4 ms·

> Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa[g] ... has served as the president of Syria since 2025. > Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from the Gola

by roenxi 2mo ago

> Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa[g] ... has served as the president of Syria since 2025. > Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from the Golan Heights, he grew up in Syria's capital, Damascus. Al-Sharaa joined al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and fought for two years in the Iraqi insurgency. From 2005 to 2011, he was captured and imprisoned by American and Iraqi forces. His release coincided with the onset of the Syrian revolution against the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, with the support of al-Qaeda's central command, al-Sharaa founded Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as al-Nusra Front, to depose the Assad regime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa#Split_from_al-Qaeda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa#Split_from_al-... You have to jog to keep up with politics in the Middle East.

cucumber3732842 2mo ago
I'm sure his CIA handlers showed him an ominous powerpoint of all the Taliban officials circa 2001 and where they are now (hint: basically all dead) and made it quite clear that you don't screw around too much externally if you want to keep your job. That whole region is a real fucking shame. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, they all could've been doing at least as well as Turkey if history had taken a different path.
- Jamesbeam 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - iamnothere 2mo ago
    [dead]
  - cucumber3732842 2mo ago
    Ok Ben Shaprio. It takes a "highly inclusive" definition of honesty to spew an appeal to political nuance out of one side of your mouth while simultaneously claiming that because this guy comes from a particular political/religious background he must be bad news. Clearly he's done a lot to stabilize the situation and consolidate power. That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap. Regardless of how bad this guy's politics are I see no reason to care that some sandbox on the literal other side of the world, one that is particularly irrelevant to the economic interests of my nation, is headed by bad people with values I disagree with. Of course the US peddles war. That's part and parcel with being the global reserve currency. If some half baked islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
    - Jamesbeam 2mo ago
      I throw punches, I can take some, cowboy. >That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap. Well, about that. I have not seen a single man sentenced to death after Islamic law for any of the crimes they committed last year. He might not pull the trigger himself any longer, doesn’t mean he’s less responsible for the ISIS shit happening under his reign. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacr... >If some half-baked Islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability, that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard, they can whack him and they can own the quagmire. Fair point. But at how many innocent souls do you draw the line?
      - cucumber3732842 2mo ago
        Given the choice between Tito and the Yugoslav wars everyone would take Tito every time. These sorts of people are Dollar General Tito. I'm perfectly happy to concede that this guy and his cronies are "bad" and rule with an iron fist and that will cause much bloodshed and suffering. But who isn't in that region? A brutal dictator or theocracy is still better than a slow burn (so like car bombs and AKs not ATGMs and DShk's) religious or civil war. I don't think the US should be picking sides in these things except in the most obvious and undeniable cases of national interest (and even then I'd rather not, see for example Vietnam). Sell arms to everyone with the money or nobody. My default position is that American interests are best served by commerce, all dollars are green no matter who you are.
        Jamesbeam 2mo ago
        You speak like you’ve done your research, made your mind up, and are confident in your conclusion. I respect that, and I would be stupid trying to convince you of something else, because you’re not wrong. We have common ground and both agree that this is a baddie. I am happy with that. The rest is just a difference in problem solving. How do we deal with the baddie? We both can put a steak on the grill and have awesome steak, even if we would call each other crazy for how the other one might do the grilling. I am happy I don’t have to make the decision how we deal with the baddies. Something we probably can agree on as well. It’s always easy to mess with the coach if you’re just standing at the sideline with nothing to lose.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
MachineMan 2mo ago
Most of IS is now in Europe. Thanks USA.
- Argonaut998 2mo ago
  Europe’s own fault for not protecting their borders.
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
lenkite 2mo ago
Al'Qaeda head-chopper with a $10 million bounty on him will obviously be the Trump/Israel favorite - as it keeps Syria unstable. And they can revert the stay of execution and bomb Syria anytime they like. Might want to read this: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/syria-army-commander-women-abuse-as-equals-intl-invs/ https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/syria-army-comm...

by roenxi 2mo ago

cucumber3732842 2mo ago

I'm sure his CIA handlers showed him an ominous powerpoint of all the Taliban officials circa 2001 and where they are now (hint: basically all dead) and made it quite clear that you don't screw around too much externally if you want to keep your job. That whole region is a real fucking shame. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, they all could've been doing at least as well as Turkey if history had taken a different path.

Jamesbeam 2mo ago
[flagged]
- iamnothere 2mo ago
  [dead]
- cucumber3732842 2mo ago
  Ok Ben Shaprio. It takes a "highly inclusive" definition of honesty to spew an appeal to political nuance out of one side of your mouth while simultaneously claiming that because this guy comes from a particular political/religious background he must be bad news. Clearly he's done a lot to stabilize the situation and consolidate power. That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap. Regardless of how bad this guy's politics are I see no reason to care that some sandbox on the literal other side of the world, one that is particularly irrelevant to the economic interests of my nation, is headed by bad people with values I disagree with. Of course the US peddles war. That's part and parcel with being the global reserve currency. If some half baked islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
  - Jamesbeam 2mo ago
    I throw punches, I can take some, cowboy. >That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap. Well, about that. I have not seen a single man sentenced to death after Islamic law for any of the crimes they committed last year. He might not pull the trigger himself any longer, doesn’t mean he’s less responsible for the ISIS shit happening under his reign. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacr... >If some half-baked Islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability, that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard, they can whack him and they can own the quagmire. Fair point. But at how many innocent souls do you draw the line?
    - cucumber3732842 2mo ago
      Given the choice between Tito and the Yugoslav wars everyone would take Tito every time. These sorts of people are Dollar General Tito. I'm perfectly happy to concede that this guy and his cronies are "bad" and rule with an iron fist and that will cause much bloodshed and suffering. But who isn't in that region? A brutal dictator or theocracy is still better than a slow burn (so like car bombs and AKs not ATGMs and DShk's) religious or civil war. I don't think the US should be picking sides in these things except in the most obvious and undeniable cases of national interest (and even then I'd rather not, see for example Vietnam). Sell arms to everyone with the money or nobody. My default position is that American interests are best served by commerce, all dollars are green no matter who you are.
      - Jamesbeam 2mo ago
        You speak like you’ve done your research, made your mind up, and are confident in your conclusion. I respect that, and I would be stupid trying to convince you of something else, because you’re not wrong. We have common ground and both agree that this is a baddie. I am happy with that. The rest is just a difference in problem solving. How do we deal with the baddie? We both can put a steak on the grill and have awesome steak, even if we would call each other crazy for how the other one might do the grilling. I am happy I don’t have to make the decision how we deal with the baddies. Something we probably can agree on as well. It’s always easy to mess with the coach if you’re just standing at the sideline with nothing to lose.
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]

MachineMan 2mo ago

Most of IS is now in Europe. Thanks USA.

Argonaut998 2mo ago
Europe’s own fault for not protecting their borders.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

lenkite 2mo ago

Al'Qaeda head-chopper with a $10 million bounty on him will obviously be the Trump/Israel favorite - as it keeps Syria unstable. And they can revert the stay of execution and bomb Syria anytime they like. Might want to read this: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/syria-army-commander-women-abuse-as-equals-intl-invs/ https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/syria-army-comm...