Syrian Army liberates Homs and is greeted by thousands in the street

I was in Syria before the civil war.People used to live normal lives there.Ok, there was no democracy but i didn't get the impression that Assad was especially brutal.It was a very secular society with plenty of Christians around and little sectarianism.

Aleppo and Damascus were amazing cities, everyone was very friendly, especially towards me as a foreigner and crime was unheard of.

This was only about 7 years ago.I bet the average Syrian would give anything to go back to that.

I expect you could say the same for Libya and Iraq also.

Most Syrians I met in Saudi were fine people Davy,educated and secular,our interference has been another massive mistake. Just who on earth has been driving this ? America,UK ,France or the EU ?

It's crazy treetop.I don't understand it at all.I mean if your goal is to wipe out ISIS and "moderate" Al Nusra who are Al Qaeda, then Assad should be your natural ally.

Same with Gaddafi and Saddam, none of them tolerated Islamist terrorism.
Assad's father levelled the city of Hama in 1982 to wipe out an Islamist uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Hama_massacre they did't dare try anything after that.

I'm not a consiracy theorist but this whole thing has me perplexed, there is far more going on than meets the eye.

By the way here are some facts about life under the "brutal" Gaddafi taken from CNN (not especially pro Gaddafi)in 2011 http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-884508

There was  no electricity bills in Libya; electricity is free … for all its citizens.
• There was  no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
• If a Libyan is unable to find employment after graduation, the state would  pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.
• Should Libyans want to take up a farming career, they receive farm land, a house, equipment, seed and livestock to kick start their farms –this was all for free.
• Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
• A home was considered a human right in Libya. (In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.”)
• All newlyweds in Libya would receive 60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000 ) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start a family.
• A portion of Libyan oil sales is or was  credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
• A mother who gives birth to a child would  receive US $5,000.
• When a Libyan buys a car, the government would  subsidizes 50% of the price.
• The price of petrol in Libya was  $0.14 per liter.
• For $ 0.15, a Libyan local could  purchase 40 loaves of bread.
• Education and medical treatments was all  free in Libya. Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the Arab and African World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of charge.
• If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government would fund  them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US $2,300/month accommodation and car allowance.
• 25% of Libyans have a university degree. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. Today the figure is 87%.
• Libya had  no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – though much of this is now frozen globally.

This is Hilary Clintons reaction to hearing of his death...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxIp8YBww3Q

the west misjudged this hugely

Not sure what Stringer is suggesting here ?  The syrian arab army ?  you mean the syrian army ?  assads gov forces ? a large part of whom defected and were fighting assads army along with many others ,not sure where "isis" fits in to all this tbh .
this has been ongoing since 2011 ,so what are you suggesting ?

from what i understand there is many many factions fighting in syria but in homs the the main force fighting assads gov force was a large section of his own forces which defected ,the uprising was against the govs oppressive regime ,but here you are suggestion this was never the case ? its all been something else and no one in syria was unhappy with the gov ?

Any country that is not massively in debt to national banks owned by.... erm..... owned by whoever, seems to become a target for 'the west'

Islamic State were never in Homs

I think (in Libya certainly) when the 'brave freedom fighters' were celebrating victory, they weren't shouting 'when do we get the McDonalds and Starbucks?'

I'm pretty sure it was 'Allah Akbahr!'

I think that might have been a clue right there.

OP long gone and wont be returning any time soon