We can move all of the SAMs we want, it isn't going to change the balance of power. If we shoot down an American aircraft you can expect every SAM in Syria to be destroyed in response. If we escalate it past that you are talking about WWIII. With someone as unhinged as Trump he is not the guy I want to play a game of nuclear chicken with.
Iran has had every reason and opportunity to attack the Americans in Iraq... why haven't they done it yet? The IRIAF and their rusted F-14/F-5s are no match for the USAF, they know it despite what propaganda they play.
Perhaps that is the answer... the Cuban missile crisis... clearly the US does not respect anything but brute force... Offer to gift Iran some serious weapons to help them defend their border with US and terrorist held Syria... a couple of thousand T-72s and let them pay the contracts to upgrade to T-72SM3 level or better, plus a donation of upgraded Su-27 aircraft... Su-27SM, and a production licence for R-77 missiles... things they would find useful against US and Israeli attacks (the aircraft... not the tanks of course). And of course licence production for late model T-72s or perhaps T-90s, and Su-30SM aircraft...
It would also be a case of finding how the US forces are supplied in occupied Syrian territory and cutting them off...
Obviously there is little in economic terms the Russians can do, but make a point of calling it an illegal occupation in the same way they talk about the Crimea as being annexed by Russia.
I don't believe the chemical issue will even come up, we are not stupid enough to use them and the US doesn't have a decent enough justification to intervene.
Douma and the Skripals show that anything will do when they want to intervene...
First we have to kick the Turks out, then figure out how to get the Americans out.
I think the Americans are the bigger problem... they hold the money making areas... Turkey is just afraid of 3.5 million civilians moving over the border to add to the huge number already there... which is perfectly understandable.
The Americans on the other hand are just being
of the lowest order. They have to be dealt with eventually and the longer you leave it the more entrenched they will become... like bloody cockroaches... except cockroaches are cute... have you seen that movie "Joes' Apartment"?
It is far too early to be talking about reconstruction.
It has already started...
BTW may I ask about reason for grudge against Turkey?
Turkey is not a natural ally of Russia...
But then neither is Germany or Japan, but they can still work with Russia and do good things... things that benefit both sides.
Putn is well aware of that and is in Syria not because of Assad.
Don't hear that enough... Russia is not in Syria to protect Assad... Russia is there to keep a stable government in power to benefit the Syrian people... it does not matter whether the leader is Assad or someone else to Russia, but having a stable government in power and in control is the difference between Syria now and Libya now. No matter how pure of heart of the justification for opposition, when there are 1,000 different anti Assad factions, then removing Assad and letting them try to sort things out is anarchy and chaos and not in the interests of Syrian people (no matter how they feel about Assad).
Turkey and the US either don't understand or more likely simply don't give a shit about the Syrian people.
Turkey however will give a shit because if there is chaos on its border then the PKK could make something of it that is not in Turkeys future interests.
His rhetoric is already in violation of the Astana agreement, I see why the Americans don't trust him either as he will stab you in the back at a moments notice.
He is totally predictable... he doesn't want 3.5 million more refugees in Turkey... especially the assholes in Idlib... I mean this place has been receiving the total ISIS cowards running away from other occupied Syrian cities and their families... considering the people going there I would suggest the civilians living there either can put up with real scum or are family members of the scum of Syria and the region... not to mention the terrorists hiding amongst them...
Because the US will respond and they will hit them ten times harder. Iran is also dependent on pipelines, it would be nothing for the US to take those out. Now that all of the Western companies have pulled out there is nothing for them to lose.
I read an article by an American about how Iran wouldn't close off the Persian gulf to traffic because it would hurt them too... if the US attacked their oil industry, either directly or by demanding everyone stop buying it (they have tried the latter but not successfully), then they would have nothing to lose by closing off the gulf to shipping...
The state holding it back has always been worrying about relations with Turkey. No one really cares about relations with Turkey anymore and as they crumble it opens the door for the Kurds.
Except that the states that want a kurdish state are the US and Israel... Turkey doesn't want it, nor does Iraq, or Iran, or Syria, because they all lose land and valuable resources.
Attempts to carve out a Kurdistan would result in Iran and Iraq and Syria and Turkey likely motivated to use land forces to prevent it.
Turkey is sending 20,000 of its proxy army terrorists from Afrin and Euphrates Shield to fight Assad.
Hope Assad has a lot of ammo... better to kill them on the field of battle than negotiate with them and have them as part of the new government of Syria...
If only they could separate the civilians and just take on the terrorists... of course they could just do what America does and state any human beings left in Idlib when we start our attack will be considered terrorist and therefore fair game... they might as well because the western media is going to have trouble keeping up with all the Schools and Hospitals and Churches being destroyed by Assad and the Russians...