Apparently We Have Invaded Syria

[Gawdzilla Sama]

To be fair, there are no obvious, constructive, viable solutions for the situation in Syria and the surrounding area.

No but i don't think occupation need be a solution

There are people who are furious that we haven't gone in there sooner. There are people who are furious that we've gone in at all. As a historian I keep looking for a way to cancel the Repeat function.

[downbeatplumb]

This will not end well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world...pe=article


A Bill Maher has noted....when the US goes somewhere we are like the Thing That Wouldn't Leave.  We love you a long long time!

I suspect it's to try to discourage that idiot Erdogan from invading and destroying the only effective force in the country that fought against ISIS, the Kurds.

I won't, of course.  The Turks are already getting ready to invade Syria.

Time to wall off the entire region and let them go for it, methinks.

And who will pay for the wall!

[Anomalocaris]

No but i don't think occupation need be a solution

There are people who are furious that we haven't gone in there sooner. There are people who are furious that we've gone in at all. As a historian I keep looking for a way to cancel the Repeat function.

Cancel repeat? How would we repeat history then?

[Pat Mustard]

This will not end well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world...pe=article


A Bill Maher has noted....when the US goes somewhere we are like the Thing That Wouldn't Leave.  We love you a long long time!

I suspect it's to try to discourage that idiot Erdogan from invading and destroying the only effective force in the country that fought against ISIS, the Kurds.

I won't, of course.  The Turks are already getting ready to invade Syria.

Time to wall off the entire region and let them go for it, methinks.

It's more likely out of fear of Putin having a deep sea port in the Med (even though the Russian navy would have trouble repelling an invasion of English cricketers in pedalos in its current state).

Putin and Erdogan have Syria divvied up between them for a while now. And president Shitpickle is stood on the sidlines holding micro-dick.

[CapnAwesome]

What the fuck is the deal with Syria. It's a powder keg. So many countries just fucking around there. Turkey just invaded the North to take out the Kurds, who we armed and trained.

Wr actually armed a communist group to fight ISIS, 21st century is so weird.

If Hillary were president, we'd be way more involved in Syria. It would be hard to deny that.

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I suspect it's to try to discourage that idiot Erdogan from invading and destroying the only effective force in the country that fought against ISIS, the Kurds.

I won't, of course.  The Turks are already getting ready to invade Syria.

Time to wall off the entire region and let them go for it, methinks.

It's more likely out of fear of Putin having a deep sea port in the Med (even though the Russian navy would have trouble repelling an invasion of English cricketers in pedalos in its current state).

Putin and Erdogan have Syria divvied up between them for a while now. And president Shitpickle is stood on the sidlines holding micro-dick.

Kurds are the only decent people in the whole region. They have a lgbt military unit fighting ISIS, equal rights for women and religious minorities including Atheists. Fuck Erdogan.

[The Industrial Atheist]

So are we going to side with the rebels, who are mostly jihadis, against Assad who everyone knows is terrible BUT who is fighting ISIS and Al-Quaeda?

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It's a ridiculous position we're putting ourselves in.

[Anomalocaris]

What the fuck is the deal with Syria.  It's a powder keg. So many countries just fucking around there. Turkey just invaded the North to take out the Kurds, who we armed and trained.

Wr actually armed a communist group to fight ISIS, 21st century is so weird.

If Hillary were president,  we'd be way more involved in Syria. It would be hard to deny that.

Way more involved in what way?  Troops?  I highly doubt it.  Involved as in actually thinking about it and taking a role in definition coherent policy?  Absolutely.

I believe she would endeavor to play a deeper game to turn the situation against Russia by not gratuitously pissing off Iran, not gratuitously sucking up to Saudi Arabia, and arming groups in Syria connected to breakaway fractions in southern Russia.

So under Hillary the US would be more deeply involved by playing a more coherent game across the region and attempt to play regional players as chess pieces in a overall game, rather than a series of disjointed and individually risky ad hoc ventures without any mutural synergy or mutural risk offset.  

Granted, Hillary is likely to bring with her some deeply flawed, ideological based fundamental assumptions with her.  

But a coherent but flawed strategy is at least an adult’s game.  Even if that approach fails it would not permanently damage america’s Standing as a power that can be trusted to play in the adult league.  

With trump’s approach, if approach as so grand a word could possibly be applied to a policy defined solely by trump’s mood, and his fire-up-the-base impulse de jour, the US would be seen increasingly as a meddlesome nonentity.  Treaties will increasingly be signed without us.  International trade and alliance frameworks will be formulated without us. We will increasingly be blocked from having any role or even input in international events which affect us.

With trump, we will increasingly play the clown who makes the news but not involved in shaping the underlying current of regional development.    If some development seem to bring apparent results consistent with our claimed interests, as is the case recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, we wil baffoonishly claim credit. The world will humor us and tell us to go away.  If some shit seem to hit the fan,  a tweet storm mainly aimed at previous US administrations will entertain the rest of the world.

[CapnAwesome]

What the fuck is the deal with Syria.  It's a powder keg. So many countries just fucking around there. Turkey just invaded the North to take out the Kurds, who we armed and trained.

Wr actually armed a communist group to fight ISIS, 21st century is so weird.

If Hillary were president,  we'd be way more involved in Syria. It would be hard to deny that.

Way more involved in what way?  Troops?  I highly doubt it.  Involved as in actually thinking about it and taking a role in definition coherent policy?  Absolutely.

I believe she would endeavor to play a deeper game to turn the situation against Russia by not gratuitously pissing off Iran, not gratuitously sucking up to Saudi Arabia, and arming groups in Syria connected to breakaway fractions in southern Russia.

So under Hillary the US would be more deeply involved by playing a more coherent game across the region and attempt to play regional players as chess pieces in a overall game, rather than a series of disjointed and individually risky ad hoc ventures without any mutural synergy or mutural risk offset.  

Granted, Hillary is likely to bring with her some deeply flawed, ideological based fundamental assumptions with her.  

But a coherent but flawed strategy is at least an adult’s game.  Even if that approach fails it would not permanently damage america’s Standing as a power that can be trusted to play in the adult league.  

With trump’s approach, if approach as so grand a word could possibly be applied to a policy defined solely by trump’s mood, and his fire-up-the-base impulse de jour, the US would be seen increasingly as a meddlesome nonentity.  Treaties will increasingly be signed without us.  International trade and alliance frameworks will be formulated without us. We will increasingly be blocked from having any role or even input in international events which affect us.

With trump, we will increasingly play the clown who makes the news but not involved in shaping the underlying current of regional development.    If some development seem to bring apparent results consistent with our claimed interests, as is the case recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, we wil baffoonishly claim credit. The world will humor us and tell us to go away.  If some shit seem to hit the fan,  a tweet storm mainly aimed at previous US administrations will entertain the rest of the world.

Hillary pushed for more Military involvement in the middle East and regime change her whole time as Secretary of state. She openly wanted us involved there deeper and had great disrespect for the Russians throughout her campaign.

So yeah, I think our chances of getting full out involved in another ground war in Syria was probably more likely with Hillary. Just going off the statements that she made in the campaign, since it's impossible to really know.

Hard to say that she wouldn't follow through. Therr is really no reason to not take her at her word. Yeah, it would be a more coherent policy, but coherent =\= good. Her consistency is that she wanted to force Assad from office. It's impossible for me to say that is a good idea, in any way.

I'd much rather have her dealing with Korea for sure, but Hillary's boner for the middle East and contempt for Russia was truly frightening.

[Jackalope]

To be fair, there are no obvious, constructive, viable solutions for the situation in Syria and the surrounding area.

^^^

As much as I dislike the current administration, I doubt it would have been much different under the last. Or the next.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

To be fair, there are no obvious, constructive, viable solutions for the situation in Syria and the surrounding area.

^^^

As much as I dislike the current administration, I doubt it would have been much different under the last.  Or the next.

Turkey has just invaded Syria.

Turkish forces push into Syria, battle Kurdish militia

"AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Turkey's army and rebel allies battled U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin province on Sunday, stepping up a two-day-old campaign against YPG fighters that has opened a new front in Syria's civil war.

Amid U.S. calls for restraint, Turkish artillery pounded YPG positions, while rockets fired from inside Syria slammed into two Turkish border towns, wounding dozens, according to the local governor's office and a witness.

Turkey began its push to clear YPG fighters from a northwestern enclave of Syria on Saturday when it launched artillery and air strikes against their positions in Afrin in what it called "Operation Olive Branch".

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization and has been infuriated by U.S. support for the fighters. Washington, which is backing the YPG in the battle against Islamic State in Syria, on Sunday said it was concerned about the situation.

"Our jets took off and started bombing. And now the ground operation is underway. Now we see how the YPG ... are fleeing in Afrin," President Tayyip Erdogan said. "We will chase them. God willing, we will complete this operation very quickly.""
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/turkey-says-gr...22385.html