"Is Syria Becoming Another Afghanistan For Russia?" Topic

"ISIS intends to force Russia into another costly quagmire like its miserable failure in Afghanistan (1979-1989).

ISIS attacked a Russian military base in Syria on May 14th. Four Mi-24 attack helicopters were burned, 20 trucks were destroyed, a storage depot was hit and a MIG-25 fighter jet was damaged. The base is known as T-4, sometimes also called Tiyas in Homs province.

ISIS is hitting Russia hard and the jihadists are proud of it. One day after the attack, on May 15th, ISIS went on one of their websites, called Amaq, and claimed credit for the destruction. Ten days later, on May 25th, the British press "broke" the story. The BBC, The Independent, The Daily Mail, the Guardian and various other news services ran articles about the attack—but only after an independent intelligence company named Stratfor headquartered in, of all places, Texas, published before and after satellite photos of the Russia base…"
Full article here
link

Of course Syria is not Afghanistan …. Afghanistan was a conflict between a good portion of the Afghan population and the Soviet military with its Afghan allies …. Syria is a conflict that involves multiple groups fighting amongst themselves and the Syrian government coupled with the intervention of literally everyone in the Middle East. But maybe it is true that in Russia itself there are a lot of concerns (and worries) that Syria may become another Afghanistan …. and I guess that Putin knows this…

Amicalement
Armand

I doubt that Syria will ever be an "Afghanistan" for Russia, they have too many others willing to pull triggers for them.

What Russia will discover is that Syria will be the land which will make future generations of Arabs hate Russia. Non-Arab Moslem nations won't think highly of them either.

We'll see what the ramifications will be after Russia bankrupts itself again with their military ventures.

I agree … the Russians won't probably make the mistake the USSR did.

No.

Only time will tell.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

I don't think the limited Russian involvement in Syria makes the Arab World hate them any more than their Afghanistan quagmire did back in the 1980's. They are reasserting themselves by backing Assad and gaining back a measure of influence in the ME.

And even if they have earned a new level of ill will, it still lags well behind the hatred harbored by Arabs against the US and her European allies. Over a decade of invasion and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan tends to do that.

I don't think they'll hang around for direct combat anymore. They were there purely for one main reason – to assure that the Assad regime survived.

Why? Simple – port access. Syria has the ONLY Russian naval base (Tartus)within the Med. Without that, Russia loses access to an avenue of attack against Europe and loses key influence in the region. There was no way they were going to let that happen… but no way they were going to get dragged into the fight – that's why the went with heaps of long range stuff like arty and bombers.

The other reason – to show off their kit – how many people have brought Russian gear (or are looking at it) since that equipment was displayed in use against the insurgency? Sure, some plans may have been organised prior to, but there have been a number of purchases since then.

It was for their own reasons… that just happened to coincide with the Syrian regime.

I'm not a believer that this is an "Arms demonstration" since wealthier nations will still buy American and those with lower budgets, or who face embargos will always go Russian.

Aside from China, there really aren't any other options.

If it's for "hate" … the USA won for a long body to the Russians…(with Muslims).

Amicalement
Armand