U.S. Strikes Kills Scores of Russian Fighters in Syria

[Suvorov]

Does that make it all worthwhile? Probably not but that region has been the tar baby for millenia and we're all stuck to it.

I don't know - I just don't like the idea of killing (or making life worse for) Christian minorities and those who protect them in the Middle East, which seems to be the crux of our foreign policy there for a long long time. Seems just about every place we get involved in the ME, the native Christian minorities suffer and the Muslim radicals flourish, add to that our effective contribution to the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and I sometimes wonder if my time in service was for any good.

Now - I'm not naive. As long as those mummified corpses of Lenin and his heirs lay in state in Red Square and not at the bottom of a cesspit where they belong, I will never fully buy Putin's claim that he is the protector of Christianity, but frankly his track record is better than ours.

Now if you aren't a Christian and have no particular care either way - this all just one Machiavellian continuation of the "Great Game," but as someone who does deep down think there may be something to that dusty old book, I really have to wonder what God we are serving these days......

[MK11]

Trying to follow. So Russian PMCs, who probably got a good chunk of their experience killing fellow Christians in the Ukraine, advanced on and fired on U.S. positions in the name of Christ?

[Peally]

Dead enemies is a good thing. The region might be a soup sandwich but if you consider Russia as anything but highly hostile...

Fuck Russia's government and fuck their military. Soviets under a different name.

[ranger]

What is our mission in Syria again?

Denying Assad access to his oil fields (and the oil money) while the anti-Assad forces consolidate power. Deny Russia a complete win in propping up Assad. Continue to attrit ISIS.

[Mjolnir]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...hters-in-syria

A week old at this point but interesting. The Kremlin testing U.S. forces with deniable troops? Oligarchs overreaching in an attempt to get bonuses for securing oil fields? Also interesting that Russians troops were accompanied by a Christian Syrian militia loyal to Assad. Fun place, the Middle East.

It should not be "interesting" that Alawaites, Orthodox Christians and Shi'ites are with the Russians.

Look up "Friendly Pipeline" and "Yinon Plan". Both have been placed in effect.

The "Russian" Oligarchs are termed "Atlanticists" or Western-leaning. So the Oligarchs side with NATO, et als.


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[PNWTO]

The "Russian" Oligarchs are termed "Atlanticists" or Western-leaning. So the Oligarchs side with NATO, et als.

I don't think those in Putin's boys club have any common interests with NATO or the stability of the "West".

Dead enemies is a good thing. The region might be a soup sandwich but if you consider Russia as anything but highly hostile...

Fuck Russia's government and fuck their military. Soviets under a different name.

Amen to that.

[VT1032]

Possibly related question: Do we still have a brigade (+) in the Balkans?

No. Bosnia was completely handed over to the EU a while ago, and we have roughly a battalion sized force in kfor in kosovo.

[Mjolnir]

I don't think those in Putin's boys club have any common interests with NATO or the stability of the "West"..

The Oligarchs are *NOT* the ones that are in Putin's inner coterie. They are the ones who looted Russia during the Yeltsin era. Putin has been a thorn in their side. One was trying to sell Gasprom to Exxon when he was arrested on a plane headed to London.

They are Atlanticists and will remain so.


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[PNWTO]

The Oligarchs are *NOT* the ones that are in Putin's inner coterie. They are the ones who looted Russia during the Yeltsin era. Putin has been a thorn in their side. One was trying to sell Gasprom to Exxon when he was arrested on a plane headed to London.

They are Atlanticists and will remain so.


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I mean, that sack of human shit has a large coterie and Vladmir likes his money. At one point Putin may have had issues but thanks to an ineffective Executive Branch no sanctions were put in place. In addition, Putin knows his pawns and none of them are friends of a stable world. I would say that Putin did a good job of wrangling the out of control oligarchs in the early 2000s but most of them are in his personal cartel now.

businessinsider.com/prosecutors-say-manafort-and-gates-received-millions-from-russian-oligarchs-2017-10

businessinsider.com/richest-russian-oligarchs-putin-list-2018-1

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-15/mnuchin-list-of-putin-oligarchs-jolts-russia-s-elite-class

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/u-s-releases-sweeping-list-of-russian-billionaires-officials

[Mjolnir]

Believe as you like.


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