re: Breaking: Syria Gov. is invading our ally's territory

1) Syrian Arab Goverment. I should have used SAR.

The shootdown was planned and orchestrated by Damascus. They used a SA-2.

Israel is blaming Iran because they don’t want to publicly acknowledge the change in the balance of power.

Acknowledging that Syria was responsible would further damage their military reputation in the region.

Regarding Turkey, the SAA doesn’t have enough men to carry out more than one offensive at a time, but they would probably humble the Turks.

Turkey hasn’t fought a conventional war against a peer since Korea. The SAA is more experienced at this point.

It sounds like the Russians are going to tell the Turks to withdraw now that the Syrians are taking over Afrin.

If they choose not to, I would expect the Russians to close the airspace again, and tell the Syrians to have at.

I don’t think the Iranians would have much of an opinion. They just want to win, and that means defeating the Jihadis under Turkish Protection.

2) If the plan to force the Turks out is going to work, then they need someone to step in and “take over” from the Kurds. It also buys good will from the Kurds. They’re putting men in harms way.

With the operation in East Ghouta there aren’t any regulars to send.

Should the Turks refuse to withdraw, I would expect to see Syrians regulars get involved.

3) Regulars, they hit one of the observation posts.

From looking at the news wire, it sounds like the Turks have fired on the Syrian militia that are joining the Kurds.

quote:

---

Do you care at all about honor

---

We’ve made a comittment to the Kurds that we can’t, and won’t keep.

quote:

---

You want peaceful Islam? Empower the Kurds.

---

There are as many Islams as there are imams. It’s an endlessly diverse and adaptable faith.

But if you’re talking about a Sunni reformation, it’s not coming from the Kurds. Especially not Marxist ones. No one would listen to them, for one.

Any such reform would have to come from a place like Egypt, or Saudi Arabia.

Honor is hard, which is why it’s so important. It’s also, perhaps, the antidote to the awfulness of the modern era. Our venal politicians, and our crass commercial culture.

But honor isn’t foolish foreign adventures.

quote:

---

NATO ally Turkey troops

---

Our ally, this is a first...

I'm pretty sure the kurds are our only ally over there...And as such we should just go ahead and bomb the shite out of the gov't forces and drop a few JDAM's on those POS turks since Operation Olive Branch is just Operation Kill the Kurds. They're going kill kurds, not each other.

We really should keep up our monthly maintenance on our JDAM Arclight procedure up to par. I'm sure the Apache pilots are still a little butt hurt about not being included in that arse beating.

But again f*** the Turkish, they should be dealt with and not told we don't like what you're doing with Op. Olive Branch.

What the Kurds want, and what we want, are two separate things. They want independence, and we want something, which we struggle to define, but doesn’t include their independence.

Look at what happened with the referendum in Iraq. They were emboldened by our support but we didn’t back their move.

That’s going to cause us both problems. They’ll feel betrayed, and we won’t understand why they’re being so troublesome.

quote:

---

They want independence, and we want something, which we struggle to define, but doesn’t include their independence.

---

We want the same thing that leaders of various ME countries have wanted since the late 60's and 70's in earnest: to use the threat of Kurdish independence to either undermine countries with large Kurdish populations.