[Mariner]

Late news tonight from Bloomberg (can't be posted here) is that US has intelligence that the prep work has been for the Multi-function version of the Mig-31, plus a bunch of Su-25's (Their A-10 ground support aircraft).

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

i am unsure what Russia is doing but I hate to say that I trust Obama/Kerry even less. What are we to make of this?

[gaijin]

cuz it’s in syria that they have only 1 navy port in the Med.

[gaijin]

[MNDude]

I hate to say it, but I’m on Russia’s side on this one.

[Parley Baer]

“by the United States’ reticence to get more closely involved in the Syrian”

I think we are pretty well involved in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

[dfwgator]

Why do dogs like their you-know-whats?

[monkeyshine]

Why? Because they can! Nobody is going to stop them. USA caved to Iran, we sure aren’t going to stand up to Russi. This piece on the chess board was put into play - the first piece in the region in decades - and Putin is going to take it down. We screwed the pooch on this one big time but Obama has telegraphed weakness for years all Putin needed was a reason to move, and now he has one. If Assad was resistant then Putin would not move but we let boy Assad twist in the wind, half way wanting him removed and then half way wanting him to stick around to fight ISIS and this gave Assad a no-lose proposition as far as we are concerned. Putin won’t annex Syria he will just occupy it, with the consent of the Alawites. Boy Assad probably has a diary given him by his father on how to play Russia against the US.

What will be most interesting to watch will be Turkey.

BTW with Russia occupying Syria what does this do for the Kurds? Puts them in play too, though their aspirations are now substantially reduced and I bet they are livid. And they will take what they can from Russia as a result, even though Russia will probably be the spoiler to their hopes for now they will drift away from our sphere because we let them down. All just my opinions...

[familyop]

Looks like something that the Soviets got into 25-35 years ago.

[Trumpinator]

You made me look up the Bloomberg article. This paragraph below shows the Obama was kept in the dark by his own State Dept and that the State Dept is run by a bunch of amateurs.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-10/russia-s-syrian-air-base-has-u-s-scrambling-for-a-plan

The State Department had already begun pushing back against the Russian moves, for example by asking Bulgaria and Greece to deny overflight permissions to Syria-bound Russian transport planes. But the president didn't know about these moves in advance, two officials said, and when he found out, he was upset with the department for not having a more complete and vetted process to respond to the crisis.

[Brad from Tennessee]

It won’t be a surprise if an influx of Taliban fighters show up on the battleground.