Syria rebels overrun Aleppo military base

[UnrepentantLiberal]

Source: BBC News

Rebel fighters are reported to have captured large parts of a big military base in northern Syria, the latest in a string of losses by government forces.



The attack on Base 111 at Sheikh Suleiman, about 25km (15 miles) west of the city of Aleppo, on Sunday, was said to have been led by Islamist militants.

Video posted online showed them seizing military vehicles, including a tank.

Rebel forces are said to have entered Base 111, whose headquarters are in Sheikh Suleiman, on Sunday afternoon after weeks of fighting.

The videos posted online showed rebels driving around in a captured tank and manning anti-aircraft guns. They also showed the rebels sporting the insignia and black flags of radical jihadist militants.



Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20666047

[oberliner]

1. This is probably going to get worse before it gets better

I wish I had a better handle on all of the players involved.

[geek tragedy]

2. It's really bad vs maybe not so bad maybe really really bad. nt

[John2]

5. That is easy.

You can find that out through the Internet and not just from American sources. Read all the International news. A lot of these Rebels are Jidhadists. I wouldn't trust any of them period. We funded the Muhadjadeen too. We also funded the forces in Afghanistan which was Petraeus and McCrystal's idea. They are mercenaries for the highest bidder. The Romans was good at that. The West is using the oldest military trick in the book of history. The old conquer and divide strategy.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

8. We not only funded but CREATED the Taliban.

The craziest people make the best fighters and are the hardest to get rid of once they're in power. The United States and the Soviet Union did this all over the world. This is why we have the mess we have today. The Saudis themselves were backed by the United States during the Roosevelt Administration.

My sister in law posts pictures of what Afghanistan used to look like before the Soviet Union and the United States destroyed it. Kabul was beautiful and progressive. The people who lived in the countryside weren't the maniacs you see today.

[oberliner]

15. What time period do you mean?

What is the range of years when Kabul was beautiful and progressive?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

16. The video looked like the 40s or 50s.

I'll ask my sister in law for it.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

17. Here's a video.

[oberliner]

9. A lot of the internet sources contradict one another

It's hard to know who truly speaks for whom and what to believe.

[Lasher]

3. Radical jihadist militants

A change is not always an improvement.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. It's going to be a real mess after Assad flees the country.

It's looking like it will turn into another Lebanon.

[John2]

6. The last I heard,

they had one battle in Lebanon recently. And Africa is probably next according to an American General.

[Xithras]

7. IMO, there's no real question that it's going to turn into another Lebanon

Same players, same stage, same ideals and statements. At a minimum, it will turn into another Iraq, with bombings and reprisal attacks continuing on indefinitely (three more civilians were killed just yesterday in a bombing in Iraq, a full year after the last Americans left the country). You're going to have the Iranian funded Shia trying to maintain their influence, the majority Sunni trying to assert theirs, you're going to have jihadist fundamentalist terrorist groups trying to re-create Afghanistan (our own state department finally admitted that many of them are in fact terrorists), and you're going to have a huge fight between ALL of them and the Alawites and Christians, who are widely blamed for supporting the Assad regime during this rebellion.

The tragic thing is that it will probably restart the fighting in Lebanon along with it. There have already been a number of violent battles in and around Beirut as factions aligned with the various sides of the Syrian rebellion have started each other there as well. It's easy to forget that it's only been 7 years since the Syrian military was pulled out of Lebanon after 30 years of fighting and occupation. It's still a very unstable area, and all signs point to the conflict not reigniting itself in Lebanon, but sparking a similar confrontation in Syria. Remember, Damascus is 200 miles from Aleppo, but is only 50 miles from Beirut and 10 miles from the Lebanese border.

I get that some people believe that the Syrians will come together for the good of the country, but I just don't see it happening. This is going to get a LOT worse before it gets better.

[leveymg]

10. I hate to say it, but there seem to have been only a few on this board who saw this coming.

Last edited Mon Dec 10, 2012, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

The civil war in Syria is a factional religious struggle that goes back 13 centuries between the Sunni majority and the Shi-ia. The Syrian Alawite minority regime has nowhere to go and has every reason to keep fighting because they know that if and when the Syrian Army collapses, there will be a genocidal ethnic cleansing of Damascus and other cities.

This conflict is regional, will spread (likely to Lebanon, and from there to Iran), and has enormous further blowback potential for the US and other outside powers that have been arming the Sunni militias.

Mess isn't the word for it. Like Iraq, catastrophe by other means.

[Lasher]

11. I've been thinking a lot of Egyptians must be experiencing buyer's remorse.

But it looks like Syrians are in for a rougher ride. The more I learn about these things, the more depressing it gets.

[leveymg]

12. I've been depressed about this stuff for years. And, it just gets worse. eom

[Lasher]

13. “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,

and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” - H P Lovecraft

Have you ever noticed that stupid people are happier than the rest of us?

[leveymg]

14. Sometimes, I wish I hadn't refused Agency recruitment. I might be happier these days. But, I

suspect many at Langley, along with those still with a conscience at Foggy Bottom, are just as miserable as ever.

Who knows? Can you imagine being the staff guy who tells Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and David Petraeus how terribly wrong they got things in MENA? Might be fun. But, that would surely end any promising government career.