Quote (Black XistenZ @ 28 Nov 2024 12:07)

Syria had always had simmering confessional conflict between the Alawi (Shia) minority which was overrepresented among the country's elites and ruling-class, and the poorer, less powerful Sunni majority.
Decades before 2011, Assad's father had an entire insurrectionist town flattened by his military to nip a brewing uprising in the bud. Assad was unable or unwilling to do the same in 2011 and lost control. Foreign meddling didn't help at all, but the conflict had strong roots in Syria itself.

Another factor for the outbreak of the Syrian civil war was the country's absolutely untenable population growth. Since 1950, the Syrian population had been almost doubling every 20 years. For example, from 12m in 1990 to 21m in 2011. In a country mostly consisting of desert and without too much industry, things were headed toward a breaking point sooner or later anyway.


Where Iraqis really played a role was the emergence of ISIS, whose leadership ranks were staffed mostly with ex-generals of Saddam's army. But make no mistake: ISIS filled the huge power vaccuum caused by the war; they are a symptom, not the conflict's root cause.

It should also be noted that Assad's troops were on the verge of defeat in 2015 when Russia decided to interfere with boots on the ground. Without Russia coming to the rescue, there would presumably have been a genocide of the Alawites - and thus a similar mass exodus of Syrian refugees. So for as critical as I am of the Russian actions in Ukraine, I reject the claim that they are singularly responsible for triggering the European refugee crisis, let alone having done it on purpose.

Quote (Goomshill @ Nov 28 2024 12:31pm)

Several days in a row of extremely heavy airstrikes / missile / drone barrages across Ukraine and hitting a lot of the west / border areas which have been more untouched so far, and in particular lots of reports of power stations being destroyed and widespread outages.
At the same time, we've gotten a lot less reports of Russia seizing territory as swiftly, no list of villages / cities falling, back to more static lines

Quote (nuvo @ Nov 28 2024 04:10pm)

So, russia has casus belli because NATO wanted Ukraine and Georgia to join (lets roll with this), yes?

That means NATO has casus belli to attack russia because it tried to prevent Georgia and Ukraine joining? Surely it works both ways? And you would defend NATO attacking russia because it had the right to defend its geo-politics?

Sure, Georgia, Moldovia, Ukraine or Chechnya is huge strategic importance, unlike... much bigger and richer Finland with huge land border, yes? 5 Dimensional chess I'm telling you. Surely it made sense.

Quote (nuvo @ Nov 28 2024 04:10pm)

The "three day" operation comes from russian state media, which is official russian propaganda channel eg. Solovyov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6oB2XhTVz0 (6:30), as well as Lukashenka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1FbxvnsUeI . And of course the fact that calling it a war was illegal in russia, it was "Special operation" lol

Quote (nuvo @ Nov 28 2024 04:10pm)

would you like to live there? Simple yes/no will suffice

Quote (Goomshill @ Nov 28 2024 11:31am)

Several days in a row of extremely heavy airstrikes / missile / drone barrages across Ukraine and hitting a lot of the west / border areas which have been more untouched so far, and in particular lots of reports of power stations being destroyed and widespread outages...

Quote (Djunior @ Nov 28 2024 01:59pm)

Quote (Malopox @ Nov 28 2024 11:34am)

I’m glad you see my point about poverty. Your relatives moved away from Poland not because Poland was “undemocratic” but because it was poor and there were no jobs. So yeah, generally people choose what’s best for them and usually being able to feed yourself trumps living in a “democraric” state. Otherwise why would Indians move from free and democratic India to be a slave in Qatar?

Quote (nuvo @ Nov 28 2024 03:02pm)

Solovyov IS a russian official. Lukashenka IS russian dog controlled by Putin. If they say something then it means they were tasked to say that. Or are you going to pretend that Belarus or russian state media are somehow free to express their own opinions?

If russia intervenes in NATO affairs (like getting Ukraine and Georgia in) then NATO is allowed to strike russia? After all its just geopolitics right? Or in your opinion only russia is allowed to think like that?



But Poland was both undemocratic and poor, and both was because of russia. We had russian puppets doing russian bidding as a government. We also had russian troops stationing here. Only after fall of USRR were Poland finally free. Also part of why Poland was poor was that russia stole war reparations from us. Thats decades down the drain, while we were occupied by them until around 1989. Ask me why I dont want to live in ruski mir again xD

Quote

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18.

A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.

Quote (nuvo @ 28 Nov 2024 15:02)

But Poland was both undemocratic and poor, and both was because of russia. We had russian puppets doing russian bidding as a government. We also had russian troops stationing here. Only after fall of USRR were Poland finally free. Also part of why Poland was poor was that russia stole war reparations from us. Thats decades down the drain, while we were occupied by them until around 1989. Ask me why I dont want to live in ruski mir again xD