The White Helmets are mostly heroes with a huge death toll, so if they stage the odd propoganda stunt to draw attention you can hardly blame them. If Assad had stood down or allowed some type of free election/power transistion, then tens of thousands of lives would have been saved, and evilness of IS wouldn’t have grown so quickly. Problem is that often the egos/selfishness of a few individuals (on both sides) over ride everything, and millions of mostly innocents suffer.
Going to have to agree to disagree with that. White Helmets are dubious at best. Plenty of evidence out there that shows how dodgy they are.
Why should have Assad stood aside and let western interests insert a regime that they can be in control of? Look how well things ended up in Libya...
The rise of Isis is the direct result of the west meddling in the ME, not the work of Assad.
Army
The White Helmets probably have dodgy contacts for sure. It’s the ME. They were started by an ex British mercenary. They have been involved in a long lasting terrible civil war with atrocities on both sides. However their ‘core business’ is trying to save lives. According to The Economist, 1 in 6 of them have been killed or badly injured. Often in ‘double tap’ airstrikes where Syrian/Russian planes, bomb the same site knowing medical staff will be attending the first strike.
That makes most of them heroes in my eyes, or at least extremely brave people just trying to save another human life.
No Assad didn’t create IS. I didn’t say that. However if he had at least attempted some peaceful resolution, some power sharing arrangement - it’s doubtful IS would have penetrated Syria’s borders.
Gaddafi didn’t stand aside either. His regime was toppled by force, another civil war. A total breakdown of law and order, power vacuum, in rolls IS and their friends.
In likes the of Tunisia and Egypt - where civil war was averted, after ‘regime change’ - though far far from perfect, at least life pretty much functions and is safe for the populace.