www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Message from Orthodox Syria

So how has the intensification of hostilities by Mr. Putin a relief for these Christians and other people who have been in the middle of this war for so many years?

Alex

It is sad when long time forum friendships are destroyed by political differences of opinion.

The airstrikes have evidently taken some pressure off of the Syrian government and allowed for some territory to be taken back. So evidently they have brought some relief. How lasting, time will tell.

I apologise, Alice, if I have done that. I'm simply raising a question.

This is how my friends and I discuss things over coffee! It really is the European way.

Swan has answered my question, which was not intended to be rhetorical.

Time will tell and I certainly agree with that assessment.

I let off some steam on the other thread only because I was giving a knee-jerk reaction to your comment that I'm just indiscriminately anti-Russian.

Yes, I did report that and yes, the Administrator responded by saying he sympathizes with you on that score because, from his POV, Ukrainians (along with about a couple of dozen other former imperial subjects of the Russian empire) do have a knee-jerk reaction to what Russia does.

The fact that there is no longer a "USSR" does not mean that it has gone away. We see that it hasn't and the leader of the Russian Federation is on record as bemoaning the dismemberment of the USSR. Also, that he considers the body of Lenin to be venerable and, may God forgive me for repeating this, is on an even level with the holy relics of the Venerable Saints of the Kyiv Caves Lavra . . .

Perhaps people like me are very skeptical about the end of the USSR - we believe it has just undergone a metamorphosis with the ROC continuing to do now what it always did (beginning with Patriarch Sergius) under the communists.

Also, the imperial situation there involving Russia didn't begin with the USSR - it began much earlier. This was the source of my disagreement with the Administrator. Just as he considered my being Ukrainian an issue with being objective about Russia/USSR, so too I consider him being an American an issue with being objective about Russian history.

That I over-reacted was part and parcel of the whole situation. We all have our biases - as a sociologist, I know that it is impossible for us not to have them. The Administrator is biased, you are and I am.

We try not to step on one another's toes, but that enterprise inevitably fails now and then.

Do I have strong feelings about certain issues? Yes, I do as I know you do as well. As Swan has said, time will tell who is right and who is wrong in Syria right now and I'm content to leave it at that while giving my view of the matter.

I apologise for being overly emotional and I have been like that over the course of a few years here because I do care about certain things which are even personal for me.

But I would chuck it all in right now if my caustic style here upsets you. I apologise for doing that and it is best that I just shut up on certain matters!

Alex

But this shouldn't be used to conclude that Putin is doing anything more than serving his own interests. Again, time will tell.

Alex

Of course Putin's policy is self-serving. I don't think anyone here seriously denies that. Similarly, I think it's safe to bet that Assad's protection of Christians and religious minorities is dictated by political necessity rather than some ideal of tolerance.

I think it's clear though that Russia will be there for the long haul, owing to its serious strategic interests in Syria.

Swan, you are the Wan!!

(How did you become so knowledgeable on foreign policy and affairs?)

I bow to you sir!

Alex

I hope so. May God protect the Christians through the actions of Russia.

May Putin also stop killing Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and work toward ending that conflict as well . . .

Give it a rest Alex. Sheesh! Alice is correct....you just can't help yourself. For every anti-Putin propaganda story relating to Ukraine....you can find an anti-Ukrainian story.

Let us pray that all the killing stops!!!

I just thank God that Russia is giving some relief to the genocide of Christians in Syria and Iraq. If you can't appreciate that without spouting your usual venom toward Putin.....then maybe you should keep your fingers off the keyboard for a while.

And if you can't appreciate that a forum with a bunch of Ukrainian and Rusyn Catholics isn't going to appreciate pro-Putin pandering maybe you should do the same.

Maybe the bigger problem is our own perceived weakness. Granted, we are not weak. Our current policies and avoidance of any significant engagements in the Middle East give Putin the belief that we are weak. No surprise then that he exploits it for his own gain.

No. We are not perceived as weak. We are perceived as meddlers who make everything worse, which, surprise, we are and have been for quite a while. It is precisely by throwing our weight around, in places where we shouldn't, that created the present situation in Iraq and Syria. And, again, only a serious case of historical amnesia could pin this simply on the current administration. It's one thing to be ignorant of things that happened before you were born, it's another to forget stuff you lived through in the past 15 years. The solution is not deeper American intervention. The decline of the American superpower will be better for everyone in the long run.