here's something i've never been able to understand about the russians. why don't they take off their gloves and actually fight for a change? why don't they send a few thousand professional soldiers - that's all you need when you're fighting arabs - with orders to kill every rebel and rebel sympathizer they come across? that strategy worked wonders for them in africa. a few thousand russian mercenaries were able to completely root out rebellions there, and i doubt it'd be any different in syria. arabs are extremely skittish fighters. this works both ways - the rebels all fled when assad seemed to be winning, and now assad's soldiers are all fleeing because the rebels appear to be winning. it's so simple to turn this around, and yet the russians aren't doing it. what's their game? are they scared of american escalation? are they scared of losing turkey as a favorable facilitator of negotiations in the ukraine war? or have they just given up on having a fleet in the mediterranean ever again?
Netherlands