Syria, the tarbaby
According to the Washington Times, Russia is continuing to sell arms to the Assad regime in Syria, specifically, anti-aircraft rockets. Now, last time I checked, the only people who are threatening the Assad regime with aircraft are the Israelis who claim they’re only striking chemical weapons installations. The Israelis have threatened to strike the anti-aircraft batteries if Russia goes ahead with it’s plan.
Russia claims that it’s only bringing stability to the region with the arms shipments. Yeah, that makes complete sense. And Russia has brought so peace to the world with it’s arms shipments in the past – you know like giving everyone with a pulse an AK47. So to counter the Russian arms sales, the European Union let it’s own ban on weapons sales to the Syrian rebels expire.
At the State Department, Mr. Ventrell told reporters that the EU development was positive in that it “give the flexibility to specific EU member states to assist the opposition in the way that each sees fit under their own national decision making.”
So this administration is perfectly willing to let the world supply weapons to both sides, while hostilities are expanding outside of the country to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. With Iran and Russia supplying weapons to Hezbollah in support of the government and the EU giving weapons to al Qaeda-linked rebels.
While on it’s face, it looks pleasing that all of these perpetually outraged neanderthals are killing each other effectively and massively, when the fighting finally ends in Syria, those weapons won’t remain in Syria. We’ve all heard the Left complain that Reagan supplied Hussein and bin Laden with weapons that they used against us (it’s not true, but they think it makes them sound smart), but this one has a real possibility of blowing up in our faces, literally.
Category: Terror War
Well, it might not be just the Israelis for too long, Jonn.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/28/exclusive-barack-obama-asks-pentagon-for-syria-no-fly-zone-plan.html
REALLY bad idea, Mr. President.
I smell another 30,000-feet intervention coming, and that smell stinks…
I say we let them stir each other up and kill each other by the thousands. Get some good video and pass the popcorn. Nothing like watching Syrians with RPGs roat Syrians in T72s then get shot by another Syrian with an AK 74.
Yeah, let ’em have at each other, less ammo we’ll need in the future!
Would it be wrong to start a celebration march cheering the death of people in Syria, you know like was done all over the middle east after 9-11?
As long as they keep their murdering ways inside their border who gives a flying f#ck what they do to each other? The more dead the better, place is a sh1thold and has been a sh1thole for most of its’ existence. I know some of you world travelers want to talk about a wondrous ancient culture…emphasis on ancient because they’ve been pretty much sh1t since ancient times…with any luck this will be an extinction level event for Syria…
The Russians are worse than we are for getting into things they have no business being involved in. They don’t appear to learn from history, either.
@6, sadly neither do we.
I have to take issue with that statement “they gave everyone with a pulse an AK-47.”
I definitely have a pulse, but the Russians did not give me an AK-47.
I am sad.
Where do I sign up for one? Should I write a letter to Vlad Putin to express my despondency at being missed for that handout?
@2–I also seem to recall a certain president saying we’d be home in a few months. 15 YEARS ago.
@6–Pinto Nag–they still want the one thing they don’t have–a blue-water port.
“REALLY bad idea, Mr. President.” Those are the only ideas permitted within this regime, Hondo.
Well, it’s now clear as crystal what our foreign policy is with respect to the ME and North Africa. I finally heard it articulated. I can’t recall it verbatim but, to paraphrase, it went like this:
‘Let me be very clear about this. My policy, that is, our policy in the Middle East and North Africa is quite clear. We have never waivered from our solemn commitments and we will not hesitate so long as I am President, to honor those commitments to those to whom those commitments have been made. How much clearer I can be I do not know. But our detractors will say otherwise. And there will always be detractors, those who deny the existence of the very policy I have reiterated here today. But the America people know this. And our friends around the globe know this as well. It is a price I am willing to continue to pay, to be accused, wrongly, of failing to articulate our foreign policy when the evidence contradicts that assertion.’
Reporters: “WTF did he just say?”
Can you say “tar baby?” Expect an IRS audit.
@10 Sparky, I’ve heard that said before. I’d point out to the Russians that the use of a port is directly related to what can be moved to and from it. If you have said port in a country where the local homicidal maniacs continuously mine the roads in and out, that port is going to do you little if any good.
PintoNag: in the case of a warmwater port in Syria, there’s also the minor problem of how to use it without crossing Turkey. Based on history I’m guessing the Turks probably won’t be real receptive to that idea.
The rout through Azerbaijan, Iran, and Iraq is possible but hardly efficient. Or for that matter, guaranteed.
That was me, Hondo, but point taken. Then again, if Putin has his way the Turks probably won’t be a huge issue. Not like they’d be going through the Bosphorus, but if the Russian Navy had access to a warm-water port much like we do at LaMad, Rota, etc., they’d be well on their way to projection of power like we do.
Let’s see, on one side we’ve got Bashar Assad and his thugs, backed up by Lebanese Hizballah and Iranian Quds Force… And on the other side, we’ve got the Muslim Brotherhood, plus our dear old friends Al Qaeda, plus various and sundry jihadi douchebags from around the globe… And they’re killing each other by the bushel and stacking the bodies like cord wood?
Umm, where’s the downside again?
I hope this lasts for the next 15 years.
Aren’t all those little semi-independent states on the Caspian and the Black Sea just awfully inconvenient, though?
I mean, the Russians could go through Siberia and just build something north of Japan, but that would probably put the Japanese Navy in a snit, wouldn’t it?
And then there’s that whole “Siberia is independent thing”, too, so it might not go over quite so well.
Why ask for Congressional authorization now? They didn’t bother when we bombed Libya. But now Obama needs cover, if the Russians get in too deep and the Red Sea Pedestrians feel the need to put a stop to that the administration needs someone to share the risk (if we actively back Israel) or the pressure from Jerusalem if we don’t.
Ex-PH2: indeed they are. And many of them also don’t much like the Russians for historical reasons.
Regarding a potential Russian Pacific port: my understanding is that Vladivostok – like Archangel and Murmansk – isn’t particularly usable during the winter. I believe I’ve also read that the Sea of Okhotsk at least partially freezes over during the winter, so anything north of Vladivostok on that body of water isn’t exactly a good candidate for a major port either. And I understand the Pacific coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula is even worse.
You’re right, Hondo. They couldn’t even get an icecutter through the Tatar Straits in the winter, although how the crabbers get anything done in the Bering Sea near Alaska is beyond me.
If the Russians were interested in a blue water port, there’s a crapton of dead broke countries in Africa they could easily bribe into setting up shop in their countries. No, I don’t think Syrias ports are what Putin’s after. He’s stirring the pot, basically arming the Assad Regime and daring us to do something about it. If you look at all of his actions via the lens of the Cold War, the make perfect (Russian) sense.
See the Americans supporting the Rebels ( Thanks a lot, McCain) and talking abou NFZ?
Russian answer: Sell Assad regime SAM’s and warn against intervention by the international community. Putin is making money for his country and telling us to go fuck ourselves simultaneously.
It’s win win for them, and the more our political creatures talk publicly about ‘what we should do’ and ‘what we must do’ ect ect, the more they are painting us into a corner. We shouldnt touch this one with a Frenchmans’s genitals, if you catch my drift.
@22- Russia has had military ties with Syria for some time. They are protecting their turf, as Syria is home to the only military base that Russia has outside of Russia. They are just doing it the cold war way, because Russian boots on the ground would make things extremely messy. Their rules of engagement would not sit well with survivors of either side, I’d wager.
@12 I agree, WTF did he say? I thought his policy was to help no one in Africa, (especially our own embassy). And to leave the ME to the ME (for now). I can never tell which side of the crapper this POTUS wipes his ass from. You are also right, and I am also PISSED, that I have no AK-47 to fire off at weddings and funerals and any time of sheer excitement. Nothing says a good time like blipping off a 30 round clip just for shits and giggles. And the hot brass down your burka really starts the dancing too! I say as long as the Arabs and I don’t care what country they are in, want to off each other, let them have at it. Less to deal with latter for everyone. And someone else posted correctly. When the wedding is over and the cake is cut, those arms won’t disappear into the sand. Someone, somewhere else will be facing them.
Let me throw this out for the hell of it; Instead of paying atention to the dancing chicken onstage, lets keep an eye on the background. Just maybe sooner or later, we’ll see Media Benjamin and all of her close rat commie bastard pal’s hopping a flight for Syria. Then let that place implode.
Some of the problems are with the control natural gas fields and Gazprom selling natural gas to the EU.
It all boils down to energy, money and political power but those three things are one and the same.
Syria is doing just fine without Obama’s help.
If Russia wants to arm Syria so they can more effectively kill fellow Syrian’s then I’m OK with that.
Frankly Putin has more Macho than Obama unless Obama brings Michelle to the table.
Phuc Syria it ain’t our problem.
@20–yeah, it pretty much sucks there. The Sea of Okhotsk is pretty shallow, much like the Persian Gulf. To put it nicely, it’s a shitty place to visit, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be stationed there.