The Syria Thread 2011 - Present

[Iamwhomiam]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's just that the NWO coach benched O & brought in P.

Same ol', same ol', for another 40 years.

[justdrew]

starkly faced with reality, a sudden outbreak of sanity?

seriously, we have been pursuing an insane policy based on nothing, there's not a damn thing wrong with Assad running the country, we have ZERO need to fuck with that government. Leave it the hell alone.

This for instance, is a god-damn lie: "He is a mass murderer who has tortured, gassed, and bombed the Syrian people."

but something the USA is absolutely guilty of in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least.

and we support so-called Allies that PHYSICALLY crucify and behead their own people, when EXACTLY are we going to start long-overdue proceedings to remove the Saudi Regime?

White House decides to leave Syrian president Assad in power — for now
International Business Times, Erin Banco | 09 Oct 2015 at 20:39 ET

The White House is changing its Syria strategy again. After years of calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad, the Obama administration has privately decided that, for now, it is in the United States' interest that Assad remain in power. The policy change would allow Russia to continue its military intervention in the country, analysts and White House senior political advisers say.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that it would end the training of anti-Assad rebels. The announcement came at the same time as senior White House officials began putting together a plan to implement local ceasefires in the country -- a tactic that would work only if Assad is in place for negotiations. National Security Council staffers, including senior coordinator for the Middle East Rob Malley, are advising Obama that having Assad in power is the best way to keep discussions open with Russia and prevent the Islamic State group from gaining ground.

“They don’t want Assad to fall right now, because they don’t want ISIS to take over everything,” said Mohammed Ghanem, a senior political adviser in Washington at the Syrian American Council, a grassroots organization based in Chicago.

Not everyone in the administration agrees on that strategy. Top U.S. officials including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and Secretary of State John Kerry, who have both pushed for a no-fly zone in Syria, want the United States to put more pressure on Assad.

Growing chaos in Syria over the past week prompted congressional lawmakers to speak out as well.

“To accept Assad’s presence in Syria dooms any prospect for peace. He is a mass murderer who has tortured, gassed, and bombed the Syrian people. The graphic images of torture and death presented before our committee ... leave no question that Assad is a war criminal,” Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, told International Business Times. “He must go.”

The long-standing disagreement in the administration intensified this week when Russia began bombing rebel targets in Syria: Those rebels had been trained and supported by Washington.

State Department spokesperson John Kirby dodged questions in a press briefing Friday about whether the U.S. knew that Russia was going to begin airstrikes. He said only that Russia's actions did not deter the administration from cooperating with Moscow. Kremlin airstrikes have hit both rebels and Islamic State targets in the past week.

Analysts suspect the U.S. knew about Russia's plan and allowed it to go forward.

"The Russians have been warning about doing this for years," said Andrew Tabler, a Syrian expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a D.C. think tank. "The U.S. doesn't have a military policy to counter Russia's actions in Syria. What we are basically saying is that what they are doing is okay."

Ghanem said the "U.S. got played."

"Putin thinks Obama isn't going to do anything about this, so he is just going to do whatever he wants," Ghanem said.

The disarray within the administration was visible in the competing remarks from different departments. In a press briefing Thursday, Kirby said the U.S. was “seeing increasing fragility” in the Assad regime in large part because of the U.S. support for the moderate opposition. But Friday, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said he “wasn’t happy with the early efforts” of the program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels.

The train-and-equip program will halt the "train" aspect because it was difficult to find fighters who wanted to battle only ISIS and not Assad.

“Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is now directing the Department of Defense to provide equipment packages and weapons to a select group of vetted leaders and their units so that over time they can make a concerted push into territory still controlled by ISIL,” a Pentagon statement said. “We will monitor the progress these groups make and provide them with air support as they take the fight to ISIL.”

The U.S. will now be working primarily with the Kurdish fighters in Syria, not the moderate rebels.

Ghanem said the National Security Council will meet next week to talk about implementing the local ceasefires in Syria. The U.S. will also keep discussions open with Russia in order to avoid a direct military confrontation.

“The U.S. has had an arms-length approach on Syria and they still do,” Ghanem said. “It’s the president. He does not want to intervene. It all boils down to one man.”

[AlicetheKurious]

I posted a few pages ago, an analytic piece translated from the Arabic, which basically said that the US did, indeed, "get played", and that it would withdraw from Syria in exchange for Russia not exposing the evidence in its possession, that "ISIS"/Daesh is a proxy of the US. That information is already common knowledge in the region, but still considered a wild "conspiracy theory" among people in the West. I'm trying to imagine how American taxpayers would react, when confronted with proof that their government spent hundreds of millions of their tax dollars fighting the US' own puppet.

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, Pravda also published an article claiming that Russia has satellite images of the 9/11 attacks, which conclusively prove it was a US false flag operation that involved US intelligence and military agencies. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it could have been a threat.

[Elvis]

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, Pravda also published an article claiming that Russia has satellite images of the 9/11 attacks, which conclusively prove it was a US false flag operation that involved US intelligence and military agencies.

Now that is interesting.



To the topic, I wonder whose idea it was, under the cirumstances, to drop the whole anti-Assad thing and run away? Was it Obama? Or his 'advisors'? Or was it basically the only choice? When I saw the news, I felt a big relief. But hard to think the movers behind these efforts will give up so easily.


Sorry I don't have more to contribute to this general discussion, but I'm following closely; if WWIII breaks out it'll be nice to have some idea of why.

[AlicetheKurious]

[zangtang]

'....and the oscar for short-form documentary goes to......'

[justdrew]

well, time to topple the regime in Turkey, look... they bomb gas and torture their own people...

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/at-least-86-dead-in-attack-on-ankara-peace-rally/

[jingofever]

I posted a few pages ago, an analytic piece translated from the Arabic, which basically said that the US did, indeed, "get played", and that it would withdraw from Syria in exchange for Russia not exposing the evidence in its possession, that "ISIS"/Daesh is a proxy of the US. That information is already common knowledge in the region, but still considered a wild "conspiracy theory" among people in the West. I'm trying to imagine how American taxpayers would react, when confronted with proof that their government spent hundreds of millions of their tax dollars fighting the US' own puppet.

Is there proof?

[kool maudit]

This New York Times article explains (in a State Department-approved manner, doubtlessly) the US' decision to end its rebel training program:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world ... .html?_r=0

Don't worry, though, because the arms dealing part isn't over. In fact, it's been streamlined:

"Defense Department training sites across the Middle East, including ones in Turkey and Jordan, will soon suspend almost all operations, officials said, in favor of a revamped program that briefly screens Arab rebel commanders of existing Syrian units before equipping them with much-needed ammunition and, potentially, small arms. Initial airdrops of equipment could begin as early as this weekend, officials said."

[AlicetheKurious]

Is there proof?

No, except in the sense of: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." The writer posted his analysis at the very beginning of the Russian campaign in Syria, as the US was alternating between saber-rattling and accusing Russia of killing civilians instead of the terrorists. Regardless, he predicted that the US would sell out its proxies in Syria and leave them to Russia's tender mercies, and he provided a rational explanation for why. We'll have to see whether if any of those "existing Syrian units" that the US will be arming show up. So far, the writer appears to be right on target (excuse the pun).

[AlicetheKurious]

Former insurgents in Deraa flock to take advantage of President Bashar's amnesty to Syrian citizens who surrender their weapons and vow in writing never again to take up arms against their country.

[Nordic]

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/10 ... g-roberts/

A Decisive Shift In The Power Balance Has Occurred — Paul Craig Roberts
October 10, 2015 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: | Print This Article Print This Article
A Decisive Shift In The Power Balance Has Occurred

Paul Craig Roberts

The world is beginning to realize that a seachange in world affairs occured on September 28 when President Putin of Russia stated in his UN speech that Russia can no longer tolerate Washington’s vicious, stupid, and failed policies that have unleashed chaos, which is engulfing the Middle East and now Europe. Two days later, Russia took over the military situation in Syria and began the destruction of the Islamic State forces.

Perhaps among Obama’s advisors there are a few who are not drowning in hubris and can
understand this seachange. Sputnik news reports that some high-level security advisors to Obama have advised him to withdraw US military forces from Syria and give up his plan to overthrow Assad. They advised Obama to cooperate with Russia in order to stop the refugee flow that is overwhelming Washington’s vassals in Europe. The influx of unwanted peoples is making Europeans aware of the high cost of enabling US foreign policy. Advisors have told Obama that the idiocy of the neoconservatives’ policies threaten Washington’s empire in Europe.

Several commentators, such as Mike Whitney and Stephen Lendman, have concluded, correctly, that there is nothing that Washington can do about Russian actions against the Islamic State. The neoconservatives’ plan for a UN no-fly zone over Syria in order to push out the Russians is a pipedream. No such resolution will come out of the UN. Indeed, the Russians have already established a de facto no-fly zone.

Putin, without issuing any verbal threats or engaging in any name-calling, has decisively shifted
the power balance, and the world knows it.

Washington’s response consists of name-calling, bluster and more lies, some of which is echoed by some of Washington’s ever more doubtful vassals. The only effect is to demonstrate Washington’s impotence.

If Obama has any sense, he will dismiss from his government the neoconservative morons who have squandered Washington’s power, and he will focus instead on holding on to Europe by working with Russia to destroy, rather than to sponsor, the terrorism in the Middle East that is overwhelming Europe with refugees.

If Obama cannot admit a mistake, the United States will continue to lose credibility and prestige around the world.

[Iamwhomiam]

Styrofoam is in use everywhere, in every country. We've banned its use in few us localities. While there are battles occurring, life still continues as capitalism demands. Large stocks of such polluting containers are kept close to regional markets in order to serve those markets. It would not be uncommon that many millions of all sort of styrofoam containers and cups and dishes to be kept on hand in warehouses, especially so after the conclusion of the recent Haj.

And if that warehouse was thought to be strategic location, you've got some sort of protection to cushion some the impacts involved in an assault against those using it for strategic military purposes.

[Grizzly]

[Iamwhomiam]

Alice, I do very much appreciate your sharing your perspective, especially because it's unique among others shared her, and I thank you. I missed your long absence (and still miss C2w?'s too) and I'm glad you decided too return. But I'm going to play Devil's advocate for a moment...

It seems those in your first photograph have just surrendered their weapons, or so we're to believe. But it could also be taken as payday at the local factory. The second photograph seems to show a very few weapons compared to the number in the crowd, and the third looks like the Monday Tribune's coverage of the weekend's take in Chicago.

Propaganda works. We are all susceptible to it.

If we're to place well deserved blame on the US, we also must hold responsible those natives enabling their misadventures. Let's not make out every actor as saintly, for war of any sort takes sinners of all stripes.