09-23-2016, 11:04 PM
*** 24-Sep-16 World View -- Syria's al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Syria's al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble
****
![[Image: g160923b.jpg]](http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g160923b.jpg)
Aftermath of bombing in Aleppo on Friday (AP)
US Secretary of State John Kerry has once again been the major
instigator and Russia's useful idiot for what has turned out to be a
new foreign policy farce for the Obama administration. As I wrote
when the ceasefire agreement was first announced,
just a few days ago, ceasefire agreements in the
middle of a war are almost always worthless, and this one was
particularly farcical because Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has
repeatedly made clear that's he's going to massacre all the
"terrorists," by which he means all Sunni Muslim civilians, including
women and children. A real ceasefire would give new life to the
residents of Aleppo, and al-Assad wants them dead, not alive. So
there was literally a zero probability that the ceasefire would last.
The particular event that signaled the failure of this ceasefire was
the missile attack, by either Syrian or Russian warplanes, on a truck
convoy that was delivering food, water, medicines, and other
humanitarian aid to east Aleppo.
Right off, we can see what a farce this is. Al-Assad doesn't want a
humanitarian aid cargo to reach east Aleppo. There are hundreds of
thousands of civilians there, and al-Assad wants them all dead. So of
course he was going to make sure that the aid convoy didn't reach
them. This is not rocket science. The warplanes destroyed 18 of 31
trucks in the convoy.
Immediately we had to listen to the moronic statements of Bashar
al-Assad and Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, claiming that
nothing had happened, or that the "terrorists" had bombed the trucks,
or that an American drone had struck the convoy with missiles.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Secretary of State
John Kerry mocked and made fun of Syrian and Russian excuses:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"According to spokesman Igor Konashenkov, I quote,
> "Neither Russia nor Syria conducted air strikes on the UN
> humanitarian convey in the suburb on the outskirts of Aleppo."
> That's a quote.
>
> Then Komashenkov went further, and he said "The damage to the
> convoy was a direct result of the cargo catching fire." The
> trucks and foods and the medicine just spontaneously combusted.
> Anybody here believe that? I mean this is not a joke. We're in
> serious business here."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Kerry waved his arms in the air to emphasize the idiocy of the
suggestion that 18 of 31 trucks were destroyed by spontaneous
combustion. But this is the level of discourse that's filling the
halls of the United Nations, rapidly turning into the most useless
organization in the world.
And we have to ask what the hell Kerry thinks he's doing. Kerry must
have known that the ceasefire would quickly fail, as it did. Kerry
must have known that the Syrians and Russians would use the ceasefire
as an opportunity to reorganize and rearm in preparation for the end
of the ceasefire. Kerry must have known the Syrians and the Russians
were making a complete fool out of him.
The most likely explanation is that Kerry still hopes that the loons
in Sweden will give him the Nobel Peace Prize when they announce it
October 7. They gave it to Obama in 2009 "for his extraordinary
efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between
peoples."
So why not? If Kerry stumbles and lurches from one failed policy to
the next, all in the name of "peace," then why shouldn't the Swedish
loon give it to Kerry for exactly the same reason: "for his
extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and
cooperation between peoples" -- even though all such efforts have been
absurd failures.
On Friday, Syrian and Russian warplanes appeared to be closing in for
the killed. Hundreds of missiles and barrel bombs rained down on
eastern Aleppo, turning many neighborhoods to rubble mixed with blood
and body parts. Washington Post and CNN
Related Articles
****
**** Responses to reader comments
****
> [indent]<QUOTE>"The Syrian government is working with the terrorist
> group Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This is a very good point that isn't mentioned enough. Hezbollah,
Bashar al-Assad, and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei are all committed to the destruction of Israel.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Give it up Breitbart, We the people don't want a war
> with Syria. Let Saudi Arabia and Israel fight they're own wars
> for the pipeline. The lives of are sons and daughters should not
> be sacrificed for globalist!"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
One of the bitter ironies of the way the world works is that war is
rarely a choice. The United States has mutual defense treaties with
many countries: Japan, South Korea, Israel, Taiwan, the Philippines,
the Marshall Islands, the ANZUS agreement with Australia and New
Zealand, a special treaty with Iceland, and the NATO agreement with
all of Europe.
Even more important, there are a lot of people, in America and in the
world, who believe in American Exceptionalism, and who truly believe
that America has a moral obligation, or even an obligation dictated by
God, to do the right thing, so we won't stay out of a war very long.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Of all the players in the Syrian conflict, Erdogan is
> the most culpable. Assad being an Alawite, and therefore an
> infidel in Sunni eyes, the Gulf Arabs put up the funding and
> Erdogan the logistical support for an armed uprising against him.
> Turkey provided free passage for ISIS volunteers, training, and
> medical support. Turkey bought ISIS oil and passed on Gulf money.
> But Erdogan has a problem. He hates the Kurds even more than he
> hates Assad. And Russia supports Assad. So he is putting off the
> removal of Assad for now, the better to deal with his own Kurds,
> and those in Syria and Iraq."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This simply doesn't make any sense.
Recall that early in 2011, Turkey and Syria were allies. The historic
enmity between Alawites and Sunnis was put aside, and Turkey's prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan considered Bashar al-Assad to be a
friend. Hamas had its headquarters office in Damascus, with the
support and protection of al-Assad. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah were all uneasy allies, but allies nonetheless,
with only one common enemy: Israel.
Then al-Assad started exterminating peaceful anti-government
protesters. Imagine if President Obama sent out warplanes to kill
peaceful protesters on the Washington Mall, then you can understand
the shock throughout the region to al-Assad's depraved violence.
The real turning point came in August, when al-Assad started a massive
military assault on a large, peaceful Palestinian refugee camp in
Latakia, filled with tens of thousands of women and children
Palestinians. The US State Department called the attacks "abhorrent
and repulsive."
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu issued a stark warning to
Syrian authorities to immediately halt military operations across the
country, or Turkey would "take steps," although those steps were not
specified:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"If these operations do not stop there will be nothing
> left to say about the steps that would be taken. This is our
> final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is
> that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally.
>
> In the context of human rights this cannot be seen as a domestic
> issue."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Turkey never took direct military action against Syria (until 2016
with Operation Euphrates Shield), but the attack on the refugee camp
completely changed Mideast politics. Turkey began turning against
al-Assad, reviving the old Alawite-Sunni fault line. Hamas withdrew
its headquarters from Damascus and moved it to Qatar. The Saudis and
Turks began supporting "moderate" Syrian opposition rebels, some of
whom aligned themselves with al-Qaeda as the al-Nusra Front. Tens of
thousands of jihadists from dozens of countries around the world
started pouring into Syria to fight al-Assad, later forming themselves
into the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).
It's now five years later, and it's almost beyond belief how Bashar
al-Assad, with the support of Russia, Hezbollah and Iran, has caused
the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 21st century so far. Syria
itself is turning into rubble, but al-Assad's disaster goes well
beyond Syria's borders. Sectarian tensions are at a fever pitch, with
Iran and Saudi Arabia close to war. Al-Assad has created millions of
refugees, flooding into neighboring countries and Europe.
So Erdogan did not foment an armed uprising against al-Assad.
Al-Assad did that all by himself by his extermination of peaceful
protesters, with a major turning point at his massive military attack
on the Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia.
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Aleppo, Bashar al-Assad, John Kerry,
Sergei Lavrov, Igor Konashenkov, Alawites, Iran,
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh
Palestinians, Ahmet Davutoglu
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Syria's al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble
- Responses to reader comments
****
**** Syria's al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble
****
Aftermath of bombing in Aleppo on Friday (AP)
US Secretary of State John Kerry has once again been the major
instigator and Russia's useful idiot for what has turned out to be a
new foreign policy farce for the Obama administration. As I wrote
when the ceasefire agreement was first announced,
just a few days ago, ceasefire agreements in the
middle of a war are almost always worthless, and this one was
particularly farcical because Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has
repeatedly made clear that's he's going to massacre all the
"terrorists," by which he means all Sunni Muslim civilians, including
women and children. A real ceasefire would give new life to the
residents of Aleppo, and al-Assad wants them dead, not alive. So
there was literally a zero probability that the ceasefire would last.
The particular event that signaled the failure of this ceasefire was
the missile attack, by either Syrian or Russian warplanes, on a truck
convoy that was delivering food, water, medicines, and other
humanitarian aid to east Aleppo.
Right off, we can see what a farce this is. Al-Assad doesn't want a
humanitarian aid cargo to reach east Aleppo. There are hundreds of
thousands of civilians there, and al-Assad wants them all dead. So of
course he was going to make sure that the aid convoy didn't reach
them. This is not rocket science. The warplanes destroyed 18 of 31
trucks in the convoy.
Immediately we had to listen to the moronic statements of Bashar
al-Assad and Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, claiming that
nothing had happened, or that the "terrorists" had bombed the trucks,
or that an American drone had struck the convoy with missiles.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Secretary of State
John Kerry mocked and made fun of Syrian and Russian excuses:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"According to spokesman Igor Konashenkov, I quote,
> "Neither Russia nor Syria conducted air strikes on the UN
> humanitarian convey in the suburb on the outskirts of Aleppo."
> That's a quote.
>
> Then Komashenkov went further, and he said "The damage to the
> convoy was a direct result of the cargo catching fire." The
> trucks and foods and the medicine just spontaneously combusted.
> Anybody here believe that? I mean this is not a joke. We're in
> serious business here."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Kerry waved his arms in the air to emphasize the idiocy of the
suggestion that 18 of 31 trucks were destroyed by spontaneous
combustion. But this is the level of discourse that's filling the
halls of the United Nations, rapidly turning into the most useless
organization in the world.
And we have to ask what the hell Kerry thinks he's doing. Kerry must
have known that the ceasefire would quickly fail, as it did. Kerry
must have known that the Syrians and Russians would use the ceasefire
as an opportunity to reorganize and rearm in preparation for the end
of the ceasefire. Kerry must have known the Syrians and the Russians
were making a complete fool out of him.
The most likely explanation is that Kerry still hopes that the loons
in Sweden will give him the Nobel Peace Prize when they announce it
October 7. They gave it to Obama in 2009 "for his extraordinary
efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between
peoples."
So why not? If Kerry stumbles and lurches from one failed policy to
the next, all in the name of "peace," then why shouldn't the Swedish
loon give it to Kerry for exactly the same reason: "for his
extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and
cooperation between peoples" -- even though all such efforts have been
absurd failures.
On Friday, Syrian and Russian warplanes appeared to be closing in for
the killed. Hundreds of missiles and barrel bombs rained down on
eastern Aleppo, turning many neighborhoods to rubble mixed with blood
and body parts. Washington Post and CNN
Related Articles
- Syria's civilians fear worse violence from US-Russia 'ceasefire' agreement (11-Sep-2016)
- US increasingly expresses total disgust with Syria regime for Bashar al-Assad's atrocities (21-Sep-2016)
****
**** Responses to reader comments
****
> [indent]<QUOTE>"The Syrian government is working with the terrorist
> group Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This is a very good point that isn't mentioned enough. Hezbollah,
Bashar al-Assad, and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei are all committed to the destruction of Israel.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Give it up Breitbart, We the people don't want a war
> with Syria. Let Saudi Arabia and Israel fight they're own wars
> for the pipeline. The lives of are sons and daughters should not
> be sacrificed for globalist!"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
One of the bitter ironies of the way the world works is that war is
rarely a choice. The United States has mutual defense treaties with
many countries: Japan, South Korea, Israel, Taiwan, the Philippines,
the Marshall Islands, the ANZUS agreement with Australia and New
Zealand, a special treaty with Iceland, and the NATO agreement with
all of Europe.
Even more important, there are a lot of people, in America and in the
world, who believe in American Exceptionalism, and who truly believe
that America has a moral obligation, or even an obligation dictated by
God, to do the right thing, so we won't stay out of a war very long.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Of all the players in the Syrian conflict, Erdogan is
> the most culpable. Assad being an Alawite, and therefore an
> infidel in Sunni eyes, the Gulf Arabs put up the funding and
> Erdogan the logistical support for an armed uprising against him.
> Turkey provided free passage for ISIS volunteers, training, and
> medical support. Turkey bought ISIS oil and passed on Gulf money.
> But Erdogan has a problem. He hates the Kurds even more than he
> hates Assad. And Russia supports Assad. So he is putting off the
> removal of Assad for now, the better to deal with his own Kurds,
> and those in Syria and Iraq."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This simply doesn't make any sense.
Recall that early in 2011, Turkey and Syria were allies. The historic
enmity between Alawites and Sunnis was put aside, and Turkey's prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan considered Bashar al-Assad to be a
friend. Hamas had its headquarters office in Damascus, with the
support and protection of al-Assad. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah were all uneasy allies, but allies nonetheless,
with only one common enemy: Israel.
Then al-Assad started exterminating peaceful anti-government
protesters. Imagine if President Obama sent out warplanes to kill
peaceful protesters on the Washington Mall, then you can understand
the shock throughout the region to al-Assad's depraved violence.
The real turning point came in August, when al-Assad started a massive
military assault on a large, peaceful Palestinian refugee camp in
Latakia, filled with tens of thousands of women and children
Palestinians. The US State Department called the attacks "abhorrent
and repulsive."
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu issued a stark warning to
Syrian authorities to immediately halt military operations across the
country, or Turkey would "take steps," although those steps were not
specified:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"If these operations do not stop there will be nothing
> left to say about the steps that would be taken. This is our
> final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is
> that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally.
>
> In the context of human rights this cannot be seen as a domestic
> issue."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Turkey never took direct military action against Syria (until 2016
with Operation Euphrates Shield), but the attack on the refugee camp
completely changed Mideast politics. Turkey began turning against
al-Assad, reviving the old Alawite-Sunni fault line. Hamas withdrew
its headquarters from Damascus and moved it to Qatar. The Saudis and
Turks began supporting "moderate" Syrian opposition rebels, some of
whom aligned themselves with al-Qaeda as the al-Nusra Front. Tens of
thousands of jihadists from dozens of countries around the world
started pouring into Syria to fight al-Assad, later forming themselves
into the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).
It's now five years later, and it's almost beyond belief how Bashar
al-Assad, with the support of Russia, Hezbollah and Iran, has caused
the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 21st century so far. Syria
itself is turning into rubble, but al-Assad's disaster goes well
beyond Syria's borders. Sectarian tensions are at a fever pitch, with
Iran and Saudi Arabia close to war. Al-Assad has created millions of
refugees, flooding into neighboring countries and Europe.
So Erdogan did not foment an armed uprising against al-Assad.
Al-Assad did that all by himself by his extermination of peaceful
protesters, with a major turning point at his massive military attack
on the Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia.
Related Articles
- Turkey threatens Syria, as military attacks Palestinian refugee camp (16-Aug-2011)
- From 2013: The history of how Syria's Bashar al-Assad created ISIS (07-Sep-2016)
- US and Turkey headed for collision in Syria (23-Sep-2016)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Aleppo, Bashar al-Assad, John Kerry,
Sergei Lavrov, Igor Konashenkov, Alawites, Iran,
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh
Palestinians, Ahmet Davutoglu
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
