A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.
This also spells the end for Lebanon and Syria’s Christian communities, as witness the tearing down of all Christmas decorations, the smashing of all alcohol and the forced imposition of the veil on women in Aleppo now.
Yesterday US Warthog air-to-ground jets attacked and severely depleted reinforcements which were, at the invitation of the Syrian government, en route to Syria from Iraq. Constant, daily Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s military infrastructure for months have been a major factor in the demoralisation and reduced capacity of the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army, which has simply evaporated in Aleppo and Hama.
It is very difficult to see the tide turning in Syria. The Russians now have either to massively reinforce their Syrian bases with ground troops or to evacuate them. Faced with the exigencies of Ukraine, they may do the latter, and it is reported that the Russian navy has already set sail from Tartus.
The speed of collapse of Syria has taken everybody by surprise. If the situation does not stabilise, Damascus could be besieged and ISIS back on the hills above the Bekaa valley within a week, given the speed of their advance and the short distances involved.
A renewed Israeli attack on Southern Lebanon to coincide with a Salafist invasion of the Bekaa Valley would then seem inevitable, as the Israelis would obviously wish their border with their new Taliban-style Greater Syrian neighbour to be as far North as possible. It could be a race for Beirut, unless the Americans have already organised who gets it.
It is no coincidence that the attack on Syria started the day of the Lebanon/Israel ceasefire. The jihadist forces do not want to be seen to be fighting alongside Israel, even though they are fighting forces which have been relentlessly bombed by Israel, and in the case of Hezbollah are exhausted from fighting Israel.
The Times of Israel has no compunction about saying the quiet part out loud, unlike the British media:
In fact Israeli media is giving a lot more truth about the Syrian rebel forces than British and American media just now. This is another article from the Times of Israel:
While HTS officially seceded from Al Qaeda in 2016, it remains a Salafi jihadi organization designated as a terror organization in the US, the EU and other countries, with tens of thousands of fighters.
Its sudden surge raises concerns that a potential takeover of Syria could transform it into an Islamist, Taliban-like regime – with repercussions for Israel at its south-western border. Others, however, see the offensive as a positive development for Israel and a further blow to the Iranian axis in the region.
Contrast this to the UK media, which from the Telegraph and Express to the Guardian has promoted the official narrative that not just the same organisations, but the same people responsible for mass torture and executions of non-Sunnis, including Western journalists, are now cuddly liberals.
Nowhere is this more obvious than the case of Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, sometimes spelt Al-Julani or Al-Golani, who is now being boosted throughout western media as a moderate leader. He was the deputy leader of ISIS, and the CIA actually has a $10 million bounty on his head! Yes, that is the same CIA which is funding and equipping him and giving him air support.
Supporters of the Syrian rebels still attempt to deny that they have Israeli and US support – despite the fact that almost a decade ago there was open Congressional testimony in the USA that, to that point, over half a billion dollars had been spent on assistance to Syrian rebel forces, and the Israelis have openly been providing medical and other services to the jihadists and effective air support.
One interesting consequence of this joint NATO/Israel support for the jihadist groups in Syria is a further perversion of domestic rule of law. To take the UK as an example, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act it is illegal to state an opinion that supports, or may lead somebody else to support, a proscribed organisation.
The abuse of this provision by British police to persecute Palestinian supporters for allegedly encouraging support for proscribed organisations Hamas and Hezbollah is notorious, with even tangential alleged references leading to arrest. Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Medhurst, Asa Winstanley, Richard Barnard and myself are all notable victims, and the persecution has been greatly intensified by Keir Starmer.
Yet Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is also a proscribed group in the UK. But both British mainstream media and British Muslim outlets have been openly promoting and praising HTS for a week – frankly much more openly than I have ever witnessed anyone in the UK support Hamas and Hezbollah – and not a single person has been arrested or even warned by UK police.
That in itself is the strongest of indications that western security services are fully behind the current attack on Syria.
For the record, I think it is an appalling law, and nobody should be prosecuted for expressing an opinion either way. But the politically biased application of the law is undeniable.
When the entire corporate and state media in the West puts out a unified narrative that Syrians are overjoyed to be released by HTS from the tyranny of the Assad regime – and says nothing whatsoever of the accompanying torture and execution of Shias, and destruction of Christmas decorations and icons – it ought to be obvious to everybody where this is coming from.
Yet – and this is another UK domestic repercussion – a very substantial number of Muslims in the UK support HTS and the Syrian rebels, because of the funding pumped into UK mosques from Saudi and Emirate Salafist sources. This is allied to the UK security service influence also wielded through the mosques, both by sponsorship programmes and “think tanks” benefiting approved religious leaders, and by the execrable coercive Prevent programme.
UK Muslim outlets that have been ostensibly pro-Palestinian – like Middle East Eye and 5 Pillars – enthusiastically back Israel’s Syrian allies in ensuring the destruction of resistance to the genocide of the Palestinians. Al Jazeera alternates between items detailing dreadful massacre in Palestine, and items extolling the Syrian rebels bringing Israel-allied rule to Syria.
Among the mechanisms they employ to reconcile this is a refusal to acknowledge the vital role of Syria in enabling the supply of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Which supply the jihadists have now cut off, to the absolute delight of Israel, and in conjunction with both Israeli and US air strikes.
In the final analysis, for many Sunni Muslims both in the Middle East and in the West, the pull seems to be stronger of sectarian hatred of the Shia and the imposition of Salafism, than preventing the ultimate destruction of the Palestinian nation.
I am not a Muslim. My Muslim friends happen to be almost entirely Sunni. I personally regard the continuing division over the leadership of the religion over a millennium ago as deeply unhelpful and a source of unnecessary continued hate.
But as a historian I do know that the western colonial powers have consciously and explicitly used the Sunni/Shia split for centuries to divide and rule. In the 1830’s, Alexander Burnes was writing reports on how to use the division in Sind between Shia rulers and Sunni populations to aid British colonial expansion.
On 12 May 1838, in his letter from Simla setting out his decision to launch the first British invasion of Afghanistan, British Governor General Lord Auckland included plans to exploit Shia/Sunni division in both Sind and Afghanistan to aid the British military attack.
The colonial powers have been doing it for centuries, Muslim communities keep falling for it, and the British and Americans are doing it right now to further their remodelling of the Middle East.
Simply put, many Sunni Muslims have been brainwashed into hating Shia Muslims more than they hate those currently committing genocide of an overwhelmingly Sunni population in Gaza.
I refer to the UK because I witnessed this first hand during the election campaign in Blackburn. But the same is true all over the Muslim world. Not one Sunni Muslim-led state has lifted a single finger to prevent the genocide of the Palestinians.
Their leadership is using anti-Shia sectarianism to maintain popular support for a de facto alliance with Israel against the only groups – Iran, Houthi and Hezbollah – which actually did attempt to give the Palestinians practical support in resistance. And against the Syrian government which facilitated supply.
The unspoken but very real bargain is this. The Sunni powers will accept the wiping out of the entire Palestinian nation and formation of Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia communities in Syria and Lebanon by Israel and forces backed by NATO (including Turkey).
There are, of course, contradictions in this grand alliance. The United States’ Kurdish allies in Iraq are unlikely to be happy with Turkey’s destruction of Kurdish groups in Syria, which is what Erdoğan gains from Turkey’s very active military role in toppling Syria – in addition to extending Turkish control of oilfields.
The Iran-friendly Iraqi government will have further difficulty with reconciling US continuing occupation of swathes of its country, as they realise they are the next target.
The Lebanese army is under control of the USA, and Hezbollah must have been greatly weakened to have agreed the disastrous ceasefire with Israel. Christian fascist militias traditionally allied to Israel are increasingly visible in parts of Beirut, though whether they would be stupid enough to make common cause with jihadists from the North may be open to question. But should Syria fall entirely to jihadist rule – which may happen fast – I do not rule out Lebanon following very quickly indeed, and being integrated into a Salafist Greater Syria.
How the Palestinians of Jordan would react to this disastrous turn of events, it is hard to be sure. The British puppet Hashemite Kingdom is the designated destination for ethnically cleansed West Bank Palestinians under the Greater Israel plan.
What this all potentially amounts to is the end of pluralism in the Levant and its replacement by supremacism. An ethno-supremacist Greater Israel and a religio-supremacist Salafist Greater Syria.
Unlike many readers, I have never been a fan of the Assad regime or blind to its human rights violations. But what it did undeniably do was maintain a pluralist state where the most amazing historical religious and community traditions – including Sunni (and many Sunni do support Assad), Shia, Alaouites, descendants of the first Christians, and speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus – were all able to co-exist.
The same is true of Lebanon.
What we are witnessing is the destruction of that and imposition of a Saudi-style rule. All the little cultural things that indicate pluralism – from Christmas trees to language classes to winemaking to women going unveiled – have just been destroyed in Aleppo and could be destroyed from Damascus to Beirut.
I do not pretend that there are not genuine liberal democrats among the opposition to Assad. But they have negligible military significance, and the idea that they would be influential in a new government is delusion.
In Israel, which pretended to be a pluralist state, the mask is off. The Muslim call to prayer has just been banned. Arab minority members of the Knesset have been suspended for criticising Netanyahu and genocide. More walls and gates are built every day, not just in unlawfully occupied territories but in the “state of Israel” itself, to enforce apartheid.
I confess I once had the impression that Hezbollah was itself a religio-supremacist organisation; the dress and style of its leadership look theocratic. Then I came here and visited places like Tyre, which has been under Hezbollah elected local government for decades, and found that swimwear and alcohol are allowed on the beach and the veil is optional, while there are completely unmolested Christian communities there.
I will never now see Gaza, but wonder if I might have been similarly surprised by Hamas rule.
It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It is the USA which is destroying pluralism, and it is Iran and its allies which defend pluralism. I would not have seen this clearly had I not come here. But once seen, it is blindingly obvious.
Beirut 6 December 2024
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How should one label the sick, callous narrative going on in the west right now? Not only naively cheering on these “rebels” that have taken over but perhaps more concretely, the jubilation that Russia is somehow to lose and therefore it must be celebrated??
Is this how low the west have fallen? Cheering on al-Qaeda/ISIS affiliates just because it allegedly hurts Russia, and this is good for exactly what reason?? West pick al-Qaeda/ISIS before Russia!?
If anything this will only strengthen Russia since it no longer have to focus on Syria but solely Ukraine, so why would west cheer the development for Russia in Syria?! It makes no sense?
There are some 23 million people in Syria. No thoughts for them by west. It is like the whole of west have taken on a total sick, cynical, neocon outlook. An outlook ruled by the irrational zero-sum game rationale. They only see alleged “interests” and not the people that actually live in Syria. Not to mention these “interests” are not even grounded in anything, they are deluded interests. It is the same “interests” that caused the folly of invading Iraq, the same folly on cheering on the downfall of Libya. The same “interests” that got west stuck in Afghanistan for 20+ years. Time and time again west step into the same obvious pitfall, how is this possible?! Are there no sane, adult, sober, diplomatic voices left in the west!? How could this be? Feels like I one turning a bit more insane per everyday watching how west approach what is going on in the Middle east.
–
There are also reports at RT that the rebels will “accept” (at least for now?) Russian presence/military bases inside Syria.
Jack,
You ask:-
” How could this be? Feels like I one turning a bit more insane per everyday watching how west approach what is going on in the Middle east.”
–
No – I do not have a crystal ball. I am not a reader of cards. And, so much as a telescope or binoculars to see more clearly on what’s ahead I do not have. However, I shall try, with reason, logic and through argument to get there and forecast ahead.
I am looking at Syria here and now; so, what starting point?
I believe that Israel and the mistreatment of the Palestinians serves as a good compass to predict the path leading to the future.
Consider for a moment that following the 1948 expulsion of about three-quarter million Palestinians up to the 1980s there was no Hamas or Hezbollah. In response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon Hezbollah was founded in 1982. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was an inspirer of Hezbollah’s founding. In 1987 HAMAS begun, and coincided with the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). So, quite clearly, injustice, oppression and abuse was the inspirational and responsive force for the establishment of these resistance movements. These facts are important to place history back on its feet and not leave it stood on its head.
It is a logical walk from that history to the intertwined associations with Iran, Syria, and the ‘axis of resistance’.
If one follows the Western narrative, then the Palestinians are wrong to desire a homeland, wrong for wanting to be free of military occupation, wrong to complain about over a year of the bombing of mainly civilian women and children – and wrong in essence to resist oppression. Again, let us invert history. Place it not on its head once more, and not require the Palestinians to march backwards and away from any path to freedom. Thus, the US is perfectly content to have the removal of the Syrian source of resistance. Any reincarnation of ISIS is a better and more desirable choice and can be more readily accommodated.
Why is it that these groups never attack Israel or US interests in the Middle East? Well, would not be smart or appreciative to bite the hand that feeds.
Thus, to see where this is all leading, consider first what Israel wants and then watch that requirement translated via US policy into the path along the ground in the Middle East.
There – I have seen the future.
The sanctity, or value, put human life has never been lower.
It partly stems from the fact politicians in the West have literally lost the ability to criticise Israel – it’s political suicide because of their outsized, disproportionate influence. And thus, maybe Gaza’s daily slaughter has numbed western leaders to suffering, Idk? But what was previously unthinkable : mass extermination of entire populations, is now entirely possible if it serves the interests of Israel.
Estimates vary, because many may have already fled, but the Syrian Christian population was put at around 450,000, Druze some 600,000 and other minorities ????. All were safe under Assad, and now they face an uncertain future under the rule of former Salafi, sharia law supporting, Al-Qaeda members; many of whom will have scores to settle with regime supporters. The fact the Guardian, Times, Telegraph; BBC,, Sky News don’t care about these people shows how far the UK has sunk.
Goose
Interesting story on Youtube.
There’s me thinking that so called ‘Rebels’ (the BBC is faithfully copying The Whitehouse phrasing) will now be in charge of all the Syrian Military’s weapons and get out of hand when the video said that Israel is blowing up armoury and munition dumps.
Makes you wonder who is in charge? Rhetorically, of course.
Jack
You said “this will only strengthen Russia since it no longer have to focus on Syria but solely Ukraine, so why would west cheer the development for Russia in Syria?”
Think (using your reasoning) how much stronger Russia will be when, having been chased out of Syria, it is beaten out of Ukraine.
JK Redux
There is little doubt in my view that Russia will now speed things up in Ukraine in order to get the job done (to use a Johnson phrase). Definitely a blow for Russia but interestingly Russia appear to have agreed with the ‘Rebels’ to remain in Syria.
Politics is a filthy business and I suspect that Assad was pre-warned by Russia that his time was up and a deal was struck. All’s fair in love and war I suppose.
We are waiting for pronouncements from The Orange One.
Unfortunately it looks like Iran’s faith in waiting for Trump to do something has cost them dearly. Unless Russia did them up like a kipper as well as Turkey?
That implies that Russia is not applying as much pressure in Ukraine as it could.
Of the 20,000 Russian personnel in Syria only 6,000 are ground forces which includes military police needed to guard the bases. Not enough to make a significant difference in Ukraine besides which if the new regime allows Russia to remain in the country they’ll be needed more than ever.
We await with some trepidation to see how things shapes out. It wouldn’t be the first time the US has helped put into power a regime which later turns against it.
Mark Cutts
If Russia could “speed things up in Ukraine in order to get the job done” surely it would have done so?
JK Redux
Like all historians before they publish their books on their views just wait a for a bit otherwise your book will be seen as a load of historical bollocks.
Like Fukiyama’s End of History bollocks. He’s now going round saying Nuke Russia. It’s in his latest (but not up to date) book.
History makes fools of us all within days sometimes, but I’ll stick with my opinion as I don’t write history books and no-one reads much of what I say so it doesn’t really matter for both of us. If I’m talking bollocks I’ll do a BBC and pretend that what I said never happened.
By the way – there are soundings from Russia that this Oreshnik Bunker Buster is aimed at Zelensky’s lovely furniture underground so someone’s telling porkies. For my money he is more likely to killed by his own side than Russia.
We shall see>
JK redux
Russia has not been “beaten” in Syria to begin with: how many Russians have been killed by HTS during the insurrection? Zero. How many Russian military vehicles etc have been destroyed etc. Zero.
Now Russia will simply move many of these military assets to Ukraine and therefore the downfall of Syria will only strengthen Russia in Ukraine. The irrationality displayed by the west now is immense, do not fall for it..
Russia has lost an important ally in the ME, it expended a great deal of effort into keeping Assad in power which has been for nothing. It’s by no means certain that the new regime will allow the bases to remain.
Most of the hardware it sent to Syria was donated to Syrian Forces and is now in the hands of the rebels/terrorists/liberators or whatever you want to call them. See my earlier post for how few Russians were based in Syria, they’ll make very little difference to the war in Ukraine.
Russia is not being “chased out of Syria”. They are even reports that they may come to a deal with the new regime (when it manifests itself).
TASS reporting of the situation in Syria is outstandingly soft on the Israelis:
https://tass.com/world/1884365
“Israeli forces are establishing an additional security zone on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, said.
Meanwhile, the IDF took control overnight of additional areas in the buffer zone on the border with Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.”
In other words Israel has invaded more Syrian territory than it already occupied.
Frankly if I only wanted to hear what the Israeli government was saying, I could go to the Israeli government’s website.
Yes the kowtowing by Russia regarding Israel is quite disgraceful and has been going on for decades under Putin, granted, there are many ethnic russians living in Israel but that does not mean Russia should bending over backwards in their support for the israeli regime. For years Russia let Israel attack Syria hundreds of times, weakining and leading up to the downfall of Assad.
Wikileaks US Embassy Syria 16-05-2017
“We remain committed to bringing leading AQS figures in HTS to justice. [surely they mean power S/].
STOP THIS TERRORIST MUHAMMAD AL-JAWLANI $10 million dollar reward”.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/damascus-now-ruled-al-qaeda-suits-assads-whereabouts-unknown-curfew-imposed
Why do you use the term rebel about the terrorists?
kindly
Who is NOT a terrorist? Israel? The US? Russia? Assad?….
So Assad ran away to Moscow like a coward. At least Saddam and Gadaffi put up a fight and went down with the ship. Assad family corruption is legendary and with sanctions and war decimating the country they chose to keep enriching themselves while ordinary Syrians languished in poverty and misery.
No wonder nobody in Syria wanted to fight to keep this guy in power.
Baalbek
But look at those who have taken over.
Assad, a qualified ophthalmologist, is far smarter than the two you mention. What do HTS offer Syrians? Without the oil wealth or international recognition how will they restructure debt or raise new finance to feed the population and run and maintain basic services? Who will they have in any govt and what legitimacy will it have? Much depends on whether they can impose stability and law & order too.
Look at the recent example in Afghanistan with the Taliban, it all starts with lofty aims and promises. But if people don’t see improvements, they protest – and that results in crackdowns, more religious extremism, strict sharia law: burqas, censorship, executions – and mass public resentment builds. Assad, once popular, watches developments from afar. He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.
“No wonder nobody in Syria wanted to fight to keep this guy in power.”
but they might have been wise to fight to keep HTS out of power.
I think it might be worth posting, that reports of the Turkish army and Kurdish/Rojava forces fighting.
Are already coming out of northern Syria.
It doesn’t take much insight to see how the geopolitics are all connected.
The hegemonic West, predominately the US, UK and Israel are playing their bit.
Seems very much that the only outcome can be a major world wide conflict as the fires ignite around the Russian Federation and beyond.
The grand slaughter fest is about to become us all. Only by a cathartic blood letting, if cathartic be the word, will there be peace.
Time for the big one again, it’s being primed and our cheerleaders here in Blighty are up for it.
Ugh, WW3 meme again?
No, just no. You need armies to fight WW3. NATO doesn’t have armies, attempts to even increase arms production have been a fiasco.
The US has been bribing Pakistan for artillery shells, recruitment is bad and the idea of conscription is a joke.
They can barely prop up Ukraine & keep Israel supplied.
No arms and no armies= no war.
No armies means no conventional war – but Nuclear not off the table as far as Biden regime concerned.
Nuclear is never off the table so long as nuclear weapons exist or the ability to make them fast exists.
But the notion that WW3 will have to be primarily about armies being supplied to bomb other armies AND the notion that it will have to be primarily about nuclear weapons are BOTH out of date.
There’s biological warfare.
The intelligence, security, and psychological all work differently with biological than they do with conventional, nuclear, or chemical.
B shouldn’t even be in “CBRN”.
It’s something different.
IMO.
WW3 implies direct conflict between the ‘superpowers’, ie. Russia, China, USA.
No-one else counts because of the lack of real defensive/offensive capacity.
Plus, the big three totally control all other nuclear powers.
CBRN: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear.
The move in the west from trying to support societal pluralism in some form of democracy, to rearranging the landscape in accordance with religio-supremacist forces, might be quite understandable. If you grant that in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the old neo-cons had at least a tangential and deluded belief that regime change would result in democracies that would be naturally pro-western, then the utter failure of those enterprises naturally pivots into an alternative policy of working with the religio-supremacist alternatives. Not denying, of course, that the primary goal must always be to keep the western military/industrial money printing machines rolling, not any actual concern for the wellbeing of any of the people living in these parts.
” If you grant that in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the old neo-cons had at least a tangential and deluded belief that regime change would result in democracies that would be naturally pro-western, ”
Western governments are anti-democracy and have never attempted a regime change which resulted in democracy. They continually lie about their support of democracy and have bank-rolled and supported the present victors in Syria to prevent the emergence of a democracy. An actual democracy would then be anti-western.
Also, if the SAA retreated without a fight, where are they now? Did they all go home?
“If the SAA retreated without a fight, where are they now? Did they all go home?”
Excellent question.
Another is what made Assad fall so fast. Many think they are experts because they read the media, but the answer isn’t clear at all.
Al-Julani of HTS as banned military forces in Damascus from approaching public buildings and prohibited the firing of guns in the air by anyone.
Russia seems to have been stitched up as badly as France was over the nuclear weapons arrangement with Australia (AUKUS). But this is only a hypothesis and it might have to be revised when information comes in regarding what’s happening with the Russian land bases and with the Russian warships.
No. I think the old neo-cons – Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz – did genuinely believe in the democratic, western-friendly consequences of “regime change”. It’s wasn’t their primary aim, of course, and it was so badly planned it would be laughable if not so horribly catastrophic. Take their plans and construction of the massive US Embassy complex in Iraq, the biggest in the world. Planned for a diplomatic and cultural mission of 20,000 staff, now sitting almost empty. Also the liberal-hawk fellow travellers who thought if Saddam was removed they’d all have jolly elections and live happily ever after. I remember reading Christopher Hitchens at the time, who had even travelled quite a bit in Iraq, and wondering how anybody could be so deluded.
So again, the pivot in western politics and media from at least some kind of hope for pluralism and democracy in the Middle East, to quite shameless acceptance of the religio-supremacist powers, genocide even, is not very difficult to understand.
Al Jolani seems to have been promoted from a proscribed terrorist to rebel leader we have to deal with.
His first words were not talking of the eradication of other religious groups as he seems to be well aware of the complexities and beliefs within Syria.
The meddling by the murderous Palestine-occupying Zionist regime and Biden’s last-gasp bombing of Idlib are the complicating factors in this chess game.
There is nobody regulating their excesses. And Iran is not going to be provoked into rash decisions or actions; they are talking to their neighbours in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
It’s becoming obvious that America has set their eyes on controlling the vast oil and gas assets in the middle east that are left to control. Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia must know this, if I, yokel, can think of it, they must be worrying in their sleep for quite a while.
Thanks to Craig for having the guts to do some real journalism in a historic context and some stunning videos.
“It’s becoming obvious that America has set their eyes on controlling the vast oil and gas assets in the middle east”
When was this not obvious?
“Al Jolani seems to have been promoted from a proscribed terrorist to rebel leader we have to deal with.”
Happens all the time!
More craziness: Biden cockily hail the HTS regime change and seek to take personal credit for the event:
Biden claims credit for toppling Syria’s Assad
“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, [the Lebanese-based militant movement] Hezbollah, and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed, all three of them. Because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” Biden said.
https://swentr.site/news/609024-biden-credit-damascus-fall/
That quote right there will most likely not age well.
Besides how could the US president claim such idiocy when US at the same time have a bounty on the HTS leader?!
US officials discussed merits of removing $10m bounty on HTS leader
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-officials-discussed-merits-removing-bounty-hts-leader-abu-mohammad-jolani
Have you noted how similar in looks al-Jolani is with Zelensky? Same green button-down shirt, similar face features, same fake-image of being some democratic leader.
Hmm,
Al Julani *has* had a cosmetic makeover (Che partisan chic) and does bear a slight physical resemblance to Zelensky, and indeed dribbles the same banal slogans.
Difference being Julani *is* actually a fighter & military commander, whatever else and however otherwise fraudulent he is. So the fatigues do fit.
Zelensky is just a meatpuppet for Maidan powerbrokers in Ukraine & foreign/NATO meddlers outside.
So there you’ve got a corrupt, histrionic, cokehead and fat-arsed oligarchics preening as “proper solders” for crappy propaganda. When all they could actually do in battle is piss themselves.
Biden’s talking shit; he always talked shit. It’s an occupational requirement, before & after he started going senile.
Urban Fox
The heroic al Assad did a runner to Moscow leaving his PM to organise the handover to al Julani.
The “meatpuppet” Zelensky stood fast and organised the defence of his capital and his country.
Didn’t mention Assad, did I?
He stayed put at the start of the war years ago, to be fair. This time it was clearly hopeless. No sense in uselessly dieing.
As for Zelensky he hid in a bunker & cut promos in front of a green screen. Whilst slyly asking if he could in fact “get a ride” if need be.
Until he got assurances via an Israeli envoy, that his skin was currently safe.
All whilst not organising jack sh*t for Kiev or the country. Other parties did *that* mundane work.
To what end, mind you?
Well Ukraine is on a current trajectory, to Paraguay style national-suicide.
In a war effort that was preemptively, almost hopeless from the start.
That’s what comes of the toxic stew of Banderism and “liberal” cargo-cultistism.
@ JK redux.
Meat puppets, don’t get to “do a runner”. He’d have “died in a Russian strike” if he tried without permission.
Going from a now useless puppet to a useful martyr. Promptly replaced by another “green shirt”.
As for denials from the Russians, paying back NATO in its own coin perhaps?
“Liberation” isn’t invasion after all, and the Donbass genuinely wants no part of an impoverished, fascist-riddled, no good future polity like Ukraine.
It’s not hard to be a brave leader if you’ve got guarantees of personal safety, is it? 🙂
“Heroic” Ze got that from Putin.
Naftali Bennett, former Israeli Prime Minister got it for Ze. In March 2022, he came to Moscow in an attempt to mediate the conflict. Here’s what Bennett said (interview to Channel 12, also retold by The Times of Israel):
I knew Zelensky was under threat, in a bunker…
I asked Putin: “Are you going to kill Zelensky?”
He replied: “I will not kill Zelensky.”
Bennett asked again: “Do you give me your word that you will not kill Zelensky?”
Putin repeated that he was not going to do so.
After talking with the Russian president, Bennett immediately called Zelensky and conveyed Putin’s words to him.
The Ukrainian leader asked him if Bennett was sure.
He replied: “100 percent. Putin is not going to kill you.”
Two hours later, Zelensky went to his office and took a selfie there, declaring: “I am not afraid,” said former Prime Minister Bennett 🙂
https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-putin-assured-me-at-moscow-meeting-he-wouldnt-kill-zelensky/
Bennett’s next line in the conversation hasn’t been reported.
“If you ever want us to do it, let us know.”
The “Do you give me your word” bit is hilarious.
Tatyana.
I quoted another poster as referring to Zelensky as a “meat puppet”.
And I sarcastically referrred to al Assad as “heroic”.
As to Bennett’s assurances to Zelensky about his personal safety, you say that they were delivered in March 2022 but the full scale Russian invasion started on 24 February 2022.
If Zelensky was a coward (as I think you are suggesting) he would have done a runner when Russian Special Forces were at the airfield in Hostomel.
(As to Putin’s assurances re not planning to murder Zelensky, the latter could be forgiven for doubting them. From Wikipedia “Members of the Russian government, including Putin, repeatedly denied having plans to invade or attack Ukraine, with denials being issued up to the day before the invasion.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine )
Starmer, Macron and Scholz have all claimed the fall of Syria to be a good thing. Think about that for a moment, Syria has been taken over by head chopping terrorists, who have been declared as such by all western states. The black flag of HTS (Al Qaeda) flies over Damascus. This is a good thing? These western leaders are a disgrace and will regret the day they uttered so much garbage. Incidentally they are all on their way out.
Harry Law
Can we rely on Starmer, Macron and Scholz for a judgement on HTS?
No, their judgement on anything home & abroad.
Beyond greasy-pole sliding, grifting and kissing up to hegemon. Is pretty sh*t.
So I’ll go by collective and individual track record:
Thus on that basis. HTS *are* in fact a gang of horrible takfiri terrorists and Ali G Hadi’s well gotten rid of, by many countries.
OTOH they’re not as gratuitously snuff-film psycho as ISIS. Nor has any HTS leader yet had the singular egomania to call himself caliph of the damn world and they might cut deals, if and when. It suits them.
That’s about the best that can be said.
HTS mostly use a green-on-white flag.
Brian, “HTS use a green-on-white flag”. That may be true, but you try waving it on a march, and just like Hezbollah and Hamas flags you could be arrested on section 12 Terrorism Act and a possible 14 years jail time.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK after being added as an alias of al-Qaeda in 2017.
McFadden confirmed the UK currently cannot have any communications with HTS.
Since in some countries freedom of speech is understood in a special democratically distorted form, and reading Russian news can be reprehensible, tarnish one’s reputation and possibly even constitute a crime 🙂 I’ll retell you what’s reported here (as long as you are allowed to read at least comments on the internet):
– Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after negotiations with a number of participants in the Syrian conflict, decided to step down
– Russia did not participate in the negotiations
– Assad left Syria, giving instructions to peacefully transfer power
– Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali said that he and several ministers remain in the country, but they do not know where the Minister of Defense is
– The Prime Minister also said that he has established contact with the leadership of the armed opposition
– Assad and members of his family arrived in Moscow, Russia granted them asylum for humanitarian reasons
– Russian officials are in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria
– A new Syrian flag was installed on the building of the Syrian diplomatic mission in Moscow. The sign with the name of the diplomatic mission was removed from the building.
Radio news – Westminster Minister to discuss whether murderous proscribed terrorist group (HTS) should be removed from the banned list.
Of course the West has backed this proscribed terrorist outfit from the start – aiding and funding it to give it the best chance of overthrowing Assad – which it did with the help of the likes of the US/Turkey/Israel and some other nations.
Terrorism is a tool used by the West – to help regime change.
RoS
Hilarious how quickly they can be taken off the terror list, isn’t it. To say HTS are an unproven, unknown quantity, is an understatement.
Al-Qaeda have become more “moderate” in recent years the guardian informs us. How long until al-Jolani et al are invited to the UK as honoured guests? It makes a mockery of the claims Shamima Begum is “too dangerous” to return.
Just shows these proscription order decisions have become entirely arbitrary, and rather than being related to public safety, are being used for political convenience. In terms of organisations that have never attacked the UK, and whose grievance is purely in the ME, such designations make little sense and serve only to limit academic debate on complex regional struggles.
And have you noticed all media today are leading with the search for Sednaya ‘underground prisoners’ in Assad’s ‘dungeons’. The wording and reports are all very similar in nearly all MSM. It’s as if western MSM are collectively working from the same CIA/MI6 talking points.
According to the MSM all prisoners in Syria are apparently political. There are no murderers, terrorists; child molesters ; rapists etc…
This must be terrifying for many of their victims. I mean, how would UK citizens feel seeing Ian Huntley et al busted out of jail?
Hold on, didn’t Herr Starmer just aleviate some of the overcrowding in UK prisons (so that there is more room for dissenters) by releasing prisoners – rapists, druggies, etc. Seems Starmer and HTS are not that different – zionist puppet scumbags. (HTS: Herr Tool Starmer)
If the MSM are saying all the prisoners are “political” that’s just middle-class Islington talk from people who haven’t the slightest clue what it means to live under oppression. Within half a mile of where they live, there are probably loads of people who could tell them, but they don’t care or have the mental equipment or ethics to understand.
But to say that on the contrary the prisoners are mostly vicious criminals is also wrong.
That many of the victims of the fascist regime that has just fallen have been freed from jail is one of the few things that should be celebrated in these events. Some of those guys can’t walk properly and have obviously been tortured.
In Syria there is the death penalty for murder and rape, and probably also for sexual offences against children, so I doubt any men convicted of Ian Huntley-type crimes would have been locked up instead. But if for some reason a few of them were they would have had a hard time from other prisoners, to put it mildly, and would have been lucky to survive 10 weeks let alone 10 years.
Better that a few antisocial scum elements are released than thousands of innocents continue to be kept in jail indefinitely, isolated and tortured.
Hopefully one day those who have been disappeared into secret Israeli prisons – also underground – will be freed too.
I hope those now ex-prisoners in Syria have a great time with their families and friends tonight. They deserve it.
Sednaya Prison was run by the military solely for political prisoners.
Goose.
You just have to look at what happened to Egypt’s only democratically elected president Morsi – who died a horrible death after being overthrown by the CIA. I expect Pakistan’s president Imran Khan will also end up suffering the same fate; Bangladesh’s leader was overthrown because she wouldn’t give the island of St. Martin to the Yanks; they tried to assassinate Slovakia’s president Robert Fico because he wouldn’t comply with their narratives; Georgia’s president is also in the coup or kill crosshairs as is Hungary’s Orban – and in Romania they can just annul the elections because they don’t like the guy who’s winning policies.
The likes of Russia, Iran and Venezuela’s leaders, to name but a few – are also on the to-do list.
Goose.
I read somewhere – can’t recall now where, that (HTS) is another name for Al-Qaeda – just as the Azov Battalion has changed its name to the 32nd Assault Brigade to try and hide what it really is. I also heard on the radio today, the Deep State Functionary Tom Tugendhat mention that the proscribed terrorist outfit has raised a new style of Syrian flag in Damascus; almost fifteen years of attacks from the West/Turkey and Israel along with widespread sanctions finally took its toll on the Assad regime.
This is a interesting read – Russia and a few of its allies have created their own defensive pact, a kind of Nato with its own Article Five – where if one nation is attacked the others will come to its defence. Surprisingly – Syria wasn’t included in it, as Assad was fraternising with the Gulf States at the time – he believed what they had to tell him- and by the time he realised that it was all lies – it was too late.
https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/resistance-pact-signs-israels-death
with their names and re-names Ukrainians have no shame!
Look, there’s the street named by Galizien Division.
They humbly omitted SS in its full name SS Division Galizien as it was in Hitler’s army.
It’s on the Google Maps 49.555798617473826, 25.601200128874478
The street is in Ternopol.
Remember that old Nazi who was given a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament? The city of Ternopol recently honored the man with a medal (award named by another Nazi) and gave him ‘the honourable citizen of Ternopil region’ title! It was done AFTER it was discovered that the man served in SS.
—
Yet some people say there’s no Nazi problem in Ukraine! They even shout the slogan of Young Ukrainian Fascists and say that they stand with Ukraine, right, M.J.?
I suppose if Calin Georgescu wins the presidency in Romania that will be the next country to be ‘de-Nazified’, after all Romania sided with Nazi Germany in WW2 and sent 13 divisions to participate in Operation Barbarossa. Oh no Georgescu supports Putin so I guess that makes him a ‘good’ Nazi, as opposed to the ‘bad’ Nazis that (don’t) run Ukraine (seven million Ukrainians served with the Red Army in the ‘Great Patriotic War’).
Do they name streets to honour Hitler’s army? Do they award Nazi SS servicemen? Anyone from their government, from their cities administration?
Do they do it today? After Nuremberg? Having in mind all the UN resolutions?
Tatyana.
Mi5 cut-out Global Strategy Network – produced the fake celebrations from Iraqi’s when General Sulemani was murdered – the same fake cut-out is producing the so called “rejoicing Syrians” in the fall of Assad – it all but Western propaganda and the whores in the Western media – are lapping it up and beaming it into our front rooms.
https://thecradle.co/articles/handing-out-sweets-how-british-propaganda-steers-and-manages-events-in-west-asia
You have to remember that Assad would not bow to Western hegemony, yes he was a despot – but not the Wests despot.
The West props up countless despots and vile regimes – who have murdered millions such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt and many more. These vile regimes that keep their own citizens oppressed – comply with Western hegemony – for if they didn’t the West would regime change them, using their own citizens in uprisings (also known as Arab Springs) – so they do as they are told and that means the West turns a blind eye, to their daily atrocities against their own citizens.
Take say Bahrain for instance when David Cameron was the PM – he sold the Bahrain regime shotguns, tasers, and body armour to kits out the state police to use them against demonstrators seeking rights and democracy.
These vile Western backed regimes also spend billions on buying Western arms – one of the conditions to stop them from being regime changed.
Millions of people died when Soviet soldiers deprived Ukraine of its harvest at gunpoint. This was the Holodomor, the Ukrainian holocaust, of which discussion was banned in the Soviet Union before glasnost. The Ukrainians in WW2 not surprisingly saw the Nazis as liberators from Stalin. Unfortunately that ‘freedom’ didn’t last very long. The problem in Ukraine for most of the 20th century would be Communism.
But now we’re in the 21st century, and Putin wants to bring back the Soviet empire. Someone should tell him that empires after their decline never come back. But he did succeed in occupying the parts of Ukraine where there were large numbers of Russian speakers and Russian separatists.
Now we have a new American President who claims he can end the war in 24 hours. Zelensky will try to lessen the loss for Ukraine as much as possible, and I wish the Churchill of Ukraine all the best. At least the country will preserve its independence. The bitter cost should divest Putin of any enthusiasm for such “special operations” of this kind in the future.
Слава Україні!
“Holodomor’ .. horrifying, enraging, simply unforgivable.
Churchill inflcting famine on Bengalis the following decade?
forgivable.
Western responsibility for ongoing holocaust and famine in Gaza?
forgivable.
why?
MJ’ll tell ya.
You don’t know what you’re writing about, M.J.
In an extremely delicate matter, you behave like a bear in a china shop.
OK, I’ll write to you how things look from the inside.
That famine affected large parts of the USSR, especially those regions with no fertile soil. People died en masse and there were cases of cannibalism. The government tried to solve the problem by delivering food from fertile regions (including my region and my grandparents told me about it).
The position of the Ukrainian population on the need to share their harvest with the starving, was so specific that it’s difficult to describe without resorting to crude but apt folklore. I don’t know what metaphor to choose to describe this, but at the same time not to offend anyone. Perhaps: “Anyone who uses the phrase ‘easy as taking candy from a baby’ has never tried taking candy from a baby” (c) Asprin.
Have you ever tried to take something from a Ukrainian?
I’ve no doubt that the harvest had to be taken with weapons, and no doubt Ukrainians didn’t like it, and no doubt they present it as the greatest tragedy in their history.
That’s the mentality. They mourn every time they had to give something. They take easily and take a lot and don’t feel the need to be grateful. A modern joke on this topic sounds like this:
In English it is ‘Thank you’; in German it is ‘Danke’; in French it is ‘Merci’; and in Ukrainian it is ‘Malo’ (*not enough).
Here is a good wiki article on the Holodomor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
It does not justify the Bengal famine which was a decade later (and which may partly have been caused by profiteering). Here is a wiki article on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943
It is clear that the real problem in Ukraine was Soviet Communism, ruled by Stalin. The real problem now is a war started by Putin. I wish Zelensky the best in trying to resist and limit the invasion.
Слава Україні!
—
[ Mod: This article thread is about ongoing events in the Middle East; discussions about events in Ukraine that happened nearly a century ago are off topic and distracting.
There was a critical debate about the Holodomor in the discussion forum in 2023. If you want to add anything further on that topic, kindly start a new topic in the forum. ]
@ M J
Your historical points are all wrong, Stalin’s “collectivisation” affected the whole U.S.S.R, some parts were harder hit than Ukraine even.
There was no Holodomor that went according to modern Ukrainian/NATO mythology.
Nazi liberators in the east = literally Nazi propaganda, literally so.
On declining empires. Again flat wrong. Many have actually bounced back historically, some very drastically so.
As for “Zelensky the Churchill of Ukraine”. Lol, If you have a *certain* view of Churchill maybe.
If you have the current conventional view, then no. The best future he’s going to get is exile.
Ukrainian “independence” died years ago, in fact the country as such is probably doomed also.
The Donald ain’t saving shit. He’s a bullshit spewing total f*cking fraud, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Lastly, Russia likely won’t have any particular desire for large scale military involvements.
Yet If they felt the need was pressing, then the “bitter costs” of the SMO, wouldn’t dissuade them.
“Terrorism is a tool used by the West – to help regime change.”
Indeed RoS, terrorism was the primary tool they employed in Syria. Likewise Ukraine, with the false flag shootings by Nazis in Maidan Square, Kiev, in 2013.
And the West does not only employ terrorism for regime change. Also to target old ladies, toddlers, doctors and journalists in Palestine.
The UK government is *itself* one of the primary terrorist organisations that has been perpetrating the Genocide in Gaza.
@Fonso – Do you think Israel is part of the West?
Coming from the under threat «Aramaic» or Syriac Christian culture in Iraq I look on the events in Syria with total perplexity.
Sectarian Sunni Islamists backed by the West, EU, Nato Turkey, Saudi and Qatari money and materiel take, for the moment until they start the customary squabbling over the loot, Syria. All because some strategist don’t love Al Assad and friends.
if you do not believe in the «Devil» think again, he does seem to have many little enablers. Islamists already have their hearts set on next target, Europe, so do mind your heads.
The restored Notre Dame would make a rather nice mosque.
In this eretz Yisrael may have moved from the frying pan very close the burning coals
This article now reprinted on The Unz Review:
https://www.unz.com/article/the-end-of-pluralism-in-the-middle-east/
Lest we forget, or get distracted:
“When I was in Gaza, I saw a little boy no more than 9 years whose hands and part of his face, had been blown off from a booby trapped can of food that soldiers had left behind for Gaza’s starving children. I later learned that they had also left poisoned food for people in Shujaiyya, and in the 1980s and 90s, Israeli soldiers had left booby trapped toys in southern Lebanon that exploded when excited children picked them up.
The harm they do is diabolical, and yet, they expect you to believe they are the victims. Invoking Europe’s holocaust and screaming antisemitism, they expect you to suspend fundamental human reason to believe that the daily sniping of children with so called “kill shots” and the bombing of entire neighborhoods that bury families alive and wipe out whole bloodlines is self-defense.
They want you to believe that a man who had not eaten a thing in over 72 hours, who kept fighting even when all he had was one functioning arm, that this man was motivated by some innate savagery and irrational hatred or jealousy of Jews, rather than the indominable yearning to see his people free in their own homeland.”
Susan Abulhawa, Oxford Union Debate, Jewish Voice for Labor
https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/12/israel-savagely-beaten-in-fractious-oxford-donnybrook/
That was a superb speech by Susan Abulhawa. There is a video of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW5U_ZqGmZU
It should be put somewhere else too before Google try to stomp on it.
Also if anyone knows where there is a transcript, for those of us who prefer the written word…
JVL have the text, a twitter link and also background context to the event:
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/how-the-oxford-union-debate-was-won/
What times are these we are living in?
Has anyone got a link to Miko Peled’s speech in full at the Oxford Union?
Interesting to go back to the neocon “Clean Break”-policy document made in 1996. In the relative short document, the word “Syria” is mentioned 34 times.
“A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (commonly known as the “Clean Break” report) is a policy document that was prepared in 1996 by a study group led by Richard Perle for Benjamin Netanyahu, the then Prime Minister of Israel”
This sentence could have been written today:
“Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria”
https://web.archive.org/web/20140125123844/http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm
Although the israelis got some cold feet today, they do not want to be seen to be too connected to the new syrian rulers. Too late for that.
Oppositional leader Yair Lapid: “The last thing the rebels in Syria need or want is for them to say that they came to power thanks to Israel. This is unnecessary arrogance and will lead them to react, sooner or later, to try to prove to the Arab world that this is not true,” Lapid asserts.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/lapid-says-netanyahus-claims-he-sparked-downfall-of-assad-are-irresponsible-dangerous/
Great article, Craig. I would only add that this Salafist-Zionist takeover has exposed a still larger chunk of those posing as supporters of the Palestinians. I am not talking now of the hardcore shills for the Genocide Democrats (with whom you are wearily familiar in your comment section) but rather media outlets like Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye, commentators like Yanis Varoufakis and Owen Jones and politicians like the figure who suddenly appeared when you announced your candidacy for Blackburn. These elements have been masking their service to imperialism with their reporting, commentary or speeches on Gaza. The latter buys them a credibility with which they promote deeply reactionary political forces that render the liberation of Palestine ever more difficult.
Some really are genuinely conflicted. British rapper and X/twitter commentator, Lowkey, is as real or bona fide as you can get, and he hasn’t posted much on Syria. Remember Hamas backed rebel fighters trying to overthrow Assad in their first attempt c.2011 onwards.
The region is obviously very tribal and this Iran-Syria-Hezbollah corridor, that’s part of the so-called ‘Axis of resistance’ some in the West talk about, means little on the Arab street. The Arab Spring, that began as protests in Tunisia over govt corruption – iirc WikiLeaks ignited it all with the US cables release in 2010 revealing the spending excesses of Arab leaders and their families – was a genuine popular revolt that the US and UK hadn’t, for once, anticipated, planned or fanned. Though the US/UK/NATO did exploit it, by using Libya protests, and the alleged danger to the lives of Libyan protesters (hmm…Gaza?) to remove Muammar Gaddafi. The removal of Hosni Mubarak was the high point of this organic process. Syria too had protests and these were exploited to try to take out Assad, like Gaddafi previously, with an armed influx of foreign jihadists. The US quickly concluded a democratic Egypt on Israel’s doorstep, supporting Gazans, may not be such a hot idea, so back to military dictatorship it was for the country.
“Axis of resistance” is a term used in Iranian media too:
https://www.presstv.ir/Section/151
Personally I wouldn’t call either Hezbollah or the state of Iran resistance organisations, although perhaps Hezbollah is about to become one. Hamas is a resistance organisation. So is the PFLP.
Agreed the term “axis of resistance” means little or nothing on the Arab street. Ditto the notion of “Arab spring”, which means eff-all to people even in Tunisia – and is such a horribly patronising term anyway.
The real Resistance ✊✊💪
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistance_(American_political_movement)
I don’t know whether you are joking, but there’s no resistance on the network owned by Musk, soon to be appointed as a minister in the fascist USA government, or on the internet generally.
Brian Red
Prof David Miller uses it.
I think that’s where I first saw the term used on X. Western anti-imperialists, like Miller, tend to see the world a bit differently to the Arab street with its daily struggles just to survive. I fully understand the relief of Syrians, because life under Assad was, in a word: shit. Without trying to be patronising, what’s probably misunderstood though, on the streets of Syria, is why life was so bad. And that was due to the US State Department refusing to accept defeat post-2013. They stuck around causing trouble; holding the country to ransom: with terror training camps in Idlib; occupation of fertile land and crop burning; oil resource stealing to deny the regime much needed revenue, and of course brutally heavy, vindictive sanctions. Assad never stood a chance with the US sitting on him.
@Goose – I can’t speak much about the Arab street in general, but in Tunisia the use of the word “resistance” – at least to my British ears – has a French (language) feel to it. The idea is that the authorities put a huge weight on you, and most people succumb and obey, but you “resist” which mostly means you keep your dignity and you manage to stay alive, in pretty dire conditions which may continue for a long time, and eventually it kinda becomes known more widely (at least you hope it does) that it’s possible to act like this, and then the legitimacy of what the oppressive authorities are doing crumbles. It’s not particularly about street demonstrations or politics or militant organisations and doesn’t connect much with the resistance to colonial rule in the past. This is maybe a personal view but it’s what I’ve heard directly from Tunisia. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something similar in other formerly French-run parts of the Arab world such as the Lebanon and Syria.
USA now has power in all the middle east between Egypt and Turkey, then over to Iran a huge area encompassing Palestine Gaza strip. Israel Lebanon Syria Iraq, jordan saudi arabia kuwait and uae all bow to USA; Yemen war will conclude within a year or two and Oman do as they are told. So what now Iran? what now Turkey? It will be interesting and painful to watch the peoples of these occupied countries move. They will move; most will not stay and suffer what the Palestinians suffered knowing that there is nobody coming to rescue them.
@Terence – Can you give an example please of when Israel has bowed to the USA. Or when Saudi Arabia has for that matter.
Actually it has a fractious mutually antagonistic house of cards. Each with their own agendas.
This campist talk is simplistic. The US has no true vassals beyond NATOland, Japan & SK.
Everyone else is much more willing to leverage, use it and ditch it. When it suits them.
Overrating actual US power is a mistake people often seem to make.
Are there any Chechen forces in Syria?
Yes, Brian, Ajnad al-Kavkaz, plus one or two smaller units.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajnad_al-Kavkaz
Some of its members, including their leader, have also fought for the Ukrainians – including behind enemy lines in Russia before the Kursk incursion.
@Lapsed – Thanks for this. There have also been pro-Russian Chechen forces in Syria:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chechen-special-forces-in-syria-to-protect-peace-and-public-order-a7559276.html
And there are a few thousand Chechen people who are from Syria.
But are any Chechen military forces still in Syria now?
Thanks for your reply Brian. Apologies for my late reply. To answer your question: a large part of AaK is still in Syria and was involved in the retaking of Aleppo.
Brian Red, are you suggesting that Israel are doing this without permission from USA? Come on, you can’t be. Surely you realise that if Israel did not do only as USA tell them the USA would not be supplying them with the weapons equipment training they have.
It’s going to be difficult for Hezbollah to receive weapons and supplies now – with the fall of Syria Hezbollah is now surrounded in Lebanon – not to mention its internal enemies in Lebanon; meanwhile it looks as though Russia will try and negotiate with the new terrorist regime in Syria, on trying to keep its base in Tartus.
Also – it looks like the Greater Israel plan is on track, with the Zionists bombing parts of Syria – and occupying those lands – as well as stealing land from Lebanon.
Since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, more than three-quarters of Christians have left the country.
Before the war, they numbered 2 million.
In 2020 there were 450,000.
This info is from the EU:
https://coi.euaa.europa.eu/administration/easo/PLib/03_2020_Syria_Targeting_of_individuals.pdf
Remarkable that few if any commentators are saying the Syrian civil war is now over.
Craig – My brain was just thinking that the US-led imperial powers must be using the Sunni/Shia conflict as a divide and conquer strategy, when I came to the paragraphs wherein you wrote just that. The fact that you are there in Lebanon and have a substantial understanding of history gives you high credibility in my eyes. Plus to hear of how your own eyes are opening. Despite all these confusing territorial alignments and realignments, my view is that ultimately it comes down to the question of Warfare or Earth Share?
I just sent the link to your article to several of my British friends who are working for land value tax in UK. I am asking if any of them know you personally. Happy to hear you are starting a substack, I will subscribe right away. My substack is called Aradhana Airwaves. PLEASE READ MINE ON PALESTINE / ISRAEL – CUTTING THE GORDIAN KNOT for an “earth rights” analysis and solutions proposal that is widely applicable as a basic template for bringing just peace to many arenas of conflict including growing poverty and homelessness in the UK and USA. It is here:
https://alannahartzok.substack.com/p/palestine-israel-cutting-the-gordian
After reading please get back to me on your views of this piece, thank you.
Assad is a ‘rat’ who fled with ‘tail between his legs’, says Lammy
The foreign secretary has described Bashar al-Assad as the “rat of Damascus” who fled to Moscow “with his tail between his legs”.
David Lammy, making a statement to the Commons, said the UK Government had chosen not to re-engage with Syria under Mr Assad’s rule as the former president was a “monster”.
Does anyone else find this man and his boss completely insufferable? What were Assad and his family supposed to do, endure a grisly Gaddafi-style death for Lammy’s satisfaction? He also repeated the chemical weapons claims, that the late Robert Fisk(Ghouta, Sarin) and Aaron Mate(Douma, Chlorine) have both debunked, and exposed as wrongly attributed to Assad’s forces. In 2018, the US’s Defence Secretary ,General Mattis, stated before a hearing : the U.S. has no evidence of Syrian use of sarin gas.
Anyone and everyone who associates with the zionists live in a fantasy land where lying is second nature. Old silver back wouldn’t know the truth if his life depended on it. Despicable is an understatement.
Goose, Assad was a bit of a rat – a minority dictator that controlled the army, but Israel will be worse for the people of Syria I’m sure.
It’s so easy for the foreign minister of a government that’s relatively stable to discover suddenly that a foreign leader who has fallen from power was a “rat”. Lammy’s behaviour is distasteful to say the least, and even more so because the creep doesn’t realise that people may notice. Still I’m sure he will think he’s really made it in the world when he goes to royal garden parties and when he shakes hands next year with Warren Stephens, Trump’s ambassador to Britain – and hey David it’s Jared Kushner on the phone, he reckons you’re really great, so drop what you’re doing and act obsequious.
Remember this one ?
“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
As reported by former General Wesley Clark about a talk he once had in the Pentagon.
Stevie Yes and here’s The General saying it – obviously Taking a wee bit longer than planned.
General Wesley Clark: “We’re going to take-out 7 countries in 5 years.”
7 mins 50 secs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Knt3rKTqCk
Someone needs to spend time researching the origin of the Palestinian identity.
It does appear to be of relatively recent origin, and Christian, dating from the time when there were substantial Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Greek Catholic populations in the Ottoman sanjaks and vilayets that made up that region of Greater Syria. However, 1967 does seem the great kick off under Yassar Arafat.
It is a historic fact that Muslim Arabs conquered and began settling the area in the seventh century.
Who lived there prior to their invasion? Much depends on which propagandist meets your particular prejudice as does much concerned with the Levant and Near East.
Nur Masalha’s Palestine: A Four Thousand Years History may be helpful. The word ‘identity’ is multivalent, and could mean the evolving consciousness of a people through history (for which Musalha explains that Islam and Arabic are important ‘markers’), as well as a modern nationalist identity.
“Much depends on which propagandist meets your particular prejudice”. The implication in your comment is particularly unpleasant as well as factually deficient.
Turabdin, you are wrong. I lived in Libya when King Idris ruled – that was before Gadaffi – and Palestine was well known as a country at that time. In fact, Palestine was a country well established and mapped in old history books.
@Turabdin – I don’t know who lived there before the 7th century, but if I tried to find out it wouldn’t be on the basis of propaganda or prejudice. Why does it matter??
Palestinian seems a much more robust identity than Lebanese. (No offence intended to anyone. I’ve learnt a lot from Nassim Taleb of “Black Swan” fame. His view about the propensity of stock markets and other systems to go arse over tits seems very intelligently informed by his knowledge of the Lebanon, or the “Levant” to use the term he prefers.)
Many problems are appearing for the ‘west’s’ premature jubilation on the victory of HTS in Syria, number 1/ In order for Syria to be a viable state it needs to control the valuable oil fields and agricultural land in the east , which is now under the control of the Kurd’s with US military backing, HTS and Turkey which is financing and controlling the ‘Syrian National Army’ (previously the Free Syrian Army), and which it is mainly using to fight Kurdish separatists in Syria, must/will confront the Kurd’s, a turf war is likely to break out, it is possible the US will throw the Kurds under the bus, as they have done many times in the past.
2/ So much faith has been put in the “moderate” jihadis this is ridiculous given its past iterations. Here Pepe Escobar details a possible twist to HTS real intentions which is probably why the IAF are bombing all Syrian airfields and military bases all over Syria, while taking over more Syrian territory.
“Massive plot twist right inside the venerable Umayyad mosque in Damascus.
The NATO/Israeli-Turk Head-Chopping Army are now promising the Palestinians they are coming to liberate Gaza and Jerusalem.
Yet until Sunday it was “We luuurv Israel”.
“The MC of this P.R. op (right at the end of the video) is the Caliph of al-Sham himself, Jolani”. https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1866058339282567501
My understanding was that the illegal USA invasion forces in the north east had been stealing the Syrian grain harvests and oil for years and shipping them out through Turkey. That was one of the reasons, along with sanctions, that Assad was able to be undermined. I don’t see that changing.
I don’t understand why Craig doesn’t mention the region of Rojava in his amazing breakdown of the multicultural geopolitics (which i don’t know enough about to really get).
Not only is Rojava religiously tolerant, it promotes gender equality at least in theory, and environmentalism.
“Despite being excluded from every peace negotiation dominated by Iran, Turkey, and Russia that perceive Kurdish autonomy as a threat, the Kurds have maintained their commitment to democratic ideals and stability”.
I recall there was a US doctrine to keep middle Eastern states from ever being stable.
The fascinating dynamic for me, is that between Erdoğan and Netanyahu, men, who by all accounts distrust and loathe each other, but have this weird interdependence. Erdoğan’s fiery language, at times, has given the impression Turkey may be on the precipice of staging a military intervention in Gaza, Erdoğan is of course, pro-Hamas and he disputes the ‘terrorist’ designation. With such differing views, logic dictates that these events in Syria can’t be both good for both Turkey and Israel and one, or both of them is going to be unhappy.
I was just reading about the UK’s history of interference in Iran. I already knew the historical events broadly, but in black and white. The 1953 Iranian coup d’état, a U.S.- and British-instigated, Iranian army-led overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh, an Iranian nationalist who convinced the Parliament to nationalize Britain’s extensive oil interests in Iran. Mohammad Reza (the son of Reza Shah), who maintained close relations with Britain and the United States, opposed the decision. Nevertheless, he was forced in 1951 to appoint Mosaddeq premier, and two years of tension followed.
In August 1953, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the premier’s popular support was so great that the shah himself was forced out of Iran. A few days later, British and U.S. intelligence agents orchestrated a stunning coup d’etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah returned to take power as the sole leader of Iran. in favor of strengthening the autocratic rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The CIA has publicly admitted its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran’s elected Prime Minister. In 1979. faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, fled the country. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.
The US and UK owe Iran a huge apology. Not threats.
What will Turkey do now that Israel will border with them? Will Turkey take the refugees that make their way to Turkey? There really is nowhere else for them to go.
In the morning, the adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, Dmitry Gendelman, reported that the IDF was expanding the “security zone” in the Golan Heights.
And by the evening, Netanyahu announced that the Golan Heights would now be an integral part of Israel!
And no one cares that Jews have never lived there and it has never been part of Israel, never ever even in Biblical times. That’s how easy it is to occupy someone else’s land if no one is defending it with weapons.
And they don’t give a damn about UN resolutions and what kind of peacekeepers should be stationed on the demarcation line. This world is going to hell. There is no law. Might is right.
In 30 years, Israel will tell the people living there, the same that Zelensky is telling the people in Donbass – if you don’t like it, there are cheap flights to heighbouring countries
It doesn’t end there, Iran will likely be next on the list with Trump, ultra hawk Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, and the laughably ill-qualified Fox News pundit, Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. Why Trump, who made great play of the fact he’s a man of peace and wants to end wars, has appointed known hawks, Idk?
Unless Putin offers Iran a similar deal to that of Belarus, war on Iran seems inevitable. Iran hosting Russian nuclear weapons would be called a reckless move etc, but is it more reckless than Turkey and Poland hosting US nuclear strike capability? Such a move would deter Netanyahu and Trump from doing anything too crazy. Nuclear deterrence works, especially against a small country like Israel where 40% of the population are concentrated in 2 major cities. Russia/Putin may refuse, but Iran would be wise to plead for such a deal.
No, Goose, Trump doesn’t care if Israel get bombed by Iran. He gives not a jot about Israel. It’s the oil control he wants. And in the end it’s the oil that will prevent nuclear war in the middle east. A nuclear war in the middle east would collapse the world economy for rather a long time.
But Terence…A nuclear war ?? Em I think you are wrong about that Destroying the ME..It would DESTROY ALL LIFE ON EARH. For Millenia
@Brian Fujisan – Don’t exaggerate, lol. 70% of human beings is one thing, all life on Earth is another.
And how could life regenerate within mere millennia if it had been destroyed? It couldn’t.
You and I might see nuclear war as something horrendous. There are those who think $$$.
@Terence – C’mon, look at Trump’s connection with the Kushners and theirs with Chabad. Trump is a houseboy.
The world economy is going to collapse anyway.
Nuclear war anywhere could be the trigger, and there are big profits in determining the timing.
Brian, who controls Trump? He does not make these decisions himself. I think USA use Israel in the middle east as their threat to Israel’s neighbours that they must play ball with USA or their will be trouble; every country that ignored this threat has been reduced to rubble. There is nothing else in the middle east that USA want, so once oil runs out Israel will be set upon by its neighbours. When will that be? Given that so many leaders in the world deny global warming it could be some time. But on the other hand, politics is so volatile it could be next week.
Very telling, Israel could occupy, annex as much as they want and there are not any condemnation at all. Meanwhile we know it is the exact opposite language when it comes to Russia regarding Ukraine..
I just read how Israel now bomb syrian war-ships in Latakia. They really try to destroy everything for the new rulers, making it a weak, ineffective regime. Question is also, will the new leaders of Syria really put up with this? Will they become another israeli puppet state just like the rest of the Arab League of nations?
Netanyahu says illegal occupation of Syrian land is ‘forever’
https://swentr.site/news/609102-israel-netanyahu-golan-heights/
I like your concept “the end of pluralisim”. And I agree with it but with a few modifications. The “salafi” narrative has long gone thanks to the new modern “neo-Wahhabism”. The salafi concept has, as you rightly mentioned, failed their fellow Sunnis in Gaza and didn’t even raise a finger to stop the genocide. Their credibility has eroded and no one is buying. People, whether Sunnis or Shiites, no longer fall for it anymore. and you can see this obviously with the new narrative of the HTS (ironically). They know they can’t sell their concepts anymore. They have to change the campaign strategy and adapt to the current consumers mindset. So far, the West has played the new card; yet to see how it will be received. People are completely cynical and lost their faith in their leaders and scholars. They lost faith with the old and want to embrace the new thinking. However, the war on Gaza has revealed the true color of the Arab and Muslim leaders and their respective regimes. They are not welcome. Let’s see who’s next.
Assad is gone – good. He was a minority leader by force – but Israel will be a minority leader by force as well, and will be much worse for the people in Syria than Assad was. The HTS (once called Al Qaeda) are pleased that Israel have cleared Assad out of Syria but I hope they realize they are next. Yes, Israel will soon go after HTS and clear them out too. All factions that do not conform to Israel superiority will be cleared into Jordan or Iraq or Iran. A lot of people are going to be on the move.
” a minority leader by…Sources Please “
Brianfujisan, Assad took over the presidency from his dad. Half the population of Syria were not allowed to vote in elections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Syrian_presidential_election
While the Liberal media are trying to get their heads round the very idea about people they were describing as brutal terrorists last year being Cuddly Kittens this year, I’ve observed a few things from the telly.
Syria has a population of around 23 million I think. Damascus is the Capital City of around 2.7 million. Despite some, not surprisingly lively, celebrations the ‘masses’ are not exactly thronging the streets.
Only an opinion but that suggests to me that a lot of people are quite rightly keeping their heads down (I mean ordinary people – not ex-officials) awaiting developments – as they say. Therefore all the tales of exiled Syrians yearning to return to Damascus to reclaim their previous houses and businesses is a media confection.
Of course the Western MSM have to present this as a ‘Democratic’ invasion but like trying to pull a hat out of a rabbit, it’s hard to make everything credible to those who don’t know anything about it, except that the word ‘Freedom’ as usual is used over and over again. Thus the Magic Trick is revealed but in the inverse. Similar to Israel’s right to defend by attacking but if another country does it – that’s not fair.
Yet again the vehicles piling in were muddied over – maybe for camouflage – maybe to hide how posh many of them were. Considering they came from poor distressed Idlib then some look to be doing alright.
Anyway the ‘Liberators’ will soon get to know how Assad and his people felt when the US doesn’t give back the Oil fields it nicked, and the crop-growing areas, and then they will find out the price of buying US LNG or Syrian/Turkish oil at mate’s rates like the Germans.
That’s the Imperialist World for you. Never a favour – always a price.
The main point is that there are many Syrians who will have a grudge to bear in the future depending on how they are treated by the ‘Liberators’. That’s when the next Civil War will start, and the Liberal Media will have to find a reverse Thesaurus to find description a synonym or an antonym to tell the truth to the ordinary mortals as to what’s going on and gone wrong.
Not unlike reading Alice Through The Looking Glass backwards. It’s confusing reading it forwards never mind backwards.
p.s. Russia is a pro capitalist State and is nothing like the Communist Soviet Union with its willing (or unwilling) Buffer States. The last remaining buffer State is Ukraine.
Peter The Great, Catherine the Great, but no Donald the Great, will convince the Russians or Putin that Ukraine being in NATO is a good thing. I keep hearing that Putin is bluffing.
The answer to that is obey Zelensky’s wish and put Ukraine under the NATO umbrella tomorrow. Then see what happens.
p.p.s. I forgot to mention the also ‘rebranded’ Syrian White Helmets, who are back doing great works – but only for one side.
There – I mentioned them.
Assad was a minority ruler by force. Israel will be a minority ruler by force, given that Syria’s population is double that of Israel.
” a minority ruler ” this is Lie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Syrian_presidential_election
When people like you say put Ukraine in NATO I immediately think “wind bag”. Why do you do it? You clearly have no idea what would have happened if Ukraine joined NATO: there would have been war across the whole of Europe, the whole EU and more. Do you not have any clue what that would be like for hundreds of millions of people? Obviously you don’t.
Terence Callachan
‘People like me’ were very active in the first round (second including The Cuban Missile Crisis) and I was on the Anti-Nuclear marches back in the day.
The word ‘Deterrence’ works both ways and the only way to deter the US and it’s allies is to use that deterrence hopefully verbally – not actually.
If you put your opponent into a MAD situation it becomes MAD and the US thinks that Russia is bluffing which will encourage their MADness – as in thinking they can strike a blow first with no comebacks. That’s the danger here and unfortunately long ago there were channels of communications open between the US and The Old Soviet Union as there was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This time it is more dangerous as the Dimwits that occupy the Whitehouse think they can win a Nuclear War.
The placing of nukes in the ex-Soviet Buffer States is in order to get your nukes closer to Moscow and Russia in general. That way (the US Official thinking indicates this opinion) you can wipe the Russians out before they get the chance to fire back. That’s dangerous nonsense as Russia has armed subs and probably a Dead Man’s handle to fire before all the US missiles hit. They are truly MAD if they think there are no comebacks.
Putin is threatening with his new missile so despite the nuclear threat (the bullying of the West in Newspeak) it isn’t Russia that is upping the ante here – it’s the ‘he’s bluffing’ US.
No, I don’t want the world to end but there are some in the MSM and elsewhere who think Nuclear War is winnable. It is most certainly not and if dullards like Lynsey Graham and his fellow bigmouths want to preserve their stash, they had better back off from the Winnable Nuclear War theory. If it happens not only will his bank be shut – it (and he) will not exist.
Only Dimwits don’t understand that.
Mark, I agree with what you say. I am 68 and have seen how easy escalation takes hold.
Great comment MR MARK CUTTS.
Actually 25 Million not 23.
Which allows me to state the following.
According to
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/
‘Russia 145 million and dropping!
population density in Russia is 9 per Km2
median age in Russia is 39.9 years.
Iran 92 million
56 per Km2
33.4 years.
Turkey 87.5 million
114 per Km2
33.0 years.
Iraq 46 million
106 per Km2
20.6 years.
Syria 25 million
134 per Km2
22.8 years.
Illegal Apartheid Entity in The Levant 9.4 million
434 per Km2
29.2 years.
Lebanon 5.8 million
568 per Km2
28.6 years.
India 1.45 Billion
488 per Km2
28.4 years.
China 1.42 Billion
151 per Km2
39.6 years.
USA 346 million
38 per Km2
38.3 years.
In South East Asia/Pacific, the largest Indonesia has 284 million
156 per Km2
30.1 years.
In Africa Nigeria has 235 million
255 per Km2
17.9 years.
In South America largest Brazil has 212 million
25 per Km2
34.4 years.
In west Europe largest is Germany with 84 million and dropping.
243 per Km2
It is 45.3 years ‘
Etc.
“Lebensraum” as a desire expressed in full on Nazi speak yesterday in a national Entity paper as a straw man. Deleted soon after! Their petty 9 million – significant numbers of which with dual nationalities isn’t going to grow much more.
It will reduce and most will be sent packing back to where they arrived from before they become ziofascist white supremacist colonialists for their masters purposes. They could be swallowed in a gulp by the USA and Europe where most came from. They don’t need anymore land and are only interested in power over the crossroads of the World.
To collect Rent from for ever.
They are never going to compete as the surrounding massive emerging populations – many of whom have been killed in their millions over the decades, which would have made them larger than they are now.
Think what the killed 25 million Soviets in WW2 would be like now!
The settlers prefer slavery over a real human lived lives.
So I have no worry that in a couple of generations it will be an ex-imperial land returned to the native semetic peoples. The settlers having followed the pattern.
Expecting Russia with no need for extra lands, a tiny relative population to go and die in their thousands or millions for these who don’t want to help themselves, is the wishful thinking of the Global Robber Barons.
Syria is not a strategic loss.
It may be the opposite!
In the context of the above population stats , Syria is not as important as its more massive neighbours even if it has 2.5 times the population of its ziofascist imperialist colony next door.
Neither does Turkey, Iran or Iraq in the long term.
The Oil Arab satraps are insignificant and will dissolve like mirages they are.
Ultimately it will be the hundreds of millions, billions, coming out to of Africa, mid c22nd that will look after these lands as humanity approaches its maximum population at around 15 billions, before receding down the other side of the curve.
Syria however is historical because of where it is.
For the moment it has fallen into the Bastard Global Robbers hands and the Ottoman nostalgia of Turks (some of whom are also part of that Global Robber Dynasties) The shapeshifters though history. Which for them is finally going to end as the majority of humanity just gets too big to control and will shrug them of as some little pet or growling handbag dog that has a bark bigger then it’s bite, it will never again terrify the inevitable growing humanity.
So folks. Cheer up it’s just another step to emancipation.
Hmm, Iran is surprisingly “old” for the Mid-East region. As is Turkey.
Still those broad statistics aren’t reliable, as they don’t accommodate different methodology, different national counting practices or actual facts on the ground.
So Russia which actually has a resident population higher now than the Soviet times. Due to guest workers, refugees, non-citizen permanent residents and illegal immigrants gets undercounted.
The new territories with millions of people, don’t get counted either.
Ditto for Iran, millions of refugees living & working there. Most of whom are not counted accurately. Same for Turkey & Lebanon.
Israel has been losing lots of people for the last year, due to dusty passports. Suddenly being remembered.
Still headcounting is a crude way measure national power, once you’re beyond a certain size.
Nigeria for example is piss-poor, utterly dysfunctional and outstripped in Africa, by far smaller nations.
Indonesia OTOH is slept on, as a potential noteworthy power.
Population is not always power. Israel would be a minnow without USA backing.
Terence Callachn
True. Israel’s GDP is pretty impressive at around $564 bn.
Very high tech stuff, and where there is tech, there are weapons system at high cost.
I suspect (no expert) that like other countries it involves a lot of US investment. Israel doesn’t actually own it – otherwise why keep tapping up the US for money?
To be fair, their Desalination technology should be a boon for the poorer parts of the world. Sadly, it isn’t – because in the future water will become as precious as oil.
DunGroanin. Interesting info.
It’s amazing how median age is low the poorer a country is. China bucks that trend but even they are now they (like Russia) are inviting fit handsome young men (that’s me out then, but they may get really desperate?) and young women to bolster their lowering populations.
Starmer and others are in a similar boat (to coin a phrase) but when you have idiots like Farage et al their imaginations re: the future of the UK suggest that they want to go backwards, not forwards, to the 1950s.
The refugees are young men mainly – will be willing to learn better English and would be a growth factor in growing the UK economy. That is, of course, if what you are saying you are going to do about growing the economy is going to happen.
Under Austerity V 2.0 I (like Father Dougal Maguire) am very cynical.
What a waste of potential.
I have written my thoughts on your article. But regretfully I can’t find it. !!!
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[ Mod: Do you mean this comment: ‘Khalil minawi’ on 9/12/2024 at 9:37pm? ]
Al Jazeera is sounding as if it could have been written by some SIS youngster in the Home Counties or 77th Brigade junior feeding bilge to the BBC:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/9/assads-human-slaughterhouses-what-to-know-about-syrias-prisons
“During a lightning offensive to capture Syria, opposition fighters have freed thousands of people from a network of terrifying prisons that characterised the repressive al-Assad regime that they eventually ousted.
Coming from the north, they took Aleppo first, then Hama, Homs and Damascus.“
Have to remember that al jazeera is the Arab voice of the MSM. Although they do some excellent work their news service never veers far from the official western narrative.
Brian Red
Unless The ‘Syrian White Helmets’ have become Sniffer Dogs then they are not much use.
They could get them and put ‘White Helmet Sniffer Dogs’ on their coats for advertising purposes to the credulous Western MSM.