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[Sergarr]

Gee if only we'd supported the Kurds and FSA to head off some sort of insurgent snowballing effect

Pissing Turkey off and arming future ISIS?

Also, possilble capture of chemical weaponry by insurgents.

Anyway, the situation would have resulted in either a military dictature (like Egypt) or a failed warlord state (like Lybia might soon be)

But probably even less stable, as Syria is a key Iranian ally*, Iraq has never really been functional and the whole area is completely out of control.

*Pretty sure that would have killed the Geneva talks, actually.

Gee if only we'd supported the Kurds and FSA to head off some sort of insurgent snowballing effect

The last time an insurgent snowballing effect happened it was called Arab Spring. And it was not good.

This Syria war is still the effect of the Arab spring, FYI.

Well the war in Syria has resulted in millions of refugees so it's probably not good.

[Zangi]

Gee if only we'd supported the Kurds and FSA to head off some sort of insurgent snowballing effect

Pissing Turkey off and arming future ISIS?

Also, possilble capture of chemical weaponry by insurgents.

Anyway, the situation would have resulted in either a military dictature (like Egypt) or a failed warlord state (like Lybia might soon be)

But probably even less stable, as Syria is a key Iranian ally*, Iraq has never really been functional and the whole area is completely out of control.

*Pretty sure that would have killed the Geneva talks, actually.

Gee if only we'd supported the Kurds and FSA to head off some sort of insurgent snowballing effect

The last time an insurgent snowballing effect happened it was called Arab Spring. And it was not good.

This Syria war is still the effect of the Arab spring, FYI.

Well the war in Syria has resulted in millions of refugees so it's probably not good.

Proper phrase would probably be: So far the overall effect has not been good in the long term.  (I guess short term, it did look good.)
And the Syria war is still contested, we won't know the results.. whether the long term results will be good or bad until a much later date.

Like say, Syria loses.  What happens next?  It might look 'good' at first... but ya know, shit happens down the line...
And if Syria survives/wins?  Well, it is probably going to be more of before-the-civil-war-status-quo.  The good/bad of it is debatable... but I bet most people on this forum will say bad.

[10ebbor10]

It's going to be universally bad. The infrastructure of the country has been put back decades, many people have been killed, and most of the country is polarized into small militia. Even if a stable government would somehow appear, it has to deal with an Afghanistan like situation where tribal warlords rule.

Even with a descicive victory, Assad will have significant difficulty to maintain control. International relations are FUBAR, infrastructure gone, economy is a disaster, and the people are at each other's throats.

[ibot66]

With any unluck, this will be a second thirty years war.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Gee if only we'd supported the Kurds and FSA to head off some sort of insurgent snowballing effect

Pissing Turkey off and arming future ISIS?

Isolation leads to extremism, or, in the case of Syria, strengthened extremist elements and a marginalization of moderate forces [also doesn't help that the FSA proper is/was between the extremists, the kurds, and the government strongholds, so they didn't really have a chance without teaming up with the extremists, which is now biting them back hard as their territory shrinks] in favor of accepting any and all help they can get to fight assad. And now the war is dominated by extremists.

Sounds almost like Afghanistan sans the foreign invasions.

[10ebbor10]

From your most reliable news source, Iran might deploy the Qud's force to fight ISIS in Iraq

[Darvi]

Clearly you're joking, the most reliable news source is clearly CNN. Reliably dumb, that is.

[LordSlowpoke]

the most reliable news source is pravda

i mean it's got truth written in the newspaper name

how can it lie

[burningpet]

I reckon the typical middle eastern 'terrorist' tend to come from poor places with poor schooling...

And Europe. lets not forget the 3000 european islamic terrorists that will soon come back to europe after they got military trained and further brainwashed.

By not bombing the shit out of it. Repeatedly.

When America bombs everything, it ruins everything.
When America DOESN'T bomb everything, it ruins everything.

But when it DOES bombs the shit out of everything, it should at least have brains and decency to help rebuild what they destroyed, not just focus on arming local half wit idiots and reconstructing the local oil production while driving the country's main revenues outside.

[LordSlowpoke]

europe, or at least germany, did not exactly import the best and brightest but blue collar factory workers instead

i have no fucking idea how that could possibly sound like a sound decision but i'm not willing to start a debate on this or even worse, what i expect to happen the moment it goes on for more than a page

let's just say this is nothing particularly unexpected, it'll culminate in a few bombings, people will react to them like american media to mass shootings, the ride will continue as always

[Sheb]

Well, actually there was a shift in the origin of jihadists over the last few years. It used to be that terrorists were mostly successful, educated Muslims that got into jihadism out of guilt of doing so much better than their muslims brothers and wanting to help them. Think of the underwear bomber that had a degree in Engineering from a prestigious British university.

Nowadays, thanks to Iraq and especially Syria, the composition has changed, we have lower-class, poorer, less-educated jihadists that got into jihad as a way to kick Assad's ass and got radicalized further over there.

Also, Iranians and Americans fighting side to side to defeat ISIS would be awesome.

[10ebbor10]

Yes, but I'm afraid it won't be long before there's some collateral damage for the greater good, or the Iranians manage to recover an American drone brought down by insurgent fire.

[Sheb]

Frankly, I'm hoping they use it as an opportunity to build confidence and relations. The US may see Iran as the new USSR, but sometime you still need to ally with them to bang on Hitler.

[LordSlowpoke]

oh i already pity iran when i see the comparison made here and how true it seems.

[Helgoland]

Isn't the Iranian population rather... well, more European than you'd think? Kinda like Turkey, but with a worse religious dude in charge. In any case, I'd much rather see an Iranian than a Saudi hegemony in region. Especially since Iran has started reforms, and the nuclear talks promise to show some success... A military cooperation between Iran and the US may be the best thing that's happened to the Arab world since Mohamed Bouazizi got fed up with all that shit.