Syria Disintegrating: Part 2

[Tonitrus]

I have not followed developments in Syria or this thread.  So is there a three-way war in Syria now (government, rebels, ISIL)?  Or what?

Close, the "rebels" probably count for at least three more separate factions.

[CountDeMoney]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

[Monoriu]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

What about let-them-fight-it-out-themselves-while-we-watch-from-a-safe-distance?

[CountDeMoney]

Let's not and say we did.

[Tonitrus]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

What about let-them-fight-it-out-themselves-while-we-watch-from-a-safe-distance?

We could have done that...and ISIS would probably be controlling a bit more of Syria (hard to say if Assad would be on the run this fast), and there'd be street battles in Baghdad, and Irbil may have fallen (pretty much a death knell for the Kurds).

Probably some Iranians running amok in there too.

[Viking]

No, the ISIS propaganda campaign towards us is a complete failure. They keep saying that "We want to kill you because you are  infidels!" and we keep ignoring them and blaming ourselves for what they do. It is denying these people agency. If I were denied agency like that I would be angry too.

So what you are saying is that we are to blame for them being angry at us? 

In a tragic case of appearances creating reality, yes, it probably contributes. The more relevant thought here though is that it prevents us from being able to think and act rationally too.

[jimmy olsen]

Well, the two main rebel groups in the east fighting ISIL have surrendered, rendering the Obama strategy, and I'm being charitable, inoperative.  The only rebels still left are concentrated in the west and fighting only against Assad, training rebels to fight ISIL can't wo if there aren't an rebels near them.

Link?

[mongers]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

What about let-them-fight-it-out-themselves-while-we-watch-from-a-safe-distance?

Imagine they're like a large bunch of demonstrators blocking the most important road in the Middle East, the road to peace, what do you think we should do then ?

[Monoriu]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

What about let-them-fight-it-out-themselves-while-we-watch-from-a-safe-distance?

Imagine they're like a large bunch of demonstrators blocking the most important road in the Middle East, the road to peace, what do you think we should do then ?

Nothing, of course. 

[Eddie Teach]

However, it is not clear that there is really a better option out there.

I'd like to see a strategy beyond the usual let's-support-the-least-of-the-worst-now-and-worry-about-them-being-the-worst-later playbook.  But there really isn't one when it comes to these people.

What about let-them-fight-it-out-themselves-while-we-watch-from-a-safe-distance?

And laugh at the stupid Americans for getting mixed up in it? I think you're already following that one. Seems to be working ok.

[Monoriu]

And laugh at the stupid Americans for getting mixed up in it? I think you're already following that one. Seems to be working ok.

Perhaps you should try that one too

[mongers]

Sad that these murders or war crimes are becoming almost routine and not commented on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30076629

US President Barack Obama has condemned the killing of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig as "an act of pure evil".

The Islamic State (IS) militant group released a video showing a masked man standing over a severed head, which the White House confirmed was Mr Kassig.

His parents said he died "as a result of his love for the Syrian people".

Mr Kassig, 26, was taken while working for a refugee group. He is the fifth Western hostage to be killed by IS, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

The president praised Mr Kassig as a humanitarian and said he was "taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity".

"Today we grieve together, yet we also recall that the indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance that burned so brightly in Abdul-Rahman Kassig," he said.

Mr Obama's comments came as he flew back to the US from the G20 summit in Australia.
.....

[Siege]

Syria was the Lion of Damascus.
Emilious Salgary for the win.

The Black Cusair.
Sandokan.
The Captain Storm.

Italian writing for the win.
fuck Shaspekeapear.

[mongers]

Syria was the Lion of Damascus.
Emilious Salgary for the win.

The Black Cusair.
Sandokan.
The Captain Storm.

Italian writing for the win.
fuck Shaspekeapear.

Apparently these cultists are intentionally gathering for what they believe is the end of the world. The video, which I haven't and won't watch, apparently show them unmasked as they go about their murders specifically identifies the place it happened, Dabiq in Syria, which is another place prophesied to be where Armageddon* will start.


* yes I know.

[jimmy olsen]

Wonder what will happen if this turns out to be true? 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-opposition-claims-capture-of-female-russian-soldier/

Syrian opposition claims capture of female Russian soldier

'There is no longer a Syrian army, only Iran-backed militias,' says rebel commander
By Elhanan Miller February 15, 2015, 8:14 pm

For the first time since the eruption of the Syrian revolution almost four years ago, opposition forces have captured a female Russian soldier suspected of operating missile systems recently sent from Moscow to the Assad regime, a Saudi daily reported on Sunday.

According to Al-Watan, the Russian soldier was captured by the Free Syrian Army in the southern front, which has witnessed heavy fighting in recent days between rebel groups and Assad forces backed by Iran and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog, reported last week that 5,000 Iranian and Hezbollah fighters have been deployed to the Quneitra and Daraa provinces, near the border with Israel.

The Syrian rebels have also managed to capture a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer among a group of 40 pro-Assad fighters arrested in recent days. Al-Watan reported that the identity of the men will be exposed within days in order to prove "the involvement of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia in the fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria."

On Saturday, a Syrian opposition group, the al-Furqan Brigades, published footage of an Iranian officer killed in battle. Opposition news website Zaman al-Wasl identified the man as Haj Abbas Abdullahi, one of Iran's most decorated snipers and a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

In an interview with the website on Sunday, Muhammad al-Khatib, commander of the al-Furqan Brigades, estimated that 80% of the fighters combating his forces are "Shiite mercenaries" from countries as far as Pakistan and Afghanistan, assembled under a unit called "the Fatimids Brigade."

"There is no longer a thing called the Syrian Army," Khatib told Zaman al-Wasl. "We are fighting militias from across the world under Iranian command."

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