I don't see you providing any info that would negate any of the Professor's comments.
Russia has been providing the SAA air support for its campaigns - since the SAA has been more interested in fighting non-ISIS groups because those groups hold territory that is more strategically dangerous to the regime, the Russian have been bombing non-ISIS groups more heavily. But the professor is pointing to ISIS conducting operations against SAA held areas, something the regime is obviously going to fight, and thus call in Russian air support.
This rebellion has been uncoordinated and messy from the start. The rebels have never been able to create a government in waiting, a clear line of succession that would answer the question of who moves into the Presidential Palace when Assad leaves. This uncertainty certainly does not help break the loyalty to Assad that those who fear a Sunni Islamist government have, particularly the Alawites. In that sense their diplomatic failures are all their own, and can't be blamed on any outsiders.
I am unsure why Mr. Cole felt the necessity to add disclaimers about describing the Rwandan genocide to the Holocaust - both were attempted genocides of a specific ethnocultural group. The fact that the Hutu government did not have the sophisticated machinery of death Nazi Germany did does not make the suffering of their victims any less. Dead is dead, whether the person was gassed or hacked to death with machetes. At its height, the rate of killing in Rwanda approached the deadliness of the most intensive period of mass killing during the Holocaust.
I am a couple of years older than Ms. Portman and unlike her was very well aware of the Rwandan genocide. As such, I can sympathize strongly with her statement, as it falls in line with the lesson I learned - that what is important to learn is why human beings would ever choose to commit mass murder on such scales at all. Focusing purely on a specific set of perpetrators or victims has no real power to prevent such future events.
None of these political or diplomatic defections sound even remotely significant. Gen. Tlass's defection surely was, but the fact the regime was able to swat down the rebel assault in Damascus and is now likely to do the same in Aleppo seems to indicate they still have the support of enough of the military command to hold on for some time.
I don't see you providing any info that would negate any of the Professor's comments.
Russia has been providing the SAA air support for its campaigns - since the SAA has been more interested in fighting non-ISIS groups because those groups hold territory that is more strategically dangerous to the regime, the Russian have been bombing non-ISIS groups more heavily. But the professor is pointing to ISIS conducting operations against SAA held areas, something the regime is obviously going to fight, and thus call in Russian air support.
So the one missing the point of this post is you.
This rebellion has been uncoordinated and messy from the start. The rebels have never been able to create a government in waiting, a clear line of succession that would answer the question of who moves into the Presidential Palace when Assad leaves. This uncertainty certainly does not help break the loyalty to Assad that those who fear a Sunni Islamist government have, particularly the Alawites. In that sense their diplomatic failures are all their own, and can't be blamed on any outsiders.
I am unsure why Mr. Cole felt the necessity to add disclaimers about describing the Rwandan genocide to the Holocaust - both were attempted genocides of a specific ethnocultural group. The fact that the Hutu government did not have the sophisticated machinery of death Nazi Germany did does not make the suffering of their victims any less. Dead is dead, whether the person was gassed or hacked to death with machetes. At its height, the rate of killing in Rwanda approached the deadliness of the most intensive period of mass killing during the Holocaust.
I am a couple of years older than Ms. Portman and unlike her was very well aware of the Rwandan genocide. As such, I can sympathize strongly with her statement, as it falls in line with the lesson I learned - that what is important to learn is why human beings would ever choose to commit mass murder on such scales at all. Focusing purely on a specific set of perpetrators or victims has no real power to prevent such future events.
None of these political or diplomatic defections sound even remotely significant. Gen. Tlass's defection surely was, but the fact the regime was able to swat down the rebel assault in Damascus and is now likely to do the same in Aleppo seems to indicate they still have the support of enough of the military command to hold on for some time.