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Post by jdredd on May 27, 2015 23:15:42 GMT -5
Last night on Frontline they reviewed the events leading up to Obama's big wuss-out on going after Assad, and what has happened because of it. Which is, of course, big bad ISIS. Still, like I commented to someone when Boy George went into Iraq in 2003, we'll never know what might have happened had Bush gotten cold feet, and we will never know what might have happened if Obama had not gotten cold feet.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 9, 2015 22:44:06 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/?utm_source=aje&utm_medium=redirect"The White House and NATO raised concerns Wednesday over reports that Russia may have deployed military personnel and aircraft to Syria, with Washington saying it is “closely monitoring” the situation. The responses came after three Lebanese sources familiar with political and military developments in Syria told Reuters that Russian forces have taken part in military operations in the country. “They have started in small numbers, but the bigger force did not yet take part,” one of the sources said. “There are numbers of Russians taking part in Syria, but they did not yet join the fight against terrorism strongly.” Just when things were starting to get boring in the Middle East (the holy war against ISIS has gotten to be routine), Russia may be spicing things up a bit. One more challenge for lame duck Obama, and a chance for him to screw one last thing up.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 5, 2017 1:59:28 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/world/middleeast/syria-gas-attack.html?&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0"For Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly blamed what he has called President Barack Obama’s failures for the Syria crisis, the chemical weapons assault posed a potential policy dilemma and exposed some glaring contradictions in his own evolving positions on Syria. The White House called the attack a “reprehensible” act against innocent people “that cannot be ignored by the civilized world.” At the same time, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, denounced Mr. Obama for having failed to make good on his famous “red line” statement in 2012, suggesting he would intervene militarily in Syria if Mr. Assad used chemical weapons. But in August 2013, Mr. Trump exhorted Mr. Obama not to intervene after a chemical weapons attack near Damascus that American intelligence attributed to the Syrian military killed more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children, according to United States government estimates at the time. “President Obama, do not attack Syria,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “There is no upside and tremendous downside.”: So let me see: Spicer slams Obama for wimping out after Assad used nerve gas in 2013, but Rump told Obama not to. Well, Obama is gone now, and it's all in Rump's hands. My money is on Rump looking the other way too. Not that Hillary would have done anything either.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2017 16:42:11 GMT -5
[quote author=" jdredd" source= FAKE NEWS ALERT!! NYT IS FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS ALL BULL$HIT!! "For Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly blamed what he has called President Barack Obama’s failures for the Syria crisis, the chemical weapons assault posed a potential policy dilemma and exposed some glaring contradictions in his own evolving positions on Syria. The White House called the attack a “reprehensible” act against innocent people “that cannot be ignored by the civilized world.” At the same time, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, denounced Mr. Obama for having failed to make good on his famous “red line” statement in 2012, suggesting he would intervene militarily in Syria if Mr. Assad used chemical weapons. But in August 2013, Mr. Trump exhorted Mr. Obama not to intervene after a chemical weapons attack near Damascus that American intelligence attributed to the Syrian military killed more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children, according to United States government estimates at the time. “President Obama, do not attack Syria,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “There is no upside and tremendous downside.”: So let me see: Spicer slams Obama for wimping out after Assad used nerve gas in 2013, but Rump told Obama not to. Well, Obama is gone now, and it's all in Rump's hands. My money is on Rump looking the other way too. Not that Hillary would have done anything either. [/quote]
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Post by jdredd on Apr 6, 2017 1:27:47 GMT -5
And here I thought Fearless Leader was promising a more "muscular" foreign policy. So what is he going to do about Assad using nerve gas? Send him a nasty tweet? Sounds like he is, as they say, "All hat, no cattle".
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Post by Turk on Apr 9, 2017 11:48:29 GMT -5
Same situation. Trump sitting at the head of the table, clearly a leader. Obama in the corner like a school child clearly the wimp.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 13, 2018 10:02:12 GMT -5
So what I heard was that Trump wanted to take out Assad, and he had to be talked out of it. Taking out Assad was my thought at the beginning of the Syrian Bloodbath, yet the idea sucks if Trump thought it too, right?
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Post by jdredd on May 11, 2019 13:15:48 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/world/middleeast/syria-torture-prisons.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage"As Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, closes in on victory over an eight-year revolt, a secret, industrial-scale system of arbitrary arrests and torture prisons has been pivotal to his success. While the Syrian military, backed by Russia and Iran, fought armed rebels for territory, the government waged a ruthless war on civilians, throwing hundreds of thousands into filthy dungeons where thousands were tortured and killed. Nearly 128,000 have never emerged, and are presumed to be either dead or still in custody, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group that keeps the most rigorous tally. Nearly 14,000 were “killed under torture.” Many prisoners die from conditions so dire that a United Nations investigation labeled the process “extermination.” Now, even as the war winds down, the world’s attention fades and countries start to normalize relations with Syria, the pace of new arrests, torture and execution is increasing. The numbers peaked in the conflict’s bloodiest early years, but last year the Syrian Network recorded 5,607 new arrests that it classifies as arbitrary — more than 100 per week and nearly 25 percent more than the year before."
In a zero-sum universe, having to chose has consequences. Obama chose to let Assad off the hook, and Syria suffered the consequences. But we will never know what the consequences would have been if Obama had taken out Assad. (I'll say it for you: Thank you, Captain Obvious). And there is a part of me that says "Who cares? They are just Syrians. Not worth a drop of American blood". Still, history will judge us, for what that is worth. And our worst judge can be ourselves.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 2, 2020 2:00:13 GMT -5
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/turkey-destroys-syrian-army-targets-says-defence-minister"Turkey has escalated a widespread offensive against Syrian troops and their allies, shooting down two government planes, wiping out dozens of pieces of military hardware including tanks and radar systems, and stalling a regime momentum that had been rampaging through Idlib province. The attacks came in response to the killing of at least 33 troops in an airstrike in northern Syria on Thursday night and marked one of the most sustained direct clashes between regional militaries in decades. The Syrian military had not previously lost more than one jet fighter on a single day throughout the eight-year war, which had been mainly fought through a myriad of proxies. A Turkish F-16 shot both planes down after Turkey lost a drone to Syrian fire. The downing of the jets was acknowledged by both sides and made light of regime claims that it would defend its airspace over the north of the country – a role taken over by Russia in the past four years, whose forces Ankara has avoided over the past three days." Wouldn't it be awesome if Turkey took out the Assad regime? Well, I can dream.
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