Post: #26

(11-10-2015 07:44 PM)xpatplayer Wrote:  

(11-10-2015 05:44 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  No matter how much I try to read I don't understand Muslims or Islam.

Is the Hassad guy good? His family looks like a normal kinda American one why would he implode his country?

Its all about politics and power. Too complex to explain in a post (you need to understand the last 100 years of the region's history), but the gist is that al-Assad is a liberal Arab (his wife grew up as a white girl in London).

He didn't care much about religion, until the crazies started killing his soldiers. He's an eye-doctor, not a politician so he just bombed them hoping they'd go away. But he killed civilians so more people joined the crazies. Now you have a full-blown civil-war.

The guy isn't too politically savvy, but he's powerful, because his father stated that he was to be President after he died. The guy is a typical beta doctor. He's not a negotiator or politician, which is why he hasn't made significant compromises.

He wants a Syria where he's in power, but doesn't know how to create power other than by force. Most Syrians from the city support him because they are culturally more Western than old-school Muslim.

Yes he's a beta doctor. But the paramount mistake on his part was not crushing the rebellion as soon as it started. Unlike what the Western Media outlets reported, Assad was actually open for negotiation and discourse.

Shit hit the fan when protesters started bombing police stations and assassinating local government officials. Assad was stuck. His brother Maher Al-Assad who is more Alpha decided to send in the army to crush the minor rebellion. (Which any country would have done. Can you imagine how the US would react if were governors being killed and cops beheaded?)

At this point, the US Administration( McCain and Hitlery) decide to push the narrative that Assad is massacring his own people. Fair enough!

The real problem starts when Saudi Arabian, Qatari and Kuwaiti media outlets start reporting that Assad( who is an Alawite Shia Muslim) is massacring Sunnis.

This is when 40,000 radical sunni foreign fighters start flooding into Syria mainly from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Dagestan ,Chechnya, Morocco and Libya. So the so called "Syrian rebels" believe it or not are around 50% foreigners.

As for Assad having support only in big cities is wrong. Assad's support is the following.



1) The Coastal Areas of Syria especially the governorates of Latakkia and Tartous. These two provinces are Assad's heartland since his Alawite Shia co-religionists live here. There is almost a cult-like following of Assad in there regions. They represent 15% of Syria's population.

2) Like you mentioned all the big urban centers of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama.

3) 10 % of Syrias population is Christian. He's got their unanimous support.

4) The southern provinces of As-Suwayda, Daraa and Quneitra who are inhabited by Druze. They were pro-rebel in the beginning until the rebellion got hijacked by Islamists.

5) Although they are currently under the control of ISIS, people in the Eastern Province of Deir Ez-Zor are very pro-Assad. This is because the province is mostly desert inhabited by Bedouin Arabs who are more Mesopotamian(Iraqi) than Levantine. They used to be marginalized by the elites in Aleppo and Damascus until the Assads came to power and offered Baath-ism as an equalizer ideology.

Post: #27

^ Like I mentioned, it was simplified. Yes, he reacted to terrorism. But there is no denying that he was brutal initially. Not as brutal as McCain claimed, but brutal nonetheless.

Great analysis otherwise. +1 from me. Also check your PM inbox.

Post: #28

(11-10-2015 07:44 PM)xpatplayer Wrote:  The guy is a typical beta doctor.

Damn, even Assad is a beta now...

Post: #29

(11-10-2015 08:29 PM)Vice Wrote:  

(11-10-2015 07:44 PM)xpatplayer Wrote:  The guy is a typical beta doctor.

Damn, even Assad is a beta now...

Got AMOGd by McCain. It's as bad as it gets.

Post: #30

(11-10-2015 08:29 PM)Vice Wrote:  

(11-10-2015 07:44 PM)xpatplayer Wrote:  The guy is a typical beta doctor.

Damn, even Assad is a beta now...

I don't like getting into the whole alpha-beta argument, but you can see that he's a nebbish middle-aged dad. He was supposed to be a doctor, but his older brother Bassel, the heir-apparent to the Presidency, died in a car crash in 1994.

But there's nothing particularly wrong in being 'beta' if your authority is accepted by most of your population. Most heads of state today are beta, with one the notable exceptions being Putin.

But what matters in a civil war is how you deal with violent opposition. Whether you're Alpha or Beta has some influence on that, but its not everything.

Post: #31

I don't know how many of you watch the FX show "Tyrant", but it's largely based on Syria. It's good.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrant_(TV_series)

And the chicks on it are hot, especially Moran Atias.

Post: #32

Wow.

Very powerful post.

Post: #33

Every country we invade to "liberate" or "democratize" ends up a hell-hole.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine...

All of them are worse off for our "help".

Post: #34

What about Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy?
Of course there are others..But I list those four because the united states has active military bases there.

Post: #35

OP, thanks for the video. This is one of the most interesting threads going on the forum.

The dudes are the type of guys I would hang out with. The girls are all quite cute. I could listen to their accents all day. They exude feminity, class and optimism. I hope they're all safe.

Post: #36

(11-11-2015 03:09 PM)RIslander Wrote:  OP, thanks for the video. This is one of the most interesting threads going on the forum.

The dudes are the type of guys I would hang out with. The girls are all quite cute. I could listen to their accents all day. They exude feminity, class and optimism. I hope they're all safe.

Basically, the exact opposite of Westernized twats.

Sweet, friendly and goofy in a charming way. Yep...

Post: #37

The video was made on engineering degree day which falls on every Tuesday when they hand one out to all the students. That's why they are happy.

Post: #38

(11-11-2015 11:02 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  What about Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy?
Of course there are others..But I list those four because the united states has active military bases there.

That was 50 years ago, when wars were being fought for at least somewhat sensible reasons and the postwar reconstruction plans and their enforcement made sense as well. That hasn't been the case for decades now.

For some reason, I don't think that Konrad Adenauer pocketed billions like Karzai.

Post: #39

In the past when western forces occupied a country they were more hands on with their reconstruction. Now they toss billions of dollars to corrupt local politicians who promptly reinvest those funds in Switzerland.

Post: #40

(11-13-2015 12:11 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  In the past when western forces occupied a country they were more hands on with their reconstruction. Now they toss billions of dollars to corrupt local politicians who promptly reinvest those funds in Switzerland.

They also used to listen to experts, men who closely studied the religious, ethnic, linguistic, political and economic realities of those regions, men who knew what it took to build a functioning society. Today, western governments (especially the US) exhibit a staggering lack of understanding of the countries in which they "intervene" and seem to possess zero conception of what distinguishes successful governments from failed ones. Specialized experts, so often politically inconvenient for those in office, are conspicuous by their absence. This is what happens when democracy's finest professional politicians, good at striking poses and winning elections and nothing else, run the state instead of men of quality and substance.

Post: #41

US and other western foreign policy has turned into the geopolitical version of 'Captain Save a Ho.'