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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Will Putin be able to carry al-Assad forever?
2015-09-30
[Hurriyet Daily News] The bottom line of the Syria talks between the U.S. President Barack Obama
They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them...
and Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
is that they agree that Syria today under Bashir al-Assad is no longer sustainable, but they disagree on the future of al-Assad himself.
Posted by:Fred

#8  This really is a positive development.

Assad fought the Syrian rebels and lost.

Then the Iranians and Hasbullah joined him in fighting the Syrian rebels and lost.

Now the Russians have joined him, and will lose.

Letting our enemies waste their resources on losses is not a bad strategy.

Posted by: rammer   2015-09-30 21:59  

#7  > think al-Assad can have no place in the future of Syria

A cunning diplomatic play on words... No more Syria, no more problems.

All Hail Assad president of Alawiteistan..
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2015-09-30 13:13  

#6  OK, Assad is a bad guy. What is your alternative? More war and chaos, right? Refugees streaming into Europe? US, Russian, Chinese, Turkish and Iranian troops all united to defeat ISIS and install a democratic government in Damascus? WWIII?

How about if we all back off and let the Arabs figure it out for themselves?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2015-09-30 12:12  

#5   but Putin's outright support for a terrible anti-hero like al-Assad is not something I can understand or accept

two words, Joseph Stalin. Seemed acceptable '41-'45.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2015-09-30 09:20  

#4  What does Putin get out of cozying up to Assad? Influence, intelligence a warm water port in the Mediterranean and some commerce. He is jockeying to get the prestige in the M.E. that Obean has so easily given up.
Posted by: JohnQC   2015-09-30 08:33  

#3  but Putin's outright support for a terrible anti-hero like al-Assad is not something I can understand or accept

Because it's not a Hollywood movie?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2015-09-30 05:32  

#2  Repeating the same mistake as Afghanistan and Iraq. This isn't about individual x or y. It's about which ethno-religious group is in power.

Thinking that getting fid off a particular individual make everything all brotherly love is delusional.
Posted by: phil_b   2015-09-30 04:46  

#1  Only as long as he Assad proves successful in fighting-n-destroying the Hard Boyz.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2015-09-30 03:06  

00:00