Author Topic: After years of bloody warfare, it’s time to recognize what the Syrian dictator rules over: a chronic  (Read 416 times)

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Offline TomSea

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Assad Hasn’t Won Anything
After years of bloody warfare, it’s time to recognize what the Syrian dictator rules over: a chronically violent and chaotic failed state.
By Charles Lister | July 11, 2019, 1:43 PM


Syrian youths walk past a billboard showing a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wearing sunglasses while dressed in a Field Marshal's camouflage fatigues, on display in the centre of the capital Damascus on July 9, 2018, with a caption below reading in Arabic: "If the country's dust speaks, it will say Bashar al-Assad." LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

When Syria is discussed these days, it is increasingly common to hear the phrase “Assad won,” or “the war is coming to an end.” Understandably so. Nearly two-thirds of Syria now lies under regime control. Since Russia’s military intervention in Syria in September 2015, the opposition has not won a single major victory and lost the vast majority of its territorial holdings. In eastern Syria, meanwhile, the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate was dealt its final defeat in the village of Baghouz in late March. To a large degree, the subject of Syria today has become one defined predominantly by debates over issues such as refugee return, reconstruction, whether to provide sanctions relief, and the question of whether to reengage with the regime.

For the regime’s longtime defenders, this has been a moment to celebrate, to breathe a sigh of relief, and to intensify calls for the world to accept this new reality, end sanctions, and help Syria rebuild and restore sovereignty in all corners of the country. These calls are not new, but they are quietly garnering some traction among some influential observers and policymakers. For example, the Carter Center—founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter—co-hosted a meeting in April in London that discussed issues like “restoring territorial sovereignty” and “how to secure the removal of armed forces operating in Syria without the Syrian government’s consent.” That event’s co-host was the British Syrian Society, a pro-regime group founded by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s father-in-law, Fawaz Akhras, a man who in 2012 was advising Assad on how to counter evidence of civilians being tortured. The society’s current executive director also happens to be the brother of Syria’s alleged chemical weapons chief.

There’s just one problem: The Assad regime has not “won” anything. It has merely survived at the cost of Syrians’ blood and fear; stability remains far out of reach. The last holdouts of opposition in the country’s northwest seem intractable. Elsewhere in the country, there are plentiful signs of future instability. Syria is no longer in open civil war, but the country’s political crisis is intensifying. The root causes that gave way to the uprising in 2011 remain in place—most are now even worse. Even in territories always held by the regime and populated by its most ardent defenders, life today presents more challenges than it did during the conflict’s most intense days.

Read more at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/11/assad-hasnt-won-anything-syria/

Author Charles Lister twitter: https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister

Honestly, from the few interactions I've ever had on twitter, I mentioned him and the other person said "oh, he's funded by Qatar", whatever, he seems like a decent reporter if one is interested in events over there.

PS, if you get to the page and the paywall shows up, just click the reader version (the page icon) in the URL box at the top of the page.  I got the whole article.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2019, 04:06:14 am by TomSea »

Offline EdJames

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Nearly two-thirds of Syria now lies under regime control.

Hopefully to be three-thirds soon.

Syria -- their country, their leader, their business to work things out.

The West (nor anyone else) should never have been attacking their national sovereignty by fomenting revolution for all these years.  It has been a shameful chapter.  The entire "Arab Spring" and related interventions have always been about nothing more than establishing a grand caliphate throughout MENA, which was thoroughly supported by 0bama and his globalist allies.  Shameful.

Offline TomSea

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Whether one agreed with the initial 2003 "liberation of Iraq", once we got there,  support the troops. Syria has been designated as a state-sponsor of terrorism since 1979:
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US Judge Rules Assad Helped Al-Qaeda Kill Americans

A district court judge ruled the Syrian regime — and specifically its ruler, President Bashar al-Assad — are liable for the murders of three Americans by al-Qaeda because of the regime’s massive support for the terrorist group’s branch in Iraq.

In addition to those three Americans, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, Iraqis and others have been killed or injured due to Assad’s sponsorship of al-Qaeda and other jihadists.

The lawsuit was filed by the families of Laurence Michael Foley, a U.S. diplomat in Jordan assassinated by al-Qaeda in 2002; Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, killed in Iraq in 2004 and Pvt. Kristian Menchacha, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.

Read more at: https://clarionproject.org/us-judge-rules-assad-helped-al-qaeda-kill-americans/

Insurgents, terrorists launched attacks on US troops and other members of the coalition from Syria, terrorists had camps in Syria.

Too much suggests it was a popular revolution and not just the USA in my opinion.

Also, if Assad is the protector of Christians and other minorities, you could have fooled me. ISIS routed them.

Not only that,  some studies and it does make sense, reading about it, shows most refugees were in fact, fleeing Assad and not ISIS so much.

I will post articles per pros and cons on Assad, not that I necessarily agree with the message of the articles.

Unpopular leader, is only in there because the Russians and Iranians propped him up. Not his own people.

So, refugees flood Europe from Syria, yes, it is the West's problem.

In fact, a lot of analysts would say that war is more like 20-25 years old.

3/3rds, let's hope so.

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Comparatively, the area occupied by Syria is slightly larger than the state of North Dakota.
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Syria-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html

Pretty small for the country to get the kind of beating it did.

Also, Bush almost expanded the war into Syria.  Bush has been quiet on foreign affairs basically since leaving office but he has made clear his displeasure of Assad.

Israel routinely carries out airstrikes on Syria. That may be Israel's business of which we shouldn't get involved but still tells me something. They don't like him either.

And lastly, our allies, the SDF, the forces we backed with coalition airstrikes, we together beat ISIS, the Russians and Regime and Iranians probably contributed much, much less to that effort. They were busy fighting off other adversaries.

Size of North Dakota, war has gone on for 7 years? That's blameable on Obama? Also, Trump has struck them 2 times. Probably half a million killed?

Just adding on both sides of the story.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2019, 10:32:28 am by TomSea »