Very heartening developments:
As heartening as russian collapse in Syria I don’t understand the players or the goals there at all (and so never comment on it. The downside is I keep hearing things that make the now winning side seem Islamist and I do hope what comes next does not crush the religious minorities of that country (as has happened everywhere else political Islam takes over).
Under-appreciated aspect: I’ve seen a suggestion that Turkey was unhappy with russian treatment of Crimean Tatars and that Iran helping russia was the last straw and has played a role in the current counter-offensive against the russian-Assad axis.
Have no idea if that’s true but it’s food for thought.
I don’t know anything about the region either. My hope this will weaken Russia and Iran but I have no idea what the prospects are in Syria itself or why it’s such a mess. All I know about Syria is that they have the best food on the planet and people are often shockingly good-looking. They should be having a very different kind of life with such great gifts.
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By the way, did you see the Russian calendar with Syrian beauties thanking Russians for their happy lives?
https://www.euronews.com/2016/12/15/syrian-women-thank-russian-soldiers-in-controversial-calendar
It’s from 2016. I wonder what next year’s calendar will look like.
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“They should be having a very different kind of life with such great gifts”
They also had an extreme, very extreme, population explosion, they more than doubled their population in 30 years (1980-2010) which seems… kind of extreme and the kind of thing that would lead to conflicts over limited resources.
I don’t know if that’s a factor in their current condition or not.
Wow, that’s interesting. I wonder why that happened.
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May turn into something like Lybia – multiple forever warring factions.
I am not even sure kicking Russia out of there is a good thing. It was a drain on Russian resources, and now there will be less drain.
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It’s not possible to exhaust Russian human and military resources in under 30 years. But their psychological resources might be more finire.
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“They should be having a very different kind of life with such great gifts”
Apparently they raided Moscow night clubs again Friday night with hundreds of young men taken away probably to die in a ditch in Ukraine.
And supposedly russian women are using search engines to find out how to send their husbands to war….
Everything in russia now seems so insane and dysfunctional that it’s hard to put into words…
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N showed me yesterday sad poetry by Russian men who realize that their families are eager for them to die in war in order to receive the cash payout. The artistic quality is nil but it’s interesting that the genre exists.
Here’s one sample:
Пришла в военкомат повестка…
Лежу и слышу как жена Со всей семьёю делит шкуру
В бою убитого меня.
Жена и тёща подгоняют – Иди скорей в военкомат!
Рюкзак мне старый собирают, Буханку, кружку, доширак.
Не вздумай в плен сдаваться! И без вести не пропади! Чтоб труп оформили как надо!
Чтобы гробовые нам пришли! Ну шутка ли, семь миллионов!
Мы купим всё, что захотим! Кредиты наши все закроем!
А летом все поедем в Крым!
Жена кричит: куплю машину! Сынишка хочет самокат, А тестю – новую теплицу И самогонный аппарат.
И тесть кричит – ты будь героем! В атаку первым там иди!
И тут я наконец-то понял, Как много значу для семьи.
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How much are they paid for a death, and how much is the average yearly income?
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1 USD = 100 RUB
Average salary 73000/month i.e. 700 USD per month
Death pay 7M (70K USD) advertised but there were multiple complaints that families were getting less.
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I’ve watched enough social media videos where happy, bubbly moms share what great purchases they’ve made since their husband and / or son were killed in action. “My youngest is 13, and I hope he comes of age before the military operation ends” say giggling, joyful moms.
These developments gave a lot of new converts to the Russian men’s rights movement.
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apparently, recently it got up to 11M (110,000 USD) in some cases. Probably run out of the cheaper soldiers. Not that it changes the moral aspect of it.
Soviet and by extension Russian society got very materialistic despite all the Soviet socialist propaganda… Yes, they are poor, but in some societies people are poor but have generally positive outlook and are on average psychologically healthy. Not Russia.
Another factor is that some women want to get rid of their abusive or alcoholic husbands…
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Totally. That’s why I emigrated. The materialism was too much for me. Ukraine moved on from that since then but Russia clearly didn’t.
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This man is now in charge of Syria, with the full backing of the US. But hey, it’s good for Israel, so who cares if Syrian christians get massacred?
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This was going to happen sooner or later. Assad was Obama’s project. One of his many subservient gestures towards Russia. Once Obama (and his puppets) are out, Obama’s world order cracks because it was always a fake.
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Assad was president of Syria when Obama was not even a member of congress. Please.
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But he managed to remain in power because it was convenient for Obama. Assad’s role was to justify millions of migrants unleashed on Europe in 2015. He fulfilled that role.
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But he managed to remain in power because it was convenient for Obama.
That’s a weird opinion. Aren’t you always talking about how it’s a LEFTIST talking point that the US is omnipotent? And now you’re saying that Assad could only hang on to power because of the benevolence of an american president.
If that’s the case, one can then argue that every regime in the middle east, including Israel, holds on to its power because of america. Ok, sure.
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It’s absolutely true that Israel only exists because the US is supporting it. I didn’t think this was in dispute.
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This also officially spells the death of the idea that we need to support Israel because it’s them vs radical islamists, civilization vs savagery blah blah. Israel has zero problem nurturing radical islam and it surely must be obvious by now.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/world/middleeast/israel-demilitarized-zone-syria.html
Israeli ground forces have overtly crossed into Syrian territory for the first time since the 1973 October War
Invading other countries is fine now, guys.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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