Putin's reasons

Submitted by Mohammed Waza Khiddif Id'ullah (Australia), Nov 24, 2015 at 04:35

"The Russians are currently, as you foresaw, blitzing Raqqa."

Good.

"Most probably, horrendous civilian casualties are resulting,"

Yes - you're right - this morning I saw on the news a report from inside Raqqa by the resistance movement which said many of the Russian bombings have caused mass casualties of civilians. When you hear of muslims who ratted on their Christian neighbours, after living with them peacefully for decades - you have to wonder just how many of the muslim civilians actually don't mind the occupation. Of course many will object strenuously but 'innocent civilians' - I'm not totally sure about.

"...which the world can be expected to ignore because the bombers are not Jewish."

Yes - exactly.

"This is what we did in Vietnam, and we lost."

This is different and the stakes are higher.

One thing that really irks me is this revelation: https://www.rt.com/news/322614-russian-warplanes-isis-oil-trucks/

Obama had the sattelite intel a year ago to take them out. He didn't. He did not stifle a major source of their income. Which allowed them to go on slaugthering people. It's that simple. There's no valid excuse for NOT doing what the Russians have done in bombing the oil supply system.

https://www.rt.com/news/322614-russian-warplanes-isis-oil-trucks/

Putin won't stop until ISIS are a totally spent force. Putin is taking this personally - he is a patriot and Isis have done just about the most stupid thing they could have done. But there's lots involved here for Russia :

a flight path to the Middle East over Iran,

they strengthen their ties with shia Iran.

they finally get to use the new Sukhois and Tupolevs for what they were designed to do,

it creates a boost in Russian armaments industry,

it massively boosts Putin's approval at home,

it massively boosts Putin approval abroad

it potentially saves the lives Syrian (fellow) Orthodox Christians

and it avenges deaths of innocent Russian tourists whose lives were needlessly cut short by bloodthirsty vermin who no doubt prayed to allah for the success of their mission.

Oh, and it saves us the time and trouble from having to do it.

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