‘Real News From The Blaze’: Elections Take Place in Syria as Violence Continues

The ongoing violence within Syria between the Assad regime and opposition forces has been covered at length on “Real News.” Syria’s government said Monday that voters turned out in large numbers for a parliamentary election that Reuters reports the regime sees as central to its reform program.

The opposition have called the vote a sham, adding insult to injury as reports of violence between government troops and rebels continue in a conflict that has already left 9,000 people dead on the orders of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

While the state news agency SANA reported a big turn-out, witnesses in Damascus claimed to see otherwise. Reuters reports that in one polling station, authorities said 137 people voted in the first three hours while foreign journalists saw only three cast ballots there over 40 minutes. Violence has been reported Monday around the capital and Hama city, as well as in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

While the Syrian opposition forces began as a pro-democracy movement, there are fears from the West that the rebellion could be hijacked by radical forces. With reports of the growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood and their Marxist colleagues in the Syrian National Council, the main political group challenging Assad, the United States finds itself in a precarious position; hesitant to send troops into a hostile middle eastern nation currently inflicting no harm on America, but weary of allowing the region to become a breeding ground for forces contentious with the American way of life.

On “Real News” Monday the panel discussed the elections, whether or not the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria poses a threat to the United States, and what can be done to stop the continued violence of the Assad regime, as the United Nations peace plans have clearly failed. Despite the continually grim reports from the field, the panel remains hesitant in identifying or advocating for increased U.S. military involvement in the Syrian revolution.

“I don’t see that there has been any change of position from the highest levels of power to perhaps even the opinions at this table,” said Will Cain. “The status quo, seems to be the status quo.

“It’s where we were–what a month, six months ago, one year ago? The only things that have changed is violence has gone on and the death toll has risen and it’s becoming more and more clear who the opposition is. None of which gives us any more clarity on what the right course of action is.”