Afghanistan was a proxy war between Russia and the US back during the Russian occupation. Will this be the next conflict? Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions. Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war. Now the Russian Black Sea fleet's Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency. The Russian news reports did not elaborate on the Russian troops' mission in Syria or if they are expected to leave the port. The presence of Russian troops in Syria could be a "pretty obvious" show of support to the regime, according to Russian security expert Mark Galeotti. "No one thinks of the Russians as anything but Assad's last friends," said Galeotti, professor of global affairs at New York University. More http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/russian-anti-terror-troops-arrive-syria/story?id=15954363#.T2fyNHk38-L
I say stay out of Syria. Let the ME deal with it's own problems. People in the ME need to learn the hard way to fight against dictators, and tyranny.
I believe the same but am not prepared to say our government is not already in action on this. During the Afghanistan war, most Americans had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. We were dealing with the Israelis to ship arms to Afghanistan so there would be no US connection. Who knows what is really going on?
that pretty much sums it up. We are not spreading freedom we are planting the seeds of hatrid for generations to come. Not to mention as you say we are broke and gas is outrages already. Russia has made clear their stance on this. Its either WW# or a proxy war. If we continue to insist on interfearing.
Who's arming who?... U.S., Russia Exported Most Arms; India Biggest Importer Tuesday, March 19, 2012 - India is the world's leading importer of weapons, while the United States and Russia are responsible for about half of the globe's arms exports, according to a new study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The differences between Afghanistan and Syria are to many to even count. For one, Afghanistan was nothing short of a Soviet invasion. They stormed across the borders and occupied the nation of Afghanistan. In this instance, the government of Syria (which has been in power now for over 40 years) are the ones who invoted the Russians in. This is not a "Russian Occupation". This is no different then a nation like South Korea or Vietnam asking the US for assistance. Syria is a free and soverign nation, and is welcome to ask for assistance from anybody they wish. And just because a country gives them that assistance, that does not make it an "invasion".
You are missing the point. The US was fully involved in Afghanistan with no troops on the ground. It looks like Syria may be another non troop battleground and since Russia is involved, will this be another Russia/US proxy war?
You can't be "fully involved" in a war without your own military forces engaged on the ground. They certainly helped to support the Mujaheddin, but they didn't actively said ground troops or even serious military advisers into the conflict as Russia did with China/NK and Vietnam.
Syria is mostly fighting the Muslim Brotherhood. And the last time I checked, that is not given strong support by the United States. This is not the Cold War. And just because Russia is supporting one side, that does not automatically mean the US is funding the other side. Now can you show me something that proves that the US is the one funding and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria? If not, this is just what it appears to be. Syria having internal difficulties of their own, and asking their ally for assistance. However, if they start to slaughter their rebels like Libya did, then you may very well see Russia quietly turn their back on Syria, like they did with Libya. But that does not mean it will be "US against Russia". The cold war is over, get over it.
Who cares? You seem to miss the fact that most of the countries in the region do not trust Russia. Look at the shift in power in this area over the last 30 years. In the 1970's, Russia was the major arms supplier for most of the nations in the region. They were indoctrinated in Soviet tactics, had Soviet advisors, sent their officers to Soviet schools, and used Soviet equipment. And what did that get them? Well, several failed wars with a much smaller and vastly outnumbered opponant. Several conflicts between each other. And ultimately equipment that performed nowhere near advertised. Then in the 1980's, you had a shift happen. Instead of looking at Israel as a threat, more and more of them made peace with the smaller nation. Then they started to develop closer ties to the US, buying their equipment, and sending their soldiers to US schools. And suddenly a lot of their tensions started to fade away. Nations that once had armed borders started to loosen their tensions with neighbors. Their equipment was actually working as was promised. And they saw their military start to become less dependent on their "supporter" for assistance, not more dependent. And when it came time for one of them to ask for most of the US to pull out, they did so without complaint. And when others who had never really had close ties to the US started to ask for help, it was given with very little problem. And when one ME nation was conquered and occupied by another, they realized that the US was willing to step up and help, and then largely fade away when it was done (while most of the region just wrung their hands and did nothing). So yea, Syria is welcome to Russian help. And Russia is welcome to help Syria. I do not expect Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, UAE, or any of the other nations to go running to Russia to help. Most have them had such help in the past, and in the end saw nothing good come of it. not even Iran goes looking for Russian help. They may buy some of their weapons, but that is only so they can copy them themselves. They do not welcome in the number of "advisors" that some of the other nations in the region did at one time. To Iran, Russia is simply another nation to do business with, nothing more.
I think you make a good point. What gets me is that we spend all this money in Iraq helping Saddam who at the time was just as nasty (if not even worse), and was using chemical gas on his own people. The aid to Saddam was done because he was fighting Iran who was our enemy. Saddam was not only the enemy of Iran (a theocracy) but the enemy of Al Qaeda because Iraq was a secular state and Al Qaeda wants theocracy. Fast forward a few years and we have spent Trillions of dollars ousting Saddam and replaced him with Shia who are friends of both Iran and Al Qaeda. Something in this picture does not make any sense in relation to stated foreign policy.
