Saturday 26 September 2015

Assad and ISIS

From the Daily Mail:

One in five Syrians prefer living under the rule of Islamic State terrorists rather than President Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to new research.

Or to put it another way, 4/5ths of Syrians prefer living under Assad's regime. In which case, why are we pissing and crying about what Assad is doing rather than arming him to the teeth like Putin is doing?

9 comments:

Random said...

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-09/23/c_134649761.htm

Bayard said...

TS, AFAICS, it's because the US, and therefore the UK when it is poodle mode, doesn't like Assad because he supported Saddam Hussein in the Iraq war.

Personally, I think that no matter what Assad does or doesn't do to the inhabitants of Syria, we should stay out of it because it's none of our damn business.

Tim Almond said...

Bayard,

Send the guy some tanks and planes, sell him some if he's got money. Get an alliance going with him. I don't mean send in the troops.

The whole western perspective on the region is driven by the idea of humanitarianism, and a lot of the ME isn't like that - it's like a mafia turf war.

Random said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/25/donald-trump-let-russia-fight-the-islamic-state-in-syria/

DBC Reed said...

There's a distinct possibility that we oppose Assad because Putin backs him: there is probably some nineteenth century ,or possibly cold war, spheres-of-influence game being played by the stupendous political elites involved on "our side". How else could we be against both sides in a civil war? Takes some doing! Cameron of course managed to depose Gadaffi( who was keeping the peace-ish in Libya) simply because Gadaffi was planning to attack some rebels who were attacking him. Gadaffi was also warning Europe of the huge build-up of migrants from farther south attempting to reach Europe by sea. Cameron is nearly as great a humanitarian disaster as Blair.

James Higham said...

Just about to say that but you did it first.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Agreed, also agreed with Bayard and DBC's comments above.

mombers said...

Based on the success of our various interventions in the Middle East, I'd say time to reconsider meddling altogether?

Bayard said...

M, what are you talking about? They've all been resounding successes, all of them and even if they weren't, it will be different this time.