Carnage in Syria a Product of US Empowerment of Saudi Arabia

[Jefferson23]

Vijay Prashad and Paul Jay discuss the demands Americans can make of the US government to create a cessation of hostilities

(2/2) - February 18, 2016


Video only, transcript not available at this time.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15697

[polly7]

1. Such unimaginable suffering.

The numbers are truly horrific. I honestly don't know how they'll recover from this either.

[Jefferson23]

2. At least a generation..I don't know, probably more. n/t

[bemildred]

3. ‘We have a lot to learn from Syria’

An interview with the authors of Burning Country: “I think that’s the big story, that they’re practicing democracy and organising themselves to run things in really difficult circumstances and that’s the story that’s been largely unheard or ignored, strangely.”

Until now the Syrian story has been a fabrication of assumptions and sensationalism spun by the media. Burning Country is an attempt to counter this, a chance for real Syrians to tell their own stories. As co-author Robin Yassin-Kassab puts it: “We felt that people had been coming at it from narratives of big stories that zoomed out so far they couldn’t hear the people on the ground that had made the revolution and were suffering the counter-revolution. We wanted to amplify those voices.”

Yassin-Kassab and fellow co-author Leila Al-Shami have weaved together the testimonies of revolutionaries, activists, refugees, fighters, democracy activists, pro-regime Alawites and Islamists with their own analysis to create an account of Syria that takes us back further than Ottoman rule and up to October 2015. Published by Pluto Press this year, the book describes how Al-Assad was once respected for adopting an anti-Zionist, anti-Western and pro-Arab rhetoric and today garners western sympathy for his so-called opposition to US-led imperialism, a position the authors describe as “populist opportunism”.

“I think his rhetoric was very anti-imperialist and that was in line with popular sentiment in the Arab street and I think for that reason he was popular for his foreign policy stance both inside Syria and more broadly around the Arab world,” says Al-Shami. “But that didn’t match up in practice and when you see the actions of the Baathist regime whether they’re under Bashar or his predecessor, his father, they certainly didn’t match that rhetoric. You had the massacres of Palestinians in Tel Zaatar camp in Lebanon, you had the intervention against the Black September movement in Jordan and then under Bashar you had collusion with imperialism because you had people that were basically deported, tortured by proxy, to the Assad regime under the US rendition programme as part of its ‘War on Terror’.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/resources/interviews/24006-we-have-a-lot-to-learn-from-syria

[Jefferson23]

4. We would rather they kill each other off, sorry..I know that's harsh but its what we do.

We want regime change, then we don't, then we do...or so we say for public consumption.
We want the rebels to win, hmmm

I see that question is far too simplistic at this point.

I'm not trying to reduce the mess to a simple equation but I am sick of
what we do, directly and indirectly.

[bemildred]

6. You'll get no argument from me. nt

[Jefferson23]

14. I know, that's just me venting. Their aspirations are counter to sanity too often.

[bemildred]

5. Syria conflict takes Kurds towards autonomy

Syria’s Kurds, long held in disdain by Damascus, are edging towards autonomy in their heartland along Turkey’s border as they capitalise on the tactical goals of both Washington and Moscow.

To the dismay of Ankara, Kurdish forces have seized on the collapse of rebels in the northern province of Aleppo in the face of Russian-backed regime gains to advance to within 20 kilometres (12 miles) of the border.

From the outset of the Syrian conflict in 2011, the Kurds benefited from the regime’s pullback from their regions to establish a local administration spanning from northwest to northeast Syria.

According to Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche, the Kurds who have gained ground mostly from Islamic State jihadists who now control 14 percent of Syrian territory, or 26,000 square kilometres

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/syria-conflict-takes-kurds-towards-autonomy/

[bemildred]

7. Pentagon: US-Supported Militants Too Busy Fighting Each Other To Kill ISIS

Syrian groups supported by the U.S. are fighting each other instead of focusing on ISIS, frustrating U.S. policymakers and hindering efforts to finish off the terrorist group.

U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, expressed a desire for the rebel groups to cease infighting and focus on destroying ISIS during a Pentagon press briefing on Wednesday. The shift in the rebels’ focus from fighting ISIS to each other and the Syrian government comes as the Syrian military has increased its bombing campaign against rebel forces.

“We want them to stop fighting each other and start fighting Daesh [ISIS],” said Warren, “there’s a civil war going on right now. Civil wars have confusion and that’s what we see playing out here.”

He also noted that the ability for the U.S. to properly direct rebel forces is limited, given the lack of U.S. military presence in Syria. “At the end of the day we’re not there on the ground to force people to do anything,” he said.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/18/syrian-groups-funded-by-us-fighting-each-other-instead-of-isis/

[Jefferson23]

10. The irony is rich.

*said Warren, “there’s a civil war going on right now. Civil wars have confusion and that’s what we see playing out here.”

[bemildred]

11. Ya think? nt

[bemildred]

12. 'Every brigade is striving to build their dreams on our guts'

AMMAN: The Islamic State and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are separately attacking the rebel-held city of Marea from three directions, local journalists told Syria Direct Thursday.

Located in the northern Aleppo countryside, Marea is controlled by a number of rebel factions including the Northern Front and the FSA-affiliated Aleppo Operations Room. It is encircled from the south and west by the SDF, and from the east by the Islamic State.

Marea, the easternmost rebel-held city in northern Aleppo, sits at a nexus of Islamic State and Kurdish territorial ambitions. The city has suffered Islamic State attacks for more than a year as a result of IS’s effort to expand its caliphate by moving west. Kurdish forces see Marea as a stepping stone in their campaign east into Islamic State territory, with the eventual goal of linking up Afrin and Kobani cantons.

IS mounted an attack on the city Wednesday, but the rebels “were able to fight them off,” Abu Khalid, a journalist embedded with Ahrar a-Sham in northern Aleppo told Syria Direct Thursday.

http://syriadirect.org/news/is-and-sdf-each-attack-rebel-held-marea-%E2%80%9Cevery-brigade-is-striving-to-build-their-dreams-on-our-guts%E2%80%9D/

[bemildred]

8. Pentagon: Russia agreed not to strike US forces in Syria

The Pentagon revealed Thursday that Russia granted a U.S. request not to target American special operations forces deployed to northern Syria, in previously-unreported cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.

The Pentagon made the request to the Russians after a U.S. decision to send the special operations forces into Syria last year, according to Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook at a briefing.

The Pentagon had previously denied any cooperation with the Russians, other than a formal memorandum of understanding about air safety, to prevent the two militaries' air forces from colliding by accident over Syria.

But Thursday's revelation revealed that cooperation with Russia that goes beyond that.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/269861-pentagon-received-russian-assurances-it-would-not-strike-us-forces-in-syria

[bemildred]

9. Russia warns Assad not to snub Syria ceasefire plan

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In the first public sign of cracks in the alliance between Moscow and Damascus, the envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said Russia had helped Assad turn the tide of the war so it was now incumbent on him to follow Russia's line and commit to peace talks.

Churkin said Russia was working toward a peaceful settlement for Syria, and that attempting to take back control over the whole country would be a futile exercise which would allow the conflict to drag on indefinitely.

Asked in an interview with Kommersant newspaper about Assad's comments that he would keep fighting until all rebels were defeated, Churkin said: "Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically, and now also in the military sense.

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"I heard President Assad's remarks on television... Of course they do not chime with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is undertaking.... The discussions are about a ceasefire, a cessation of hostilities in the foreseeable future. Work is underway on this."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-syria-envoy-idUSKCN0VR240

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Also: Carnage in YEMEN a Product of US Empowerment of Saudi Arabia View profile

Read that yesterday, how Saudia Arabia is causing the same in Yemen, thanks to our weapons sales to them.