Posted on 04/12/2017 3:53:43 AM PDT by blueplum
Five years of political capital, over a million tonnes of weapons, tens of billions of dollars, Russia’s role as both dominant regional presence and rising global force – these are all at stake if Vladimir Putin abandons Syria’s leader.
This is the reckoning faced by the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, as he travels to Moscow to try to prise the Russian president away from his support of Bashar al-Assad in the aftermath of last week’s nerve agent attack on Khan Sheikhun.
[snip] There is little reason to think the Wednesday summit will lead to an escalation in tensions. On the contrary, there are many reasons to believe posturing will soon give way to business as usual.
The depth of ties between Putin and Trump and their potential to influence global problems remain unknown, and are factors that the region’s leaders believe will stop the US launching a second strike or trying to broker a political solution in Syria.
[snip]While Putin does not have things his own way in Syria, Assad remains too valuable to discard. If Tillerson is planning to appeal to Russia’s “sense of decency”, it is unlikely to work on a leader who has invested not only enormous amounts of blood and treasure...
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
"Rather than moderate its stance, Russia has dug in further, deploying diplomats to claim Washington is in bed with terrorists and mobilising state-run troll factories to shape the narrative – with the same vigour as they showed before the US presidential poll in November."
I see some of these trolls posting nonsense on a regular basis.
Too deep huh? Thanks Barack
I am no history buff, or military expert, but I find it hard to side with Syria’s rebels. This is one time that I support Putin and Assad, as disgusting as Assad may be. Muslim countries are hard to control, and most of them need or have a “strong man” to keep warring muslim factions in line and to keep them from killing everybody. We saw it in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, etc., and now we have Syria. Russia has had it’s share of misery because of Muslims. In 2004, when Muslims seized that school where children were starting the first day of school...lots of kids, parents, babies, etc, and took 1100 people hostage. The muslims killed almost 400 people, half of them children. They even executed a new born baby. Assad, if nothing else, has allowed Christians and other religions, to exist in Syria. Once he is gone, the Muslim Brotherhood will have a fanatic ready and waiting. I’d rather have Assad and Putin then the Muslim Brotherhood, because I fear uncontrolled Islam and it’s crazy followers.
BTTT
Why thhe left wants evetyone on board to ditch Assad is clear as glass. He is the only man who can stop the slaughter of christianity. He is an alawite, not a full bore muslim.
Good point.
1) It’s all about the proposed natural gas pipeline that would go through Syria and be competition with Russia for sales to the EU.
2) The Middle East seems to have only two working methods of rule; a dictator/king or Islamists. As bad as Assad is Islamists are worse.
Better them in too deep than us in too deep supporting Assad’s replacement.
BINGO! Russia holds the EU hostage because of their need for gas. They don’t want any competition.
I think the goal should be to tell them we have no interests in Syria and that Russia can keep their base and influence there. What we want is what the Russians want, that is stability in Syria and not having it as a breeding ground for radical Islamicists. The majority of these warring factions would put down their guns and end the civil war if there were someone in power other than Assad.
Our goal should be to have Russia usher Assad into a nice quiet retirement on the Black Sea somewhere and put a hand picked successor in. Someone like Al Sissi who came to power in Egypt. A strongman type who is going to keep a lid on the crazies and not be out to bomb and gas his own people. Someone the majority of Syria could unite behind and then we can work on wiping out Al Nusra and ISIS. It would be our job to ensure that the Kurds in northern Syria unite behind the new leader. I’m sure that Russia knows who among the Generals etc.. could be that successor. They know all the players.
My first reaction upon reading the headline is: No Kidding Dick Tracy!
But what about democracy and civil rights? [And the question is sarcastic in case anyone missed it - this does not appear to be an option in the ME].
Some of whom have start dates of 1998.
Whoever leads those countries will have a need to kill people from time to time.Why we let some of those people here is beyond me.
I expect it to happen soon. Obama’s roadblocks on our energy expansion are being rapidly removed...including the EPA diktats. We will see expansion worldwide which will aid our economy enormously. The Globalists didn’t count on a Trump win.
I had read somewhere once that the problem in Europe is that they don’t have the refineries to convert LNG for their use and some countries are in the process of building them to take our LNG instead of what they get from Gazprom through the pipeline.
I have an uncle that inspects these projects. He said he spends maybe a week per year at home. I asked him if he got a vacation and he busted out laughing.
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