ungifted said:
Do not threaten if you are not ready to fight. When we speak about "the boundary limits" and "red lines" I suppose everyone here at least knows the taste of his own blood in the mouth after good punch.
Force is the only language many leaders understand.
We had Obama's declared "red line" - usage of poison gas, and voila we got it, now we see Russia supports Assad's regular (!) army against ISIS, and sure they NEED to use chemical weapon and bomb some civilians.
Russia and Iran (and Hezbollah) support Assad. Assad is fighting against his government's opposition forces trying to overthrow him. ISIS is only casually engaged in the Syrian civil war (They fight against everybody and have established a base in Syria and western Iraq). The list of armed fighting groups in Syria is too long to list. Some speculate that Assad tolerated ISIS (and even buys oil from them) to make him look like the lesser evil and win western support (he kind of is the lesser evil despite his deplorable actions compared to ISIS).
What can we do? Savage people, with an awful tradition of poisoning their own people. Let's better discuss how US air force is bombing Mosul.
There are some 5,000 US ground troops in Iraq with some 450 "advisers" (cough) on the front lines in the deadly door to door clearing of western Mosul neighborhoods. This is deja vu for military who already cleared Mosul once before years ago. The big explosion that leveled a building in Mosul and was blamed on a US targeted air strike apparently exploded a huge booby trap or munitions cache because the explosion was too big to be caused by the munition used.
UN is not working (sure Russia and China - evil axis, block all good US initiatives of bombing someone else) now we don't ask even UN and simply start war. Are the Russians again "rattling their sabres"?
The Russian war ship sent into the region is just a little face saving gesture for Putin, nothing to see here.
Turkey, US, EU wants Assad to go. Ok, start ground operation and wipe Syria from the earth face, kill all bad Syrians and leave good ones. Alas they even don't know who are good guys in opposition and who are terrorists.
But Asad it even worst, CNN told us.
The crux of the problem is what happens after Assad? He has been a bad actor in the region for decades (disrupting the democratic process in lebanon, being a puppet of Iran, etc). I don't see a simple answer, but perhaps a no-fly zone and safe area so millions of Syrian refugees could stay there and not fear being killed by the crossfire.
You afraid of Iran nuclear program? I think they simply don't want their leaders to be called "a regime".
Not afraid but concerned (Israel is probably afraid). The deal pres Obama negotiated just delays their getting nuclear capability some ten years (ASSuming they are not cheating now). Iran just wants more power to have even more influence in the region. They do not appear to be a force for good in the region, so becoming more powerful is not moving things in the right direction.
We've discussed already colonialism elitizm etc. Indeed It seems like modern western people think they still live in the center of the world, all the rest are colonies. A sad picture.
Most western people don't know the rest of the world exists, that's why terrorists blow stuff up, and drive beer trucks into stores to kill shoppers.
Sure, it's just US government game, I hope they understand what they are doing. We love speaking of responsibility and shame. We are responsible of poisoned poor Syrians, don't we?
Russia is just pursuing their own self interest, securing a sea port in Syria and gaining influence with the anti-US team in the middle east. I agree with Pres Trumps instinct to not engage any more deeply in the region. The pin prick missile strike in Syria was just a message, while I expect more than a pin prick in Raqqa/Mosul against ISIS.
Deposing Assad reminds me of Gen Powell's pottery barn rule (if you break it you bought it). We don't need another failed state in the region, while arguably it is not exactly functional now.
JR
