While the US has spent years eagerly throwing arms at various Syrian rebel factions, those rebels have had a mixed record on the ground. As losses mount in Aleppo Province, in the face of a Syrian military offensive, they were expecting the US to bail them out, and now that they’re not, they complain of being “abandoned.”
This isn’t the rebels’ only gripe. Earlier in the war, the US was suggesting complete support for the rebels as the eventual government of Syria, and backed their refusal to negotiate. As they’ve shifted to get behind a Russian proposal for a settlement of the war and free elections, the rebels have viewed it as a “betrayal” of their goal of unconditional regime change.
While the US is still arming the rebels and giving lip service to regime change, their focus shifted to the ISIS war long ago. The Pentagon, for its part, says they have “no current plans” to intervene against Russia and Syria in the Aleppo offensive.
When the US made the decision to support the rebels, their victory seemed an inevitability. ISIS, however, has long since passed the rebels as a dominant opposition force. Clearly the US never had any intention of going to war with Russia to save rebel factions who had no real chance of winning to begin with.
However Turkey and Saudi Arabia appear prepared to intervene in Syria with a ground invasion. ?
Russia: Go ahead….make my day.
It’s best for Russia not to intervene.
Civilians will be slaughtered by Russia’s mass bombing and cluster bombing. The Islamic State isn’t as evil as it seems.
Yes it’s better let Saudi wahhabism take over the world and kill everybody else.
The Saudi Air Force have been already bombing the Islamic State since 2014 (they joined the international coalition against ISIS). They are just now claiming of bringing in ground troops is to fight the Islamic State. So the belief that the Saudis are “suddenly invading” Syria isn’t just the case.
Saudi Arabia already suffered attacks from Islamic State terrorists, why would they be reluctant to fight it?
Saudi Wahhabism is already risking collapse. 5% of Saudis are “convinced atheists” despite the ban on atheism and other non-Muslim religions.
The Saudi royal family’s relies on Wahhabi Islam to keep power. Without Wahhabi Islam the Saudi monarchy will lose legitimacy and collapse. That’s why the Saudi government place strict bans on Christianity, Judaism, atheism, etc. They won’t want to lose power. Also they actively promote Wahhabism using their oil revenues and U.S.-backed military aid.
Even with all of that (banning other religions, using oil revenues to fund Wahhabism, allying with the U.S.) the Saudis are still struggling to stay in power. “Convinced atheists” in Saudi Arabia is already 5%.
When the Iranian sanctions were eased, the Saudi felt very threatened by the competing source of oil. Without their oil, they cannot use their oil revenues to promote its Wahhabism.
There is already a civil war against the Saudi puppet government in Yemen despite continued U.S. arming and training on the Saudi side.
Think about how the other Islamic countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh that abandoned their strict interpretation of Islam. In those countries women and gays have rights. They even had female heads-of-state.
So in summary, Wahhabism is an unstable religion, people would be quick to reject it because of its contradictions and restrictions.
While you make some good points, you are misinformed about Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. In fact radical groups are thriving in all three and conservative, Saudi-sponsored mosques and madrasas have pushed Muslims far to the right as per Brzezinski’s, Carter’s and Reagan’s plan.
I live in that part of the world, and as part of a tiny Christian minority, I understand well what’s happening.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are both against the Islamic State.
Turkey is mostly interesting fighting off the YPG. The YPG isn’t the good guy either because it commits ethnic cleansing against Arabs.
Saudi Arabia probably views ISIS as a threat by now because of its terrorist attacks within Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is against Assad so to backs Syrian Rebels but it is against the Islamic State. But not all Syrian Rebels are Salafists or terrorists. It says it will send troops to fight against the Islamic State. It is unclear weather it will send troops to fight Assad.
In not arguing whether it is true or not Turkey or Saudi Arabia are supporting ISIS. My point is that the situation is very complex and its best for Russia and the U.S. to stay out of it.
Syria is a long time Russian ally
No. the Saudi’s like Isis because it puts a cork in the bottle of Iranian influence and it gets rid of all the salafists that might decide that a wahhabiist state would work much better than the monarchy.
Turkey likes it because it puts pressure on the PKK and its allies.
Israel likes anything that gets Arabs fighting with each other (doesn’t take much)
DC likes it because the former 3 are quite influential in halls of power.
My point is that things are not this simple. The Saudis are possibly
against both Assad and the Islamic State. The Saudis joined the
coalition against the Islamic State in 2014 and the Saudi Air Force
previously did airstrikes against it. It’s not like Saudi Arabia is
“suddenly invading” Syria.
The Saudis are possibly fighting
against both Assad and the Islamic State. Just like how the U.S. is
fighting against both Assad and the Islamic State.
My original
point is that it’s best for Russia to stay out of it. Civilians are
being slaughtered by Russia’s bombs and cluster bombs.
Saudi
Wahhabism is unstable.
The
Islamic State could collapse by itself if we stop fighting against
it. There are many secular elements within the Islamic State.
Russia is not going to stay out of it. With a collapse of the Assad regime, they would lose any influence in the med or middle east and worse the Chechens would get a base out of reach of Moscow.
Saudi Arabia seems to be somewhat succesful at enforceing their version of Islam, and true Isis might collapse but that could be many years off.
Poor dears. My heart bleeds for them.
Don’t kid yourselves. USA, is allowing Russia to destroy the rebels and what’s left of Syria’s infrastructure. This way–all the evidence of USA involvement is hidden and Syria will remain a basket case for decades. Recall–7 middle East countries need to be destroyed and for it to happen -need a new Pearl Harbor? Guess what that was :^(
Ya fucked up, you trusted us!
The United States has made a regular practice of betraying every one even themselves . We need new leadership that tries to stay out of trouble .
America has the problem that it has been backing Al Nusra front and others, Al Nusra Front used to go by the name AL QAEDA IN IRAQ, ISIS is a spin off group of Al Nusra Front! The so called Moderates are in fact in reality AL QAEDA!
Many of the allies of the Islamic State and al-Nusra are secular or moderate Islamists.
Many of the fighters within the Islamic State are secular (former Ba’ath Party members).