Why are we cheering this? Is it because Russia supported Assad and now Russia has been defeated? Because we love Ukraine right? Also, Assad and Russia don't like LGBT persons? Can someone spell it out for me in plain words please, I'm on the spectrum.
Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
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Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Russia can turn into a war economy - which means GDP is nearly irrelevant. Right now they're doing warfare while still keeping the lights on at little inconvenience for the public. They can change that around.
You don’t just press a button that says “war economy” and then everything turns out fine. You drive massive inflation, weaken consumer markets, take on
massive debts and eventually run out of young men.
Pretty much every nation bar the US was on the verge of economic collapse by the end of WWI (and Russia’s did). The financial burden of two world wars killed the French and British empires. Germany’s WWII war economy was totally unstainable and the USSR’s was bankrolled by the US lend-lease program.
It’s not a panacea - it’s just what you have to do to drive enough military production to sustain a near-peer conflict.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#373It's a place where there's no good guys to root for. I fear for its citizens, and especially for women.
The "good guys" are the citizens, who were unjustly imprisoned for protesting against a blatantly oppressive government. These prisoners have been released by the rebels, which is a "good" enough cause that people can celebrate for the rest of the week.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#374Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#375I'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
You should not compare GDP to GDP, because you cannot fight with paper. You should compare amount of equipment produced, human resources etc.
Also, GDP is easy to manipulate: simply increase the bread price and your bread GDP will magically rise without any changes.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But GDP is measured in dollars and not in amount of things produced. If everything is expensive in your country it will have larger GDP even producing less things.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Ukraine is also exhausted its time for America to stop pushing Ukrainians into the firing line
It's time to double down and hope Russia gives up Crimea like they just abandoned Syria. Even Donald Trump is not stupid enough to miss an opportunity to play his enemies against one another.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#378Earlier 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.
Are you suggesting that Lybia is better now for the average citizen then before or?
Arguably not, but once revolution and civil war break out you don’t really have the option of just going back to how things were. It’s certainly better than if the civil war had gone on for 13 years as it has in Syria. We also don’t know how brutal Gadaffi’s crackdown and reprisals would have been had he won.
Libya’s been at peace for 4 years now, but it’s politically a mess. Syria has seen 18 times as many deaths as Libya with only 3 times the population.
Anyways the question wasn’t “will Syria be better than 13 years ago” it was “will a Syria become an Islamic state” - and it’s a fact that Libya hasn’t ended up that bad in that regard.
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe if your leader is a dictator and it looks like you are losing, defecting might be a better option than fighting to the death for a leader who doesn't care about you.
Most of the Syrian army was made up of people forced to be there or to be imprisoned ~ A lot where changing clothes in the middle of the street.
Exactly what I'm saying!
Re: Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russia isn't that interesting any longer, economy wise. China is the competitor to the US nowadays. All Russia has is nukes and troll farms, and corruption.
Russia has all the minerals to support any size of Chinese war machine ramping. It’s not their economy that matters.
That doesn't make sense. The minerals don't disappear just because Putin fails invading Ukraine. The minerals will be waiting in the ground no matter what.