Posted on 09/17/2018 9:12:59 AM PDT by Mariner
BEIRUT (AP) — They dug trenches around towns, reinforced caves for cover and put up sand bags around their positions. They issued calls to arms, urging young men to join in the defense of Idlib, the Syrian province where opposition fighters expect to make their last stand against Russian- and Iranian-backed government troops they have fought for years.
This time, it's "surrender or die."
As the decisive stand for their last stronghold looms, this motley crew of tens of thousands of opposition fighters, including some of the world's most radical groups, is looking for ways to salvage whatever is possible of an armed rebellion that at one point in the seven-year conflict controlled more than half of the country.
In its last chapter, just as it has throughout the long, bloody war, the Syrian rebellion's fate lies in foreign hands. This time, the splintered and diverse rebels have only Turkey.
"The whole world gave up on us, but Turkey will not," said Capt. Najib al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkish-backed umbrella group known as the National Front for Liberation.
Idlib, with its 3 million residents and more than 60,000 fighters, is Turkey's cross to bear.
Ankara has appealed to Russia and Iran, its uneasy negotiating partners, for a diplomatic resolution to the ticking bomb. At the same time, it has sent reinforcements of its troops ringing Idlib, a move designed to ward off a ground assault, at least for now.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
And this will be a severe defeat for the nation of Turkey.
They deserve it, along with the 10s of thousands of terrorists that will die there.
The US was very smart to abandon these people. We should have never been associated with them. It is not possible to pursue US interests in association with ISIS and Al Qeada. Or Turkey for that matter.
Ambassador Stevens.
Hillary Clinton.
Barack Obama.
ISIS.
I hope this turns into a prolonged Leningrad/Stalingrad-type siege where both sides expend a lot of effort, money and blood to win.
I hope this turns into a prolonged Leningrad/Stalingrad-type siege where both sides expend a lot of effort, money and blood to win.
I'm okay with that, especially the second option. Terrorists should die. Those who ally themselves with terrorists should die. I want the Syrian civil war over - it's the humane option. End the war and send the refugees home. No exceptions. End of story.
If Turkey were sincere in helping these terrorists, they would let them into their country...and thus avoid their annihilation.
But to Turkey they are just proxy fighters in the war of expansion and against Assad.
I can see absolutely no benefit to the United States from any other outcome than eliminating the Syrian "rebels," who are nothing but a bunch of AQ, ISIS, and MB terrorists who want to destroy us. I haven't seen Assad try to blow up our airplanes, our mass transit, and send or encourage individual terrorists here to massacre Americans. He's nothing but a traditional Islamic tyrant who simply wants to maintain his own position. We should let him stay.
Assad shows about as much enthusiasm for terrorism as Graham, Rubio, and Jeb show for protecting our borders and repealing Obamacare: occasional lip service to placate the public, but that's about as far as they go.
Just as in the Iran/Iraq war, we can hope for both sides to lose.
There is a “diplomatic resolution:” Surrender.
Funny how the Turks don’t consider that.
Syria will arrest and shoot some of them, but isn’t that better fighting to the last man?
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