• HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    The really ugly thing here is, al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades. Most people have been urging recognition of his government and the relaxation of sanctions because he’s about as good we can expect a leader of Syria to be.

    And he is still bribing Trump.

    This isn’t merely corruption. This is the *normalization * of corruption. Even countries that abide by democratic norms and international law are going to need to grease palms to conduct regular diplomatic relations. The EU and UK and Canada might be able to weather his bullshit until he folds like he always does, but developing nations will be stuck trying to bid for American favor.

    Welcome to the Chinese century.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades

      Could we please stop? He’s a jihadist saying pleasant things to Europeans and Americans with nobody caring whether they are true.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        19 hours ago

        He’s at least trying to put on a facade of meaning them, which is about as good as Syria has had it in my life time.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          No, he isn’t. He’s worse than Assad, the reason nobody says Assad was better is because Assad directly caused this by killing opponents, disarming strong parties (which could have resisted jihadists) and in general destroying the country. So he’s worse than Assad, but a direct consequence of Assad.

          I’m certain he’s more consistent than Assad and eventually this leads to a more stable and economically viable Syria. Note how I’m not saying anything about human rights and civilization.

          • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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            1 hour ago

            It’s pretty hard to be worse than the guy whose used nerve has on his own people and turned his country into a major producer for the international drug trade.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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              1 hour ago

              You just have to be the guy who turned a half-Sunni, half-Alawi city on the coast into half-Sunni, half-dead. Then after calls for stopping the murders and loads of videos with dead men, women and children he … forbid filming that.

      • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 hours ago

        The louder the west screams about him being a Jihadist, the more I trust him to do the right thing in Syria

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          The west doesn’t scream. The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred.

          And this is stupid. Inverted signal is the same signal, just inverted. It’s not independence of thought.

          • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            22 hours ago

            The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred

            Hmmm, are you sure about that? I feel like there was a notable party using that event as justification for crossing over the Syrian boarder but maybe that was a fever dream

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.

              One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.

              • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 hours ago

                I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.

                Your last paragraph was kind of meaningless

                One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.

                … I mean kinda? Israel has been a belligerent anti-arab neighbor since 1948 and has caused nothing but ruin. There’s a hell of a lot more reason for their distrust of Israel than their choices of proxy militant groups.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        I’m not. I’m saying this will lead to China becoming the premier world power instead of us.

        Imagine having reading comprehension skills. jfc

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I don’t know if that’s blame, or just acknowledging that USA’s general direction leads to China becoming ‘the’ world power by USA forfeitting their soft power around the world.

      • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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        24 hours ago

        I believe they meant that China will become the dominant power after the US finishes torpedoing itself.

      • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 day ago

        I’m not sure if this is blaming it on China, but acknowledging that China might be picking up after the downfall of the USA.