You mean the US puppets that were used for strategic purposes for helping the US do imperialism and counter regional counterweights to the west such as Iran and its allies?
The same ones who helped whether they like it or not the current Islamist extremists overthrow Syria and have thus been a part of turning it into Libya 2.0?
You mean the US puppets that were used for strategic purposes for helping the US do imperialism and counter regional counterweights to the west such as Iran and its allies?
Well, I happen to think that non-“white” people have agency. Why couldn’t it have been that Rojava used the US to achieve its goals? I am not denying that some US goals and SDF/Rojava goals aligned, but why should we strip SDF of agency and say they are mindless puppets controlled by the US?
Because this is a US dominated Anglophone website, and imperial citizens generally think of Syrians as chess pieces in an abstract geopolitical game that they’re spectating as a detached fandom. They think “the pawns caused their team to lose by failing to protect their king”, and so they all deserve to get wiped out as punishment for making “the wrong strategic decision”. You could see it in some indignant comments recently about the Syrian army “giving up” and “not fighting hard enough” to “earn” Russia or Iran’s intervention after Assad fled the country. It keeps reminding me of the American liberals who gleefully talk about how they hope Trump kills more Latinos, women, and Arabs because they “deserve it” for failing to back Harris, or how people who voted Green were “Russian puppets whether they like it or not”.
The overthrow of the Syrian government, imperfect as it was, is a tragedy that will result in materially worse conditions for most people in Syria and the rest of West Asia. Having said that, it happened. While being a fragile cornerstone in what limited regional peace and stability there was, Assad’s government failed to protect large parts of the country from foreign aggression for years. People that the former Syrian government failed to protect from ISIS shouldn’t be expected by foreigners to owe some duty of loyalty to that government now that it’s surrendered, or to Assad personally now that he’s fled. The SDF’s past and present collaboration with the empire is absolutely worthy of scrutiny and criticism. Beyond that, I don’t pretend to be educated enough about them to have an opinion on whether they’re “good” or “bad” in an abstract sense. I definitely wouldn’t claim to think they’re on the verge of becoming a functioning internationally recognized state, much less an actually existing proletarian state.
That being said, Assad surrendered the Syrian government to what’s basically rebranded Al Qaeda, who currently appears to be the de facto ruler of the remaining Syrian state authority. Every remaining faction I’m aware of has collaborated with the empire to some extent. Whatever valid criticisms there are of the SDF: they’re not Al Qaeda, they’re not ISIS, and they’re not Turkey, all of whom have a history of imperial backing and all of whom would seem intent to bring about worse material conditions for the people actually living in Syria. I understand most of us are sad about the collapse of the former Syrian government and what it means for regional stability and anti-imperialist resistance, but it feels needlessly cruel and dehumanizing for imperial citizens on this site to let that sadness manifest in nihilistic positions that amount to: “I hope they all kill each other down to the last Syrian while America loots the graveyard; they’re getting what they deserve for failing the Assad family!” As someone who hopes to see a government in Syria strong and stable enough to protect the indigenous population from both foreign exploitation and enslavement by Wahabists, I don’t feel like I’m in a position to be ruling out what few indigenous potential sources of relative regional stability actually exist.
Man this reddit-tier comment structure fucking sucks. It’s not even worth paying attention to because you wrote it like that. Just talk like you’re talking to a human please.
And I’m the rude one? Of course I’m talking to humans, do you see me personally insulting the person I replied to? No. Yet you go for that with that dig. Offer an actual objection to the substance of what I’m saying instead of trying to play tone policing games, we’re talking global geo-politics here not some intimate and sensitive personal matter.
Fact is Rojava have been to my knowledge in matter of deed an aid not a hindrance to the global primary contradiction, to the US empire and must be analyzed in light of that. Not what they want to do, not what they claim they will do but what they have done materially.
They’re too small to matter, the US can brush them aside if they ever cause trouble or cease to be useful and their situation I think given all the rest that’s happening is not great. They’re not China where they’re such a size that the US helping them gain strength can result in an entity that is capable of then resisting them and bringing about damage to them or even threatening their entire order. They are quite honestly not a power even regionally outside the territories they operate in and IMO never will be.
Maybe I shouldn’t blame them, I’m not some expert on the situation there but I can say I don’t think they should be praised given what they’ve done. Maybe they felt they had to make some deals with the devil but I don’t think they deserve being lionized given what those deals entailed and how they worked out with regards to the larger strategic landscape and the power balance that impacts the lives of tens of millions of humans in the region beyond the borders of Syria.
The situation in Syria seems complex. I never thought Assad was a great leader but the alternatives continue to be worse and we must remember this whole situation including the misery of the Syrian people started because of the US trying to do regime-change and toppling to do engineering of the middle east for their grand chessboard strategy to retain their global hegemony by preventing land power unity between Africa, Russia, Europe, Asia via sabotaging the cross-roads. In light of that working with the people responsible for all of this because they promise you maybe they’ll help give you power or a piece of the pie isn’t a great look. Sure if it had worked and they’d won instead of the jihadists the conversation might be different but I’m not sure they were ever desired to win as the US prefers corrupt puppets or destablized regions via extremist proxies.
You mean the US puppets that were used for strategic purposes for helping the US do imperialism and counter regional counterweights to the west such as Iran and its allies?
The same ones who helped whether they like it or not the current Islamist extremists overthrow Syria and have thus been a part of turning it into Libya 2.0?
Well, I happen to think that non-“white” people have agency. Why couldn’t it have been that Rojava used the US to achieve its goals? I am not denying that some US goals and SDF/Rojava goals aligned, but why should we strip SDF of agency and say they are mindless puppets controlled by the US?
Because this is a US dominated Anglophone website, and imperial citizens generally think of Syrians as chess pieces in an abstract geopolitical game that they’re spectating as a detached fandom. They think “the pawns caused their team to lose by failing to protect their king”, and so they all deserve to get wiped out as punishment for making “the wrong strategic decision”. You could see it in some indignant comments recently about the Syrian army “giving up” and “not fighting hard enough” to “earn” Russia or Iran’s intervention after Assad fled the country. It keeps reminding me of the American liberals who gleefully talk about how they hope Trump kills more Latinos, women, and Arabs because they “deserve it” for failing to back Harris, or how people who voted Green were “Russian puppets whether they like it or not”.
The overthrow of the Syrian government, imperfect as it was, is a tragedy that will result in materially worse conditions for most people in Syria and the rest of West Asia. Having said that, it happened. While being a fragile cornerstone in what limited regional peace and stability there was, Assad’s government failed to protect large parts of the country from foreign aggression for years. People that the former Syrian government failed to protect from ISIS shouldn’t be expected by foreigners to owe some duty of loyalty to that government now that it’s surrendered, or to Assad personally now that he’s fled. The SDF’s past and present collaboration with the empire is absolutely worthy of scrutiny and criticism. Beyond that, I don’t pretend to be educated enough about them to have an opinion on whether they’re “good” or “bad” in an abstract sense. I definitely wouldn’t claim to think they’re on the verge of becoming a functioning internationally recognized state, much less an actually existing proletarian state.
That being said, Assad surrendered the Syrian government to what’s basically rebranded Al Qaeda, who currently appears to be the de facto ruler of the remaining Syrian state authority. Every remaining faction I’m aware of has collaborated with the empire to some extent. Whatever valid criticisms there are of the SDF: they’re not Al Qaeda, they’re not ISIS, and they’re not Turkey, all of whom have a history of imperial backing and all of whom would seem intent to bring about worse material conditions for the people actually living in Syria. I understand most of us are sad about the collapse of the former Syrian government and what it means for regional stability and anti-imperialist resistance, but it feels needlessly cruel and dehumanizing for imperial citizens on this site to let that sadness manifest in nihilistic positions that amount to: “I hope they all kill each other down to the last Syrian while America loots the graveyard; they’re getting what they deserve for failing the Assad family!” As someone who hopes to see a government in Syria strong and stable enough to protect the indigenous population from both foreign exploitation and enslavement by Wahabists, I don’t feel like I’m in a position to be ruling out what few indigenous potential sources of relative regional stability actually exist.
Man this reddit-tier comment structure fucking sucks. It’s not even worth paying attention to because you wrote it like that. Just talk like you’re talking to a human please.
And I’m the rude one? Of course I’m talking to humans, do you see me personally insulting the person I replied to? No. Yet you go for that with that dig. Offer an actual objection to the substance of what I’m saying instead of trying to play tone policing games, we’re talking global geo-politics here not some intimate and sensitive personal matter.
Fact is Rojava have been to my knowledge in matter of deed an aid not a hindrance to the global primary contradiction, to the US empire and must be analyzed in light of that. Not what they want to do, not what they claim they will do but what they have done materially.
They’re too small to matter, the US can brush them aside if they ever cause trouble or cease to be useful and their situation I think given all the rest that’s happening is not great. They’re not China where they’re such a size that the US helping them gain strength can result in an entity that is capable of then resisting them and bringing about damage to them or even threatening their entire order. They are quite honestly not a power even regionally outside the territories they operate in and IMO never will be.
Maybe I shouldn’t blame them, I’m not some expert on the situation there but I can say I don’t think they should be praised given what they’ve done. Maybe they felt they had to make some deals with the devil but I don’t think they deserve being lionized given what those deals entailed and how they worked out with regards to the larger strategic landscape and the power balance that impacts the lives of tens of millions of humans in the region beyond the borders of Syria.
The situation in Syria seems complex. I never thought Assad was a great leader but the alternatives continue to be worse and we must remember this whole situation including the misery of the Syrian people started because of the US trying to do regime-change and toppling to do engineering of the middle east for their grand chessboard strategy to retain their global hegemony by preventing land power unity between Africa, Russia, Europe, Asia via sabotaging the cross-roads. In light of that working with the people responsible for all of this because they promise you maybe they’ll help give you power or a piece of the pie isn’t a great look. Sure if it had worked and they’d won instead of the jihadists the conversation might be different but I’m not sure they were ever desired to win as the US prefers corrupt puppets or destablized regions via extremist proxies.