Russian ground troops and MIGs in Syria.

[Cola76]

Russia Puts Boots on the Ground in Syria - The Daily Beast

What a mess. Seems a U.S./Russian proxy war is almost inevitable.

 

[halfmileharry]

Assad needs to stay in power and any attacks on ISIS are welcomed from any camp.

Let me edit something in here....

We've got a huge mess over there now due to our meddling in affairs we're not capable of.
Asaad and those leaders have been in power for many, many, moons for a reason. They know the different players without a scorecard. We keep sticking our noses where they don't belong and we're gonna get a bloody nose worse than we're getting now.

 

[BigMoose]

YOu know, if the Russians want to fight ISIS, well that isn't so bad.

THey have a base in Syria they have vested interest in

 

[KG1]

Assad needs to stay in power and any attacks on ISIS are welcomed from any camp.

Let me edit something in here....

We've got a huge mess over there now due to our meddling in affairs we're not capable of.
Asaad and those leaders have been in power for many, many, moons for a reason. They know the different players without a scorecard. We keep sticking our noses where they don't belong and we're gonna get a bloody nose worse than we're getting now.

We have indeed upset the balance. I mean..which would you rather deal with in the region..Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Mubarak etc.. or these crazy upstart ISSIL types?

 

[Cola76]

YOu know, if the Russians want to fight ISIS, well that isn't so bad.

THey have a base in Syria they have vested interest in

The problem is that I don't think the primary goal of the Russians is to fight ISIS. Their goal is to sustain the Assad regime, which has allowed ISIS to run wild fighting the regimes other enemies. It won't be long until Russian forces are firing on the rebels we are supposedly arming and training.

 

[cobber]

We have indeed upset the balance. I mean..which would you rather deal with in the region..Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Mubarak etc.. or these crazy upstart ISSIL types?

By and large the former. They were secular statists, not revolutionary theocrats. Just sayin'...

 

[mrjarrell]

The problem is that I don't think the primary goal of the Russians is to fight ISIS. Their goal is to sustain the Assad regime, which has allowed ISIS to run wild fighting the regimes other enemies. It won't be long until Russian forces are firing on the rebels we are supposedly arming and training.

That's exactly what the article says. They'll be going after everyone and supporting Assad, (till it becomes time to not support him, then he's done). If they do decide to go hands on, the US will have to tell Israel to knock off their nonsense of bombing Syrian military sites and supplies. Russia would not look kindly on them killing Russian soldiers.

 

[KG1]

By and large the former. They were secular statists, not revolutionary theocrats. Just sayin'...

Indeed..I'm no fan of the notorious aforementioned names but at least they presented a buffer against the more radical types. The dirty deeds done by the now deposed despots almost seem pale in comparison to the atrocities associated with the murderous revolutionary theocrats.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Assad needs to stay in power and any attacks on ISIS are welcomed from any camp.

Let me edit something in here....

We've got a huge mess over there now due to our meddling in affairs we're not capable of.
Asaad and those leaders have been in power for many, many, moons for a reason. They know the different players without a scorecard. We keep sticking our noses where they don't belong and we're gonna get a bloody nose worse than we're getting now.

If we didn't meddle, the Russians would have. I completely agree that it's a mess, but we get the luxury of not dealing with the consequences of an alternate history where we sat on our hands and let Russian influence spread unchecked through the source of cheap energy for much of the world. What we have sucks. It may just suck less than doing nothing, though.

 

[Leadeye]

Sad for the ordinary folks, small wonder they are moving away in droves.

 

[Thor]

It's creating an interesting dynamic. What happens when Russian/American/Turkish/Saudi etcetera fighters end up in the same airspace on different missions? It would take very little in the way of a miscalculation to see things go very bad very quickly.

 

[kiddchaos]

Peace sells, but who's buying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIzn45hcNLQ

 

[mrjarrell]

It's creating an interesting dynamic. What happens when Russian/American/Turkish/Saudi etcetera fighters end up in the same airspace on different missions? It would take very little in the way of a miscalculation to see things go very bad very quickly.

What happens? I would assume that nothing would happen, since any aircraft in the area can safely be assumed to be a "friendly", (or at least not an enemy). IS does not have an air force so it is safe to say that the air combat participants won't be firing on each other.

 

[Hoosierkav]

I might be inclined to hold my breath and take it with a spoonful of salt. Get the troops in the region under the guise of "fighting bad guys" when really it is troop massing for something less altruistic. Maybe not today, or next month...

 

[halfmileharry]

I don't see the Russians doing anything other than propping up Assad after their debacle in Afghanistan a few decades back. They don't have the resources for long term intervention. That could change but who besides the present players even wants the area? The oil countries are already secure on the oil. The rest of the world is seeing to that behind the scenes.
Let the Ruskies bunk with Bashir for a while. We need to keep them busy in the litter box and out of Europe.
I also see this as the critical time of the world with the radicals making their moves NOW. Bust their back bones and come up with a different strategy.
I'm seeing a lot of the same behavior from ISIS that we went to war with Iraq over. Many of these Isis are the new Saadam followers of the party. Coincidence? Hardly.

 

[Cygnus]

Peace sells, but who's buying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIzn45hcNLQ

"It's still We the People, Right?"

Repped!

 

[cobber]

I don't see the Russians doing anything other than propping up Assad after their debacle in Afghanistan a few decades back. They don't have the resources for long term intervention. That could change but who besides the present players even wants the area? The oil countries are already secure on the oil. The rest of the world is seeing to that behind the scenes.
Let the Ruskies bunk with Bashir for a while. We need to keep them busy in the litter box and out of Europe.
I also see this as the critical time of the world with the radicals making their moves NOW. Bust their back bones and come up with a different strategy.
I'm seeing a lot of the same behavior from ISIS that we went to war with Iraq over. Many of these Isis are the new Saadam followers of the party. Coincidence? Hardly.

I'm no granola-muncher, but we should have left well enough alone with the 'strong men' in the region. At least we could address their abuses with sanctions and limited military strikes. And they didn't aspire to bring the conflict to our shores, but were more concerned with achieving some legitimacy on the regional or world stage.

 

[Thor]

I'm no granola-muncher, but we should have left well enough alone with the 'strong men' in the region.

Or we could have just have killed the guy who was pissing us off to today and walked away telling them to fix their own bloody house or we'll come back and kill the guy who pisses us off tomorrow.

And we could have made it very clear to every despot there that if you make us take notice of you in an unkind way WE WILL COME AND KILL YOU. That's the kind of foreign policy they understand.

We have been paying way too much attention to a region that holds very little in the way of national interest for us.

 

[cobber]

Or we could have just have killed the guy who was pissing us off to today and walked away telling them to fix their own bloody house or we'll come back and kill the guy who pisses us off tomorrow.

And we could have made it very clear to every despot there that if you make us take notice of you in an unkind way WE WILL COME AND KILL YOU. That's the kind of foreign policy they understand.

We have been paying way too much attention to a region that holds very little in the way of national interest for us.

Nah. We stirred up a hornet's nest by knocking off Saddam and siding against Mubarak and Gaddafi. Those guys were all very controllable. ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban, not so much.

The middle east has been very interesting to the West since the 19th century, for obvious reasons.

 

[Thor]

What happens? I would assume that nothing would happen, since any aircraft in the area can safely be assumed to be a "friendly", (or at least not an enemy). IS does not have an air force so it is safe to say that the air combat participants won't be firing on each other.

Yeah, just like the Ruskies would never shoot down a Korean Airliner accidentally transiting their airspace, or call up the nuclear codes because Norway launched a sounding rocket. Nothing bad would ever happen because we fly a P3 through international airspace in the South China Sea.

It's not SAFE to say anything when opponents start rubbing elbows. If you don't think these pilots will be looking at each other as enemies you're just being naïve. Not all pilots are as disciplined as ours.

Feel free to act all surprised if something bad happens.