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Counterfactuals are hard. If Nato had stepped in after Syria used chemical weapons we may not have had a global refugee crisis. America has kept the peace prett
by 3pt14159 7y ago
Counterfactuals are hard. If Nato had stepped in after Syria used chemical weapons we may not have had a global refugee crisis. America has kept the peace pretty much everywhere but the middle east, and even there, I'd wager that Saudi Arabia would have nukes by now were it not for the American presence in the region.
- pjc50 7y agoRussia made it quite clear that they would defend the Assad regime, and ending that was the only way to realistically end the refugee crisis. Turkey has stepped in to fight Russia in Syria instead. I'm not sure how many Russian aircraft NATO intervention would have been able to shoot down before Putin explicitly brought up the nuke threat? The US is currently quietly supporting Saudi Arabi in their war against the Houthis.
- 3pt14159 7y agoAgain, hard to say with counterfactuals. Obama made the red line quite clear and he backed down anyway. In my view, Russia isn't going to start a nuclear war because they lost a few servicepersons in a unimportant regional ally.
- yyyk 7y agoThat's post-Oct. 2015 at best. Before that, there was no direct Russian involvement and plenty of time for NATO to intervene.
- fit2rule 7y agoNATO didn't step in, because Syria didn't use chemical weapons.
- 3pt14159 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_chemical_weapons_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_chemical_weapons_in_the...
- hutzlibu 7y agoBut it is not really proven, that Assads troups did use it. (which was probablyop's point). They knew, that chemical weapons could lead to an international intervention like in libya. So what would be the benefit, when they had air superiority anyway? The rebel groups on the other hand would have profited very much from international intervention, so they could have an motive to stage it. And since ISIS and alike rose from the rebels, there surely were many cynical enough to do this "for the greater cause".
- fit2rule 7y agoIt is not proven that Assad did it. But it is proven that the West used this lie to justify committing yet more atrocities in Syria.
- fit2rule 7y ago"Lets move on from whether this is fact or not ..." https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/confirmed-chemical-weapons-assessment-contradicting-official-syria-narrative-is-authentic-fbcbf7ef281a https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/confirmed-chemical-weapon...
- Udik 7y ago> If Nato had stepped in after Syria used chemical weapons we may not have had a global refugee crisis. Let me give my point of view: if NATO countries had avoided supporting, training, financing and arming the "rebels", the war would have been over in six months- it probably wouldn't even have started. The refugees, the destroyed cities and the hundreds of thousands of deaths are fully on the conscience of the West.
- mcguire 7y agoA stable military dictatorship is the preferred form of government.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoNATO has no issues with military dictatorships as long as they support NATO, it is the form of government arming and training rebels would likely create.
- pjc50 7y agoAt least one of the rebel factions was islamist - ISIS and Al Quaeda. They were armed by the abandoned weapon dumps of Iraq. If the war had been over in 6 months it could only have been so by genocide.
- dang 7y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22452815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22452815