Syria thread

[Sava]

Assad will disperse his heavy artillery, aircraft, and so forth in preparation for the strike.

Then his troops will be without the support of artillery and air power.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Then they will fight in the shade. Hoorah.

[regexcellent]

Not completely, and a day or two of reduced airpower won't make too much of a difference.

[The Mad Monk]

Sava, are you sure you don't think the rebels winning would be a good outcome?

[Docfeelgood]

Syria said to use gas against Qabun neighborhood

WASHINGTON Sept. 6, 2013, 3:29 p.m. EDT (MarketWatch) -- Syrian forces have used gas against the Qabun neighborhood of Damascus, Al-Arabiya is reporting citing activists, according to a Bloomberg News report of what the station said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/syr...dist=countdown


Looks like the situation has just become more interesting.

[The Mad Monk]

NM

[regexcellent]

Hey guys remember how Obama is supposed to be good at foreign policy?

Yeah me neither.

[SlowwHand]

Have you been reading Israel's position on Syria? They want a U.S. strike and they're all stocking up on gas masks. They're willing to take on the hazard to get at Iran.
Israel is amazing to me.

[regexcellent]

Pretty sure Israel's neutral on the matter.

[-Jrabbit]

"Neutral" Israel...good one. I LOLd. A concept I'd never considered.

What's interesting how fast and furious legislators on both sides of the aisle are in using constituent opinion as their reason for opposition. Interesting because they generally have no compunction about ignoring the will of the people on other matters. Obama has apparently found a way to get Congress to reach across the aisle -- and unite in telling him to shut up and stand down.

FWIW: I really want this voted down. There's zero upside to a measured, telegraphed, and apparently symbolic attack on an Arab state. WTF is Obama thinking?

[C0ckney]

whilst the israelis certainly waste no love on assad, it's very unlikely that they'd want to see a syria potentially dominated by fundamentalists.

[SlowwHand]

Right.

[regexcellent]

"Neutral" Israel...good one. I LOLd. A concept I'd never considered.

This is possibly because you are anti-semitic or subscribe to absurd conspiracy theories. There are lots of issues where Israel either doesn't care about it or is facing a choice between the lesser of two seemingly equal evils. Assad is bad, really bad, and funds Hezbollah terrorists who attack Israel on a regular basis, but compared to what might wind up being Islamist control of Syria it's hard to judge which is better. Basically, Israel is neutral for the same reasons we should be, so if you've been paying attention to the issue at all you should have considered it.

[Hauldren Collider]

What's interesting how fast and furious legislators on both sides of the aisle are in using constituent opinion as their reason for opposition. Interesting because they generally have no compunction about ignoring the will of the people on other matters. Obama has apparently found a way to get Congress to reach across the aisle -- and unite in telling him to shut up and stand down.

You know, it turns out that congressmen care about constituent opinion quite a bit. They only don't care about your opinion if you don't agree with the majority of their constituents.

As for Israel, they've been tentatively backing a strike because they have a major interest in ingratiating themselves to Obama. I promise you that the Israeli military brass and political leadership has no interest in seeing the rebels win in this conflict. They hate Assad, but they would prefer the devil that they know.

[Docfeelgood]

You know, it turns out that congressmen care about constituent opinion quite a bit. They only don't care about your opinion if you don't agree with the majority of their constituents.