I guess we now know for sure that Russia is not our friend... I guess they believe socialism and terrorism is the answer.

Fear of new Mid East 'Cold War' as Syria strengthens military alliance with Russia - Times Online

Yeah, imagine that.

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This boils down to an enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Syria can get significant military backing from Russia this could be a big deal.

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How is this news or New, Russia has always been allied with Syria.

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Charles_Main

"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
Thomas Jefferson

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
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If Syria is looking to Russia for a big arms deal it could be big news. My guess is if this headline is true Israel is watching it closely.

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"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Thomas Paine

Look at what Military equipment Syria uses today, it is nearly all Russian. I still fail to see how this is anything new at all.

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Charles_Main

"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
Thomas Jefferson

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
Thomas Jefferson

It's not so much what military equipment they have as how much of it they have. If Syria is looking to Russia for an arms deal that involves offensive military hardware it could be Syria might be getting ready to take back their land in the Golan Heights.

Syria has been trying to establish a market based economy too so this might be just saber rattling . I doubt that they want to make too big a wave in the pond if they are serious about expanding trade with other countries.

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"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
P. J. O'Rourke

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Thomas Paine

They could try, but I suspect the outcome would be the usual one. Syria would get it's ass handed to it.

I tend to agree, I think this is just bluster. I doubt Syria will take any overt action against Israel. Especially not with the Israeli Government talking about handing the Golan over in a peace deal.

__________________
Charles_Main

"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
Thomas Jefferson

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
Thomas Jefferson

I haven't kept tabs on events in Syria for about a year now but the last I knew they were trying to attract foreign investors. It doesn't make much sense for them to build up offensive weapons which would be the threat, and a move that would make investors nervous.

__________________
"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
P. J. O'Rourke

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Thomas Paine

Syria is a Ba' athist authoritarian society with a middling economy based mostly on oil revenues.

Basically a single party state it is top heavy with a strong regional military and that's where most of this socialist nation's hard currency gets invested.



Relations with America have been strained for the last sixty years, starting, with Truman's recognition of Israel.

They were practically a client state of the former Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union fell, they took a less hard line stance against the USA, but they still support Hez'bullah. Pan Arabism is their official policy, but they are highly pragmatic.

They were the first nation to officially condemn the attack on WTC.

They openly supported Saddam against the USA

So now comes Russia. But this bear isn't hiberbnating, it's energized on petro-Euros.

Hence, Bashar Al-Asad finds chilling opportunities as the Cold War decents upon Damascus.

Actually, Syria has an issue with declining oil production (may be tapped out) and it combined with agriculture only make up about half of its GDP.

Anyway, I think a more appropriate analysis of what is happening here is that Russia has a problem with Georgia. Georgia has been getting arms from Israel. Syria has a problem with Israel. Nothing like getting the band back together.

Syria then becomes a proxy for Russia to put pressure on Israel when Russia doesn't like what Israel is doing on its border. Additionally, Syria can be a proxy to offset US influence in Iraq and provide some good old fashioned Soviet....er...Russian influence. Let's give the people a choice of imperialists. (Ah, the good old new days of bi-multi-polarity).

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Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. -- Ronald Reagan

Yup.

Looks like another case for providing our own oil/energy...

I agree. Russia, former USSR have backed Iran for years. Syria is an Iranian, thus ultimately Russian proxy. Nothing new:

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Syria, Iran and Russia Stir Up Trouble

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I wonder if we'll see an increase on Russian style rockets being fired onto Israel?

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