hot dragon

Park dedicated to North Korean founder Kim Il Sung opens in Damascus | The Japan Times

hands up all those who want boots on the ground to defend this regime.

coke

I am not sure anyone wants to defend that regime, but, that regime compared to ISIS? What is it lefties say all the time? Something about Saddam was a asshole but should have been left alone to keep stability. Syria is probably the same thing. So, if your choice is the Syrian regime or ISIS, I think I will take Syria. Besides the dog and pony show is because North Korea did actually attempt to send weapons to Syrian government a few times. I think some ships were seized etc. etc.

imaginethat

Putin and Kim are cozy.

Syria is a Russian ally and has been since the 50s. Damascus is in danger. Assad's forces have been routed. Russian forces in Syria mirror Russian forces in east Ukraine. Many forget that the Ukrainians were in the process of defeating the rebel forces of east Ukraine before the Russkis stepped in.

Putin's making another mistake. Russia hasn't had an Afghanistan event in a while. Now Putin has created one. Assad is NOT popular. His regime cannot survive. And Putin is supporting Assad.

It should be fun to watch, except for maybe some mid-air incidents between US and Russian fighters, accidents of course.

coke

I kind of disagree with you. I think Assed comes out of this. For starters his regime has survived and the key parts of his nation are still intact. I also think Putin and Russia will back him. Hell they do have boots on the ground. It becomes an Afghanistan moment if they take off chasing bad guys. So, you might be right if they do that. But, if they just hold the line and defend the rebel groups are to splintered and fighting among themselves. The mid-air events will be between Israel and Russia as well. I watched Israeli fighters in 2012 dropping flares all over Russian ships going into Syria. That water plume coming up from a mach plus plane, yeah, that's pretty cool to watch in real life. Putin is a total asshole, but he is a smart asshole. They sit back, let the Americans provide the air support, hold the line and they win. The question is, does Putin get greedy and go after the oil. That could turn into Afghanistan moment.

coke

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-0...-near-damascus

TNVolunteer73

Putin hit the reset button, and restarted the Cold war. Remember when everyone laughed at Romney, well they have a large order of crow to eat today.

imaginethat

Whose oil?

And I've got to disagree with you on Putin. Russian propaganda always portrays him as a superman. The propaganda has even scored points in the West. He's no superman. He's an "ex"-KGB agent and acts just like one once you get past his propaganda facade.

At some point I'm convinced that the Russian people turn on him. His burning European food when many Russians are hungry was a serious miscalculation. It's the first thing he's done to piss off the people, many of whom live in poverty worse than anything we have going on.

US coalition raids are NOT focused on protecting Damascus. That task will fall to the Russians'. They will have to do something, and quickly. They will have no need to chase bad guys' asses as the rebels are advancing on Damascus, and they're waxing Assad's military in the process.

Call it Russia's Iraq. Pacifying the country is farther out of the question in Syria than it is in Iraq. The Russian people have no stomach for generations-long support for Assad or anyone else. Unlike the US, the Russian military is mostly conscripts and every Russian Federation male spends at least a year in the military.

imaginethat

Zerohedge has been predicting the apocalypse, all Obama's fault btw, for too long now.

However, the problem with US and Russian planes flying combat missions in Syria is simple.

Russia is there to battle ISIS and the Syrian rebels.

We've been supporting the rebels.

What happens when we are flying support for the rebels, who are battling Assad, and the Russkis are hitting them? There's the sticky wicket in the situation.

imaginethat

The world has dramatically changed since 2011-2012, but even so Russia is not our top geopolitical foe. That title belongs to Islamic extremism in the form of ISIS. The US and Russia aren't going to square off with nuclear weapons, nor even conventionally.

So maybe it's Romney that has crow on the menu.

hot dragon

i disagree.
the key parts of syria may be in tact, but more than half the country is occupied by IS and they are advancing. assad has multiple enemies and no support in his own region. he is failing now and isnt going to win long term. all russia might achieve is to slow down his fall.

if russia does jump in, they become the defacto government of eastern syria, and they become the target for IS. then it becomes afghanistan again. and russia doesnt need the oil, they have their own huge reserves, they might like to have a warm water port on the mediterranean but is this important enough to warrant billions of roubles and a few hundred deaths per year?

IS need legitimacy, and a recognised city that has previously been the capital of a caliphate will earn them a huge psychological win and increase their support globally. earlier they were aiming for baghdad, but they seem to have cut that idea and are going for damascus. they will probably get it. assad might go into exile in russia, if he survives.

unless russia jumps in with all guns blazing, and goes for scorched earth policy, exterminating anyone who looks like they might have once even helped anyone who has opposed assad. in that case they will be fighting multiple groups of guerilla forces, capable of melting into the civilian population. they will right where the US was in iraq and afghanistan, or they will just say fuck it, and accept several million civilian casualties.