2 ms·

Assad is not a great guy, I'm not denying that. He's a tyrant. Compared to ISIS and the extremist terrorist forces he's up against, which Russia is helping him

Assad is not a great guy, I'm not denying that. He's a tyrant. Compared to ISIS and the extremist terrorist forces he's up against, which Russia is helping him defeat, he's not so bad. One cannot discount the government of a country just so easily. There is such a thing as international law and the US is violating it by being in Syria, which is still a sovereign state, while Russia is not. Incidentally the US has supported far worse dictatorships, it has a terrible record in that regard.

smsm42 9y ago
A guy who didn't pick after his dog on your lawn is "not a great guy". Asad is a brutal dictator who already caused death of thousands of people and will cause many more. He's way beyond "not a great guy". He's yes "so bad". > One cannot discount the government of a country just so easily. It's not "so" easily. It's a brutal strongman that uses WMD against people he's supposedly representing. It's not just some disagreement on taxes or policies. It's routinely using the military against people. And if you think ISIS is the only organization that opposes Asad, you are woefully misinformed - opposition to Asad is much wider and ISIS just used the chaos to get a stronghold, they did not initiate the civil war. And of course Asad has absolutely no problem with "extremist terrorist forces" - as long as they threaten not him but say US or Israel. > Incidentally the US has supported far worse dictatorships Not "far" worse, as it's not very easy to go far worse than Asad (maybe Idi Amin who was rumored to literally eat people? Or Papa Doc Duvalier, who at one time ordered to have all black dogs in a country killed because he thought his fugitive opponent turned himself into one?). But yes, it did. But doing a bad thing once is not a reason to do it ten times more.

2 ms·

Assad is not a great guy, I'm not denying that. He's a tyrant. Compared to ISIS and the extremist terrorist forces he's up against, which Russia is helping him

by Synaesthesia 9y ago

smsm42 9y ago
A guy who didn't pick after his dog on your lawn is "not a great guy". Asad is a brutal dictator who already caused death of thousands of people and will cause many more. He's way beyond "not a great guy". He's yes "so bad". > One cannot discount the government of a country just so easily. It's not "so" easily. It's a brutal strongman that uses WMD against people he's supposedly representing. It's not just some disagreement on taxes or policies. It's routinely using the military against people. And if you think ISIS is the only organization that opposes Asad, you are woefully misinformed - opposition to Asad is much wider and ISIS just used the chaos to get a stronghold, they did not initiate the civil war. And of course Asad has absolutely no problem with "extremist terrorist forces" - as long as they threaten not him but say US or Israel. > Incidentally the US has supported far worse dictatorships Not "far" worse, as it's not very easy to go far worse than Asad (maybe Idi Amin who was rumored to literally eat people? Or Papa Doc Duvalier, who at one time ordered to have all black dogs in a country killed because he thought his fugitive opponent turned himself into one?). But yes, it did. But doing a bad thing once is not a reason to do it ten times more.