight? How was it financed? Where did the initial weaponry for the beginning of that struggle a year ago or so originate? There doesn't seem to be any clarity on it.

Secondly, what are the objectives of those who are really doing the fighting? For example, the suicide bombing in Damascus. Is that the work of the so-called more democratic group that we would like to see in charge? Doesn't that smack of certain forms of extremist terror that's associated with extreme groups?

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/19/fzgps.02.html

(Not a slow motion drift to chaos--FAST CHAOS--and how do you fix chaos? Perhaps like what happened in Afghanistan, have the CIA get in there with all the leaders of all the different groups and see who is who. We spend about $80B a year on this kind of stuff so get out the pallets of $100 bills and start making some sales calls.)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/25/2013 04:08 PM Report

“We are very pleased to have her at CBS”

Yes, Charlie but you are at PBS.

Was there a merger?

allancinnes  01/25/2013 03:59 PM Report

I do not believe that stories are two-sided, but multi-sided and complex beyond full human comprehension. In this age of intersecting models of reality, where mass information tends to pacify, rather than actualize thought and social change, I feel that what Ms. Ward is doing - exposing the human element in this asymmetrical conflict, the loss and the tragedy, the terror and the angst - is not only complementary, but vital to journalism... perhaps even more vital than the shallow delivery of "objective" facts. An incredibly courageous guest. Charlie Rose, the host and the program, always delivers where other programs fall markedly short.

REMant  01/25/2013 11:54 AM Report

I can't say I've seen Ms Ward a lot, because network news makes me so angry I don't even want to watch to it anymore, but what I have seen indicates that like the rest she's reported only one side of the Syrian situation. I can hardly summon up the patience for a glance at The Washington Post anymore for the same reason. Everyone by now must know what a civil war looks like anyway, so I have to conclude these reporters have some ulterior motive. IMHO, they could at least TRY to be objective. But at least she recognizes the status quo ante had some value. Nevertheless, to imagine stability can simply be transferred from one to another political or religious group, and the country transformed, at any instant, past, present or future, is sheer fantasy. It couldn't happen even in Denmark.