Russia to dominate Syria and make them a client state. Syria has direct access to the. Mediterranean Ocean. Crimea is only accessed via the Black Sea. If we allow the Russians to play in the Med. We will have a lot of NATO clients freaking out.

...while US forces are there illegally trying to assist ISIS proxies in overthrowing Assad, who was elected by a majority of Syrian citizens.

No geography lesson needed to see that the US has become a rogue terrorist nation.

Sorry,this is pure bullshit. And I supported Hussei in 2003 because I saw that, as bad as he was, a political vacuum in Iraq would destroy the most secular, moderate societyin the region.

...as a sovereign nation to be protected from the international terrorist bully nation the US has become.

Assad, Putin, or Kerry?





,

...principles than personalities.

The US and its allies/clients are beyond international law. We have sufficient power that law is irrelevant to us. That is neither right or wrong, neither good or bad, it is simply fact.

...and it is a very bad thing. This does, of course, not preclude it from being factual.

Every empire on Earth that has ever sought to aggressively expand its borders with the eventual aim of world domination has ended in failure. This too is simply fact.

... the U.S. is not so much seeking to expand its borders as to keep the Russians from expanding theirs, taking "border" in the loose sense of "sphere of influence." Few nations bother with legality when they have the power to do what they want anyway. While Russia does have the color of "legality" in this conflict, it is not like the U.S. and our allies have ever given two damns about that when it didn't serve our purposes.

As to "world domination," I'd suggest that the U.S. is already pretty dominant in economic terms, but that our foreign policy this century has been one of frantically trying to maintain that dominance in the face of muscular new rivals. Frankly, I think turmoil in the Mideast serves our ruling class quite well, while we frack the hell out of our own country and send all the jobs overseas. The current state of the world suits that class very well.

-- Mal

Morals do not apply to us. We have power and power overcomes morals.

What part of thousands of nuclear weapons, and the world's largest and best equipped military do you not get?

This is a putrid lie written on behalf of an anti-American dictator.

...just for once, you'd be willing to provide CREDIBLE links/evidence to support your claim?

Just like his fellow dictator Kim Jong Un.

He then held Potemkin elections, just like his fellow dictator Kim Jong Un.

He managed to win 99.82% of the vote, running unopposed, in 2007. Only a complete moron or shamelessly dishonest hack would put credence in such results.

Syria is a state that murders, tortures, imprisons and commits every single possible human rights abuse against dissidents.

Seems those CREDIBLE links/evidence I mentioned somehow didn't manage to find their way into your reply.

Of course, groundless smear rhetoric doesn't generally come with credible supporting links now does it?

but, here's a starter

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/14/dictator-son-assad-grip-power

...drink this one in. And no need to thank me, Geek. Always happy to shine the light of truth for those still stumbling about in the darkness of Western media propaganda concerning Syria:

https://m.

Oh, your laptop is in the Kremlin.

are positioning accordingly.

Been waiting for it, now seems to be here.

If I am not mistaken, Turkey & US just invaded Syria with the consent/acquiescence of God and everybody.

Time to kill a few Kurds, I reckon.

But I'm not so sure the game will change in 2017 as Purveyor suggests, unless to make it even more intense. Mrs Clinton is no dove, and nor is Mr Trump.

-- Mal

I think they will be protected East of the Euphrates, and in Afrin, but if they try to take Jarablus they will be on their own. What happens to Manbij I don't know, I would guess not much, the Turks will not stray too far from the border.

Any settlement of this dispute acceptable to most of the regional and international meddlers requires on the one hand that the Kurds be corralled, all this breaking off of little nationalist pieces of countries has to stop, and on the other hand that they (the Kurds) be pacified, nobody really wants to take them on in what is now de facto their turf. Assad gave them autonomy and they have given a good account of themselves in defending it. If you want the war settled, they have to be taken into account. They also represent our seat at the negotiating table, so I think we will not just abandon them.

The Turks need to settle things with their own Kurds too, and they need to shore up Erdogan and the credibility of the Turkish military, so there is an element of theatrics in this offensive, it's a demonstration, not an invasion or occupation.

Almost everybody agrees now that ISIS has to go and Assad is not going any time soon.

And I think the idea is to have a political settlement in place, or mostly in place, by about January.

The argument seems more to be about how those align and which ones will allow which pipelines to cross (there are multiple lines wishing to use these lands).

And generally there is a lot of hypocrisy and deceit around that, too. The "West" set a bad precedent with Kosovo, but it's not like we are unique in our hypocrisy about territorial ambitions and wanting to rule over others.

But in the case of the Kurds, the regional powers with substantial Kurdish populations all agree it's a bad idea for the Kurds to do it, and for sure they (the Kurds) would be smack in the way of all those prospective pipelines etc., and that may well have something to do with the general acquiescence (Russia, US, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, China, India, they all agree) to the Turks stepping in to keep a path for pipelines open there. But the major justification they all mention is territorial integrity of Syria, i.e. no Kurdish state, or statelet.

And Turkey falling further into disfunction is not good for anybody either, Syria is quite enough, so efforts will be made all around to shore up Erdogan, he is the man at the moment, like it or not. You will note Putin was very "pragmatic" about making up with Erdogan once he apologized. I doubt that betokens renewed trust on Putin's part.

I rely mainly on the fact that the Russians are supporting the Turkish incursion, are allowing it, and that Erdogan went to suck up to Putin before doing it, so I assume there must be some boundaries set on how far the Turks may go in their demonstration and how long they may stay without consequences.

Read the Amnesty International reports on Syria. The Assad-regime is imprisoning and torturing tens of thousands. And thousands have already been tortured to death or executed.

and who drools with admiration over Vladimir Putin.

Last edited Wed Aug 24, 2016, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

I always have a laugh at certain pseudo-leftist writers who seriously think everything going wrong in Syria can be blamed on Washington...

I mean, FFS the writer could at least have the decency to amend his sensationalist headline to "Turkey invades Syria", which would at least be accurate...

Analysis: Turkey Invades Syria As Race For Northern Aleppo Heats Up

http://www.rferl.org/content/tracking-islamic-state-turkey-syria-northern-aleppo-kurds/27944150.html

It's a right-wing propaganda outlet: