Posted on 05/18/2016 6:40:08 AM PDT by Kaslin
Some time this spring, the death toll in Syria's grinding war surpassed 400,000.
The number is an estimate. War is always chaotic, but Syria's war is chaos incarnate. The government -- the Assad dictatorship -- attacks civilian neighborhoods with chemical weapons. ISIS, which still controls significant territory, razes captured towns and uses mass murder as a strategic political weapon. Russian aircraft, allegedly attacking ISIS, bomb any target the Kremlin deems useful. Collateral damage and dead innocents? Western peacenik denunciation has no effect on Moscow.
Other international interlopers spill blood. Iranian Special Forces and Lebanese Hezbollah thugs attack anti-Assad rebel enclaves. Turkish artillery occasionally fires on ISIS positions in Syria. In odd corners and for opaque reasons, renegade and sectarian gunmen battle neighborhood militias. U.S. aircraft occasionally drop bombs. Washington recently acknowledged American Special Forces operate in Syria. See, the U.S. allegedly leads President Barack Obama's co-called anti-ISIS coalition.
Observers attempting to confirm body counts in the hodgepodge madness confront another problem: the Assad regime habitually lies about the number of dead and wounded.
In such a war, accurate casualty figures are understandably difficult to obtain.
However, several analysts think 400,000 dead is a credible guess. The war began in late February 2011. By December 2011, 70,000 had died. In Spring 2014, as ISIS invaded Iraq, 250,000 dead was a common estimate. In December 2015, the Syrian Center for Policy Research claimed the toll was 470,000. High? Perhaps. On April 22, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria, Steffan de Mistura, said he estimated 400,000 had been killed. De Mistura noted that for two years the U.N. quit trying to keep accurate numbers.
Some time this spring, the death toll in Syria's grinding war surpassed 400,000.
The number is an estimate. War is always chaotic, but Syria's war is chaos incarnate. The government -- the Assad dictatorship -- attacks civilian neighborhoods with chemical weapons. ISIS, which still controls significant territory, razes captured towns and uses mass murder as a strategic political weapon. Russian aircraft, allegedly attacking ISIS, bomb any target the Kremlin deems useful. Collateral damage and dead innocents? Western peacenik denunciation has no effect on Moscow.
Other international interlopers spill blood. Iranian Special Forces and Lebanese Hezbollah thugs attack anti-Assad rebel enclaves. Turkish artillery occasionally fires on ISIS positions in Syria. In odd corners and for opaque reasons, renegade and sectarian gunmen battle neighborhood militias. U.S. aircraft occasionally drop bombs. Washington recently acknowledged American Special Forces operate in Syria. See, the U.S. allegedly leads President Barack Obama's co-called anti-ISIS coalition.
Observers attempting to confirm body counts in the hodgepodge madness confront another problem: the Assad regime habitually lies about the number of dead and wounded.
In such a war, accurate casualty figures are understandably difficult to obtain.
However, several analysts think 400,000 dead is a credible guess. The war began in late February 2011. By December 2011, 70,000 had died. In Spring 2014, as ISIS invaded Iraq, 250,000 dead was a common estimate. In December 2015, the Syrian Center for Policy Research claimed the toll was 470,000. High? Perhaps. On April 22, U.N. Special Envoy to Syria, Steffan de Mistura, said he estimated 400,000 had been killed. De Mistura noted that for two years the U.N. quit trying to keep accurate numbers.
Obama and Hillary toppled stable governments and peaceful countries in Libya and Syria.
They are directly responsible for destroying those countries and killing all these people.
FOR WHAT?
Obama and Hillary toppled stable governments and peaceful countries in Libya and Syria.
They are directly responsible for destroying those countries and killing all these people.
FOR WHAT?
—
To please the muslim brotherhood?
Obama and Hillary supported the overthrow of Egypt too on behalf of the muslim brotherhood.
The blood is on our heads because of our political leaders
They chose to destabilize this country and tear it apart
This article is Obama propaganda. No mention of the destruction the Syrian rebels caused and how they are allied with al-Qaeda.
The chain of events suggests a decision to overthrow Assad made after Assad denied Saudi a pipeline across Syria
This would provide gas to Europe and erode their dependence on gas supply from Russia
Thus our great strategic thinkers justified this as a way to challenge and try to checkmate Russia, for whom obama seems to personal and visceral animus after Putins hardline on homosexuality in Russian cultural life
This is way simplistic and many other players interests are involved ( Israel, Turkey) but it is simply and truly amazing and mind boggling that is reached this level with no ground given, only doubling down by he- who- won
The line in the sand is covered with Hillary’s blood.
Putin and other world leaders should demand that Bathroom Barry Obama and Hillary be held accountable in international courts for war crimes and “crimes against humanity.” If Hillary is elected, I predict he will do that.
Not important for the MSM. It’s following those Christian bigots who refused service to those GAYSTAPO people which has to be reported 24/7/360.
Specifically, anti-Assad propaganda.
And, pro-refugee immigration propaganda.
Think about it. 400,000 have been killed? That's 220 people a day for five years!
And, based on previous wars, that means that close to 400,000 more people have endured serious injuries, many of them disabling or disfiguring.
Where are these 400,000 seriously injured people? Where are the graves or the bodies of 400,000 dead?
Syria is smaller than Nebraska. The entire area of conflict is confined to an area about the size of Nebraska and Iowa.
Much of the geography is essentially flat, treeless, and arid. How do you conceal 400,000 dead and 400,000 seriously wounded people?
There is no question this war has been horribly destructive and cost tens of thousands of lives.
But 400,000 dead is a grotesque and politically motivated exaggeration.
Thank you, Mrs. Clinton.
>The government — the Assad dictatorship — attacks civilian neighborhoods with chemical weapons.
Same old media lies. Assad was the only cohesion to fending off the islamo jihad scum. It was the jihadi nutbags that set off the chemical weapons.
Assad would have wiped out the islamos by now if the West had not supported the jihad terrorists. I’m hoping Russia will start some serious bombing to finally bury the trash.
The coward islamic civilians that allow ISIS filth to overrun them either need to step up or become collateral damage.
I read Syria was running out of Alawite males to fight the war - they were just about all dead or fled the country.
Couldn’t an estimate be determined from that? Pretty sure we knew the number of Alawites before this whole kerfuffle.
Thanks Kaslin. The Syrian civil war began when Assad started shooting killing people and arresting, roughing up, and detaining schoolchildren, and he is responsible for most of this 400K figure. The creepy Soviet-style dictator has shredded Syria. If the dozens of jihadist factions had really received arms and training to repletion -- like the 20,000 MANPADs that is *still* ludicrously claimed, even on FR -- Assad would have fled or been dead years ago already.
Yep, a large percentage of this can be laid at the feet of Hillary and Obama.
Alawites (a Shia sect) are a conspicuous minority in Syria, probably 10% to 12%.
That's the basic cause of the civil war.
Sunnis are about 75%.
Sunni versus Shia - mutual hatred, mutual blood lust.
I agree. The 400,000 number of dead is total BS.
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