Russia in Syria

[Big Guy]

Looks like the Russians are winning this civil war in Syria on behalf of Assad. The Saudi's rattled their swords (They are still bombing the bejeebers out of Yemen) threatening to send ground troops. Putin said no and if you do we'll send them home in a box. The Saudis have reconsidered.

Kerry has stated that he has brokered a "deal" with Russia to have a temporary stoppage in 10 days. It looks like in 10 days Assad will be in control of all of Syria. Meanwhile, Putin "has accused the US of dividing terror groups into “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists” and hopes the USA and Canada can agree on who are what.

Sound like what Big Guy has been saying here for the last year

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/15/john-kerry-moscow-vladimir-putin-syria-strategy-sergei-lavrov

The Americans are condemning the Russians for killing civilians during their bombing raids. Wow! Killing civilians!!!

Thank goodness the Americans do not kill civilians but just create "acceptable collateral damage".

And some Canadians still want to see Canada as part of this Kabuki theater

[Big Guy]

Try this one on for size:

Syria is still a sovereign nation led by Assad.

Turkish Kurds have captured some land in northern Syria. Turkey has told them to get out and is starting to bomb them. Russia has warned that any Turkish planes over Syria will be shot down. Turkey are with us in the coalition. The Kurds are with us in the coalition. The Kurds are one of the few ground troops fighting ISIS. American Kerry is trying a temporary truce and is talking to Russia to try to figure out who are terrorists and who are not terrorists.

Fortunately, Canada will soon not have any planes flying over ISIS/Kurd/Syrian/Rebel/Turkish land.

Unfortunately we will help train troops: The Turkish or Syrian rebel or Kurd or Iraqi or Jordanian or .... ? I guess we will be training anybody who is not shooting at us on any given day.

Madness!!

Get Canada out of this fiasco of civil wars.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Big Guy

[Hoser360]

Things are not looking good. It appears that Turkey is slowly stepping up it's operations.

RT is all over it and the American media is playing dumb.

I can't imagine that the American's (and their coalition) don't have a plan. I can't imagine that any of the current events there were not foreseen by either side. How far it goes? Perhaps the whole situation is a distraction for other plans.

“Listen carefully, Feyd,” the Baron said. “Observe the plans within plans within plans.” Frank Herbert's Dune

[bush_cheney2004]

Things are not looking good. It appears that Turkey is slowly stepping up it's operations.

RT is all over it and the American media is playing dumb.

What is Canadian media doing ? Any greater insights ? Does Trudeau have firm command of the sitch ?

[Hoser360]

What is Canadian media doing ? Any greater insights ? Does Trudeau have firm command of the sitch ?

Canadian media doesn't seem to notice, at least not on the surface of the news reports. (in the last few years I have all but given up on Canadian press to do any real reporting on international affairs, but, I still hope)

I think Trudeau is so far out of his league he doesn't know what to do and is listening to his military advisers. The fact that we are ending our roll in the air campaign in Syria is good step; not sure what to make of the special forces going into Northern Iraq to 'train/advise' the Kurd's.

"greater insight?" well I honestly don't know what to make of the whole situation accept to say that it seems that we are at the end of the beginning, and at the beginning of the middle game (I played a lot of chess in my early years with an old Bulgarian man and I think that is how he would have described it). With Turkey using the same G.W. Bush rhetoric 'if your not with us your against us' (referring to the Kurd's and the US position), and the the UAE and Saudi suggesting they are ready to commit ground troops..... It's a bit of a cluster F... I guess I suspect that NATO (US) want to draw Iran and Russia into a much larger protracted ground war. True to the US M.O. they will get everyone else to get the fight going full steam first, and wait until things look dire for their friends (selling them all weapons in the mean time- lots of credit too) and after their is enough destruction some crazy Jihadist will attack America, and then Americans will go to war whole sale without an executive order; or something like that.

“Listen carefully, Feyd,” the Baron said. “Observe the plans within plans within plans.” Frank Herbert's Dune[/size]

[Big Guy]

So some bombers dropped a few bombs in Northern Syria on hospitals and killed all kinds of doctors and civilians. The Syrian rebels say it was the Russians or Assad, the Russians say it was the Americans or Turks. The Turks say it was Assad or Russia or another member of the coalition. Maybe it was the Canadians?

Nobody knows.

Why do we still have any Canadians in this shooting gallery of the blind?

Lets get our folks out of that joke of a war of civil wars.

[Big Guy]

Now that Russia had tipped the war towards Assad, it is starting to pull its airplanes out while still fiercely protecting its bases in Syria:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-pullout-idUKKCN0WG23F

Russia jumped into this fiasco, cemented its control of its bases, encouraged peace talks and is now pulling out. It looks like Putin has decided that he has no intention of getting deeply involved in that civil war. I assume that he remembers Russian involvement in Afghanistan, does not want to repeat those mistakes and Russia has learned those lessons.

It seems the West and Canada has not.

And you wonder why Putin popularity is about 90% with the people of Russia.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/22/europe/russia-putin-poll/

[eyeball]

And you wonder why Putin popularity is about 90% with the people of Russia.

Remember how impressed GWB was after gazing into Putin's eyes? Justin Trudeau's admiration for China's government comes to mind as well. I can't help but wonder about the levels of dopamine and other chemicals that are released into powerful people's brains on occasion - like powerful drugs with an ability to confer a contact high.

Exposing politicians and governments to great amounts of power without adequate checks and balances in place is also like exposing them to radiation without shielding. In this analogy however the governed are the likeliest to be poisoned by the fallout.

[Big Guy]

Remember how impressed GWB was after gazing into Putin's eyes? Justin Trudeau's admiration for China's government comes to mind as well. I can't help but wonder about the levels of dopamine and other chemicals that are released into powerful people's brains on occasion - like powerful drugs with an ability to confer a contact high.

Exposing politicians and governments to great amounts of power without adequate checks and balances in place is also like exposing them to radiation without shielding. In this analogy however the governed are the likeliest to be poisoned by the fallout.

I have to go with the stats. I personally have very little use for Putin but I am a patriotic Canadian. Putin does not do things for patriotic Canadians. He does things for patriotic Russians - that is why he is so popular.

Americans celebrate some of their Presidents - those that did good things for America.

We have just finished with 10 years under a PM who thought that what was good for the USA was good for Canada.

I hope that now we have a PM who thinks that what Canada does is good for Canada. He may attain the same popularity as Putin in Russia.

[Topaz]

My view on Putin is he's not perfect, is corrupt but he not anymore corrupt then some other leaders in the world. Most leaders want peace in the world and just ask yourself which countries or country have been a war for the last 10-15 years and ask why and how many of thousands of people have died because of their "country's interest".

[Big Guy]

Russia is backing off and leaving a vacuum to be filled. It did not take long for the Kurds to declare a new federal region for northern Syria. They will soon be annexing Northern Iraq. They are winning their part of that civil war and may be content to let ISIS carve up Eastern Syria and part if Iraq.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/syria-civil-war-kurds-declare-federal-system-north-160317111902534.html

Not sure what the difference is between the Kurds declaring their new state taken by force and ISIS declaring their new state of ISIL taken by force.

When are we going to get out of that civil war and allow the different ethnic groups on the ground to divvy up those failed states (failures that we created) and set boundaries depending on what they, the people want?

[eyeball]

The Kurds seem to be the most deserving of anyone in the region to a country.

I'm betting if they don't get one, it'll be the next big reason for staying mired up to our armpits in the quag.

[Big Guy]

Good news - ISIS is being pushed out of Palmyra Syria.

Bad news - it is Assad doing the pushing.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/syria-palmyra-160324104418510.html

Syria, recently losing the military cover of Russia, appears to be the only country having any success against ISIS.

What is going on? The coalition led by the powerful USA seems to by flying around and once in a while hitting a terrorist. The $billions invested in this war are being wasted with little to show for it.

Canada recently showed some smarts by taking our planes out of this turkey shoot. Time to take all out troops out and let this civil war progress its end.

[Queenmandy85]

Good news - ISIS is being pushed out of Palmyra Syria.

Bad news - it is Assad doing the pushing.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/syria-palmyra-160324104418510.html

Syria, recently losing the military cover of Russia, appears to be the only country having any success against ISIS.

What is going on? The coalition led by the powerful USA seems to by flying around and once in a while hitting a terrorist. The $billions invested in this war are being wasted with little to show for it.

Canada recently showed some smarts by taking our planes out of this turkey shoot. Time to take all out troops out and let this civil war progress its end.

Why is it bad news that Assad is doing the pushing? He is probably the only one who can restore order to Syria. If he goes, Syria will become another failed state like Libya.

[Big Guy]

Why is it bad news that Assad is doing the pushing? He is probably the only one who can restore order to Syria. If he goes, Syria will become another failed state like Libya.

I stand corrected and agree with you.

I assumed that most people would have hoped that it was the coalition who was making these gains but that would have led to another power vacuum - and we know what happens then.

[Hoser360]

I stand corrected and agree with you.

I assumed that most people would have hoped that it was the coalition who was making these gains but that would have led to another power vacuum - and we know what happens then.

And if the 'coalition' did get what they wanted and Assad was gone by their hands, these crazy jihadists would no doubt be off to Iran next, once they mopped up the Kurds.