Assad being aligned with Putin has a lot to do with what?

Just asking.

Some one is trying to feed you red herring Icy 😉

POD: "did you read the first part of my post John? I notice you didn't make a comment on that."
Maybe because I thought it just anti US rhetoric, with no concept of the economics you mentioned.

Interesting,  "our" comments on other nation's foreign policies when  I suspect little is appreciated (known) of our own now, and  in the past.

TGSE: "My prediction is that If Assad falls, the result will be a brutal scramble for power and Syria will be left in a worse state than she is in now."

I agree TGSE,  but wonder  whether it could be in a worse state than the bloody civil war that now exists,  but it would  become an expanded conflict divided along Sunni-Shiite lines, so I guess worse.

nɥºɾ

MOSCOW—The Kremlin said Friday it is still trying to prevent a Western
military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
but Moscow appears to be running out of cards to play to protect its
longtime ally.

At a Kremlin briefing Friday, Yuri Ushakov, top foreign-policy aide to President Vladimir Putin, wouldn't be drawn into a discussion of possible Russian reactions to a western strike. "For the moment, Russia is working actively to avoid any kind of scenario involving force," he said. Mr. Putin made that case Thursday in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He said Thursday's vote the U.K. Parliament against military action was a sign of growing skepticism in the West with calls to punish the Assad regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons against its own citizens on Aug. 21.

"It seems to me that people are starting to understand how dangerous these scenarios are, especially without sanction," he said, referring to proposals to use military force without U.N. backing.

Russian officials argue that they aren't seeking to preserve the Assad regime but oppose the principle of intervention without U.N. sanction.

"We don't want the situation to become one where a single state or group of states charges, convicts and imposes their own sentence," Mr. Ushakov said. "This kind of action bypassing the U.N. Security Council, if it takes place, would do enormous harm to the world system."

He also reiterated that the Kremlin remains unconvinced by U.S. allegations that the Assad regime was behind the use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21. "The Americans haven't given us their intelligence data. We don't believe it," he said.

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Both Russia and US are moving ships to the area. 

Assad is saying that it was the rebels staging the attack to get US to help them, but the consensus is that the rebels do not have the means or expertise to deliver the gas weapons.

Obama seeks congressional approval.  Most Americans are opposed but I just heard a woman saying: "We have to protect inocent people from these dictators".     just like they protected the people of Iraq.  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "He was the peace candidate who became a war president, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has regularly ordered executions by drone."

Omg this man is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate I'd forgotten about that!

"Just three months ago, President Barack Obama called for an end to America's "perpetual war-time footing." On Saturday, he said he had decided to take military action against Syria for its apparent chemical weapons use, but would seek authorization from - and to share responsibility with - the U.S. Congress."

Unlike when he went ahead and bombed Libya without congressional approval in 2011, hitting several civilian institutions.

"I respect the views of those who call for caution, particularly as our country emerges from a time of war that I was elected in part to end," Obama said in his announcing his decision.

"But if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we must acknowledge the costs of doing nothing," he said."

I think his administration has done plenty and he needs to back off.

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Yay preview is back!

I have a bad feeling about this.

Why is everyone looking at the US to act? the US is in between a rock and a hard place. It's a lose lose situation for them. Therefore for us.

Watch Russian to counteract.