Just wrote this on a different forum as a response to a very convoluted description of the same topics and decided to copy it here.

"Boy this was one complicated explanation of something relatively simple! Here is my take on things:

Assad is Shia. In Syria (as well as in Islam) Shia are the minority. Majority are the Sunni. Since times immemorial Sunni and Shia hate each other no less then they hate "the Crusaders", i.e. majority of those posting into this thread.

Since Assad's dadda, Assad Sr., assumed power back in the day, not only did he become a Shia ruling over Sunni in a majority Sunni state, he also took some serious steps to secularize the country, which bought him little love from country's religious crowd in general, while among Sunnis simply placed him on the level of something resembling our notion of "antichrist". Since that day Syria's Sunnis were united by one all-superseding beautiful dream: "to cut Assads' throats" and put some Sunni in power so they could do to Shia what Shia is currently able to do to Sunni.

When events in Tunisia (called Arab "spring" which now, agree, sounds a bit odd not to say sadistic) finally dominoed into Syria, Syrian Sunnis saw their opportunity and rebelled.
Since Assads were long-time Russia's allies Obama administration naturally supported the rebellion, and that brought Syria to a proxy struggle between America and Russia which is continuing today. If Obama administration didn't support Syrian Sunnis, Assad would've easily crushed the rebellion at its inception and by now all would've been long back if not to love then at least to peace for sure.
Btw, ISIS is a Sunni organization whose immediate main objectives are amply implied by its name, ISIS stands for "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria", which is to topple secular Shia governments of Iraq and Syria and replace them with something resembling Saudi Arabia but with bit more of a religious zeal.

For those who are interested: the difference between Shia and Sunni in practical terms can be observed by comparing one of several traditionally structured Sunni states Saudi Arabia to the only traditionally structured Shia state Iran.

In Saudi Arabia King serves as both religious and administrative leader of the State. He does appoint Mufti to oversee day-to-day matters of the religious side of things but can overrule him if he so chooses. The same goes for ISIS where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been designated as the caliph, i.e. the king, and is both administrative and religious leader of the organization.

In Iran those two positions are set up in exactly opposite way: the Ayatollah is the land's religious leader while the president is its VP Operations. Why VP? Because in traditional Shia state religious leader should always be able to overrule the country's administrator. Ayatollah is elected by Council of Experts which for our "gyaur" purposes let's call it a "Council of Ayatollahs", while president is elected democratically by the nation's populace.

What does it all remind you of? R-r-r-r-right! The Catholics (Shia) vs. Protestants or rather Anglicans (Sunni). Shia has Ayatollah (the Pope) while Saudis (and the like) have their own Henry VIIIs!

That's why Iran so vehemently supports other Shia governments in Syria and Iraq despite the later two being decidedly secular.

Turkey on the other hand find themselves in a bit more uncertain and difficult position. On one hand Turks, especially now with more religiously oriented Erdoğan naturally hate Shia Assad and would love to support fellow Sunnis. On the other hand they realize that fellow Sunnis they are facing across the border are either wacko "moderate" rebels that are anything but moderate or ISIS that want Turkey to go 2-500 years back in time. Turkey's main concern is that America gives Iraqi Kurds their independence and that would create huge issues among Kurds in Turkey. All that forces Turkey to be reactive rather then proactive. I kind of feel for them in that regard."

A real and concerning issue is "do we even have a horse in this race"? I think it's the old adage of being damned if you do, and damned if you don't. Neither Bush nor Obama came up with any real answers. Will Trump flounder just like them?

......and in other Muslim counties around the World. SA and Iran have both encouraged the spread of their virulent forms of Islam to various regions around the World, formenting religious mischief and violence. Eliminate these two countries and we will have enduring peace in the M.E. Clueless, successive U.S. governments have failed to see this fact.

-- Modified on 12/20/2016 5:18:09 AM

...read his PDBs, he won't read your post either.  You better put it in a video with naked women getting their pussies grabbed.  Then he might pay attention to it.

Trump doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, much less Shia from Sunni.  But Dubya didn't either and look what a great president he turned out to be!

He will just bomb the shit out of them..

first lion food people  haven't figured it out after 15 years of war then they never will

He doesn't micro-manage everything like Obama and Hitler . Both failures .  

Trump is a winner . You should pay close attention and learn something

And how do you propose to do that? Nuke them? We'd have the whole world against us, and we will lose. Russia proved during this elections that America is vulnerable. DNC is a little thing, power grid is another. In terms of utilities, technology and life's comforts and defense capabilities America is much more centralized and interconnected then Russia or any other place for that matter.

And hy would that resolve anything? Saudi Arabia is not the only Sunni state out there. You'd just have another one taking its place.

Bomb the living shit out of whom?

-- Modified on 12/20/2016 11:45:45 AM

Pence, as well as his recent expert appointees, read it every day and updates Trump and Trump has said that if any intel changes, he is available at a minutes notice to get the intel directly.

Also funny how all the "smart" people in the room (i.e. Barry) that read the PDB every day, ahem, have left Trump tons of horrific foreign policy disasters over many parts of the globe.

Yeah, lets try it Trump's way and see how we make out. LOL

And there you are wrong. Not totally, and he probably doesn't know the difference between Shia and Sunni but I bet he does read everything that attracts his attention. And good thing about Trump is that he's open to anything that makes sense to him and doesn't go against his interests and/or agenda, irrespective of whether or not it's "appropriate". I already have personal experience with that.  

In regards to Shia and Sunni, I don't think too many people know about that, period. Even Wikipedia talks more about the event that brought that division about and omits talking of any practical, i.e. administrative, implications which in my opinion are obvious and ...huge!

How "clueless" of successive US governments not to have done this already. ROFLMFAO

Has this election finally pushed you over the fucking edge. This one post may have vaulted you into contention for SPOTY. I can't think of a stupider idea EVER.

Are you the same guy who has been berated Trump endlessly for his stance on Muslims?

Ok, while we are entertaining your idiocy, lets say with a magic wand we wipe out the countries Saudi Arabia and Iran, does that mean Israel is all of a sudden going to start singing kumbaya and having sleepovers with the likes of Syria, Yemen et al???  

Get help, get help NOW

But as stupid as that idea was, for sheer stupidity it can't beat dimwits like FatVern, FG and swallowpee.

but the idea itself is SPOTY worthy.

Put it this way, what would you have said if someone like Gunny or Brook had suggested we simply "eliminate" two countries with combined population of well over 100 million people, not to mention two countries that together make up over 15% of the current worlds oil production? I can hear you right now rightfully laughing them off the board. As for SaltyBalls, he really seems to need one of those sympathy pigs as he seems to have lost it after the election

We'll see. Let's be fare, unlike all of his opponents the guy never done anything like this so he didn't need to know all of that staff. There'd is a learning curve to this job - for Trump it would probably be greater then for others.  

I remember when Putin just became Russia's president he too was screwing up left and right just because he didn't realize how running political unit (town, state, country) differs from running an a department or an agency (in his case it was KGB).

Trump will go through similar hurdles. It will be harder for Trump because unlike Putin Trump is a rich boy. Trump's used to getting his toy, Putin never was.  

The other thing is that as trained agent Putin was cool, quick study, and had no problem with realizing his borders. I just hope that when Trump realizes his limitations as president that would not freak him out to the extent that would affect all of us.  

Also, remember another New Yorker, Giuliani. Even his supporters would throw their hands up in dismay when mayor would suddenly go freaky and declare war on the lunch hot dog stands on Wall Street because he didn't care for their esthetics, or take on the Brooklyn museum over some exhibit that he thought blasphemous. I hope that Trump's expected craziness would be limited to something like that and not cause any serious consequence. I hope my wish is not a pipe dream too

Didn't seem to bother liberals back then did it?

-- Modified on 12/20/2016 5:35:24 PM

...not have been a rich boy, but he certainly is a rich man.  In fact, he makes Trump look indigent by comparison.  Putin is estimated to be worth $200 billion, which would make him the richest man in the world by far.  Even if the estimate is way off, he'd still be one of the richest men in the world

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I'm not sure what do you mean by "certainly" followed by "estimated". In truth nobody really knows how much money Putin has. What does uncertainty do as a rule of thumb? Uncertainty makes imaginations run wild! "The word" makes Putin a rich man, nothing more. Bill Gates knows as much about Putin's worth as he knows about the Rothschild's.  

I'm sure Putin is not a poor man but if I had to guess his net worth is nowhere near to what street believe it to be. It doesn't mean that he doesn't get what he wants. But most of what he gets doesn't involve spending his own money. It's either comes in a form of a present or even more ofter request (Putin searching for conveniently left for him Greek artifact brings how much financial attention to the Greek resort?) state's money or his friend's Berlusconi's. Putin doesn't pay for hotel. Most if not all hotels would gladly pay for Putin to stay there. For a little while now Putin has been playing by the same rules as famous people do.  

In regards to how much money he's got disbursed between Switzerlands and Singapores (I doubt if after Panama he's stashes anything anywhere in Americas) it's anybody's guess. To tell you the truth I would be more surprised to find out that his net-worth exceeds 20 million then that most of his aids and ministers have more money then him. Putin just doesn't strike me as the money collector type.  

That's why I think this brewing love connection between Putin and Trump is more of a fruit of Trump's wishful thinking then reality. We'll see. If I had to guess Putin has as dubious of an attitude towards Trump as do other world leaders. On one hand it's nice that Trump wants to be friends of course, on the other hand Putin sees the same as we all do - the unpredictability and the shinny objects. I doubt that such qualities feel former member of clandestine service (where every word is considered to be a potential peace of unnecessarily revealed valuable information) with confidence in longevity of the upcoming Russian-American love fest.

...girlfriends:

Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast, with whom he reportedly had a child;
Wendi Deng, former wife of Rupert Murdoch and also a friend of Ivanka Trump;
Calendar girl Alisa Kharcheva.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3518109/Pussy-Putin-Did-president-buy-luxury-flat-beauty-queen-40-YEARS-junior-Link-calender-girl-Miss-April-23-amid-claims-s-dating-Wendy-Deng.html

No wonder Trump likes him so much

Hey... nothing wrong with being a lady's man especially in Putin's position. If I'd be him I'd go all out in that department too. Say, you wouldn't?  

Just to put it all in perspective: the only time ever sitting US president got standing ovation in the UN as an expression of unequivocal world's support was Bill Clinton when he was going through his Monica trials.  

On Russian-language forums the most popular topic at the time was a letter to American people offering an exchange of "your sinners for our saints."  

The other thing, have you seen the commercial by any chance: an old man (in his mid 60s maybe) with well worked out muscular body is reading at swimming pool then suddenly gets up and begins walking towards diving platform and all the as young women at the pool as in teen/20-something young begin following him with their eyes. Do you think any of them would consider him dirty old man if he paid them some attention? I don't think so. Putin is a super-successful dude who btw,  unlike Trump is totally self-made and in great physical shape. Little surprise that he's popular with women across spectrum.

-- Modified on 12/21/2016 3:10:45 PM

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