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Russia is Preparing for War in Syria...and America Should Let Them

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  • jaredsxtn
    2015-09-21 06:56:40 PM
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    Secretary Powell infamously told President Bush "if you break it, you own it" in the lead up to the Iraq war and he was proven correct...beyond anyone's wildest imaginations. President Putin is on the cusp of making that same catastrophic mistake in Syria and I say have at it.

    I've always thought that Putin is acting from a place of weakness and not strength and his pending military involvement in Syria proves my theory correct yet again. Intervening on behalf of a dictator in a seemingly never ending civil war is not a show of strength and anyone who disagrees with me should take a minute to hear me out.

    Bashar al-Assad has lost large swaths of his country and no amount of Russian involvement is going to change that. The most recent map of the conflict shows that al-Assad controls a tiny fraction of his country and all of it is on the western front. The Islamic State controls triple to quadruple the amount that al-Assad does and Kurdish forces have firm control over the northeastern part of the country. A hodgepodge of opposition forces that aren't part of the IS control small areas surrounding Damascus and Aleppo.

    Syria conflict map

    (Source: bbc.com)

    So what does Russia hope to gain here? They would need a full blown military intervention to help give al-Assad portions of his country back and we all know how America's last full blown military intervention into a hostile country went. Does anyone actually expect IS or other rebel groups to just lay down their arms and surrender?

    Russia's military is already stretched thin in Ukraine and in their North Caucasus region. They are stirring up a hornets nest without the proper protection and they are going to pay for it. I say...go for it. I wish them the best of luck when they put boots on the ground in Syria.
  • L.A. Citizen
    2015-09-21 08:42:05 PM
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    Let them have at it. The world will get to see just how weak the Russian military actually is. These "Rooskies" always running their mouths about the "glory days" of proud Mother Russia. ......can't wait. I don't care who you are......it's hard to win when your adversary wants to fight
  • Dutch
    2015-09-22 08:48:46 AM
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    I've got another view on this; the Russians were smart to leave Afghanistan; then the US did exactly what Jared said. So guess who's the "dummie" here?

    Thus if the Russians learned from that, I get the impression that it is only very limited and overblown by us as always. It is better to look at it as an training exercise and try some new weapons, as well irritate the US.

    The map says it all "no one" is a "winner" in this war. I guess we are the biggest looser until now; how many "trillions" have these wars cost us? Quite a bit more than the Russians spent on any of their wars.

    May be the Russians do this to drag us in even further; because our ego's are bigger than ever and we love to show how good we are in loosing wars. Don't let me laugh.
  • lonely bird
    2015-09-22 09:05:03 AM
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    dutch, the rw in the us will not countenance anything that smacks of denying exceptionalism and "the most powerful military in the world" myth so being dragged into syria is a very real possibility especially if the russians go in. the rw, if this happens during the remainder of obama's term or if a dem is elected president, will bleat from the mountaintops that said dem is "weak" on security and is "letting" islam (the "radical" modifier which was used for agitprop purposes to downplay the religious aspect somewhat will eventually be left out) take over the world. so we have to fight them there to not fight them here. again. that doesn't take into account having to "defend" israel as though israel can't defend themselves.
  • Dutch
    2015-09-22 09:13:19 AM
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    lonely bird Wrote: dutch, the rw in the us will not countenance anything that smacks of denying exceptionalism and "the most powerful military in the world" myth so being dragged into syria is a very real possibility especially if the russians go in. the rw, if this happens during the remainder of obama's term or if a dem is elected president, will bleat from the mountaintops that said dem is "weak" on security and is "letting" islam (the "radical" modifier which was used for agitprop purposes to downplay the religious aspect somewhat will eventually be left out) take over the world. so we have to fight them there to not fight them here. again. that doesn't take into account having to "defend" israel as though israel can't defend themselves.
    My feelings exactly; since no one is living there anymore ( they all fled to Europe; just kidding) it has become a perfect battle ground; much better than Vietnam ( no jungle) Wow.
  • Dutch
    2015-10-13 01:28:51 PM
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    I saw on the news that the US has dropped about 50 tons of ammunition in Syria to be used by the "rebels" . The story did not say "which" rebels. Since they stopped training of these rebels, why give them weapons/ammunition? Anyway why drop ammunition there; is it because we love that they kill some more there; adding fuel to the fire? NUTS!

    As I said many times our foreign policies stink. I've got the feeling the Pentagon is doing this on their own; if Obama is aware of this he should be ashamed.

    I think there is already so much death and destruction; why stay involved? We must have way too much money laying around and spent on the wrong things.
  • jaredsxtn
    2015-10-13 03:19:50 PM
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    Dutch Wrote: I think there is already so much death and destruction; why stay involved? We must have way too much money laying around and spent on the wrong things.

    You're right on this point, Dutch. If the catastrophic economic meltdown of 08' didn't dramatically reign in our military spending then I honestly don't know what will.

    I would love nothing more than for us to get out of Syria and let the Russians get involved in the quagmire of the century. No amount of soldiers, bombs, weapons, or money will end this war. The only thing that will is one side giving up and that won't be happening anytime soon. I much rather see the Russian's spend billions of dollars trying to solve the insolvable instead of us.

  • Schmidt
    2015-10-13 05:50:45 PM
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    While Obama can play the waiting game and watch Putin sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire, let's not forget that Putin has total control over the Russian media and hence public opinion. The Russians are fiercely nationalistic and supportive of Putin's every international military encounter. In a sense he is playing to the Republicans who don't do any critical thinking other than how the situation can be propagandized to their advantage. President Obama is too smart to play that game with Putin or the Republicans. So no we won't be dragged into that war any more than what we are now with our bombing campaign.

    The Republican controlled Congress refuses to even debate President Obama's draft AUMF (Authority to Use Military Force) that he submitted to Congress on February 11, 2015. They have no alternative strategies and don't want their name on it. They are only to happy to see it drag on so they can criticize.
  • Dutch
    2015-10-15 11:50:14 AM
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    Obama just announced he's expanding the troops in Afghanistan; I still remember he promised to get out the end of 2014. Sure let's continue on this war path, already going on for 14 years. We've got plenty of borrowed money to spent. How many more years will we continue this disaster? In the end this war torn country will do anyway what they want to do, look at Vietnam. But yeah, it shows Obama has nothing to say; our generals and the Pentagon are in power, not him. The same B.S. related to Syria. When are we going to learn? How many more wars should we loose? Let's cut Social Security to fund all this fun. NUTS.
  • Dutch
    2015-10-16 10:13:18 AM
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    On TV someone said that Obama increased the troops etc. in Afghanistan just to make sure things would not get out of hand there during his last year in office, so his "record" would not be tarnished.

    Yes absolutely correct that is how it works in this country; who cares about the cost etc. or human life's ; just to save face.
  • jaredsxtn
    2015-10-19 03:55:24 PM
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    Dutch Wrote:

    On TV someone said that Obama increased the troops etc. in Afghanistan just to make sure things would not get out of hand there during his last year in office, so his "record" would not be tarnished.

    Yes absolutely correct that is how it works in this country; who cares about the cost etc. or human life's ; just to save face.

    This doesn't really have much of anything to do with what Russia is doing in Syria. I agree with you when it comes to Afghanistan and want to get out of that quagmire as soon as possible, but let's not conflate the two wars.

    With regards to Russian involvement in Syria--I think it is becoming abundantly clear that Russia has no game plan there and that is exactly what I thought from the start of their involvement in the war. I again suggest that Putin is acting not out of a position of strength, but out of weakness. Putin's economy is crumbling beneath his feet and there's no better way to "rally your troops" than get involved in a new war. It might be smart in the short term, but it will prove to be catastrophic for the Russians in the long term.

    Putin is about to find out that he will need hundreds of thousands of Russian troops to actually achieve the objective he has set out. Russia doesn't have enough soldiers to occupy a country the size of Syria and Putin knows it. So Putin has basically put himself between a rock and a hard place. And as my initial posting in this thread said--we should get out of the way and let him do it.

    President Obama already figured that out and that's why he made the wise decision to not commit American lives and treasure to fight another war that no amount of American might can win. Republicans accused the President of being weak, but ask yourself if they would be singing the same tune if President Obama called for a draft to send American citizens to fight in the Syrian civil war. Republicans can call the President weak all they want, but I'm sure they will change their tune if we instituted a draft that would force their sons and daughters to go fight in a war we all know America can't win.
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