Russia In Syria - Look at the Map

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Four cities to look for:

Damascus is near the bottom close to Lebanon. Assad's capital city and stronghold.

Homs is about 90 miles up the main highway. That's where some of the toughest fighting is happening. ISIS claims it as the heart of their revolution.

Tartus is about 40 miles mostly west of Homs. It's a port. It's Russia's only port in Syria and is, I think, their only full-access port on the Mediterranean. If you zoom in, it isn't too impressive. But Russia can't afford to lose that access.

Latakia is about 40 miles north of Tartus. Over the last year or so Russia has been upgrading the airfield there and I believe that's where their air strikes are coming from (some missiles have come from ships in the Caspian Sea, as well).

 

[thewop]

Thanks, that was helpful background.

 

[Torg]

So that's where the shore's of Tripoli are. Now where are the halls of Montezuma?

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

So that's where the shore's of Tripoli are. Now where are the halls of Montezuma?

On the other side of the Trump Wall.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Around 80 miles north of Homs, nearing the border with Turkey, is Aleppo. That's a very important city for Assad, but I'm not aware it has any significance to Russia. Obviously if Russia can secure Homs, that makes it easier for Assad to supply and support Aleppo. And presumably Russia would help.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

A few months ago ISIS incursions into northern Lebanon were being reported. I haven't read anything on that since. Needless to say, if Russia and Assad consolidate that western part of Syria, that will help Lebanon.

You can look at that 2 ways. On one hand it takes pressure off Hezbollah (ISIS and Hezbollah are definitely not friends). Since we don't like Hezbollah, that sounds bad. On the other hand, if ISIS becomes strong in Lebanon, that could put them on Israel's norther border.

For all the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah over the years, ISIS is much worse. So while we might like for ISIS and Hezbollah to bloody each other badly, we really don't want Hezbollah to lose.

 

[cigaretteman]

So that's where the shore's of Tripoli are. Now where are the halls of Montezuma?

Actually, the Tripoli in the Marine's Hymn is the one in modern day Libya. It comes from the Tripolitan war:


Tripolitan War, (1801–05), conflict between the United States and Tripoli (now in Libya), incited by American refusal to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli; this practice had been customary among European nations and the nascent United States in exchange for immunity from attack on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean.

A demand from the pasha of Tripoli for greater tribute and his dramatic declaration of war on the United States (May 14, 1801) coincided with a decision by President Thomas Jefferson’s administration to demonstrate American resolve. Despite his opposition to the expense of maintaining a navy, Jefferson dispatched an American naval squadron to Tripolitan waters. By means of a special “Mediterranean Fund,” the navy—which had been partially dismantled and was perhaps nearing extinction—actually increased in size.

During the following years, American warships fought in the waters around Tripoli, and, in 1803, when Commodore Edward Preble became commander of the Mediterranean squadron, greater successes ensued. The intrepid Preble sailed into Tangiers to rescue a number of American prisoners, and, on Feb. 16, 1804, he ordered his young lieutenant, Stephen Decatur, to undertake the spectacular raid in which the captured U.S. frigate Philadelphia was destroyed in the harbour of Tripoli.

The combination of a strong American naval blockade and an overland expedition from Egypt finally brought the war to a close, with a treaty of peace (June 4, 1805) favourable to the United States. The other Barbary rulers, though considerably chastened, continued to receive some tribute until 1816.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Thanks for clearing that up, ciggy. That's what I thought but I was beginning to have doubts when I saw what Torq was referring to. Something I learned a very long time ago and gone rather vague.