It is distressing to hear someone on hacker news describe this, and the history of Syria over the last couple decades, as something that might be "propaganda" and "partisanship."
My god, man - do you even slightly follow the news? Are you really that unaware such that you feel there is some degree of question over just how horrific the Assad regime was for Syrians?
Why do you care? It's their country, let them mess it up as much as they want.
That's the problem with you Westerners, you stole and genocided people around the entire world, and when you were finally thrown out, you come back to pass judgement and impose your own dubious morals on other people.
Was reading book by Sue Black on forensic anthropology , Written in Bone, and she recalled incident where she was an expert witness for commission in Qatar, she confirmed the veracity of eyewitness and photo evidence of Assad Syrian regime of torture - for Arab instigated investigation. Not just Western values.
I was neutral and responded to your comment. The approach portrayed in the book is pretty clinical and she sticks to things that she can back up in court as factual to the best of her knowledge, it was kind of surprising to come across anything in the book that was remotely topical.
Hardships any country faces always affect innocent people. For example, immigrants were affected by the opioid crisis, so how does the flimsy, sad idea of "group karma" hold up here?
Sharing uphelpful, embittered opinions like this only spreads pain that wraps back around and bites you, in the end. Treating the suffering of people as a sport or spectator event, by proverbially pointing your finger and laughing, is repulsive and puts you exactly in the same league as the people you detest.
No, I get their point if you ignore the stuff about karma. It does stoke anger when you say "we know better than you" and try to fix other nations' governments though. This is the same kind of shit where the government says "we know better than you how to live your life", and starts meddling in citizens affairs.
Furthermore, let's be real. All such cases of "help" have never had altruistic goals in mind. I have never heard of a nation stepping into the affairs of another and actually "helped" and left with nothing in return. In ancient times it's mostly just an excuse for invasion. More recently, Osama started out as "help" against the Russian invaders. Saddam Hussein being installed and then toppled was also "help". Iran, was also due to "help" against the monarchy. I can't find a single instance where the help actually worked or was even meant to be true help. We cry for democracy but how many South American democratically elected governments have the leader of the free world toppled? Again, since ancient history the "help" part of the action is always just propaganda and an excuse to go forward to take advantage of some current crisis.
Your comment about "the stuff about karma" is an example of what is annoying about "western culture."
You push your desert cult's evangelism and whine when governments push back on your funding evil missionaries (see the latest brouhaha about FCRA, for example). Senators and even JD Vance are now screeching from their pulpits.
But the US has FARA and that's good? You can push your desert tribalism and that's good?
My god, man - do you even slightly follow the news? Are you really that unaware such that you feel there is some degree of question over just how horrific the Assad regime was for Syrians?