A single Russian official, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, mentioned during comments today that the Russian government “cannot rule out” the possibility of the US-backed Syrian rebels conquering the country.
The off-handed comment has exploded into the US media, with State Department officials hyping it as vindication for their ongoing policy of backing the rebels, and spinning the comment as Russia’s government as a whole believing defeat is inevitable.
Which isn’t anything like what Bogdanov actually said, but the story has a mind of its own now, and has led the US and rebel leadership to conclude that they can convince Russia to endorse the forcible ouster of President Assad, even though officials ruled that out just a few days ago.
The move reflects the Obama Administration’s increased determination to push a narrative aimed at justifying growing intervention, with actual evidence taking a back seat when a good story is available.
That tells me that the news is sucks, the reality is that, as before, U.S has been played again.
Look: people don't the lies any more, they like to see and feel the reality.., if someone says something in relation to something, that doesn't mean that they telling you something, however, sometimes that something means nothing or something as nothing. Get your head out of sand, everything U.S has done for last 30 years is falsified as democrats, the leaders of the party are..,specially the new state department… That guy from Massachusetts, with 200million dollars asserts..?
Very irresponsible statement..
..since facts on the ground says otherwise. Resorting to random terror bombings, random throat slittings and terrorizing ordinary citizens is desperation on behalf of NATO mercenaries, not exactly a winning strategy. Putin can now add Mikhail Bogdanov as another oligarch 90´s leftover, fifth column on western payroll and act accordingly.
'The Voice of Russia's leading headline of this story was:
"Syrian opposition victory possible, but at an absolutely unacceptable price – Moscow"
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_13/Syrian-oppositi…
Obviously there is a 'discrepancy' here between US and Russian 'media' concerning this…
Even so, the US 'lame-stream' often credited this 'story' to Russian state run "RIA Novosti". A more complete version of a 'story' "RIA" ' ran about this is:
"..
“We have to face up to reality: The trend is that the Syrian regime, the government is increasingly losing control, losing more and more territory,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.
“Sadly, a victory by the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out.”
The Opposition Coalition, an alliance of rebel groups seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is becoming more confident of victory, due to arms supplies from abroad and growing international recognition of its legitimacy, he said.
“They are saying that victory is just around the corner: ‘We will soon take Aleppo and then we will take Damascus,’ and saying they are in control of 60 percent of territory,” he said.
More than 100 nations, including the United States and Western European countries, declared their support for the opposition coalition on Wednesday at a gathering in Marrakech, Morocco.
Russia on Wednesday voiced opposition to the US move to recognize the Syrian Opposition Coalition. Moscow maintains militant Islamist factions could come to power in Syria should the Assad government fall, and has repeatedly resisted efforts by Western and Arab countries to undermine the Syrian president.
…"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20121213/178136571.html
It seems obvious this just underscores what an extremely 'bad' "situation" this is right now…I think "people" here in the US need to wake up to the fact that it's not just about what "you" 'think' all the time…because 'we' (the US) are heading down an extremely dangerous road here…and things could spiral out of control very quickly considering all the variables and dynamics at play here with this "situation"…
Things are definitely spinning out of control and you can guarantee that after all the previous "interventions" that it will only get worse and not better.
The AP has become an egregious propaganda outlet along with the rest of the MSM. When I woke up this morning and saw the large headlines beaming "Russia's dramatic turnaround," I thought that perhaps the Russian goverment was now willing to go to the security council and sign off on Assad's removal. Lo and behold, I read the article and it literally says NOTHING. It's so patently irresponsible and aburd to draw such a conclusion that I don't know where to begin. First the AP refuses to retract their Story on the bogus Iranian bomb diagram and now this. The MSM have continued misrepresenting the position of Russia even after they've said REPEATEDLY that there's been no change in their stance. Why can't they just report this straight without embellishment?
This attitude and US actions in pursuit could push the Russians into actions too. They have been laying back and allowing us rope to entangle our feet.
As Syria becomes an ever more tangled mess, it is the US and Israel that will have no good options left to them, and an Iraq style chaos with which to contend. If Russia begins to feed that, it will become yet more like Iraq.
This attitude and US actions in pursuit could push the Russians into actions too. They have been laying back and allowing us rope to entangle our feet.
Anyway, spin is reality in DC, but not in the world and certainly not in a war. That was a lesson we did not learn in Iraq or Afghanistan or Vietnam. That is why we lost. This is more spin, not reality. It will lead to the same reality.
Get Bogdanov over to the Security Council asap and see if he can change that Russian veto. Does he speak any Chinese?
Strange how the US administration ignores the millions of voices saying, "Butt out!"
Russias "dramatic turnaround" is nothing but a straw-man fabrication. I simply find it hard to believe that reading comprehension can be that bad in the US press, so I can only conclude that they're just spinning it for the sake of public consumption – an American public who still haven't learned not to believe ANYTHING their press tells them – especially in regards to war and other countries.
I agree that the Russian diplomatic was merely saying that an insurgent victory was not impossible. Which is true as far as it goes.
However, there has been no credible strategic analysis that I've seen that shows the 40,000 estimated Syrian insurgents being able to defeat the much larger Syrian military any time soon.
It is true that the Syrian military appears to be withdrawing from more rural areas in order to concentrate its forces in the main cities. This is what always happens in an insurgency, since there's no point expending forces to control non-essential areas when you need a heavy concentration of forces to contain an insurgency.
The problem for Assad is that this allows the insurgency to take more advantage of arms supplies from its foreign supporters. It's easier to get arms in if the national military no longer controls its borders or other large tracts of territory which enable smuggling and staging areas to exist.
But none of this indicates an immediate insurgency victory any time soon.
I stand by my prediction that the US, NATO, Turkey and Israel will attack Syria by air within the next few months. They – especially Israel – will not want to wait another year for the insurgents to win, assuming that's likely or even possible.
Well said Richard.
Now they're claiming that the Patriot missiles are being installed in Turkey to protect THEM from….(drum-roll)……Syria! No one in the MSM has questioned why on Earth Syria would be attacking NATO member Turkey!?!? They are already setting up several scenarios by which they can intervene. 75% of Syria is barren desert, so the Syrian army is probably stretching itself to thin to defend essentially nothing – though it gives the rebels and the west propaganda points. The rebels are yet to take a major city in Syria, so all of this imminent collapse talk seems a bit premature – which is why US/NATO will speed things along in the weeks/months ahead just as you stated.
They've come to far to back down — especially after recognizing the rebel groups.