Channel 4 News Report on White Helmets of Syria

Thanks for this post, I didn't watch the programme but will find it and watch it on catch up. I only support two charities and the White Helmets are one, the other is St Mungos.

It is truly dreadful what is happening and I can't imagine how people cope and then there are people in this country who damm the refugees who come from from Syria. I just wish it would stop.

The report is available on the Channel 4 website.
I didn’t realise I could donate to the White Helmets. Thank you for mentioning it. I will certainly be making a donation today.

I have posted from time to time about the distressing happenings in Syria but have been ignored in the main.
This area of Syria has been bombed for a long while and it is women and children who have been suffering.

I get regular FB updates about the situation.

I can't understand why this desperate situation is being largely ignored by the world.


It's heartening to hear about the work of the white Helmet. I do hope that baby survives but who knows if his family is still alive?
The situation is desperate.

White Helmets
Dratted auto-correct

Unbelievably sad.

what a time we are in all over the world.

we don't ignore it so much as we are in the midst of so many troubles and also how can we stop people bombing ?

The whole world seems to be in some kind of distress

Sadly, this is not the only conflict in our world.

Here is a conflict tracker...

Check it out.
www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker?category=us

Thanks to BarmeyoldBat, I have now been able to make a donation to the White Helmets and signed a petition to the UN about the continuing bombing.

Are the British involved in supplying weapons and military hardware to the Syrians?

According to Channel 4, the baby survived, but no more update on his parents.

I saw it. All I kept saying was: how can this still be happening?
Unbelievable sad.

The baby was Re-united with its mother??

Thank you for the update on the baby.

Thank you, MerylStreep

Yes, some of the updates I have been getting for quite a long time have been harrowing.

Dominic Raab suspended licences for export of arms to Turkey after they invaded Syria to fight the Kurds.

As far as I know, it is Russia who supplies arms and fights with Assad.

Heart wrenching. Absolutely. Now, that's what 'brave' looks like.

Bloody UN. As much use as an ashtray on a motorbike ?

I thought it looked like a determined attempt to steal the land out from those people.

How awful.
On Channel4 news it was discussed what can you do if countries won't stop bombing. There does not seem to be a solution.
Yes Russia and Iran are mentioned as involved along with Assad.
How can we stop them?
I don't think we can and this is scary stuff.

They are supposedly rebels pinkquartz.

There are many rebel groups in Syria - rebels against the Assad regime and encouraged by the West to rebel as part of the Arab Spring then abandoned in the main.

It has been going on for nearly nine years now.

I don't think it is as simple as it is painted.

All wars are wrong and disgusting but if WWII was deemed a just cause why is it not a just cause to try and defeat the rebels who are aligned with ISIS?

Some people say the white helmets are supporters of rebel groups. I don't know if that is true or not as I'm no expert and I don't live in Syria. But I'm fairly convinced that some of the narratives we are fed re national and international conflicts are misleading. They have been in the past, and yet people then, as now, are so willing to believe everything they hear and read, without questioning its veracity.

I'm surprised at how little news coverage is given to the war in Syria. I struggle to make sense out of the situation other than that the Russians support Assad and the west leans to support some rebel groups but not others.
That seems to have been the case in so many conflicts since WW2, including Vietnam and various wars in the Middle East.

I do see WW2 as a "just war". The Nazi approach to wiping out the Jewish race, the Roma people, people with learning difficulties, different political views etc would have changed life irrevocably. I focussed on the Nazi's but recognise the fascist approach of others. I don't know who or what will help end the war in Syria. I agree that Isis is a real and present danger all over that region.

I thought that report was shocking too. There are a few million civilians in that area and just a few thousand rebels. The excuse given is that the civilians are helping the rebels whereas a different viewpoint is that the rebels are hiding amongst the population.

On another note I find it interesting that this thread and the one about Schofield were started yesterday. At the time of typing there are 19 responses on this one and nearly 250 on the other.

Yes i know there are rebels.
Always there are rebels.
But it is hard to keep up with this and all the other terrible things going on
and sometimes it feels like there are some places that refuse to be ok. If we help one side the other one or two are then fighting.

who knows for certain if the rebels hide amongst the civilians? ....which makes sense
or if the civilians want to help the rebels....which to my mind is less likely.

the poor women and children being followed by a drone bomber made me so angry
it was so callous.

perhaps we in the west don't fully understand what is going on.
It is a very ancient conflict, a tribal one perhaps?
an attempt to steal land?

I should have put the emoticon on i feel so sad about this

Eloethan the rebels are not aligned with ISIS.

I am shocked and dismayed that you think that.

May I just reiterate that the majority of rebels have nothing to do with ISIS

Many of them were fighting ISIS.

Callistemon I am not an "expert" on the Syrian conflict but I suspect you're not either.

I am not so positive as you that we, as recipients of news from both the mainstream and the alternative media, are able to say with any certainty exactly what is going on everywhere in the world and who is responsible for what.

There are certainly people who have much experience of the Middle East who have cast doubt on the role of the White Helmets.

We have been here before haven't we. Bin Laden was at some point encouraged and supported by the US government, as was Noriega.

This is a long and complicated link but if you are interested in reading a different point of view:

off-guardian.org/2018/02/11/44583/

Patrick Cockburn is a highly respected, fairly "mainstream" commentator on Middle East issues. He has suggested that it is virtually impossible to identify exactly what is going on because journalists rely almost entirely on the accounts of people who have their own agenda and who put forward an interpretation of events which supports that agenda.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-aleppo-iraq-mosul-isis-middle-east-conflict-assad-war-everything-youve-read-could-be-wrong-a7451656.html