China again calls for political solution to Syrian crisis

[Chinese-Dragon]

This is exactly Chinese and Russian proposal. The task for great power is to clean and stop foreign terrorist mercenaries (as Russia does now). The task to bring a final solution to the civil war falls on the Syrian peoples themselves -- real Syrian people holding Syrian passports, not Uzbek, Arab, Uighur or Chechen terrorists imported through Turkey and Jordan.

Russia probably has the best approach to this problem.

I.e. Stop playing politics and just kill the terrorists.

I really don't understand those guys who think IS is fine as long as they are against Assad. It's lunacy.

 

[TaiShang]

Russia probably has the best approach to this problem.

I.e. Stop playing politics and just kill the terrorists.

I really don't understand those guys who think IS is fine as long as they are against Assad. It's lunacy.

They in fact hypocritically try to distinguish between ISIS and other anti-Syrian factions inside Syria. That's blatant unrealistic because all the non-Syrian factions operating in Syria are terrorists by international law.

These groups, including FSA, are involved in mass killings, rape and looting in places they captured. These are all radical Sunni-Salafist terrorists who believe that killing Alawites and leftists/seculars is by religion legitimate.

Russia is just doing what should have been done in the very beginning by not distinguishing among different shades of terrorists.

***

It took Russia 1 day to hit several ‪#‎ISIL‬ targets in ‪#‎Syria‬, as opposed to wreaking havoc in the country for months. ‪#‎HowItsDone ‪#‎RussiaVsISIL‬



Russia Moves to Stabilize the Mideast Region not ‘Destroy it Like US’

***

US Complains as Russia Bombs Its Terrorists

The New York Times in its recent article, “Russians Strike Targets in Syria, but Not ISIS Areas,” attempts to frame Russia’s recent actions in Syria as dishonest and dangerous. It reports:

Russian aircraft carried out a bombing attack against Syrian opposition fighters on Wednesday, including at least one group trained by the C.I.A., eliciting angry protests from American officials and plunging the complex sectarian war there into dangerous new territory.

This of course would only make Russia’s actions dishonest or dangerous if groups trained by the US CIA were in fact the “moderates” the US claims they are. However, they are not, and thus Russia’s actions are duly justified as is the expansion of their current policy.

There Are no Moderates, and There Never Were

For months now, after years of headlines confirming the US has been covertly arming militants in Syria for the purpose of overthrowing the government in Damascus, a narrative revolving around tens of thousands of these militants “defecting” to Al Nusra and the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS/ISIL) has been peddled to the public by the Western media and US politicians to account for the apparent failure of America’s alleged policy of creating an army of “moderates” to both fight ISIS/Al Qaeda and the Syrian government.

In reality, from the beginning, there were never any moderates. Starting as early as 2007, years before the war in Syria began, the US as a matter of policy had long since decided to intentionally fund and support the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood – for all intents and purposes the political wing of Al Qaeda – and begin arming militants affiliated with Al Qaeda itself.

This was revealed in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s 2007 New Yorker article titled, “The Redirection Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?,” which stated explicitly (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Hersh’s prophetic 9-page report would also reveal that even then, the extremist Syrian Muslim Brotherhood was already receiving funding and support from the United States via Saudi Arabia. His report revealed (emphasis added):

There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.” He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents.

By 2011, Al Qaeda’s affiliates in Syria, most notably the Al Nusra Front, began operating nation-wide, taking the lead in the US-backed fight against Damascus. By 2012, when the US State Department listed Al Nusra as a foreign terrorist organization, it was clear even then, that the largest contingent of anti-government forces on the battlefield was Al Qaeda.

The US State Department’s official statement regarding Al Nusra reported that:

Since November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations – in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed.

It is clear that Al Qaeda was not only involved in the conflict since its beginning, but also led it. This betrays current US rhetoric that Al Qaeda had only entered the fight later on, seizing on the chaos created by “moderates” and their fight with Damascus. It is clear that it was Al Qaeda itself that drove that chaos from the beginning, and is still driving this chaos to this day.

The Rhetorical Pipeline

To explain how America’s fictional “moderate” army has been displaced on the battlefield in Syria by Al Qaeda and ISIS, the US claims that its multi-billion dollar nearly 5-year operation has suffered from massive defections.

The Guardian would report in its article, “Free Syrian Army rebels defect to Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra,” that:

Pentagon-trained rebels in Syria are reported to have betrayed their American backers and handed their weapons over to al-Qaeda in Syria immediately after re-entering the country. Fighters with Division 30, the “moderate” rebel division favoured by the United States, surrendered to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, a raft of sources claimed on Monday night.

What this news, admitted to by the West itself, of these US-backed “moderates” joining Al Qaeda’s ranks by the thousands proves is that at the very least America’s policy of building up a moderate opposition has failed entirely. What documented evidence stretching back as far as 2007 proves is that the US had no intention of building up a moderate opposition in the first place, and news of “defections” are simply cover for the direct funding and arming of Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria.

At the very least, Russia bombing these groups either having already defected to Al Qaeda, or inevitably going to defect to Al Qaeda, is doing the Pentagon a favor.

Russia is Bombing Al Qaeda

This leads back to the most recent New York Times article. Russia is not arbitrarily bombing “moderates” backed by the US in Syria to stave off allegedly “legitimate” opposition to the government in Damascus – Russia is bombing terrorists who are either operating under the banner of Al Qaeda but are portrayed as otherwise by the US, or will inevitably end up turning their fighters and weapons over to Al Qaeda. Russia is bombing Al Qaeda.

The New York Times article would also claim:

“By supporting Assad and seemingly taking on everybody fighting Assad,” Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Wednesday, Russia is “taking on the whole rest of the country that’s fighting Assad.” Some of those groups, he added, are supported by the United States and need to be part of a political resolution in Syria.

Indeed, Russia is undoubtedly bombing militants supported by the United States, but that is only because the United States has intentionally supported Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria. At any time if the United States truly wanted to strike an irreparable blow at ISIS forces, it could simply seal off the Turkish border across which the summation of ISIS’ supplies, fighters, weapons, and vehicles flow. By securing the Turkish-Syrian border to the north, and the Jordanian-Syrian border in the south, the United States could strangle ISIS out of existence in a month, if not sooner.

That it has intentionally allowed ISIS supplies to flow out from under the nose of its allies and its own military forces stationed both in Jordan and in Turkey, indicates the the US at the very least is tacitly perpetuating the existence of ISIS – but most likely is actively involved in filling the trucks bound for ISIS in Syria as well.

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter claims that the Russian position is “doomed,” in what appears to be a pledge by the United States to resist Moscow’s attempts to stamp out Al Qaeda groups in addition to taking on and eliminating ISIS.

Some might consider doubling down on a policy of backing terrorists that will inevitably be revealed to the world, and a policy that has thus far failed to topple the Syrian government which is now being bolstered by Russian, Iranian, and possibly Chinese forces, is a policy that is ultimately doomed.

And finally, it must be noted, for those still doubting ISIS is in fact an intentional creation of US foreign policy, that ISIS is now fighting the combined military forces of Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, and now Russia. One must ask themselves who has the material resources, finances, and operational capacity to support a single army capable of taking on a multinational coalition of this size. Where, if not from the US and its regional allies, is ISIS deriving the source of its fighting capacity?

Claiming to fight ISIS, while so transparently supporting them, is indeed a doomed position, one doomed to fail today, and one doomed to eternal condemnation in the future.

Source: US Complains as Russia Bombs Its Terrorists

 

[terranMarine]

Assad got the Russian insurance and China backing up, with these 2 mighty powers on its side and now with Iran forces joining hands in the battlefield, these terrorists will receive some a*skicking

 

[TaiShang]

Russia's air campaign targets terrorists in Syria, not support Assad government: FM
Xinhua Published: 2015-10-2 10:21:48

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday strongly defended his country's bombing campaign in Syria, saying it is targeting terrorist groups and not aimed at keeping President Bashar Al Assad in power.

"We always said we are going to fight ISIL (Islamic State)," he said at a press conference here on the sidelines of the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly, which entered its fourth day Thursday.

There have been accusations that Moscow was targeting armed groups in opposition to Assad, groups supported or protected by the US-led coalition.

"We see eye to eye with" the US-led coalition on targeting ISIL, al Nusra and other terrorist groups, Lavrov noted. "We have the same approach."

The foreign minister said Russia is acting on "the request of President Assad" and after the Russian parliament granted approval to Russian President Vladimir Putin to send air forces in Syria.
"The goal is terrorism and we are not supporting anyone against their own people. We fight terrorism."

Somehow, some people try to present the coalition action as leading to a political settlement and Russia fighting the same people is being perceived or presented like defending the regime, he said.

"It's absolutely unfair and I believe honest journalism is required in this situation," he said.

On Wednesday, Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed their militaries would consult as soon as possible to avoid conflict in air operations that could cause unintended conflict or tragedy.

 

[Sanchez]

I shared the points made by @Beidou2000 and fully support Russia's intervention in Syria. I hope China could do something to support Russia. We have been closing our eyes on Saudi Arabia's and Turkey's support on spread of religious extremism into XJ. We shouldn't be customed to wait until the terrorists act at home. As a coordination with Russians I think China should provide more military aid to Iraq, Iran and Iraqi Kurds.

 

[TaiShang]

I shared the points made by @Beidou2000 and fully support Russia's intervention in Syria. I hope China could do something to support Russia. We have been closing our eyes on Saudi Arabia's and Turkey's support on spread of religious extremism into XJ. We shouldn't be customed to wait until the terrorists act at home. As a coordination with Russians I think China should provide more military aid to Iraq, Iran and Iraqi Kurds.

China should definitely track and hunt down terrorists in Syria without committing ground troops.

More importantly, at home a deliberately brutal campaign must be carried out against the separatist and religious extremist forces, including bulldozing all illegal schools, religious buildings and other avenues -- regardless of religion or political belief.

Religious and separatist extremism can only be contained and killed off through absolute iron fist policies.

These fringe groups cannot be reasoned with, gained over or moderated. Annihilation of one generation of radical extremists is required for the sake of the coming generations.

@Beidou2020

***

US supplied al-qaeda with advanced weapons through their 'moderate' terrorist training program.



These are what Russia is trying to fry at the moment.

 

[opruh]

China can provide some weapons to Assad troops while leave the rest to Russia. Chinese and Russian troops on the ground will be an overkill I think.

 

[mike2000 is back]

These are partly Syrian diaspora and partly those Saudi and other Gulf rich diaspora along with certain right wing radical segments of the white US people.

They are terrorist sympathizers. Russia has been frying their close allies in Syria, including ISIS, Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and free Syrian army terrorists.



China is involved. But in its own way. Russia is more than capable of annihilating Western supported terrorists in Syria militarily. And China provides all the required political support, including at the very top of international governance, UNSC.

China and Russia, in this sense, is the two facets of the alternative global order. This is just like how you constructed your own Western order. At times, US or Britain is involved militarily and others provide political support.

This Syrian anti-terrorism war is in fact a very significant indicator of the rise of an alternative order spearheaded by China and Russia, with each mobilizing their own capabilities to achieve certain geopolitical ends.

I guess you should be concerned but if the West feels alright, that's good for us.



This is exactly Chinese and Russian proposal. The task for great power is to clean and stop foreign terrorist mercenaries (as Russia does now). The task to bring a final solution to the civil war falls on the Syrian peoples themselves -- real Syrian people holding Syrian passports, not Uzbek, Arab, Uighur or Chechen terrorists imported through Turkey and Jordan.

LOOL China isn't involved at all. Which i think is the right thing to do for China. Why will it get involved in something it has no stake in, just because it wants to please Russia?? What you call China being involved at the 'highest level of international governance in UNSC talks' with all due respect is pure bullshit .lol Since we all know the REAL DEAL is taking place on the field in Syria itself.You think U.K/France/U.S/Russia give a shit about what happens at the UN?? They all will carry on as if nothing ever happened in UN, since we all know its on the battle field that the final outcome will be determined. So if China cant join in some form militarily, it should stay out of it like it has been doing(which i think is a good thing), China has its own SCS issues to look after which is more than enough for it to handle.

As i said before, Russia has a huge stake in this conflict because it not only has a huge strategic military base in Syria which acts as a gateway for it to project power in the region, but it also has been Syria's main ally/supporter for decades. So if the Syrian regime was to fall, it will be a huge set back for Russia, not so for China who has never really had any major interests/stake in Syria at all.

So it normal for China to call for a 'Political negotiated solution' to this crisis, which is an indirect diplomatic way of saying: NOT MY BUSINESS. So i'm with Chinese leaders on this one. Russia would have loved China to send in military personnel or support it militarily in Syria which would have acted as a huge boost to Russia's own military involvement in the country, but China smartly distanced itself from this and denied any military involvement, something which embarrassed Russia. Russian media likes to write bullshit as always. lol China’s military advisers ‘heading to Syria to help fight ISIS’ – report — RT News A Chinese Aircraft Carrier Docks in Syria to Support Russia and Iran | Alternative but Chinese leaders/Authorities embarrassed Russia yet again by saying : Xi: military adventure "never crosses our mind" - Xinhua | English.news.cn , Chinese naval expert denies PLA joining fight against ISIS｜WCT

So China is not and will never involve itself in any military action in Syria, NO MATTER HOW MUCH RUSSIA WISH IT DID. lol As i said before, you should never club China and Russia together when it comes to foreign military adventures/involvement, since Russia has always been a proactive aggressive power who tends to act far from even its neighborhood, while China has always limited itself to its own territory or at best immediate neighborhood/shores. I think its a good thing though. Reason i find China to be a relatively peaceful passive Power WHEN COMPARED with Russia.

 

[TaiShang]

Putin Is Forging a New Global Alliance
Russia's intervention in Syria may signal not only its full reemergence as a world power, but a corresponding decline of the US as sole hegemon (German Economic News)


The US is starting to lose center stage

Russia's intervention in Syria has developed into something like a geo-political crime novel. The Russians have agreed alliances with China and Iran. The aim of these three great powers is to do away with the hegemony of the USA in the Middle East. This could lead to a shift in the global balance of power. Europe's role in all this might be to accept and integrate the refugees from the region.

The US government is threatened with a much greater setback in the Middle East than the loss of face involved in the greatest military power in the world being unable to defeat IS.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has quietly, but with great speed and consequence, formed a new alliance in the Middle East designed to promote the parties' interests in the region at the expense of the those of the Americans.

Pravda reports that Peking has agreed to support the Russian intervention in Syria. Igor Morozow, member of the Russian parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, told the newspaper that China had already sent one warship to the Mediterranean and was ready to deploy its military off the coast of Syria in support of Russia. Iran is also a member of the alliance and is ready to fight against IS through Hisbollah. Leonid Krukatow told the newspaper that the principal conflict in international politics is that between China and the USA. Russia is ready to co-operate with both. This development will fundamentaly alter a world order that has been fixed for years.

With the founding of an information centre, Putin has brought Iran, Syria and Iraq together on its side in the fight against IS. The New York Times reported that the states have established a common center for infromation exchange in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The German Press Agency confirmed the establishment of a co-operative centre for the respective secret services.

According to Russian agencies the centre could also be used to co-ordinate joint military operations against IS. Representatives of the General Staffs of Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran are to analyse the situation. According to reports the leadership is at present held by Iraq, and will be changed every three months.

The government in Baghdad is at present armed and supplied by the USA. The NYT reported that Iraq has nevertheless silently supported the Russians in their operations in Syria – despite the thousands of [US] military advisors active in Baghdad.

Putin is consciously fishing in waters that have up to now been a US domain. Already on Saturday he was discussing the situation in the Syrian war with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin has announced. This was the second telephone conversation within two weeks with a King whose kingdom has close military ties to the USA and is one of the chief financiers of the various armed groups [in Syria].

Saudi Arabia persues its own war in Yemen, one which has seen clear violations of human rights. The civil population is defenceless against Saudi air strikes. The territorial integrity of Yemen has long been a thing of the past. Protests about this by the EU, which has accused Russia of doing precisely this in Ukraine, remain unknown.

This development has clearly taken the USA completely by surprise. The US has not been following a clear line in foreign policy in the past weeks. While US President Barack Obama wants to co-operate with Putin, indeed has called on him to engage in Syria, the neo-cons fight against bringing in Russia.

Russia's plans for the Middle East involve much more than a victory over IS. They want to secure influence over the region's raw materials. Russia has been involved in Syria for a long time, because Syria is strategically important for Gazprom. Putin has obviously been waiting for a time when the “lame duck” Obama would have limited freedom of manoeuvre. In the USA the Presidential election campaign involves all important political players. Putin wants to use this situation, not least because, due to the aggressive stance of the USA over Ukraine, he can no longer expect the relations between the two great powers to be normalized within the foreseeable future. The fact that Obama once attempted to make Russia a laughing-stock by dismissing it as “a regional power” plays no great role here. Putin behaves rationally in face of the Western reading, as one can tell from his recent interview with CBS.

This development could be very unpleasant for Europe. The large-scale attacks on IS will also hit the civilian population. There will be further expulusions and ethnic cleansing. The Russians will do nothing about this. They know that above all Germany, with its undertaking to accept all refugees from the crisis region, has made the work of the parties to the war easier.

Also, the West has discredited itself by its stance over Ukraine. After all, ethnic cleansing is also going on there. The announcement by the Prime Minister Arseni Yatsenyuk, who owes his position to the US, that Russians would do best to leave Ukraine, and the consequent driving-out of hundreds of thousands on ethnic Russians from eastern Ukraine, have given Putin a forceful argument. He can accuse the West of itself taking part in ethnic cleansing – and conclude that he has a free hand in the Middle East. He regards the EU as a refuge for those driven out.

The open invitation from the Chancellor and the resignation evident in German refugee policy in general, is a dream come true for Putin. He is an iron-hard politician, who is convinced that in a world full of threats one can only rule with an iron hand. And with this policy he finds ever more supporters. Today democratic India has done the same as Russia and decided to ban those foreign NGOs and Think-Tanks who they suspect to be engaged in political agitation.

Putin also benefits from the West's uncoordinated actions against IS. France has been threatening since the weekend to also mount air strikes against IS. The British are already militarily engaged, but given no signs of being ready to seek a diplomatic solution.

For Israel the situation for just as threatening. Iran, despite signing the Atom-Deal, has missed no opportunity to assert that Israel must disappear from the earth. The arming of Hisbollah, already aclaimed by Nasrallah, the head of the organisation, is an existential threat to Israel. Whether the Israelis and Russia have come to an agreement on this is unclear. Prime Minister Netanjahu travelled alone to Moscow to brief Putin on the situation. The Israeli government feels betrayed by the USA, since Netanyahu opposed the Iran deal to the last. Whether Mossad then already knew about the new alliance is unknown.

Just as unknown is how the USA will react. It is not to be excluded, that they will accept Putin's offer, in order not to be overtaken by events. A key role will most likely be played by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He intends to defeat the PKK and with that also the non-violent Kurdish oppositon. For months Turkey has been bombarding Kurdish positions in Syria and Iraq, without the slightest consideration for civilian casualties. It may be presumed that Erdogan has purchased the silence of the West by tolerating the presence in Turkey of two million refugees. But even that humanitarian gesture will not be an enduring one: turkey has already warned Bulgaria that the seven million refugees in Turkey are lonly waiting to find a way to Europe. Bulgaria has brought this to the attention of the EU. There has been apparently no reaction. The EU-Commisioner Johannes Hahn has given Turkey reason to believe that Visa-free travel will soon be possible. It is known that large numbers of forged travel documents are circulating in Turkey.

The new alliance, also has after-effects in close economic co-operation, especially between China and Russia. The “Silk Road Project” is the largest infrastructure project today. Wit the new Asian investment bank AIIB the Chinese and Russians have created a counterpart to the IWF, with the goal of ending the hegemony of the dollar.

In the Middle East this strategy could be widened by an attack on the Petro-Dollar. Russia would then move from being a regional power to a serious global player.

US President Obama is due to meet with Chinese leaders in the coming weeks. The prelude to this has been threats from the US government against China. The Chinese will listen with patience to the American representations. They know that they are talking to a world power whose global monopoly may soon be a thing of the past.

***

So much conflicting information out there and we will probably be able to judge the situation by only looking at the consequences.

So, at the moment, real developments on the ground (Syria) is what really matters because it is where real weapons are fired and real people are killed.

@Götterdämmerung

 

[Aepsilons]

I have never seen such total weakness and total incompetence in US leadership as in Barack Obama. Such poor comand of geopolitics, tbh.

I don't blame the Chinese and the Russians for seizing every single opportunity. And btw, this ISIS , ISIL -- was a direct consequence of Barack Obama's total support of Arab Spring in 2011. Must we remember his championing of Egypt's now-imprisoned Muslim Brotherhood Leader, Mr. Morsi.

Do we remember this?

@TaiShang

Ah....do we not remember this?

 

[TaiShang]

I have never seen such total weakness and total incompetence in US leadership as in Barack Obama. Such poor comand of geopolitics, tbh.

I don't blame the Chinese and the Russians for seizing every single opportunity. And btw, this ISIS , ISIL -- was a direct consequence of Barack Obama's total support of Arab Spring in 2011. Must we remember his championing of Egypt's now-imprisoned Muslim Brotherhood Leader, Mr. Morsi.

Do we remember this?

@TaiShang

Ah....do we not remember this?

Morsi came with a coup and gone with a coup. He was a major actor of Islamic Brotherhoodization of the Middle Eastern countries but did not last long because progressive forces in Egypt and the Egyptian Army saw in advance the danger he posed to the nation.

Keep in mind that the first Islamic Brotherhood government in the Middle East has been and is that of Turkey and everybody sees what kind of sectarian policy they have been running against Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya.

They even have some connections with Boko Haram in Somalia.

Obama has been shaky on Morsi issue because, while Qatar wanted him to be back, Saudi's sided with al-Sisi. Hence, Obama could not have sacrificed one ally for another. He chose the mid-point.

In the beginning, it was the politically correct thing to side with the (what looked like) an Arab Awakening. Except Russia, China and few other major powers, everybody was in joy because they had no grasp of the intricate history of the Middle East.

I am not sure where the good Arabist diplomats that served under Clinton Administration gone under Obama but he probably lacked a good expert opinion.

What is more disastrous is that he still wavers and stays critical of Russia's anti-terror operations in Syria. That is a very critical mistake and will cost his country dearly. I wonder if he knows Iraq, which denied to share key intel with the US, stated it is ready to share intelligence with Russia to assist its operations.

Currently, Russia, Iraq, Iran and Syria are setting up a joint communication center in Baghdad.

The effectiveness of Russian campaign will likely put the US in shame, if not under a very bad hypocritical light as far as ISIS is concerned.

Practically speaking, no one in their sane mind believes the US genuinely desired to destroy ISIS.

 

[Aepsilons]

An interesting analysis @TaiShang .

 

[LowPost]

@TaiShang I've already read the article by Robert Parry published in Consortium News. Please let me know if you know more articles addressing the "barrel bomb" allegations employed against Al-Assad. The US-led West and its allies in the Middle East are trying hard to equate the Syrian government with Daesh... Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm no fan of Al-Assad (sorry @Syrian Lion) but I'm getting tired of hearing the accusations ad nauseam.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human Rights Watch Accuses Syria Of "Barrel Bomb" Damage Created By U.S. Attacks

Human Rights Watch has been part of a sectarian anti-Syrian propaganda campaign. It is hyping the "barrel bombs", allegedly used by the Syrian government, as inhumane weapons. I have yet to see Human Rights Watch equally damning the indiscriminate use against civilians of improvised rockets by the Jihadist "moderate rebels".


Yesterday Human Rights Watch send out this tweet:

According to HRW the picture of the destroyed town is somehow related to Syrian "barrel bombs". That is not the case.

The picture was published in the New York Times on February 13, 2015.

The NYT caption says:

The predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani is devastated after months under siege by Islamist forces and airstrikes by a United States-led coalition
The picture's credentials are "Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images".

Massive U.S. bomb attacks obviously destroyed the city of Kobane. The U.S. no longer uses improvised "barrel bombs" dropped from planes and helicopters. It did use "barrel bombs" extensively in Vietnam.

Syrian "barrel bombs" did not destroy the city of Kobane. It was destroyed by regular U.S. air force bombs. Damage by "barrel bombs" could hardly be worse. Indeed "barrel bombs" thrown out of hovering helicopters are likely much better targeted and more precise than unguided bombs dropped from fast moving jets.

The Human Rights Watch tweet includes another deception. It links to a February 24 piece by the NYT as if that piece would somehow confirm HRW`s claim. But that NYT piece is not a neutral report. The piece, headlined "Syria Dropped ‘Barrel Bombs’ Despite Ban, Report Says", is solely about a HRW report about "barrel bombs" in Syria. The HRW tweet is in effect linking to its own claims disguised as a link to a reputable source.

It is interesting, and non-credible, that Human Rights Watch feels the need to use a picture of "good" U.S. created destruction to demonstrate destruction created by the "bad" Syrian army in its fight against U.S. supported Jihadis. The picture is obviously not the only thing HRW gets wrong.

Update:

This is not the first time HRW is using pictures of the "wrong" side. In October 2014 it used a picture of a woman crying over Ukrainian federalist who were burned to death by Nazi-hordes in Odessa to call for a "stand against Putin's repressive policies".

Posted by b on February 27, 2015 at 03:57 AM | Permalink

 

[TaiShang]

@TaiShang I've already read the article by Robert Parry published in Consortium News. Please let me know if you know more articles addressing the "barrel bomb" allegations employed against Al-Assad. The US-led West and its allies in the Middle East are trying hard to equate the Syrian government with Daesh... Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm no fan of Al-Assad (sorry @Syrian Lion) but I'm getting tired of hearing the accusations ad nauseam.

The issue with barrel bombs is that they are improvised weapons to use against ISIS and other terrorist groups located deep in underground tunnels.

In the absence of advanced weaponry for more deadly strikes like a million dollar Tomahawk would offer, Syrian government has to mobilize all available national capabilities. It is a sad affair of things, given how Syrian government trusted neighbors, particularly Turkey, cleaned off the mined areas in Turkey-Syria border during peace time, effectively allowing Turkey to send tens of thousands of blood-thirsty, most of them war-hardened, terrorists.

Syria has to carry out very costly urban warfare to take back those cities/town occupied by ISIS, Nusra, Jaish al Fath et cetera. Given that the war is continuing for five years now, Syrian Arab Army is tired, under-manned and already badly equipped. Sending out soldiers into those terrorist-held areas has proven to be costly. The only way to clear the areas from terrorists hiding in tunnels and basements is to employ strong explosives. Again, given Syria lacks smarter munitions, the Army has to use other improvised munitions.

A gleam of hope at the moment is the coalition strikes led by Russia, which allows Syria to carry out more deadly precision strikes, which rules out the use of barrel bombs and others. In this respect, I am waiting for Human Rights Watch to release a eulogy for President Putin for enabling SAA with higher quality, US-grade weaponry.

The effectiveness of Russian strikes is already felt on the ground. ISIS is reported to move several fighting units as well as high officials from Raqqa to deep into Iraq (Mosul). And it has also been reported that hundreds of ISIS/Nusra jihadists have moved back to Europe.

Consider this under the light of last weekend's deadly air strike by the US Army in Afghanistan against a hospital where the US strike murdered tens of doctors, patients and nurses. You won't see this on HRW complaint list.

Beyond all these, we need to keep one thing in perspective: Syrian people and its army is giving a war for national unity and independence against thousands of foreign backed terrorists. As the sole legitimate government and Army, it is within the rights of the Syrian nation to employ any possible resistance techniques for national defence.

HRW and the Western press, in the final analysis, are doing the barking for their own interests. What is important is, beyond all this hypocrisy, is where we stand politically.