The Middle East simplified.

[Snowy79]

"In case you don't know what's happening in the middle east."

President Assad ( who is bad ) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled and the Rebels ( who are good ) started winning ( Hurrah!).
But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State ( who are definitely bad!) and some continued to support democracy ( who are still good.)

So the Americans ( who are questionably good ) started bombing Islamic State ( who are bad ) and giving arms to the Syrian Rebels ( who are good ) so they could fight Assad ( who is still bad ) which was good.

By the way, there is a breakaway state in the north run by the Kurds who want to fight IS ( which is a good thing ) but the Turkish authorities think they are bad, so we have to say they are bad whilst secretly thinking they're good and giving them guns to fight IS (which is good) but that is another matter.

Getting back to Syria.
So President Putin ( who is bad, cos he invaded Crimea and the Ukraine and killed lots of folks including that nice Russian man in London with polonium poisoned sushi ) has decided to back Assad ( who is still bad ) by attacking IS ( who are also bad ) which is sort of a good thing?

But Putin ( still bad ) thinks the Syrian Rebels ( who are good ) are also bad, and so he bombs them too, much to the annoyance of the Americans ( who are good ) who are busy backing and arming the rebels ( who are also good).

Now Iran ( who used to be bad, but now they have agreed not to build any nuclear weapons and bomb Israel are now good.....Yeah right) are going to provide ground troops to support Assad ( still bad ) as are the Russians ( bad ) who now have ground troops and aircraft in Syria.

So a Coalition of Assad ( still bad ) Putin ( extra bad ) and the Iranians ( good, but in a bad sort of way ) are going to attack IS ( who are bad ) which is a good thing, but also the Syrian Rebels ( who are good ) which is bad.

Now the British ( obviously good, except that nice Mr Corbyn in the corduroy jacket, who is probably bad ) and the Americans ( also good ) cannot attack Assad ( still bad ) for fear of upsetting Putin ( bad ) and Iran ( good / bad) and now they have to accept that Assad might not be that bad after all compared to IS ( who are super bad).

So Assad ( bad ) is now probably good, being better than IS ( but let’s face it, drinking your own wee is better than IS so no real choice there ) and since Putin and Iran are also fighting IS that may now make them Good. America ( still Good ) will find it hard to arm a group of rebels being attacked by the Russians for fear of upsetting Mr Putin ( now good ) and that nice mad Ayatollah in Iran ( also Good ) and so they may be forced to say that the Rebels are now Bad, or at the very least abandon them to their fate. This will lead most of them to flee to Turkey and on to Europe or join IS ( still the only constantly bad group).

To Sunni Muslims, an attack by Shia Muslims ( Assad and Iran ) backed by Russians will be seen as something of a Holy War, and the ranks of IS will now be seen by the Sunnis as the only Jihadis fighting in the Holy War and hence many Muslims will now see IS as Good ( Doh!.)

Sunni Muslims will also see the lack of action by Britain and America in support of their Sunni rebel brothers as something of a betrayal ( mmm.might have a point.) and hence we will be seen as Bad.

So now we have America ( now bad ) and Britain ( also bad ) providing limited support to Sunni Rebels ( bad ) many of whom are looking to IS ( Good / bad ) for support against Assad ( now good ) who, along with Iran ( also Good) and Putin ( also, now, unbelievably, Good ) are attempting to retake the country Assad used to run before all this started?

So, now that you fully understand everything, all your questions are answered. Have a nice day 

[Bruce]

The only way to improve your post is to make it a run on sentence!

[Snowy79]

4 hours ago, Bruce said:

The only way to improve your post is to make it a run on sentence!

Is that a good or bad thing? 

[Kuya John]

I guess you could say it's a case of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

Ten out of ten if you really type all that out Snowy,

[Happyhorn52]

Flow Chart?

[robert k]

US interests in the area. Pipeline to compete with the Russian pipeline that supplies Europe. Entangle Russia in a war. Assad and Russia didn't want the pipeline built.

The pipeline could be built to pass through Iran and the Iranians would go for it I'm told but we don't want that kind of chokehold in Iran's hands. Russia needs to be the one to supply Europe with natural gas or their economy would  collapse.

Edited November 30, 2016 by robert k

[Snowy79]

2 hours ago, Happyhorn52 said:

Flow Chart?

Will this do? 

[Gratefuled]

Reminds me of Central America way back when the USA traded guns for drugs to distribute in South Central Los Angeles. The USA wanted dictator and Sandanistas defeated by Contras because the Sandanistas were evil like ASSAD. So, the Contras ousted out the evil ones and became even more evil than the dictator.

 

[robert k]

19 minutes ago, Gratefuled said:

Reminds me of Central America way back when the USA traded guns for drugs to distribute in South Central Los Angeles. The USA wanted dictator and Sandanistas defeated by Contras because the Sandanistas were evil like ASSAD. So, the Contras ousted out the evil ones and became even more evil than the dictator.

 

Ed, do you even know who is in charge in Nicaragua? Here is a link that may help you.

http://countrystudies.us/nicaragua/51.htm

[Nephi]

A good post, accurate, and spells out who the bad guys are (that seem to change by the minute.) Biggest concern for us that live here in these wonderful islands filled to overflowing (by the self professed) smartest people on earth; is going to be are they not going to understand all that(assuming locals read the forum) and be able to figure out that us expats aren't the bad guys here? The more these things change around the world and here to some extent, the more we are at risk from a misguided idiot IMHO. Makes it especially bad as we are not allowed to even carry a pocket knife let alone a 357mag to defend ourselves. Makes me wonder sometimes. Just hope no one discovers the knife in my front pocket!

Nephi