Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There's been a lot of things going on in Syria the 48 hours or so. Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces have made significant gains in Latakia province and the rebels (terrorists) are being forced against the Turkish border. Aleppo is all but surrounded and if it falls the rebels (terrorists) will be in a real bad place.
Turkey is getting nervous, they wanted to expand their holdings into Syria but Russia coming to Syrias aid has thrown a wrench in those plans. Saudi Arabia is boot hurt over the fact that even with 100s of millions in support for Al-Nusra and Al Qaida they still can't seem to pull this off.
Turkey has closed the border to refugees, trapping many civilians among the fighting in hopes of Russia being blamed for any casualties that may result. There are rumors of Saudi Arabia preparing to send troops into Syria and the US is trying to get involved too.
Like we need another war over there.
Russia is still laying into the terrorists and more intensely than a few weeks ago. No Russian aircraft flies alone and all are armed with air to air capability for self defense.
The usual suspects in western media are raging for a no fly zone and western intervention. Washington Post Huffington and the UK Independent. They want intervention, damn all. Including common sense.
This appears to be escalating. There is a conference going on in Germany but nothing appears to be coming out of it as yet. There could be trouble coming because there's simply too many different sides. Russia isn't backing down.
With the help of Russia and Iran, the Syrian government forces are on the verge of driving the US-backed coalition of Al-Ahrar Sham, Jabhat Nusra, Al-Nusra Front, and other mercenary fighting units out of NW Syria. The Russians and the Kurds have sealed the Turkey-Syria border and cut off the rebels' main supply line.
It looks like Syria is also going to break through to take out ISIS from Raqqa and East Syria soon also.
If the proxies are eliminated, the whole thing really becomes one of how the principal backers continue to pursue this war.
There's been a lot of things going on in Syria the 48 hours or so. Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces have made significant gains in Latakia province and the rebels (terrorists) are being forced against the Turkish border. Aleppo is all but surrounded and if it falls the rebels (terrorists) will be in a real bad place.
Let us know again how you feel about the rebels... And what about Hezbollah fighting for Assad, are they not (terrorists) ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
Turkey is getting nervous, they wanted to expand their holdings into Syria but Russia coming to Syrias aid has thrown a wrench in those plans. Saudi Arabia is boot hurt over the fact that even with 100s of millions in support for Al-Nusra and Al Qaida they still can't seem to pull this off.
Shiites killing Sunnis and vs versus... who would've thought. Are there any good guys there ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
Turkey has closed the border to refugees, trapping many civilians among the fighting in hopes of Russia being blamed for any casualties that may result.
Turkey has absorbed about 2 million Syrian refugees. That's like the US taking in 9 million. They can't possibly accommodate any more. Plus, they are concerned with Syrian Kurds pouring in to reinforce their own PKK. "Making Russia look bad" is the least of their worries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
There are rumors of Saudi Arabia preparing to send troops into Syria and the US is trying to get involved too.
The US is always trying to get involved, usually without a sound plan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
Like we need another war over there.
Like they ever waited for the US to start killing each other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
Russia is still laying into the terrorists and more intensely than a few weeks ago. No Russian aircraft flies alone and all are armed with air to air capability for self defense.
Read - Russia is indiscriminately and massively bombing the hell out of rebels and civilians alike to keep their buddy Assad in power, to show Obama the middle finger, and to show the people back home (who are just only starting to really hurt from the oil prices) that Putin is a strong victorious leader they should be proud of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
The usual suspects in western media are raging for a no fly zone and western intervention. Washington Post Huffington and the UK Independent. They want intervention, damn all. Including common sense.
The common sense in this case seems to be to not topple ME dictators as long as you keep them weak enough. I agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
This appears to be escalating. There is a conference going on in Germany but nothing appears to be coming out of it as yet. There could be trouble coming because there's simply too many different sides. Russia isn't backing down.
Nobody is really pressing on them to back down. Obama could care less in the end, and the Eurozone is in shambles right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
This could get nasty.
Only if the next US President decides to become another Dubya.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrat335
Any opinions?
This is not "terrorists" vs "not terrorists". This is the original, ancient "sunnis vs shiites" conflict. With terrorists on both sides. Hezbollah is helping Assad, they are not exactly the boy scouts.
The US, Europe, Russia are just big, strong, often dumb apes that take and switch sides sometimes without giving it much thought.
Assad will likely stay in power for the time being, which is probably a good thing overall. Russia will eventually pull out, I bet by the mid or end of next year, the 30-40 years old dumb munitions they are mostly using aren't expensive, but the cost of keeping the expeditionary force out there is still high and they are running out of money very fast. Turkey won't attack any more Russian planes, this seems to have been a knee jerk reaction from Erdogan, something he's rather prone to and is undoubtedly having second thoughts about this now. Regardless of the outcome Syria will be weakened even more. Iran will become stronger yet, Turkey won't.
Last edited by Ummagumma; 02-11-2016 at 07:17 PM..
Uh, the issues in Syria began more than 48 hours ago. They began years ago when the US government attempted to destabilize the Assad regime.
Where was your concern then?
Well, before the US tried to destabilize the Assad regime, the said regime had aligned themselves with USSR. Way back in the 1960s. Actually this alignment happened even before Assad's father took power, although he was already a powerful figure in the ruling Ba'ath party back then. For the past 50 years, Syrian regime was seen as an enemy-aligned one. There's a lot of inertia to overcome.
Much of what the West was doing lately in Iraq, Libya and now Syria has roots going way back to the Cold War. Some people on both sides of the pond seem to be firmly stuck in the 70s.
Shiites killing Sunnis and vs versus... who would've thought. Are there any good guys there ?
...
Assad will likely stay in power for the time being, which is probably a good thing overall. Russia will eventually pull out, I bet by the mid or end of next year, the 30-40 year old dumb munitions they are mostly using aren't expensive, but the cost of keeping the expeditionary force out there is still high and they are running out of money very fast. Turkey won't attack any more Russian planes, this seems to have been a knee jerk reaction from Erdogan which he seems to be rather prone to. Regardless of the outcome Syria will be weakened even more. Iran will become stronger yet, Turkey won't.
Nice summary.
The real losers are the Syrian civilians - most of who are not involved in the war. The sad part is Syria used to be one of the most tolerent nations in the Middle East before this conflict.
Before Syria signed the friendship treaty with the Soviets in 1983, there were many attempts by the CIA at overthrowing their governments since the end of the Second World War. The first coup was over the government's refusal to allow the Trans-Arab pipeline. A lot has been written about Syria's refusal to allow the pipelines to Turkey as the reason for this war, but it's been revealed the CIA was already training paramilitary forces as far back as 2006. There were plans after the post-Soviet collapse to occupy many of the Soviet-aligned and non-aligned countries with US military. They call it providing security.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
