Quote:
Originally Posted by lostalex
but there are actually lots of syrians that are fighting for real democracy, they are not ISIS, they are people that truly want democracy. Russia just says "**** them, we like having Assad as a friend".
Sorry, but it doesn't matter if it's even just 20 people who want democracy, it is the US and Nato's job to support them, and i'm proud that we do. When there are people who genuinely want to fight against a brutal dictator, we should support them. Even if it means sometimes we are taken advantage of, and our weapons get into the wrong hands. It;'s not okay to give up on the idea of democracy in the middle east.
|
Well the US didn't do a great job when Obama drew his 'red line' over using chemical weapons and then did nothing when Assad crossed that red line. And if the West really cared that much about every government being a democracy then they would have to be fomenting uprisings against half the governments in the world but they don't. Some of our closest allies are counties with brutal governments. And maybe that's just international relations for you. It's almost impossible to have an 'ethical foreign policy' in practice, you've got to deal with the world as it is and not how you want it to be.
The first priority is to defeat ISIS and the Syrian army is the main force capable of doing that in the country. After that can come discussions of a political settlement and whether Assad should have any role in it.