Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

See my post in the War on Syria thread.

All I can say is that I think there a few goodguys in the Syrian fight, when it comes to being either active as pro or anti Assad, withthe exception of the majority of the civilian population who just want a reasonable safe life. My own limited ulnderstanding was that as despots went Assad was no worse than any and better than many..ruthless with obvious opponents but not too capricious in victimising any group. His likely main fault as far as the USA was concerned was that he was anti isreali and openly supported Hezzbollah, which put him in the axis of evil. American foreign policy in the region has been a disgrace, hypocritical in the extreme in supporting various despotic rulers, and casting them off once a better option came along. Few of the benefits of the American way of life filtered through, hence serious local distrust of the USA at all levels.

Regime change through eg the last Iraq war and the Arab Spring has not been a success, mainly because there has been no credible successor with enough local support to properlly fill the space left by the departing regime. That is always a recipe for disaster. That is demonstrated in Syria by the factionalised nature of the opposition and tgat Assad retained suffucient support to survive.

The Americans might be begining to appreciate the meaning of tbe saying, "better the devil you know".

Partition is a possibility. Whther thst is on the cards, I do not know, but one may end up with Kurdish autonomous region, as in Iraq. That raises many possibiliies, not all goid.

I take your point. For those of us who believe the USA and other Western powers were at least instrumental in bringing Erdoğan to power in Turkey, and looking at his dictatorial leanings, it is pretty hypocritical for them to demand that a dictator like Assad go.

America has long been selective in the dictatorial regimes they chose to support and doubly hypocrtical by imposing dictators where they are concerned that an alternative with better democratic credentials may not toe their line.

Of course, if you believe it's based on principles, then it appears to be hypocritical. On the other hand, based on the premise that it's all about self-interest, then it makes sense. Russia wants to keep its Mediterranean naval base and it sees Assad as guaranteeing that, so he is a good dictator in their eyes. It baffles me as to why the West doesn't consider a secular Western-oriented Turkey to be to its advantage, but the Western ruling elites obviously continue to believe that the islamist Erdoğan serves their interests and so he is a good dictator in their eyes, even if nowadays we hear the odd sanctimonious word of disapproval from some Western leaders about Erdoğan's 'excesses'.

It's all swings and roundabouts.

The West owes Erdogan nothing and is more than willing to let him fall whenever the people of Turkey see fit for this to happen.

Basically, they don't particularly care who is in power in Turkey.

I beg to differ there. Global capital, and especially Western capital, has turned Turkey into a major manufacturing base and I think they care very much who is in charge.

[miltiades]

Your views, as this poll has thus far shown, are not deemed VALID by even one single member.
You are disastrously wrong in every sense of the word. Your naivety is beyond comprehension, as an example is the statement you made that you hate Putin more than you hate Daesh.

This in it self exposes you wide open for all to see that your logic is clouded and utterly flawed, young ...Fart

[Robin Hood]

Paphitis:

Any examples you would like to share with us?

I will:
 China 1949 to early 1960s
 Albania 1949-53
 East Germany 1950s
 Iran 1953
 Guatemala 1954
 Costa Rica mid-1950s
 Syria 1956-7
 Egypt 1957
 Indonesia 1957-8
 British Guiana 1953-64
 Iraq 1963
 North Vietnam 1945-73
 Cambodia 1955-70
 Laos 1958 , 1959 , 1960
 Ecuador 1960-63
 Congo 1960
 France 1965
 Brazil 1962-64
 Dominican Republic 1963
 Cuba 1959 to present
 Bolivia 1964
 Indonesia 1965
 Ghana 1966
 Chile 1964-73
 Greece 1967
 Costa Rica 1970-71
 Bolivia 1971
 Australia 1973-75
 Angola 1975, 1980s
 Zaire 1975
 Portugal 1974-76
 Jamaica 1976-80
 Seychelles 1979-81
 Chad 1981-82
 Grenada 1983
 South Yemen 1982-84
 Suriname 1982-84
 Fiji 1987
 Libya 1980s
 Nicaragua 1981-90
 Panama 1989
 Bulgaria 1990
 Albania 1991
 Iraq 1991
 Afghanistan 1980s
 Somalia 1993
 Yugoslavia 1999-2000
 Ecuador 2000
 Afghanistan 2001
 Venezuela 2002
 Iraq 2003
 Haiti 2004
 Somalia 2007 to present
 Ukraine 2011
 Libya 2011
 Syria 2012
 Brazil 2016 ...... I apologise if I have missed a few minor skirmishes!

A thought:

Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?
A: Because there’s no American embassy there.

I think you are confusing the fact that the West is willing to let things slide as long as for a few pre-conditions are met such as:
1) if there is peace and stability, and .......

Well they have made a complete hash of that so far! Name one single country they have invaded/interfered where they have achieved that?

2) its interest are met.

....... but that requirement is paramount in ALL the US (and NATO) members incursions into the affairs and the territory of other sovereign states for the last fifty years at least, that is why they do it ...... it's in THEIR interests every time!

[Robin Hood]

Paphitis:

It's not our troops that will remove Assad. We don't have troops in Syria other than a few hundred Special Forces.

It is the Syrian people who are removing Assad! They will see to it that they will prevail. They can't be beaten. And with Western support, Pootin has nowhere to go because you will die before you see peace in Syria. I will die before peace is restored in Syria if Assad remains.

When will you understand that is Putin that is calling the tune in Syria, it is Putin that those that matter trust ...... not the US/NATO coalition and their ‘moderate Islamic terrorists'. The Syrian people, well 70% of them, have just voted overwhelmingly for another seven years of Assad as President and his secular government of Syrian people of all religions and political persuasions ...... or didn’t your sources point that out to you?

You've been saying that the fall of Aleppo is imminent for 6 months now. You will be a eunuch before that happens old 'boy'!

It is slow going as previously pointed out as it is a street by street urban war, to avoid as much as is possible civilian casualties. They saw what the US managed to do with their indiscriminate killing and use of depleted uranium in Falluja and won’t make the same mistakes! If the US/NATO coalition would stop resupplying the Islamic terrorists with weapons the SAA and their allies could do the job a lot quicker.

If Pootin wants to keep Syria as its client state, then it knows what it needs to do.

Well .... it seems that is what the Syrian people want and Russia just needs to go on doing what it is doing; trying to find a path to a more stable Syria ..... you know, like it used to be before the US decided on another round of regime change!

[miltiades]

Robin, why are you still bothering to interact with the General. Have you not as yet worked it out that this individual lives in a fools paradise, withdrawn from reality immersed in war fantasy games and unable to exercise logic and wisdom. His troops, His demands, His this and We this.

Deep down he is a nice guy but utterly immature and withdrawn from realities.

Some years back he passionately promoted the idea put out by another member that the Cypriot National Guard could take on Turkey and ......defeat it ON ITS OWN !!!

War games as played on Nintendo by ...Super Mario

[Robin Hood]

Robin, why are you still bothering to interact with the General. Have you not as yet worked it out that this individual lives in a fools paradise, withdrawn from reality immersed in war fantasy games and unable to exercise logic and wisdom. His troops, His demands, His this and We this.

Deep down he is a nice guy but utterly immature and withdrawn from realities.

Some years back he passionately promoted the idea put out by another member that the Cypriot National Guard could take on Turkey and ......defeat it ON ITS OWN !!!

War games as played on Nintendo by ...Super Mario

Haven't you noticed he is having a 'hissy-fit' and won't talk to me, as he obviously cannot support his pronouncements.

I am sure he is a nice guy at heart and I won't give up on him just yet. But he does has some very strange conceptions of subjects I know a lot about and he doesn't. My understanding of the monetary and banking systems is all verifiable fact and he refuses to even check it out, calling me an idiot from a point of complete ignorance. But I have a thick skin.

Things like Syria which are more an exercise in common sense. I feel he holds a very much main stream US/NATO view, that being ......... Putin/Assad = BAD and USA/NATO/Israel = GOOD, and follows the doctrine blindly. Common sense he has difficulty in applying, relying more on propaganda than available information ........the facts will come later as they always do!

[miltiades]

" Clearly, American involvement in the political process in Syria is unwelcomed, if not loathed, by the Syrian people. They don’t want the U.S. to continue supporting the jihadists who are destroying their country; and they also don’t want the U.S. dictating that Bashar al-Assad will stop being their leader."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-still- ... nt/5517155

[Robin Hood]

A sober thought by Paul Craig Roberts .........

As Our Past Wars Are Glorified This Memorial Day Weekend, Give Some Thought To Our Prospects Against The Russians And Chinese In World War III

It is extraordinary to see the confidence that many Americans place in their military’s ability. After 15 years the US has been unable to defeat a few lightly armed Taliban, and after 13 years the situation in Iraq remains out of control. This is not very reassuring for the prospect of taking on Russia, much less the strategic alliance between Russia and China. The US could not even defeat China, a Third World country at the time, in Korea 60 years ago.

Americans need to pay attention to the fact that “their” government is a collection of crazed stupid fools likely to bring vaporization to the United States and all of Europe.

Russian weapons systems are far superior to American ones. American weapons are produced by private companies for the purpose of making vast profits. The capability of the weapons is not the main concern. There are endless cost overruns that raise the price of US weapons into outer space. The F-35 fighter, which is less capable than the F-15 it is supposed to replace, costs between $148 million and $337 million per fighter, depending on whether it is an Air Force, Marine Corps, or Navy model.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/05/28/as-our-past-wars-are-glorified-this-memorial-day-weekend-give-some-thought-to-our-prospects-against-the-russians-and-chinese-in-world-war-iii/

I think Dirty Harry's (Clint Eastwood) words ....... “Make my day punk!” would be an apt comment? This is from The Saker article linked in the above.

How Russia is preparing for WWIII

Just remember that the Kalibr has a range of anywhere between 50km to 4000km and that it can carry a nuclear warhead. How hard would it be for Russia to deploy these cruise missiles right off the US coast in regular container ships? Or just keep a few containers in Cuba or Venezuela? This is a system which is so undetectable that the Russians could deploy it off the coast of Australia to hit the NSA station in Alice Springs if they wanted, and nobody would even see it coming.

As a sample ....... another weapon the Russian’s will soon have at their disposal .........

What is shown here is an “autonomous underwater vehicle” which has advanced navigational capabilities but which can also be remote controlled and steered from a specialized command module. This vehicle can dive as deep as 1000m, at a speed up to 185km/h and it has a range of up to 10’000km. It is delivered by specially configured submarines.

The Status-6 system can be used to target aircraft carrier battle groups, US navy bases (especially SSBN bases) and, in its most frightening configuration, it can be used to deliver high-radioactivity cobalt bombs capable of laying waste to huge expanses of land. The Status-6 delivery system would be a new version of the T-15 torpedo which would be 24m long, 1,5m wide weigh 40 tons and capable of delivering a 100 megaton warhead which would make it twice as powerful as the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated, the Soviet Czar-bomb (57 megatons). Hiroshima was only 15 kilotons.

Keep in mind that most of the USA’s cities and industrial centres are all along the coastline which makes them extremely vulnerable to torpedo based attacks (be it Sakharov’s proposed “Tsunami bomb” or the Status-6 system). And, just as in the case of the Iskander-M or the Sarmat ICBM, the depth and speed of the Status-6 torpedo would make it basically invulnerable to interception.

The SAKER is a very good US weapons and military analyst ......... a fairly long read but pretty detailed.

http://thesaker.is/how-russia-is-preparing-for-wwiii/


As Roberts say .... the Russians don't want a war, they still remember the last one (27-30m dead!) ..... the Americans have never had a war on their soil. I think for the west to scoff at these weapons would be a very grave mistake, remember whilst the US has been arming to conquer the World...... Russia has been arming to defend itself against attack and now they are ensuring that they can retaliate anywhere around the World.

Any US/NATO .... Australian ‘General’ .........that ignores this is in for a very big shock if he were to exercise too much over-confidence in his capability and prod the bear just that little bit too hard or too often?

[miltiades]

Naturally every father or mother would always stand by their off springs, however on occasions when children misbehave it is the parents duty to chastise and harshly criticize actions that are mischievous and stupid.

I have, and always will, support the West and the USA, a country that I consider the greatest nation on earth, after Cyprus of course.

When on occasions the west and in particular the USA " misbehave " I do not shut my eyes, switch off my logic and blindly support actions that are detrimental to those directed against, as in Syria / The West has made a serious misjudgement based on utter stupidity and naivety.

Some one else is also making a dreadful error of judgement , as the poll thus far has shown not a single member of the Cyprus forum considers his views as proper and correct.

By the way, the singular vote in his favour is that of the General him self

[Robin Hood]

Naturally every father or mother would always stand by their off springs, however on occasions when children misbehave it is the parents duty to chastise and harshly criticize actions that are mischievous and stupid.

I have, and always will, support the West and the USA, a country that I consider the greatest nation on earth, after Cyprus of course.

When on occasions the west and in particular the USA " misbehave " I do not shut my eyes, switch off my logic and blindly support actions that are detrimental to those directed against, as in Syria / The West has made a serious misjudgement based on utter stupidity and naivety.

Some one else is also making a dreadful error of judgement , as the poll thus far has shown not a single member of the Cyprus forum considers his views as proper and correct.

By the way, the singular vote in his favour is that of the General him self

I worked with Americans for years and as a people in the main I liked them. They were always friendly and only wanted people to like them ...... but they couldn't understand why they didn't. They were not well read ..... FFS they didn't even know where Cyprus was! So like our friend they are not well informed and are not too good at working things out ..... that is why they make these mistakes, because it applies just as much to those making the running as those at the blunt end getting the stick. But those at the top are so convinced of their invincibility I fear it could be our undoing.