Posted on 02/11/2018 8:34:58 AM PST by NorseViking
ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's U.S.-backed Kurds are getting indirect help from an unlikely source in their war against Turkey in the northwestern region of Afrin: President Bashar al-Assad.
Pro-government forces and Kurdish-led forces have fought each other elsewhere in Syria and Damascus opposes the Kurds' demands for autonomy. But in Afrin they have a common enemy and a mutual interest in blocking Turkish advances.
Turkey, which regards the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin as a threat on its southern border, launched an assault on the region last month. Seeking to shield Afrin, the Kurds asked Damascus to send forces into action to defend the border.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Ping!
Any number of times I have read “Trump should ( Fill in bold, decisive action). The problem with taking almost any bold action is, the moment you do the ground shifts. New and unexpected alliances form. Expected responses fail to materialize. You suddenly have a bigger problem, except now you are in it. This is happening now to Turkey.
My friends that is really weird. Who do we root for? Everyone has left the country but he never discriminated against Christians. My Syrian friend needed to insist that 15 of the 19 911 hijackers were Saudis. It’s like Hillary’s result in Libya. Will a Kurdish homeland help? What about candidate Trumps ‘safe zone’. I liked the Egypian billionaires’ idea of using all those islands in the Mediterranean. With so many islands the folks are easy to sort out. But then there’s money in it for him and his idea.
The Kurds have survived under Assad’s rule. Why overthrow him?
Typical mideast politics. Help your enemy to fight a bigger enemy.
“” “” The Kurds have survived under Assad’s rule. Why overthrow him?”” “”
Greed. They want to annex oil rich region and become Saudis.
“” “” Expected responses fail to materialize. You suddenly have a bigger problem, except now you are in it. This is happening now to Turkey.”” “”
Erdogan wanted a little victorious war to distract peasants from him establishing a dictatorship.
Many Syrian Christians are fighting for Assad. Go figure.
Syria was a sovereign and stable state until outside forces, mainly the USA, supported a revolution against Assad in word, deed, arms and money. This started during the Arab Spring and was fully supported by Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain.
Assad is and was a brutal dictator. Syria was stable until we destabilized it. It was only a threat to Israel which can sure as hell take care of the threat.
As mentioned, Obama, Clinton, and McCain own this humanitarian tragedy as well as the millions that now flow into Europe. The problem is no faction are "good guys," there is only moderately bad to evil incarnate. Clinton, Obama, and McCain backed the evil incarnate. Much blood is on their hands.
PBS ‘Inside Assad’s Syria’ is a nice show explaining your point. They went there for a propaganda effort but failed miserably and couldn’t hide it. Every pro-Assad person they interviewed made sense and the opposite side didn’t.
We keep ending up in the middle: at different times arming both sides, then fighting for and against both sides.
The bold action the president should take is to get the USA out of the mid-east.
The Syrian Regime leaving the supply route open into Afrin, likely dooms the Turkish takeover attempt, unless Turkey mobilizes a much larger effort.
There are many variables, and many will die in the effort, but without an effective blockade to starve out the Kurds in Afrin, Turkey has not shown the combat effectiveness to conquer them.
Turkey is suffering serious International blowback from its invasion of its neighbor (forget about EU membership this round), and its use of jihadi militias (including many former ISIS fighters), who are committing atrocities and war crimes. I would guess that they are seriously re-assessing their strategy in Afrin right now.
That's easy. Assad and Kurds vs. Erdogan. Root for more dead Turks (and Russians). Pray for thousands more dead Turks.
“but he (Assad) never discriminated against Christians.”
“Many Syrian Christians are fighting for Assad. Go figure.”
Although Assad did discriminate against Christians (Alawites ran the show), he protected them against worst depredations of their Sunni neighbors. There was security and a reasonable lifestyle under Assad, as long as you kept your mouth shut about politics.
The extreme Sunni jihadis are an existential threat to the Christian communities - everything else is just matter of relative advantage. Christians fight for Assad in areas he controls, and for Kurds in areas they control. They need allies against the jihadis, and they need to stay in the good graces of the authorities.
Everybody has to chip in for the defense under such extreme conditions - probably more taxing than what the USA experienced in WWII, in proportional terms. A young man not in uniform is suspect.
“The Kurds have survived under Assad’s rule. Why overthrow him?”
The Russians survived under Soviet rule. Why overthrow it?
The same reason - the injustice and brutality of the dictatorship.
Assad only looks good in comparison to an off the charts evil like ISIS.
In a fair and monitored election it is, IMO, almost certain that Assad would be re-elected as the leader of Syria.
We need to butt OUT.
“Any number of times I have read “Trump should ( Fill in bold, decisive action).”
Kind of like “it wasn’t the right time...”.
Look, if they don’t like Trump firing Comey, then JUST SAY SO, as there will NEVER be a ‘right time’ in your (not you, of course) little world.
“In a fair and monitored election it is, IMO, almost certain that Assad would be re-elected as the leader of Syria.”
Something beats nothing. No one has ever been allowed to gather a following to seriously run. A really fair election would be preceded by a period of freedom sufficient for real candidates to develop, and other political parties to form.
Assad’s Ba’ath Party is the last ruling party on Earth, based upon the the same ideological foundation as the Nazi Party - socialism based on race.
Of whom?
What is our position on reconstituting the great pre-1914 empires?
For 800 years Johnny Turk did a pretty good job sorting out the Sunni Arabs. If he wants the job again, I say, go for it.
Assad knows one thing, clearly, no matter what Turkey, the Mullahs in Tehran and Russia say to each other. Assad knows that Turkey was among the big time backers of the most Islamist militias in the so-called “Syrian opposition” in the civil war against him. Assad knows that Erdogan was in league with the Saudis, some of the Gulf States and the intelligence deep state in the west seeking “regime change” against him. He knows if Erdogan could he would permanently annex a northern part of Syria, whereas he, Assad, could make a “federal” deal with the Syrian Kurds.
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