# Syria, Russia and China?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 3, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905 "2013-09-03T17:35:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/1 "2013-09-03T17:35:59Z")

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Is anyone concerned about the possibility of Russia or China getting involved if the Americans start lobbing bombs into Syria? As far as I can tell the Russians and Americans are already fighting a war by proxy and if the States ups the anti, will Russia or China follow suit?  
I am going to guess that stuff like this is not helping things:

> **[Israel and U.S. Conduct Missile Test in Mediterranean (Published 2013)](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/world/middleeast/israel-us-missile-mediterranean.html?_r=0)**
>
> The testing of the Sparrow target missile caused concern in Russia and Syria, given the tensions over a possible American military strike on Syria.

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**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/2 "2013-09-03T18:52:28Z")

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It’s not impossible, but I would find it incredibly unlikely.

China and US are too big of trading partners to want to screw that up with a military dustup in some backwards hellhole.

Russia is too busy disintegrating - they only like Syria because Syria buys military hardware from them. Heck, it might be good for Russia - US blows up all the Syrian hardware, Russia makes another sale.

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**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/3 "2013-09-03T19:13:15Z")

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Seems unlikely. What do they have to gain by getting mixed up in this beyond vetoing any UN resolution advocating military action or condemning any unilateral US actions?

China and Russia love nothing better than to see the west spend fortunes on wars in small middle eastern nations that neither one cares very much about.

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**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/4 "2013-09-03T19:20:41Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> What do they have to gain by getting mixed up in this beyond vetoing any UN resolution advocating military action or condemning any unilateral US actions?

I am under the impression that Russia is already involved by supply weapons to the Assad Regime. I though they said they would increase their help proportionately to the US involvement.

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**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/5 "2013-09-03T19:22:47Z")

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I’m not convinced of the need for war, but no, I think there’s almost no chance of Russia getting directly involved (in the sense of having the Russian military shooting at the US military).

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**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/syria-russia-and-china/667905/6 "2013-09-03T20:26:02Z")

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> [@JFLuvly](#):
>
> I am under the impression that Russia is already involved by supply weapons to the Assad Regime. I though they said they would increase their help proportionately to the US involvement.

If US attacks some Syrian tanks and missile batteries (Russian supplied), then Russia will sell them some more. But I don’t see Russia getting in the fight trying to prevent the US from striking those sites.