Russians don't value the status Russian intervention in Syria has provided Putin:
Russians do not support President Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Syria continuing as the operation nears its second anniversary and the Russian death toll increases.
Less than a third of respondents to a survey (30 percent) want to see Russia’s military operation in support of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria continue, figures from Russian independent pollster Levada Center show. ...
The survey found that 49 percent think Moscow should end its military involvement in Syria, while 22 percent were undecided. The majority of Russians say they follow Syria-related news with 56 percent saying they are caught up with the latest developments.
And this is with low Russian casualties, perhaps as many as 50.
In the West there is a tendency to see Russian tenacity through the lens of 30 million dead Russians as the price Russia paid to defeat Nazi Germany and then join the war against Japan.
But that left a mark. And modern Russians don't seem to be eager to go down that road again.
Which is an interesting development, especially when you consider that America is the country that is supposedly so sensitive to casualties that we won't endure them.
Here we are 16 years after 9/11 and still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq despite nearly 7,000 killed in action or non-combat deaths. Russia is sensitive about reporting casualties that are in low double digits after 2 years of fighting in Syria.
Which is why I've repeatedly said that the way to stop Russia is to send body bags back to Russia to remind their people of the sacrifice Putin demands his people accept to restore imperial territory and prestige.
I know that American opinion polls about our wars would likely show similar numbers. But here we are fighting still in both countries under 3 administrations of both (or three?) parties. I suspect that our numbers reflected a worry that we were suffering deaths without trying to win.
The butcher Assad is a tough character to die for if you are a Russian, apparently.
UPDATE: In related news, Israel hit a Syrian chemical weapons facility. And the UN confirms Syrian use of poison gas earlier this year. Thank God our idiot Secretary of State Kerry in the service of the ideologically blinded President Obama legislated that capability away with that chemical weapons deal, eh? I assume they used those negotiating skills in the Iran nuclear deal.
