Russia Started Bombing Anti-Assad Rebels

[The Comrade]

so much pressure

[micfranklin]

Hey, it's Russia's money and equipment they're using to bomb ISIS, so if they win out then....good for them.

[Dylan]

[exploited]

[micfranklin]

[Dylan]

Curious to hear your basis for that with regard to the rebels.

[exploited]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... eport.html

Nearly half the rebel fighters in Syria are now aligned to jihadist or hardline Islamist groups according to a new analysis of factions in the country's civil war.

Opposition forces battling Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, but after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands.

The new study by IHS Jane's, a defence consultancy, estimates there are around 10,000 jihadists - who would include foreign fighters - fighting for powerful factions linked to al-Qaeda..

Another 30,000 to 35,000 are hardline Islamists who share much of the outlook of the jihadists, but are focused purely on the Syrian war rather than a wider international struggle.

There are also at least a further 30,000 moderates belonging to groups that have an Islamic character, meaning only a small minority of the rebels are linked to secular or purely nationalist groups.

...

Without the Islamists, the rebels don't stand a chance. Not against the government, not against ISIS. Backing them is and will continue to be a strategic disaster that emboldens Americans geopolitical competitors.

[Saz]

Hate to say it but Putin is the only one who knows what the f**k he is doing. Both Assad and ISIS have figured out that the Rebels (Islamist and non-islamist) are their biggest long-term strategic competitors. So both Assad and ISIS are focusing on removing those rebels.

I said this YEARS ago, papa bear Assad is by far the least bad option in the current war. You either have ISIS, Chaos, or Assad. It's clear which of the three will be best able to provide some long term stability to the country, so I don't know why we are acting like children and ignoring the obvious just to avoid having to agree with Putin. It's like our government is acting like exploited when he gets sonned. Instead of just admitting it we insist on stamping our feet and making the situation even worse, just to avoid giving Putin the satisfaction of being correct.

Also Dylan, the Russian elite does not despise Putin. The guy is actually extremely popular. Russians don't think like westerners, they expect to be abused and their metric for success is what have you done for mother Russia, not what have you done for me. As loath as we are to admit it, we kind of blew our wad with the Ukraine. There aren't many more sanctions left to stick on Russia and so there aren't many tools left to punish Putin for f**k around in Syria. Putin easily can afford to start a proxy war in Syria, because at the end of the day his position is more logical than our. Everyone but Assad is a f**k terrorist, whether they call themselves ISIS or Nusra or whatever the flavour of the month is. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and several years looking for a credible non-islamist fighting force and right now we have a rag tag group of guys who can be counted, literally, on your fingers and toes. There is no freedom loving rebel group, there is Assad, and there are fanatical Islamic terrorists. That's it, pick one. Wringing our hands and hoping some democracy loving spartans will magically appear to drive off ISIS and defeat Assad is tragically out of touch.

[Saz]

[micfranklin]