[Goose]

Assad gassed his own people and murdered 10s of thousands of political prisoners. The path forward for Syria is uncertain, but I think the vast majority of Syrians are happy he is gone, and would embrace any amount of chaos if there is even a chance it is better than decades of brutal Assadist rule.

Just yesterday you were saying Russia has enough air power to keep the rebels away from Damascus for a week, so maybe worth examining some of your prior assumptions.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrian-troops...05857.html
https://apnews.com/article/syria-assad-s...8dff419430

While we don't know about Assad himself at the moment, Damascus is now in rebel hands. More importantly, the Assad government in Damascus has surrendered its power.  That can't be "undone" very easily.

I agree with you that Assad was a criminal that abused his people massively. However, when he first took power many western media felt he would be a vast improvement over his father. After all, he was a western trained ophthalmologist. Didn't turn out that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_Spring. I too think the majority of Syrians hated Assad, and him being gone creates an opportunity for something better. From that point of view, Syrians are happy. However, I am equally certain that the vast majority of Syrians are very concerned about what happens next. They have seen domination of much of their country by Islamic State. They know there are lots of armed groups running around that may or may not intend to install a democracy. Most importantly, normal commerce has to resume. People need to eat. That isn't a given. A Taliban like government would not be considered an improvement by many Syrians, for example. An ongoing civil war might not be considered an improvement either.

As far as Russian air power goes, Russia chose not to help Assad in any serious way. How many sorties did they fly against the rebels? How many destroyed Russian aircraft carcasses do we see littering the ground on the highway from Homs to Damascus? None I know of. The VKS didn't fight. We will never actually know how much they could have slowed down the rebels if they had. The fate of the Russian aircraft remaining in Syria remains unknown. As far as I know, they are still there and intact. We will know more later.

[Goose]

Assad gassed his own people and murdered 10s of thousands of political prisoners. The path forward for Syria is uncertain, but I think the vast majority of Syrians are happy he is gone, and would embrace any amount of chaos if there is even a chance it is better than decades of brutal Assadist rule.

Just yesterday you were saying Russia has enough air power to keep the rebels away from Damascus for a week, so maybe worth examining some of your prior assumptions.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrian-troops...05857.html
https://apnews.com/article/syria-assad-s...8dff419430

While we don't know about Assad himself at the moment, Damascus is now in rebel hands. More importantly, the Assad government in Damascus has surrendered its power.  That can't be "undone" very easily.

I agree with you that Assad was a criminal that abused his people massively. However, when he first took power many western media felt he would be a vast improvement over his father. After all, he was a western trained ophthalmologist. Didn't turn out that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_Spring. I too think the majority of Syrians hated Assad, and him being gone creates an opportunity for something better. From that point of view, Syrians are happy. However, I am equally certain that the vast majority of Syrians are very concerned about what happens next. They have seen domination of much of their country by Islamic State. They know there are lots of armed groups running around that may or may not intend to install a democracy. Most importantly, normal commerce has to resume. People need to eat. That isn't a given. A Taliban like government would not be considered an improvement by many Syrians, for example. An ongoing civil war might not be considered an improvement either.

As far as Russian air power goes, Russia chose not to help Assad in any serious way. How many sorties did they fly against the rebels? How many destroyed Russian aircraft carcasses do we see littering the ground on the highway from Homs to Damascus? None I know of. The VKS didn't fight. We will never actually know how much they could have slowed down the rebels if they had. The fate of the Russian aircraft remaining in Syria remains unknown. As far as I know, they are still there and intact. We will know more later.