Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family • Hacker News Board

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

#351

Post by dralley » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:04 PM UTC

postingawayonhn wrote: post #223

cm2187 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're nationalist rather than international (like ISIS), which is frankly the aspect that Western governments would care most about.

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

#352

Post by seydor » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:07 PM UTC

properpopper wrote: post #332

dyauspitr wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”.

But before Gaddafi was publicly executed we had a lot of negative news about Libya but now Libya is a forgotten country.

Not to Europeans, it's immigration smuggling grounds

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

#353

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:08 PM UTC

dralley wrote: post #310

dismalaf wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of evidence that Russia was probably involved in Oct 7. They're certainly cozy with Hamas... https://www.memri.org/reports/hamas-visits-its-closest-frien...

There's nothing in there that particularly suggests that they promted the attack. But of course they capitalized as best they could off of the distraction.

[deleted]

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

#354

Post by charlieyu1 » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:08 PM UTC

Good and bad news. Ukrainian sacrifices lead to liberation of Syria.

I guess you can’t have everything good. Chinese sacrifices in 1989 lead to collapse of USSR after all

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

#355

Post by dismalaf » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:09 PM UTC

dralley wrote: post #310

dismalaf wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of evidence that Russia was probably involved in Oct 7. They're certainly cozy with Hamas... https://www.memri.org/reports/hamas-visits-its-closest-frien...

There's nothing in there that particularly suggests that they promted the attack. But of course they capitalized as best they could off of the distraction.

I mean, plausible deniability is a cornerstone of Russia's hybrid warfare against the west... They want us to feel and "know" they did it while not being able to 100% prove it...

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

#356

Post by penguin_booze » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:17 PM UTC

mongol wrote: post #4

Who are likely to control Syria now? Will Syria become an islamic state?

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

#357

Post by Gud » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:24 PM UTC

fooker wrote: post #42

postingawayonhn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it means Ukraine has a real fighting chance to put them on their knees. Yes, and this point has been obvious to many for the last two years. The problem has been the west drip feeding aid into the largest war since WW2. We actually have to define the objective as reclaiming all Ukranian territory (at least to the pre-2022 borders) and supply them appropriately. It might be expensive in the short-term but we can aff…

The purpose of the drip feeding is, unfortunately, to get Russia closer to a total collapse rather than a quick loss for them to retreat and build up their strength again for the next 20ish years to repeat it. It’s not ideal for Ukraine right now.

This is giving too much credit to the competence of the same political leadership that has spent the last 30 years dismantling the European war machine(that was pretty solid up until the mid 90s) while Russia and China has been arming themselves to the teeth.

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

#358

Post by dralley » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:31 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #274

Caius-Cosades wrote: post #132

Rebel? How about we just call them for what they are, Turkish proxies in the north and US proxies in the east.

These "moderate rebels" are literally Al Qaeda and ISIS, but western media is manufacturing consent for them in real-time: [0] https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1865009325669818430?t=r-Pr... I'd also note that HTS is a proscribed terror organisation in the UK - yet nobody is having their doors kicked in for supporting them, in stark contrast to those publishing the truth about Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.

HTS is not "literally" Al-Qaeda and ISIS because they've literally been at war against Al-Queda and ISIS. The dynamics here are incredibly complex.

That doesn't mean they're "good" guys necessarily. But they have not governed Idlib as extremists for the past several years. The future is open to the possiblity of improvement.

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

#359

Post by guerrilla » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

dralley wrote: post #318

guerrilla wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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I mean, they've literally gone to war against both ISIS and Al-Qaeda. You don't have to trust them exactly but it's not like there's no grounds to believe they're at least not going to be ISIS.

I'm not sure why you think that means they aren't terrorists. Al-qaeda and ISIS have also been at war for a decade. Does that make one of them any less terrible than they have always been?

It's not about trust. We have enormous amounts of evidence from all human rights organizations monitoring the situation. You may not understand this but the entire war was filmed. You can just go look up who they are, what they believe and what they have done to people. They advertised it themselves for the majority of their career.

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

#360

Post by dralley » Sun, Dec 08, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

guerrilla wrote: post #359

dralley wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they've literally gone to war against both ISIS and Al-Qaeda. You don't have to trust them exactly but it's not like there's no grounds to believe they're at least not going to be ISIS.

I'm not sure why you think that means they aren't terrorists. Al-qaeda and ISIS have also been at war for a decade. Does that make one of them any less terrible than they have always been? It's not about trust. We have enormous amounts of evidence from all human rights organizations monitoring the situation. You may not understand this but the entire war was filmed. You can just go look up who they are, what they bel…

I said no such thing. I also wouldn't dispute that the PKK are also "terrorists".

I still think it's pretty clear that there can be some hierarchy within that category. HTS and the Kurds are less evil than the Taliban, which is less evil than Al-Qaeda, which is less evil than ISIS.

Like you said, there is plenty of history to look at here. HTS has run Idlib for years and they have done nothing that compares to the likes of ISIS. Maybe that will change if they consolidate total power, but neither of us have any evidence to state definitively what will happen. There are plenty of reasons to be either pessimistic or optimistic.