"After fleeing Damascus ahead of a rebel advance, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Moscow and been granted political asylum, an official source in Russia told CNN."
Well that took WAY too long! 😆
But Europeans are dancing in the streets because now they can send all those Syrian refugees back!
Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social 🙂
“The scenes today in Damascus are the same ones that will unfold in Caracas, Tehran, or Moscow on the day the soldiers of those regimes lose faith in the leadership, and the public loses fear of those soldiers too. The similarities among these places are real…”
Bill Kristol is what we call a "real conservative." 😆
I used to be very impatient with "real conservatives." Now I find them refreshing!
"Nevertheless, the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world."
@Earl-of-Trumps, I think you said I like to bash conservatives. Not true! 😆
Real conservatives love democracy (i.e. hate the Jan 6th coup and Trump claiming he won in 2020), hate dictators (i.e. Putin; Orban) and hate high levels of national debt (i.e. tax cuts without spending cuts.)
The best conservatives were men like Ike Eisenhower. Sadly, I think there are almost none like him left anymore.
I like Ike. 🙂
@spruce112358 saidI don’t think you comprehend Divegeester’s comment.
Do you know anything about Assad?
Doesn't sound like it; I suggest you do some research. 😆
Maybe you actually believe that your enemey’s enemy is your friend. He’s not.
Especially in the Middle East.
This new “regime” you applaud isn’t yet a regime, but they are rooted in Al Qaeda and are extremely Islamic fundamentalist.
How well did the Taliban turn out for US interests, for example?
Then you have to look at the larger shift happening in the Middle East: Israel becoming ever more aggressive, Turkey becoming ever more fundamentalist, the rise of Islamic conservativism in many of the countries. Iran becoming more isolated; with about the only population seemingly becoming less fundamentalist.
How do you see this playing out?
What do you think is going to happen to Syria’s Kurdish population, for example?
Which benefits for the West do you see happening in this bigger picture?
Any amount of refugees returning are more than likely going to be matched or out-numbered by a new stream of refugees.
Now, don’t get me wrong, less Assad is better than more Assad, but you can’t applaud a situation which increases instability in an already volatile situation. It’s like having a box of unstable dynamite and shaking it about to see what happens.
And looking at the tarot cards of geopolitical manouvering, a holiday in Damascus won’t be on the books in my life time. Or yours.
Don’t be so hasty in embracing new friends in these situations; least of all in the Middle East.
@shavixmir saidI haven't applauded any new regimes yet. 😆
I don’t think you comprehend Divegeester’s comment.
Maybe you actually believe that your enemey’s enemy is your friend. He’s not.
Especially in the Middle East.
This new “regime” you applaud isn’t yet a regime, but they are rooted in Al Qaeda and are extremely Islamic fundamentalist.
How well did the Taliban turn out for US interests, for example?
Then you have ...[text shortened]...
Don’t be so hasty in embracing new friends in these situations; least of all in the Middle East.
I applaud getting rid of the Assad dictatorship. WOO HOO! Woot! Woot!
But I will tell you one mistake the West is about to make - we are really stupid this way, and hypocritical. The West is about to announce (as you more or less did) that certain new Syrian leaders are "unacceptable" because they are "terrorists."
That's a bad error. What the West should do now is SHUT THE FUUK UP! We didn't overthrow Assad - Syrians did. This is their moment. They get to decide what happens next. That's freedom and liberty which we say we care so much about and which is one of our BEDROCK PRINCIPLES (do we still have those in the West? Principles?)
No, the West doesn't get to run and claim that "de-Baathification" or "de-Assadification" or "de-al-Quaidaization" is the order of the day in Syria.
Fuuk that noise.
We need to applaud that Assad is gone - LOUDLY. We need to advocate for a general amnesty - saying that ASSAD was the problem, and that we stand ready to work with anyone in building a new Syria as defined by the hopes and dreams of the SYRIAN PEOPLE.
That's what we should do. We won't. We are morons that way. And Israel will open their big yap and voice opinions (HUGE mistake!)
But we should. 😆
@diver removed their quoted postOMG! @divegeester posted something non-trivial! Woot! Woot! 😆
If you want to discuss the mistakes the US has made in the Middle East - basically going from being the Most Admired Country among Arabs right after WWII (more than Britain or France) to the Least Admired today, we can do that. We can begin with overthrowing Mossadegh, then move on to support for the extremist Saudi regime, and then to blindly excusing every single Israeli atrocity.
As for Afghanistan, yep - screwed that up too. Put that under the South Vietnam column: "propping up a corrupt regime for years that collapses as soon as we leave." Did I say we are morons? Hard to teach us anything.
Best case, I'm hoping for an Iraq-like sequel in Syria. Remove the strongman, long-suppressed tensions flair, people kill each other, but then eventually learn to live together. It's what humans do. I wish there were a shortcut with fewer deaths - but all people are equally dumb. The important thing is getting through this stage and onto the next!
As for Syrians going back, I think they will, once there is something to go back to. Your English climate sux! 😆
