horse of george

"... why is Russia sending some warships to Syria?... I assume the Russians understand what the Western media seems incapable of grasping - there can be no peaceful or anything even remotely resembling peaceful resolution here... the Syrian military is an Alawite body - if they lose control [they're not gonna surrender it] the country will become Iraq 2005, except probably worse... since there is no exogenous military power that will or can step in to adjudicate the violence to come, the eventual 'endstate' here is highly open to influence... Russia knows China's ambitions stretch through Iran and Iran's ambitions stretch though Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean - if it wants to be a player in this game their 'influence' must lean Alawite... as to whether this strategy is anti-NATO per se, well... only in the sense that Putin's dream of a resurrected Soviet Russia is not served by allowing China to go unchallenged as the dominant regional player... there's just no road through NATO that gets Putin to where he wants to go..."