Mr Hammer wrote on Feb 20
th, 2018 at 12:58pm:
Mattyfisk wrote on Feb 20
th, 2018 at 12:55pm:
Mr Hammer wrote on Feb 20
th, 2018 at 12:50pm:
Mattyfisk wrote on Feb 20
th, 2018 at 12:44pm:
Setanta wrote on Feb 19
th, 2018 at 11:29pm:
Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Feb 19
th, 2018 at 11:23pm:
Setanta wrote on Feb 19
th, 2018 at 11:04pm:
Aussie wrote on Feb 19
th, 2018 at 9:16pm:
Fight for your country, don't run away. Aren't you glad those cowardly french men and women built the resistance to help us in WW2 rather than running away? Did we we see mass exodus of the French?
Many were collaborationistes ... remember the Vichy troops fought against the Allies in North Africa until persuaded to change sides, and the Vichy French fought Australians for six weeks in Syria, causing many casualties.
Je suis Inspecteur Cliche` de le Bureau des Etandardes Deuxiemes.. ze BED ....... I know zees things.... eet ees part of our mission state-mont.....
Vichy France was the lower half, occupied France did not run away. Do you disagree with them fighting for their country?(Arabs I mean, like the occupied French did?)
Brits did not leave en mass to the US, they stayed and fought for their country. Have something against that one too Grap?
The Brits organised bomb shelters and safe refuge for women and children - some even came to Australia.
Syria is run by a tyrant and a foreign power who don't care about protecting the population. The civil war started with televised footage of kids tortured and killed by the Assad regime.
BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM.
Is it possible that many Syrians hate Assad because he's Shia?
Hard to say, Homo. Is it possible many Syrians hate Assad because they want democracy?
Don't many of those groups fighting in Syria see Shia as kuffar? The best thing for Syria would be for it to be divided up according to ethnicity and sect. A madhouse like that can't be unified. It's too divided by all sorts of silly reasons.
Most of the militias fighting in Syria are secular or nationalist movements. The Kurds have done a lot of the grunt-work on the ground, and they're opposed by the Turks, who've done some of the bombing.
There are communists, liberals and social democratic militias, some funded by Uncle and the CIA. There are Sunni militias - some funded by the Saudis. The majority of Syrians are Sunni, but that's not what this civil war is about.
The Syrian war started during the Arab Spring. It's about democracy, not religion. Unlike Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, Assad was backed by Iran and Russia. The US stayed out because they didn't want another Iraq. This was Putin's entry into the Middle East - he saw the vacuum after Afghanistan and Iraq. He took his opportunity.
Closer to home, he took the Ukraine. Here, he got universal condemnation. This led to the breakup of US/Russian relations. It's why Putin turned against Hillary, and in 2016, backed Trump.
For Obama, this complicated the US stance on Syria. Deposing Assad would mean fighting the Russians. The US settled on a policy of regime change some time down the track, but like Iraq, it had no alternative leadership options, so that's unlikely. Talks with Putin went nowhere.
As Kissenger said, what the US lacks is a policy on
Putin. It finally got one when it sanctioned Russia for meddling in the 2016 election. These sanctions have had an impact on the Russian economy. They've had an important impact on Putin's oligarch friends, many of whom own banks forbidden from doing business in the US - the world's largest economy.
This is why the Trump campaign's talks with Russia about sanctions are so relevant. The sanctions are working. Trump clearly wants to loosen them to repay Putin. Here we have a geopolitical game of quid-pro-quo, not for any geopolitical reasons, but reasons known only to Trump and Putin.