~You appear to think everyone opposed to Assad is al Qaeda.~
No. You got it all wrong. Assad has plenty of opposition, but only al-Qaeda is any relevant as far as the rest aren’t determined enough to have an upper hand.
~That’s the same logic Putin uses in Ukraine. The bulk of the Ukrainians are not fascist.~
Of course, most of Ukrainians aren’t fascists and it is true that not everyone in the east of Ukraine are commies.
The problem is Ukraine is even in worse state than Russia in terms of civil society.
For that reason they are fascist who are the most visible. And before Poroshenko was elected their interim government was dominated by fascists.
You have to give new government credit, they have managed to eradicate some of the worst, but Poroshenko is still a slave of the Maidan crowd and he has jumped an anti-Russian wagon though Putin was ready to de-escalate.
~Back when there was a peaceful opposition in Syria it was not an al Qaeda operation. Only Assad and Putin would have characterized it that way.~
See my point one. No said societies have an idea of social consensus you got used to. You are thinking they are same as fellow Americans and your idealism is so romantic but it is too far from reality on the ground.
Well no one thought the Germans and Japanese would ever become democratic either.