syria

Meanwhile, spiderman and captain America reach deal to destroy doc ock's mechanical arms

andy borowitz everybody!

Presumably Russia has some pull with Assad.

http://theam.cn/17NwNg2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10311007/Syria-nearly-half-rebel-fighters-are-jihadists-or-hardline-Islamists-says-IHS-Janes-report.html

Wow, I'm not sure I would have wanted to be there for that straw poll...

Well, I read a Danish analysis of that question, and I think it's important to realize, that out of six provinces under rebel control, only one is controlled by the jihadists. It's probably what they talk about when they mention 'northern syria', and apparantly it's a desert area, not very populated, without any kind of structure. Really, it's a wide area, but it's less important in a nationalist view. It's like with mali, the jihadists have an easier time dominating less contested areas. Apparantly they are financed by Qatar and - surprisingly - Turkey. Turkey help them since they are fighting against kurds.

But I thought the only people who disliked Assad were fanatics, and that if we give them food they'll only spend the calories killing Christian babies...

That's one heck of a diet...

So, what do we think about the UN-report? The gas was delivered by advanced rocket-technology, with cyrillian letters on them at least two rockets was fired from area controlled by the regime (and the trajectory of the other rockets couldn't be determined). I think it is quite convincing.

It was always silly to suggest that, if chemical weapons had been used at all, they had been deployed by anyone other than Assad's government. So, a finding that the means of delivery points to the Assad regime is completely unsurprising. The more important question has always been, what kind of a response makes practical sense?

Yup. "One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place." Uh..."Give me a cruise missile long enough and a pivot and I shall move the world." "The World and Life are one. ... Ethics and Aesthetics are one." There must be an answer somewhere...

But really, in this case, the thread of violence had some pretty good consequences, right?

Depends on whether we end up at the same point in five years, except with roughly half the number of people left alive to save.

xp: It wasn't an advanced rocket. Both government and rebels have tons of 132mm launchers and rockets, a technology dating back to 1942, and they work just fine for delivering chemical agents where accuracy isn't all that important.

They may even be superior to artillery shells, as the launcher and round can use cheaper, developing world materials, rather than high strength forgings, and still hold more explosive or chemical agent than a similarly sized shell.

I don't know how the Syrian military marked their chemical rounds, the U.S. Army used distinctive green bands around their shells. If chemical munitions were being distributed to lower level units, many manned by militias, it was probably only a matter of time before a few found their way into a launcher by command or accident.

Yeah, according to what I've read, it wasn't 'a few' and it's pretty unlikely that 'lower lever units' would be entrusted with chemical weapons to begin with, as the chance of the shell being handled wrongly, leaking and killing many of your own soldiers is too high.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/international/tunisia-to-fight-sex-jihad-trips-to-syria

Sy Hersh thinks Obama had some lies of omission about Syria non-shocker

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack.

But in recent interviews with intelligence and military officers and consultants past and present, I found intense concern, and on occasion anger, over what was repeatedly seen as the deliberate manipulation of intelligence.

The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’

Related: Sy Hersh doesn't have a better outlet than the London Review of Books?

oh, well here's why:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/seymour-hersh-syria-report_n_4409674.html

hersh prob OTM as per usual.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/opinion/use-force-to-save-starving-syrians.html

There's never been a shortage of armchair pundits advocating killing to avert famine. For those with short memories.

good article https://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/a-special-relationship/

A US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.

Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.

Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.

It is thought Tuesday’s bombing was among the first by jets taking off from Incirlik air base in Turkey since it reopened after the failed coup.

The area has seen intense fighting between extremists and members of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) that have been advancing towards the Isil stronghold of Manbij under the cover of intense airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

The coalition has carried out more than 450 air strikes around the city since the operation to take the town began in May.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/19/us-air-strike-in-syria-kills-up-to-85-civilians-mistaken-for-isi/

is there another thread where we all freak out at the assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey.

closest: Q: are we not MENA? A: we are the rolling middle east, north africa and other geopolitical hot spots thread 2016!

no shit. https://t.co/kyq7746lwK

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) August 17, 2017

"the West" still stands for blowing shit up......thank you pic.twitter.com/lAYXODksUP

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 15, 2018

This language is directly from the Dick Cheney & Karl Rove playbook and script when they would attack Democrats in the Bush years who wanted to "cut and run" and leave the various Middle East wars. There's zero difference in rhetoric or mentality: "our enemies will not fear us." https://t.co/HJ7Lr7WRsW

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 20, 2018

Assad is bad imo

Yeah, but Iraqi Shia and Afghan crime lords were despicable allies. The YPG are cool.

Assad purposely bombed clinics run by Doctors Without Borders because they treated anyone who came to them, some of whom may have been combatants. Of course, all of the medical staff and most of the patients were non-combatants. So, yes, he is bad.

he sure is, and doesn't appear to be going anywhere, as Nobel winner Obama himself said

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/03/world/us-raid-syria-isis

Syria? ISIS? What the fuck?