A personal account on the war in Syria

I found this perspective interesting.

http://thesaker.is/a-russian-syrian...rience-in-the-shabiha-pro-assad-paramilitary/

 

Which makes it surprising that in a poll of nearly 2k Syrians over 22% thought ISIS was positive for the country . Unless the polling people( a British research firm) found only members of ISIS which I guess is possible
But also that fewer than a third of people fleeing are actually genuine refugees.
Since we have seen the 'migrants" are overwhelmingly young males and most do not have documents of any kind a third may be too small an estimate.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...rians-ISIS-good-guys-refugees-Britain-Cameron

 

That's what really concerns me here in Germany. These migrants are showing up by the hundreds of thousands, and we really don't know who they are. It's just a bunch of Syrians storming Munich Hauptbahnhof and the autobahns.

I sympathize with many of them. Having to choose between Assad and ISIS has to suck. Furthermore, I don't have a problem with letting the elderly, women, and children escape the violence by coming to Europe and the United States in an orderly fashion. However, when I see military-aged men running around, I feel like asking them, "instead of running away like a big *****, shouldn't you be back in Syria fighting the enemy?"

 

Thanks Musburger for a fresh perspective.

 

MrDeez
Thousands of people who no one knows who they are or their background showing up demanding to be taken care of?
Hmmm where have and are we seeing this besides Europe?

 

If there are demonstrations of Hispanic immigrants loudly demading public services 6721, where would I go to see it? The only crowds of Hispanics I see are are gathered hoping to get meager income from hard work.

 

so Croc the thousands and thousands who came in JUST last spring came for " meager income from hard work"?

 

Wall Street circa 2008? Wait, they let their behind the scenes lobbyists ensure their handouts were answered.

 

I understand what you mean, but to be honest, most of the Syrians aren't trying to be a burden. They just don't want to be killed, and they're mostly conducting themselves like decent people. Like I said, I do sympathize with most of them. However, somebody needs to stop ISIS, and though I could be talked into US and European support in stopping them, the primary responsibility has to lie with the native population. When I see hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men fleeing the country instead of fighting, that doesn't give me much encouragement. If they aren't going to fight to restore order, why should anyone else?

 

MrD
No one( well almost no one) is against helping the truly needy but we are seeing and you must be as well many if not most of the fleeing are able bodied young men with no documents to even show they are Syrians fleeing terror. Meanwhile ISIS is bragging ( who knows if it is true) that they are sending thousands into Europe. Would you doubt that?
Here in USA we know there are thousands of able bodied men , most Hispanic, some muslim, crossing our border illegally with no one stopping them.' Heck even when they are caught charged and convicted we let them stay to commit more crime.
maybe you are correct, the able bodied young men who are 'fleeing" into Europe will only want to work hard.
We know that is not is what is happening here.
Likely if you asked these young "Syrians" why they didn't stay and fight they give you the finger or crotch grab like the illegals do here.

 

I have no doubt that there are some bad apples and dangerous people showing up, which is why there needs to be an orderly process for processing the true refugees rather than just a free-for-all. From what I've read, they are making progress. The border between Germany and Austria is no longer open, which is a big deal, because it's a major departure from the Shengen Agreement that mostly eliminated border controls in Europe. In addition, trains from Austria into Germany are being rerouted away from Munich to keep the city from being overwhelmed. It was a stupid idea for Angela Merkel to tell the Syrians that Germany will basically anybody who wants to come, and she is taking some backlash for it.

 

what could possibly go wrong? How many Mexican immigrants who overstayed their visas, or who just blatantly came in illegally, were shipped to Europe in the past decade?

 

Buchanan Article
http://buchanan.org/blog/putin-friend-or-foe-in-syria-124083

By Patrick J. Buchanan

What Vladimir Putin is up to in Syria makes far more sense than what Barack Obama and John Kerry appear to be up to in Syria.

The Russians are flying transports bringing tanks and troops to an air base near the coastal city of Latakia to create a supply chain to provide a steady flow of weapons and munitions to the Syrian army.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, an ally of Russia, has lost half his country to ISIS and the Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaida.

Putin fears that if Assad falls, Russia’s toehold in Syria and the Mediterranean will be lost, ISIS and al-Qaida will be in Damascus, and Islamic terrorism will have achieved its greatest victory.

Is he wrong?

Winston Churchill famously said in 1939: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

Exactly. Putin is looking out for Russian national interests.

And who do we Americans think will wind up in Damascus if Assad falls? A collapse of that regime, not out of the question, would result in a terrorist takeover, the massacre of thousands of Alawite Shiites and Syrian Christians, and the flight of millions more refugees into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey — and thence on to Europe.

Putin wants to prevent that. Don’t we?

Why then are we spurning his offer to work with us?

Are we still so miffed that when we helped to dump over the pro-Russian regime in Kiev, Putin countered by annexing Crimea?

Get over it.

Understandably, there is going to be friction between the two greatest military powers. Yet both of us have a vital interest in avoiding war with each other and a critical interest in seeing ISIS degraded and defeated.

And if we consult those interests rather than respond to a reflexive Russophobia that passes for thought in the think tanks, we should be able to see our way clear to collaborate in Syria.

Indeed, the problem in Syria is not so much with the Russians — or Iran, Hezbollah and Assad, all of whom see the Syrian civil war correctly as a fight to the finish against Sunni jihadis.

Our problem has been that we have let our friends — the Turks, Israelis, Saudis and Gulf Arabs — convince us that no victory over ISIS can be achieved unless and until we bring down Assad.

Once we get rid of Assad, they tell us, a grand U.S.-led coalition of Arabs and Turks can form up and march in to dispatch ISIS.

This is neocon nonsense.

Those giving us this advice are the same “cakewalk war” crowd who told us how Iraq would become a democratic model for the Middle East once Saddam Hussein was overthrown and how Moammar Gadhafi’s demise would mean the rise of a pro-Western Libya.

When have these people ever been right?

What is the brutal reality in this Syrian civil war, which has cost 250,000 lives and made refugees of half the population, with 4 million having fled the country?

After four years of sectarian and ethnic slaughter, Syria will most likely never again be reconstituted along the century-old map lines of Sykes-Picot.

Partition appears inevitable.

And though Assad may survive for a time, his family’s days of ruling Syria are coming to a close.

Yet it is in America’s interest not to have Assad fall — if his fall means the demoralization and collapse of his army, leaving no strong military force standing between ISIS and Damascus.

Indeed, if Assad falls now, the beneficiary is not going to be those pro-American rebels who have defected or been routed every time they have seen combat and who are now virtually extinct.

The victors will be ISIS and the Nusra Front, which control most of Syria between the Kurds in the northeast and the Assad regime in the southwest.

Syria could swiftly become a strategic base camp and sanctuary of the Islamic State from which to pursue the battle for Baghdad, plot strikes against America and launch terror attacks across the region and around the world.

Prediction: If Assad falls and ISIS rises in Damascus, a clamor will come — and not only from the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains — to send a U.S. army to invade and drive ISIS out, while the neocons go scrounging around to find a Syrian Ahmed Chalabi in northern Virginia.

Then this nation will be convulsed in a great war debate over whether to send that U.S. army to invade Syria and destroy ISIS.

And while our Middle Eastern and European allies sit on the sidelines and cheer on the American intervention, this country will face an anti-war movement the likes of which have not been seen since Col. Lindbergh spoke for America First.

In making ISIS, not Assad, public enemy No. 1, Putin has it right.

It is we Americans who are the mystery inside an enigma now.

 

That is a very good article, Mus.

 

I often disagree with Mus about Russia, but I agree with him and Pat Buchanan here. Destroying ISIS should be an area in which we can work with Putin. If we could work with Stalin, then why not Putin?

I'm sure Assad is no Boy Scout, but he's better than the alternative (ISIS). Yes, Russia will benefit, but right now they're intervening while we're sitting on our asses. They're going to benefit anyway.

 

If only we could only support good leaders our sense of morality could stay pure.
Of course that is not the real world.
BUT agreeing that Putin might be making the better decision even if it is benefitting Russia why wouldn't Russia take in refugees?

 

To be fair, I think they have taken a few (very few). However, they're not going to take a lot of them, because they don't want them and because nationalism isn't politically incorrect in Russia. They don't mind making the argument that they don't want Syrians (Muslims) altering their ethnic, political, and religious demographics and posing a security threat. Western Europeans (especially Germans) aren't allowed to raise those issues lest they be called racists, Islamophobes, neo-Nazis, etc.

 

MrD
There hasn't been any mention here of Russia taking any ME refugees. Thanks for that info. I would think any deal Assad made with Russia would include Russia taking refugees to be returned to Syria since the country will be in need of people.

The rest of Europe should be paying attention to the countries who will not take any, the countries who have had dealings in the past with large groups of muslims.
And now that it is being reported that only 20% are actually Syrian refugees, that a really large percentage are men. This won't end well for Europe. OR for USA now that Kerry is saying we will take in 100k in 2016. If we need to spend 2 years vetting them and we surely do, how can we bring in 100k next year.

Why isn't that Egyptian's offer to buy islands and build facilities for these people being given any attention? This seems like a very good humane and safe solution . These people could go back to their native homeland once Russia get it secure.

 

Why would the refugees want to go to Russia at all? If you end up there you won't get any of the social welfare and $$$ the Euro zone countries are doling out.

 

It looks like the Syrian war is about to take a turn. Putin is going to fight ISIS with or without the help of the United States.

Link.

President Vladimir Putin, determined to strengthen Russia’s only military outpost in the Middle East, is preparing to launch unilateral airstrikes against Islamic State from inside Syria if the U.S. rejects his proposal to join forces, two people familiar with the matter said.

Putin’s preferred course of action, though, is for America and its allies to agree to coordinate their campaign against the terrorist group with Russia, Iran and the Syrian army, which the Obama administration has so far resisted, according to a person close to the Kremlin and an adviser to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

Russian diplomacy has shifted into overdrive as Putin seeks to avoid the collapse of the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally who’s fighting both a 4 1/2 year civil war and Sunni extremists under the banner of Islamic State. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow for talks with Putin on Monday, followed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

Sidelining Assad
Putin’s proposal, which Russia has communicated to the U.S., calls for a “parallel track” of joint military action accompanied by a political transition away from Assad, a key U.S. demand, according to a third person. The initiative will be the centerpiece of Putin’s one-day trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 28, which may include talks with President Barack Obama.

“Russia is hoping common sense will prevail and Obama takes Putin’s outstretched hand,” said Elena Suponina, a senior Middle East analyst at the Institute of Strategic Studies, which advises the Kremlin. “But Putin will act anyway if this doesn’t happen.”
President Vladimir Putin, determined to strengthen Russia’s only military outpost in the Middle East, is preparing to launch unilateral airstrikes against Islamic State from inside Syria if the U.S. rejects his proposal to join forces, two people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. is willing to discuss coordinating strikes to avoid hostile incidents with Russian planes, but America and its allies haven’t received a“concrete” proposal from Moscow and won’t include Assad’s forces in the effort, an official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, didn’t respond immediately to a text message seeking comment.

Fighter Jets
Russia has sent two dozen fighter jets to a new airfield near Assad’s ancestral home of Latakia and deployed hundreds of servicemen to the airbase and a nearby port, according to satellite images and media reports in Moscow. The Kremlin said last week that Russia may enter combat operations if the government in Damascus requests help.

Any armed intervention by Russia will be coordinated with Iran, Syria’s main ally, and Assad’s government, the Defense Ministry adviser said.

The Kremlin has already drafted a request for the upper house of parliament to approve the deployment of 2,000 air personnel to Syria, but has yet to formally submit it, two people familiar with the matter said. Putin is frustrated with U.S. reticence to respond to his overtures and is ready to act alone in Syria if necessary, one of them said.

Putin, who came to power fighting Islamist separatists in the Caucasus in 1999, has reason to fear the rise of jihadists in Syria. Their numbers include about 2,000 Russian-speakers, according to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, raising the threat of attacks inside Russia.

U.S. ‘Receptive’
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are estimated to have stripped Islamic State of about 30 percent of the territory it once held. Still, the group retains control of about half of Syria and key provinces in neighboring Iraq. Fighting in Syria has traumatized the Middle East, killing at least 250,000 people and provoking hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge in Europe.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday the U.S. has become more “receptive” to Moscow’s position. The U.S. has tempered two planks of its Syrian policy -- that Assad must step down immediately and that it won’t negotiate with his government, according to comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry on Sept. 17.

The next day, the U.S. and Russian defense chiefs held direct talks for the first time since the conflict in Ukraine started. They agreed to continue dialog to prevent clashes between their forces in Syria.

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, which is arming Syrian rebels, is ready to accept the Russian proposal that Assad stay on as president during a transitional period if he is stripped of his powers, according to Anwar Eshki, a retired Saudi general who heads the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah.

Russia’s involvement in Syria will help bring stability to the region and bolster the chances of defeating Islamic State, Eshki said by phone. The Syrian opposition should “put its hand in Russia’s hand,” he said.​

 

Kerry has proclaimed that what Russia has sent is merely "FORCE PROTECTION"
so it is all good and BO/Kerry do not have to issue a sternly worded letter to Putin.
Whew

 

Fight ISIS or rebels? I suspect Russia won't make any attempts to differentiate between the two.

 

That's because in essence, they are one in the same. While there is opposition within Syria to Assad, most of that opposition has either fled or now joined with Assad to fight the greater enemy. The majority of the so-called rebels are not Syrian, but in fact are hard core Islamists from various countries including Europe, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.