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Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

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221–230 of 530 posts

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all. Russia is a country with a modest GDP. They are very close to Mexico or Brazil both in GDP and population. We wouldn't be surprised that Mexico couldn't hold multiple wars

Russia's military is about 4-5x the size in men and 10x the budget, and 10x compounded over years, and years, and years. What's a GDP? :)

GDP is a measure of economic output. If your economy doesn't produce much then it is very hard to sustain a high intensity war.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * could this be bad for Ukraine? Possibly, but it also shows how weak Russia is and how limited their presence in Syria was (because they sent everything to Ukraine). Russia can be defeated in Ukraine, but the west will need to step up support.

Since the 2022 Russian invasion, the West has provided 200bn in aid to Ukraine [0]. And Russia has been winning on the ground lately. It seems the West is thinking more aid will not change the outcome, but only diplomacy will. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-...

Heh, if you call few meaningless villages per day winning. Whats really happening is decimation of russian armed and naval forces (and young population) dramatically to the point where russia is regional power at best, not any form of superpower anymore and its weapons are often considered as subpar. They almost emptied massive cold war stockpikes of more sophisticated technology.

Which seems to be US plan since beginning, give enough support to make them bleed but not really corner them existentially to trigger nuclear strikes.

We can see a massive success here, mostly due to very predictable russian stupidity and primitive emotions at controlling positions. Well done CIA, well done indeed, hopefully this will make world a better place in the future. But it can easily backfire too.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#223
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I provided the link to hear it from the horses mouth. I'm not saying he's some wonderful person, but HTS's current agenda and recent actions are generally positive.

You mean what he tells CNN while he is trying to get US support? Reminds me of what we were told of the talibans when Biden was trying to hand them over the country. "They are not the same talibans", "they want to be a good world citizen", etc. Well that didn't age well.

I don't think you would be able to find anything as remotely moderate from the Taliban.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#224
post #217
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing in his wiki bio that suggests moderation.

Well, you haven't read it properly then: [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Mohammad_al-Julani ] > When asked about al-Nusra's plans for a post-war Syria, al-Julani stated that after the war ended, all factions in the country would be consulted before anyone considered "establishing an Islamic state". He also mentioned that al-Nusra would not target the country's Alawite minority, despite their support for the Ass…

Not to go straight to the godwin's point but that's a "Hitler didn't hurt puppies" argument. This guy is former Al Quaeda and clearly a jihadist.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#225
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any regime change that involves freeing many thousands of women and children from prisons notorious for torture and mass-executions seems like a decent one! The future is uncertain, but it's not like "everyone chills out and gets into their hobbies" was an option -- it's gotta be one of the most war-ravaged places to exist in human history.

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And then liberals in UK and USA joined hands with Islamists to overthrow the Mossadeq government.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this is irrelevant if Ukraine crumbles first.

Same goes for Russia, and is all seems pretty relevant. The article seem to indicate that it's much more sustainable for the West than for Russia.

the article is not the reality tho

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's not even any hope of it. I love it when online commenters display more confidence in their opinions than experts in the field. Really shows how much value their opinion has.

What experts expect Syria to get better? The rebels are led by a rebranding of al-Nusra Front which is widely designated as an islamist terrorist organization.

The rebels aren’t led by any one group and HTS only has control over some northern provinces. There’s at least four major alliances in play between dozens of rebel groups at the moment, and there’s no one frontrunner to take over.

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#228
post #217
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing in his wiki bio that suggests moderation.

Well, you haven't read it properly then: [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Mohammad_al-Julani ] > When asked about al-Nusra's plans for a post-war Syria, al-Julani stated that after the war ended, all factions in the country would be consulted before anyone considered "establishing an Islamic state". He also mentioned that al-Nusra would not target the country's Alawite minority, despite their support for the Ass…

[deleted]

Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

#230
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years ago. They were a problem because they used American cars, clothes, weapons and media.

Ah, so you claim they were a american controlled group? While the US spend lots of effort on hunting them? Keeping the flames high, to play firemen? I don't think that there was a need of more flames, for that theory to be plausible. Occasionally some western weapons likely did found their ways towards IS as well, but they rather captured the bulk of it. Or do you have other sources?

Afghanistan is the obvious example, among many. Beyond that, American interventionism has fueled extremism in the region for decades. This is not a wild take, but one agreed upon by scholars.
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