Syria September 2015 ~ What's up?

So we have ( correct me if I am wrong )

• USA requesting Australian air craft to join in combat in Syria.

re: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-05/andrews-to-recommend-australia-extends-air-strikes-reports/6752046​

• Russia increasing it's presence in Syria

re: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34205003​

• Mass exodus of civilian population ( over time and more so lately)
• Significant media coverage of Syrian refugee crisis in Europe
• Australian government doing an about face regarding Syrian refugee intake and simultaneously agreeing to extend ME ops into Syria ( yet to be formally announced is my bet)
  
• Saudi Royals renting out the 4 seasons in USA

re: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...nt-obama-royal-fashion-and-goes-big/71655868/
​

Maybe it just me but to me it is the timing of the visit of the Saudi King and a massive and seemingly unnecessary entourage to the USA when considering the obvious escalation taking place in the Middle East that bodes for the worst. (hiring 400 luxury car drivers - renting out an entire hotel etc)

So what is up do you think?

 

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Sunnis fund and support Sunnis, Shiites fund and support Shiites.
We are being played in a game where we do not belong and for which we can gain nothing.

 

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It seems to me that the recent refugee issue facing Europe ( especially) that the fleeing Syrians are more or less saying "We are your problem" whether you like it or not... Saying that what is happening in Syria is unable to be ignored any longer and by challenging the EU they are demonstrating such..

 

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Quick facts:
Syria in 2013 had a population of approximately 22 million, according to some sources approx. 11 million have become displaced or fled.(6.5 million internally displaced)
src: http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/...k-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis
(credibility: 8/10 IMO)

 

And:
We were instrumental in starting this mess. What in hell are our leaders playing at?

 

Opinion:
Ultimately it is the unconscionable pursuit of "money" ( oil ) and the need to compromise principles when having to work with a extreme cultural difference, that started it. IMO
It is like walking down a "red light" street in a third world country with a fake $1000 note hanging out of your back pocket.
Or walking into an AA meeting with a case load of bourbon, yelling "On the house people!"

Even now we buy oil unconscionably...or product from sweat shops at ridiculously low prices etc...
and the results speak for them selves....
I guess eventually the full price has to be paid some time...

Like the land now known as Melbourne Australia purchased from the local owners ( indigenous) for the price of an axe and a blanket or two...and considered fair trade...
"Play with fire and you get burnt"

The full price of the benefits gained is still waiting to be paid...an old story .. blah blah blah (end of rant)

 

Ultimately (big picture) it seems to be a significant form of "cultural shock" spread over hundreds of years.
The Karmic Debt Collector is a callin' and there is naught we can do about it...

 

I think peak oil and climate change also have something to do with it. The Middle East can't sustain a large population without large inputs of oil money. So people become unemployed and bitter and turn to revolution. This refugee crisis isn't going to end, it's only going to expand.

 

Unfortunately the evolution of "globalization" means that what happens "over there" impacts on "over here" and this can not be avoided.

 

this is a very good point... IMO

 

Syria doesn't have much (if any) oil.

 

Reading up a little on Syrian economic history tells you that whilst it may have been a minor oil exporter it's dependency on oil exports ( small as they may be by Saudi standards) to support it's economy is significant.

"The oil sector provided about 40% of export earnings (2010)"~wiki
I might add that as of 2010 according to the wiki article
30% live below the poverty line with 11+% living below subsistence levels.

Since the onset of revolution these conditions must have deteriorated even further.

 

What else do they have?

 

Just thinkin'
If we had built infrastructure (hospitals, roads, bridges etc) instead of paying them (the Middle East) cash for the oil would it have made a difference.
It seems that the unconditional nature of cash is unable to be handled very well. Perhaps more sophisticated bartering would have been a better idea than just giving them wads of currency

 

So Russia and Iran say Syrian refugees are fleeing ISIS and not the tyrant they personally back, yet exactly how many of these refugees are beating down the doors to get into those countries, or the Syrian territories still under their control? Next they're going to tell us these refugees are merely exploiting the opportunity to shop for German passports. No idea when the west is going to say enough is enough and establish those no-fly zones, but it's either that or witness a Russo-Shiite perpetrated Holocaust in Syria, with even worse things to come thereafter.

 

Assad is Alewite, not standard Shiite.

And France bears far more responsibility for the current mess than Russia, as does the US. http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/roots-alawite-sunni-rivalry-syria

Likewise with Texas, Venezuela, the Netherlands, a few others.

But Syria - like Jordan and Lebanon and Israel et al - is not resource cursed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse .

 

What would happen if we(the USA) completely disengaged militarily from the middle east?

 

Dude, come on... If I really have to spell it out for you, Alawism is an offshoot of Shiism and their communities have been closely allied throughout history. The remaining minority Shia communities of Syria have staunchly backed Assad from the very beginning of the war and have always been disproportionate beneficiaries of his regime's largesse. Then there's the regime's chief backer, Iran, and its chief proxy militia Hezbollah, plus Shia militants and conscripts from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond. The Syrian regime's army and economy, foreign-built and subsidized as they already were, are now shells of their former selves, and it's almost entirely foreign aid that keeps them in the fight. The reality in Syria has Russo-Shiite Holocaust written all over it, right down to the torture camps.

 

More of the chaos we're seeing unfolding right now, with imperial fascist Russia and China entering the field in force and igniting it even hotter. Now IF you were to disengage militarily AND economically, including from all foreign powers supplying and perpetrating these conflicts, that would be a different matter.

 

Effect on petro-dollar?