Assad gaining ground in Syrian civil war

Gaining ground? Yeah, just like how the army was supposed to crush the 'pockets of terrorist gangs' a couple of years ago.

 

Hogwash. Just because Saudi fighters want to help their brethren in Syria does not make it a Saudi invasion. Otherwise you will have to agree that Syria is being invaded by Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

 

How about you go to Aleppo and Ar-Raqqah and live there. I would like to see how you manage to live in cities under control of your "Wahhabi Saudi brethren". If you manage to come back, you will love Assad forever, I promise you

 

LOL no one "loves" Assad. Man your blatant propaganda for a know dictator and tyrant is absurd.

 

Go and live under your beloved Al Qaeda in Aleppo and Ar-Raqqah

 

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-islamists-seize-western-backed-rebel-bases-monitoring-151748326.html

Syrian Islamists seize Western-backed rebel bases: monitoring group​

BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian rebels from an Islamist alliance formed last month have occupied bases and warehouses belonging to a Western-backed rebel group on the Turkish border, rebels and activists said on Saturday.
Fighters from the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, took control of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) bases at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the northwestern border with Turkey late on Friday night, the opposition sources said.
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It seems the best hope for Syria is for Assad and the FSA to ally against foreign Islamist.



Moi

No ​

 

Everything is relative. In comparison to the alternatives in Syria, and for that matter almost all the Middle East, Assad is definitely preferred.

 

Hezbollah, Iran and Russia were invited by Assad to help them fight the foreign invaders. Big difference!

 

Good question, Jeanette.
The answer is, Yes. They financed his election and he owes them a piece of the action.

But, that isn't the whole story since the USA has been supporting various Wahabi terrorist groups since the 1980's at the least.
Go look at US support of Whahabi terrorists in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnia, etc., and you will see that we've been in bed with them a long time.
Sooner or later, they will demand that we please them 100% or they will impale us as the witches we have become.

 

Are you talking about Al-CIA-da or Al-MOSSAD-a?

 

Now why would I want to go to Aleppo or Ar-Raqqah? Do those who support the Syrian despot have to live in Damascus?

- - - Updated - - -

And the Rebels have accepted their brethren from outside Syria to fight alongside them.

 

Iran's Syrian Policy has many dimensions and it is based on now remaining of Assad at Power and remaining of Status Quo. Syria played a role for a long years for Iran to be threat to Israel and to build its Shiite Crescent Project. If Assad falls, then Iran will be lost side.

http://www.politicalanalysis.info/iran-syria-attitude.html

 

Syrian Army on the hunt for Al Qaeda. Anywhere in country. In any weather. No matter how difficult conditions.

 

http://rt.com/news/syria-rebel-commander-flees-099/
The top Western-backed commander of the opposition forces in Syria has been run out of the country by Islamist militants, US officials said Wednesday.

According to US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, Free Syrian Army General Salim Idris was forced to take flight.

This comes after the US and Britain announced Wednesday that they was freezing non-lethal aid to the opposition after radical militants from the Islamic Front took control of the Free Syrian Army’s bases in northern Syria.
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http://www.albawaba.com/news/syria-fsa-rebel-539816

Syria’s largest Islamist rebel group seized another crossing on the Turkish border Tuesday from other rebels. This seizure included brigades which are loyal to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, a monitoring group said.



Moi

No ​

 

We have not heard such words since the Soviet Union has fallen.
Such brave big patriotic words...
Like the song say: We haven't had that spirit here since 1969...

BTW, I think that since every man who wants to freely shoot people in the Muslim world comes to Syria,
there is a notion in the UN to declare Syria a "Human Safari Park" or a "Concentration Area" (or was it "Un-Natural Reserve").

 

I would not brag about how this Syrian Tank Crew has this....what appears to be a Soviet Era T-72 Tank....buried on 3 sides in deep snow with it's turret iced up....because the way they have this tank positioned they might as well be holding up a giant flag that has written on it....SHOOT AT ME....MY TURRET IS FROZEN UP AND CAN'T TURN AND I WILL EITHER HAVE A HARD TIME BACKING UP OR TURNING LEFT OR RIGHT BECAUSE I AM IN SNOW TOO DEEP!!!!

The T-72 has a NOTORIOUSLY cold weather plagued issue auto-loader which is kind of funny when you think about it being made in Russia and all.

The T-72's is horizontally auto-fed, the T-64's uses vertical actuators). The auto-loader must crank the gun up three degrees above the horizontal in order to depress the breech end of the gun and line it up with the new shell. Because of this a crew must be careful to keep that area clean and clear of any icing and snow.

In the process of auto-loading, the gunner can still aim because he has a vertically independent sight. With a laser rangefinder and a ballistic computer, final aiming takes at least another three to five seconds, but aiming is pipe lined into the last steps of auto-loading so it proceeds concurrently which does save on time for the wasted time required for the auto-loader to crank the gun up three degrees above the horizontal in order to depress the breech end of the gun and line it up with the new shell. .

The average rate of fire for this type of carousel automatic loader is quoted to be 8 rounds per minute but that time on a Syrian Crew in cold weather with snow and ice is more like 3 rounds per minute. The use of the auto-loader does allow for the elimination of the extra loader crew member that would have been required if this tank needed to load rounds manually thus one less man allows for decreasing the size of the tank....but even still the inside of the T-72 is a tiny space.

In fact the interior of a T-72 is so small in cubic volume that when the T-72 first came out only specialized SMALL IN PHYSICAL STATURE CREWS....ie....short and skinny guy's....were selected as tank crews. Average size and weight....5 foot 2 to 5 foot 7 inches....50 to 70 kilos....110 to 154 lbs MAX. This fact was almost violently to a point contested by Soviet and Russian designers as these height and weight constraints now days have been labeled a widespread Cold War-era myth. But the facts are that the T-72 and other Soviet tanks are so cramped, that the small interior demands these height and weight constraints and even the "OFFICIAL Height Constraint is listed at 1.75 Meters or 5 foot 9 inches.

Like all Soviet-legacy tanks, the T-72's design has traded off interior space in return for a very small silhouette and efficient use of armor to the point of replacing the fourth crewman with a mechanical loader. The basic T-72 design has extremely small periscope view ports, even by the constrained standards of battle tanks and the driver's field of vision is significantly reduced when his hatch is closed. The steering system is a traditional dual-tiller layout instead of the steering wheel or steering yoke common in modern Western tanks. This set-up requires the near-constant use of both hands, which complicates employment of the seven speed manual gearbox.

My point is that even in the most capable and well trained hands those hands being a well trained and familiar with each other Russian Tank Crew....and even if operated by a well trained and familiar with each other Russian Tank Crew by today's standards a Russian Crew WOULD NOT AT ALL BE COMFORTABLE EITHER PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY sitting in a vastly out of date and vastly inferior in comparison with any NATO country or American modern Battle Tank....knowing full well that at any second an American made shoulder fired Anti-Tank Missile light enough for a single person to carry.....any NATO Country or American Made Smart Weapon either Mobile Mortar Round Tank Seek and Destroyers or dropped by aircraft.....and GOD HELP anyone or any Soldier unfortunate enough to be sitting in a T-72 almost immobile and half stuck in snow with a FROZEN TURRET because the tank crew was either too stupid, under trained or just plain LAZY and did not feel like going outside of an already FREEZING T-72 TANK INTERIOR to spend 5 lousy minutes cleaning off snow and ice.....when an AH-64D Apache Longbow Attack Helicopter with HELLFIRE MISSILES locked on or EVEN WORSE....being a T-72 crew unfortunate enough to have an A-10 WARTHOG....(THUNDERBOLT II)....line up it's sights and squeeze the trigger as the A-10 is simply WINGS on a GAU-8 Avenger, a 30 mm rotary cannon which fires large depleted uranium armor-piercing shells at 3,900 rounds per minute of which 50 depleted Uranium rounds are fired during the first second, 65 or 70 rounds per second thereafter.

Under this kind of attack I would have sympathy for any enemy.

My POINT AGAIN IS.......you post this picture and see it as a source of pride.

I look at this picture and say to myself...."This tank crew cannot possibly be this stupid....can they?"

If I was their Group Commander and I saw one of MY TANKS....with MY CREW.....positioned like this....I would KICK THEIR ASSES MYSELF PERSONALLY!!!

They are in a very indefensible and immobile position with little chance to egress in any other way but one direction and if German General Erwin Rommel was still alive and saw this and met that Syrian Tank Crew personally....Rommel would walk up to each man and SLAP THEM IN THE FACE....perhaps twice on both cheeks!

Of that I have ZERO DOUBT....and I KNOW any member on this forum who has any experience in such things will agree with me WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!!

AboveAlpha

 

.
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This is the most amazing post I have read on PF.

... and I'm sure Erwin Rommel would agree with me. Double for George S. Patton.

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Thank you for the nice compliment.

When I first saw the picture I said to myself....If I comment upon this some people will not understand why I think posting this picture is like saying..."Look at us in the Tank! We are Morons!"

After a bit on time it kept eating at me so I spent the 20 minutes explaining WHY I know this Syrian Crew would have their faces slapped by Rommel...and yes...Patton as well....more than once.

Placing a tank and it's crew in this position...being defenseless and not being capable of moving quickly....is a common stupidity existing in all Assad Military Forces at all levels.

AboveAlpha

 

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What is amazing about this to me is how you can make all of the assumptions
you did by looking at a single photograph of a tank in the snow. A single frame
of time 1/60th of a second long. And not a very clear photograph at that.

I would say the SG1982's captioning is plausible.

To quote Patton -- "War may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men"
"It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory"

.

 

Well....I am not Military...as I am..."CIVILIAN"...in the manner that the quotes denote thus I have extensive knowledge of such things.

But to be honest a person does not have to have extensive knowledge and detailed learned experiences in Tank Warfare and Operation to take one look at this picture and say...."What a stupid position to allow ones tank crew to be in."

In the Gulf War and the Invasion of Iraq Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard were fighting us in a WWI Trench Warfare Fashion and here is a story I know about that you might appreciate.

After a Marine Armored Division cut through an Iraqi Republican Guard Armored Division like a hot knife through butter...I believe it was an Iraqi Republican Guard Colonel surrendered after his entire unit and division was destroyed by Marine MIA1 and M1A2 Abrams Tanks and Bradley Personal Carriers and Marine Self Propelled Artillery....and the Iraqi Colonel and a few other Iraqi Officers after surrendering were placed into a Bradley Personal Carrier under guard inside by a young 19 year old Marine.

Taped to the inside of this Bradley was a picture of German General Irwin Rommel....and the Iraqi Colonel saw this and was amazed and incredulous and asked the young PFC....Marine Private First Class who was guarding him inside..."Private....you are American...no?"

The Marine PFC replied..."Of course....who the Hell do you think I would be?"

The Iraqi Republican Guard Colonel....and remember the Republican Guard was considered the VERY BEST SOLDIERS AND TANK DIVISIONS in the Iraqi Military....said and asked..."But Private....if you are American....why do you have a picture of your enemy...German Erwin Rommel in your vehicle?"

The Marine PFC looked at the Iraqi Colonel hard and then replied...."Just the fact you are asking me this question Colonel tells me two things...#1....Why you are my prisoner....and #2....That you should just SHUT THE F#@% UP because if you can't understand why General Rommel's picture is hanging in here you are not even worth talking to."

AboveAlpha

 

You forgot to mention that the standard export version of the T-72 comes with MANUAL turret... The gunner has to crank it to turn it. Ask the iraqi how well they performs.

 

YOUR RIGHT....I DID FORGET!!!

Nice Catch.

Russian T-72 export models don't even have the electric powered left or right buttons in them thus to turn the tanks turret you have to PHYSICALLY CRANK IT!!!!

Nice one!!!

AboveAlpha

 

It's always like that with soviet military gear... They never sell you what they are using, they sell you crap. And if you stop and think a minute you can understand why chinese military gear is such a joke since they in turn make poor copy of russian export model!

 

No you dont. It is done electronically. I asked my brother who is in SAA and he said their t-72 the turret is auto. and so is the loader

 

You don't have a brother in the saa and the exported t-72 have manual turrets. If saddam couldn't afford the ones with electric turrets your tin pot dictator can't even less. You're not even in syria and you're probably not even syrian...