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21:57
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The Looming
Divorce
Turkey
Is No Longer a Reliable Ally. “The failed coup was a clarifying moment. Ankara and Washington
don’t share values or interests.”
As NATO and Turkey seem to be
inching closer and closer to a divorce, the drive for an independent Kurdistan in
northern Iraq grows stronger and gains more traction and support in the
international level. In time, Irbil seems likely to become the possible
location for a new U.S. base substituting for the one in Incirlik which is fast
becoming a lost cause. The United States has options, but Erdogan is making his
worst nightmare come true. An independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq is not a
threat to a Turkey that is a member of NATO. If Turkey is not, Kurdish-majority
areas in Turkey are bound to heat up even more than they are now. A new proxy
war involving Russia, the U.S., Turkey, Iraq and Iran might emerge, with the
fiercest fights taking place on Turkish soil. Erdogan is letting his ego trump
his better judgment. A decade ago, he wouldn’t have made such miscalculations. This
is why staying in power for such long time is a bad idea.
20:3o
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Embedding
with Autocrats
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| A woman approaches a Syria Democratic Forces fighter to kiss him after the fighters entered ManbijRodi Said/Reuters |
Robert
Fisk won't tell the truth on Syria because, like Bashar al-Assad, he fears it.
“At every major point of the war, Fisk has trumpeted Assad regime
and Russian propaganda.”
In a 2005 article
for The Independent, Fisk very aptly warned of
the dangers of journalists "embedding" with the British and US armed
forces during the Iraq war due to it undermining journalistic integrity for the
sake of security.
Fast forward to
2012, however, at a time when the Assad regime, backed by Iran and Hezbollah,
had unleashed a war of annihilation against revolutionary Syrians, and, in a
reversal of his earlier appeals against journalists sacrificing integrity for
security, Robert Fisk decides to embed himself
right among the Assad regime forces in Aleppo and Damascus…
Fisk knows very well
that the armed opposition have committed few atrocities and that they don't
even compare to the daily near-genocidal violence of the regime and its Russian
and Iranian allies. He also knows that the vast majority of rebel fighters are
not al-Qaeda, but he must engender the idea that "there are no good
guys" in Syria.
One might think this
position belies a neutrality on the part of Fisk, but it's the very opposite.
Take his most recent article on Aleppo – Fisk's assertion that "there are
no good guys" would be easier to believe if it was him who had not written
a virtual paean to
Assad's Armed Forces in October 2015, wherein he concludes with a passionate
rant, gushing that the "Syrian Army" is going to come out of this war
"the most ruthless ... battle-hardened ... Arab army in the region ... woe
betide any of its neighbours who forget this." Fisk has also argued that
the Assad regime is a lesser of two evils that the West ought to support. This
is what Fisk really means when he talks of "no good
guys".
Fisk is keen to push
the idea that the Assad's forces are still the "Syrian Arab Army",
but he might be the only journalist in the world left peddling this absurdity…
Take alook at
the pro-Assad forces that took part in the partially staged reclaiming of
Palmyra from the retreating Islamic State – you had Shia Afghan and Iraqi
militias making up the majority of the infantry, under the command of Iranians.
The same scenario is playing out across most fronts in Syria, Aleppo included.
And this is
precisely what Fisk is concealing from his readers – the rebel forces are
overwhelmingly Syrian and local and they are fighting to defend not just their
communities and their families from Assad, Iran and Russia's brutality, but
also the liberty that they have tasted for the four years since the rebels
liberated areas of Aleppo.
Robert Fisk when you choose to
embed yourself with sectarian militias perpetrating a genocide on behalf of a
dictator, all while sipping arak to show that they are “secular,” you emerge
with blood on your conscience and what’s left of your reputation. Shout-out to
Patrick Cockburn.
(The) Fisk & Cock: an
international chain of British and British-style taverns reserved for the
Lunatic Bunch from the Left, Right and Center in society. The chain was named
chiefly in “honor” of well-known self-righteous pompous ideologues masquerading
as journalists, Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn, and their favorite colleagues
still high on some long forgotten and mostly hallucinated “accomplishments.”
The Fisk & Cock is widely popular where the Huddle & Mull isn’t or is
subject to a legal ban. In fact, in many liberty-challenged and
justice-impaired states, including Russia, Iran and China, laws were introduced
over the last decade obligating every town with a population totaling 5,000 and
more to at least have one Fisk & Cock in operation near the town center,
but preferably two. In practice, each such town now has 3-5 bustling F&Cs.
The Fisk & Cock Inc. is currently administered by a special international
shell NGO known as the Society of Fucking Lunatics & the Fucked-Up Lunatics
Who Listen To Them, whose motto asks the cryptic yet important sounding
question: are you fucking listening? Well, are you… punk?
20:12
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20:07
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Headlines Matter
 |
| People gather to buy fresh produce that was brought into rebel held areas of Aleppo by private traders from a newly opened corridor that linked besieged opposition held eastern Aleppo with western Syria that was captured recently by rebels, in Aleppo, Aug. 11, 2016. |
The title of the report goes “Russia
Considers Extending Humanitarian Pause in Aleppo,” but inside we run into
this nugget:
But Mohammed Rasheed, a
spokesman for one of the rebel groups fighting the Syrian government, told
Reuters the Thursday ceasefire had not been upheld. Instead, he said, he cited
an "escalation in Russian warplanes" and said government forces had
tried to advance on the Ramousah district of Aleppo. A witness in Aleppo and
another rebel official corroborated Rasheed's claims, Reuters reported.
In other words, there is no ceasefire.
But the title gives Russian propagandists what they want: to make Russia look
reasonable. Headlines matter, because, considering our shrinking attention span
and our tendency to communicate in emojis and 140 characters or less, most
people won’t even read beyond the headlines. Headlines Matter.
19: 55
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The Exotic Observations &
Propositions of Delirian Mundi
|
Known to those
of his followers seeking his canonization and entry into the Valtheon of
Deliriology, as Agnus Mundi, and to his detractors as Ranae Dei and even
Capra Satanae, Delirian Mundi’s writings, mixing satire and philosophical
reflections, continue to be polarizing, inspiring both adulation and
ridicule. Bearing this in mind, we, the editors at DDGD, continue to publish
these previously unknown series of “exotic observations and propositions,” as
Delirian himself referred to them, as part of our continuing commitment to
instigate debate over sensitive issues.
|
* Irrespective of the particular historical
origins of the political Left and Right, at this stage in our historical march
of folly, their rhetorical squabbles and declarations, especially those coming from
the fringes, are clearly being exploited by competing global elite groups advancing
their own particularistic agendas most of which pay little heed to the necessity
of advancing public good. This said, the elite groups operating within the context
of cultures that are skeptical of if not deeply inimical to democratic values
pose a far greater danger to global stability and human progress than their
reviled “Western” or “Westernized” counterparts.
* The global elite are far from
united, but they are aware of their existence as a unique and separate whole. The
same cannot be said of other socioeconomic classes, and that’s the thing imperiling
democracy more so than any conspiracy. The
struggle to maintain and advance the cause of democracy and human rights on the
global stage at this juncture calls for finding ways to further connect the destinies
of these other socioeconomic groups, and to make them aware of that strengthened
linkage and its implications for their empowerment.
18:18
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Comic
Relief… because Trump
18:06
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Quote
of the Day
“But the demands of survival
supersede political principles. Many democrats — people who are terrified by
the prospect of jihadist rule — find themselves celebrating jihadist advances… The
success in breaking the siege only increases the importance of Nusra in the
eyes of the local population. This is where abandonment has led.” –Leila
Alshami
17:53
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Hidden,
Forgotten and Metastasizing
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| A scene from the hidden war in Sinai |
17:47
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17:36
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A most
dubious honor
 |
| If the reports are true, then, Al-Jawlani worked in the supermarket next to our apartment in Damascus, which means that our paths must have crossed. As for Assad, our paths did indeed cross while in high school and on a variety of occasions afterwards. So, I have the dubious honor of having interacted with at least two well-known terrorists. |
Al-Monitor speaks to
two men, “Shalal” and “Amer,” who claim to have recognized the unmasked
al-Shara because they worked in a supermarket owned by al-Shara’s family near
al-Akram mosque in the Mezze district of Damascus. Amer agrees with the Shaam
Network account that al-Shara has four brothers: Jamal, who ran the
supermarket; Ali, who taught at the Faculty of Arts of Damascus University;
another brother who is serving in the military; and a final brother who lives
in Saudi Arabia, about whom neither Amer nor Shalal know anything.
People like Al-Jawlani were openly
recruited by Assad’s security officers from mosques and universities, following
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with some of them receiving brief training in
army camps before being sent out to Iraq to fight American troops. Upon their return
most were arrested and interrogated. The more ardent believers were sent to
Saydnaya prison, the rest were released in spurts. Some of those released were
used in 2005 and afterwards to play their small part in certain security operations
in Lebanon that included the assassination of former PM Raafic Al-Hariri. Some,
like Mahmoud al-Aghasi (Abu al-Qaqa), were liquidated to prevent any possible defection
or leaks.
Meanwhile, Al-Jawlani was naturally
among those sent to Saydnaya where they became part of an interesting experiment
to that pitted Islamist Jihadi prisoners against secularist and moderate Islamist
prisoners. The prison guard ended entrusting managing the internal affairs of
the prison population to the Jihadis, and these Jihadis, including Al-Jawlani
and the early leaders of other Jihadi factions, were released by the regime in
the early weeks of the Revolution in a cynical yet successful attempt by the
regime to turn the nonviolent protest movement into an Islamist armed insurrection
– a move that would helped the regime consolidate its internal support and gain
some international support for its stands. Indeed, regime troops have for long avoided
any direct clashes with Jihadi groups focusing instead on moderate rebels. This
policy and activities of these Jihadi elements facilitated the rise of Al-Qaeda
and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Of course, the involvement of Iranian
intelligence services in this regard needs to be highlighted as well, considering
that some of the Jihadi
leaders that emerged on the Syrian scene were previously known to reside in
Tehran under the watchful eyes of the Mullahs.
16:56
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Shrouded
in Infamy
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16:06
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Commander
of the Russian military in Syria meets with Assad’s top field commander
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15:50
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| A man with a child after a bombing in Aleppo in June. Credit Thaer Mohammed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
…allowing Syria’s
civil war and suffering to drag on unchallenged has been his worst mistake,
casting a shadow over his legacy. It is also a stain on all of us, analogous to
the indifference toward Jewish refugees in the 1930s, to the eyes averted from
Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s, to Darfur in the 2000s…
“There are many
things we can be doing now,” James Cartwright, a retired four-star general who
was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told me. “We can do many things
to create security in selected areas, protect and stabilize those safe zones
and allow them to rebuild their own country even as the conflict continues in
other parts of the country.”
Cartwright, who has
been called Obama’s favorite general, acknowledges that his proposal for safe
zones carries risks and that the American public should be prepared for a long
project, a decade or more. But he warns that the risks of doing nothing in
Syria are even greater…
Many experts
recommend trying to ground Syria’s Air Force so it can no longer drop barrel
bombs on hospitals and civilians. One oft-heard idea is to fire missiles from
outside Syria to crater military runways to make them unusable.
One aim of such
strategies is to increase the odds of a negotiated end to the war.
15:02
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R2P
vs. C2N: Responsibility to Protect vs. Choosing to Neglect
The 15 doctors
serving the 300,000 people still living in eastern Aleppo urged the US
President to create a permanent lifeline to bring in urgently needed medical
supplies. "We have seen no effort on behalf of the United States to lift
the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians,"
said the letter.
14:47
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“Yes,
he said this.” Episode 203
Hewitt pushed back
again, saying that Obama is "not sympathetic" to ISIS and
"hates" and is "trying to kill them." "I don't
care," Trump said, according to a show transcript. "He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was
that that was the founding of ISIS.”
14:27
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The Putinistas’
Unlikely Plan
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| The Putinista: Sergei Glaziev |
"This group
understands that neoliberal policies make Russia’s economy susceptible to
destabilization by Washington if the US wants to punish the Russian government
for not following Washington’s foreign policy.
Their aim is to promote a more self-sufficient Russia in order to
protect the nation’s sovereignty... ... Glaziev also wants the ruble’s exchange
value to be set by the central bank, not by speculators in the currency market."
An exit from the global financial
system will be disastrous for Russia as its frail economy will not have enough time
to adjust. Gradual disengagement is also unlikely to work, as require a measure
of cooperation from the very financial institutions being abandoned and the government
involved. This cooperation is unlikely. This is not a Brexit situation, that is,
it’s not a friendly divorce between parties that largely still share similar
values and interests. I short, then, Putinism is above all a danger to Russia itself,
a danger that is much more deadly than its avowed enemies: the United States
and the European Union.
At this stage, it’s not clear whether
Putin himself actually subscribes to Putinism, or whether he is using it to
advance a much more limited agenda. The future president of the United States
need to explore this, without risking pushing Putin over the edge, unless he’s
already there. It shouldn’t take her long to know, and to adjust her policies
accordingly.
14:09
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For
inquiring minds who really want to know and not simply imagine…
|
But
for those insist on imagining things… this from a man whose regime
is currently hosting Al-Qaeda operatives, and whose client in Syria (Assad) has
done his best to enable and empower the rise of IS.
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12:22 pm
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Mr.
Putin Goes To War, While Mr. Obama Wrests On Imaginary Laurels.
Putin’s
Infowar on America. “The DNC leaks were another Russian victory as the U.S. fails to
fight back.”
Information wars are damaging only
to the side that cares about “image” and certain public perceptions. The United
States can launch similar hacking campaigns against Russian official institutions,
but I seriously doubt that making the information available to the public will have
similar effect on Putin and Co. as their own campaign is having on the American
political scene. The Russian people are already quite familiar with the corruption
of their government, and many seem to have accepted it and are ready to keep
living with it so long as their living standards don’t deteriorate below a
certain as-of-yet undefined line. At best, some leaks might bring some public embarrassment
to certain officials, and might prove career-enders for some. Perhaps, the
biggest damage that can be done is the mere act of showing that Russian
official institutions are as vulnerable to hacking as American and European ones.
Still, the overall impact might still too minimal in comparison to the impact of Russian-instigated and orchestrated hacks. Responding in kind may not be the right strategy then. Yet, punishing this behavior by the Russians through economic and diplomatic sanctions requires bringing Europe on board and keeping it on board for as long as required to send the message. This has not proven easy. Also, there an embedded risk here of having more direct and militaristic confrontations in places like Syria and Ukraine, and of starting new conflicts even. Still, democracies are particularly vulnerable when it comes to infowars, which is why continued dithering is not an option. The next American president needs to find the right strategic and tactical response.
Still, the overall impact might still too minimal in comparison to the impact of Russian-instigated and orchestrated hacks. Responding in kind may not be the right strategy then. Yet, punishing this behavior by the Russians through economic and diplomatic sanctions requires bringing Europe on board and keeping it on board for as long as required to send the message. This has not proven easy. Also, there an embedded risk here of having more direct and militaristic confrontations in places like Syria and Ukraine, and of starting new conflicts even. Still, democracies are particularly vulnerable when it comes to infowars, which is why continued dithering is not an option. The next American president needs to find the right strategic and tactical response.
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