Syria has been in the Russian sphere for many decades. Russia has a large naval base there, has installed their most advanced and high altitude S400 plus S300 anti-aircraft missiles there, and have put a notable aircraft presence in Syria, plus the region is within range of Russia long range conventional missiles. Russian aircraft have been blasting both ISIS facilities and equipment, plus anti-Syrian government forces. Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio and a couple other Republicans (Carson? Christie?) all have vowed to they will declare Syria a "no-fly zone." Paul of course is against it (sorry I left him off the poll, don't remember about Kasich). Clinton and Rubio's goal is to overthrow the Syrian government, apparently, despite that the Syrian government is fighting to keep ISIS from taking over the country. Sanders, Trump and Cruz have declared they would NOT involve the USA in Syria's civil war, and Trump further has said he's just fine with Russia keeping Syria and attacking ISIS. A "no fly zone" means American F16s and F-18s would be dodging Russian surface to air missiles to shot down Russian military aircraft and Russian civilian jetliners. Do you agree with Clinton and Rubio that we should shoot down Russian aircraft over Syria? Or agree with Sanders, Trump and Cruz we should stay out of it? I see THIS issue as more revealing about the candidates than ANY other issue of the election. In terms of military, foreign and war policies, this tells us whether the candidate is nor is not a warhawk establishment candidate. That's my opinion anyway.
I could be wrong but we've already destabilized Iraq, Libya, and possibly Egypt. That's why ISIS is such a problem. Dictators seem to be the only way the mideast countries can function. So, I'm with Trump, Cruz and Sanders on this one. Leave Assad alone and help Putin kill ISIS. Besides, many Syrians support Assad, or at least prefer him to civil war. We should probably retake and help stabilize Iraq and maybe Libya, and wipe out ISIS there. Man I hate putting our good military in harms way, though.
If IDF doesn't do this [there is a military cooperation between Russian Air Force and Israel about this ...] I cannot imagine why a US politician should plan such an absurdity ... if not for Machiavellian purposes [and this explains why malicious and Machiavellian Hillary could endorse such a policy ...].
Syria is not worth getting into a shooting war with Russia over. Amazingly there seems to be a lot of people who think it is worth it.
I don't think any US prez has the authority to go declaring a "no-fly zone" over Syria. Why do we act like the world's government? It's terribly imperialistic of us.
The US and Russia are not going to fight a war. It would lead to nothing but death and destruction on a level that hasn't been seen since the Second World War. Even in these maddening times, it's not that bad yet.
If someone in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon is crazy enough and yearning for WW III, do it. However, I really hope there is some sense left in the Washington.
Since Syria is a sovereign nation and Asad the legitimate President of Syria, has Asad approved allowing the USA to fly in it's airspace ? I'm pretty sure that Russia has approval of the legitimate government of Syria to fly in it's airspace but not to sure about the U.S.
Agreed. This all remains political and "news" media hype and theater. It keeps us little ants busy fearing, worrying and arguing, and out of Big Government's hair.
There once was a warhawk general in the Clinton administration who was in command of NATO forces during the Kosovo war. I believe his name was Gen. Wesley Clark. Well one day a British general dropped a dime on Wesley Clark and contacted Slick Willey between blowjobs in the Oval Office and told Bill, you have a general over here who is pissing off the Russians and wants to start World War lll. Bill trousers at the time happened to be down at his ankles so Bill looked at his balls and said to himself, "My cajones aren't big enough to fight WW lll." So President Clinton as CnC fired Gen. Wesley Clark to prevent WW lll. And they didn't even give Bill Clinton the Nobel Peace Prize !!! But Wesley Clark the liberal warhawk has become part of the Democrat establishment. He endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008 until the DNC threw Hillary under the bus then he endorsed a community organizer. If Hillary isn't sitting behind bars by this summer and I doubt she will be, you'll see Wesley Clark endorsing Hillary this summer at the DNC Convention.
