A Study of Semantic Satiation and Knots<\/i><\/p>\n
The United States of America and Russia agree<\/i> to agree<\/i> to an agreement<\/i> that Syria will agree<\/i> to the disposal of its poison gas, especially if the United States agrees<\/i> to stop providing military arms and training to different insurgent groups in Syria.\u00a0 The USA agrees<\/i> to consider this latter option, but agrees<\/i> to disagree <\/i>should elements of the initial agreement <\/i>are not found to be agreeable<\/i> to them for any reason of their choice, including the opinion of lobbyist for arms dealers. The different insurgent groups fighting in Syria agree<\/i> Bashar al-Assad must be overthrown — regime change. However, they disagree<\/i> who should replace him, and what kind of government should be installed. Some agree<\/i> it should be a democracy, but there are disagreements<\/i> on what that means, and they point to events in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan, and the United States as examples of failed democracies. Different insurgent groups also disagree<\/i> with any agreement <\/i>regarding the division of Syria according to tribal lines or any other defining boundaries. France finds this agreeable,<\/i> because it has a history of agreeing <\/i>to disagree <\/i>whenever agreement<\/i> is possible. Au contraire mon ami! <\/i><\/p>\n
The United States of America must also agree <\/i>to reach an agreement<\/i> with the United Nations before it agrees<\/i> to use continued military intervention in Syria, especially the use of bombs to destroy Syria\u2019s poison gas stores. \u00a0The UN points out that any unilateral invasion without UN approval is an act against its Charter, and could result in prosecution of war crimes. But the UN agrees<\/i> that this is not likely to occur, except for those accused of crimes of war by the G-8, G-20, NATO, IMF, World Bank, or USA political candidates.\u00a0 The USA also agrees<\/i> \u201cno boots on the ground\u201d will be used should they agree <\/i>to intervene, although most people do not agree<\/i> on what \u201cboots on the ground\u201d means, especially those fashion designers interested in designing new shoes for combat in different colors, and those USA troops in Syria wearing the latest jogging or basketball shoes. Everyone agrees<\/i> the bombing of poison gas stores constitutes a danger and a risk since this may result in dispersion of the gas over wide areas. But different insurgent groups disagree<\/i> with this agreement, <\/i>because it was reached by those who only partially agree<\/i> to support them. However, they have asked for gas masks and protective skin creams.<\/p>\n
The President of the United States of America agrees <\/i>he does not need the approval of Congress to engage in any actions of war, especially if he agrees <\/i>efforts after agreement<\/i> result in his disagreement<\/i>. \u00a0In any case, the President agrees <\/i>that Congress never agrees <\/i>on anything other than an agreement<\/i> to disagree <\/i>for the sheer delight of disagreement.<\/i> All Congressmen agree<\/i>, however, that lobbyist donations for elections are an agreeable <\/i>act, except for donations from Bashar al-Assad, at least for the moment.<\/p>\n
Through all the agreements <\/i>and disagreements, <\/i>no agreement<\/i> has been reached on sanctuary for Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons. Neither the USA, Russia, UK, France, nor any other nation, has said: \u201cWe welcome you to our country as victims of our international game of thrones; we apologize to you for our role in bring death and destruction to you and your land.\u201d \u00a0No nation has said we will support you, as specified in international refugee law, except for those examples of bordering nations (i.e., Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon) who are compelled to accept the masses of refugees, because to disagree<\/i> would result in accusations of failed international duties and responsibilities. Few nations agree <\/i>to welcome Syrians and help them find place and purpose in a new land, except for Sweden, who announced on September 3, 2013, it would grant permanent residency to any Syrian refugees seeking asylum that has already fled to Sweden. At this point the number is 8000. But for other nations, there is widespread agreement <\/i>to disagree <\/i>for agreeable <\/i>reasons relating to national security dangers and risks, whatever they be. See: http:\/\/www.policymic.com\/articles\/63489\/in-surprisingly-bold-move-sweden-offers-a-home-to-all-syrian-refugees<\/a><\/p>\n Sometimes words lose their meaning and purpose because we abuse them.\u00a0 I suppose the same can be said for refugees and internally displaced people trying to survive.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n _________________________________<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Anthony Marsella, Ph.D., a\u00a0 member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes words lose their meaning and purpose because we abuse them. I suppose the same can be said for refugees and internally displaced people trying to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}