Donald Trump Is Pulling Out Of Syria

[Maketakunai]

You are aware that the the Obama administration was supplying "rebels" in Syria with weapons from Croatia to take out Assad, right? That all came out in 2015. Trump stopped funding the "rebels" in 2017 and about 8 months later declared ISIS was no longer a threat in Syria. Who do you think those "rebels " are exactly?

Obama had the CIA funding and training the Free Syrian Army to overthrow the Syrian government since around 2011. As it turns out, the FSA collaborates quite a bit with Al Qaeda. By 2017 intelligence was reporting that FSA was primarily Al Qaeda. Let's backtrack -  From 2011 to 2014 Al Qaeda supported ISIS openly. Even though they broke ties formally, they still support each other when it's convenient. Right now there are so many groups in Syria that it's really just not worth the effort to try to keep track of them all. We can't treat them all like allies, and we can't treat them all like enemies. Here's a map from May, 2018 that shows what I mean.

The only thing anyone knows for sure is that without money from America, ISIS control has been reduced to holding a miniscule portion of the country. That only took about 8 months after President Trump cut off the flow of arms and equipment. And, like I wrote earlier, as long as we can get carriers into the Mediterranean we really don't need to put American lives at risk for this cluster-fuck.

Russian barrel bombs and chemical weapons have more to do with ISIS current predicament than scrotus does, lol.  You're not talking to a person who has problems with arming and training rebels, with me.  Personally, I think the failure to follow up directly on our red line back in the day was one of the worst mistakes of the obama presidency.

As you say.... 

I don't have a problem arming rebels, per se. I was born in a country that only exists because of a rebellion... The situation in Syria is pretty FUBAR though. We're supporting rebels we like who are supporting people we want to kill (and who want to kill us). Not all, but maybe some of this could have been avoided if we would have just assassinated Assad outright instead of open-secretly supplying the locals with arms and equipment to do the job just so Obama wouldn't have to take another political hit. 

I know that opens up all sorts of ethical and moral questions, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I think Syria has been more trouble than it's worth to the U.S.. I'd rather see the money we're wasting there used to build a wall on our southern border, but that's a whole other conversation.

[Amarok]

I'm not a fan of arming rebel groups history shows that it often goes poorly . Yet another reason I don't support militia's .

So NOW you tell me.



Signed


Geo. Washington

Yup Washington was a success (depending on who you ask) too bad the same can't be said for the majority of said movements

[Pat Mustard]

You are aware that the the Obama administration was supplying "rebels" in Syria with weapons from Croatia to take out Assad, right? That all came out in 2015. Trump stopped funding the "rebels" in 2017 and about 8 months later declared ISIS was no longer a threat in Syria. Who do you think those "rebels " are exactly?

Obama had the CIA funding and training the Free Syrian Army to overthrow the Syrian government since around 2011. As it turns out, the FSA collaborates quite a bit with Al Qaeda. By 2017 intelligence was reporting that FSA was primarily Al Qaeda. Let's backtrack -  From 2011 to 2014 Al Qaeda supported ISIS openly. Even though they broke ties formally, they still support each other when it's convenient. Right now there are so many groups in Syria that it's really just not worth the effort to try to keep track of them all. We can't treat them all like allies, and we can't treat them all like enemies. Here's a map from May, 2018 that shows what I mean.

The only thing anyone knows for sure is that without money from America, ISIS control has been reduced to holding a miniscule portion of the country. That only took about 8 months after President Trump cut off the flow of arms and equipment. And, like I wrote earlier, as long as we can get carriers into the Mediterranean we really don't need to put American lives at risk for this cluster-fuck.

Russian barrel bombs and chemical weapons have more to do with ISIS current predicament than scrotus does, lol.  You're not talking to a person who has problems with arming and training rebels, with me.  Personally, I think the failure to follow up directly on our red line back in the day was one of the worst mistakes of the obama presidency.

In Syria, the people who had the most trouble with arming and training rebels were the original rebels themselves. They were on the ground and knew what needed to happen, and knew turning non-violent protests into tribal civil war wasn't going to go well.

[The Grand Nudger]

I know that opens up all sorts of ethical and moral questions, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I think Syria has been more trouble than it's worth to the U.S.. I'd rather see the money we're wasting there used to build a wall on our southern border, but that's a whole other conversation.

Everything is more trouble than it's worth when we half ass it then quit.  Remaining the worlds indispensable nation, however..is priceless.  

WALL is an equally bad idea.

[Amarok]

I know that opens up all sorts of ethical and moral questions, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I think Syria has been more trouble than it's worth to the U.S.. I'd rather see the money we're wasting there used to build a wall on our southern border, but that's a whole other conversation.

Everything is more trouble than it's worth when we half ass it then quit.  Remaining the worlds indispensable nation, however..is priceless.  

WALL is an equally bad idea.

Yeah half assing it is doomed to have consequences in the future and yes the wall sucks as an idea

[Maketakunai]

I know that opens up all sorts of ethical and moral questions, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I think Syria has been more trouble than it's worth to the U.S.. I'd rather see the money we're wasting there used to build a wall on our southern border, but that's a whole other conversation.

Everything is more trouble than it's worth when we half ass it then quit.  Remaining the worlds indispensable nation, however..is priceless.  

WALL is an equally bad idea.

Unfortunately, since America wants to maintain the illusion that we don't topple other governments or try to control the laws and policies of lesser (yet equally sovereign) nations using methods we would never allow to be used on ourselves... this is what happens. If we were serious about making the world a better place we would just take these little shitholes over outright and be done with it. The truth of the matter is that the American people like being able to buy cheap goods made by women and children who are paid pennies a day. We're pretty comfortable with all the suffering in the world if it makes our lives a little easier. 

We deny it, of course, but most people deny it while continuing to buy cheap goods from overseas. Have you ever had something shipped from overseas? I bought my Xiaomi 365 (the electric scooter Bird uses) in 2017 directly from the manufacturer for $250 and it cost almost $200 to have it shipped from China before all of the Trump tariffs. I can't even begin to imagine how little a car costs to actually build overseas, pay shipping cost, and still  be competitive with an American made car.

Honestly, I'm in favor of just taking over Mexico and making it the 51st state. They're into us for 80 or 90 billion dollars and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid every year. Just annexing them would eliminate a lot of problems for all concerned, including the humanitarian issues, and there would be no debate at all about walls. As I said though, we like stuff made by cheap labor.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Honestly, I'm in favor of just taking over Mexico and making it the 51st state.

What an astoundingly bad idea.

Boru

[Fireball]

Honestly, I'm in favor of just taking over Mexico and making it the 51st state.

What an astoundingly bad idea.

Boru

Well, we already stole the northern half of it. Might as well finish the job.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What an astoundingly bad idea.

Boru

Well, we already stole the northern half of it. Might as well finish the job.

True enough, but you might find the Mexicans better able to resist than the Natives.

Boru

[Fireball]

Well, we already stole the northern half of it. Might as well finish the job.

True enough, but you might find the Mexicans better able to resist than the Natives.

Boru

Indeed. FWIW, I don't think stealing the northern part was all that great (as in nice) an idea, either. Above, I was using the imperial "we". My predecessors were still living in Europe when that whole deal went down.