Damascus In US Weighs Up Appetite For War

By Amanda Walker, US Correspondent

Damascus, Maryland, has a population of 15,000. It's 40 miles away from the Syria lobbying frenzy on Capitol Hill. The main focus here are preparations for this weekend's community fair.

The Red Rooster diner has been run by the Miller family for 35 years. Owner Pat Miller says among her fellow Damascans, there's little appetite for war.

"We've got lots on our plate right now. I'm all for helping everybody but it scares me."

Her daughter-in-law Margo shares her scepticism: "I cant think how any person in history could even think to do such an act but if strike aren't we doing the same act - do two wrongs make a right?"

On the whole Americans are lukewarm to the idea of Syrian intervention. The latest polls say around 60% of people are against it.

As one Red Rooster customer puts it: "Who's the enemy? We don't know - are they good guys or bad guys? Which one's which? Too much unknown. No support from the UN. Absolutely not."

Polls show around 60% of Americans are against intervention

The repeated message from the politicians to the people is that this isn't just about some conflict far away - it could have direct consequences for the US.

So has the American public bought into the idea that national security is being threatened?

A customer at the local hardware store suggests the answer is yes: "I do think its a direct threat I mean - its a global economy its not just one country and another country.

"If we don't stand up and say 'you can't do this' the next thing you know they're going to hit Israel or somebody else then they're going to launch nuclear weapons and we're going to be in trouble."

Shop worker Scott Zielinski thinks differently: "Are we being threatened? No. But it's a 50-50, if they get hit we should help out a little bit but we don't know if it's a set up to get us to fight the war. I haven't heard any facts."

Like so many towns across America, Damascus knows the pain war can bring. A plaque at the town hall honours the fallen of past conflicts. Iraq in particular weighs heavy on people's minds.

Connor Lawlor, who is steadfast about joining the Army, and his mum Amanda

Sixteen-year-old Connor Lawlor's ambition is to join the US army, but even he's not sold on striking Syria: "Regardless of me going into the army I don't think we should be in Syria militarily.

"But I'm joining the army and I'm expecting conflict because we're always in a conflict somewhere in the world so it doesn't concern - as long as we're on the right side and I can't see a right side in Syria right now."

His mum Amanda says she's glad that Congress is debating the issue: "It seems like our leaders are trying really hard to make the right decision and not get involved if its not necessary so I'm glad that they're waiting right now because it does seem like a very difficult situation."

Whether people are for or against military action, they share the belief that their opinions hold little sway. Another foreign conflict is looming and there's very little this Damascus can do about it.

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John Kerry To Shore Up Support Over Syria

Misery Of Syrians Driven From Home

Updated: 7:13am UK, Saturday 07 September 2013

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

I have passed through the border area between Turkey and Syria dozens of times in the last year or so, but I have never seen a vehicle exodus like the one taking place now.

Hundreds of cars stacked up at customs all laden with people and possessions. These are the people who have survived for two and a half years, who have used up all their savings to stay in their country but have concluded now that they have to leave.

Not one Syrian is untouched by this war anymore.

In camps along Syria's borders and inside neighbouring countries, millions are living in various levels of misery.

All the camps are miserable; some are bigger and better than others, some are like squatter camps. Refugees have given up hope and gone, the internally displaced will likely soon follow, if they can.

In the displaced peoples' camp near the Turkish city of Killis, but still just inside Syria, they are just about surviving.

There is little choice for entire families who have moved from village to village for years now, seeking sanctuary from aerial bombardments and shelling. They have tried to escape the war, but it always catches up.

Haj Nadeen is 50 and has 12 children, two wives, a sister and sister-in-law all living in a single tent in the camp.

"A barrel bomb exploded in front of my house and destroyed it," he told me over a cup of tea surrounded by the whole family.

"Assad wants to destroy us and wants to move us out of our houses. He will use gas and he will use barrel bombs. If the Americans attack there will be retaliation but they have to do it."

The continual air assaults on villages are what force most people to leave; usually after a family member is severely hurt.

In a tent, the wind whipping up a sandstorm inside, little Ali Shaobu, showed me raking scars on his leg and the patches on his bottom where Turkish doctors took flesh and skin to rebuild him.

He was buying bread when a jet struck shattering that leg. Doctors said they had never not amputated on such an extensive injury but were prepared to try to save it as he was so young.

After a series of operations it was successful. But he and his family cannot return home as the same jet destroyed their house. They have been in the tent for a year.

"We can't go home and we can't rebuild until this is over," his mother, Malar Al Hassan, told me.

"We can only trust in God."

A quarter of Syria's population is on the move. International donations are half that is needed to for the aid agencies to help them and of course the crisis is growing.

Currently the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the Syria problem has rumbled on with barely a single peace solution even remotely acceptable to the rebels or the government being tabled.

But that isn't actually the point here because this is about help for those who really need it. They aren't getting enough and they can't do anything to help themselves any more.

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Assad Loyalists Protect Damascus Mountain

By Sally Arthy, Senior News Editor, Damascus

Every night for the past week, loyal Assad supporters have bedded down in tents on Mount Qussioun overlooking Damascus.

On the top of the mountain is the main transmitter for Syrian TV.

These people are trying to protect the site from possible US attack. As such they say they are human shields.

They wear white T-shirts with the logo, "Over our dead bodies".

Government forces at a checkpoint on mount Qussioun

Their canvas tents are in two uniform rows on either side of a parking area at one of the most panoramic viewing points on the road up.

Patriotic songs blare out from a sound system set up in one of the shelters.

A huge Syrian flag has been draped down the side of the hill. And it is draped around the backs of some of the activists who have set up the camp.

One of the organisers is 21-year-old law student Hussain Othman. He says he started the sleep in "to protect Syria".

File picture of mount Qussioun

He said: "We will continue until the end. We are civilians. We are against any military strikes."

Ammar Shamia is also in the crowd of demonstrators. He says two of his sons were shot dead by opposition forces last year. 

One was 14-years-old and the other eight years old. He says they were killed because their four-year-old brother was singing a pro-Syria song.

Three friends from Damascus University have come to the camp to check it out. They hope to find a bed for the night.

One of them, Isaa Ali is angry. His voice rises when he talks about the possibility of American strikes.

He said: "I want to continue to study. I want other governments to leave us alone."

Below the camp the city of Damascus sprawls out. It is a spectacular view. But it is punctuated by plumes of smoke - a reminder of the war still raging on the ground in this country.

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