Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Zhang Fei
"No need. All Assad has to do is to start backing Turkey's Kurdish rebels. Turkey's Kurdish population is estimated at 16m people. Assad could also finally stop persecuting the Kurds in Syria and welcome them as a buffer against Turkey and an ally against Sunni Arabs in Syria."

That would certainly cause Turkey a lot of grief, too; but it sounds like it would take awhile to get rolling. If Turkey is going to try and do the same thing the US and NATO did to Libya, Assad will want to strike quickly before he loses the capability. After seeing Qaddafi's fate, I suspect that Assad will not surrender and will try to take as many of his attackers as possible with him.

9 posted on 11/22/2011 5:18:43 PM PST by Truth29
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]


To: Truth29
If Turkey is going to try and do the same thing the US and NATO did to Libya, Assad will want to strike quickly before he loses the capability. After seeing Qaddafi's fate, I suspect that Assad will not surrender and will try to take as many of his attackers as possible with him.

While he might or might not take great pleasure is slaughtering random numbers of Turks with missile barrages, launching those missiles is a surefire way of guaranteeing his own demise, because that will trigger a Turkish invasion that he will surely lose. Gaddafi fell because too few were willing to fight to the death for him. Syria's Alawite, Druze and Christian populations (~30% of the population) know that they will be exterminated if Sunni Islamists take power. As long as Turkey does not invade, Assad has a strong chance of staying in power, because these minority populations will stand with him to avoid being slaughtered in the event that the Alawite regime falls.

15 posted on 11/22/2011 5:45:39 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson