Russia hit 72 targets in the last 24 hours.
There are accusations the Russians or their Syrian allies are using thermobaric weapons against the rebels. These were used to terrible effect against the Ukrainians.
There are reports of a hospital being hit by the Russian air strikes. The Russians deny this happened. First responders have been targeted before and there is documentary video of that act.
Russia has stated Syria must be stabilized first and then offer a political transition. Some are sayign Russia will do their usual faux elections to keep Assad in power.
Russia has also stated Iran and other powers ought to be involved in any talks over Syria's future.
The Saudis are getting louder about Russian intervention in Syria and they are not pleased. They state Russia's intervention will have terrible consequences and Assad must be removed. There are the consequences of having ever fun fundies after you, but I have to wonder if the Saudis might be threatening to increase oil production more to crash the Russian economy.
My personal take on the Russian intervention is ...? Huh? What have they learned from all of our expensive entanglements in the area? And doing it at a time when the price of oil -which I take to be from the Chinese Econ Bubble collapsing, not Saudi intrigues - is way down, is even crazier.
ReplyDeleteThat there approach is more methodical then ours doesn't say a whole lot.
Given most of the country's populace and infrastructure is already gone--so what really is there to fight over?--I'm starting to think this whole affair has become a honeypot, set up by the US, to ensnare Russia. It dragged Russia off of Ukraine (very effectively), Russia's limited military manpower and resources is being sunken into a quagmire, and Saudi Arabia is likely going to economically strike back with oil prices which Russia is so heavily dependent upon.
ReplyDeleteReally, it seems like the endgame is to cause Russia to break its own economy again, like near the end of the Cold War with the USSR. That seems to be the only way I can think to justify the seemingly useless and extreme expenditure of money the US has thrown into Syria with no directly positive results to the region (quite the opposite, with the creation and arming of ISIL). In reality, it just devolved the place to the point where Russia was honeypotted in.
I dunno, it's just a silly thought while trying to put any rational meaning to the silliness of this Sryian affair on all sides. But maybe it is just random progression of the area after chaos set in during the failed attempt to bring down Assad in the Arab Spring and with all the conflicting interests of the many players in the area.