Give up hope that this war will end in a clean or timely fashion. Accept that after the dust has settled the country will be all but destroyed.
We have refrained from total war because the Kurdish and Government controlled areas have held on quite nicely, and only the Islamist areas have been reduced to rubble because both Western and Eastern air strikes have as of late deliberately targeted them. Unless you plan on exterminating all within Syria, then this is a recipe for creating Libya - only worse.
Deny Russia any profit from its intervention. Have our proxies shoot down Russian planes, and make sure every single Russian mother understands that the coffins coming back home are the direct result of Russia's adventurism. Make sure not even RT can put a positive spin on what is happening.
Who are our proxies? I cannot abide arming islamists for the sole purpose of making Russian mothers cry, there is more at stake here than that. Likewise Helgo we both know in the event of a war between Russia and the West it will not be German soldiers on the frontline. Most amusing is how after the Syrian Kurds also got the backing of Russia, they were able to ignore the US's concerns about protecting Turkish proxies
and so the Syrian Kurds have advanced, backed by both US and Russian forces. There are great opportunities to save the Syrian state that have consistently been ignored out of political point scoring contests, I would very much like to see Syria not reduced to rubble nor balkanized merely to deny any utility to regional rivals we are not even at war with.
Bleed Iranian and Hezbollah forces in a similar way. Make sure the pictures of dead Iranian generals get decent exposure.
Communicate clearly that Assad needs to go, that there can be no peace with him still in power.
Accept that these goals can only be reached by creating further destruction. Accept that this destruction is sad, but necessary for a lasting peace.
Accept that doing so will leave only Sunni Islamists in their place. Unless you then intend on exterminating everyone in Syria, there will be no peace thereafter, it will just be one eternal quagmire.
Communicate clearly to Russia that we are inclined to respect its interests in the region if it joins us in creating a solution that is acceptable to all sides. Make it clear that we do not intend to firmly embed post-war Syria in our sphere of influence.
Communicate clearly the same thing to Iran. In particular affirm that it is one of our core interests to see the Shia population of Syria protected from Sunni revenge. Offer Iran a big slice of the cake that is political influence in post-war Syria.
Communicate clearly that it is not our goal to eliminate the entire political machinery of the current regime. Our objections should only be directed against Assad and his inner circle - they can serve as a scapegoat for others' crimes, at least to a degree.
Insist that any post-war order in Syria must include a
Truth and Reconciliation Comission like they had in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. For the peaceful coexistence of the various ethnic and religious groups it is vital to break the circle of revenge and violence.
All good ideas, some of them were already done (though failed, can be redone).
Abandon the idea that Syria must survive as a nation-state. Start looking for a solution that gives the various groups a great deal of autonomy, with the central power by design unable to oppress any single one of them: Nobody will have a reason to revive inter-group tensions if all the power they can want already is distributed among their own group.
And so begins the Balkan wars with each group levied by foreign powers to die for them. Syria must survive as a nation-state if Syrians are to survive at all, or else divided they will be picked apart by their neighbours.
Why should Iran have any claim on Syria? because there are less than 3% Twelvers there? Then by all means, let's give Saudi Arabia a big slice of the political influence in the UK, France and the Netherlands and let's give Germany to Turkey.
Saudi Arabia does not control any armies in the UK, France, Netherlands, nor Turks in Germany, Iran does in Syria.
Don't fall for the Alawites being Shiite myth, because they are not really. the only reason Iran took them as such was because they wanted a claim on Syria. Alawites believe in reincarnation and the trinity, so it is debatable if they can even be considered Muslims.
This is too bigoted and ignorant even for me to handle, and I'm a total shitlord
Review your life
Or is it Because they were active in assisting Assad, the Butcher from Damascus? Iran shouldn't get anything for slaughtering Syrians. if anything, it should invoke the return of the international sanctions on them.
Relax your emotionally excited state and speak normally, if we were to invoke sanctions for nations slaughtering civilians we'd have to void pretty much every single nation in the ME including Israel and nothing would get done, you must first enforce authority before you can subject anyone to a law court.
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Topic: The Let's go back to Iraq, now without WMDs Thread. About the IS(IS) threat. (Read 203669 times)