[blueplum]

I don’t think Assad is going anywhere. Russia isn’t; they like the ports just fine and Syria is Russia’s oldest ally in the ME. Signaling Assad he’s going to be removed doesn’t exactly motivate him to fight anyone but his enemies in a buffer zone around Damascus. He only has control of about 1/10th of his country and too few soldiers left to maintain control over the rest. I’ve read of a few plans to break Syria into 5 or 6 zones, with ME players (all those visitors to the WH) establishing safe zones and administrative zones within the same. That was what the big pow-wow in Brussels last week was about. I think a better signal to Assad would be, here’s what is going to happen, you keep Damascus and Port Tardus for your Russian friends and when your miserable little civil war is over, if you’re a good little despot and keep your paws out of the zones, we’ll talk again.

[Chgogal]

Your post sounds very reasonable. Thank you for posting.

[caww]

Might be so....

[Conservative Gato]

I don’t think Assad is going anywhere. Russia isn’t; they like the ports just fine and Syria is Russia’s oldest ally in the ME. Signaling Assad he’s going to be removed doesn’t exactly motivate him to fight anyone but his enemies in a buffer zone around Damascus. He only has control of about 1/10th of his country and too few soldiers left to maintain control over the rest. I’ve read of a few plans to break Syria into 5 or 6 zones, with ME players (all those visitors to the WH) establishing safe zones and administrative zones within the same. That was what the big pow-wow in Brussels last week was about. I think a better signal to Assad would be, here’s what is going to happen, you keep Damascus and Port Tardus for your Russian friends and when your miserable little civil war is over, if you’re a good little despot and keep your paws out of the zones, we’ll talk again.

This makes the most sense, especially if we are to put boots on the ground only to protect the safe zones. Russia still gets what they want and this move would further neuter Assad, not replace him.

CGato