The Arab Spring

Guardian feature on Syria's disappeared.

The Libyan PM was sacked for letting the NK tanker escape.

Benghazi - 1 Tripoli - 0

But more seriously, it seems pro-Tripolitania and pro-Cyrenaica militias are gonna have a battle royale in Sirte. We could be seeing something serious...

edited 12th Mar '14 7:00:41 AM by FFShinra

Since there isn't much in the way of news, anyone want to help with the Arab Spring page? The Gaddafi page was gutted completely, so I don't remember all the tropes that are associated with the Libyan portion of the event (and whatever tropes can be applied to the Arab Spring in general).

I would, but I'm terrible at identifying the tropes themselves. What else needs to be done?

Was this a work page? If so, should a real-life event actually have a work page with a trope list?

I thought it was supposed to be a Useful Notes page...

It is a useful notes page. And it probably should have tropes listed because it's being used as background for a lot of Ripped from the Headlines and War On Terror stories, like NCIS:LA and Strike Back. Sort of The Great Politics Mess Up for this generation.

@De Marquis - Thats why I initially pointed to the Gaddafi page as a good list to start from, but it's deleted without even the history.

Marking Three years since the civil war in Syria began.

And the country suffers more than ever...

I guess I should qualify that with "in its recent history". I'm sure there have been times in Syria's history (colonial or before) where it's suffered much more than now.

Not in the modern (post-Ottoman) state of Syria.

Yabroud fell today. It was the last major town the rebels held in the Qalamoun mountains, which run up against the border with Lebanon and are within sniper and artillery range of the Damascus-Homs highway, which the rebels had been taking advantage of to full effect. It's also close enough to Damascus to act as a supply line for rebels still trapped in the capital.

There are still pockets of rebel resistance in villages here and there in the mountains, but now it's merely a matter of time.

Well, when the West failed to support the rebellion in any substantive way, this was only a matter of time.

Pray tell how could they have supported them?

edited 16th Mar '14 8:42:10 PM by FFShinra

Air dropping arms, bombing Assad's forces, ect. Many options. most of them at least a little bad.

Thank Putin.

And Westminster voting against action?

Also thank Al Qaeda and related extremists.

edited 17th Mar '14 12:55:15 AM by betaalpha

@Joesolo - It was the "bad" part that made me ask the question in the first place.

Anyway news from Yemen: The Houthis are trying to surround the capital. Couple of Yemen Army guys got killed in the clashes. Govt is saying the Houthis would be crazy to actually come inside the city, but I have my doubts.

Also can anyone substantiate rumors that the Hadramaut might be seeking to split off from both Sana'a and Aden?

Navy SEALS seize rogue Libyan oil tanker.

Yarr.

edited 17th Mar '14 2:52:24 PM by Achaemenid

Am I the only one snickering at the name of the tanker?

What's funny about "Morning Glory"? Sounds like a swell name to me.

It can be used as slang for when you wake up with a certain body part "standing to attention".

I wonder if this calms down things or if that will just piss off Cyrenaica more. Or if nothing changes. Any bets?

The sensible thing to do would be for the USA to try and broker an agreement, using the tanker to force Cyrenaica to the table and the threat of discontinuing military support to rope in Tripoli. America is actually rather decent as federalism, all things considered.

Indeed, but I dunno if cutting military support would work as a disincentive. The militias are more powerful than the official military as it is.

Maybe they could threaten to recognize Cyrenaica if Tripoli doesn't negotiate...