Moon of Alabama — Know-Nothing "Diplomats" Prepare For Hillary's War On Syria — UPDATED

Update on Syria.

Moon of Alabama
Know-Nothing "Diplomats" Prepare For Hillary's War On Syria

See also

Well, well. These people have no idea what they are talking about.

Col. Lang underlined that. It is not a hyperlink.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
51 neocons at State want another Iraq

Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency

Katehon
US DELIBERATELY MOVES TOWARDS A CONFRONTATION WITH RUSSIA

EA WorldView
Syria Daily: 51 US Diplomats — Time for Airstrikes on Assad Regime
Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView. He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in November 2008.

Elijah J.Magnier — Russia Is Preparing the Syrian Army to Repel Any Turkish Incursion

Rebutting US Secretary of State John Kerry. This is more about documenting US support for Al Qaeda linked terrorists than the title of the post would indicate.

Fort Russ
Russia Is Preparing the Syrian Army to Repel Any Turkish Incursion
Translated by Sufyan Jan for Fort Russ
Elijah J.Magnier

The US position dissected:

NEO
Syria: NATO’s Last Desperate Options in Lost Proxy War
Tony Catalucci

See also

But the US is putting a lot of pressure on these two states, willing to keep in danger, while applying pressure on Russia and Syria through their actions. However, this turn of events may lead to a major war, if Russian forces come under fire, Russia will have enough determination to launch retaliations strikes, starting the collapse of the regimes in both in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

NEO
Reshaping of the Middle East Has Begun

Petr Livov

Moon of Alabama — The Islamic State Is Shrinking And Other News

Short update on Iraq/Syria.

This stands out:

The killed ruthless terrorist and sectarian Salafist insurgent leader Zahran Alloush was mourned by the Turkey backed Syrian Islamic Council, the U.S. backed FSA and affiliates, by Riad_Hijab the former Syrian Prime Minister who defected and who now heads the Saudi formed opposition body, by the terrorist groups Ahrar al Sham, Jabhat al Nusra/al-Qaeda and by the head of Human Rights Watch who gets payed $450,000 per year for such valuable (for some rich people) service:

Kenneth Roth Verified account @KenRothKilling Zahran Alloush is part of Assad strategy of trying to reduce choice to him or ISIS.

So, according to Kenneth Roth, Zahran Alloush who lauded Osama bin Laden, shelled civilians in Damascus and put Alawite women into cages as human shields, was a potentially valid "choice" for the Syrian people?

Zahran Alloush was the Western choice to replace Bashir al-Assad. He was represented in the media as a "moderate rebel." His killing was mourned and denounced in the Western media as well as Qatari-owned al Jazeera English as a setback for a solution in Syria.

Alloush was educated in Saudi Arabia and was an Islamist in the Wahhabi/Salafi/Takfiri mode. His gruesome record shows that he was anything but moderate. 

Alloush

If Alloush had taken over Syria in place of Assad and in preference to ISIS or if he was given even taken a major role as planned, a bloodbath would have ensued leaving only Sunni Islamists in control of the state apparatus. 

While it is fortunate that he is no longer in the picture from the political perspective, he left three wives and ten children without husband and father. There is no joy in war.

Moon of Alabama
The Islamic State Is Shrinking And Other News

See also

In an audio message (published in the link below in the Lebanese daily Assafir on the 26th of December 2015), ISIS/ISIL/IS Chief, “Caliph” Abou Bakr Al-Baghdadi gives a rather lengthy 24 minute speech. Half of the message is addressed to Muslims, all Muslims, whilst the other half is addressed to the world; especially the nations that have taken upon themselves to fight the Islamic State.

The approach is not systemic and jumps from one “half” to the other, but with a bottom-line call for all Muslims to band together in order to fight what he perceives as the enemies of Islam.

“The world has united to fight Islam”, he argues, and this was to be expected. Either way, Muslims will be the victors, because they will either be martyred in battle and get elevated to heaven, or win the battle on the ground.

And who are the enemies of Islam in his view? All nations that are fighting the Islamic State, including Saudi Arabia that has recently formed a military alliance against terrorism. Al Baghdadi says that the proposed Saudi coalition is only intended to fight Islam and the Islamic State. If its objectives were to uphold Islam, it would be fighting in Syria alongside the Islamic State and protecting the defenseless Muslims in Syria and in Palestine.

On the mention of Palestine, he addresses Jews and says that they have neither been forgotten nor forgiven. They will soon find themselves surrounded by the Islamic State and they will have nowhere to run and hide.

He calls for Saudi youth to rise against their heretic rulers, and for all Muslims to join him and take up arms in the battle that they knew was one day coming.

He makes direct mention of America, Europe and Russia and promises them retaliation…

This is an incisive post. Worth reading the whole thing.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Al-Baghdadi Makes His “Call”
Ghassan Kadi

Back to Square One, Obama Says Assad Must Go — Jessica Desvarieux interviews Vijay Prashad

After Vienna international talks created a political transition in Syria, Trinity College's Vijay Prashad says Obama's pre-condition that Assad must go is lock in step with Turkish and Saudi interests…

VP: What the Russians have done is they've suddenly put pressure on Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, saying we are now inside Syria. Any attempt at hitting us is going to have repercussions for you. So rather than in a sense saying okay, let's assume that your presence there has made regime change impossible, what's the next diplomatic step? Rather than do that, of course, the United States has strengthened or given false hope to the Qataris, Turks, and the Saudis.

So I would say the first thing is to remove that false hope, come back to the table, produce some kind of regional dialog, you know, for the proxy armies to begin to draw down their sense that they can win. You know, what has continued this war, in fact since July of 2011, is the assumption among some of the rebels and the proxy armies that eventually the American bombers are going to come in and Libya-style they're going to knock out the Assad army.

So this false hope, I think, has dragged this war on. I think that needs to be withdrawn. Without the withdrawal of that false hope, there will be no regional settlement. There will be no political solution. Because there is no way, really, to confront groups like ISIS unless the chaos in the rest of Syria is brought down a few notches.

Real News Network
Back to Square One, Obama Says Assad Must Go

Jessica Desvarieux interviews Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College

Pepe Escobar — Paris terror attacks — who profits?

Covers a lot of ground.

Asia Times
Paris terror attacks — who profits?
Pepe Escobar

“Regime-Change without State Collapse is Impossible in Syria” — Sophie Shevardnadze interviews Joshua Landis

Video and transcript. (Sophie Shevardnadze in the granddaughter of former USSR foreign minister and president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze.)

Why Syria is complicated and there are no simple solutions.

Syria Comment
“Regime-Change without State Collapse is Impossible in Syria,” Landis Interviewed by RT’s Sophie&Co
Sophie Shevardnadze interviews Joshua Landis, Director of the Center
for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma
ht confusedponderer at Sic Semper Tyrannis

Mike Whitney — Putin Makes Obama an Offer He Can’t Refuse

Putin calls Washington's bluff. Washington found to be holding no cards.

Counterpunch
Putin Makes Obama an Offer He Can’t Refuse
Mike Whitney

Thanassis Cambanis — Inside Bashar al-Assad’s Syria

Fellow Thanassis Cambanis visited government-held Syria in October at a pivotal moment, gaining a rare glimpse into the part of the country still controlled by President Bashar al-Assad. We asked him about his impressions.

Conclusion: There are no good options for Syrians in the foreseeable future. Many would like to join their countrymen in emigrating.

… two key points surfaced again and again on this trip. First, Assad’s government has not changed any of its fundamental ways, in terms of how it runs the country, stifles dissent, and is completely uninterested in changing the nature of its system. And second, many Syrians who don’t particularly care for Assad’s way of running the country, who in fact fear the president, also fear the rebels on the other side, whose vision they find sectarian, intolerant or even nihilist. That middle ground of public opinion is still not free to speak on the regime side, but they could hold the key to a future Syria that reflects something freer and less corrupt than Assad’s government, and at the same time less sectarian and extreme than the jihadists on the opposition side. The war in Syria, sadly, looks like it might go on for another decade.

While he doesn't mention it, US foreign policy is simultaneously idealist and realist. Publicly, the US advertises its idealist aspect of promoting freedom and spreading democracy while submerging is realist aspect in the deep state. That policy is dominating the energy rich region under the regional dominance of US allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, the former of which is a Jewish Zionist state pretending to be a liberal democracy while the latter is unabashedly undemocratic and Wahhabist. The idealism doesn't mesh with the realism. Bashir al-Assad is admittedly not a good guy, but he is hardly worse that the governments the US is supporting in the region, with terrible human rights records. Snake pit.

The Century Foundation — Foreign Policy

Inside Bashar al-Assad’s Syria

Thanassis Cambanis | Fellow

Catholic Herald — Syrian archbishop criticises US for ‘siding with al-Qaeda’

Ouch! Smackdown.

Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo has said the CIA has been training Syrian rebel groups which are 'al-Qaeda under a different name'

Catholic Herald
Syrian archbishop criticises US for ‘siding with al-Qaeda’

Simon Caldwel

Richard N. Haass — Testing Putin in Syria

Never let it be said that I only present one side. Actually, I do usually post one-sidely because the the US media is so biased that the other side is never presented and the reporting is basically propaganda.

Here is Richard Haass, President of CFR, presenting the "company line" on Syria. See if you can pick out the spin. Oh wait. it's all spin. That's what he gets paid for.

Project Syndicate
Testing Putin in Syria
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously served as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department (2001-2003), and was President George W. Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland and Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan

For a counter (we are "fair and balanced"), see

Salon
Putin might be right on Syria: The actual strategy behind his Middle East push — and why the New York Times keeps obscuring it

Patrick Smith

And why no progressive should ever dream of voting for HRC. The lady is a hawk.

Bloomberg View
Clinton Wants Obama to Confront Putin in Syria
Josh Rogin

China said Wednesday it had no plans to send its military to Syria to fight with Russian forces after reports in overseas media that it was planning to do so. 

Chinese media has picked up Russian and Middle Eastern news reports that China would fight alongside Russia in Syria, and that China’s sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, could participate too.

Chinese media has also described these reports as speculative nonsense.

Russia Insider
China Says Isn't Getting Involved in Syria

Reuters

Ren TV — The Syrian opposition unexpectedly sided with Russia against the US

A representative of the opposition has exposed the lies of Western media about Russian air strikes in Syria.

The Syrian opposition has suddenly issued a statement, denouncing the Western media lie about Russia's air strikes in Syria. Its representative Qadri Jamil said that Russia does not bomb the "moderate opposition", as reported by the American and European media, according to Sputnik.

"It is illogical to say that the Russians are bombing the opposition. They are bombing the radical opposition "Jabhat An-Nusra", which some European media called "the Syrian opposition". But it cannot be called "moderate opposition", they are the radical Islamists who should be the object of the bombing", - he said.

Moreover, Jamil said that the forces of the "Free Syrian army" should give Russia their positions so as not to become targets of Russian air strikes.

Also the representative of the Syrian opposition made another sensational statement. The "Free Syrian army" announced that it is not a terrorist organisation and is ready to join the fight against the militants of the "Islamic state" with government forces.

Also the "Free Syrian army" has declared its readiness to cooperate with Moscow.

Big deal if it pans out. Seems to contain the seed for a settlement after the Islamic militants are dispatched.

Fort Russ
The Syrian opposition unexpectedly sided with Russia against the US
Ren TV
Translated by Kristina Rus

Vasily Terkin — Russian justice: 'Moderate' ammo for 'moderate' terrorists [satire]

Satire

Fort Russ
Russian justice: 'Moderate' ammo for 'moderate' terrorists
Vasily Terkin for Cont
Translated by Kristina Rus

Also, not satire but irony.

America condemns Russia for fake civilian deaths in Syria while bombing a hospital in Afghanistan

Interfax — Vladimir Putin: Syria has only one lawful army, President al-Assad's army

President Vladimir Putin has said that in Syria Russia recognizes only the lawfulness of the army subordinate to President Bashar al-Assad and drawn attention to the lamentable results of the combat training of the Syrian opposition by the U.S. military.

"There is only one regular legitimate army there. It is the army of Syrian President Al-Assad. And it is confronted by what some of our international partners interpret as the opposition. In fact, in real life al-Assad's army is fighting against terrorist organizations," Putin said in an interview to U.S. journalist Charlie Rose for CBS and PBS TV channels ahead of his participation in the UN General Assembly.…

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russian presence in Syria is based on fundamental principles of present-day international law and is exercised at the request of the Syrian government.

"We proceed from the UN Charter, i.e. fundamental principles of present-day international law according to which some one or other type of assistance, including military assistance, can and should be rendered solely to the lawful governments of countries with their consent or at their request or under a resolution of the UN Security Council," Putin said in an interview to U.S. journalist Charlie Rose for CBS and PBS TV channels ahead of his participation in the UN General Assembly.

"In this case we have a request of the Syrian government for rendering them military-technical assistance which we are doing in the framework of absolutely legal international contracts," the Russian president added. Asked about the purpose of Russian presence in Syria Putin said: "Today it amounts to arms deliveries to the Syrian government, personnel training and rendering humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people."

Putin reminds the world of the obvious.

Russia Beyond the Headlines
Vladimir Putin: Syria has only one lawful army, President al-Assad's army
Interfax

Alexrpt — US gets the war it has always wanted…begins bombing Assad forces

This latest US war is so simple. Remove Assad in order to remove Russia’s gas supplies to Europe. Once Assad is gone the US can put its very own, home grown dictator to oversee the construction of a Qatar gas pipeline to Europe.

Red Pill Times
US gets the war it has always wanted…begins bombing Assad forces

Alexrpt

Robert Parry — Seeking War to the End of the World

Neocon Washington power couple Kagan and Nuland on the march.

If the neoconservatives have their way again, U.S. ground troops will reoccupy Iraq, the U.S. military will take out Syria’s secular government (likely helping Al Qaeda and the Islamic State take over), and the U.S. Congress will not only kill the Iran nuclear deal but follow that with a massive increase in military spending.

Like spraying lighter fluid on a roaring barbecue, the neocons also want a military escalation in Ukraine to burn the ethnic Russians out of the east and the neocons dream of spreading the blaze to Moscow with the goal of forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin. In other words, more and more fires of Imperial “regime change” abroad even as the last embers of the American Republic die at home.…

On Friday, Kagan’s column baited the Republican Party to do more than just object to President Barack Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal. Kagan called for an all-out commitment to neoconservative goals, including military escalations in the Middle East, belligerence toward Russia and casting aside fiscal discipline in favor of funneling tens of billions of new dollars to the Pentagon.…

 Consortium News
Seeking War to the End of the World
Robert Parry

WikiLeaks — US, Saudis Planned to Topple Syria's Assad in 2012

Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, and Britain were involved in a secret 2012 deal to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Sunday. 

RELATED: Saudi Cables: We Have Ten Times More, Says Wikileaks ​"Saudi has been one of the dogs of the United States in the Middle East on a leash, and you think the man is walking a dog, but sometimes, if it is a big dog, the dog starts pulling a man," Assange told Russia 1 TV. 

Last week, Assange’s whistleblowing website WikiLeaks released a batch of more than 60,000 of what it said were classified Saudi diplomatic cables. ​The leak aimed to prove that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey had a secret deal to topple Syria’s President Bashar Assad as far back as 2012.

teleSUR
WikiLeaks: US, Saudis Planned to Topple Syria's Assad in 2012

Petr Lvov — Syrian Regime is Going Down in Flames

After four years of bloody civil war in Syria, severely affected by external interference, it appears that the regime in Damascus has begun to crack, despite the fact that the Syrian army has scored one victory after another on the field of battle. Yet there’s no visible prospect of a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Moreover, there are signs of the actual collapse of the Syrian state, which can quickly be torn into a number of semi-independent entities. Should this happen the massacre of the Syrian people will only intensify. The grip of the government of Bashar al-Assad is weakening as Damascus becomes increasingly dependent on its allies from abroad, especially volunteers from Iran and Iraq. Traditionally the most effective support Syria has is from the Lebanese Shia organization Hezbollah....

New Eastern Outlook
Syrian Regime is Going Down in Flames

Petr Lvov