Syria - Officially a civil war. Now what?

[madchives]

We're often politically opposed Patty, but we agree here. We need to stay out of it. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Are there any good guys? Al'Qaeda has allied with rebel factions, the government is actively supported by HezBollah. The only good guys I can be sure of are the children and firing cruise missiles or dropping bombs on either side isn't going to help them one bit. I don't know what the solution is but NATO bombs and missiles aren't it.

stay out of it??? geee this world is nuts i agree but one seems to need to take a stand!
drop bombs send drones just do something.
and if the un has the rules to not say 'hey too much killing....'
let loose who can fix that ie ---- by by russia china etc

[Lynn49]

I just saw a video of children with their bodies burning writhing on the floor....their school was attacked with chemical weapons (on girl said they heard and smelled nothing; their skin just started burning).
Someone has to come forward and be counted on to save the innocents!
I don't know how or when, I don't have any answers but a regime killing children needs to be dealt with!

[Lynn49]

Obama: "the world should have acted already".....Once again the UN has it's head in the sand, ignoring Assan's blatantly ignoring international law by using chemical weapons on his people many, many times
What baffles me is Britain's response...one would think that after their soldiers were chemically attacked in the first WW, they'd be capable if some form of sympathy for those children! What cowards!

[frugal50]

good thing Obama is in office when this Syria crises is occurring

republicans would of went in full force

i agree, the US is staying out of it because of Russia

and besides they won't win anyway.

but....... i do agree on a strike with NO ground war.

[Natalka]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...Red-Cross.html

So is this a place where we should get involved? Is Russia getting a little too close for comfort by sending ships full of arms?

Is Syria being neglected because of Afghanistan and Iraq?

Any thoughts?

I think the states is staying away because of fear of Russia to be honest. I am not sure the U.S. could afford nor win any conflict if Russia went in full force.

I know this thread is old, but we've been discussing the conflict in different threads... and I thought this appropriate to what the very first post was.


Thursday 10 September 2015

Syria civil war: Russian reinforcements arrive as al-Qaeda-linked rebels crush President Assad's army in Idlib

Russian tank landing ships, aircraft and troops were claimed to have arrived in Syria to bolster the flagging regime of Bashar al-Assad, as the last remaining Syrian army base in Idlib province fell to al-Qaeda-linked rebels after a two-year siege.

Sources in Washington said Moscow had sent two tank landing ships and “additional aircraft” to Syria and deployed a small number of infantry to the country. The troops, ships and aircraft were reported to have been dispatched to a site near the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of Mr Assad.

Last week, Vladimir Putin reportedly told an economic forum in Vladivostok that Moscow was “already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons. We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism,” he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-10493781.html




Russia Puts Boots on the Ground in Syria

As if Moscow weren’t satisfied with the game in Ukraine, the last month has seen a flurry of reports about its ever-expanding military involvement in Syria. One report has even alleged that Russian pilots are gearing up to fly missions alongside the Syrian air force, dropping bombs not just on ISIS but on anti-Assad rebels who may or may not be aligned with the United States or its regional allies.
Much discussed in U.S. defense circles is what the Israeli news portal YNet reported Monday: that a new “expeditionary force” of the Russian military has arrived in Damascus and converted a Syrian air force installation into its own forward-operating base. Russian pilots will also apparently start flying their own combat missions. “In the coming weeks,” YNet’s Alex Fishman wrote, citing Western diplomatic sources, “thousands of Russian military personal [sic] are set to touch down in Syria, including: Advisors, instructors, logistics personnel, technical personnel, members of the aerial protection division, and the pilots who will operate the aircraft.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-in-syria.html

[Natalka]

10.09.2015 | 19:00

Ukraine closed its airspace preventing overflight of Russian aircraft to Syria, as well as tightened control over the movement of all Russian planes flying to Syria over neutral waters outside Ukrainian border, according to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

"This morning, I ordered UkSATSE [Ukraine’s air traffic control service] to strengthen control together with EUROCONTROL regarding any movement of Russian aircraft to Syria. Ukrainian airspace is closed for such aircraft, while the airspace over neutral waters is now being specially monitored," said Yatsenyuk during his meeting with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico.


As UNIAN reported earlier, there exists an unofficial ban introduced by Ukraine and Russia on mutual overflights over the territory of the two countries. At the same time, carriers of both countries may carry out the so-called point-to-point flights to airports in both Ukraine and Russia. The airspace over Russian-annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, adjacent to the peninsula is closed to international flights. At the same time, EUROCONTROL chief Frank Brenner told in an interview with UNIAN, EUROCONTROL and ICAO intend to open more international routes for civilian air traffic over Western Ukraine and the Black Sea, not excluding Crimea.


Earlier, Bulgaria also imposed a ban on passage of Russian aircraft in the direction of Syria.


http://www.unian.info/economics/1121...-to-syria.html

[beachdown]

'Russia, Iran sending military forces to save Assad's regime'

[beachdown]

You've got to love when the Govt pulls this stunt. "We will match donations from Canadians up to 100 million max". Many Canadians have already started doing their bits whilst they the Govt were dragging their feet. Now they are putting stipulations on their contributions, especially when it us working people tax contributions that will be going towards their proposed contribution

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cana...ians-1.3225728

Side note: We are all immigrants here regardless if you were born here, got citizenship decades ago, or your parents/grandparents / great grandparents came here years ago. It blows my mind sometimes when I hear people making xenophobic comments about recent immigrants. Some people have never been out of their small town, and their idea of mixing with people is going on a road trip to a nearby "larger city" or on a resort vacation with their rose tinted glasses on.

[beachdown]

Does Canada really want immigrants / migrants in this day and age?

[DaveP]

Does Canada really want immigrants / migrants in this day and age?

The actual answer is yes due to our demographics, but it depends on the immigrants as to whether they're beneficial to the country.

What are your thoughts?

[beachdown]

How do you define "beneficial", and how is different from people born here who have never worked, and taking from the reserves? The people that aren't contributing anything to the systems, are the ones that have issues with immigrants/migrants coming here...because it will shorten their ration.

The actual answer is yes due to our demographics, but it depends on the immigrants as to whether they're beneficial to the country.

What are your thoughts?

[DaveP]

How do you define "beneficial",

Contributing members of society. How do you define beneficial?

The people that aren't contributing anything to the systems, are the ones that have issues with immigrants/migrants coming here...because it will shorten their ration.

That's the first I've heard of this. People on social assistance are against immigration? Really, I've never heard that before. I'd think they'd be in favor of Canada having more taxpayers. Do you have a link to back that up?

[Darth Penguin]

Does Canada really want immigrants / migrants in this day and age?

Some of us were headhunted because North America couldn't supply the skill set we have.

[beachdown]

Al Assad.....seriously though? It such a shame watching a beautiful / historical country being reduced to rubbles

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/wo...isis.html?_r=0

[beachdown]

Agreed. So does a regime that 90% of the time awards custody to one party based on false allegations (hearsays and theory of one party knows best) and end up alienating kids from one parent. Civilized regimes have a 50-50 default at breakdown of a relationship

I just saw a video of children with their bodies burning writhing on the floor....their school was attacked with chemical weapons (on girl said they heard and smelled nothing; their skin just started burning).
Someone has to come forward and be counted on to save the innocents!
I don't know how or when, I don't have any answers but a regime killing children needs to be dealt with!