The Bashar al-Assad Betting Game

[Montmorency]

@Montmorency, I noticed you always vote on every post that's directed against me, you aren't very good with words yourself are you, do you stutter

I've handed out 86 thanks, in total.

You are, apparently, a narcissist in addition to a paranoiac with persecutory delusions.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind completing an MMPI form?

[Hax]

In other news, the Syrian prime minister has defected to Jordan.

[rvg]

If Assad doesn't retake Aleppo soon, he might as well start looking for a place to spend his years in exile.

[Hax]

Ain't nowhere to go, I'm afraid. Maybe Latin America?

[rvg]

Ain't nowhere to go, I'm afraid. Maybe Latin America?

That's a good idea. I bet Chavez will welcome him.

[Noncommunist]

What about Moscow or Tehran as places to retire?

[SoFarSoGood]

Iranian 'Pilgrims' and Syrian Assassinations

When the 'suicide bomber' got several senior Government and Military personnel in Damascus last month (Gen Daoud Rajiha etc) it became pretty clear that some insider must have tipped off the bomber and those behind this. You do not get at three such senior Government sources in a time of civil war without being told in advance where and when they are going to be.

More recently we have these Iranian 'pilgrims' being taken 'hostage' in Damascus... The claim that they were 'pilgrims' in the first place I found amusing. It is not Hadj time and Damascus is not Mecca. Nor is it a significant religious time for ANY of the Shi'ite Immans. Besides any of that who seriously goes on a pilgrimage to a country in the middle of a civil war? I am a Catholic and wouldn't visit Rome if the Italians were shooting at each other... So the suggestion was that these 'pilgrims' were in fact Quds (the foreign operations section of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps... the people who fund Hezbollah etc). Well yesterday, after just pledging support for Assad, the Iranians admitted that some of the 'pilgrims' were in fact 'retired' Quds personnel... Well these elderly 'ex - Qudists' just happened to be on a 'pilgrimage' in a war torn city at a time of no religious significance... Sure.

All of which leads me to the conclusion that upto the point when these 'pilgrims' were grabbed the inside informer within the Syrian Government was still in place. How else do the 'rebels' know that a Quds party is in Damascus and where and when it will be? Assad may have done some 'clearing house' after the suicide bomb attack but now he will be under pressure from his Iranian friends to conduct a thorough witch hunt...

@ Noncommunist; If Assad leaves he loses. Russia will not take him as they will have play friendly with any future regime to keep their naval base.

[Fragony]

In other news, the Syrian prime minister has defected to Jordan.

Probably over then

[Fragony]

I've handed out 86 thanks, in total.

You are, apparently, a narcissist in addition to a paranoiac with persecutory delusions.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind completing an MMPI form?

I am also able to pinpoint you within 2 meters and a 30 minutes margin mia muca