Paul Robinson — The peaceful city

Countering incredible Western naiveté.

Western propaganda has convinced most people in the West that the "reblels" were liberals fighting against the "dictatorial" Assad and his "repressive" regime rather than Sunni Islamists trying to impose their strict version of Islamic custom and law, similar to the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia.

BTW, life in Damascus is reported to be similar to that described in the post about Aleppo prior to Western and Saudi/Qatari arming and funding of the "opposition."

Irrussianality
The peaceful city
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Nassim Nicholas Taleb — The Syrian War Condensed: A more Rigorous Way to Look at the Conflict

I guess Taleb's blog is a fake news site that promotes Russian propaganda.

Medium
The Syrian War Condensed: A more Rigorous Way to Look at the Conflict

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Noah Feldman — The Geopolitics of Deciding Who Is Sunni

"Bloomberg view writer defends KSA state-sponsorship of jihadi terrorism and US support of it." (snark)

Ok, a bit snarky, but that is the subtext and implication. 

The author apparently doesn't realize that moderate Sunni rejection of Wahhabism in the face of US support of its chief advocate, KSA, implies US support of KSA state-sponsored jihadi terrorism. And suggests that Vladimir Putin is attacking the US by rejecting Sunni extremism, which threats Russia directly since the Russia Federation has population of about 15 million and Islam has been established there since the 7th century.

Oh, and the IsraelI hardline government also supports KSA and is on board with using jihadis as proxies, based on the strategic maxim, "the enemy (KSA) of our enemy (Iran) is our friend." (Disclaimer: I am neither anti-Semitic, nor anti-Israel, I am anti-Zionist and anti-apartheid.)

The idea that this is "geopolitics" is contradicted by the author's reporting.

Ahmed el-Tayeb, the state-appointed grand imam of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was the event’s headliner. Although it has declined in recent decades, Al-Azhar was for centuries considered the most influential Sunni scholarly institution. Its head, known as the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, is by job description alone a major figure in the Sunni world.

The world should be celebrating this amidst the calls for moderate Islam to denounce Wahhabi and Salafi takfirism and jihadism. Instead Bloomberg View bemoans that a US ally is being called out for it. Shame on them.

Bloomberg View

The Geopolitics of Deciding Who Is Sunni
Noah Feldman

Turkey’s downing of Russia jet potential game changer — Press TV interviews editor-in-chief of Zuerst, Berlin

But what we see now is a new escalation; Turkey right now attacked a world power. This changes the game or this might change the game into a horrible situation for the future.

We should not forget that Turkey is one of the most important and, at the same time, the most appreciated NATO member. NATO accepts everything Turkey is doing, especially [everything] Erdogan is doing. Erdogan established an almost totalitarian state under his party leadership. NATO is never doing something against this.

So we can see this attack against the Russian air craft, also not just a Turkish attack, but also it is a NATO attack. So this puts the conflict from the regional level to the world level and that makes the whole incident quite risky.…

This history shows us that Turkey desperately tries to make this conflict wider to involve other powers. This is what they are doing nonstop and all the news coming from Turkey, especially from the Turkish military, are deeply-biased and propaganda news to justify this politics.…

…if Turkey says the air jets were violating Turkish airspace, this might also have to do with the interpretation from Ankara on what belongs to Turkey and what not. Because we see that Turkey is very openly securing or invading an area in northern Turkey. We can the terrorist gangs in northern Syria. I think, without any problem, they are just Turkish proxies; they get their money from Turkey, they get their arms from Turkey, the Islamic State [Daesh Takfiri terrorists] is openly supported by Turkey. So these are all Turkish proxies which are right now occupying northern Syrian territory. So this might be one of the reasons that Ankara might see that is a violation of Turkish airspace because what the Russians are doing right now is directly attacking and weakening Turkish proxies on Syrian ground.…

"Our guy" Erdogan.

Press TV
Turkey’s downing of Russia jet potential game changer: Analyst
Press TV interviews Manuel Ochsenreiter, the editor-in-chief of Zuerst in Berlin

Sputnik — US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

As ever, follow the money — and oil.

Saudi Arabia played a key role in preparing the ground for the terror attacks in Paris by financing enormous radicalization programs targeting Muslims in France and other European countries, experts told Sputnik.

However, the French government has not dared to confront Saudi Arabia because it needs Saudi oil and the revenue from huge weapons sales to Riyadh, the analysts explained in interviews on Wednesday.

"Much of the extremism in France is funded by French allies in the Gulf," Institute for Gulf Affairs Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik. "Saudi-French trade and arms contracts have led successive governments in Paris to overlook this Saudi role."

Other Gulf monarchies also purchase French weapons in lucrative deals for Paris, giving French authorities the incentive to tacitly tolerate continued funding for outlets that encourage Islamists, he added.…

Al-Ahmed also pointed out that at the G-20 summit in Turkey following the Paris attacks, the Saudi king skipped the moment of tribute to the Paris attack victims.

"He intentionally skipped it," al-Ahmed asserted.…

[US author and terrorism financing expert Dan] Lazare recalled that in December 2009, Clinton, then serving as US secretary of state, noted in a confidential diplomatic memo that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide."

In October 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden told Harvard University students that "'the Saudis [and] the Emirates… poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of military weapons into anyone who would fight against [SyrianPresident Bashar] Assad," Lazare remarked.

The funding led to massive direct US aid flowing to the Islamist groups such as the Nusra Front and al-Qaeda, Lazare pointed out.…

Sputnik
US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

As'ad AbuKhalil — Some observations about the carnage in Paris

View from the perspective of an Arab leftist.

The Angry Arab New Service
Some observations about the carnage in Paris
As'ad AbuKhalil | Professor of Political Science, California State University, Stanislaus

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