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These maps provide a genneral look at the military situation in Syria in June 2015 and in September 2019. The Russian military operation in the country started in late September 2015 and turned the tide of the war.
Map Comparison: Military Situation In Syria In June 2015 And September 2019
The Russians turned the tide of the war? Trump turned the tide of the war!
I agree with you, close to the end of 2017 when he first told the Kurds he wanted to pull out [more than 6 months before the official announcement], that’s my first thankyou date, the Kurds sent more than 50 delegations to begin negotiations with the Syrian government straight after that announcement. And then from June 2018 Trump was one of the main people to turn the tide of war in Assad’s favour, by 1, green lighting the Daraa,Quneitra campaign, 2, sacking the FSA, and 3, saying Assad can remain in power, and he’s still saying it, although sadly many people still wrongly believe Trump still wants Assad out, but the Truth is Trump’s quite happy to put up with Assad, it’s Erdogan he’s actually trying to get rid of now. I’m surprised the airstrikes by Trump against 40 terrorist leaders in Idlib didn’t open up a few more people’s eyes, we had 3 or 4 months of Erdogan begging the US, UN, NATO, and EU help to stop the SAA assault in Idlib, and there were no airstrikes from any of them to help him stop the SAA, but as soon as there’s a ceasefire enforced by Putin to help Erdogan’s plight and harm Assad’s aspirations, Trump sends in a jet to bomb the very people Erdogan wants the US to help save, talk about missing the glaringly obvious, I think most of them are still stuck in the Obama era and can’t escape it. At the moment I can honestly say Trump’s doing more to help Assad than Putin himself is, and that’s been true for 2 weeks now. This 2015 map shows us the period just before the SAA and Russia began to concentrate on Isis, all the dark areas are mostly all Isis held territory, and the north eastern areas are now held by the US, but it was Putin who allowed Isis to invade from Iraq in the first place, his mismanagement caused the territory to fall the way it did so easily, so even though Putin did help liberate most of the dark areas we see on the map, it’s his fault they became dark in the first place, and he only liberated a third of the territory he lost originally because the US and Turkey managed to swindle the other third. They should have also included a map of Syria from december 2014, that way everyone could see just exactly how Putin lost most of the dark coloured territory to Isis in the first place, by stupidly not listening to his own military commanders advice, and he still doesn’t. I know I’m preaching to the already converted by replying to your post, but my post isn’t expressly for you parsee, it’s more intentionally reinforcing what you said in your comment with some extra info, because I know you’ll probably get some slack for making it, and I think if you do it’ll be misguided, so I’ve put up some alternate facts for the possible detracters to also choke on. Great comment, and with no offence intended, also a foolishly brave but honest assessment, good on you for being brave enough to make it, cheers.
Kurds are American puppets, they are stupid jokes.
The Kurds are a diverse group and not all alike, the ALF in Tall Rif At are pro Assad and totally anti US so they’re not stupid jokes at all, and some Kurds are even pro Turkish, so saying they’re all stupid American puppets is like saying all Germans were Nazi’s.
But they are occupaying 25% of Syria land, and maybe USA can give it to Turkey (NATO member).
Two and a half years ago the SDF had about 40 to 45,000 Kurds serving in the army with no other ethnic groups in the ranks, today we have about 60 to 65,000 SDF fighters but only between 30 to 35,000 of them are Kurds, all the rest are Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minority groups, so when you say SDF Kurds nowadays, you’re only talking about half or less of the total SDF force. My point being there are less Kurds in the SDF now than there are other ethnic groups, so it’s not 100% accurate to say the Kurds alone occupy the land on behalf of the US, there are other ethnic/religious/political groups just as culpable as the Kurds are for doing the US’s dirty work. And the Kurds that have already left the SDF are either joining the self defence units in Al Hasakah and Ar Raqqah [totally independent but slightly pro Assad and slightly anti US], or joining the ALF in Aleppo, in Assad’s SAA held territory [completely pro Assad and completely anti US], so not all Kurds are pro US, they’re getting to the point where it’s getting close to 50/50 now for support, as to dislike, the US wins out there, more Kurds dislike the US than dislike Assad now, due to Trump constantly telling them to negotiate with Assad because he wants to get out of Syria, he first told them way back in jan 2018 long before the official announcement. And the ALF are best fighters in Syria by far now, they kill 50 Turks and proxies for every one of their own they lose, and for the last 5 months they’ve been totally relentless in Aleppo, whenever the SAA comes to a standstill in Idlib due to ceasefires or standstills, the ALF Kurds always take up the slack in Aleppo and increase their own activities. So between the SAA in Idlib and the ALF in Aleppo, Erdogan hasn’t been able to get a minutes respite over the last 4 to 5 months, the ALF have gotten nearly as many if not just as many refugees [anti Assad pro Erdogan civilians] fleeing to Turkey as the SAA have, and fleeing refugees will win the war for Assad. Assad hasn’t said one bad thing about them either, and why should he, they’re trying just as hard as the SAA is to kick the Turks out of Syria, and they’re also taking a lot of heat off of the SAA in Idlib everytime they launch one of their own assaults, so I’m sure Assad’s more than happy the ALF Kurds are doing the same thing to the Turks in Aleppo, as the SAA is doing to the Turks in Idlib, two battlefront’s are always better than one. Trump wants out of Syria but can’t leave while the Turks are still there, so if he was going to help Erdogan in any way at all, he would have already done it. But he hasn’t done one thing to help Erdogan yet, only a few things to hurt him, he bombed 40 terrorist leaders in Idlib during Erdogan’s ceasefire, and then offered a 5 mill reward each for 3 of their prominent leaders, but what’s even worse is the fact Trump’s still refusing Erdogan permission to set up his 60 km safe zone, where he wants to resettle the Syrian refugees he’s being flooded with, safe zone has 2 different meanings for Erdogan and Trump, read some Turkish news to get an idea what I mean. Trump wants Erdogan out of political office, all the numerous sanctions the US has imposed against Turkey now are for that express purpose alone, and the fact the EU and NATO haven’t done a thing to help Erdogan’s plight in Idlib [only Russia and Iran helped], means they’re all happy to see him go now, so I don’t think Trump’s ever going to allow the Turks into north east Syria, and to be honest I think he’s eventually going to force both Assad and the Kurds to come to a compromise, that will make neither of them very happy but at least not miserable either.
When you wrote that Trump wanted to go out of Syria, it made laugh so much. Oh yes, Trump wants to go out of Afganistan, out of Irak, out of Syria, out of Yemen, out of Cuba blocked, he wants also to remove his nuclear weapons from Europe, Turkey, and Japan,…..what else the good guy does he want to do ?
Trump does want to get out of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, I don’t know what news you read but all of the ones I read are all talking about a virtual civil war going on in US politics. All the experts bar none are all saying that Trump’s on one side of the war and all the warhawks on the other side, and the same experts are all saying Trumps doing everything he can to get out of all the costly wars the US is involved in, and also saying the NEOCON warhawks are doing everything they can to keep him involved in the costly wars. So which news are you reading that says anything different, please link the site for me to have look at, because it would be the only news site in the whole wide world that’s saying Trump really wants to stay in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, every single other site is saying he wants out, and also providing plenty of material to validate their assertions. You do realize that both Israel and the US have been saying Assad can remain in power since June last year, before that they were saying the same thing Erdogan is still says, Assad has to go. Whens Trump going to invade Venezuela, will it be next week or the week after, I’m sure you’d know since you’re so well versed in what Trump’s intentions really are.
they stopped saying Assad must go after it became too obvious that instead of him losing (as Washington regime was saying in 2013-2015), the tide turned from Oct 2015 Russian arrival, and “Assad must go” slowly became a joke…it only was a matter of time how long it took Washington to face the truth. It took them several years, but the trend was already visible during the fall of 2015, and soon after Aleppo was won back. They might as well say that “Ayatollahs can stay” or “Maduro can stay”.
They stopped saying Assad had to go after the Arab League nations realized once Assad was gone the Muslim Brotherhood would take his place, Israel realized it too. Both Israel and the Arab league hate the Muslim Brotherhood, so they chose to stick with the devil they knew and tried to negotiate with Assad, and the process is still ongoing. Israel exclusively bombs Iranian assets in Syria and tries to avoid Syrian Government Assets for a good reason.
No they didn’t win the election fair and square, the media was opposed to Trump all the way, lies, innuendo, and the omissions of facts, all helped Trump lose unfairly. But he’s changed things forever even if he did lose, the Republican party will now remold themselves in his image. No more unnecessary foreign wars from the republican party.
Trump wanted to pull out what?
Don’t you read the news. Trump just bombed 40 of Erdogan’s head choppers in Idlib just after Erdogan managed to con Putin into enforcing a ceasefire to help calm down the refugee exodus, Then he offers a 5 mill reward for each of 3 more terrorist leaders, which will help to cause even more problems for the terrorists, their families and their supreme leader Erdogan, so who’s actually helping Assad get the refugees moving north into Turkey now, Trump with his precision strike on 40 terrorist leaders and his 15 mill reward for other leaders, or Putin with his ares licking ceasefire that stopped the SAA dead in their tracks, who actually helping and who’s actually hindering. You missed 2 years of very interesting history Tommy.
it’s Putin’s fault they became dark areas in the first place? That is too far, way too far. Once Russia got involved and added to Iran-Hezbollah, the tide turned in the opposite direction, from Oct 2015 onwards, maps show this. And they regained more lands in Idlib again, killing a number of Turks and Erdogan now has to fulfill agreement and Russia now patrols in Idlib province (but further north/west than at first agreed) after Feb 2020 SAA advance, and in Raqqa, not to mention Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo have been freed from jihadist occupation. Thanks to Iran, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shi’a, and SAA, and Russia. It was a team effort because they were up against a coalition of Western and Saudi-Turkish backed terrorists.
There shouldn’t have been a tide to turn in the first place, Putin’s top commanders said they wanted to put boots on the ground while the uprising was still in it’s early stages, but Putin said no it was an internal dispute the Syrians could sort out themselves. And then Isis arrived, and then the US arrived, and then Turkey arrived, and then after all that Putin finally turned the tide, but it was way too late. A stitch in time saves nine, the Russian generals knew that back in 2011 but Putin didn’t, now Turkey and the US both occupy huge chunks of Syria.
Once Russia arrived in October 2015, SAA stopped retreating and started regaining lands slowly and steadily. By the time Trump took power in early 2017 the momentum has already swung.
All this thanks to Russia. Thank you dear Russia.
All thanks to Russia, what about Iran and Hezbollah and the brave SAA soldiers who had to face Isis on the front lines. Go have a look at a map from 2014, it was Russia that let Isis break into Syria and turn the map dark in the first place, the Russians shouldn’t have allowed Isis to gain a foothold in Syria at all, and because Russia failed to stop Isis as they so easily could have, the US and Turkey got the perfect excuse to invade as well. You can praise Putin for a miserable failure if you want to, but history won’t be anywhere near as kind as you are, military analysts in the future will probably say this was Russia’s most ineffective military campaign in modern Russian history. This ceasefire Putin’s just put in place to try to save Erdogan skin is the perfect example, Assad and the SAA were so close to a total victory in Idlib and Putin pulls the pin on it during the final hours, thanks Putin, thanks for NOTHING.
Without Russia, this would be all dark up until now.
If Assad had agreed to the Saudi/Qatar, gas and oil pipeline venture into the EU there wouldn’t have been a war at all. Assad stated the reason he refused the Saudi/Qatari offer was because he didn’t want to help destroy Russia’s EU oil and gas market share and deprive them of valuable revenue. So as much as you may believe Assad owes Putin something, it’s the other way around, Putin owes Assad, Assad saved Putin’s arse by refusing the Saudi offer, it would have deprived Russia of at least 30% of their total revenue stream at the time if Assad agreed to that proposal. You should check out how many attempts were made by the US/Israel and the EU to break Russia’s monopoly between 2006 and 2010, the French alone came up with dozens of proposals. If Assad had taken up the offer to facilitate a Saudi/Qatari oil/gas venture there wouldn’t have been a war in Syria at all, and Syria would have been wealthy beyond imagination now, all the transit fees they would have been able to charge to their EU customers would have meant Assad could have paved every single street in Syria with gold, I’ll say that again in case you think I’m joking, Assad could have paved every single street in Syria with gold. You may be too young to remember but I’m not, Assad’s the one who saved Putin first, and Putin hasn’t done enough to repay him by a long shot.
Blahblah blah. Pull your head out from your assumptions.
You may not have grown up through this era and may just been a toddler, but I’ve followed this war from the time before it was even a war, all the way back to 2007, long before 2011 when most ignorant people think it really started [bullets and bombs don’t really start wars], and I can even go back to 2005/6 in Russia, and say the first signs of a Syrian uprising were being brewed all the way back then, at least as an alternative to a successful Saudi/Qatari pipeline into the EU. I made not one assumption, only provided facts. I think you made a mistake, you accidentally liked my comment, LOL.
Oh, please, give me a break.
Why do you want a break can’t you handle the truth.
Because you spread lies. So be kind and give me a break. If you know what does it means.
I haven’t lied, your just incapable of understanding the truth, and everytime you say something like “Without Russia, this would be all dark up until now”, it’s my moral duty to contradict that lie and tell the whole truth, not just spread Putin’s self serving propaganda like you do.
Four years of “intense ” war and Syria-Russia-Hezbolah-Iran have not been able to get rid of all the terrorists in Syria and Syria has still lost 45% of its land, this is the pessimist point of vies. The optkmiest point of view is : hey look how incredible Syria has been recovered from almost total lost of its territoy, thanks to Russia-Hezbolah-Iran. hard to me to choose a point of view since during the WWII Russia (URRS) defeated totally Germany and Japan (Manchuria) in four years and recovered TOTALLY its land.
Easy. In WW2 USSR was on the side of the Americans (and international bankers) and was massively supplied by the US with military and civilian aid right till the end of the war. Syria is opposed by the US (and the international bankers) with economic and military sanctions against it by most of the developed world and the rich Gulf monarchies and neighbouring israel. In other words, Syria has conducted this liberation of its lands under the most extreme privations, under which a weaker nation would have folded in a couple of years. In 2015 many thought that even Russian help would make no material difference. Destroyed Syria was supposed to provide cheap oil and massive business for the western klepto-capitalists, but their successful struggle has put all that in confusion. Western economies are partly in trouble because of the failure in Syria. Klepto-capitalist attack on Iran is not viable now. In the future we will say that in Syria everything changed.
True, but the heavy contribution by SAA, Hezbollah and Iran must not be forgotten. Russia tipped the balance, but the heroes on the ground (also Russians) did the hard job.
true that!
I agree that Syria, with Iran-Hezbollah-Iraqi Shi’as, and finally decisive Russian arrival made an imminent loss turn into a victory and destroyed Western-Saudi plans. Yes. Team work!
PS
But a minor note: I don’t think USSR was “on US side”. Soviet Union was invaded by Germany (which already merged with Austria, Czech lands and industries, and a million of added axis forces, totaling 3.5 mil and rising to 4 million during fall 1941 ) prior to US involvement, especially during the crucial 1941. US aid began to arrive later, and mostly went to Britain. It represented around 5% in Soviet production. Soviets produced more tanks and SPGs and artillery pieces than anybody and outproduced Germany. US did help later, mostly in trucks, food, and aircraft (though Il-2 and Yak and Migs were mass produced by the Soviets). Stalin wanted to stay out and harness Soviet strength…but Hitler had other plans. It ended up that US was able to stay out until the later stages, after Nazis were defeated at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk.
All this thanks to the United States and its Nato 60 countries Inherent Resolve Coalition of the Willing to Freedom and its decisive fight against terrorism and totalitarian regime changes. US rooted out the filth on the Yellow East side of Syria which today is a free country Kurdistan, Israel the second. We helped the Syrians to get controle of its Western flank rooting out all terrorists from ISIS, while Putin and Assad only contributed with bombing civilians and moderate freedom rebels who refused to vote for dictatorship. Thank you America for your help, thank you for the dollares and thank you for the bubble gum to our kids.
what happened to your brain?