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[smjjames]

Israel still thinks that Iran wants to do that though. Understandably, Israel is hypersensitive to anything that threatens their existence. Though it's kind of becoming survival for survivals sake over everything else, even potentially democracy.

[Strife26]

Israel still thinks that Iran wants to do that though. Understandably, Israel is hypersensitive to anything that threatens their existence. Though it's kind of becoming survival for survivals sake over everything else, even potentially democracy.

Is that unjust?

[Antioch]

Bitching on Iran's nuclear program after the deal is just nonsense, they gave up basically all nuclear activities.

[Sheb]

Israel still thinks that Iran wants to do that though. Understandably, Israel is hypersensitive to anything that threatens their existence. Though it's kind of becoming survival for survivals sake over everything else, even potentially democracy.

I dunno man, I'm pretty into surviving myself.

Speaking of Israel, they conducted several strikes in Syria recently. Could it be that this famous Russian S-300 just isn't that good?

[Sergarr]

Speaking of Israel, they conducted several strikes in Syria recently. Could it be that this famous Russian S-300 just isn't that good?

First, it's S-200, which is 50 years old, second, Arabian (in)competence overrides all possible advantages of technology, as seen when Iraqi tankers abandoned their Abrams tanks to run away on foot from ISIS technicals. Israel has been running circles around Syrian air defences for decades.

[Sheb]

Didn't Russia deploy S-300 to Syria?

[Sergarr]

No, that would be S-400. Russia also has an informal agreement of sorts with Israel that, as long as they don't target Syrian government, they can carry out airstrikes, and even established a hotline for that purpose. It's pretty easy to check that all Israel airstrikes in Syria since Russian intervention begun have exclusively targeted Hezbollah, including the last one.

[Antioch]

The SDF made an amphibious landing near Tabqah (west of Raqqa) and the US has paradropped troops into the area cutting the road between Tabqah and Aleppo.

[Baffler]

The question is if they're just there to cut off reinforcements to the defenders, or if they're also going to prevent the SAA from advancing on Raqqa so they can't interfere with the Kurdish advance on the city or capture enough of it to contest their control over it. They aren't overtly hostile to each other, but it's hard to tell if that's because of an understanding between the two or if they're just both too busy with Islamists to justify opening another front against an essentially neutral faction. Raqqa would give a lot of leverage and good press to whoever manages to clear the trash out of it.

[smjjames]

Speaking of Israel, they recently had an incident where they were attacking hezbollah caches in Syria and allegedly got fired on by Syrian artillery. No planes were shot down AFAIK, but Israel did warn them 'Do that again and we'll take out your artillery too.'

[Antioch]

The question is if they're just there to cut off reinforcements to the defenders, or if they're also going to prevent the SAA from advancing on Raqqa so they can't interfere with the Kurdish advance on the city or capture enough of it to contest their control over it. They aren't overtly hostile to each other, but it's hard to tell if that's because of an understanding between the two or if they're just both too busy with Islamists to justify opening another front against an essentially neutral faction. Raqqa would give a lot of leverage and good press to whoever manages to clear the trash out of it.

The city of Tabqah itself is one of the most strategically situated cities in the country.

[Zangi]

Ya know... this stuff kinda reminds me of an old sandbox-like game...  Mercenaries.  Buncha different sides screwing around in a war torn country and all that.

[Sergarr]

So, as some people here may already know, there was yet another case of horrible atrocity/war crime/crime against humanity from Assad, where he used chemical weapons to gas some people. The response from USA government, is, well.

U.S. WEIGHS “SATURATION STRIKE” AGAINST SYRIAN GOVERNMENT IN RESPONSE TO CHEMICAL ATTACK

The proposed strike would involve launching Tomahawk cruise missiles to overwhelm Russian air defense systems used by the Syrian military. The Russian government currently helps maintain the air defense sites and advises the Syrian military.

According to both U.S. military officials, the current proposal would likely result in Russian military deaths and mark a drastic escalation of U.S. force in Syria.

One U.S. military official said the decision to allow the strikes, which would kill Russians, signals a significant change in policy by the Trump administration. A decision by Trump to go forward with the plan would be a reversal from the Obama administration, which denied multiple air strike proposals  that would likely cause Russian personnel casualties in Syria.

Who was supposed to start WW3 by attacking Russians in Syria, again? Fuck.

[Shazbot]

I doubt Assad woke up this morning, heard the war was being won for his side, and decided, "You know what, lets commit suicide by Trump."

I mean, John Kerry and Obama disarmed Assad's of all chemical weapons in cooperation with the Russians, remember?

[Sergarr]

Even if he somehow wasn't responsible, it doesn't matter, everyone except for Russia and Assad blames Assad for it. They're going to present the strike plans to Trump. Today. And that bloodthirsty fucker is, with a disturbingly high probability, going to sign them.