Astronuc said:
I'm kidding a bit because Russians were saying recently somewhat about delivering humanitarian aid to Syria, while now Americans mentioned spotting there Russian forces. The existence of military units is officially denied by Russia.mheslep said:
Dotini said:
Dotini said:
mheslep said:
I wonder whether it is indeed a policy or just an acceptance of lack of power to force Russians otherwise. Bulgaria just blocked Russian air transport there, it happened on US request. Russians avoided the whole problem through Iran.mheslep said:
There's a difference between Russians vs ISIS, and Russians putting their weapons at Assad's disposal, who is then free to use them against all his enemies.Czcibor said:
Czcibor said:
The problem is that Assad was bright enough to concentrate on eliminating moderate opposition, thus there is not much left out of FSA. It leaves him (and his Russian patrons) on fighting in long run with ISIS.HossamCFD said:
I mean even if such plan works out what will it solve? ISIS is defeated (assuming someone will take care of ISIS in Iraq) but Assad is ever more powerful because of the Russian support. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians will still die and millions will still flee.Czcibor said:
I do not see in Syria in foreseeable future real chance for any sane and moderate gov. Thus end of civil war and thuggish peace under Assad seem as not too bad result for local population in comparison to other probable scenarios. (I know, a while ago looked as if Iranians toyed with idea to to sacrifice Assad to build wider coalition, but nothing crystallize out of it)HossamCFD said:
That's exactly the point I'm contesting. I don't think that even the hypothetical complete defeat of ISIS will bring an end to the civil war. The civil war certainly didn't start with ISIS. They rose to the scene about a year into the civil war. I might be mistaken though.Czcibor said:
HossamCFD said:
Yes you're probably right. With ISIS out of the question and the moderates pretty much out of the game at this point, Assad might be able put an end to the war.Czcibor said:
nsaspook said:
When Russia wanted to help protect the rebels in Ukraine from air strikes they supplied them with anti-aircraft weapons. Perhaps Obama should take a page from Putin's playbook. I'm sure that it's not going to happen but, I would love to see the look on Putin's face if it did.Astronuc said:
Bystander said:
If i recall correctly a similar thing happened in Afghanistan , afghan soldiers trained by the US went and joined the Taliban because they offered better pay! looks like the US doesn't know how to recruit the right fighters , that's why so few of them are trained, I don't think there is any way to know for certain whether the rebel fighters you are training are going to stick to your side ,especially if they get pissed off as explained in the article. A little over a hundred against over 35000 IS fighters? Where is this going ?
Monsterboy said:
The Afghan army in present form has some 200,000 troops, not a couple hundred.Monsterboy said:
By the words "looks like the US doesn't know how to recruit the right fighters " I meant in Syria , few years ago I saw an episode of a National Geographic show on TV called "Don't tell my mother" where a french journalist travels to the most dangerous parts of the world to get a first hand experience and tells the producers to not tell his mother that he had been there.When he was in Afghanistan he talked to many soldiers some of whom joined the Taliban a few days later , he also talked to some soldiers who had fought for the Taliban but were on the government's side now ! , they claimed that the Taliban paid them more but they came back because the Taliban were too radical and it scared them.mheslep said:
mheslep said:
It's stupid because once they win the will be the next threat to America and the world. I don't know why America hasn't learned that history repeats itself. We don't need to arm them we need to kill the extremist and educate the rest of those people. "The pen is mightier than the sword" a wise person once said.fargoth said:
Nico Crawford said:
And the means to kill the extremists and educate the remainder is? With training of Syrian rebels off the table as "stupid", you then favor the introduction of US ground troops into Syria followed by a prolonged nation building exercise to accommodate education?Nico Crawford said:
What is Putin doing about ISIS? That is, what do you observe are the US mistakes in Syria and what in particular is Putin doing about them?fargoth said:
mheslep said:
mheslep said:
mheslep said:
Sources? You will find that Putin is primarily attacking anti-Assad forces, without regard to religious view. As of a couple days ago, he had made no attacks on ISIS whatsoever, though he did have fighters in Turkish airspace which locked their firing radar on Turkish forces.fargoth said:
Infamous, not famous, as that answer was not an alternative at all from a President/CNC. Instead it was sophomoric and impudent in the face of several hundred thousand dead in Syria, the use of chemical weapons by Assad, invasion of neighbors by Putin, and millions migrating to Europe. That is, the Obama statement itself was stupid stuff.fargoth said:
mheslep said:
fargoth said:
fargoth said:
