IS launches new assault on besieged eastern city in Syria

I wonder who thumbsdown BBush for his comment. Do we have IS supporters here?

Good luck to Syrian soldiers!

I didn't down vote him, but I think it's pretty stupid to assume any side of the conflict is the good guys or bad guys. If years of meddling in the middle east have shown us anything, it's that today's good guys are tomorrow's bad guys, and today's friends are tomorrow's enemies. Allegiances are fleeing in the ME, and atrocities can happen with any group. So today's support for one group can end up being the support of a group that ends up being worse than the group you were supporting them against.

@Strangerland

Wow, very interesting attitude. Now I see why the West's policy in the Middle East is such a mess.

I thought that IS did everything possible to demonstrate who the real bad guys are. So, mass shootings of captured Iraqi soldiers in 2014, regular public beheadings and burnings are not enough for you to see who are real bad guys, you are still contemplating? Assad may be not a charming character, but at least his soldiers do not burn people alive, and Syrian governmebt did not stage terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany. It seems that only another wake-up call like 9/11 will bring the West to its senses, though I'm not sure.

Bashar and Syria - victory!

So, mass shootings of captured Iraqi soldiers in 2014, regular public beheadings and burnings are not enough for you to see who are real bad guys, you are still contemplating?

And what happens when we help someone defeat ISIS, and they end up being worse? How many times has that happened in the Middle East.

When I was young, I had a friend who was in a toxic relationship with this girl. He broke up with her, and was really hurt. In trying to help him get over her, I told him the truth about her, and why she was bad for him. They got back together a week or so later, and he told her everything I said, and suddenly I was the bad guy to both of them, for 'trying to keep them apart'.

That's what interference is in the Middle East. It doesn't help anyone there, and it just ends up giving all the ME a mutual target to focus their anger upon. We propped up Saddam, and look what happened with him. Then we took him out, and ISIS sprung up to replace him. There is no winning in middle eastern meddling. There are only different degrees of losing.

@Strangerland

Thanks for sharing, but I can't see much connection between your personal experience and the subject. I'm still perplexed why it's so difficult to choose who is bad and who is good between people who behead on videos, and people who don't do that.

But US policymakers have even more paradoxical way of thinking, they think that all these throatcutters are good guys:

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/29/how-the-us-armed-up-syrian-jihadists/

Lovely, give weapons to those who then will try to kill you. These idiots in Washington never learn even from their own mistakes.

So much for the Russians taking on Daesh. Its one thing bombing hospitals and schools to terrify civilian populations into submission (or oblivion). Clearly the barbarians in the Kremlin haven't got the money or the stones to take on a rag tag band of ground dwelling barbarians.

So much for the pigeon chest beating ....

I'm still perplexed why it's so difficult to choose who is bad and who is good between people who behead on videos, and people who don't do that.

I can tell you exactly why.

Oh wait, I already did. Twice. So either you lack the reading comprehension to understand what I've written, or you willfully don't want to. Either way, there is no need to repeat it, as you won't get it, and anyone who can, already did from the two times I wrote it.

Yawn, here comes Madverts with his usual trainload of NATO propaganda. Tell us about exploits and grandiose success of NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing much? Sure, "its one thing bombing hospitals and schools to terrify civilian populations into submission (or oblivion). Clearly the barbarians in Washington and their flunkies in London haven't got the money or the stones to take on a rag tag band of ground dwelling barbarians".

Mission accomplished...

Madverts, you still in 2003? I knew it!!

Strangerland, I see, anyone who does not share your view "lacks the reading comprehension". Not very sophisticated trick, but what can be expected from one who see no much evil in throat-cutting savages...

More terrorists (iSiS, iSiL, Al-Quaeda, aL-CiaAeda) at large and another destroyed city and culture. -And NATO with their Libs "openly and knowingly" promotes this destruction. = These terrorists are treated so badly by the Syrians that we should feel sorry for them. -In fact you should open your borders and let them immigrate to your country also.