Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 530 posts

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

#261

Post by otherme123 »

dyauspitr wrote: post #91
otherme123 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we look at what happened in Tunisia or Libya after they got rid of their secular dictators (Gadaffi an Ben Ali), it doesn't have to be that way. They were also fears of them becoming islamic states, yet they didn't. If we look at Egypt, they could become again a dictatorship.

Libya is pretty much an Islamist and borderline slaver nation now. It’s much, much worse than it was under gaddafi. Tunisia is the only place the Arab spring might have been tentatively “successful”.

Maybe it's as worse as with Gadaffi. "Much, much worse", I don't think so. They are going through changes, far from stable, so it's hard to say what are they or what they will become. But they are not the theocracy some announced when Gadaffi fell.

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

#262

Post by guerrilla »

j_maffe wrote: post #65
lukan wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of a thing called, Islamic State? They had a thing for creative murder. Aside from the usual behadings, they came up with things like pushing homosexuals from buildings in the public and alike. They are also now free again.

HTS has cut off ties with ALQaeda and IS since almost 10 years.

[flagged]

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

#263

Post by throw0101d »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #14
sydd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is putting everything it has to the Ukrainian front since 2.5 years and signs of exhaustion are clearly visible. They have lived up their Soviet tank reserves, are offering astronomical amounts of money for soldiers, are using north Korean ammunition, huge inflation etc

That's what I'm thinking too. But if that's true, it means Ukraine has a real fighting chance to put them on their knees. In any case, this seems like a major loss for Russia.

> That's what I'm thinking too. But if that's true, it means Ukraine has a real fighting chance to put them on their knees.

Which may depend on continued US support from the newly elected administration.

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

#264

Post by beretguy »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #5

I'm not really aware of what's going on in Syria, and not really sure who's worse - Assad or the rebels, but it seems clear that Iran & Russia, which were main backers of Assad regime, appears extremely weak. That's understandable for Iran which may want to avoid to overextend itself following the recent events, but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all. In any case, it seems like there…

> it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all

Easy. Because russia is all talk and no do. If you punch russia in the face it folds in half.

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

#265

Post by verzali »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #213
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's surprising to me that many here in HN see Turkey as the state terrorists over the Kurds, when the main party of Kurdish independence from Turkey is a literal terrorist group who committed a terrorist attack killing innocent civilians in Turkey just over one month ago! It feels to me that when HNers agree that a people should be sovereign (the Kurds), they ignore the terrorism. When they don't agree (the Palestin…

> a literal terrorist group who committed a terrorist attack killing innocent civilians in Turkey just over one month ago! Not condoning the attack, but it's also not that black and white. It was an attack on a defense contractor.

So, what, if Al Queda shot up a Boeing facility that would all be fine then? And so was the attack on the Pentagon?

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

#266

Post by throw0101d »

teractiveodular wrote: post #110
asimpletune wrote: post #75

What are the chances the Kurds will get their own land out of this?

The best case is that northern parts of Syria end up like Iraqi Kurdistan, where they will de facto control a slice of the country. However, Turkey to the north is really not keen on the Kurds having any territory, so they'll do whatever they can to frustrate this.

> However, Turkey to the north is really not keen on the Kurds having any territory, so they'll do whatever they can to frustrate this.

Could it work that if the Kurds have their own 'official' region (either country, or province with-in another country) Turkey (Türkiye) would simply throw money at people to move to it?

If there aren't any Kurds living with Turkey's borders, would that be a win for Turkey?

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

#267

Post by grumple »

someotherperson wrote: post #126
asimpletune wrote: post #75

What are the chances the Kurds will get their own land out of this?

Somewhere between 0 and None, which is a good thing for literally everyone. Unless we’re now cheering for ethnostates and a full blown Turkish invasion. Even the Syrian Kurds don’t want independence, rather just autonomy as part of a multiethnic Northern region.

Why should every other group get autonomy but the Kurds? Turkey’s habit of ethnic cleansing isn’t a reason to deny the Kurds such a right.

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

#268

Post by riskyingo »

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #137
riskyingo wrote: post #105

[flagged]

My car-to-work radio is set to a rock-based station. Occasionally they will play a(n overtly) pop song, or two. It's a great station (for me, as the infrequent "not of this genre" surprise keeps me interested. The occasional not-tech story on HN is equally welcome for myself, as the level of comments, and opinions are so much 'higher' than other places. There's always some comment/s that allow me to appreciate anothe…

Weird, there are places where political news can be discussed. You feel you need a variety, others might feel rightfully that it should stick to its purpose. Coming back to analogies, I don't send memes to work chats.

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

#269

Post by GordonS »

flohofwoe wrote: post #193
TheAlchemist wrote: post #5

I'm not really aware of what's going on in Syria, and not really sure who's worse - Assad or the rebels, but it seems clear that Iran & Russia, which were main backers of Assad regime, appears extremely weak. That's understandable for Iran which may want to avoid to overextend itself following the recent events, but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all. In any case, it seems like there…

> but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all Did you miss that Russia has to import cannon fodder, artillery grenades and missiles from North Korea and attack drones from Iran? I don't think they have any resources to spare in Syria at the moment.

There hasn't been a single scrap of evidence to support the claims of Russia using North Korean... there have however been several cases of the media getting caught lying about it, doctoring photos etc:

https://x.com/AXChristoforou/status/1864324321960972298?t=4H...

https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1864447294474457245?t=yK0OU-9...

The North Korean claims appear to be complete lies, designed to make Russia look bad.

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

#270

Post by sgt »

otherme123 wrote: post #46
TheAlchemist wrote: post #5

I'm not really aware of what's going on in Syria, and not really sure who's worse - Assad or the rebels, but it seems clear that Iran & Russia, which were main backers of Assad regime, appears extremely weak. That's understandable for Iran which may want to avoid to overextend itself following the recent events, but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all. In any case, it seems like there…

> 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

GDP is almost irrelevant when it comes to Russia's true strength and persistence.

It's true however that winning a war is incredibly difficult, and the outcome could still be the same for Russia, if their GDP was increased by an order of magnitude.

Russia also has a unique ability to turn the entire economy into a sort of "war economy". That hasn't really been done yet.

Post reply on HN