Posted on 09/18/2015 7:37:11 AM PDT by Wilderness Conservative
On Thursday evening, we detailed a Reuters report which suggested that the influx of Russian technical and logistical support to Bashar al-Assad’s depleted army at Latakia might have breathed new life into the regime as it seeks to rout Islamic State and a whole host of other armed groups fighting for control of Syria. “Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday Russia had provided new weapons and trained Syrian troops how to use them,” Reuters said, before describing what certainly sounds like an invigorated air campaign against the de facto ISIS capital at Raqqa.
Importantly, al-Moualem also indicated that Syria would be willing to make an official request for Russian combat troops “if needed.”
Now clearly, it seems likely that Russian troops have already joined the battle and indeed, when the bullets start flying, the distinction between “logistical” support and “combat” support quickly becomes blurred, but through all the sabre rattling and back-and-forth banter between Kerry and Lavrov, both sides are still keen to at least pay lip service to the unwritten rules of international diplomacy which is why before Russia can admit that its troops are actually on the ground to fight, they’ll be a charade where Syria will pretend to be raising the issue with the Kremlin for the first time at which point the Kremlin will take a few days to “consider” things. As of Friday, it appears as though that process has begun. Here’s Bloomberg:
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Hezbollah are all on the same side.
And? Russia wants ISIS in Syria gone. Israel wants Hezbollah and Iran in Syria gone. Bibi is just going to keep interests separate and without incident. Would not do for the IAF to take out some Russians mistakenly, nor would the reverse.
Putin and Bibi qualify as grownups.
Amazing what kind of unity ISIS has triggered; I do think this is only a natural alliance and it was only a matter of time until it became public.
ON the contrary, chances are they will be allies and after eliminating ISIS, become all the more powerful in the Middle East.
...and make sure the jihadists don’t run out of ammo.
The pipeline won’t happen without ‘regime change’ and ISIS is supposed to facilitate that. So the Russians are motivated crush ISIS and and at least hold the line against Saudi backed al Nusra.
“Some people have this need to find the good guys in any situation. A lot of times in the real world there aren’t any.”
I don’t see any good guys here either. In many ways, it reminds me of the Iran-Iraq War back in the early 80’s. Both sides were bad. The Iraqis at the time were only slightly less worse.
In the case of Syria, there isn’t even a slightly less worse option.
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