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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Putin's response to the scores, or even hundreds of Russian soldiers coming back from Ukraine in bodybags or with lifelong injuries was to say "There are no Russian troops in Ukraine." Later he may have amended that to "If there were any there, they went of their own volition, and we had nothing to do with it."
Unless you personally were involved or are part of the family of someone involved, why would you believe otherwise? Putin is incredibly popular, and because no one believes that anyone else can do his job, people who don't believe him won't say or act on it because without Putin the overwhelming majority of Russia believes they will return to the absolute bugfuck chaos that was the 90s.
Meanwhile, all the major news outlets are mouthpieces for the government, and those that try to be independent have had a history of the state forcefully taking over the company and kicking out the original owners, their employees being harassed or killed, etc.
In Moscow there's some (mostly powerless) resistance to Putin, but most of the rest of Russia looks at Moscow the way a resentful backwoods red stater looks at a combination of New York, Hollywood, and the most snobby rich people's vacation/retreat spot combined.
Putin doesn't have to do a goddamn thing, or worry about much in the way of opposition or backlash. If those things ever truly welled up across Russia, things will have gone so badly either for the country or the entire world (think 3 way war between US, China and Russia) that it'll be academic anyway.
edited 6th Apr '17 8:13:44 PM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |It's going to be a rough time in Russia when Putin finally dies. Presumably in his sleep, for the same reason as Teddy Roosevelt.
Anyway, Tillerson's contradictory statements can be accounted for with the fact that he doesn't actually know what he's doing, or what the US stance towards Syria actually was before he took the position. Remember, the state department has been gutted since the Trump administration started.
That'd work if this was 2004; we are now in 2017, when the Public is not only sick of War, but are vehemently against going into new ones. Trump also promised to not do things like this, and apparently, R/The_Donald is freaking out over it.
Plus, this sounds like a one time thing; for someone who's supposed to be a Strongman, it's incredibly weak to only attack a nation once. I thought Trump was trying to get the Neocons to love him; turns out this was a spur of the moment thing that only will piss off everyone and make no one happy. If anything, this stunt will over all make Trump more hated, and less likely to make him win 2020.
edited 6th Apr '17 8:14:32 PM by DingoWalley1
Nah. The hardcore Trump-supporters are starting to froth at the mouth about this.
The leader of the alt-right( Richard Spencer), one of the leaders of the Freedom Caucus( Rand Paul), Ann Coulter , /pol and The_Donald are starting to froth at the mouth and screaming at him for this.
Hell, Stormfronters are starting to call him Trump the traitor and talking about burning their Trump shirts.
This is his base.
The only people that attacking Assad scores points with are the people that already despise him.
Assad's not going to change his stripes as long as he thinks Russia still has his back. And they won't ditch him over this since he's pretty much their only ally in the region. He needs them and they need him even if they're sick of his shit. It's a toxic codependent relationship not unlike the one between China and North Korea.
This strike isn't going to accomplish a damn thing other than making Syria even less stable.
edited 6th Apr '17 8:19:04 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedI firmly believe that they're just making it up as they go along.
I wouldn't surprised if tomorrow we see motions to remove Assad from power, or if we see attempts to smooth over relations like this was a hit-and-run.
They were in the "Hillary will go to war with Syria and Russia and start World War 3!" camp (along with left-leaning friends of mine, which frustrated me significantly).
edited 6th Apr '17 8:20:18 PM by Eschaton
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It's not entirely clear to me that Russia still has Assad's back 100%; they aren't happy about him using the chemical weapons they were responsible for making sure he didn't have, which is a major loss of face for the Kremlin, and Russia threw a major diplomatic bone to Israel right before this took place, so it might very well be that they're prepared to let Assad get burnt for sticking his hand into the fire.
edited 6th Apr '17 8:22:23 PM by CaptainCapsase
I've checked. /pol is overreacting and talking about WWIII and the Jews tricking Trump.
The_Donald which is filled with self-denying sexists/racists/homophobes are trying to take more of a wait and see approach but they're very displeased. Hardly anyone is defending it though. They're more surprised than hating on Trump atm.
Stormfront which is filled with hard-core racists and is more David Duke's baby has basically written Trump off as a Zionist puppet for the Jews and are blaming Kushner and his influence. They see Bannon's demotion as a pivot to sell out.

Is Trump playing everybody like a damn fiddle at the moment, guys? I need to know...
The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.