LMCane said:

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samurai_science said:

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We should support Assad, Syria was a lot better before radicals tried to take over. DIctators in the Middle East keeps it a lot safer and stable.

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That is idiocy.

Did Saddam Hussein keep things stable?

how about Ayatollah Khomeini?

Yehiya Sinwar?

Hassan Nasrallah!?!?

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On Saddam ask the Christians of Iraq.

nortex97 said:

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Whatever happens between now and Jan 20 is theater (and human suffering/death) to put Trump's next administration under duress. And no, Erdogan is not a 'good guy' in this (or pretty much anything else).

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This is beyond delusional

Mobile communications devices exploding. Israel may have a part in this

Opposition forces killed an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer, Brigadier General Kiomars Pour Hashemi, as they advanced. The IRGC acknowledged his death and described him as a military adviser to the Syrian regime. https://t.co/oJhV5UFbEg pic.twitter.com/37r5jD45JJ

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) November 30, 2024

Have not seen confirmation of this. Would be surprised if Israel was coordinating with Turkey in any way.

Sid Farkas said:

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is turkey still an ally?

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Depends.

Turkey is a NATO member, so for WWIII, they probably gonna be on our side. Plus, they hate Iran and are butting heads with Russia more and more.

For the Israel, Palestine, Lebanon conflict they are very against Israel, so they would be against us in that scenario.

Sid Farkas said:

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is turkey still an ally?

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No. Next question.

As someone mentioned earlier……Erdogen wants a new Ottoman Empire.

Shocked at the BAA love fest here. Guessing they don't know much about the guy.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syria-war-anniversary-christians-assad-manipulation

Wouldn't say it's a love fest, just that power vacuums caused by recent dictators' deaths killed lot of citizens in a short period of time.

Think most of it is there are a lot of bad players out there and not a lot of reasons for the US to back one specific side with our history. Currently the main 2 sides are Assad against HTS and ISIS. The US helped create all of those, intentional or not, and none of them are good people.

The Enforcer Channel is saying that Bashar al-Assad has fled to Moscow. I mean like their flames in the middle of the road out of Damascus type leaving !!

He was in Moscow when this lightning offensive started. Haven't seen confirmation that he has returned.

AtticusMatlock said:

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He was in Moscow when this lightning offensive started. Haven't seen confirmation that he has returned.

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I think he just became a huge fan or remote working/ruling /dictating.

34blast said:

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Send all the people of Gaza and Hezbollah to Syria. Make Lebanon Christian again, move all the christians from the other countries to Lebanon.

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Maybe it can become the Paris of the Middle East again. The Muslims destroyed a beautiful country. It seem to be their shtick. Whatever country they go to they ruin it. That is a FANTATIC idea though.

inconvenient truth said:

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Fund all sides just enough to give them hope of victory and let them fight amongst themselves.

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Send them all free electronics ( phones, radios and pagers) put out a certain date and time to turn on for message from Supreme Leader then BTSOOT!

Shoefly! said:

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inconvenient truth said:

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Fund all sides just enough to give them hope of victory and let them fight amongst themselves.

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Send them all free electronics ( phones, radios and pagers) put out a certain date and time to turn on for message from Supreme Leader then BTSOOT!

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Make sure the pagers are " Apollo " brand pagers

The 'freedom war' types online with blue and yellow flags in their bio's are pretty excited about a major city being over-run by islamists. Weird. The Russians have apparently struck with Su-35 and Tu-22 bombers some of the 'strongholds.'

🇸🇾 Statement issued by the General Command of the Syrian Armed Forces:

Over the past days, armed terrorist groups affiliated with the so-called "Jabhat al-Nusra" terrorist organization, supported by thousands of foreign terrorists, heavy weaponry, and a large number of drones,…

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) November 30, 2024

#Syria: Rebels are pushing more South and are on their way to recapture Maaret Numan (SE. #Idlib).
Massive amount of spoils, as Assad's forces are just leaving behind their equipment, including heavy artillery & armored vehicles. pic.twitter.com/QjtaQiWDmn

— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) November 30, 2024

There are just a crap ton of foreign forces all over Syria, and no, Erdogan is not a good guy or ally, in my mind anyway:

pic.twitter.com/SKwYr7L34V

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) November 30, 2024

This seems like a coordinated plan to pressure/confront Russians on all fronts pending Trump's return to office. There is a Nuland-style coup attempt ongoing in Georgia as well, fyi.

Re: Ongoing Maidan attempt in Georgia. For those who are out of the loop, i'm going to help you out. it's a pro-EU protest against the pro-EU parliament. You're welcome. pic.twitter.com/k62CoKyeyY

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) November 29, 2024

I know Scott Ritter triggers some folks but here are two theories, respectfully (his post and the reply) as to what has been/is going on in Syria right now between Iran/Hezbollah, Russia, Assad, Erdogan, Israel, and the US. I'm not real sure which one is 'more' right though I am still perplexed we have any forces in Syria at this point.

Scott I generally like your commentary but I think you’re a little off on this one.

There had been a lot of shelling into this area. The Turks were the ones that had all the local groups stand down for so long.

Also Türkiye has no control over HTS. It’s not a Turkish proxy.…

— Yusuf Erim (@YusufErim34) November 30, 2024

The whole place is just a mess. There's not a faction/army/'team' to root for, imho, though I guess I'd favor the 'rebels' (basically isis) losing to Assad's folks if I had to make a call.

Syria is a lose/lose for us. Ghosts of our Iraq quagmire.

Cut our losses, get our troops out. The Syrian rebels are ISIS & AQ backed by Turkey, fighting Iranian militias, Assad & Russia. No good out come.

This is the consequence of regime change wars. Learn from it, don’t think…

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) November 29, 2024

Thats been an argument used post ISIS controlling ground in eastern Syria to justify leaving troops in Syria and Iraq. It can only be partially argued about our troops in east SY, but if we were actually serious about cutting off the land bridge between Iran & SY we’d stop…

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) November 30, 2024

Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has enabled the Iranians to exponentially grow their oil revenues and funded their proxy government in Baghdad. It's all just crazy to me, tbf.

Sometimes a story doesn't have any heroes.

Visual depiction of the complexities of the Syrian Civil War. Note that this group (HTS) isn't even on it.




This is from wikipedia. Blue arrows indicate support, red arrows indicate fighting.

As much as I hate Russia. I don't think we should be supporting Islamist who when they win they will probably turn Aleppo into another Raqqa!!

For those who don't know Joe Kent is retired US green beret that did his time overseas. He understands the complexity and that politicians on all sides are the only one benefitting.

His wife was Shannon Kent that died in Syria when the black ops group she was assigned to was hit by a suicide bomb. She was an uber genius that spoke like a half dozen languages. After Joes wife died he retired to take care of their kids. At that time he realized the US has been messing up the Middle East since the 1950s and until the politicians stop having the power to change international policies that US soldiers shouldn't be on the ground. Too many hands in the pie

Thx for pointing that out.

Peace just follows the religion in that region.

Every since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East has been a complete cluster f***. Not that it was a cake walk before that.

So many competing factions, so many extremists and crazies, so much hate, too many weapons, and too much oil to ignore. England, France, Russia, and the US meddling in their affairs and using them as proxies hasn't helped at all. You can't ignore it and you can't fix it.

nortex97 said:

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Whatever happens between now and Jan 20 is theater (and human suffering/death) to put Trump's next administration under duress. And no, Erdogan is not a 'good guy' in this (or pretty much anything else).

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I love hearing about models that describe every world event in terms of how each event has been specifically engineered by a cabal of bad actors to harm one specific individual. Reminds me of how my Momma interprets the world.

A real life Game of Thrones!

#SyriaWarSituation: #KhomeinistAxis: #SyriaWarSituation-#Assad-#Hezbollah-#IRGC forces on retreat from #Aleppo. Regrouping in the Syrian Desert,#CaliphateAxis: #JihadiSalafi forces, including #Nusra-#HTS, and #Ikhwan-#SNA advancing eastbound, seized #Aleppo, targeting #Hama… pic.twitter.com/lcWjZOVHng

— Dr Walid Phares (@WalidPhares) November 30, 2024

txwxman said:

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nortex97 said:

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Whatever happens between now and Jan 20 is theater (and human suffering/death) to put Trump's next administration under duress. And no, Erdogan is not a 'good guy' in this (or pretty much anything else).

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I love hearing about models that describe every world event in terms of how each event has been specifically engineered by a cabal of bad actors to harm one specific individual. Reminds me of how my Momma interprets the world.

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Well I don't know your mom and will resist the obvious joke but the intelligence community, DoD (as widely reported with 'resistance' groups in the pentagon forming) and various bad actors abroad (including in Europe and the Middle East) know there is a timeline before a lot of our disastrous policies/postures (and cash/arms flows) will change.

Whether that seems 'simplistic' or driven by a 'cabal' to you is frankly not really something I care about. I've already stated I really just don't see a 'good' team in this and it seems overly complex among the various armed groups/forces in the country/region to me. My main concern is whether our forces there are 'worth' leaving at risk/in the country given the ridiculous situation. Personally, I have a tough time seeing how it makes sense, viewing it merely thru the 'if my son were deployed there would I support that mission continuing?' lens.

Aggie97 said:

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samurai_science said:

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We should support Assad, Syria was a lot better before radicals tried to take over. DIctators in the Middle East keeps it a lot safer and stable.

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For the Christians in Syria he is their best bet to protect them.

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there unfortunately are not many Christians left in Syria

but the actual best force who has protected them is the Kurds, the SDF and the FSA

Assad has dropped a ton of bombs on Christians as well.

shouldn't the objective be what is best for the United States, not just the Christian world as a whole?

AtticusMatlock said:

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Have not seen confirmation of this. Would be surprised if Israel was coordinating with Turkey in any way.

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yeah, no way in hell that is happening

maybe 20 years ago-

but with Erdogan the Islamic fascist in charge he would rather drop an atomic bomb on tel aviv than assist the Israelis

An Iranian F-14 allegedly crossed into the Turkish military operational zone and the Turkish F4 Phantom intercepted the Iranian jet, prompting it to flee.

Didn't have that on my bingo card...#syria #iran #turkey #Aleppo #HTS pic.twitter.com/MVm6eS0fbx

— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) November 30, 2024

lol.

Initial Reports of a possible Military Coup ongoing in the Syrian Capital of Damascus, with Explosions and Gunfire heard near the General Staff and State Media Building within the City.

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 30, 2024

No telling what is actually going on in the background. They were making headway in diplomatic negotiations before October 7th. I think a lot of the tough talk from Erdogan is to the local audience to maintain support given their current economic difficulties.

Turkey wants to be the preemininent regional power. Iran wants the same. The enemy of my enemy is my friend may win the day here.

Russian and Syrian Forces seen earlier withdrawing from Hama Airbase, with the Base and the City likely to fall to Rebel Forces in the coming hours. pic.twitter.com/43EHgqx72c

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 30, 2024

Reports now of it already being captured. Russian and Syrian forces are fleeing without a fight. Homs seems to be the next target.

Closely watching the reports out of Damascus for the potential coup attempt. Have not seen any independent videos or reports coming from Damascus. Just secondhand. The Twitter account I'm posting typically does a good job of confirming what he posts, but does get things wrong from time to time.