The End of Assad? Syrian Rebels enter the outskirts of Aleppo for the first time since 2016

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122920752#Comment_122920752

No, the last 30 years are probably the most practical in history.

More coverage, immediate and consistent coverage and people no longer used to it.

There has been an uptick the last 2 years but still small, though i think war will become more common.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122922985#Comment_122922985

Outside of college kids who gives a shi7 about it?

The Arab world doesn't.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923268#Comment_122923268

But why don't these foreign Islamist mercenaries in Syria give a $hit about it? Their whole raison d'etre for existence is to eradicate the enemies who want to wipe out their people/religion. As far as I'm aware the Assad regime wasn't trying to wipe out anybody on their soil prior to the "Arab Spring", they definitely weren't trying to wipe out any sect of Islam. So what's the beef these foreign jihadi's have with Assad when a crew down the road is actively wiping out their fellow brethren?

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923351#Comment_122923351

Sectarian and religious reasons. It's a variant of the Taliban (somewhere on the spectrum) who knows they stand to rule if they "win", whatever form that takes.

halkar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923351#Comment_122923351

This is nothing to do with Asad or Syria or Syrians or religion. Most of those mercenaries are not even Syrian. They are there to stir $hit. Whoever pays more they will fight for them. It's US and Israel behind this to remove Hezbollah and Iranian threat at their door step and possibly force Russia to leave Syria. It wouldn't surprise me in few weeks or months if Israel enters Syria via Gollan heights and grap some more land.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923497#Comment_122923497

Yeah I'm aware of the fact its because of sectarian/religious reasons, that's why I'm asking, why don't these foreign Jihadis go for the main regime that is currently and actively wiping out wholescale their religious fellowship? Why instead Syria?

Lets say these Jihadi Islamists take control of Syria, do you think they will head southwest to Gaza and try to liberate the Palestinians who also follow Islam? And if not, why not?

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923351#Comment_122923351

The "Beef" with Assad began back in 2010-2011. After 3 years of drought, no food or not enough of it was being produced, so Syrians in their thousands flocked to the cities. And the protests started, they wanted Assad to do something about the problem, but it only got worse, and the protests grew and led to direct confrontation and civil war started. Thats how far back the "Beef" goes. The war is still ongoing.

(in a similar set of circumstances in 1982, Assads Father besieged the city of Hama for 27 days because they rebelled. He bombed it to pieces, and killed thousands of Syrians)

j62

Hold on Assad and his Russian buddies killed 350,000 people (and reduced whole cities to rubble) often in horrible manner like dropping chemical weapons on them for a decade

And we actually have people a few years later asking “what beef do Syrians have with the regime?”

For real?

halkar

Majority killed in Syria are combatants from factions fighting each other. That is in 13 years. Compare that about 50k Israel killed in a year including 20k children directly and many more indirectly with its illegal siege of Gaza.

And we actually have people asking "what beef world has with Israeli regime "

For real?

j62

Amateurs those Israelis turned out to be

Turns out if they dropped chemical weapons instead and killed 10x

the Left in Europe would then support them and make excuses for them like they are doing for Assad and Putin right on this page

Hoop66

Delete

Hoop66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122908912#Comment_122908912

Craig Murray is an idiot. All the "USA bad, therefore…" debaters are big fans.

Dubh Geannain

Russian an Syrian forces bombing neighbourhoods in Hama now so it looks like the rebels are no longer just assaulting the outskirts of the city.

Danzy

Salamiyah, a shia town of 70k, South West of Hama surrenders today.

It looks like hama will be easily taken and then on to Homs. If that falls, Assad won't have very much left.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924024#Comment_122924024

Then indiscriminate nature of the killing in Syria, by both sides,shocked even the Arabic world were indiscriminate mass killing is the done thing in all their wars.

Dubh Geannain

If you were Putin which would you weigh up as being more critical at this stage. A few more 100m in Donbas or your Mediterranean naval bases?

They're providing some air support but will they they try and hold any of the lines to defend some of what they have. Does anyone think the rebels will get much past Hama?

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924608#Comment_122924608

They already talking small cities 20 further south.

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924003#Comment_122924003

yes, because most people stayed loyal to the regime. For starters because they feared the alternative much more

j62

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924655#Comment_122924655

How much worse can it get than your town being turned to dust and your child dying due to a chemical weapon?

The attempts by the Left to whitewash and downplay the crimes Assad and Putin committed on their own population is incredible

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122923542#Comment_122923542

ISIS tried to carve out a chunk of Syria and Iraq for a caliphate - didn't work out

These guys are going a different route, trying to do the same thing but in a "friendlier" way (focusing on public works, infrastructure, less of the whole public beheadings thing, etc)

Not sure why they'd have anything to do with Palestine, plus they are aligned against Hezbollah (which is an ally of Assad), no one wants a hyperactive Israel making life even more difficult for them

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924655#Comment_122924655

Some people stayed loyal. People feared Assad and his brother, rightfully so, they were butchers. Thousands of bodies out of the notorious prisons showed signs of torture. Assad's militia's would go into villages and massacre men, women and children. Residential areas in cities were shelled relentlessly.

This was all well before the Islamist fundamentalists arrived.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122920797#Comment_122920797

Until the arrival of the Russians, the regime was losing, and in danger of losing Damascus. So all along Assad was fighting and gaining ground with Russian support. Now that situation has changed, and in all probability, Assad is worse off than he was before, the Russians are leaving and leaving without taking their weapons and ammunition with them, making the rebels even stronger.

Danzy

Hama had fallen, a city of a million and hardly a shot fired.

A city that size should be a nightmare for the rebels even if there were only 2000 motivated Assad fighters.

This looks like a collapse, more than a retreat.

Thr butcher of Aleppo has landed in from Iran to help coordinate the defense of Homs.

Dubh Geannain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924936#Comment_122924936

I've not seen that yet but am seeing reports of the Military airport being taken. Hama itslef is also almost in encirclement. Have you seen or read anything on Qamhane (base just north of Hama)? I saw footage of allegedly Syrian troops fleeing down the mountain there but not seen anything else yet.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122924727#Comment_122924727

Israel struck advanced arms depots that were being abandoned by the Russians and Syrian state so as to prevent from falling in to Jihadi hands.

Al qaeda learnt a lot after 9/11, learnt a lot from Isis.

You Take over countries, improve the lives of the people, have them be stricter Muslims bit by bit.

You don't take on the biggest target regional or global target on day one.

They are still the same but a bit more clued in and a greater threat for it

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122901632#Comment_122901632

Bear in mind that a large % of the Syrian people were not supportative of the Assad family..and left in their hundreds of thousands rather fight for either side. Then, large Nrs of Syrians were conscripted, and didn't have any choice in the matter, so not surprising that so many are just melting away. All along the seaboard, Tartous etc, that's where the rebels will meet stiff resistance, that's the Assad family homeland and the majority of Christians and other sects live, under the protection of Assad.

timmyntc

Life in Syria will get a hell of a lot worse for all the non-sunnis. But good news for Israel as Iran won't be able to transit through Syria when it's controlled by rival jihadist factions. What a stroke of luck.

jmreire

One of the reasons Bashir Assad was brought back from his Harley street optical practice (he's an eye specialist by profession) after his father died was because his brother Mahar was considered too hot headed for the role, and while his sister would have been the ideal candidate, the fact that she was a woman ruled her out. So that's how Bashir became President of Syria. Its strongly believed that when the protest became very serious nrs wise, it was Mahar who started firing on protesters, and that started the civil war.

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122925033#Comment_122925033

It's no surprise Israel, America, Russia and Turkey have differing interests here and all want the situation to turn in their favour. It doesn't make any of them right.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122905318#Comment_122905318

Theres no love lost for the Assad family in Hamas..Assads father, Hafiz, bombed the city to fragments in 1982's to put down a rebellion. He killed about 40'000, ( I think)