Meanwhile in Iraq & Syria

[Smitty-48]

Iran links Assad to ISIS? lolwhut? Pretty sure Iran and Hezbollah are sworn enemies of the Wahhab, how do you not get that memo?

Lindsay McCain and John Graham will literally say anything to get a foreign intervention going, it's like they get paid based on how many quamires they can incite.

The original McCain quote:

https://medium.com/@SenatorJohnMcCain/w ... 79fbbb97be

Our strategy cannot presume to separate the fight against ISIL from the Syrian people’s fight against the Assad regime. They are inextricably connected. Assad is a puppet of Iran, and as long as he continues to slaughter his own people, it will be impossible to destroy the radical terrorist groups that occupy Syria and the region, and the war will never end. Nor will the threat posed by these groups to our nation.

So, I think he's going more in the direction of a: "We can't do anything about all these terrorists as long as Assad's in charge" than a causal link between Assad and ISIS. Dunno what one would call that sort of logic. As you say, Syria does get troops and aid from what the US and most Western countries consider a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, but their main base of operations is in Lebanon. He hasn't endorsed bombing Lebanon these last couple of years, has he? And even then, afaik it's also not as if Hezbollah has bombed alot of Western or American targets lately.

It's all blah-blah-blah, they just try to link Iran to everything, McCain doesn't even come up with this shit, he just latches on to whatever and then regurgitates, Iran is the go to menace for all seasons, not just because of the Isrealis and the Saudis, that's a large component obviously, but Iran has been in the Axis of Evil, ever since the Shah was deposed, Israel, the Sunni Monarchies, and America, they all have their own reasons for hyping up the Iranian Menace, for the US, there's just the factor that Iran is about right sized as an opponent, not too small, but not too big neither, big enough to
justify a major deployment of conventional big ticket MIC product, but not so big that it would escalate to World War Three.

[Martin Hash]

How could ANYONE distort the narrative so against America's best interests except someone who had a different first alliegance? (Speaking of Friedman.) Syria is all about Israel. We are being manipulated by the Zionists. Proof positive.

[Smitty-48]

There is a Devil You Know aspect to Assad, the Israelis on the one hand would like to be rid of the Baathists in Damascus, but not if it means an even crazier Sunni regime, they'd be fine if the Sunni regime was under the control of the Saudis, but if it was the rogue Islamic State, that would be no better than Assad and in many ways worse.

[BjornP]

Just stop.

The rebels are primarily ISIS and AL Nusra. You have such a hard on for Christian genocide you don't realize how stupid you sound when you pretend like the rebels are the good guys.

You're simply straight outta the Twilight Zone. I guess to you the Syrian Kurds and the Syriac Christians don't actually exist, right? They're "fake news"? You're the one who must have a hardon for Christian genocide since you don't even recognize their existence.



Are they ISIS or al-Nusra, Sta?



ISIS or al-Nusra?

And "pretending the rebels are the good guys"? Dude, unlike you, I don't have the mental and intellectual grasp of a 12 year old. I don't need heroes to look up to. The alliance the PYG and those Christians are in, seems more charismatic than the FSA alliance, but even they are also not pro-Assad. There are dozens of rebel groups, some fighting independently, some aligned with Assad as militias, some in league with the Syrian Democratic Forces (the Kurds and the Christians), some are aligned with ISIS, some with Al-Nusra, some with other Salafist Islamic groups.

That you think you NEED to paint a guy you cannot defeat in debate as a horrible Nazi, blubbering on about your sick persecution fetish is a total fail on your part, dude. Man the fuck up and stop debating like a dishonest, lying sack of shit.

To get back to the point, there are no mono-lithic "the" rebels in Syria right now. There are scores of rebelS, plural. The ones the Syriac Christians and the Rojava Kurds fight in... that's probably the one most sympathetic-seeming to most Western eyes, mine included.

[Speaker to Animals]

I didn't pretend anybody is a good guy, pal.

If you want to reject what the bishops are pleading (probably because you want them dead as far as I can tell), then that's all on you. Christians are by and large fighting for the Syrian government because the alternative is death at the hands of the Islamists.

I am not the only one who has demonstrated this to you. You just don't care and you go on with this nonsense for some reason that is too silly really to wonder about.

If you want to stop the genocide, then you have to restore the Syrian government. Period. That doesn't mean Assad is a nice guy. It's just the only rational course of action.

[Smitty-48]

I don't think anybody is going to be able to put humpty-dumpty back together again, it's kind of like Giant Lebanon now, Assad might be able to hold on to a cantonment, but restablishing total control of the Sunni majority and the entire territory seems pretty unlikely, even if Assad could hold on, even if he could negotiate cold peace, there's been so much blood spilled now, it's difficult to envision how it would all go back together again, the pieces are broken, they don't fit together anymore, seems more likely that its going to be permanently fractured, or the Sunni majority is going to win and take overall control, I don't see a path to the Alawite Coalition putting everything back together again.

[TheReal_ND]

Islamic State niggers are clashing with Nusra (HTS) niggers in the pocket in south Damas (Yarmouk refugee camp)
https://twitter.com/actgroup_pal/status ... 4363144193
Meanwhile Bashar & the SAA is spectating.

[DBTrek]

I didn't pretend anybody is a good guy, pal.

There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
There's only you and me and we just disagree
Ooh ooh ooh, oh oh oh

[TheReal_ND]

The US military has used its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed “the mother of all bombs,” for the first time in combat. The US Air Force used it in Afghanistan to target Islamic State tunnels and personnel.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW

https://www.rt.com/usa/384646-pentagon- ... bomb-drop/

[BjornP]

It's all blah-blah-blah, they just try to link Iran to everything, McCain doesn't even come up with this shit, he just latches on to whatever and then regurgitates, Iran is the go to menace for all seasons, not just because of the Isrealis and the Saudis, that's a large component obviously, but Iran has been in the Axis of Evil, ever since the Shah was deposed, Israel, the Sunni Monarchies, and America, they all have their own reasons for hyping up the Iranian Menace, for the US, there's just the factor that Iran is about right sized as an opponent, not too small, but not too big neither, big enough to
justify a major deployment of conventional big ticket MIC product, but not so big that it would escalate to World War Three.

I never got how Iran became the big bad, while Vietnam didn't stay that way. I've always seen the US-Iran relation as the US simply being permanently angry at losing face in 1979, and being preoccupied with saving face ever since then. Though, I guess not having an Iranian regime willing to buy American weapons, and opening up their markets for American trade probably mean a little more in the realpolitikal sense.

With Israel, is there any possibility of Russia being able to broker some sort of agreement between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights issue? Russia could win a major PR victory there, as well as leave the US more isolated with its Arab allies if Turkey also comes to some sort of understanding with Russia over what Syria's future should look like.