Might have translated/transcribed the guy’s name as Arabs are wont to do? I know in Saudi they gave me a weird combo of my and my dad’s first name and my hometown as a surname.
Indeed it takes a gross ignorance of the history of the Assads and their relationship with the Soviets and then the Russians to write as if the Assad have not spend the past 50 years as the clients of them.
The cartoonish strawman expectation that the Assads would ruin under the eyes of the foreign watchers the simplification of their problem in getting the people out of the difficult urban landscape, that is a strawman.
Of course they have spent the past months bombarding the civilians, including the hospitals etc. - the mere refrain from an active massacre during a highly surveilled evacuation that was in their military interest is impressive to you?
That is in fact laughable.
You keep asserting what are essentially baseless, rooted in the dezinformatsia and ingorance of the actual history.
The Assad regime has been in the business of the murder, the assasination of the civilians whose only crime is to oppose politically, and for many years now. It was indeed such actions that started the open warfare - the finding of the evidence of his death squads murdering by torture the young boys who committed the grave crime of writing slogans on a wall.
It is not at all counter productive to continue his terror based rule, it is the esential of his rule and which there is the long history (but of course so frequently for the americans, history is the past 5 minutes…).
It is of course to be celebrated he will return from his current terror method of the bombardment of the hospitals by the artillery and the warplanes, to the older kinder method of the night time death squad he was using before the units of the army began to defect away.
What can be called as delusional in the end is the amnesiac excuse making for the Assad… and blind repetition of the Assad - Russian desinformatsia…
I am sure it will have all the success of the Habib brokered accords of the Lebanese war. But of course there is no history, only the imaginings fed by the consumption of Putin information.
[quote=“aldiboronti, post:60, topic:773313”]
But I’m also able to regard his actions in the Middle East through eyes unclouded by prejudice.
[quote]
Or information or understanding of the region, but well filled with the naïve imaginings…
Indeed and he has the demonstrated track record.
Precisely, there was no immediate interest for Assad to commit the massacre under the watchful eyes and lose the advantage of getting the problem populations out of the more defendable dense city landcape.
And in the controlled areas, it is the return to the old methods…
**Ramira **the choice in Syria is not between Assad and freedom. The choice is between an establishted government (Assad) and Anarchy. Any established government is better than anarchy.
There is no doubt that Assad deserves to be deposed. The problem is that America has over-extended herself and long ago lost the taste for walking deeper into the quicksand of the Middle East. And Putin is now using Assad’s regime to weaken the American position globally while Iran seeks an expansion of its regional influence. America will eventually leave the region weakened politically and otherwise.
Of course, the revolution failed in 2012 already.
The choice may be between a government of the Assads and an anarchy, but there is no basis to pretend that the Assad regime is other than it is and celebrate it like our OP (or engage in the bizarre ahistorical statements about “now” Assad is in the russian pocket when it has been a case for the entire regime from the begining of the Baathist regime to the dentist…, for more than 50 years)
With the multitude of the factions, I do not see any result different than the Lebanese experience.
Dentist? What? Do you know which Assad we’re talking about?
If it were true that a group of U.S./Israeli/Gulf states military personnel were captured in Aleppo in the opposition areas, Assad would have paraded them out for the world to see, Geneva Conventions prohibitions be damned. Why resort to publishing a bunch of very-likely made-up names when trotting out a group of people before cameras would expose everything to the world? But the idea that various Gulf states militaries would work directly and personally (as opposed to doing so through intermediaries or back channels) with the Israeli military is the most ludicrous part.
The opposition controlled (or even Da’esh controlled) parts of Syria aren’t simply anarchy zones. Any repressive, murderous, minority sect dictator and government is destined to fall whenever they begin brutalizing and killing their people and giving their minority sect/group preferential treatment. Hoping that government can maintain power to prevent anarchy is merely delaying the inevitable. Situations like South Africa, where the system can be dismantled peacefully are very rare exceptions. Such a system that has been maintained for decades will likely take at least a decade or more to fully unwind, like Iraq is proving.
Assad’s forces haven’t been making much progress outside of the Aleppo area lately and in fact have backslid in areas like Palmyra which Da’esh has retaken. Even with the current levels of Russian, Iranian, and Hizbollah military support, Assad does not seem to have the manpower to reconquer all of Syria. Even if he did have sufficient forces, a complete Assad win would simply mean another civil war 20-30 years down the road to either try again to depose Assad or his heir or a scramble between officials if Assad were internally deposed.
ah yes eye doctor
Forget the Israel/American lens, through Arab/Muslim lens, Hezbollah I age and that of Iran have declined rapidly since he conflict in Syria has grind on. This is in sharp contrast to what was high favorable ratings in the summer of 2006 at the height of the Israeli Lebanese conflict.
People in the region see through their own lens, that Hezbollah is now nothing but a puppet of the theocratic sectarian, terrorist government in Tehran, and helping a brutal dictator in Assad, to murder civilians. Hezbollah is also a trouble maker is Lebanon, it was the one stalling the election of a president for TWO YEARS!!! While it said it would support Michel Aoun or some other candidate, it never showed to parliament to get the process going. Finally few months ago, Lebanon elected Michel Aoun as president of Lebanon, ending a two year vacancy in the office.
Plus they have created an army within a state in Lebanon, if hey were to bomb Israel, and the Jewish state retaliated, Lebanon would again be dragged into conflict like ten years ago.
They are a trouble makers, their role is no longer needed. In the 1980s and 1990s when Israel was occupying southern Lebanon, it all made sense.
Takfiri makfiri. The Middle East is waking up to their true nature.
Nonsense. If you think all this was because of a pipeline, I have a bridge I can sell you with help from the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. Oh don’t forget Santa Claus.
But if what is happening in Syria is not anarchy or hell, I don’t know what is. If it does improve, after how long do we stop relying on Assad as the answer? Six more years, 12 years? When/what will happen to convince people that Assad is not the answer. Or shou,d three million be killed and Assad is the best choice?
I take a dump on that list. Sounds fake to me.
I stead let’s talk about why Russia and Assad, the great defenders against terrorists, are not bombing ISIS in Palmyra? Or that how his beloved, popular leader who is only defending his DEAR Syria has to rely on Afghan mercenaries that are forced and coerced by the Iranian regime to fight for him?
Your sick admiration for killers like Putin, Assad and Iranian mullahs on the other hand…
Your licking of the Saudi, Qatari and Al Qaeda scum on the other hand…
Oh yes he effective because Obama never really answer to him. Let’s see usurping territory from Ukraine via a fake referendum held in one week, garnering sanctions and getting kicked out of the G7. Oh and now knee deep involved in Syria.
Are you insane? At least you don’t view Obama as war criminal, so there is a semblance.