Yes because unlike you, Mariner, I actually have close personal ties to Russia and care about what is happening *within* the country.
I know how bad things are domestically including understanding what makes the population so inert and feel powerless to change anything..and the utter lie behind the so-called “80%” Putin majority.
Nor do you know how there is a boiling unrest over the dishonesty of Russian media about the actual number of Russians who have died in the Syrian conflict and the growing anxiety over the Ukraine conflict. (It’s ripped families apart as many have close ties to both countries.)
And yes as Putin’s geopolitical moves unravel at accelerating speed, you Putinistas should be called out for your shameless anti-Americanism and utter disregard for truth all because of your disillusionment with Obama/Bush. We have a new president now.
I am not saying our foreign policy has been on the right track up till now: but you Putinistas have gotten to the point where you sound no different from pro-Assad Muslims, HAMAS sympathizers, and anti-Semite Neo-Nazis with psychotic hate for Israel.
Christians in Syria have suffered under both ISIS and Assad and it’s a vicious lie from media like RT that Russia is there to “help” Christians and churches.
RUssia is itself composed of 20% Muslims. Majority Sunni. And under Putin, Evangelical, Catholic, and other non-Orthodox Christians have suffered under persecution from things like the Yarovaya Law banning evangelism — while Muslim interests are catered to in the name of preserving the peace in places like Chechnya, Dagestan, and Tatarstan.
“And yes as Putin’s geopolitical moves unravel at accelerating speed, you Putinistas should be called out for your shameless anti-Americanism and utter disregard for truth”
Those who advocate for an “anti-Russia” agenda at all costs are either foreigners with a dog in that hunt, or Neocons.
In either/both cases they work contrary to the best interests of the US and are therefore anti-American by definition.
The ONLY interests the US has in Ukraine or Syria is stability. No other.
Yet those who don’t have the will, courage or honor to secure their own liberty seem to believe it’s incumbent upon the American Soldier and Taxpayer to secure it on their own behalf.
Be advised those days are over.
A people will secure their own liberty and prosperity or they will live as slaves in poverty.
Or, they will abandon their own people and culture rather than install American values/methods/institutions and try, somehow, to gain entry to this country.
So, take your accented “Putinista” accusations and go back to where you came from. We’ll suffer no lecturing from those without the courage or honor to secure their own liberty.
If his regime falls, the realistic alternatives are:
1. The country descends into permanent ethno/tribal/sectarian civil war, and becomes a basketcase like Libya or Somalia.
2. The country is run by ISIS.
3. The country is run by "moderate" Sunnis, meaning more moderate than ISIS. This means Al Nusra (Al Quaeda) or at best something like the Muslim Brotherhood. Those Oxbridge or Ivy League educated "spokesmen" for the Free Syria Army (hiding out from the fighting in the US and Europe) that you see on TV quoting Locke or Jefferson aren't going to be the ones running the country.
Given these alternatives, I don't understand the obsession with overthrowing Assad. He kept that powderkeg stable enough until Hillary and Obama decided to egg the rebels on in 2011. I don't see the need to continue with their program.
Christians in Syria have suffered under both ISIS and Assad
While it's true that they were probably second class citizens compared to Assad's Alawites, Christians in Syria weren't being driven out en masse or murdered en masse for their Christianity under Assad - partly because his regime is secular, and partly because the Alawite minority allied itself with other religious minorities (Christians and Yazidis) in Sunni-majority Syria. They are being murdered and driven out by Sunni militias however, and if Assad is overthrown this process will be completed.