Syria

[Taylor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/aleppo-syrian-government.html

Just devastating. I could only look at the photos of children for about three seconds before I had to click away.

 

[Adam]

So heartbreaking

[arch stanton]

5 years of killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions and it's only going to serve to consolidate Assad's power. Thanks Vlad!

[Tank]

so needless. so many rulers see leadership as a chance to better themselves instead of their people/country, and millions upon millions have died as a result. hard to understand.

[Lhalo]

4 hours ago, cezero said:

Assad (and his good buddy Putin) have been the main barrier to the oil pipeline Exxon and other US big energy companies have coveted through Syria for a long time. 

Pair that with Assad calling the US a natural counter-terrorism ally the instant after Donald was elected, and it's pretty clear that Donald and his new Secretary of State will be finding a way to send US troops to fight ISIS alongside Russia and Assad before long in exchange for a piece of that pipeline. 

Crazy how quickly things can change considering the CIA has been aiding anti-Assad units in Syria for years...until pretty much the instant after Donald won the election. 

There Cez goes again spreading false facts about oil pipelines. The snowflake probably has me on ignore so he doesn't realize that I already told him it was a nat gas pipeline. 

I for one am glad that Assad beat back ISIS. He's a POS but he's a better option than any of those Saudi backed "rebels".

[Jay]

My neighbors are Syrian immigrants from many years ago, they're older folks. The woman is from Aleppo. They're actually Assad supporters so go figure.

 

[UndertheHalo]

13 minutes ago, Jay said:

My neighbors are Syrian immigrants from many years ago, they're older folks. The woman is from Aleppo. They're actually Assad supporters so go figure.

 

you'd be surprised how many are Assad supporters I think.  

 

10 hours ago, Lawrence said:

There Cez goes again spreading false facts about oil pipelines. The snowflake probably has me on ignore so he doesn't realize that I already told him it was a nat gas pipeline. 

I for one am glad that Assad beat back ISIS. He's a POS but he's a better option than any of those Saudi backed "rebels".

not all of the "rebels" are jihadists.  Unfortunately the Jihadist have made a habit of successfully high jacking righteous resistances in the area. 

[Adam]

In Saudi Arabi, Iran, UAE, Qatar.... people can prosper. In Syria and Iraq its more difficult. At the same time they have densely populated centers and common language. There's always going to be a shit ton of war.

[arch stanton]

The problem with Iraq is that it's really 3 countries stuck under one flag. The problem in Syria is there's no oil so less resources and the havenots finally got fed up. Saudi, UAE, and Qatar are among the richest nations in the world so they can throw money at the problem. But make no mistake, in all of these places there's a group or groups just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and there's always an interested 3rd party or parties waiting to come in and arm them.

[Thomas]

Regime change in Syria was a lost cause for the US before the first bullet was fired. There is no way you would ever get enough domestic support from the American public to what it would take to deter the Russians from maintaining their interests in Syria. The Russians are ten-fold more invested in Syria than our country would ever be in removing Assad and the Russian interests in the country. Faced with that unpleasant reality the appropriate choices going forward for the US are somewhat limited.

[mtangelsfan]

Agreed Thomas.  Was listening to Obama's press secretary today going on about Syria.  I think its horrible but what, exactly, do they really believe they can do about it?

We can rattle our swords, but that is really about it.

[Jay]

On 12/14/2016 at 9:59 AM, cezero said:

Pretty obvious it won't take much to get Donald supporters to get onboard with Putin/Assad. 

Holy shit they're stupid. They're the most easily manipulated constituency in our nation's history. 

"Hearts and minds" was all it took for billionaires led by our VP to sell Americans on invading Iraq. It'll be fascinating to see how easily Donald and Exxon sell fighting ISIS alongside Russia and Assad.  Foreign policy in the Middle and Near East has nothing to do with religion or culture for the corporate aristocracies who own their countries, ours included, but they all use it as a limitless source of propaganda as they laugh their way to the bank. 

China and Iran's foreign policy choices over the next several months are going to be really interesting. 

Thanks to the brilliant Obama administration we have a humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-bloodbath-in-aleppo-will-haunt-humanity/2016/12/14/ffe0d646-c22a-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_term=.4e5ac0e85098

The bloodbath in Aleppo will haunt humanity

Above all, Aleppo represents a meltdown of the West’s moral and political will — and in particular, a collapse of U.S. leadership. By refusing to intervene against the Assad regime’s atrocities, or even to enforce the “red line” he declared on the use of chemical weapons, President Obama created a vacuum that was filled by Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. As recently as October, Mr. Obama set aside options drawn up by his advisers to save Aleppo. Instead, he supported the delusional diplomacy of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, whose endless appeals to Moscow for cease-fires yielded — as Mr. Putin no doubt intended — nothing more than a humiliating display of American weakness.

 

[Lhalo]

You have that completely backwards. If the CIA wouldn't have interfered Assad would have crushed the rebels years ago. We also wouldn't have had ISIS running around Iraq raping 12 year olds and cutting off heads.

[Taylor]

15 hours ago, Jay said:

Thanks to the brilliant Obama administration we have a humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-bloodbath-in-aleppo-will-haunt-humanity/2016/12/14/ffe0d646-c22a-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_term=.4e5ac0e85098

The bloodbath in Aleppo will haunt humanity

Above all, Aleppo represents a meltdown of the West’s moral and political will — and in particular, a collapse of U.S. leadership. By refusing to intervene against the Assad regime’s atrocities, or even to enforce the “red line” he declared on the use of chemical weapons, President Obama created a vacuum that was filled by Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. As recently as October, Mr. Obama set aside options drawn up by his advisers to save Aleppo. Instead, he supported the delusional diplomacy of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, whose endless appeals to Moscow for cease-fires yielded — as Mr. Putin no doubt intended — nothing more than a humiliating display of American weakness.

I can't wait for Trump to buddy up with Assad by way of Putin.

[Lhalo]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

I can't wait for Trump to buddy up with Assad by way of Putin.

Me too. Aleppo will rebuild.

[Adam]

Where the fuck am I going to get my dog food now?

[Jay]

29 minutes ago, Serge said:

Me too. Aleppo will rebuild.

 

Can't wait for the new Trump Tower in Aleppo.

 

[Blarg]

You know at least one person will never go there. Only because he doesn't know where it is.

[Jay]

This is actually more in line with what I'm hearing from my Syrian friends who still have family in Aleppo:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-15/aleppo-victory-us-and-its-crime-partners-suffer-meltdown-sanity?page=1

Aleppo Victory... US And Its Crime Partners Suffer "Meltdown Of Sanity"

Instead of dealing with the reality that Syrian state forces have recaptured Aleppo from brutal, illegally armed groups, which the West and its regional clients have bankrolled and armed, the West distorts the dramatic victory as the «fall of Aleppo». One report on American channel CNN even referred to the victorious Syrian army and its allies as «persecutors».

The more logical and truthful depiction is that Syrian civilians are at last able to flee from terror gangs that have held them under siege. But in reporting that the whole false Western narrative about what has been going on in Aleppo and Syria for the past six years would implode like a house of cards.

 

[Lhalo]

Someone yelling about Aleppo just shot and killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey in Ankara.

https://www.rt.com/news/370782-attack-russian-ambassador-ankara/

[Ordos]

3 minutes ago, Serge said:

Someone yelling about Aleppo just shot and killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey in Ankara.

https://www.rt.com/news/370782-attack-russian-ambassador-ankara/

I think it was only a flesh wound

[Lhalo]

9 minutes ago, Ordos said:

I think it was only a flesh wound

He's dead.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/russian-ambassador-to-turkey-wounded-in-ankara-shooting-attack

[Adam]

If Brandon changes his name to Balcky (sp?) I'm going to get super confused

[Ordos]

Second shot while on the floor... that'll do it.

[Adam]

This might be my favorite tweet of 2016