Syria

[Badger11]

I doubt any one will miss Assad an odious little tyrant.

However the Islamic rebels who are taking over may be just as bad or even worse.

Already the siren voices in the media are claiming that this is a disaster for the UK and we need to get involved otherwise there will be extremist attacks in our high street.

Sorry but I disagree, terrorists don't need an excuse and besides we are already putting up with their acts of violence.

I have no interest in the UK getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East. I would take a leaf out of Trump and tell these people we will leave them alone as long as they do the same.

 

[Spiderman]

I doubt any one will miss Assad an odious little tyrant.

However the Islamic rebels who are taking over may be just as bad or even worse.

Already the siren voices in the media are claiming that this is a disaster for the UK and we need to get involved otherwise there will be extremist attacks in our high street.

Sorry but I disagree, terrorists don't need an excuse and besides we are already putting up with their acts of violence.

I have no interest in the UK getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East. I would take a leaf out of Trump and tell these people we will leave them alone as long as they do the same.

Presumably all the Syrian refugees who fled Assad’s regime will now return?

 

[eaglesdare]

Country's like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq need a "tyrant" or dictator. Can't say any of those country's are better off now without a Gaddafi or a Hussain.

 

[Stirlingsays]

I doubt any one will miss Assad an odious little tyrant.

However the Islamic rebels who are taking over may be just as bad or even worse.

Already the siren voices in the media are claiming that this is a disaster for the UK and we need to get involved otherwise there will be extremist attacks in our high street.

Sorry but I disagree, terrorists don't need an excuse and besides we are already putting up with their acts of violence.

I have no interest in the UK getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East. I would take a leaf out of Trump and tell these people we will leave them alone as long as they do the same.

Funny that we get ourselves involved in a cold war with Russia and then once it becomes clear that Russia can't be defeated in Ukraine Nato member Turkey gets free rein to support 'Rebels' (Islamists) with lots of money and equipment to take over Syria.....Russia doesn't have the means to defend Assad (where Assad is rumoured to now reside).

You ask yourself what do we get out of removing Assad and replacing him with Islamists?......Who benefits?

To me that most obvious answer to that is Turkey.....It appears that the US have stabbed the Kurds in the back and allowed the Turks free reign on them. Considering that it was the Kurds who fought ISIS but trusted the US it's the kind of disloyalty that only the South Vietnamize and future Ukrainians could tell about.

For Nato it's a double edged sword, as while it is a set back for Putin and Iran it's arguably worse as we have replaced a secular leader with another Islamist regime.

There is one country joined at the hip with another that benefits which we haven't mentioned where causing this discord for Russia and Iran would please.....Mmmm...I wonder just who that might be....Much to chew on over that one.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

Already the siren voices in the media are claiming that this is a disaster for the UK and we need to get involved otherwise there will be extremist attacks in our high street.

back in the day, terrorists used sophisticated & 'difficult to acquire' bombs. Today we have websites. Websites telling spotty kids in Croydon to a) rob a van and b) crash it into a coffee shop terrace. Or to buy a ten quid knife and do something similar.

My opinion : its virtually impossible to use the intelligence community to stamp out this type of terrorism. Its a culture war. An ideological war.

Assad was a Hitler. Friend to the Kremlin, if i remember correctly ? Now to be replaced by some other son of a b1..tch. The monster is dead. Longlive the monster.

 

[steeleye20]

The surprise vote in the HOC against Cameron over Syria in 2015 was the only good thing they did in the decade.

Was it Obama again a CIA plot apparently, one of Netanyahu's hit list of countries the USA for some reason is obligated to enact?

It is just too complex to be understood, the innocents as always to suffer.

👎

 

[PalazioVecchio]

I doubt any one will miss Assad an odious little tyrant.

He has been the boss over there for a hell of a long time. The toppling of him is therefore a big deal. I cannot claim to know enough of the Middle East to be bothered analysing it. But this smells of more WWIII stuff.
The big Powers pulling strings in the background .....and all that.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

Country's like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq need a "tyrant" or dictator. Can't say any of those country's are better off now without a Gaddafi or a Hussain.

maybe us too. Weak wishy-washy 'leaders' have destroyed the UK & Ireland. Democracy gives what representation to an Oxford professor of Politics ? the same as a semi literate, semi criminal, drunken oaf on a park bench. Idiots who vote for the good looking candidate.

There is surely a reasonable balance ? somewhere between too much democracy (italy), and too little ( Hitler/Stalin/Assad ).

How a candidate’s looks may be swinging your vote (without you even realising it)

Research shows that in elections with low information and poor engagement, candidate attractiveness plays a significant role in how people vote.

theconversation.com

 

[eaglesdare]

maybe us too. Weak wishy-washy 'leaders' have destroyed the UK & Ireland. Democracy gives what representation to an Oxford professor of Politics ? the same as a semi literate, semi criminal, drunken oaf on a park bench. Idiots who vote for the good looking candidate.

There is surely a reasonable balance ? somewhere between too much democracy (italy), and too little ( Hitler/Stalin/Assad ).

How a candidate’s looks may be swinging your vote (without you even realising it)

Research shows that in elections with low information and poor engagement, candidate attractiveness plays a significant role in how people vote.

theconversation.com

Maybe you are right.
I feel in countries like UK and Ireland we are given an illusion of choice. When it's just all the same no matter what people think they are voting for.

 

[Badger11]

He has been the boss over there for a hell of a long time. The toppling of him is therefore a big deal. I cannot claim to know enough of the Middle East to be bothered analysing it. But this smells of more WWIII stuff.
The big Powers pulling strings in the background .....and all that.

Agreed. It stinks that their friends in the media are already claiming this will impact us on the streets of Britain. Would these be the same journos who told us that we were at risk from Iraqi WMD's.

The best thing we can do is keep out of it.

 

[Stirlingsays]

maybe us too. Weak wishy-washy 'leaders' have destroyed the UK & Ireland. Democracy gives what representation to an Oxford professor of Politics ? the same as a semi literate, semi criminal, drunken oaf on a park bench. Idiots who vote for the good looking candidate.

There is surely a reasonable balance ? somewhere between too much democracy (italy), and too little ( Hitler/Stalin/Assad ).

How a candidate’s looks may be swinging your vote (without you even realising it)

Research shows that in elections with low information and poor engagement, candidate attractiveness plays a significant role in how people vote.

theconversation.com

Yep, it's called the democratic system and process working as it was originally written down and intended to, based upon classical liberal, meritocratic and other common sense ideas.

However, that system, much like all systems, became (or perhaps always was) corrupted by donors and other monied interests and their lobby groups. Intelligence and security institutions also reached beyond their original remits and started manipulating media and government themselves (the sexed up dossier and 'nudge units' being a UK example and that's even discounting their paid public faces) It became a domain of unelected control via the civil service and other over powerful agendaed institutions here.....called the deep state or the Blob in the US.

Collectively it's why you can't, in truth, have that ideal of a democracy that we were all sold growing up.

While we can probably count ourselves lucky that we aren't Russia/Ukraine or the middle east in terms of leadership.....Nevertheless what we have has fallen far from those ideals we were sold.

That said all systems, even the ones we don't like.....if the leader has common sense and genuinely cares about their people, it can work.....the system matters but the people in control of that system matter just as much.

It's why we have such cause for concern in the modern world.....not least our own systems as our elite class are below average....in some cases dangerously so.

 

[Matov]

Wheels within wheels within wheels. Truth be told, an utterly bizarre few days in Syria. Would love to have even a modicum of a clue as to what is/has played out but not got a scooby even after trying to read/listen/watch around it all.

My own take, and its based more on perhaps wishful/fantasy thinking is that perhaps this is a real 4D chess fix going on.

The attempts to effect regime change in Syria has been a Western/Israel desire for well over a decade now. But Assad, with Iranian and Russian help, along with an army that can perform resisted. A genuine tick in the fail box for the usual suspects. They threw everything at it, including literally presenting chemical warfare attacks as being done by the Assad regime when it fact they were carried out by those opposing him.

But now we are meant to believe that the rebels just literally stroll into Damascus with barely a shot fired?

My take, and happy for it to be shot to flames, is that a peace deal is in the offing for Ukraine which will effectively give Russia what it wants. With Syria the price to be paid so that the West/Israel can get its win there. Russia will get to keeps its warm-water port, Israel with have Syria reduced to a new Libya with various factional conflicts breaking out within a matter of weeks. And the Kurds will get f***ed over, again. Just like they always do. Iran can be shown to also take a loss with the only unknown in the mix being Turkey. Playing its own game as per usual. Perhaps the most intriguing player in all of this.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

My take, and happy for it to be shot to flames, is that a peace deal is in the offing for Ukraine which will effectively give Russia what it wants. With Syria the price to be paid so that the West/Israel can get its win there. Russia will get to keeps its warm-water port, Israel with have Syria reduced to a new Libya

The Trump victory was the herald of change in Ukraine, Syria, the Middle East.
You may be correct, above, time will tell. Certainly the WEF NATO hawks have taken a black-eye with Trump replacing Biden.
Trump wants a deal with Putin. And has probably already outlined the broad brushstrokes. The russian speaking parts of Ukraine will go to Putin. The other bits ? who knows. Probably a fifty-fifty fudge....not the EU not to Putin. A bit like Switzerland, the Balkans or wherever.

Syria......we all know about Assad. It will be interesting to see the flavour of the new regime. Another ISIS ? or a US puppet ? or other ?

 

[Stirlingsays]

Wheels within wheels within wheels. Truth be told, an utterly bizarre few days in Syria. Would love to have even a modicum of a clue as to what is/has played out but not got a scooby even after trying to read/listen/watch around it all.

My own take, and its based more on perhaps wishful/fantasy thinking is that perhaps this is a real 4D chess fix going on.

The attempts to effect regime change in Syria has been a Western/Israel desire for well over a decade now. But Assad, with Iranian and Russian help, along with an army that can perform resisted. A genuine tick in the fail box for the usual suspects. They threw everything at it, including literally presenting chemical warfare attacks as being done by the Assad regime when it fact they were carried out by those opposing him.

But now we are meant to believe that the rebels just literally stroll into Damascus with barely a shot fired?

My take, and happy for it to be shot to flames, is that a peace deal is in the offing for Ukraine which will effectively give Russia what it wants. With Syria the price to be paid so that the West/Israel can get its win there. Russia will get to keeps its warm-water port, Israel with have Syria reduced to a new Libya with various factional conflicts breaking out within a matter of weeks. And the Kurds will get f***ed over, again. Just like they always do. Iran can be shown to also take a loss with the only unknown in the mix being Turkey. Playing its own game as per usual. Perhaps the most intriguing player in all of this.

Interesting take.....You never know.

Under six weeks till Trump takes office, I certainly think a lot is going on behind the scenes....but I think its Biden's administration and the small hats rather than any Trump influence.....probably mostly Blinken and the intelligence blob pulling the strings and budgets.

Syria is in for a never ending rough ride it seems, I doubt either Iran or Russia will accept the status quo after the Ukrainian war and Gaza have ended.

Relative to most Arab countries there are a lot of Christians in Syria as the Assad family were basically secular......No one gives a feck about the Christians as usual.

 

[totoshkin]

I recall a book. Something Wicked this way Comes.
Remember it in the six weeks coming up. An awful lot is going to move geopolitically.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

the Assad family were in power for approx 50 years. Its all momentous change. If Syria fell this week, what next ? maybe Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, Cuba or God knows where could all fall next week. Or Putin could refuse to go quietly. And start to really crank up the threats with his radioactive toys.

 

[Badger11]

Andrew Neill is predicting Iran will be next. Sorry I don't see the connection.

Syria has been a basket case for years, Iran is ruled with an iron fist so this is just wishful thinking, like the so called Arab spring.

I wish all the best for the Syrian people however it seems more like Taliban 2.

 

[Matov]

I wish all the best for the Syrian people however it seems more like Taliban 2.

Suspect Libya maybe more the template that Afghanistan. The country will just descend into mayhem once all the various groups decide to fall out with each other. And I suspect, this has been the plan all along. Also Syria had/has many of the trappings of a modern nation than Afghanistan never had.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

dont you just hate it when politicians in The West start waving flags pertinent to the Middle East. A perma-fight that is five or ten thousand miles away.


I DON'T CARE. Fix all the problems in Thornton Heath and only then can we start to cast our eye further afield.

 

[Stirlingsays]

Andrew Neill is predicting Iran will be next. Sorry I don't see the connection.

Syria has been a basket case for years, Iran is ruled with an iron fist so this is just wishful thinking, like the so called Arab spring.

I wish all the best for the Syrian people however it seems more like Taliban 2.

Neocons gonna neocon.

US general Wesley Clark said it all years ago.

When you look to see who benefits it rarely steers you wrong.

As for the media.....well the modern mainstream media largely do as they are told. The funding will largely tell you the perspective.

If people are actually interested in something nearer to the truth rather than filtered narratives they have to go looking for it and then work out over time whether it's trustworthy/honest.