Posted on 12/09/2024 6:41:08 PM PST by Kazan
I offered my Monday morning analysis on what happened in Syria and what it means for the region, first with Judge Napolitano and later, with Nima. The Judge also interviewed Alastair Crooke, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Pepe Escobar and Jeffrey Sachs. All had interesting perspectives and are worth investing the time to watch.
I want to share with you a fascinating Russian perspective from esteemed war correspondent, Marat Khairullin:
Syria is important. No matter how bitter it is to realize this. But there is such a maxim, “no matter how hard the failure is, if you have learned from it, then it is no longer a failure, but the next step up the mountain.” In other words, working on mistakes is more important than the mistakes themselves. Everyone encounters failures in life, but not everyone draws conclusions from this. Let’s try to understand what experience can be drawn from the situation with Syria. . . .
Assad has shown himself to be a great warrior. He stood firm in a hopeless situation and got a chance in 2015 in the form of aid from Iran and Russia. But he did not use it, did not learn from his mistakes. In a broader sense, Assad failed to care for his people who suffered in the civil war. He has not forgiven those who opposed him and has refused to begin a process of national reconciliation. The people of Syria remain divided. The West imposed harsh sanctions on Syria and did everything in its power to prevent the state from restoring its income from the same oil fields. This killed all attempts to begin economic recovery.
And Assad, instead of letting go of the reins, increased the tax burden several times over. The Middle East is such a big bazaar: trade, small business – the essence of the way of life of the people here. Assad, instead of allowing people to survive in hard times, at least due to this, strangled everyone with taxes. Therefore, the society that gave Assad a chance after the first stage of the civil war did not give him a second chance – people simply refused to fight for him. . . .
Second, it’s not a disaster for us. Somehow, everything here has worked out cunningly. Syria was a transit point for Russia on the way to Africa. By losing Syria, we lose transit bases (both air and sea). This is precisely the point that the Western press is now pointing to. However, reading their jubilant articles, one gets the feeling that behind this jubilation, there is obvious annoyance.
Why? Because, if you look a little deeper, Putin has outplayed everyone here too.
The fact is that the fall of Syria occurred immediately after the launch of the North-South land corridor at full capacity. From the ports of St. Petersburg along the trans-Caspian land highway through Azerbaijan and Iran to the ports of the Indian Ocean. The project began to be implemented back in 2000.
This will be one of Putin’s great legacies. His major achievement.
I am eager to see how the United States will do the volte face and pronounce a certified international terrorist organization — Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) — a legitimate government. HTS is a descendant of Al Qaeda and ISIS, two terrorist organizations that Republican and Democrat administrations vowed to defeat in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This stands as a tawdry example of the US playing fast-and-loose with terrorism — i.e., when it. suits our purposes we ignore terrorism and ally ourselves with them. Hypocrisy like this does little to burnish the reputation of the US. We are enablers of terrorism.
Western jubilation over the fall of Assad will fade. Continued sectarian violence Syria will not abate, but it will not create a threat for Russia or Iran. The same can not be said for the nations that share a border with Syria — i.e., Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. ISIS / HTS are far more radical than the Taliban and will continue with their mission to create a Caliphate, not just in Syria. While the Western media, following the messaging of the CIA / MI6, is frantically trying to paint HTS as a group of moderates who are tolerant of all ethnic groups and religious communities, the reality is otherwise. Syria will become more of a festering boil on the body of global politics and may be the catalyst for a broader war in the region.
Syria, The New Libya!
So you are telling me we actually have a nation-state we can bomb back to the Stone Age?
We have Kurdish people at work. One of them I have worked with for 25 years.
I’ve heard the new government is hostile to Kurdish and Christian populations.
If our intelligence organizations weren’t snooping on US citizens, they might have caught the Syrian overthrow.
Wrdigan has designs on the renewal of the ottoman Caliphate. Our CIA has been pulling on the strings.
Hostile? They’ve already executed SDF (Kurdish) soldiers who were recovering in a hospital. They’ve been rounding up Christians, and from the position they were made to kneel against a wall with the base of their heads exposed, it looked like they were fixing to execute them.
Yup. Assad is a monster. A vile horrible monster. I however find it difficult to believe HTS will be better, especially considering their background in ISIS and Al Qaeda (brownie points for being in both). If I was a Syrian religious minority (eg the few Christians that have miraculously stayed there for centuries) I’d be considering a new geographical location.
Complex situation, and president Trump is right in recommending staying away from it. Sure, Iran and Russia get egg on their face. It’s also true Assad was a monster. However, it just became Libya 2.0.
Alastair Crooke is celebrated by jihadists of the shiite brand: Hezbollah in their al mayadeen...
Nuff said.
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