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Why didn't we care as much when Russia invaded Syria?

Airyaman

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I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?
 
Syria was much more a quagmire than Ukraine is.

The Russians also effectively painted their efforts as anti-terrorism by making a big show of bombing ISIS. This time around the Russians completely dropped the ball when it came to trying to fight the information war due to their expectations of a rapid victory.
 
This is far more raw than Syria was. Syria was a mess, with ISIS running around all over the place and about 20 different factions.

The Ukraine was literally just minding its own business.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?
For one the Syrian leader Bashar al Assad requested Russia's involvement. That is the opposite of Ukraine's situation. We kind of turn a blind eye to internal atrocities and civil wars as opposed to invading forces atrocities.

 
And talk now is that Syria will be Ukraine before long.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?
Syrians ain't middle class white people.
 
This is far more raw than Syria was. Syria was a mess, with ISIS running around all over the place and about 20 different factions.

The Ukraine was literally just minding its own business.
As were your everyday Syrians.
I think it's because most people identify with and empathize with those who look and live as they do.
 
And talk now is that Syria will be Ukraine before long.
I meant to say that talk is that Syrian soldiers will be in Ukraine before long.
 
Assad is a terrible leader in a country that lapsed into a vile civil war. Assad lost control of half of the country. He requested military help from Russia. So there was not a foreign invasion of another country. We set up a no-fly zone in Syria. To say we didn't do something is not true. But yes we are worked up into more of a lather over Ukraine than Syria. I think if Russia moved into Syria without being asked would have garnered a stronger indignation.
The second reason is Ukraine is Europe. America has much more direct involvement in general in Europe. We have more treaties more trading more everything. Syria is the middle east. its physically and culturally further away.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?

In Syria, the Russians were bombing ISIS- and you know what they say: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Why would we want them to stop? Besides, it was not at all clear whose side we should be on over there anyway. You had dozens of groups, one crazier and more radical than the other, fighting a brutal crazy strong man dictator. It was like watching a match up between Alien vs. Predator. How are you going to take sides in THAT? There were only a few small groups fighting for some kind of democracy there, and basically they never really had a chance., even if the US had helped them.

Ukraine, on the other hand, was a reasonably functioning democracy which was politically and economically reasonably stable, doing OK, even growing- and minding its own business. Russia’s invasion worries everyone now because the concern here, rather than in Syria where their goal was just to keep order, is that it nothing is done it will be a Neville Chamberlain moment we will later regret. If Putin is allowed to brazenly continue on this path, the concern is he will be emboldened and he has a whole big list of other sovereign countries he wants to invade. That worries us a lot more than what was happening in Syria.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?

Because Syria is run by a sociopathic dictator, and was infested with even more sociopathic piece of shit terrorists?
 
The original post is pretty good.
 
I understand that people lead busy lives and often have many concerns of their own, closer to home. I get all that which is why I'm always very mindful to try not to assume automatically that people don't care or are not interested enough in relation to what is happening.

I can say that I did care about what was happening in Syria. I was one of the few posters, 10 years ago this month now, attempting to highlight concerns as Syria initially began its descent into civil war in early 2011 after government security forces shot and killed protesters. At the time, the numbers fleeing the atrocities were still reasonably low. While still awful, numbers were under 10,000.

From a humanitarian standpoint, Syria’s civil war has created arguably the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population, more than 13 million people, have been killed or forced to flee their homes. The sheer magnitude of the crisis is enormous and Syrians are now the largest refugee population in the world. We have witnessed the worst exodus since the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago.

I also understand that not everyone is going to be willing or able to help those in these situations because they may feel there are other causes they should be supporting first, no issue with that, but it was the cruel, bigoted and dehumanizing commentary often displayed that did not sit well with me. Completely unnecessary and showed people for what they really are.

Listening to folks spreading anti-refugee propaganda was awful.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria.

What invasion? The Assad government was the internationally-recognized government of Syria. If anyone invaded, it was the international coalition combatting Islamic State.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?

That area wasnt particularly stable to begin with. And there were terrorist factions inside Syria that both sides (Us and Russia) wanted suppressed.

And they already basically had a dictatorship, I didnt consider them 'free' to begin with. As an American, I empathize much more with a struggle to remain free.

In Syria, Russia was 'helping' their government, working with Assad. That's definitely not the case in Ukraine.

Sounds callous maybe, YMMV
 
I think that you have hit the nail on the head.

1. Many Americans consider the Middle East as hopeless.

2. The Syrians do not look like Europeans.

3. The Syrians have never known democracy.
 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?
Probably because you view Syria as a sovereign state and Assad, monster or not IS the acknowledged leader of Syria. Russia attacked the insurrectionists trying to upend Assad. Putin did it in support of Assad and was in Syria because Assad wanted him in Syria.

This is the opposite of what is happening in Ukraine. Ukraine is a sovereign state. Russia is attacking it and its legitimate government led by its legitimate President, Zelensky.

The mistake we made in Syria was in this whole "red line" nonsense. What the flying fugg did Obama think he was doing. His red line turned into a pink line and ultimately no line at all. Nice job IDIOT. My personal feeling is that his wife would have made a better President.

The simple truth is that thug Putin will use any rationalization to insert himself militarily into a situation where:
- he can benefit
- he has what he views as overwhelming military odds in his favor

His mistake in Ukraine is that he believed his own bullshit and determined that Ukraine would greet him as some sort of liberator. NOT!!!!!!!!

Myself I don't think much of the "sovereign" state of Syria. Assad only cares about Assad and only decides to defend his borders against incursions from nation and non-nation states when he sees something in it for him.
 
WOW, American ignorance is insane!

Russia didn't invade Syria, Russia is Syria's ally.

It's the US that invaded Syria, supporting terrorist groups against the government!

Americans don't have any right to dictate to others what kind of political system to have, what leaders to have, whether they're dictatorships or not, whether they're good or not(hypocritical garbage anyway, as they're kissing the asses of the likes of Saudi Arabia)
 

Why didn't we care as much when Russia invaded Syria?​


Why....because the first step in anything constructive via Syria has to do with extreme prejudice and the back of Assad's head. We don't want any part of that. Syria has nothing we want. As such there is no reason for us to help Syria with its Assad problem. We will do nothing until Assad is gone but we won't be part of a process to rid the country of Assad.
 
Well, they have oil.
 
Well, they have oil.
Not enough for us to be interested. They rank 31st on oil reserves with 0.15% of the world's reserves. Sudan has more oil reserves than Syria has.
 
Not enough for us to be interested. They rank 31st on oil reserves with 0.15% of the world's reserves. Sudan has more oil reserves than Syria has.

Yeah, has to be enough. But since they're there, anyway, might as well do some looting.

About Sudan, it just keeps getting better.

 
I admit, I did not care when Russian invaded Syria. As far as I could tell, they were doing it on behalf of the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. But that didn't make it right, that dude is a monster.

So why didn't I really care? Was it because Syria is not a democracy, and is not aligned in any fashion with "the West"? Probably. Is it because the country is predominantly Muslim? Probably (I'm an atheist, doing weird shit for gods is not my thing). Is it because Syria has been historically hostile towards "the West". Probably.

OK, all of those points are certainties with me. I think (it's hindsight) I felt they had it coming. Yet alot of innocent people died. Alot.

I admit I was wrong to not speak out against Russian aggression in Syria. I hope to do better in the future.

You?
Both Syria and Russia are authoritarian states, so I am less interested. Helping the bystanders should be a priority though.
 
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